INTRODUCTION BY HOPE DELLON
I started working with Louise in October 2006, after the editor who had bought her first three books left Minotaur for another company. At the time, only Still Life had been published. A Fatal Grace was in bound galleys, and The Cruelest Month was a completed manuscript in search of a title.
Since I needed to read three books in a row, it was lucky that I loved them from the start. Although Louise had me from the acknowledgments at the beginning of Still Life, there came a scene in A Fatal Grace that gave me chills in a way that only the very best manuscripts ever have. (I describe that scene in the recap below.) I even remember where I was when I read it. In those days I had an hour-long commute on the train. I know that I started reading the galleys on the train on a Tuesday night, then continued on Wednesday morning, when we always have our editorial meetings. By the time I got to that meeting, I couldn’t stop talking about how amazing Louise was, except perhaps to ignore everyone else and keep reading more of the story.
When I’m asked what makes her books so great, I usually fall back on a quote from Emily Dickinson: “If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire ever can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?” That’s how I feel about Louise’s novels.
I believe I didn’t meet Louise and her husband, Michael, in person until Malice Domestic in Crystal City, VA, in the spring of 2008. By that time, Still Life had won many awards (including the Anthony, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Dilys, and New Blood Dagger) for Best First Novel, but not the Agatha; and we didn’t want to jinx anything by expecting her to win Best Novel for A Fatal Grace. I remember how thrilling it was when she did win—but what I had forgotten, until Louise mentioned it recently, was that the awards banquet happened to fall on my birthday. Now that she reminds me—and how remarkable for her to remember—I know that she and Michael insisted on taking me to lunch on that Saturday, and made more of a fuss about my birthday than they did about her chances of winning the Agatha. They were as warm and brilliant and funny as you might imagine from reading Louise’s books, and it’s been a joy to work with her ever since.
RECAP
Chapters 1-21: The first lines of A Fatal Grace foretell the death of the nastiest woman in Three Pines: “Had CC de Poitiers known she was going to be murdered she might have bought her husband, Richard, a Christmas gift….” The doomed CC has written a self-help book that prattles about love and enlightenment, even though she is actually like the Snow Queen from the fairytale who pierces everyone’s hearts with ice.
Meanwhile, in “the snow globe that was Three Pines,” CC’s 14-year-old daughter, Crie, has sewn her own chiffon snowflake costume for her school’s Christmas pageant, “to surprise Mommy.” She has been on a diet for a month and is sure her mother will notice soon. Except her mother doesn’t bother to show up.
Clara Morrow and her friend Myrna drive to Montreal, where Clara is dying to see the Christmas windows at Ogilvy’s department store that have enchanted her since childhood. She and her handsome husband, Peter, have been starving artists in Three Pines for years, although his precisely detailed paintings have finally started to sell. No one wants to buy Clara’s wilder depictions of warrior uteruses (!) and melting trees.
Hearing that CC knows important gallery owner Denis Fortin, Clara timidly asks if she would mind showing him her portfolio—which CC disdainfully throws in the trash. “Very annoying,” she says to her lover, photographer Saul Petrov. “Imagine asking me for a favor?” CC has much more important things to do: There’s a sale at Ogilvy’s and she wants to buy a special pair of boots made of baby sealskin with metal claws.
Clara’s joy at the Christmas windows is disrupted by a filthy pile of blankets that turns out to be a beggar throwing up. Disgusted, Clara hastens inside to the book launch for her neighbor, Ruth Zardo, the bitter but brilliant old poet whose friends from Three Pines turn up to support her.
On the escalators at Ogilvy’s, Clara passes CC, who says to the man beside her, “I’m so sorry, Denis, that you think Clara’s art is amateur and banal.” It’s a heart-stopping moment. Devastated, Clara shuffles out of the store and sees the stinking beggar she’d ignored on the way in. Impulsively, Clara gives a package of food she’s just bought to the bag lady, who grasps her wrist and says, “I have always loved your art, Clara.” Whoa. This was the moment when I started to feel as if the top of my head was being taken off.
A few days later it is Christmas Eve in Three Pines, with shortbread stars (Louise’s books always make me hungry) and carolers and a midnight service at St. Thomas’s church, where a child starts to sing with angelic purity. The singer is CC’s daughter, wearing a grotesque pink sundress but with bliss on her face. After the service, the whole village can hear CC berating Crie as a “stupid, stupid girl. You humiliated me. They were laughing at you, you know.” CC’s gutless father barely utters a protest.
When Saul turns up at the Bistro on Christmas, Myrna invites him to the community breakfast and curling match on the following day. It’s a perfect setting for the last job Saul intends to do for CC, who wants pictures of herself “frolicking among the natives at Christmas. If possible he had to get shots of the locals looking at CC with wonder and affection.” A pretty tall order.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté and his wife, Reine-Marie, make their first appearance in the book on the day after Christmas, when they have a tradition of reviewing unsolved cases. “If I was murdered,” says Gamache, “I’d like to think the case wouldn’t just sit unsolved. Someone would make an extra effort.” (I love this man.) Reine-Marie notices that one of the cases is new: There was a bag lady who had hung out at the bus station for years—but was strangled outside of Ogilvy’s department store on the day Clara saw her there. Astoundingly, a copy of Ruth’s new book, signed “You stink, love Ruth,” was found with the body.
Then the phone rings, and the duty officer for Three Pines tells Gamache there has been a murder. So much for a quiet Boxing Day. Within minutes Gamache and his second-in-command, Inspector Jean-Guy Beauvoir, are on their way to Three Pines, to investigate the very odd death of CC de Poitiers.
CC’s murder seems impossible: She was electrocuted at the curling match, in the middle of a frozen lake in front of dozens of witnesses. After Gamache gathers his team in the old railway station, Beauvoir recaps the only way CC’s murder could have worked: “A: she had to be standing in water; B: she had to have taken off her gloves; C: she had to touch something electrified; and D: she had to be wearing metal on the bottom of her boots.” Sure, nobody liked CC, but who hated her enough—and had the expertise—to pull off something like that?
Then a new team member arrives unexpectedly: Agent Yvette Nichol—”the rancid, wretched, petty little woman who’d almost ruined their last case”—apparently sent by the Superintendent of the Sûreté. Gamache is furious to see her, and knows that his enemies at Headquarters are still working against him.
With or without the unwelcome Nichol, the team has much to investigate: Where is Saul and what photos might he have taken of the curling match? Why does the coroner find excess niacin in CC’s body? Can it be possibly be coincidence that CC’s book, Be Calm, has the same name as the meditation center Bea Mayer, known as Mother, runs in Three Pines? After Gamache admires The Three Graces, Clara’s painting of Mother and the two other elderly women who are her best friends in Three Pines, she tells him about her poisonous encounter with CC at Ogilvy’s—and he quietly adds Clara’s name to the long list of suspects.
Chapter 22-End: Clues and questions and suspects continue to pile up for Gamache and his team. Having learned that CC de Poitiers, who claimed to be the daughter of Eleanor and Henri de Poitiers, invented both her name and her past (Eleanor de Poitiers, better known as Eleanor of Aquitaine, actually died in 1204), Gamache needs to find out who CC really was. Are there any significant clues to be found in the video cassette of The Lion in Winter that turned up in CC’s garbage after the murder?
Meanwhile, Gamache is astonished when Clara proudly shows him the Li Bien ornament Peter gave her for Christmas, which is exactly like the ball CC supposedly used as the basis for her garbled philosophy. The glass ball is painted with three pine trees, the word Noël, and a single capital letter, L. Was it the picture of the trees that prompted CC to buy the monstrous old Hadley house in Three Pines? Awkwardly, Peter is forced to confess that while he meant to buy Clara something for Christmas this year, he actually found the ball in the Williamsburg dump.
When Gamache meets Émilie Longpré—age 82, captain of the curling team, and one of Clara’s Three Graces—and her dog, Henri, on an early morning walk, she tells him about an encounter with CC at Mother’s meditation center, where CC arrogantly proclaimed that since she was calling her own book and company Be Calm, Mother would have to change the name of her center or perhaps close it altogether. After breakfast, the tiny Émilie gives Gamache & co. a curling lesson that convinces even Beauvoir, who has always scoffed at curling as a sport, that it’s a lot harder than it looks. And Gamache, who finally grasps what it meant when the 78-year-old Mother loudly “cleared the house” at the curling match, suddenly knows how the murderer got away with it.
The questions about CC’s mother keep circling back to the Three Graces. Do they know who the L of the Li Bien ball was, or could it possibly even be one of them? And what might 92-year-old Kaye Thompson, who was sitting next to CC at the match, have seen as she was murdered?
When Saul’s photos are developed, they somehow do not include any shots from the time of the murder. And as eager as Saul seems to be to start a new, better life in Three Pines, he still has one undeveloped roll of film that he hastily throws in the fireplace when Gamache and his team visit him at the chalet he has rented.
With the help of an idea from Clara about the discarded video, the case seems to be coming together, when a raging fire breaks out at Saul’s chalet, and the unlikely trio of Gamache, Beauvoir, and Agent Nichol try to rescue him. Émilie finally tells Gamache the heartbreaking truth about CC’s mother, and the Three Graces prepare to pay the price for what they have done. And then Gamache suddenly realizes there is one last horrible secret in CC’s family.
The book ends at New Year’s, with Reine-Marie’s first visit to Three Pines. Both of them know that the plots against Gamache are growing more sinister, but as they drive home:
In the rearview mirror Armand Gamache could see Three Pines. He got out of the car and stared down at the village, each home glowing with warm and beckoning light, promising protection against a world sometimes too cold. He closed his eyes and felt his racing heart calm.
“Are you all right?” Reine-Marie’s mittened hand slipped into his.
“I’m more than all right.” He smiled. “I have everything.”
FAVORITE QUOTE
Gamache says to Clara, “When someone stabs you it’s not your fault that you feel pain.”
Gamache: “I knew then I was in the company of people who loved not only books, but words. Spoken, written, the power of words.”
CONCLUSION
I am not sure how many times I’ve read A Fatal Grace, but I still find it as extraordinary as I did back in 2006. I think it’s magnificent on so many levels: as a complex and masterful detective story, as a glorious character study, and as an exploration of universal hopes and fears. I love that it can be hilarious one minute and heartbreaking the next.
I also love the way Louise focuses on the power of words, from the literal handwriting on more than one wall, to the hidden meanings of names like Mother, Elle, and Crie (what kind of parents would name a child that?), to the ways that words can kill or heal. I also marvel that someone like me, who is at least as much of a skeptic as Jean-Guy Beauvoir, can find myself wondering about such mysteries as lemon meringue pie.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- If the village of Three Pines truly existed, would you want to live there? Why or why not? How does Christmas bring out the best or the worst in any of the villagers?
- Who is your favorite character in the book so far?
- In Louise’s books I am always stopping to admire wonderful images or jokes or observations (or descriptions of food!). Were there any lines that particularly struck you in Part I?
- What do you think of Ruth’s idea that “most people, while claiming to hate authority, actually yearned for someone to take charge”?
- Gamache tells Lemieux, “All the mistakes I’ve made have been because I’ve assumed something and then acted as though it was fact.” Have you ever made important assumptions that turned out not to be true?
- What interests you most about the two murder victims, CC and the bag lady known only as Elle, and the way Gamache conducts his investigation?
- There are so many clues hidden in plain sight in A Fatal Grace, I lost count at 6 or 7 (all of which I missed the first time through). Did you spot any of them, and did you solve any of the various puzzles before Gamache did?
- What do you make of Gamache’s relationships with the different members of his team, from Beauvoir to Nichol?
- How do you feel about The Three Graces?
- Near the end, Gamache says, “This whole case has been about belief and the power of the word.” I’ll say. What are the ways in which words have power?
- Speaking of belief, what do you make of the apparent brushes with God: the beggar who loved Clara’s art (which Em maintains she had never seen); Gamache finding God in a diner eating lemon meringue pie; Em’s road worker with the sign saying “Ice Ahead”; Billy Williams, etc.?
- Do you agree with Gamache in Chapter 33 that “when you’ve seen the worst you appreciate the best?”
399 replies on “Series Re-Read: A Fatal Grace!.”
I am re-reading the books, and just finished”A Fatal Grace”. What I find interesting in the re-read is that I’m picking up on a lot of the threads that culminate in “How the Light Gets In”. I won’t say more here as I don’t want to put any spoilers here that could ruin the stroke of genius as that final plot played out.
There is also a reference to BURY YOUR DEAD, said to Nichols.
Absolutely. I’ve re-read most of the books in this series more than once and am struck by how poems, ideas, characterizations, themes, etc. are interwoven so that it seems as though Louise spent years developing the outline for the series before she ever wrote the first word of Still Life.
Joan, I also am having a wonderful experience re-reading these books…I originally read them soon after they were published. I too picked up on the connection to How The Light Gets In…in fact I was surprised to read the lyrics in this book as I had not remembered they were in this early book. I’m really looking forward to reading the other books as they just seem deeper and better the second time around.
I do agree with Jane Frickler about Crie and the police not wanting to suspect a child. But Crie had more than enough reasons to commit matricide. CC had been the poorest excuse for a parent. She was cruel and made no bones about her hatred of her daughter. No matter what Crie did, she was never able to please her mother. And her husband was so inept and downtrodden himself. It made me wonder why CC had ever married him and what she had done to totally demasculate him.
The “Three Graces” — all through the book I wanted to see this portrait of the three. I have in my mind’s eye what it would be like but I still wanted to see this painting.
This book really sealed Peter’s fate in my eyes as a selfish bore! That he had to find a present for Clara at the dump just made me mad, I think I thought at the time I considered him an egotistical bore.
As with all mysteries, looking for the clues and red herrings is just a part of weaving the story. Louise is an expert weaver!! When the body of the old woman was found I began to wonder why this had any significance — how did she know Clara? What was her “back story”? What interested Reine-Marie in this obscure person who had died?
I was not that surprised by the epiphany Gamache had eating the pie. A long time ago I read a book by a priest I knew who claimed that Communion was not just at Sunday Mass, but in having toast and coffee with friends gathered around a table — this was as much of community as going to church.
As a curling enthusiast, even though older and with crippled shoulders, I can still participate at the curling rink. The role of the skip is vital — that person is the strategist for the team. It does not take strength but planning and being able to “read the ice” and finesse!
I don’t think it’s the choice of a gift from the dump that highlights Peter’s weakness, but that he doesn’t own it! Clara loved the Le Bien ball and would have loved that Peter understood that about her. But because he was sneaky about it he again showed his neediness.
I agree and disagree with Terry. Decisive, n’est-ce pas? Clara comments that “once again, Peter gave her garbage”. At this point, she was disappointed with where the gift came from, despite having appreciated its beauty. She might have felt better about it if Peter had been able to say that he found it at the dump (where he found himself, out of habit) and had been attracted by its beauty. In a way, he was saving something that obviously wasn’t garbage (unlike CC who had the “gift” of turning beauty into garbage). But, in my heart, I believe that Clara wasn’t ready to accept any gift from the dump this Christmas. In a year or two, it would be different.
I agree KB. I think she will eventually feel differently about the ball. The problem was that Peter wasn’t truthful. I also think intuitively Clara knew it was even deeper. The ball was beautiful, she’d appreciate it, but it also was free. Couldn’t he have gone shopping anyway? It was almost like “Whoopee. Something pretty! Now I don’t have to expend any more effort!” He seems to not know or care that, at least for THIS Christmas, the effort and luxury of shopping would have been part of the gift. I wondered if part of the cause was that the inheritance that made shopping possible was Clara’s and not his own.
I agree, I think it’s really more about the effort than the money, though the money IS a factor. It’s symbolic for Clara that finally they didn’t HAVE to pay nothing for their gifts, and she had a lot of joy in shopping. For Peter, it was simply a chore, and when he “accidentally”completes the core at the dump, he’s relieved. I think his Mother’s gift to Clara of a packet of drIed soup speaks volumes about where Peter comes from. I also think it speaks volumes of Clara that she has a generous enough spirit to assume it must be an exotic bath balm.
Linda, I agree with you that Peter’s probably (actually almost certainly) jealous that the money is Clara’s. Another theme that develops over the series.
As far as the Clara’s attitude about the Li Bien ball is concerned, I don’t think she would have minded about it being dumpster-found had Peter also taken the trouble to buy her something in addition. It was the fact that he wouldn’t go to that trouble when he had the money that caused her disappointment. I think this is the first severe crack in the marriage.
Peter is so much less than Clara deserves…that he would forget to buy her a Christmas gift…that he would intentionally make her doubt her worth as an artist…he cannot love Clara…the more I read of him, the more I doubt he is capable of love at all…his actions turn my stomach and make me feel so sad for Clara
I had thought that these books were pretty simple and have not considered rereading them. I was attracted to them because of the setting and because I like mysteries. These discussion have caused me to get the books out again and I have been rereading Fatal Grace so I can participate. I enjoy Gamache’s relationships with his team members, especially Jean Luc. I find him to be a perceptive boss who is able to develop those under his direction if they work willingly at the tasks they are given.
As far as the references to God go, I find that the most intriguing part of the book. I believe we can encounter God as we encounter people. All it requires is an open mind and heart.
That God is in the mundane and we brush against each other often is my truth. There are so many gifts that come at unexpected, but needed, times. Not always quotations, writings or spoken words. Sometimes there are symbols. Goodness exists. (One of my favourite reminders.)
Did he really encounter God or was it just a happy guy eating pie?
Well, that is in the person who has experienced it. Anyone can be a naysayer, but the person with the experience knows how it felt to them. In this matter, I believe everyone has their own truth.
It depends whether one believes in the supernatural. I’m atheist, so I would see a happy guy eating pie. However, “believers” see a manifestation of their god because that fits their belief structure.
1. There are so many clues hidden in plain sight in A Fatal Grace, I lost count at 6 or 7 (all of which I missed the first time through). Did you spot any of them, and did you solve any of the various puzzles before Gamache did?
I will start at the beginning of Chapter 23, where Gamache is ticking off the number of clues he has to CC’s murder thus far: “Puddles of anti-freeze, niacin, The Lion in Winter, booster cables, Psalm 46:10 and a long lost mother. And that was only what he’d uncovered so far. CC was two days dead and what he really needed was an epiphany.”
I think from the beginning, it’s clear that with the different elements that caused CC’s death, it had to be premeditated. Usually the husband or other relative is the prime suspect, but in this case, Richard Lyon had an alibi from Myrna, who insisted she would have noticed if he’d left the curling game at any point. For some reason, Gamache and all the other investigators never seemed to consider Crie as a suspect. I wonder if that is just natural thinking on the part of police, as they generally don’t believe children are capable of such complex thinking or action, or if it was more that they felt sorry for Crie, and when you feel sympathy for someone, it’s really hard to suspect that person as capable of murder.
As Donna Leblanc wrote in her post, she suspected Crie as soon as she read that she was really smart in science. Of course, if Louise Penny had had Gamache suspect Crie at that point, the book probably would have been a lot shorter, and a lot less interesting. Sometimes it’s fun, as the reader, to think you’re ahead of the detective in charge of the case.
Gamache says at one point, perhaps to himself, that Crie was so abused, no wonder it ended in murder. The first time I read this I didn’t notice it, and it doesn’t even seem to have caused Gamache to consider Crie a suspect. In hindsight, a whopper of a clue hiding in plain sight!
But, as always, most of the clues are irrelevant. “Lion in Winter”, for example, is relevant to C.C.’s persona and self-delusion, but not to the murders, as is the name of her worthless husband. What I never understood was what caused Gamache’s realization by the lake that the Graces were covering up for the murderer instead of having themselves committed it. I thought this a weakness in the book. He makes these sudden jumps not wholly explained by the author, and in a later book he jumps too quickly and turns out to be wrong.
In rethinking his conversation with EM, he realized she had been surprised by the shoes with the cleats, which were necessary to complete the circuit of electricity…..a clue that she wasn’t aware of all the necessary components. I agree that that was a surprise. I had guessed it was the 3 women together. I had previously thought Crie might have done it, but even with her knowledge of science, I thought she was too young to think out and carry through with such a complex murder. How on earth does Louise Penny think up these complicated plots?
Sharon–I think Gamache’s realization by the lake is explained in Chapter 38:
“‘I thought it was the three women,’ Gamache admitted, sipping his wine. ‘They completely fooled me. But then I remembered those baby sealskin boots.’
“‘Wicked,’ said Ruth with a slurp.
“‘In her letter Émilie described the niacin, the anti-freeze, the booster cables. But she left out one crucial thing.’ Gamache had their undivided attention. ‘Had they done all the things they describe in that letter, CC would still be alive. In her letter Émilie didn’t mention the boots. But CC had to have been wearing the Inuit mukluks with the metal claws. They were the key to this whole murder. I told Émilie about them yesterday
and she was sickened. More than that, she was surprised….’
“‘I realized the women couldn’t have killed CC. But they knew who had…. According to Mother, Kaye saw it all, and what she didn’t see they figured out later. For instance, they didn’t see Crie slip niacin into her mother’s tea. But they did see her spill windshield washer fluid behind the chair. And Émilie saw her hanging around Billy Williams’s truck. None of these things meant anything at first but when Kaye saw Crie deliberately put the chair off balance, and hookup booster cables to it, her curiosity was piqued, though she didn’t expect murder. CC was concentrating on what was happening on the ice, of course, but when she grabbed the chair and was electrocuted Kaye knew at once what had happened….”
I agree that people sometimes think that children are not able to plan violence and execute the plan. I never suspected Crie because of the way she is described when Gamache first saw her – almost catatonic- and that we had not heard of her ever challenging her mother. She could not have a face to face argument with her mother as she was too fearful. She had to be in control with no possibility of CC responding.
I watched curling during the last Winter Olympics. I have pondered the believability of Mother and Em hurling granite stones down the ice, even if they are not famous for playing well. as a Norh Carolinian! I do not know if this would be probable. ca
Can any northerners assist?
Sorry for my poor typing. I am recuperating from surgery and my dominant hand is rather out of commission.
Curling is played by people of all ages and shapes. It is not impossible for Mother to clear the house with a roaring rock since she has weight behind her. Skipping involves the strategy behind the game so as long as Em is able to set up the rocks by telling her team members where to put them, she can skip.
Thank you!
Curling is a game of skill far more than strength. Remember the lesson Emelie gave – it was about balance, symmetry and follow-through. She advised not to push the stone, but simply release it. You don’t need to be strong to play well.
My husband and I were introduced to curling when watching the Canadian series “Corner Gas”. We had read references to curling in books and newspapers but had never seen it played . We enjoyed every minute we saw during the Olympics. Those who say curling is boring, as some comics have done, are wrong. I wish we could see matches here at home, but since home is in Georgia, USA, that doesn’t seem likely.
May I just say the land, sky and trees are as rich a fabric as the people and
animals. Everything is on solid ground even as what is unknown or miss-perceived becomes revealed.
I picked up on Richard Lyon as soon as The Lion in Winter was introduced and kept waiting and waiting for the connection to be made public. I also suspected Crie when it was said that she was a whiz at science.
As a fat kid myself I squirmed everytime I read a discription of her and her appearance. I will put that into my personal file.
I particularly enjoyed Gamache’s interactions with Emelie in this book. Sensitive and believe able …. Well done, Louise.
For me these books are not re-reads….so I have not had time to ruminate over much time.
Only finished Fatal G late last night. Insomnia has its uses.
Namaste.
From the very beginning, when Reine-Marie and Gamache found the letters B K L M in L’s box – my mind immediately heard ‘Be Calm’. When the other women, Bea, Kay, and Em were introduced, I knew L was connected to them and Three Pines. I didn’t know how, but that part never felt like a mystery to me. Maybe it’s because my middle name is Kay and , when introducing myself, people ask me all the time if ‘Kay’ is just the initial. But I loved that those characters thought like that – connecting their names to words and connecting to each other because of it.
I agree with Deborah but I also believe only after after experiencing the worst can we appreciate the best. It is like taking sunshine for granted until you have days and days of rain!
I was also pleased with the words, “when you have seen the worst, you expect the best.” There is something about having experienced very difficult events that gives a confidence that we can survive. Once we have that confidence, we are able to see that those around us are no more scary than we ourselves are and are also just trying to make it through this life.
And Part Two of our discussion is now live: http://gamacheseries.wpengine.com/a-fatal-grace-part-2/
I guess I am ready to tackle the last couple of questions. Will start with this one for now;
5. Gamache tells Lemieux, “All the mistakes I’ve made have been because I’ve assumed something and then acted as though it was fact.” Have you ever made important assumptions that turned out not to be true?
When I first read this question, I couldn’t think, at first of any times I’d made an assumption that turned out not to be true. Now that I’ve thought a bit more about it, there are a couple of examples I’m going to share, although they are kind of embarrassing.
1. I was an undergraduate student who was a stickler for getting to class early. One time, I got to a classroom, where the class was just getting out, and I made a couple of assumptions: 1. That the very mature looking male who was approaching me was the professor, and 2. That he was also going to be the instructor for the class that was supposed to be in that room next. Well, as it turned out, the guy was not a professor, but a foreign exchange student, and since I had shown myself to be friendly, apparently I was fair game as far as he was concerned. For weeks if not months, I found myself being stalked and having to hide if I saw him coming first.
2. When I was teaching an English class at a community college, I was required to have a syllabus and course assignment ready for the class on the first day it met. The course assignment pages I would pass out had all the reading assignments from the required text. I of course assumed that if there was a change in text book that the department chair would send out a memo. WRONG! The first night of class, after I had greeted the class and given my speech about what would be required work for the semester, I held up what I believed to be the book that they would need. Was I ever surprised and chagrined when one of the students piped up and said” That’s not right! THIS is the book that the bookstore was selling!”
Sure enough, it was a new edition of the text, so that meant that my entire handout for reading assignments was wrong. I had spent HOURS getting that ready, so I was pretty upset with our Chair, and found I wasn’t the only one . Several of us put in a written request to him, that in the future, if there was a change in the required text, whether it was a new edition or other different text book, that he would let us know BEFORE the semester started! To his credit, that never happened again, but just thinking about that experience still makes me angry.
I am a long time Louise Penny / Gamache fan; after picking up Bury Your Dead, the only book of the series on the library shelf. Then having to beg, borrow and buy the other books in the series, because I was hooked. I only stumbled on this discussion yesterday, why didn’t I find it sooner !
I’m not sure if I could learn to cope with winter in Three Pines, however I should love to be a regular visitor. In my imagination I can walk into the village and find everything; wonderful descripive writing Louise.
Favourite character, Gamache and following behind, Reine-Marie. I am fascintated by Ruth and her ‘opposite’, Myrna, in fact just about all the regulars.
The food, oh the food. I long taste it and listen to the conversations at the table. I want to know more about the quotes, who wrote the poems and can I find the books in a library and read more.
Ruth’s statement re no-one wanting to take responsibilty is spot on. A huge generalization, but most of us look to someone else to take charge. You see it worldwide in many situations and lack of personal responsibility is an international ‘disease’.
The final two questions, I don’t yet have an opinion on.
Coincidentally [and with winter just about here], I am rereading the series and had just started on Dead Cold aka A Fatal Grace.
I would love to express my thoughts and views with everyone, however, I would have lots of rewrites even before I was able to get a point across. I think I can verbalize better than writing.
This book was very difficult for me to read, because of the abuse of a child. I love all the main characters. Louise is brilliant with the psychology of her characters. I can relate with all of them, and that’s what makes me a better person. Understanding, is a great gift. If I can understand, the why’s, then I have a better ability to relate to the world around me. Louise has a wonderful ability to create character who are so full of personalities. I loved Jane in Still Life, was sorry to lose this loving character. When I first read Still Life, I went around telling everyone to read it. It felt so fresh and so very Real. Thank all of you for sharing you thoughts. It is always interesting to get others perspectives. Karen I Ford you express yourself very well on paper. A special thank you. Louise if you read these comments thank you so much for writing these wonderful books. I would love to go into a real Jane’s house, but I think I live in Clara’s house and feel so cozy and hungry in the Bistro.
Is anyone keeping track of the character descriptions/development of the recurring individuals in each book? We now know that Louise Penny has foreshadowed many events in later books, and for those of us re-reading, there is often the shock of recognition.
I am loving the re-reads! I started reading Louise’s books a year or so after “Still Life”came out, so it has been a while, and I have forgotten many very important details – some of which don’t actually become important until later in the series. Which brings me to a question/comment.
While loving the re-read, I am not loving the discussion. As I re-read the books, I am noticing many themes that carry through the series. Some of them start small and grow over time; some are quotations, or even book titles, that re-appear. I am amazed by how deftly Louise has woven these threads through. I would really like to discuss this! However, that would make for spoilers – and I don’t want to post anything that would spoil it for first-time readers.
Would it be possible to have a section of this discussion that is more free-form, where spoilers are permitted? For those of us who are re-reading, rather than reading for the first time, it would give us the freedom to discuss overarching motifs and storylines. I could say things like, “I didn’t realize that XXX was happening from the very beginning of the series,” or “I remember where XXX’s tendency to XXX leads, later in the series.”
What do you think?
I do live in Three Pines, and partly because of the food. Gamache is my favorite character because I have learned so much from him (thank you Louise). I like Ruth because in spite of her immediate presence, she cares deeply for people. I was affected in this section by how she orchestrated the care for CC. Taking charge for Ruth means compassion. I’ve made mistakes, and learned from how Gamache dealt with his own. CC and Elle are so different, and both need to be seen with depth. Louise shows that. I believe Elle as Clara does. I dislike CC intensely, but who cannot identify with her somewhat, and learn from that? These books have depth, and I am so glad to be rereading them.
That’s a great point you make about Ruth, David. She does care deeply for people, and she was the one orchestrating care for CC. The fact that so many people ran to help CC after they noticed her fall, and in spite of the fact that many of them despised her personally, they still considered her life worth saving. As Clara tells Gamache after saying CC didn’t deserve to be murdered, and he then asks what she did deserve, Clara says that CC deserved to be left alone. That is, she would have been, to use an English colloquialism, put “in Coventry.” She deserved to be treated as a social outcast, so she would see that all of her machinations and cruel treatment of her family brought disgrace, not fame or fortune. Ruth shows us that someone can be outspoken and downright rude at time, but still have compassion for her fellow human beings.
I have come to realize that I am finally beginning to understand Ruth. I can’t pick out one comment that has been the “aha” moment because it has been cumulative. As I have read and reread the discussions of these first two books, I have found myself thinking, “Yes!” “No!” “I’m confused!” “That reminds me of when Ruth said or did…” “That reminds me of when I …” I have read all the books several times each, but I am only now seeing why Ruth is so important, just the way she is at any given moment. Louise Penny really is so insightful and at the same time such a wonderful writer. And, she’s so good at building a sense of trust and patience in her readers. We don’t always know where we’re going or why, but we keep going with her. It has been infinitely worth it so far. No matter how uncomfortable it is sometimes, I would follow her anywhere, even to Ruth’s house.
Meg R, I’ll take up that challenge–at least for the first part of the book, as far as what Penny tells us(or has other characters say) about Ruth.
ABOUT RUTH:
1. (From Chapter Three) We get thoughts from Clara about Ruth:
“Normally Ruth’s slim volumes of poetry were slipped to an oblivious public following a launch at the bistro in Three Pines. But something astounding had happened. This elderly, wizened, bitter poet from Three Pines had won the Governor General’s Award. Surprised the hell out of everyone. Not because she didn’t deserve it. Clara knew her poems were stunning
Who hurt you once so far beyond repair
that you would greet each overture with curling lip?
It was not always so.
No, Ruth Zardo deserved the prize. It was just shocking that anyone else knew it”(p.24 paperback).
From this, I think the key words Clara has to describe Ruth are elderly, wizened, and bitter. We know she uses a cane, so maybe that explains why Clara would think of her as wizened. As for being bitter, I do wonder if the words in that poem refer to Ruth herself.
2. At the signing in Ogilvy’s(Chapter Four).
Not only has Clara had to deal with the smell of the ‘wretched bum,” but she’d walked through the perfumerie area of the store spraying her with “cloying smells”. What’s the first thing Ruth says to Clara? “It’s about fuckin’ time. . . you look like a bag lady. . . And you stink.” (Of course, I should note, she”gave and received a kiss on each cheek” in between the bag lady statement and her saying to Clara, ” You stink,” so probably getting that close to Clara, she really did experience the results too many perfumes being mingled on one person). I’m thinking that since Penny notes that Ruth gave and received a kiss on each cheek, we note that (1) Ruth initiated the intimacy with her friend, and then(2) allowed Clara to touch her face on the cheeks, too. So at least we know Ruth is not a germophobe. She may be a crusty old broad, with a wicked tongue at times, but she’s still able to give and receive affection from a friend.
After Ruth tells Clara she will sign the book for her, we see Penny describe Ruth as “Tall and dignified, leaning on her cane for support. . .”. Since we’ve discussed(or I have, anyway) the conversation between Ruth and Gabri in Ogilvies, I won’t repeat it here. But then Clara notices that Gabri is holding a different book. He tells her it’s CC Poitier’s book, and points to the remainder bin. (Apparently this is the Canadian version of Bargain books). Ruth , we are told, then, “snorted then stopped herself, realizing it was probably just a matter of days before her small collection of exquisitely crafted poems joined CC’s shit in that literary coffin.”
A short while after, as the “Three Graces” are discussing CC’s Li Bien philosophy, Kaye says, ” And her pile of crap is probably higher than yours. . . I didn’t think it was possible,’ she said to Ruth, who looked at her hero with delight.”
Here we see that Ruth, herself master of the put-down quip, is also appreciative of that quality in someone else.
In my wildest dreams I own a book store in Scotland, with the food coming from the B. & B in Three Pines. I guess that means I would like village life. Enjoyed the humor and laughed out loud a couple of times rereading “A Fatal Grace”.
Carolyn
In re “The Three Graces”:
–When I read the scene this time, between Gamache and Clara, as she’s showing him her art, in particular her painting of the three old grande dames of the village, I found myself tingling when Clara told Gamache, she’d left a space, a crack, because that way the light could get in. WOW. I mean, it just hit me how Louise Penny has used that concept throughout her books. (And of course, that’s the title of one of the later books). I think this is an example of Clara’s intuition. I don’t think she knew about El or her connection to the “Three Graces,” but she instinctively knew someone was missing.
–About the three women and why they tried to make Gamache think they’d killed CC. I believe we get hints of that when there’s reference to cowardice and having not done the right thing before, and wanting to do that now. I think the women feel responsible for Crie, and horrible that they did nothing to help her when CC was berating her after the church service. It looks to me as though they equate that verbal thrashing of CC’s as the thing that sent Crie over the edge, to kill her mother, and that they could have prevented that by standing up to CC at the time, but didn’t. Now, they have a chance to save El’s grand-daughter, by presenting themselves as the killers, leaving Gamache a letter of confession, and going out on the ice to die.
In re the conclusion:
–Gamache, his own encounter with a being whom he thought of as God, and how Billy Williams comes into that equasion. Gamache cannot understand, for some reason, anything that Billy says to him, yet others, including his own wife, Reine-Marie, can. I just love that ending scene where she gives Armand the bag with the lemon meringue pie and the poem on the napkin. Apparently, what’s on the napkin are the same words that the old man in the cafe wrote on the board:
Where there is love, there is courage
Where there is courage, there is peace
Where there is peace, there is God
And when you have God, you have everything.
I just love that poem, and that Penny ends her book with Gamache saying,
” I have everything.”
WOW. just–WOW.
And of course, now I have to ask–Who WAS the old man in the cafe that Gamache met that day? How does Billy Williams know about the lemon-meringue pie, and the poem that was written on the blackboard?