Lecture 6: Jeannette Haien's The All of It parts 1, 2 & 3
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2023
- This very brief novel is a STUNNER. It's moving, unique and absolutely fascinating. It's worth reading for the amazing structure alone! Join Kimberly to understand the masterful way that Haien aligns the reader with certain characters--and why that literary sleight of hand becomes so powerful.This is the juicy kind of lecture that will have you heading right back to re-read The All of It as soon as Kimberly's done.
Her name is Enda. It’s an Irish name (typically male but can be female) meaning “like a bird” or “freedom of spirit”. Very nice dive into a little known gem of a book. Thank you!
This is so excellent! Leave it to Haien to make every single word count so mightily! The symbolism of it is so good. Thank you for commenting!
Her name is Enda, not Edna.
I enjoyed the review.
Yes! Thank you! I learned this later from a Claire Keegan book.(And was reminded of it from the reader/listener below in the comments here.) I wish I had remembered when I was thinking about this one! The meaning of it (the free bird overtones) are so excellent. Yet more proof that Haien is the real deal. I'm glad you liked it! Thank you for writing!
There is a lot of misinformation and unfounded assumptions in this video -- I don't really know where to start and I don't want to just leave a list of errors. But just a few examples: the author did not in fact live half of her life in Ireland, but was indeed a professor (you said she was not) at a music conservatory in New York City. The timeframe of the story is well established. Although the location is Ireland, the story itself is not intrinsically Irish. Finally, you've mispronounced the main characters name again and again and again. If it's not possible for you to see how the four letters of her name are arranged, then I guess it's not possible to see many of the other details either. But I am glad you liked the book.
I so appreciate these corrections! Thank you! I am an American who is learning all she can about Ireland and Irish but it's obviously daunting to keep everything straight and pronounce everything correctly. I also choose to spend most of my time immersed int he text not in the bio details so I'm not surprised that I misspoke about her biography. I often make disclaimers--citing the large volume of stuff I read and say--to be sure that listeners don't take me as the final final authority on any of this stuff (I mean, who is the final final authority haha) but maybe I didn't disclaim enough here. I also draw a parallel between the story and Puritanism but maybe not clearly enough (and maybe not in this lecture!) I'm so interested in why you say it's set in Ireland but isn't intrinsically Irish. Could you tell me more of what you mean? Again--thank you for these thoughts!
Also I can't believe I said her NAME wrong. That's crazy! Apologies. I certainly don't claim to be perfect but that's bonkers.
@@thefoxedpage Thanks for your kind reply. I do realize that you have a huge library of books you speak of. When I said the work is not intrinsically Irish, I meant that the themes are universal: subjective morality, seclusion and apartness, adaptation to severe and unusual circumstances, but most importantly what happens when a listener is drawn in by a story. Father Declan is drawn in by Enda... despite his vows of celibacy and supposed objectivity... just as we the readers are drawn in by this book. The priest's emotional undoing is the real plot line here... not the story of Enda&Kevin, nor of the fishing. I would say that Ireland was a good choice for the location because of the tradition of the Catholic priest in conjunction with a lonely and secluded part of the world. It could have been rural Maine, but for the absence of the Catholic religion.
I couldn't agree more! I do think the universal feel of it is part of its very deep allure. As an American I am weirdly fixated on the long shadow of Puritanism and all the ways I think it harms us. I am similarly fascinated by Catholicism. I'm interested in what it would be like to grow up in a country that was so dominated by what I personally see in the people I know who are devout Catholics--shame, guilt (also a lot of fun! and the good things of faith!). I think I was getting at the idea of the Catholic nature of that country. It seems like fair game here--the Catholicism--given the presence of the priest. In that sense I was reading it as uniquely Irish in that Ireland has such a strong Catholic piece.@@DeeDee-cw9fv
@@thefoxedpage What I find interesting though is Enda's lack of piety re: Catholicism - she doesn't seem in the least concerned about what Father Declan is horrified by. And she is very clear that she is "explaining" to the priest than confessing - almost teaching him that the church's ironclad teachings are often not applicable to real life. Also, of course, she obviously wants to tell her story to someone, and doesn't feel that anyone else can hear it. (No therapists in her town, I guess!) There's not a shred of guilt in her, but also no apparent concern about what she needs to do to go to heaven. She is a secular character, and in the end I see Father as such also.