MoFo Book Club - Juin '22

I suggest we simply declare F.H. Batacan’s Smaller and smaller circles be the choice for June, given that none of Takoma the second’s suggestions has yet made it past the nomination stage.

We can regroup and try for another kick at the can when Austruck returns in July.

Discussion will start after 75 . . . 30 . . . 15 . . . seven . . . uh, two people finish the book.

Works for me - I will need to track that book down before I get started reading.

EDIT: Ordered!

__________________

Great!

Now I just need to track down a copy of the book!

I am about halfway through the book and enjoying it. It's giving me Memories of Murder vibes, and I mean that in a good way.

Man this sucks, my copy of the book hasn't even showed up yet!

I'm almost done (listening to the audiobook and I've done a lot of driving this week!) and I have enjoyed it a lot. The parallels with Memories of Murder continue.

I will steer well clear of any further discussion as one person doesn't even have their book yet!

I have a few small complaints, but I like the writing, the characters, and the setting enough that it's not really dinging my enjoyment.

JUST got my copy of the book...

...which is fine, because I am about 40 pages from the end of an absolutely massive book, Peter F. Hamilton's Reality Disfunction.

I should get started on this month's book in the next couple of days, and after glancing through the book, I can easily complete it before the end of June.

I finished it, and overall I really liked it.

I just finished it.

I’m curious about the audio book cause I liked the page set-up; the killer gets an entire full page for his thoughts, although it could be just a line or two, or a small paragraph inside a single circle too large for the page that extends beyond its borders. A suggestion of a rain or a tear drop? How was that done in the audio book?

There was no sense of the layout, but there would be longer pauses before and after those sequences so that they sat outside of the rest of the narrative a bit.

Finished up!

Ready to discuss

I liked the little bits of humor in the book. They were moonlighting as hard-nosed empiricists trying to find a killer on one hand, but their day jobs were the complete opposite, seminary priests teaching young minds to memorize sacred texts and superstition.

MAJOR SPOILERS

So I quite enjoyed the novel. Like I said, it made me think a lot about Memories of Murder, where it's a murder mystery layered on top of exploring a specific cultural moment and place. In this case, that's both the Catholic Church and the Philippines themselves.

I liked the lead characters and would certainly read another book that featured them.

For the mystery itself, my one quibble was that it was way too obvious who the killer was at a certain point, .

If the book was pure mystery, I'd probably be pretty annoyed by that. As it was, there was enough other good stuff happening that it was just a slight annoyance.

I thought that the examination of how sexual abuse happens and is allowed to perpetuate was well done, looking at it from the viewpoint of the abusers, the family of the victim, and the victims themselves. I also really appreciated the way that it touched on how people who live in poverty can be more vulnerable because they are forced to rely on people and programs they have not personally vetted, and may even have to weigh rocking the boat with allowing certain things to happen.

This was probably my favorite book chosen by the group so far, but I still wasn't totally over the moon for it. Like Takoma, I knew who the killer was the instant Seanz looked up and said "Alex? Whos' Alex?" after they had finished their first hunt through the record room. This writer sort of leaned into the whole NCIS whodunnit method of giving you several possibilities, nudging you towards a red herring, in this case the sketchy son of the caterer, and then trying to sneak another person by in passing.

But as Tak mention, the mystery wasn't the only driving force here, and I really enjoyed the rest of the book. The insight into the culture, the Jesuit characters, and the examination of the power structures in the country that tend to erode the society in various ways.

Overall, good read!

So...what's next?

Yeah, Game boy! the sketchy son of the caterer. I thought he earned at least one more appearance in the story, like he had an off-hand observation or clue to give them. I also would have liked a few scenes of them in their seminary classes.

Instead of the killer’s identity, I thought the book became overtly pulp fiction when he sent them the empty envelop with the tool scrapings inside that helps them (what fool wants to be caught?) first identify the weapon he uses, then secondly, his identity.

A nice read, a little lurid in places. Although I think the book gained a little resonance and deepened at chapter 34, the three vignettes of the women.


As for the next one, I would suggest doing all the grunt work in the current thread, selecting and finding the book, then starting a new thread with the book title in the heading. The first one finished starts the next thread . . . Book club - XXX

Some stats:
Mofo book club? — 52 replies
Mofo book club - Jan ’22 — 100 replies
Mofo book club - March ’22 — 80 replies
Mofo book club - April ’22 — 21 replies
Mofo book club - June ’22 — 13 replies

Moi do grunt work? How dare you, Sir!

I guess it is my turn, eh?

I will get something up ASAP!

Not sure if we have any more people dropping in to discuss this one, but feel free to continue.

That said, the nomination thread for July is up Here!