I'm in the middle of cleaning up the kitchen, and I can't stop thinking about this book.

I have a feeling I will be up late tonight to finish it, and then I'm going to want to talk about it with SOMEONE!

I've got about 100 pages left, and I'm very suspicious of Laurel, something is not adding up. I keep asking myself, is she obsessed? I'm obsessed. With this book and finding out more about the photographs. Why are David and Katherine so concerned about Laurel and her being fragile. Why is she so fragile. Is she mentally ill herself, no, she's working as a social worker, she'd not be, I would think.

Ok, ok, back to finish cleaning the kitchen and back to this book.....

And what's up with that lawyer dude?

I like Whit, I think he's cute (but maybe something's going on with him too)

....my breadsticks are done......

Spoiler Alert:

Don't read this until you've read the book!

Can someone explain to me why the author would have an imaginary conversation between Talia and David in regard to his kids if Laurel had made them up. I'm abit lost over that. The ending was not what I expected and sort of left me confused as to most of the book being in Laurel's mind.

Anyone else confused by the ending and the author's intent to put in imaginary conversations with some of the characters, well, go to Amazon and read some of the reviews as it helped me in some of my confusion tonight.

Ok, on to another new book!

LOL Merty~You just couldn't resit starting a thread. I haven't read the posts...gonna wit till I get the book but I'll be back here for sure.


Lori

I just started the book, yesterday and I am not going to read any of this until I am done with the book.

Thanks for starting this thread, Merty!
At last I can tell you what Chris Bohjalian said! He interviewed people with bipolar disorder and is telling the story thru Laurel's voice. These people explained to him that when he talks w/ them he hears their voice in response, but what they hear is his voice AND the other voices in their head, therefore they have to figure out which voice to respond to. That told me a lot. I was impressed w/ his writing in this novel, that answer took it to another level for me.
The conversations other than Laurel's voice must be these "other voices".
David's imaginary daughters represent Laurel before the rape/mutilation.
David and Katherine's extreme concern lead us to wonder just how bad were Laurel's injuries?
CB lives in Vermont. He found out about an actual homeless person who was a photographer and left the box of photos behind. Also, the homeless shelter in Burlington is called COTS.

my thoughts at the end were when Laurel was having conversations with David's daughter she was reflecting her childhood. The two girls were a reminder of Laurel and her sister as kids.

Dee

Remember that this "episode" of Laurel's happened over the course of only a few days. She was in quite a spin! She was rapidly confronting her denial of what actually happened to her.

Dee, Mar,
You both are deep in regard to how you figured this out about the novel, very good observation on your part.
I was so mad last night at the book like you would not believe. I felt like I was lead into a very, very good story and then the last 50 pages things started to unravel, I guess, it was my discovery about Laurel not being ok, when she starts to hid from Talia, sleeping in the car, not bathing, I felt very suspicious. Then at the end, I feel like the author was just telling me, well, all those conversatioms never happened b ecause those people didn't exist.

Thanks for shedding some light on the story. I felt dubed by Mr. Bohalian, spelling! Because he doesn't explain what happened especially the "imaginery" conversation between Katherine and the others in regard to the cash that "Pamela" was going to pay the shelter for the pictures. That was all in Laurel's head???? GRRRR. I feel so let down LOL!

Did Laurel really go to the prison then? See I don't know what was imagined or real at this point.

Poor Merty :-( You succumb to the talent of Bohjalian's writing! You were reading a bipolar perspective. There are no lines.
I think she did go to the prison, tho that was a stretch because would the system really let her do that? She also dug up the the golf club, but was there really a box? Laurel was having a break down. It was one of those that helped her reach the reality of what happened to her. Buried so long, but that photo of the bike rider really triggered this. David was real, but not his kids. She had a lot of those incidents.
What I found especially convincing was the references to The Great Gatsby. I had to look up if it was fiction or NON-fiction!! Of course, we know it's fiction! But, Bohjalian really made me doubt it! So, there was an old lady neighbor who Laurel thought was Pamela, but it wasn't Pamela for real, any more than Gatsby was real!

Was Serena real, the one who was going to keep the photos?

I think what bothers me the most, is that there was no $100K to go towards the shelter.

The Katherine conversation with David was in Laurel's imagination then, towards the end of the book, because he mentions his kids, so I am thinking that was all in Laurel's head.

Yikes, I was so confused going to sleep last night.

The angry 1 2 and 3 star reviews at Amazon made me chuckle.

My daughter is a psychotherapist, and she was the only one in her book club to 'get it'! She was so disappointed in the discussion because the others were so clueless. She 'got it' about half way thru, but after all that is her job!