Member Profile
| Name : | Lynn W. |
My Reviews
Much of the discussion centered on Misha....the secret he kept for all those years, his inability to tell Kate the complete truth, and his burden of guilt.
The discussion on The Almond Picker was not particularly lively or lengthy. There were eight members at the meeting, and four voted thumbs down and 4 voted thumbs sideways.
Everyone agreed that the cast of characters was hard to keep track of,
maybe because of the Italian names. In addition, the action was slow
until the end of the book when it seemed like suddenly a lot of things
in the book were explained. The stratified class structure which
governed the motives of the characters made it harder for women who
don't live in such a society to identify with the characters.
Calliope Stephenides' story takes us back generations, and through American history of the 20th century. The experience of Greek immigrants and the 2nd generation all-American success story brings us to the chance or the predetermined fate that brought together the two genes that produced Calliope, later Cal.
Our members found much to enjoy and to talk about in this coming of age story of an hermaphrodite. Many of us were not sure we wanted to read this book however, we related to the themes of family, personal identity and the struggles of adolescence.
Ultimately this story is not a Greek tragedy of the sins of the fathers and mothers being visited on the children, but is an American tale of hope and optimism.
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