The Women

by T.Coraghessan Boyle | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0747597588 Global Overview for this book
Registered by freelunch of Cairns, Queensland Australia on 3/10/2009
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9 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by freelunch from Cairns, Queensland Australia on Tuesday, March 10, 2009
tc boyle writes:
The Women is my twelfth novel and twentieth book of fiction overall. It hearkens back to The Inner Circle (2004) and The Road to Wellville (1993), in that it centers around the life of a historical figure, Frank Lloyd Wright, who, like Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey and John Harvey Kellogg, protagonists of the aformentioned books, was one of the great twentieth century forgers of our culture. The book is narrated by Tadashi Sato, an invented character who was a member of the Taliesin Apprenticeship in the 1930s. He provides three long introductions to each of the major sections of the book, and these move his own story forward even as the three sections take us backward in time. Each section is devoted to one of Frank Lloyd Wright's inamorata: Olgivanna, Miriam and Mamah. The text, purportedly written by Tadashi in collaboration with his Irish-American grandson-in-law, goes deeply into the points of view of these women (as well as that of Frank Lloyd Wright's first wife, Kitty, whom he abandoned when he ran off to Europe in 1909 with Mamah Borthwick Cheney, wife of one of his clients), and provides footnotes as a running commentary on the action and on the architect's ouevre. It is my hope that the reader will not only enjoy the ride--there is humor abounding here, as well as disturbance and horror (always a splendid mix, at least from my point of view)--but come to appreciate more deeply the character and career of the architect as well. I should add that while I was personally affected by the work of both Kinsey and Kellogg, as all of us who have engaged in sexual relations and spooned up cornflakes have been, my connection to Frank Lloyd Wright is even more intimate, as I have been privileged to live in his first California house for the past sixteen years.

Journal Entry 2 by freelunch from Cairns, Queensland Australia on Tuesday, March 10, 2009
I'd like to send this book out as a Bookring PLUS!

The following guidelines will apply:

1. Make a journal entry when the book arrives safely.
2. Please try to read the book within 8 weeks of receiving it
(or make a journal entry to let us know how you're getting on if you need longer - taking longer is fine as I know many of us are snowed under by bookrings)
3. When finished, journal your thoughts about the book.
4. PM the next person on the list and send it to them.

And now for the PLUS! bit:

This is a heavy (740 gram) hardcover book so the cheapest way to post it in Australia will be in a 3kg prepaid satchel.

It seems a shame to waste all that extra weight allowance, so I'm going to include extra books with this one when I send it out. When you send this book on you must include at least as many books in the bag as were there when you received it. If none of the extras appealed to you they can be sent to the next person at no additional cost, but if you received something you'd like to read please replace it with a good book (something you'd rate 7/10 or higher)

Participants
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01. jennymidget
02. briz-cowgirl
03. L1nda
04. Pat-the-Rat
05. KLL
06. livrecache
07. DrCris
08. jubby
09. back home to freelunch <--- arrived here 9th June 2010

Journal Entry 3 by freelunch from Cairns, Queensland Australia on Monday, April 6, 2009
this book got off to a slow start with Frank Lloyd Wright and his "women" written as unappealing characters leading uninteresting lives. the author uses footnotes extensively, which I found very distracting at times, and the story is told "backwards", so I initially felt I didn't know enough of the characters history to give a damn about them.

ultimately things come together and by the end of the book I found it hard to put down.

Journal Entry 4 by freelunch from Cairns, Queensland Australia on Monday, April 6, 2009
on its way to jennymidget (with company)

Journal Entry 5 by jennymidget from Oadby, Leicestershire United Kingdom on Wednesday, April 8, 2009
"The Women" and its friends arrived today - just in time for the long weekend, timed to perfection! Finishing off my current book to get to this one next...

Journal Entry 6 by jennymidget from Oadby, Leicestershire United Kingdom on Monday, April 13, 2009
I agree - the footnotes bugged me, and ALL the characters without fail were awful, except Tadashi (who's really only incidental anyway). The backwards story was okay - since I came in with no FLW knowledge I only knew what was going to happen further on (ie what had happened earlier) with the little clues Boyle leaves, and I'll admit I found that quite appealing. It's no "Tortilla Curtain", but "The Women" is another great Boyle work, and I too was hooked by the end.

Sending the package off to briz-cowgirl... trying to keep it out of all this rain!

Journal Entry 7 by briz-cowgirl from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Friday, April 17, 2009
Received from jennymidget today with company! I've started reading this one tonight; I will do my very best to get it read and sent along to the next participant before I head overseas on Thursday :)

Journal Entry 8 by briz-cowgirl from Brisbane, Queensland Australia on Monday, April 20, 2009
I am still digesting my thoughts about this book. I knew vrey little about Frank Lloyd Wright prior to this book, apart from some of his most famous architectural works, and I would like to find out a bit more about this "interesting" man now. I would have actually liked to hear more of Tadashi's story; I didn't care that much for any of the women the story was centred around (Mamah was the least awful and Miriam was absolutely horrendous!). The footnotes bugged me too, but I enjoyed the backwards evolving of the story. Thanks freelunch for this booking. Just deciding what other book/s in the parcel I might want before sending it on...

Journal Entry 9 by briz-cowgirl at Brisbane, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (4/21/2009 UTC) at Brisbane, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases

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Sending along to the next participant L1nda!

Journal Entry 10 by L1nda from Newcastle, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, April 28, 2009
arrived safe and sound!!

Journal Entry 11 by L1nda from Newcastle, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, May 24, 2009
Well, I hate to say it but I GIVE UP!! I have tried to get into this book and as usual when I can't I just find myself not reading. I'm going to pass it on to Pat-the-Rat who hopefully enjoys this more than me.
Thanks for sharing this book, maybe one day it will fall back into my hands and I can read it to the end!

Journal Entry 12 by L1nda at by mail, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases on Monday, May 25, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (5/25/2009 UTC) at by mail, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases

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Posted to Pat-the-Rat, enjoy!

Journal Entry 13 by Pat-the-Rat from Bunbury, Western Australia Australia on Thursday, June 4, 2009
The book arrived on the 3rd June, along with some other great reads. Thank you. Will start the book soon.

Journal Entry 14 by Pat-the-Rat from Bunbury, Western Australia Australia on Saturday, June 13, 2009
This is not a book that I normally would pick up and read. I, likewise knew nothing about Frank Lloyd Wright. I found the stories of his "women" a fascinating read. The footnotes I also found distracting but I did enjoy the read. The context of the story did not bother me.

I will send the book bag goodies off th KLL tomorrow the 15th June 2009.

Journal Entry 15 by Pat-the-Rat from Bunbury, Western Australia Australia on Monday, June 15, 2009
Posted off to KLL today the 15th June 2009.

Journal Entry 16 by KLL from Perth City, Western Australia Australia on Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Have been away for a couple of weeks but this was waiting for me when I got home. Thanks very much for sending! I have a bookclub book to read this week, but will try and get to this on straight after. There's also some interesting other books in the book bag, but I'll decide whether I want to take any of them once I've finished 'The Women'

Journal Entry 17 by KLL from Perth City, Western Australia Australia on Tuesday, September 8, 2009
I've just finished this book this afternoon and I really loved it. Like most others, I knew very little about Frank Lloyd Wright before, but found this story of the women in his life quite fascinating. I particularly liked the structure of the book - both the introductions by Tadashi, as well as the backwards evolution of the story. And I have to say I that I normally like footnotes and found these ones particularly effective. Oddly enough I was in New York just before this book arrived with me, where I saw (but failed to visit) the Guggenheim Museum, as well as the Frank Lloyd Wright Room in the Metropolitan Museum (a highlight of my visit there: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/11/na/ho_1972.60.1.htm) I couldn't help but think of these, particularly as I got further into the book.

Thanks freelunch for including me in the bookring - I'm almost certain I would have never read it otherwise! I'll PM livrecache now to arrange to send the book on.

Journal Entry 18 by livrecache from Hobart, Tasmania Australia on Friday, September 25, 2009
Arrived safely today.

Journal Entry 19 by livrecache from Hobart, Tasmania Australia on Thursday, November 5, 2009
Sorry, I wasn't a bit impressed. This review from The Guardian sums it up for me.

Frank Lloyd Wright, creator of the Guggenheim Museum in New York and pioneer of "organic" buildings, is now regarded as America's greatest architect. During his lifetime, though, his notoriety as a philanderer surpassed even his fame as an artist. "Early in life", he once proclaimed, "I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose arrogance."

TC Boyle has chosen this typically self-aggrandising quote as the epigraph to The Women, his big, meandering novel about Wright's often tempestuous love life. Boyle has explored similar terrain before in both The Road to Wellville and The Inner Circle, where he fictionalised the lives of two other eccentric and obsessive American visionaries, John Harvey Kellogg, inventor of the cornflake, and Alfred Kinsey, pioneer of sexual freedom. Here, though, he loses his footing, diminishing both Wright's "honest arrogance" and his achievement.

The problems start with the novel's confusing structure, which chronicles the trajectory of Wright's relationships in reverse. In the process, the drama of that extraordinary life is severely diminished. Part I is given over to Olgivanna, Wright's third and final wife, a Serbian dancer who, against the odds, provided him with some much-needed domestic stability as he entered old age. Part II concerns Maude "Miriam" Noel, his second wife, a morphine addict whose devotion to Wright mutated into destructive obsession when he rejected her within a year of their marriage. The last section relates his affair with Mamah Cheney; they eloped to Europe in 1909, both leaving behind aggrieved spouses.

Me again. I really keep trying to like TC Boyle's work, and now I've tried quite a few of his 12 books. I'm not sure whether he gets under my skin because I'm a woman and he seems to me to be a super-size creep, or whether it's just me. Other people (women) have raved about the book so I expect it's me.

I'll try to send it on its way tomorrow, with the "plus' books. Thanks for sharing, freelunch, ungracious as I am.


Journal Entry 20 by livrecache at A BookCrosser, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases on Sunday, November 15, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (11/15/2009 UTC) at A BookCrosser, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases

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On its way to another bookcrosser. I hope you enjoy it.

Journal Entry 21 by DrCris from Templestowe, Victoria Australia on Monday, November 16, 2009
Arrived safely with me. This is the only bookring on my pile at the moment, and I have a holiday by the beach coming soon, so things are looking promising. I won't read the JE's up front, although I know livrecache was not so keen on this one.

Journal Entry 22 by DrCris from Templestowe, Victoria Australia on Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Realised this has been with me for a long time and I only have got to page 20. I had better move it along, so I will PM jubby to make sure she's up for it.

Journal Entry 23 by jubby from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Monday, April 12, 2010
OMG!

I just get one Freelunch Bookring Plus out the door and another arrives!

Well, I'll just have to keep reading.
There are worse fates.

Journal Entry 24 by jubby at -- Controlled Releases --, Queensland Australia on Friday, June 4, 2010

Released 13 yrs ago (6/4/2010 UTC) at -- Controlled Releases --, Queensland Australia

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sending this back to Freelunch, along with the Bookring Plus books.

I deeply enjoyed this book, but I feel that my mindset and reality at present (beginning of maternity leave) had a lot to do with that.

This isn't one of those stories/books that you dip in and out of when you have a spare moment. Really, no T.C. Boyle book is. You dive head first into the constructed life of the American ego maniac, and hold on tight for wild ride.

Never the easiest writer to read, but one of the most rewarding, I think.

In this book, a fictitious telling of the three main stays in the love life of Frank Lloyd Wright, we see a man who believes himself a genius, yet a pedantic, controlling, hypocritical man to boot.

Rotten father, woeful husband, who left home and family life to the care of each of the women that he 'loved', Wright strove for perfection, control and fame in architecture and design.

A name I had heard many times (but admittedly would confuse with Walter Burley Griffin), I had never realised the extent of his work or projects.

His professional life aside, this book mainly focuses on the personal loves and life of the man. Described by the author in an interview with Romona Kaval (on Radio National) as a 'Mumma's boy' Wright wanted to be mothered, worshipped, serviced and provided for all by his lovers. Ha!

I greatly enjoyed this romp into the particulars of this extraordinary man, and am still debating as to whether this is my new favourite T.C. Boyle book ('Drop city' has been to date).

Thank you very much for sharing this book with me Freelunch.

Journal Entry 25 by freelunch at Cairns, Queensland Australia on Wednesday, June 9, 2010
received home today with a bag of new (to me) books. thanks to all who participated in this ring.

this book is now being added to my wife's TBRs...

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