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How do you think Louise Penny manages to evoke strong feelings and connections to Three Pines and the villagers with her readership? What examples can you find in Still Life?
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Louise Penny brings the emotional lives of some of the characters to the forefront by letting us hear their thoughts and feelings. I think she does this the most with Clara in Still Life. Throughout the book, Clara is grieving for Jane. She also muses in front of her easel, trying to paint, revealing her struggles with trying to create her art. We even get insight into Lucy the dog’s sad thoughts. (“It was the hand that offered the banana” made me so sad!)
The other thing Louise does is present the friendships between the villagers with lots of lovely detail. They go to the bistro and share meals. They recall memories of each other that are touching, such as when Ruth recalls Jane giving her a kiss on the cheek when they were children and Matthew Croft’s poetry sharing with Jane. The villagers look out for one another too. Clara makes sure to see Jane gets home safely. The villagers all warn each other about the approaching storm. Jane stands up to the teen vandals, and Ruth cleans up the mess. They all make an effort to help each other in small and big ways.
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I agree, Tara, that it’s those glimpses into the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters that gives them a more satisfying depth and dimension. I, too, loved being privy to Lucy’s thoughts about the banana– how much flatter that scene would have been if LP had merely described what had happened, instead of what it evoked. The same occurs with the other characters that I’ve grown to love — I see here that Clara is not just a two-dimensional heroine of the story (she did, after all, save herself and protect the men who were supposed to save her from harm, and she figured out the murderer even before Armand did), but instead a woman who superficially looks scattered and sweet, but harbors within herself strength, insight, creativity, and also mixed feelings about Peter; and he, who seems so perfectly together on the outside, actually struggles to fix the parts of himself that he knows are somehow lacking, loving Clara but also not able to understand what she needs from him. Ruth, with her outward harshness and insensitivity, shows us that within she is introspective and sometimes regretful. Olivier sees the greed in himself, that he tries to hide from the world.
My favorite relationship has always been that of Armand and Jean-Guy, though, and it started with this book. I was amused by the description of JG as being “loosely wrapped but tightly wound, ” and wasn’t sure who he would turn out to be. He was shown to be extremely competent and trusted by Gamache professionally, but the inside information from his thoughts, that “In all the years that Jean-Guy Beauvoir had worked with Gamache, through all the murders and mayhem, it never ceased to thrill him, hearing that simple sentence. ‘Tell me what you know.’ It signaled the beginning of the hunt. He was the alpha dog. And Chief Inspector Gamache was Master of the Hunt” painted a picture for me of someone who loved what he did, and respected who he did it with.
Throughout the book, I saw that they worked extremely well together, seamlessly, but very professionally; and then it’s revealed through JG’s thoughts that he has concerns for sneaking up on Armand in the woods, worrying that he might cause him a heart attack. He tries to rationalize his thoughts, “but Jean-Guy Beauvoir’s feelings couldn’t be explained. He just didn’t want to lose the Chief Inspector.” That scene really made me pay attention to JG; I thought it was quite endearing that he was so protective of his mentor, even though he didn’t admit to himself that he might actually care about him as a person as well as a colleague. I saw him as having a kind heart but not being very introspective, not emotionally mature. As for Armand, he was treating JG with respect and easy camaraderie, but also had remained quite professional; they obviously got along well, but it wasn’t revealed how much he cared until JG was forced to take his badge and gun, and he saw the depth of JG’s distress. “Gamache knew that he cared deeply for Beauvoir, like a son, but the younger man had never shown him any feelings, except that of a junior to a respected superior. That had been enough. But now Gamache saw the depth of Beauvoir’s pain at having to do this thing, and he received a great gift. The gift of knowing he was cared for in return.” It was necessary to reveal these inner thoughts if we were to understand the true relationship of these two; just showing the actions would not have done it. Little by little, we are shown more of who they are, and how they relate to one another. I think that LP has a particular gift for doing that, and it’s what draws me to the books as being something extra special.
I will also say that I am drawn to the setting of Three Pines itself because almost everybody there gets along so well, and are good, kind, inclusive people who are living mostly contented lives. I think the desire for a safe, harmonious haven is strong in most of us, and this is a good place to mentally visit from time to time! -
I think the connection I feel as a reader flows from the connections LP describes between the characters, both the villagers and among the Surete officers and between Armand and Reine-Marie. It feels like I know their thoughts and feelings, even more than I know some people actually in my life.
Susan and Tara provide plenty of examples.
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