Join us here in The Bistro for a discussion on the entire Gamache series. Feel free to ask or answer any questions about any of the books or the series as a whole.
Located in the Equitable Building in Manhattan, Minotaur Books publishes bestselling and award-winning crime fiction ranging from thrillers and suspense to traditional mysteries. Minotaur has published Louise Penny since 2007.
3,660 replies on “The Bistro”
Have fun Julie. I can’t wait to see your pictures.
Thanks for mentioning SAD. A friend gave her daughter a lamp a few years ago. She did get some help from it. I’ll check on it.
I’m off first thing in the morning for my Jane Austen event so I won’t be posting until I come back – which isn’t til next Tuesday night! I picked up my dress this afternoon, and it’s just perfect – wait until you see pictures! I will be posting an album of my adventures so all my friends can see, so will send a link when that’s up. Fun! Til then, stay safe, away from the mad weather and cozy in the Bistro…
Love your comments on Reine-Marie and the things you are digging out from Still Life Julie.
Choosing a light box is important for the right kind of light in treating SAD.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/in-depth/seasonal-affective-disorder-treatment/art-20048298
Thanks for the link. I have an appt. with the ophthalmologist Thurs. and will ask about the light box and my eyes. Later this month I’ll see the Internist and discuss it. I had known about but let it go. I do things like that.
Today was beautiful. The sun was bright all day. Yipee !
Julie, I only just read your post on Roseburg. I am sorry it has affected you so closely but yes I can well understand how frustrating it must be. It is a curious form of government when the Preisdent is so hamstrung by Congress that he can’t make changes that he wants to and would be sorely needed. I feel fortunate that our government was able to come together on the issue and make a difference when we had the tragedy at Port Arthur. It can be done but the structure of your government, the interpretation of the Constitution, and the NRA mean it will have to come from the people not from the President. I think he would enact a law tomorrow if he could. The fact that he can’t is frustrating indeed.
We have gun problems here but since 1996 they have declined dramatically. As have suicides by gun. While mental health care is important, as we have seen many of the instigators of gun crime don’t come to the notice of the mental health system.
Barbara, I have been following the destructive rains and I am sending thoughts and prayers to the those affected. I agree with Julie about the right kind of light. Phototherapy is effective in alleviating SAD, seasonal affective disorder. It’s very real but there is help available so please look into that. I will hunt up a reference for you. You are doing a great job looking for things to help while the rain falls.
Anna – I think some of my frustration comes from having come from a different country. One where it is much more difficult to get guns. Not impossible, and such shootings are not completely unheard of, but you never hear of someone having an arsenal of guns at home, each having been gotten legally. Surely, if there were more roadblocks in the way, some of these people would give up trying to get guns.
I know the president can’t do anything alone, and the NRA is so very powerful a gun lobby that it boggles my mind. I almost think we need some kind of government reform that bans accepting gifts from such lobbyists before we can have gun control reform. If it didn’t come after Sandy Hook, I can only assume that people don’t care enough to make it happen at all. I know there are some – many – who care deeply, but so many vocal others who only care that they not have their right to arm themselves to the teeth infringed. Crazy. And crazy me for letting it make me crazy!
I also agree that mental health care is important, but that alone, won’t solve the problem. So many crimes are committed by people who do not meet any legal or other definition of mental illness. Having guns be that much more difficult to get is the bigger issue, and I worry that so many politicians turn it all into rhetoric by citing the mental health care aspect, and taking the discussion down a different road.
I think you’re right, Anna, that this president would do it tomorrow if he could. And part of me thinks that he’s a very smart man. Maybe smart enough to get this done in the time he has left, if he really makes that the main issue he cares about. What a great legacy that would be for him to leave – not only having brought in good health care for all citizens, but also to have made the country safer by reforming the gun laws. During his “lame duck” time, I think that Mr. Obama has already decided he will not worry about not offending people, and will do more of what he really wants to do. I wish he would take up this cause with a vengeance.
Thanks for your thoughts on Roseburg, Barbara. I couldn’t agree more that if a number of people had simply said what they’d noticed about this young man, it could have been avoided. We’ve been programmed to mind our own business a little too much, I think, and we have to get out of that mentality a bit. It’s okay to step over the line to help someone, and especially to help avert a disaster like this.
Barbara – Seasonal Affect Disorder is very common around here, of course, because our winters are so gray. When it happens in other parts of the country, it must be disorienting at the least. We don’t realize how important sunlight is to our well-being. I know there are lights you can buy – and saw one at Costco the other day for about $60, which is a good price, I think, if it works. I don’t know if it would help you or not, but I know that this kind of weather really takes a toll. I know lots of people think it’s silly, but I actually noticed a big difference in my husband after I painted our walls yellow. It seems to simulate the sun to a degree, and he weathers the winters much better now. For some reason, I’ve not been affected by the gray days, but he was depressed all winter for years, though, thankfully, not as bad as lots of people.
The fourth week of cloudy days with the sun shinning for less than five minutes when it pops out a few times day. Fighting to control the depression. I have reread many of the warm and caring posts here in the Bistro. What a special group. Thanks.
Aiken County, just across the river from us, had much damage over the weekend. South Carolina is experiencing emergency situations over most of the state. Columbia is in dire straits with hospitals and USC without water. Myrtle Beach, which depends on tourism, is also heavily damaged. The high winds that were expected over the weekend all the way from the coast inland to us did not occur. After all the rain, the wind would have brought down trees. The ice storm in 2013 cleared many of the older and weaker trees, but there are still many very large trees all around. Our utility lines are above ground in all of the city and much of the county. More recently built areas have underground lines but the trunk lines are above ground and power is lost when they go down.
Good thoughts and hugs to you.
Julie, The shooting in Roseburg was chilling. It seems that we hold our breath hoping it will not happen again but knowing it will. Too many people are missing obvious clues. Parents, teachers, and friends must notice something is wrong with these people. These people could not have passed as normal. I hate to put more on educators but if they were better trained to spot the disturbed student maybe these incidents could be avoided. Parents and relatives hesitate to “cause trouble”. Although, some teachers and relatives have been ignored when they tried to alert authorities to a problem. Maybe a nation wide program to educate the public would help.
Sympathies to all.
I think Annie has a combination of both Gamache and Reine-Marie’s best (or worst?) traits. She has a quick intelligence, which I think they both have, great compassion, or she couldn’t have waited for Jean Guy to get his act together, and she gets that from Reine-Marie. Her stubbornness – I think that’s from Reine-Marie, though in the mother, it’s shown more as the strength to last through goodness knows what, and her sense of right and wrong, which is needed for feistiness, comes from her father, along with her unwillingness to turn away from an injustice. I love that Gamache used to sing the Lion Sleeps Tonight to Annie, that she is symbolized by a lion, and that Laurent sang that song, too. I think it was a comforting thing for them – a reminder of when they were safe and in their father’s arms.
Annie and Jean-Guy have become my favorite characters. From the very beginning we have known JG is uptight, has a closed door in his psyche. OF course it is that he loves Annie. It has taken several books before it all came to light. Then he finds out he was her first crush. He was in the depths of hell for sure, and when he came to the light, she took him back. I think they will be a successful couple. Can’t wait for Baby Beauvoir. That may take 2 more books!! I love this series.
Thank you, Anna – I had completely forgotten that – but I agree – that’s a moment’s realization, and I think, a moment that Clara already had the wherewithal to reach on her own. That is, it would have happened sooner or later, but luckily for Clara, Ruth was able to spur it on faster. I think Ruth being able to make this confession and get rid of a little of her guilt will be the beginning of some healing for her. I hope so, anyway. She’s been carrying a lot of guilt for a very long time. I hope Beauvoir can help her with that – so far, she’s always helped him – it’s time he helped her. In a way, he already has – he was talking with her when he got her to “confess” where she sent Fleming, and what she did next. Just the confession has been good for her, but I hope he can help her to see that it wasn’t really her fault…
In my re-read of Still Life, I keep coming across things that make me smile a bit. First of all, everyone’s cell phone works. I couldn’t help but smile and wonder when Louise realized she was later going to need Three Pines to be more cut off from the rest of the world?
And we’ve had a glimpse of Vincent “The Asshole Saint” Gilbert in that Gamache and Myrna discuss his book “Being” in their first conversation. Love finding little tidbits that eluded me not only the first time I read them, but also the second…
I have noticed the comments on the reading guide site tend to be letters to Louise. Hard to know where to discuss the questions It was a bit of a bother jumping back and forth until I just opened two windows…doh.
I like thinking about Reine-Marie. I know we talk about her a bit. I like that she is a strong character in her own right, not just an attachement to Armand. She compliments him delightfully. They are both so calm. Where do you think Annie gets her feistiness from?
The bit with Clara was that she was trying to paint Peter’s portrait and she was struggling. Towards the end of the book she is trying to paint and Ruth comes to see her and asks why she is stuck. Is she waiting to be saved, to be forgiven, for Peter to tell her she can finally move on.
Ruth quotes the old line “Who hurt you once, so far beyond repair” and she explains to Clara that Ruth hurt herself. Suddenly, Clara understands why she is stuck. She puts the portrait of Peter away and starts to paint the portrait of the person who hurt her. She expunged her pent up emotions into the work when she realises the source of her doubts and fears and guilt are herself. None can hurt us so badly as we who know where to push.
That was Clara’s revelation, that moment, so for me not an evolution so much as an understanding that clicks into place.
I wonder, too, if we need to continue with the SPOILER ALERT now that discussion is open elsewhere as well…
I have noticed an odd thing about myself – I can’t make myself go back and start to read TNOTB – it was so intense for me – mostly the Fleming detail, which doesn’t really start for a good long time into the book – yet, it has me by the throat, somehow. I was wanting to reread because there are things I missed (such as all the apple mentions) the first time through – but when I brought it up on my Kindle, I couldn’t open it – went instead to Still Life – needed to start the whole process again. (And, of course, I’m still trying to figure out the map – wanted to see what Louise first wrote about different places).
At any rate – Anna, can you please help me with Clara’s evolution – that final click? I’m not able to put my finger on what you mean, and I haven’t really been thinking that there was a lot of change to Clara. Since Still Life, of course, there has been. When we first met Clara, she was smaller, somehow – and to a big extent, kept small by Peter. She was less than she could be, and than she would be. Plus, she had just lost her very best friend in the world – nobody else in Three Pines was as close to Clara as Jane, and that loss was profound for her.
Then, she grew so much when she told Peter to leave and she spent a year alone – that growth and change was pivotal to where she found herself by TLWH. I loved the ending of that book – how she talked Peter home with such love. By the end of that book – she was free to love him unconditionally again… and of course, she felt his loss so deeply, too. These things have matured her. A little recognition (okay, a LOT of recognition) must also be giving her confidence in herself and her choices, so she is a much more whole person. She is much more like I see Louise today, after the phenomenal success of her books. Glowing in the realization that she is doing something very well, yet still a down-to-earth, very real person. From the beginning to end of TNOTB, though, I didn’t feel a lot of change in Clara. I felt that the change had already happened, and that she was in a more settled place now.
Ruth’s story has me mesmerized… the guilt she’s been harboring all these years must have really been so hard on her – made her so very testy. I’d love to hear about her husband, what happened, and how some of these things might now be laid to rest.
SPOILER ALERT…….do we still need that when the discussion is open?
I agree Amy, the eulogy and the centrepiece showed a warm care. That is what I like about Louise’s books, she keeps what happens close to our hearts. It is easy to believe, to feel involved and that brings us genuine emotion.
One of the other questions talks about Clara’s evolution through the novel. I didn’t feel she evolved in this book the way she had from TLWH. It was more a final click in to place, a revelatory moment with Ruth.
It was good that you reminded us Barbara of the elements from TLWH that we had surmised might make a showing here and they didn’t. Particularly Chartrand. Was he just a loose thread or is there more to come. Maybe we read more into him than Louise intended or his story is yet to come.
SPOILER ALERT
Death / murder at any age is a terrible tragedy, but I do feel Louise handled this respectfully, not making it grisly as you mentioned Anna. I especially enjoyed the real eulogy that took place at the reception in the church basement when the villagers remembered Laurent and how he was always prepared to defend the village, and the centerpiece Myrna made in honor of Laurent; these memories made me smile and realize that’s how we should all remember loved ones; with love and smiles!
Just saw the news of another mass shooting in the US. I hope no one who reads these posts was directly affected. However, the effects are widespread. We feel them here an ocean away. My sympathies and prayers to all involved.
Anna – these things have become global events, I think, and whenever they happen, wherever we are, we feel their impact. This one was close to home for me, both literally and figuratively, because it’s a little town not so very far away from me, and one I’ve visited. They have both a rose festival every year (thus the name, Roseburg) and a Shakespeare Festival, so this pretty little town is often inundated with tourists. I am struggling with this one, very mightily, because I’ve reached my threshold, I think. I don’t understand why gun reform is not a top priority. I don’t understand how it wasn’t after all the innocent lives taken in Connecticut two years ago – yet, nothing seems to be able to budge the very powerful gun lobby. I’m now very tired of the rhetoric. President Obama says he’s not going to stop talking about it, but it’s very frustrating because talk is all I see. I’d love to see him take the rest of his time in power to take guns out of the hands of all private citizens. I know that’s never going to happen, but maybe we can finally understand that something radical has to happen. What other country of the modern world has such laws? We need to do this, and we need to do it now.
I think we can reply in either place although others may answer on the question page. You can use your newfound skills Barbara and when you write a post here, copy it and paste it on the other page. If that is too repetitive then you can still copy a couple of sentences but expand on them differently. If interest drops off on the other page we will have the info here as well to save flicking back and forth. Just thoughts. Just post somewhere!!
I like the question about the respectfulness afforded a child’s death. I think it was well done. I don’t like reading about children dying but of course it happens. Terrifying when you are a mother. I note the first post on the question page is from someone who did lose a child and my heart goes out to her.
Laurent’s death was written with as much dignity and care as possible. It wasn’t grisly, it could have been an accident.The outpouring of kindness and grief in the community was real, not overdone, not gratuitous. I was relieved to find myself reading it without feeling horrified, just very sad. I was scared it was going to be horrific but then I knew Louise wouldn’t write anything I couldn’t read.
I noticed the questions but didn’t understand if we are to discuss them here and just read them there. I prefer to answer here.
SPOILER ALERT
I think we should maybe take a look at those questions that Paul posted the link to – and talk about them… The first three, I think, we’ve already discussed to a certain point, but there are plenty more….
I like the question about how we feel about a child’s murder… did we feel it was done respectfully?
I was so surprised that that’s who got killed. I had already liked Laurent, as we had followed him and his imagination through some things already and he was so cool, and so real. I do think that his death was treated with the appropriate shock and outrage and respect. The people in the town, who’d basically, been “tolerating” Laurent, realized what a horrible loss it was, not just to his parents (who doted on him), but also to all of them. He brought the whimsy of childhood to them all, even if they didn’t always pay attention as they should have. I also think it brought a lot of guilt feelings to them, because they didn’t believe him in this last big thing, and they can’t help but feel that if they had believed him, they’d have been able to spare his life.