INTRODUCTION BY PAUL HOCHMAN
I first met Louise in 2006 while working at BarnesAndNoble.com. We had a fabulous lunch at a Greek restaurant in New York City to celebrate the publication of STILL LIFE. She signed my copy of the book as follows:
“For Paul, such fun undermining St. Martin’s together”
Little did we both know that just four years later I’d join St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books and, together with Louise and the wonderful “Team Penny”, we’d undermine the publishing status quo and rocket Louise’s books to the top of the Bestseller Lists!
Gamache Series.com, the website you are now reading, and the Re-Reads initiative was originally conceived to promote THE LONG WAY HOME so to say I have a certain connection to this book (and all of Louise’s novels really!) is to say the least! This website – a community really – with an enormous amount of content and connections was built on the back of THE LONG WAY HOME.
The really unique thing about THE LONG WAY HOME Re-Read is that it was led by readers just like you, in real time, at the point of publication. Now – I doubt it – but if you haven’t read the book yet, beware, spoilers lie ahead!
RECAP
The Re-Reads initiative was initially launched in the lead-up to the publication of The Long Way Home. After the book was published, readers came together once a week on GamacheSeries.com to discuss the book, ten chapters at a time. What you’ll read below includes many of the insights from those readers.
Ch. 1-10: From the opening chapters, readers point out that this book is very different from previous books in the series. After all, How the Light Gets In ends with what feels like a natural conclusion: the internal struggles within the Sûreté du Québec are resolved, Jean-Guy gets the help he needs and marries Annie Gamache, and Armand and Reine-Marie retire to Three Pines.
The Long Way Home opens on the bench in the Three Pines village green. Armand has been sitting at the bench every morning, holding a book – The Balm of Gilead – but not reading it. Clara has taken to joining him. As they sit, Clara wonders why Armand never seems to read his book. Armand wonders if Clara has been sitting with him because she pities him – or because she needs something.
After some time, Clara tells Armand what she’s been struggling with: the year before, she and her husband Peter, also a painter, had separated. Before he left, they made an agreement that they would have no contact during their year apart, but on the first anniversary of his leaving, he’d return to discuss their relationship. But it’s been a few weeks since that day, and Peter still hasn’t come back. Clara is worried.
The neighbors gather for dinner, and Armand tells Jean Guy – who still can’t bring himself to call his new father-in-law anything other than patron – about Clara’s concerns. When Clara finds out, she’s furious at Armand: a fury that readers found frustrating and disrespectful. But Gamache, thinking Clara might not want his help after all, is relieved.
But she does need his help. When Gamache asks Clara why Peter left, she tells him that he was always supportive of Clara when she was struggling, but wasn’t supportive of her after her success. As Clara’s career took off, Peter’s plateaued.
First, Gamache pays a visit to Peter’s mother, Irene – a cold woman – and her husband, Bert Finney – a kind man. The couple has art all over their walls, paintings from the finest Canadian painters, but none by either Peter nor Clara. Neither have heard from Peter recently.
Doing their due diligence, Gamache and Jean-Guy check Peter’s credit card records, and find that he’s traveled all over the world – Venice, Paris – in the year he’s been gone. One place in particular stands out as unusual: Dumfries, Scotland. But the records also show that he returned to Quebec City recently, just four months ago.
Clara and Myrna travel to Toronto to speak face-to-face with Peter’s siblings: his brother Thomas, and his sister Marianna. Neither have heard from him either.
And Clara meets with Peter’s siblings to see if they know anything about Peter’s whereabouts. At his sister Marianna’s, we encounter Bean: Marianna’s child. Born out of wedlock, Bean’s gender identity is a mystery that Marianna refuses to share with her family, out of spite – though the readers in the comments speculate that Bean is a girl.
Ch. 11-20:
Clara and Myrna visit the Ontario College of Canadian Arts, where Clara and Peter went to school. They meet with the charismatic Professor Massey, who tells them Peter was recently there, but that he doesn’t know where he went after he visited.
Here, we learn more about Clara’s time at OCCA: she spent most of her student years as a bit of a reject – her art was shown in Professor Norman’s Salon des Refusés – until Peter, who was more conventionally talented and popular, noticed her.
Gamache and Jean-Guy go visit Dr. Vincent Gilbert in the forest to ask him about Paris. Later, in the Garden with Reine-Marie, Clara, Jean-Guy, and Myrna, Armand says he thinks Gilbert and Peter were drawn to the same place in Paris: LaPorte. The Door. A community created by a priest to serve children and adults with Down’s syndrome. Vincent Gilbert volunteered there, hoping to find himself, and the theory is that Peter did too.
In these chapters, commenters point out, a new side of Peter begins to emerge. Clara realizes that the paintings on Bean’s wall weren’t Bean’s, but Peter’s first attempts at painting something with feeling. “Peter Morrow took no risks,” Louise writes. “He neither failed nor succeeded. There were no valleys, but neither were there mountains. Peter’s landscape was flat. An endless, predictable desert.” Perhaps all of Peter’s wanderings were his attempts to find himself.
Marianne sends the paintings to Clara. Commenters point out that Clara feels a twinge of jealousy, looking at them. Where Peter used to only paint with muted colors, the new paintings were bright and colorful. Suppose they weren’t abstract, Gamache wonders? Suppose Peter was painting what he saw?
The Dumfries, Scotland question is still outstanding. Gamache calls the Police Constable in Dumfries to ask if there are any artist colonies there. Constable Stuart couldn’t think of any artist colonies, but did say they had gardens. Gamache sends him a picture of Peter’s painting, and Stuart recognizes it: he had painted The Garden of Cosmic Speculation.
Later, Constable Stuart asks around town about the garden. An old man, Alphonse, tells him about a time he went to shoot hares there. He sees a large hare, who stares at him, unmoving. And then behind that one, he notices 20 others. And then notices one turn to stone in front of his eyes. Back in Canada, Armand notices a circle of stones in the photos – a stone circle not visible on the garden’s official website. One commenter pointed out that the garden reminded her of Peter, straight lines and geometric shapes, but with a little magic thrown in.
Ch. 21-30:
Peter’s paintings continue to reveal new meanings. Clara and Armand look at one of the paintings in a new perspective, and see an image that they recognize: The St. Lawrence River.
They travel to Baie-Saint-Paul, a tourist destination near Charlevoix, where a meteor had hit millions of years before, creating a natural ecosystem unlike anywhere else in the world. Readers point out that just like the Garden of Cosmic Speculation, this is another “cosmic” location. Is there a reason Peter was drawn to both?
There, they split up to visit galleries, but no one had seen Peter. In their search, they meet a man named Marcel Chartrand, who runs the Galerie Gagnon, showcasing the works of Clarence Gagnon (you may recognize one of Gagnon’s paintings from the cover of The Long Way Home!) He introduces himself and offers them a place to stay, since all of the hotels were full. He knows Peter: Peter had spent many hours in the gallery back in April, and had ended up renting a cabin down the road. But he left before the summer, and Marcel does not know where he went.
However, Chartrand gives Gamache another clue towards Peter’s whereabouts: Peter had asked after No Man, someone who ran an artist’s colony in the woods. Was it No Man – or Norman? Could it be the same cruel Professor Norman who set up the Salon des Refusés at OCCA?
To find out more, Reine-Marie and Ruth go visit Professor Massey – who seems quite taken with Ruth – to ask him about Professor Norman. Massey says that Norman believed in the tenth muse: that there was a muse for art. Massey says Norman was eventually fired for being insane, and for creating the Salon des Refusés, a gallery for failures.
Massey doesn’t have any photos of Norman – in the yearbook, instead of portraits of the professors, students chose to feature a piece of each teacher’s art. The self-portrait by Professor Norman was wild, a portrait of insanity, and the signature on the art did not say Norman, but No Man. Had the pursuit of the tenth muse turned Norman mad?
Back in Baie-Saint-Paul, the group is unsure whether they can trust Chartrand. How connected to No Man’s artist colony was he really? Was he a former member, returned to Baie-Saint-Paul after the colony folded? Or how about the owner of La Muse, a brasserie in town – was he a former member? Jean-Guy asks around and finds out the man’s name is Luc Vachon, and that he did, in fact, live at No Man’s colony for a few years.
In these chapters, commenters point out that it’s not just Peter’s personal journey we are watching in this novel. We’re also seeing huge changes in Jean-Guy, too – in his calmness in sobriety, and in his acceptance of the villagers he used to disdain.
Although Clara is officially in charge of this investigation, Gamache goes to the police station, where the agents recognize him from the previous year. There, he meets Agent Morriseau, who tells him that No Man’s colony was a cult. Quietly, Gamache asks the agents to arrange for sniffer dogs, to check the area for any bodies.
And then Chartrand asks them if they’d like to stay at his home that night – not his apartment above the gallery, but his remote home in the woods. Clara says yes.
Ch. 31-end:
At Chartrand’s home, the villagers continue to inquire about No Man. Was he simply the leader of a commune – or was it a cult? Chartrand says he lectured there. Was he invited in, as an outsider – or was he already there, as a member?
Jean-Guy finds out where the owner of La Muse goes to paint: a remote village called Tabaquen, which means “sorcerer.” The only way in and out of Tabaquen is by boat or plane, so the villagers purchase tickets to fly, and at the last minute, Chartrand buys a ticket to join them.
The plane ride is harrowing, and the pilot points out that artists typically arrive by boat – but that neither option is a smooth ride. They show the pilot a photo from the art school yearbook, of Peter and Professor Massey, and ask him if he’s seen Peter. He says yes.
Clara then asks the pilot to land in Sept-Îles. She wants to retrace Peter’s steps as he would have done it, by boat. Jean-Guy wants to get to Tabaquen as quickly as possible, and is sick of following Clara’s lead. Gamache reminds him that they’re here to support Clara, nothing more.
On the ship, the Loup de Mer, there are two cabins. Thinking it would be the bigger cabin, the men take the Admiral’s Suite, which is barely big enough to fit the three of them. Gamache asks the porter about Peter, and the porter says he recognizes him. That he watched him closely on his journey, to be sure he didn’t jump from the deck. Meanwhile, the Captain’s Suite, where the women are staying, is luxurious.
Gamache recalls something from the flight: when the young pilot said he recognized the man in the photo he showed him, it wasn’t Peter he recognized. It was Massey who he’d flown to Tabaquen the day before.
The sniffer dogs found something suspicious, a substance buried in a container: it was asbestos, found along with the canvases. Whoever would have handled the canvases would likely die, eventually, from inhaling asbestos. The principal of the college confirms that asbestos was detected in Professor Massey’s office. Had Norman sent his asbestos-infected paintings to Massey in an attempt to slowly kill him?
After traveling through tumultuous waters, the river eventually flattens to glass and they arrive in Tabaquen. Clara stays in town – unsure of what they’d find – and Gamache and Jean-Guy head to No Man’s cabin. There, they find Peter sitting on the porch, looking unkempt. And inside the cabin, they find a body: Professor Norman. Peter says that Norman had sent him away, and when he returned he had found him dead. Luc, from the brasserie, had been there too – but Peter had sent him to call for help.
Here, Gamache realizes that he had everything backwards: it wasn’t Norman adding asbestos to his painting to harm Massey, but the other way around. Massey had been sending him asbestos-infected canvases for years, because Norman was a threat.
And here, Peter asks Gamache if Clara had seen his new paintings, and what she thought about them. He has changed: her opinion is all he cares about now. Peter tells Gamache that he wanted to return home to her, but before he could face her, he wanted to confront Professor Norman for what he’d done to her back in school. But when he arrived, the old professor was sick, and Peter stayed on to care for him.
“The tenth muse is not, I think about becoming a better artist, but becoming a better person,” Gamache tells Peter.
But meanwhile, there’s the issue of the dead professor. Thinking the killer would be Luc, the group heads back to town. But in town, they find Massey, holding a knife to Clara’s throat. “I love you, Clara,” Peter says, as he takes the knife for her.
Commenters seem to agree that by the end, Peter had become a brave man in a brave country – a man finally worthy of Clara’s love.
FAVORITE QUOTE
“Fear lives in the head. And courage lives in the heart. The job is to get from one to the other.”
CONCLUSION
What an amazing journey revisiting my friends from Three Pines in the pages of THE LONG WAY HOME. I can’t believe it’s been eight years since the book was published (and this website was launched!) and almost twelve years since I started working with Louise!
The activist and journalist, Ella Winter, once said, “Don’t you know you can’t go home again?” Thomas Wolfe would then use the quote to entitle his posthumously released novel YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN.
I, however, in the spirit of Ruth Zardo call bullshit!
Of course you can go home again. Even if it’s a long way home. We, as readers and lovers of the World of Louise Penny, are fortunate enough to go home to Three Pines every year!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- Clara first approaches Gamache with great ambivalence: wanting (though fearing) to
know what happened to Peter, while reluctant to disturb Gamache’s newfound peace.
How did you feel about the decisions they both make at this point?
- “I thought he’d come home,” Clara says of Peter. Did you? How did your view of him
change in the course of the book?
- What does it mean to you to be a “brave man in a brave country”? How does courage—or
cowardice—feature in this novel?
- On the first page of the book, we hear about Armand Gamache’s repeated gesture, “so
tiny, so insignificant.” What is the true significance of this and other seemingly
inconsequential actions in this story?
- What do you think of Ruth’s role in this story? For example, consider the scene in
Massey’s studio, where she “seemed to have lost her mind. But found, Reine Marie
thought, her heart.”
- Both Peter and Gamache’s father, in a sense, disappear. What is the impact of this kind of
loss on Clara and Gamache? Have you ever experienced anything similar in your own
life?
- There is so much about art and the creative process in this book. How do we see that
unfold in the lives not only of Clara and Peter, but also of Norman and Massey? For example, what do you make of the Salon des Refusés? What do you think it meant to the
artists themselves?
- What roles do creativity and acclaim (or obscurity) play in the lives of both Clara and
Peter? In their marriage? Do you believe that Clara and Peter’s marriage could have been
saved?
- Louise has sometimes talked about the importance of chiaroscuro — the play of light and
shadow — in her work. What are the darkest and the lightest points in this novel? What
are some humorous moments, and how did you respond to them?
- Peter’s paintings look completely different from different perspectives. How does that
apply to other characters or events in the story?
- In Chapter Six, Myrna observes about jealousy: “It’s like drinking acid, and expecting the other person to die.” How does jealousy play out in the lives of various characters here?
What effects have you seen it have in real life?
- How does Clara’s quote from one of her favorite movies, “Sometimes the magic works,”
play out in the story?
- While a number of Louise’s books end in unexpected ways, the conclusion of this one is
particularly shocking. How did you feel as you were reading it, and what do you think
when you look back at it now?
- In some ways Clara’s quest to find Peter recalls such classic journeys as The Odyssey and
The Heart of Darkness. What are the most significant discoveries the central figures in this novel make along the way?
1,025 replies on “Series Re-Read: The Long Way Home”
I loved where Myrna was looking out her window full of imperfections and distortions upon the village. How often do we look through our eyes of imperfection and not see things as they are, but distorted? She had gotten use to seeing the world that way, and knowing of the distortion a, she made allowances.
Loved the garden. Googled it. So which one of you anonymously posted 9 hours ago on wickipedia that Louise Penny used it as a plot device? Lolol
Must have been Meg. 😀
Nah. Not me! I didn’t realize that GoCS was an actual place until Julie’s post above! Someone else gets credit for first posting on this one.
Like I know how to change a Wikipedia page, hahahaha. I love the internet for those reasons – someone, somewhere, is always wanting to put something up, and they can. You have to take Wikipedia with a grain of salt, of course, for that reason, but still – I think it’s cool that a whole bunch of people out there think it’s important.
Not me either. I was too facinated by the link I posted. If you go to the link it’s actually titled “How the Light Gets In.”
Success! If you haven’t found Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Scotland – here’s the site with lots of photos in slide show! It really is impressive! Thanks for the nudge, Julie!
http://www.charlesjencks.com/#!the-garden-of-cosmic-speculation/photostackergallery4=1
There is an excellent and touching tour and description that seems so pertinent to this book at this site. http://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/the-garden-of-cosmic-speculation/
This link is actually titled “How the Light Gets In.”
I clicked on the link for the garden creator’s book (Charles Jencks). Takes one to the Amazon.co.uk site where one can “look inside” the book. There’s a fascinating quote on one of the pictures of the garden, “The Garden of Cosmic Specilation is a landscape of waves, twists, and folds, a landscape pattern designed to relate us to nature through new metaphors presented to the senses.” And in the ‘how the light gets in” website that was what I was so captivated by: the many swirls, the pools of water – the element to sustains life…
Then on another picture is this:
“… A black hole. Understanding demands a certain slowing of time — why else enter a garden?”
This made me feel so sad for Peter. Yes, I said that. My previous rants were contained within how I felt about Peter up through Chapter 10. But as far as we know scientifically, nothing that enters a black hole can escape… I DO like the thought that this is a gardener’s representation to invite the visitor to slow down, to ‘understand’… Like someone previously stated: “Is Peter seeing the world for the 1st time macroscopicly rather than microscopically?” Beautiful insight.
My first glimpses of the pictures of the garden filled me with such awe, such amazement my thoughts stopped. I then wondered if that is how children react when their young consciousness and senses are exposed to something new and spectacular? They just stand there, eyes huge, soaking it all in first. They have no words… I can imagine this happening to Peter. An OMG moment. He is alone, he need not have his ‘Morrow face” on. The Morrow’s aren’t exactly known for showing real emotion. I believe, if memory serves me correctly, that in ATOTL he said to Clara he wanted to see the world the way she did? Perhaps he’s realizing he needs to see the world by himself, for himself, as himself. Stripped to his core and as a child would – if given a chance. He was never given that chance, AND he never have himself that chance. Once out of art-school he had to paint to earn a living, to be a successful artist, to prove to his family he didn’t need them… Or at least he thought so.
Interesting that Peter stood next to Clara on the Salon des Refusés. In these 10 chapters that act takes on an entirely different meaning to me. Perhaps more of a longing to wish to join Clara in her joy of experimenting? But that isn’t the Morrow way, is it? Now, in this garden he has finally allowed himself to do so?
No wonder Miss Penny encouraged her readers to check out the garden on the internet. Thank you Julie for the link to the Poisoned Pen interviews.
And thank you all for making my experience of this book so much richer. Without you, I too would have thought this garden a “fig- newton” of Miss Penny’s imagination. 😉
Millie, I was so excited that I ordered the book so I can show my husband, let him hold it in his hands to take his time comfortably looking at the astonishing pictures. I think he will love it. Then we’ll pass it around the family, but be sure to get it back (or order another!).
Cathryne, well duh! What perfect Christmas presents for a few special people in my life.
1, COMIC RELIEF – Absolutely laughed out loud when I read Gamache & Jean-Guy’s “horse/moose” ride to Dr. Asshole Saint Gilbert – through the forest like Don Quixote & Sancho Panza! Could see J-G being jostled & uncomfortable. Good comic relief! – and evidence of increased easiness between the two men too!
2. OBSERVATION – Jean-Guy’s identifying now with Peter! (p. 138) ” Jean-Guy liked Peter Morrow. A part of him understood Peter Morrow. The part Beauvoir admitted to very few./ The fearful part. The empty part. The selfish part. The insecure part./ The cowardly part of Jean-Guy Beauvoir understood Peter Morrow.” This is a huge leap for J-G to not only realize their similarities (even though they come from vastly different backgrounds), but to acknowledge and empathize with this obviously privileged and entitled and ‘English” painter! Go Jean-Guy!
3. A QUESTION: On page 104, the writer states that, “Isabelle Lacoste also owed Clara.” I’m drawing a total blank on this one. Why or for what did Lacoste ‘owe’ Clara?
Gonna google Cosmic garden now. Didn’t know it was a real place! Thanks, JULIE!
4. I found original illustration for book’s jacket cover. If interested, it’s on page 3 or 4 postings for Chpts 1 to 10!
What did Lacoste owe Clara? I think it was part of a larger “owing” in that the whole town took them in and protected them, worked with them, put themselves in danger in HTLGI. I think they both feel a huge debt to everyone in the town, but especially the principals we have come to know and love.
There is a bit that I just re-read – I think it’s in the first 10 chapters, when Clara is telling them all of how and why Peter left. She’s describing his jealous feelings and sabotage-type actions. Jean Guy says “That must have hurt”, and Clara agrees, that she was hurt, but he meant Peter. It must have hurt Peter to find his feelings betraying him as someone who wants to hurt the one he loves. JG feels he knows what that’s like, after all the horrible feelings he’d had about Gamache in the last book. I thought this was telling. JG is growing so wise and thoughtful. I love it!
Hi Meg, perhaps Lacoste is referring to when she wanted to silently speak to Madeleine in The Cruelest Month, Chapter 17. “Reassuring them Chief Inspector Gamache and his team were on the case. They would not be forgotten.” But, “her courage had finally found its limits.” So she runs away from the old Hadley house to Clara’s who then enlists Myrna’s help and they accompany Lacoste.
Julie & Millie,
I’m still not clear about why Isabelle (who is specifically singled out and named on that page) – owes Clara. Yeah, the villagers came together to help protect Armand & J-G in last book when Francoeur & his goons came looking for them. But still Why does Lacoste specifically & personally “owe” Clara?
Didn’t Beauvoir say “You owe Clara. We all do.”? I do think he’s referring to that larger debt.
This was part of what I read last night, so I paid attention. Actually it was Annie who said to Beauvoir that he owed Clara. Then she said, so does Dad. You all do. Later, Beauvoir asked Lacoste for time off to pursue the missing Peter, and she gave him permission to go. Then Louise says Lacoste owed Clara, too. So I think this squarely says they all owed Clara and for the same thing – and it must be for her help (along with other villagers) last winter for hiding Gamache and the Brunels.
Loved that comic relief of Guy and Armand!
Meg, I love the idea you put forth, but I don’t agree. Clara says she is “unsettled” because sha thinks Peter gave and sent the paintings to Bean because s(he) can keep a secret. Then Clara says she is frightened that Peter isn’t safe.
Cathryne,
You may be right, but really,- there are three different issues here:
1. Clara’s shock at realizing that Peter has begun to change as an artist.
2, Clara’s discomfort that he didn’t trust her, his wife with his fledgling attempts, and
3. Clara’s fears about the unknown, i.e. what has (or has not) happened to Peter!
All are strong possible reactions, emotions and can exist simultaneously! She can be surprised, shocked, unsettled and fearful – not just one of these! Clara IS our Queen of Emotions through out this series & hasn’t been shown as the coolly logical, rational character of Three Pines.
In your Point 2, Clara’s discomfort at Peter not sending her his pictures – it was part of the leaving deal that they would have no contact for a full year. So she was out as a person to send his new paintings to. I didn’t get the impression that it was his not sending them to her that bothered her, but your other points 1 & 3.
Meg’s comments are direct quotes. Clara is frightened, unsettled, and (she’s thinking) perhaps jealous.
Ah, you’re right. I posted my comment while visiting my mother in a skilled nursing facility. She was asleep, then awake. I posted before I checked! I like it. Clara is jealous too. Nicely done, Louise. And nicely noticed, Meg and Linda.
Are we ever going to find out if Bean is a girl or a boy???
CLARA’S REACTIONS: After Marianne mails Peter’s paintings to Clara and she sees them in her home, I was struck by her responses. Immediately thought back to Peter’s reaction – and discoveries when he first really looked at Clara’s portrait of Ruth! Echoed reactions? Echoed fears? Echoed discoveries? Hmmmm?!
Just need to reverse sex of pronouns for parallel responses!
Louise’s words: “Those paintings were upsetting her. As her friends ate and talked, she thought about the pictures.
When she’d first seen them, in Bean’s bedroom, she’d been amused. Especially by the lips. But seeing them in her own home had made her queasy. It was a sort of seasickness. The horizon was no longer steady. Some shift, some upheaval, had occurred.
Was she jealous? Was that possible? Was she worried that these paintings by Peter really did signal an important departure for him as an artist? While laughable right now, might they actually lead to genius? And at the pointy end of that thought, another thought perched. A genius greater than hers?
After feeling quietly smug about Peter and his petty jealousy, was she no better? Worse, in fact? Jealous and hypocritical and judgmental. Oh, my.”
FIRST- A SPOILER APOLOGY: When I posted in Chpts 1-10 , I mentioned Peter’s paintings on paper and later ones on canvas. Major Oops! We officially didn’t learn that these were his until this second quarter reading. I had started this week’s chapters when I posted that & forgot that Clara & Myrna assumed the ‘artwork’ was done by Bean in their first appearance. I really hate when someone includes a spoiler & apologize for my own mix-up here. Wish I had held off on Process comments until this week where they’re more appropriate! Mea Culpas!
RUTH
I know I keep doing this, and you’re probably feeling like “enough already”, but I am still so full of Louise’s talk the other week. She was asked where Ruth “came from”, and she said that she knew not one, but two people like Ruth! She said that most of us have a polite face we turn to the public – and have our own private thoughts that are not what we’d want the rest of the world to see. “Oh, aren’t you nice to notice my poetry? (bitch)” Ruth was born inside out – she has all the caustic sarcasm and pain on the outside and the softness and kindness deep inside. All in all, not a bad way to be.
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA
This whole debate – is destiny in charge or are we? We begin it here when Myrna tries to convince Clara that if something has happened to Peter it is not her fault for sending him away. It’s his destiny, or at least, his choices, not Clara’s fault. This comes up again and again – and I’m not sure how I feel about it. There’s a lot to discuss as we come to the end of the book, I feel. But it’s interesting to think about now – and as we continue to “follow” Peter on his road of discovery. We find out here why he went to the 15th Arrondissement, instead of where most artists go. At this point, he is more interested in finding himself than in painting. He want’s to feel something, and thinks perhaps he can heal himself by helping others. In the end, what worked for Vincent, “the asshole saint”, doesn’t work for him, but now he’s maybe thinking about how to make the changes he needs to.
MAGIC
This is an odd little theme that comes out in this section. It is a theme that is not pursued – a breadcrumb dropped to follow in a later book, perhaps. The rabbits made of stone, turned to life and back again. It seems that at least two people saw them – the fellow in the pub in Scotland, and Peter. What can it mean? It’s tantalizing, perhaps all the more-so because it’s not followed up on.
INTERESTING RUTHISM
During the discussion with Gamache about Frost’s quote
“A poem begins as a lump in the throat. A sense of wrong. A homesickness, a love sickness. ”
Ruth says– “You make it sound like a fur ball . . . Something horked up. My poems are finely honed, each f_ _ _ ing word carefully chosen.”
Would that all her words were such, but that would be so boring wouldn’t it?
PETER CONTINUED
We discussed Peter in the previous comments but I wanted to to remind us what Louise and his friends had to say in these chapters.
(Beginning with Ruth). “He has too high an opinion of himself. Loves himself too much. . .Who here hasn’t wanted to kill him at least once? And we’re his friends.”
“They protested perhaps a shade too passionately . . . He could be so smug, so self satisfied, so entitled, and yet so oblivious.
But he could also be loyal, and funny, and generous. And kind.”
Perfect! It takes some time to scout out those quotes. Thanks! I keep thinking that if we can forgive and welcome Olivier home, we can do the same for Peter. Olivier hurt his partner and friends too.
I was amazed when I saw pictures of the Garden of the Cosmos! So unusual, so beautiful! I had been sure that Louise had made this place up out of her imagination until I saw the pictures. I am so taken with this place, and would love to go there someday.
For those who were having trouble visualizing the art – try this.
http://www.inthecompanyoffriends.com/Picture.htm
I think something like this picture is akin to what might have been on Bean’s wall. I’ve taken a photo of the checkerboard section of the garden and run it through artist effects on my photoshop program, then turned it upside down.
How interesting!
I, too, inionitially thought that the “Cosmic Garden” was from Louise’s imagination but I google it to make sure. I was shocked at the photos I saw. I’ve been to the UK many times & didn’t know this existed. It’s only open the first Sunday in May…hmmm. I’m so tempted.
Excuse my fat finger …initially.
Wouldn’t it be funny if we all ran into each other there next May?
That would be fun actually!
How would we recognize each other? 😉
You need to buy Three Pines T shirts from Brome Lake Books. Google the website or email them on blb@b2b2c.ca
And here are some other things Louise had to say.
“But the truth was, Clara always felt like a Beatrix Potter creation in Peter’s familiar embrace. Mrs. Tiggy-winkle, in her funny little home. She’d found shelter in his arms. That was where she belonged.”
“Gamache knew Peter Morrow well and had no doubt even now that he loved Clara with all his heart.”
But are you all forgetting that Peter ruined his sister’s life? And never owned up? And we watched her die. No, I think Peter’s not so easily forgiven yet.
Is the author perhaps being very pointed here? We can ALL (sorry, I’d rather have italics) be just like that, can’t we? I’m sure sometimes my friends and family must want to kill me, think I’m nuts and/or selfish, and then also find my kind side.
This belongs after Linda’s comment with the 3 quotes.
Ah, but was Peter’s opinion of himself really too high, or was that his walls – the persona he adopted – to stop people from seeing that he was broken?
That’s a really good point, and it explains why Jean-Guy connects with Peter and understands him, as he recognizes his own brokenness.
Thoughtful insight about Jean Guy and Peter. At first read I was trying to figure out why there would be a connection, but your point really hit home for me. When we are struggling to hide a part of ourself from the outer world, perhaps we see the internal battles in others more clearly.
KB, loved your previous post about Peter’s mother constantly tearing down the ‘walls’ he constructed. We all have some, but Peter’s walls are so high for self defense that even Clara was left out. So sad. And great point about Ruth perhaps being wrong about his self love… Lots to think about. Thanks!
Are we seeing the beginnings of a new Peter?
To me it was almost like listening to an unreliable engine start on a cold morning. He sputters and stops and sputters some more.
Constable Stuart and Doug solving the mystery of Peter’s painting of the Cosmos while getting pissed in a bar made me long for Louise to create a spinoff based in Scotland.
Take the time to look up the gardens mentioned. They look wonderful!
Oh yes! I finally looked yesterday. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Like Jane Neal’s art, it’s so powerfully engaging, unexpected and hidden away. I wanted to put myself there. What a perfect choice of a sight to rock Peter’s view of the world and art. It’s part of nature, but in a different way than Peter has looked at it. Looking at pieces of nature bigger than life rather than microscopically, do you think?
And yet in some ways so like Peter! Straight lines and geometric shapes except with a little local magic thrown in!
Great point. I didn’t think of that and it’s important.
It makes sense that Peter would gravitate toward the straight lines and geometric shapes – at least while he was in transition. He would find comfort in the familiarity of the technical aspect of the subject. That might give him the security he needed to experiment with colour and light.
A new Peter… how delightful! I think we are – I think we can begin to assume that Peter has been on a journey of self-discovery and he’s so different from where he was a year ago when Clara sent him away. The paintings are a hint of it. Can our buttoned-up, straight-laced Peter have produced these “dog’s breakfast” paintings? Somewhere (I am hoping that this has been covered in these 10 chapters), Clara recognizes something akin to her early attempts. They’re messy, they’re not good, but they have feeling! Once the Garden of Cosmic Contemplation has been seen, the first paintings show that Peter “gets it” – finally! He’s not good at it yet, but he’s a technically expert painter, it shouldn’t take long to really take some strides in this art form. Is he finally, a real artist? I think so. I’m so pleased for him at this point. I wonder what else he has learned along the way?
Just before he left, he told Clara that he was jealous of her ability to really feel things. This is where he started from – he wanted to “learn” how to do that. I think he has, at least to some degree, figured this out. Maybe, just maybe, Peter can be at peace with himself. Then he can begin to like, and love, other people. I almost shouted “hallelujah” when I realized this.
I loved that Clara considered the pictures to be “the mullioned windows” through which she could see what Peter was becoming.
It was also interesting that Clara felt pangs of jealousy, fearing that if Peter could evoke feelings with his dogs breakfast paintings, in the end he might be better than she.
Linda – yes! I think we can start to see that if even Clara can have these feelings, they are maybe more “normal” than we have been thinking. I know that Clara would be able to overcome those feelings, while Peter couldn’t. But I think most artists (whether painters, actors, musicians, whatever) have a deep insecurity at their base. All a part of the picture, and maybe helps a little to understand Ruth, too. She puts her soul into her poetry, and then puts it out there for everyone to see. And maybe, she hits with the barbs and insults before anyone can do that to her. It may, in part, be a defense mechanism.
That word picture resonated with me as well! Reading Louise Penny is like mining – you find jewels like this along the way.
Yes, Pam! I love the idea of her writing as word jewels! Louise Penny’s books just carry me along like I’m there with Armand and the rest.
You said it! Peter has clearly come a long way. He is willing to allow emotion in….starting to fill the emptiness at his core. It looks like he needed solitude to have the strength to do this – away from his mother and family who tore him down obviously and incessantly and created the fear that had to be walled up. Away from his previous works and clients where he had (limited) acclaim for producing technically pleasing works. And away from Clara and Three Pines where he had found his walls were not impermeable – his fear could be (and was) stirred by Clara’s acclaim. (Kind of like compliments directed to her took a poke at his insecurity and fear along the way.) So, is Peter better off on his own? Has he healed enough that the fear is no longer his core? Or does he still need to be alone in order to be who he was meant to be?
Too funny, those Scottish fellows. I’d be happy if half the village goes on vacation to see ‘Speculation and Gamache and J-G happen to be available to help Constable Stewart in an ‘unofficial capacity’. And Ruth has to go! Can you imagine the banter between those two?
Is it difficult to take live poultry overseas? We mustn’t leave Rosa behind!
Linda, thanks for the chuckle! How I needed one. Fell and found out today I’ve been soldering on with several cracked ribs. Oh well, good excuse to just sit and reread 11-20! I can’t imagine taking Rosa would being harder than taking a dog or cat on a plane… They make special allowances for helper animals – Rosa should qualify! 😉
Oh Millie, please be careful with your ribs! That can be so painful!
Hope you recover without too much pain from those broken ribs.
Ouch! Oh, Millie – I’m so sorry. You need to take care of yourself. I say it’s a good time to sit and read and write…
OK Folks. Wow, 237 postings on the first 10 chapters. But nothing here yet? This site has been open since very early. Thanks, Paul. I didn’t want to post first as I am not at home. OK, I hope I have lots to read when I get home.
I do not want to join in until I have finished the book. I received it late. But why has the name of the duckling that died been changed from Lilian to Flora??? Have I got a misprinted book?
Thanks, Fiona, I knew Flora was wrong but couldn’t remember the correct name of the duckling that died so young. Maybe Lilium, though?
Louise needs a continuity person… I hadn’t rembered it at the time, but now that I hear “Lilium”, I think that must be right…
It was Lilium.
And we’re on to the next part of our discussion! Come on over!
http://gamacheseries.wpengine.com/discussion-on-the-long-way-home-chapters-11-20/
Hi Julie, what got to me… and I know it shouldn’t have, but I’m human, were your assumptions. I’m sure I over reacted and for that I apologize.
Funny thing is, that was only the 2nd time in my life my mom supported my side. Actually, she has been my worse critic of my love of literature – reading and writing. She used to tell me when she would see me at my desk, “will you stop reading your life away and writing nonsense and get up and do something constructive!” Ouch!
I was moved by your statement that Peter could be mean but he wasn’t a ‘monster’. We were talking about heart and souls. I equate heart and soul with divine, unconditional love. I will agree with you that Peter may not be a monster, but he lacks unconditional love.
Well, I’ve beat Peter to a pulp enough. Onward to the next 10 chapters with a clean slate.
I am so sorry that I jumped to conclusions. It is one of those things about myself that I’m working on. It is so hard for me to hear about you being told to stop wasting your time on your writing ‘nonsense’! Ah, if only we could always be sure of getting what we need… I agree, let’s let Peter fend for himself for awhile. I’m looking forward to the next discussion. Cheers!
Oh, Julie… Your first sentence made me chuckle. But then I had to think about your subsequent comments. Interestingly, I started to reply on my device and lost it. Then realized one finger pecking was to slow. Soooo, I turned on my computer for the first time in a very long time. Progress! (and I’m not even hyperventilating. 😉
But, although this takes me way out of my comfort zone, may I respectfully suggest that you have made several assumptions on how I approach literature. I do not ‘think of these people as characters in a book’. Since I learned to read, and for too many reasons to elaborate here, books were my first friends and continue to be so. And as such, so do the characters contained in these books. Seldom do the characters I encounter ‘act as I expect them to’. If they did… I’d already be an author. I too do not like conflict, as others have indicated on several posts. I do not like conflict so much that I allowed my ‘Old World, European’ father to treat me like a child under his absolute control well into adulthood. What made it a bit easier was that I knew deep down he loved me — but there were conditions. Lots of them. Well into my 50’s I was visiting my folks, without my dear husband, all the way across country. No car. No where else to go really and my father started in on me. I just raised my hands in surrender and started to head out to the back patio. He roared at me, “Don’t you DARE leave this house. You MUST do as I say because you have no where else to go!” He was tall and strong then, I’m only 4′ 9″ and a wee thing. Yet I spun on my heals and had the gumption to tell this man I dearly love, “You’re wrong! I DO have a place to go! I can go home to MY home, MY husband.” He opened his mouth and shut it. Then looked to my mother, pointed to me and said, “Listen to her!” My mother stood tall and told my father, “She’s right, you know.” My dad put both hands on the table and raised his eyebrows as he looked back at me. I took a a lung full of air, raised my eyebrows and said softly, gently, “I’m going to the back yard now to look at the stars. I do not want to fight, but I request you treat me with the dignity a lady deserves.” And that was that. So Julie, I don’t have to imagine – I’ve lived my own version of it.
And then there was my mother in law… Not only my husband, but our two sons had the courage to scoop me up and defend me when she treated me, lets just say, rudely… What a piece of work that woman was. To the point our eldest son refused to invite her to his wedding, knowing he would probably be written out of her will. (He wasn’t, go figure!)
We all bring our own life experiences to our reading and that is why I, personally, think Peter is a spineless piece of s**t! (But a great read, Ms. Penny!!! He certainly has never acted as I would expect him to!) But I also try to work with the characterization facts the author has presented. As for Clara — I do not consider her a ‘dolt’ in the least! The human heart has the capacity to be endlessly patient and to forgive much. However, I present a quote from the last few pages of “Still Live”.
Clara watched as Peter got up and stirred the perfectly fine fire. She’d held him that night as he sprawled on the dirt floor. That had been the last time she’d gotten that close. Since the events of that horrible night he’ed retreated completely on to his island. The bridge had been destroyed. The walls had been constructed. And now Peter was unapproachable, even by her. Physically, yes, she could hold his hand, hold his head, hold his body, and she did. But she knew she could no longer hold his heart.”
Not a dolt. Not a dolt at all!
Oh, Millie – I’m so sorry if I made you feel that I wasn’t taking your impressions seriously. I know I’m in the minority, as I feel sorry for Peter. It sounds very much like you and I both know how the Morrow family operated. Luckily, you did have your mother to take your side – at least in the instance you mention. But Bert didn’t take the children’s side, except quietly, perhaps, in private. He didn’t let them know he was on their side. Their father was just as demanding and imperious as their mother. And I truly don’t believe that Peter could possibly have said that he was staying behind with Clara on that boat ride. I just don’t.
I had a moment, somewhat like yours, with my parents. But my father joined in when my mother started in on me. She snarled at me like a dog, and my father said “Listen to your mother – you owe us respect”. When I asked if I was not owed respect, they laughed at me. My two brothers sat there and watched, silently. I went upstairs and packed and left and never came back. I loved my parents and I tried hard to be a good “child”, but it was never enough. The age at which I was not owed any respect as a person was 56! I tried. I tried and tried. And then I got tired. So when I say that Peter’s choice to sit in the boat instead of making a scene, the day after his sister’s murder seemed perfectly correct to me, I think I got that right. You pick your times, if you ever get up the nerve, because it will be the last time. There’s no taking it back. That wasn’t the time.
I remember very well the scene you mention from Still Life – it was after Peter’d lost the only friend he’d ever had – not just lost him, like he’d died and he’d never be around anymore – lost him in that he now understood that he’d never been his friend in the first place. How much that hurt him, I can only imagine, but I bet I’d feel like that description. As I said – I do think that Peter loved Clara – and maybe that’s when things broke and he wasn’t able to any longer – but he is to be pitied, not reviled. At least in my mind.
Anyway – I know that most think that Peter is just worthless. I just happen to disagree, and I think that the Morrow family is a big reason for it. I’m not saying that everyone from families like that end up like Peter – I actually think I managed to turn out quite well. I love and am loved, have good friends and am happy in my life. But I understand how Peter has felt, and understand how damaging that could be.
Julie, it sounds like you are at peace with your decision and I think that is the key. I agree about the timing with Peter, Clara and the boat. We need to to pick our battles. I am so glad that you were able to do that and then get on with your life without regret.
I, too, am willing to give Peter a chance. I keep remembering him in Still Life, a piece of chocolate cupcake on his cheek, saying that Jane’s art was “great”, made him feel “joy”, and must be shown. That scene has always confused and fascinated me. I think now that it holds out hope for Peter. He was the first one to feel the genius of Jane’s art and her art was the first to touch his heart.
Love this part on page 4: “His life had never had a rhythm. … He seemed to thrive on the repetition. The stronger he got, the more he valued the structure. Far from being limiting, imprisoning, he found his daily rituals liberating.
Turmoil shook loose all sorts of unpleasant truths. But it took peace to examine them. Sitting in this quiet place in the bright sunshine, Armand Gamache was finally free to examine all the things that had fallen to the ground.
love that passage also, Cathryne
All your postings are interesting as always.