My book finally arrived, found it when I got home this evening.
Iāve just read Chapter 1. It kept my interest and itās definitely a book I want to finish. Itās not going to join āThe Luminariesā on the āOne Chapter only, never againā stack ā¦
Kit is currently a useful set of unreliable eyes for us to see his father and his friends through, but I have the feeling that heās is going to pay for his inability to read people before the end of the book. Heās also written as an odd mix of fastidious and slovenly, which doesnāt yet hang together well for me: Heās glad that Hollyās social cheek kisses are dry; bothered by the grit on her car; double gloves to work on the Volvo and is squeamish about wiping his fatherās backside ā¦ Yet heāll skip showers, wears ripe T-shirts and has to be told before he notices?
If you grew up thinking the world was going to end in nuclear fire, then youāre definitely not a Millennial. Even now, in a country which has never been a target, the Rural Fire Service alert siren is still the wrong damn noise ā¦
I would say thatās the difference between being an outside observer and being able to observe yourself. Most people are bad at observing their own emotions and feelings. Kit takes it one step further by being bad at observing the physical shell as well.
edited to add:
Teenagers start to smell before they start to care about romantic relationships. They start to pay attention to the smell (and the dirty musty clothes) when they start to notice theyāre interested in people āin that wayā. If youāre living alone with your dying-of-cancer father and a grumpy housekeeper, why would you care what you smelled or looked like?
Also, Kitās physical condition mirrors the houseās.
Hey, wait a second: what exactly is that housekeeper doing, if both Kit and the house are not being taken care of?
(Also: We only know about Kitās condition because of Hol, and I think the scene where we find out encapsulates Holās concern and support for Kit, because only a close loved one would tell you something like that.)
OK people, Iām starting to feel like the Guy in the group: older than the rest ā am I the only Baby Boomer here? ā single parent of teens, antique house, cancer. Yikes!
I would argue that the generational terms involve social stereotypes, so if youāve grown up in a different environment, your birth year will not be an accurate indicator of your status. Besides, Boomer, GenX, Millennial, etc. are mostly U.S. terms, right? And this book is not set in the U.S.
Thatās a good point. But Iād say that between the US and Britain, we share a lot more of generational thingsā¦ the boomer rock culture was certainly heavily defined by Britain, as much as it was San Fran. Same with punk and post punk. As much of my musical tastes was defined by British bands as it was by American bands.
But there is also class to consider here. I think working class people, in general, had a different cultural set of experiences than middle class people. So, there is a guy who wrote a well received book on the 70s. One of the things he argued was that people like Bruce springsteen (via Darkness at the Edge of Town) helped to define working class culture. So, I saw him speak at a conference once and he said that a guy he knew from Boston, who was working class, said that he wasnāt into Springsteen at all - he was into 70s metal, so stuff from Birmingham (UK), etc. So the historian told us, that he had rethought his view of the Boss, that it was more about middle class people romanticizing the working class experience through albums like springsteensā¦ which is an interesting way to think about it.
I think that Banks is certainly bringing his own perceptions of cohorts and cultures to bear - and there is nothing wrong with that at all - itās his book after all. But if indeed these people are meant to be Gen X, well-education, etc, Iām not sure it speaks to my own understanding of those things as a Gen Xerā¦
From my own experiencess and from what Iāve seen from some others, thatās quite common for people with Aspergerās/autism (can we just start saying he has AS, or AS traits? it can stand for autism spectrum or Aspergerās? ASD would be another but adding the ādisorderā there makes it sounds like a diagnosis).
Iām really obsessive and particular about certain things relating to hygiene - I have to wash dishes really well (Iām never happy with how sloppily my partner does it), I donāt want food touching other food, I need things to be in places where I think they belong.Yet at the same time, I can be, well, slovenly - itās awkward to admit but I skip showers annd wear the same clothes for days when I donāt have to leave the house (when I do leave, Iām really particular and self-consious about my appearance). I can leave things laying around, but itās controlled chaos. I go crazy if someone else tries to rearreange my stuff.
Guy is the same age as the others, is he not? I feel like most people in the group are at least close enough to the age of the group of friends in Quarry. Arenāt most people here around 30-45?
Thatās why I feel even more like Kit, the one kid in the group - Iām only 22 and though Kitās 18 I feel like the same age, especially since Iām pretty sure that the book said he was born in 1993 (or am I remembering wrong?), only a year after me.
Guy is Kitās dad, and apparently a few years older than everyone else. Hol was a former girlfriend (at university, I think), and these are her classmates, not his. Presumably they were all at the same school. They donāt get together as a group very often; Hol seems to be the only one who has a regular ongoing relationship with Guy and Kit.
So, why would he not have any of his own friends from school? Why are they all Holās classmates instead? Hmmm.
@aeon My brother is also autistic, āfurther alongā you might say than myself (something interesting going on in my family I guess) and is a disastrous slob. I would go so far to say that he simply doesnāt know how to clean things, and if he does, he just doesnāt care anyway. He does do laundry (after wearing each item multiple times), but I suspect itās probably because his friend who he works with but who heās known since elementary school gently teased him about it when he started working in the office.
Yet heās also a germaphobe - Iām actually surprised he doesnāt just wear gloves everywhere, because he uses his shirt or coat sleeve to touch anything in public, especially doors, and has what can fairly be described as odd, not-scientifically-founded requirements about food safety, among many other examples.
So, a mix of Kit and what you (Raita) describe about yourself. Me, Iām obsessive about laundry and things like dishes and bathrooms, but easily fall into organizational disarray (and mild hoarding). There are also autistic people more like youād stereotypically think who are obsessive about everything being neat, tidy, and clean, but everyone I know is their own unique mix, and significant slovenliness is quite common as far as I can tell.
BTW I was born in 1986 and normally Iām the kid around here
Speaking of which, in terms of generations, I donāt feel millenial because in popular parlance people who are teenagers now are usually still included, but ākids todayā are really very different from people my age in significant ways. You (Raita - Iāve been switching between replying directly to you and to others/the group, sorry to be confusing ) are really in what Iād consider the tail end of my generation, and I think it wouldnāt be too hard to argue a cutoff even older than that. That said, my perception may just be from being into computers and on the internet years before other people my age - the internet being basically the defining separator of my generation, and ubiquitous internet (at least in terms of popular perception, I realize thatās far from true) being the separator for the next one, in my mind.
No, theyāre his too. He made those 30 minute videos satirizing various directors with all those folks. Heās only two years older than the average for his group. According to Kitās interpretation, Guy was the best actor and worst director in their group of chums..
ETA: Apparently this is a spoiler. Sorry folks. D:
Mostly sure, but donāt worryā¦ if it is from Chapter Two, itās from the beginning of Chapter Two, since Iām only a few pages into Chapter Two myself.