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From Pg. 5
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears, Émile remembered the quote as he remembered those days. Yes, he thought, that described it. Chasmed fears. Both their own, and the murderers. Across tables across the province he and Gamache had sat. Just like this.
Louise’s Thoughts:
The Hound of Heaven. I remember when my mother gave me the tiny booklet with the green cover and told me it was one of her favourite poems. I’d just finished reading The Hound of the Baskervilles, and for some reason thought it was the same story, in verse. It is not. The Hound of Heaven quickly became one of my favourite poems, to the extent that I memorized it. I suspect I loved it because it described my relationship to God, at that time. Believing, but afraid of what God might ask of me. It’s that same sort of tension that I try to bring to the books. Especially, perhaps, Bury Your Dead. The struggle to believe, to trust, to give up, in the face of terrible reasons not to. To face those chasmed fears. In my life. In Gamache’s. In yours.
From Pg. 14
Closing his eyes he breathed deeply, smelling the musky scents of the library. Of age, of stability, of calm and peace. Of old- fashioned polish, of wood, of words bound in worn leather.
Louise’s Thoughts:
So interesting to read this, and realize that the sense of smell has been a theme throughout the books. In fact, it plays a part in the one I’m just writing now. So evocative, no? How quickly not just memories, but feelings, come back. We’re transported body and soul, to another place. Like Armand, and probably like you, I cherish the smell of books. Opening one and smelling that distinctive scent. And then, put hundreds, thousands, together in an old library, and what do you have? A haven. Exactly what Armand needs.
From Pg. 28
Though these days he was never alone. He longed for it, for blessed solitude. Avec le temps, Émile had said. With time. And maybe he was right. His strength was coming back, why not his sanity?
Louise’s Thoughts:
I suspect anyone who has ever lost a loved one knows how Armand is feeling. Of being haunted. Of both wanting that ghostly companionship, but also longing to move forward. Out of crushing grief. The attachment here is with a barb. This memory, this boy, is connected to Armand, without respite. Both a companion and an accusation.
From Pg. 92
All the images he kept locked away during the day he let out at night. He had to. He’d tried to keep them in, behind the groaning door but they’d pounded and pressed, hammering away until he had no choice.
Louise’s Thoughts:
It was difficult to write about PTSD. To try to get into the mind of someone who’d suffered. Who’d survived when those he was responsible for did not. And that the conscious mind could only control so much, and so long. Before it broke. But then, as we know, it’s how the light gets in.
From Pg. 192
In my line of work you grow suspicious of coincidences. They happen, but not often. And when you see one you ask questions.
Louise’s Thoughts:
Honestly, I try not to deal in coincidences. Seems far to facile, too cliched. But when I do, it is done very carefully, very consciously. I hope, in this case, it works.
36 replies on “The Annotated Three Pines: Bury Your Dead”
This was the first Gamache book I read. Quickly realized that I was missing backstory, starting in the middle of a series, but it did not matter. The characters, the history, the angst, the insights – they all sucked me in and left me wanting more. To know more. To learn more. To revel more in Louise Penny’s masterful artistry. Since then have read the series in order with my husband and then passed each along to my mother. We are all fans of Three Pines, its inhabitants, and its creator!
Love libraries, love literary illusions connecting me to other books, and love these books!!!
A friend introduced me to Louise Penny a couple months ago and I began reading through the series in order. I loved each of the first five books, but when I hit Bury Your Dead I was completely blown away. I read A LOT but had never come across such mastery in weaving several plots throughout a novel; they were all gripping. I think what most impressed me was Penny’s restraint as an author, rationing details and doling them out little by little, in present day and flashbacks. I was in awe! How unusual is it for an author to be able to reveal the depth of the relationship between two characters when they spend the entire book apart, as Penny does with Gamache and Beauvoir in this novel? That’s pretty impressive.
I was also overwhelmed by how much I had grown to care for the characters by that point in the series; their suffering becomes the suffering of the invested reader, for sure. And yet there’s still humor: “The night is a strawberry” and “True, I might go fake broke, but I think it’s worth it.” Every book in this series is a pleasure to read, but Bury Your Dead is Louise Penny at her very best.
My favorite book! I went to Quebec to celebrate my retirement and to see more of my heritage homeland. My mind could see all the weather and many places in the book. I did buy an autographed copy when you came to Syracuse NY! I’ve read this book several times and find a new twist or phrase to ponder each reading!
I so agree with all you say. Very similar to my experience in learning about and learning to love Louise Penny.
What a memory of my hometown library this brings up❤️Now I read on a kindle since I travel frequently, but if I walked into a library blindfolded I’d immediately know where I was
The library, the packed snow of a Quebec winter, the deep cold, the warm friendship, Henri, almost a metaphor for how Armand loves with integrity and loyalty.
All against the backdrop of the Canada Way. Almost historical fiction?
In an uncanny way your books blend into my emotional memories of Canada.
Bury Your Dead is one of the books I most easily return to as there are so many depths to plumb. There is the trauma, the history of provincial tragedy, the power struggle of cultures in the present day. And the exposition of that first quote from The Hound of Heaven, that is why you are my favorite author Louise, it says it all.
I want to re-read this one. Your words, “the struggle to believe, to trust, to give up” resonate so much with me right now. I just re-read “Kingdom of the Blind” in preparation for the next one. Can’t wait til August 27th!
Tapping into the 5 senses does indeed transport the reader to a memory that forges a connection with a character.
Few authors employ a reference to smell to engage the reader, and none do it better than you.
Bury Your Dead is my favourite Gamache book so far. The raw emotions leaped from the pages into my heart. Each of your books touch me but that one has stayed with me. Thank you.
I love how your books take me places. Not always physical cities, but places in my own life to revisit. I had a “mentor” for a brief time and valued her insight in a situation I could not grasp. I also seek respite and find it in old friends and new places. Thank you – I can not wait for August. I just finished “A Trick of the Light” in may re-reading of the series.