Sunday, September 23, 2018

The Readers in Broken Wheel Recommend

Book:The Readers in Broken Wheel Recommend
Basic Information : Synopsis : Characters : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : Book References : Good Quotes : References

Basic Information:
 
Edition: epub from the Fresno County Library
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
ISBN: 149262344X (ISBN13: 9781492623441)
Start Date: September 9, 2018
Read Date: September 23, 2018
394 pages
Genre: Fiction
Language Warning: None, there is some implied sex, but not described
Rated Overall: 2 out of 5

Religion: Christianity
Religious Quality: 1 out of 5
Christianity-Teaching Quality: 1 out of 5
In the chapter People and Principles, Bivald talks about who God is to Caroline. It is the God who does not answer Also a God who looks for wrong doing, not a God who looks to love a fallen people.


Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
A Swedish woman who was a bookshop clerk but is not employed is invited by her pen pal to America, specifically, Broken Wheel, Iowa. Upon arrival, she finds her pen pal has died, leaving her with nobody who she knows. Should she go back to Sweden? Or stick around?

She decides to stay and this small, small, dying town decides to befriend her. She gets to know a cast of characters and after a couple of weeks, she decides to open a bookshop using her pen pal’s books. Because she is on a visitor visa, she cannot work, but since the whole town is sort of giving her a free ride, she does not need income, just a way to repay the town.

The book business starts slow and is never a high volume retail. But the bookstore starts to have impact on the community. Instead of being everybody leaving town as soon as a possible, they start having civic pride. They also become pseudo readers.

But her visa is running out and the only way to stay is if she gets married. One of the two resident hunks is coerced into marrying her. But the immigration people, USCIS, get wind of what is happening and stops the wedding. After questioning all of the people in on the plot, and the two going to get married, he is convinced, but without proof that this is a sham wedding. But in the meantime, the two people going to get married realize they really do love each other and decide to get married. And they live happily ever after.


Cast of Characters:
  • Sara Lindqvist-Arrives from Sweden to meet with Amy Harris in the town of Broken Wheel only to find she has died. As a friend of Amy Harris, she is treated specially. She decides to open a bookshop for the town using Amy Harris’ books. eventually her visa will be running out and the town starts scheming to have her marry Tom Harris.
  • Tom Harris-The love interest of Sara Lindqvist, except neither one of them knew it. Handsome, fix it along with being able to take care of truckers.
  • Caroline Rohde-Church marm who takes it as her place to set everything right. She falls for Josh who is almost half her age.
  • George-Alcoholic because his wife and daughter left him. He mopes for the daughter and does not have a job, but is there to help Sara
  • Grace-Hillbilly type who used to own a bar which is now a restaurant. This is across the street from the bookstore. Loves guns.
  • Amy Harris-Sara’s pen pal who passes away while Sara is traveling to Broken Wheel from Sweden.
  • Jen Hobson-Editor of Broken Wheel newsletter and someone who tries makes sure everything is right. Born in Spenser, Ohio
  • Josh-a young bisexual who has an affair with Catherine and they fall in love with each other.
  • Andy-bar owner and homosexual


Thoughts:
Originally published in Swedish


The Broken Wheel Newsletter
Sara is described as something of a dedicated or maybe a focused reader. She brought 13 books with her from Sweden, which is only a fraction of a 2,000 books in her personal library. That should have been about a whole suitcase by itself. By the way, she is described as having three friends. Which makes you wonder how come the people of Broken Wheel adopted her?

How could it be possible to have traveled thousands of miles and still be the same person when you arrived? In one sense the question makes a lot of sense, particularly if you take a slower mode of travel or let yourself be immersed in a culture. Sort of a takeoff on Idn Battuta’s quote of Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. You cannot be the same person. Yet if you go from the West Coast to the East Coast in a jet, does it really give you time to be a different person. Annie Dillard points out that when a person writes a book, they are a different person than when they started. Somes like the change is more of a function of time rather than distance.

Do books provide a means to hide myself? Or is it a means to experience an alternate world? It would seem like a good book will transcend that alternate world so that you can bring it into your own reality.

Sara has two memories of a book: when she read it and when she sold it.


It is a Truth Universally Acknowledged That a Swedish Tourist in Iowa Must Be in Want of a Man
Jen had only been living here (Broken Wheel) for ten years. Sounds like to me she had some ties at Broken Wheel or else she would not have stayed. But Caroline looks at Broken Wheel as if the town is personally hers. And Jen ran a BLOG about the town!

Amy wrote and said that she felt that when she was young, all old people must have a dramatic life of her own.I suspect all people must feel other lives have more excitement than their own.



Books and People
If you are reading with people around you, are you being rude? How about if they are not talking with you? Depends on the context, at least in my estimation.

But Sara is a bit of a snob. When questioned about a book in her pocket, replies that People are better in books. Definitely an improper view of people-that they are nuisances.

Did Amy know she would be dead or at least almost dead when she invited Sara? If so why did she invite her? Did she have some sort of mystical insight into Sara? I really doubt it. I think that Bivald is just spinning this out of thin air. If I was to experience this, I would say that Amy really was half mad.



Comfort in Bridget Jones
Bivald says that books are to escape the choices in life. The perfect excuse to do nothing. At times this is true, but in general, I do not read for that.


To Read or Not to Read, That is the Question-letter afterwards
In the letter from Amy, Amy talks about how stories from Iowa do not necessarily get written down, but they still get thought about, even if it is in the minds of those who are stuck inside because of the cold. Within her family, she had a brother who was fanatical about words, who motto was “Respect the Words!”


Favors and Return Favors
By not selling, a shop saves money. ???? Really? Bivald uses the rational that they do not need to spend money ordering replacement stock. Yet someplace you are still losing money as your building needs repairing you need to eat, you are growing older and will need to live on something after you cannot work, …



A Town Dying
Where do you find happiness? Small towns? Big cities? Places? Or maybe that is the wrong place to look?

Bivald points out the terrorism is more of a matter of perspective. We think that terrorism first hit America with 9/11. But ask a black person in the South in the 1930’s if there was terrorism, they would say they experienced it at the hands of a white person.


Fox & Sons
Books that had already been read were the best. You have experienced them, so you know them.


Commitment of Trees
First time I have heard that reading is a spectator sport. Sara is reading, pretty intensely it seems like, inside the bookstore. Two kids notices her through the window and stops to stare. They decide to stay there until she takes a break. But she keeps on reading. Others come to see what the kids are staring at, and still others come. Pretty soon, they have a part in the street-a whole five hours and 37 minutes worth.

Just the sentence amuses me: They seemed too busy drinking themselves silly and becoming more idiotic than normal, which said a lot about the damaging effects of alcohol.

It was noted that to make a book, several people have to make commitments: authors, publishers, paper makers, … But it is the trees which have total commitment.


Commitment of Trees (Letter afterwards)
Books or people-which do you prefer?


What’s In a Name?
When Sara looks at a Lonely Planet guide book for Stockholm, she does not recognize the place she has lived all of her life in. Why is it that we get so used to something, it all becomes common and we do not see things?

Why don’t books or at least bookstores, warn you what kind of book you are opening? In Sara’s bookstore, she started shelving the books by the type, such as WARNING: UNHAPPY ENDING!

Authors can be so unreliable. They write a good book, then a bad one. You never know what you might be picking up. I have only read one John Irving book, but during our discussion, it was pointed out that your needed to skip his books and just read every other one he produced.

If a town does not have a bookstore, it has nothing.

What does looking literary look like? I think that was the point of having George inside the store reading a book.

How do you recommend a book to a person? Is it because you like it or it fits the person or it expands the person?

Looked up the book Sara recommends to the pastor of Broken Wheel, Little World of Don Camillo. Sounds mildly interesting, sort of a Father Brown meets Father Tim of the Mitford books.


The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend
There is a tension between the books one ought to read such as those on the classics list, Pulitzer Prize winners, Nobel Prize winners, and the Booker Prize nominees, and what you really want to read. It seems like each time we read something from one of those groups, there is a senses of, “what made this book so special?” It was borning to think of books a something you should read just because others had,...

I found this chapter particularly disappointing and by extension, the book. Mostly because it seems like these would be books which would be recommended. Instead it was a chapter about fooling others about what Broken Wheel residents reader or if they even read. So why do I care about them.


Caroline 0-Books 3
Unchristian? What makes Sara both a judge on what is American and what is Christian? Caroline never asks this question nor does Bivald. Neither defines what a Christian or an American should look like. Just that they should not judge.


Dream Inflation
Sara thought that autumn air went with books. Wonder if the scents in Sweden during Autumn is different than Iowa?

To toss a bad book or give it away. Sara thought it was better to give it away. I am thinking, why inflict someone else with a book which you did not like and which you wonder if there was any redeeming value to it?

Probably the best question in the book, how exactly did you become someone who had dreams and goals? Or as a 60+ year old, how do you continue to have dreams and goals? What place does a book have in formulating these in this process?


Not a Date
when you stop and think too much that you run into problems. Really? While working is not the solution to everything, it is an important factor. But we were not created to be slaves to work or time. But neither were we created to be do nothing. Either way is a soul killer.


Run-of-the-Mill Chick Lit (Books 3-Life 1)
Repaying a debt which is not considered a debt is futile. Enjoy the gift as a means of affection.

Sara’s future boyfriend-which neither knows this will be so--starts kissing. To Sara this feels like sex. Why does Bivald need to bring this in? Is Sara not interesting enough?


An Unexpected Offer
No theft, no people in Broken Wheel. This allows people to sneak in and out of houses. But even more important, it allows people to help one another without asking permission.


People and Principles
Caroline asks God what He thinks about Sara. But Bivald pictures God as the God who does NOT answer and is silent to his believers. He does not answer prayers. He also has Caroline believing that as well. She asks not believing, but sort of hoping he does not answer. This is the basis of her “faith”. Also the God which Caroline understands is one who does not love HIs people but who is looking to find infractions.

Being laughed at is a powerful force. It shames a person, scaring them and in some cases, it caused life long issues where the person tries to cover up so it does not happen again.

Very few people had sense enough to appreciate silence, … That is true. We find ways to constantly be immersed in sound, via TV, radio, music or the internet. We want to fill in the void. In church, we are told to pray, but if 20 seconds psses, there is restlessness among the congregation and the pastors. We cannot live with ourselves and we use noise to forget that. Silence brings room for both self-examination, but also wonder.

No one is good at forgiveness. Not in practice. So says Josh to Caroline. This seems to unleash her to accept friendship and eventually love from Josh.


A Book for Everyone
Why would anyone prefer banknotes to books?


The Smell of Books and Adventure
In talking with George’s daughter, Sofie, Sara says that a book has a smell. She alludes to its more than just the new book smell, but it is the scent of new books. Unread adventures. Friends you haven’t met yet, hours of magical escapism awaiting you. While there is something romantic about this, there is something which makes me wonder what was Sara smoking the night before?


Nothing to Tell
Caroline, the community’s religious person, just had sex with someone half her age with an admitted bisexual. Afterwards, there is no religious qualms of what she has just done. There is appearance concerns. Is Bivald really portraying a religious person? Or is she saying that religious people are only concerned with keeping up appearances? Whatever way she is looking at it, this was a rather weak part of the book. I would have expected Caroline having to deal with guilt and remorse, not a latent desire for this to be real.



A Conspiracy is Suspected
A USCIS (immigration) agent works off of intuition, investigation and work-sometimes luck plays in. He comments that sometimes his colleagues do not believe in themselves enough to think that somebody might actually be good at their jobs. Interesting observation. But is it true? Or is Bivald only trying to fill space with what sounds like a good observation. My observation would be is that sometimes colleagues are jealous just because they are inferior.

Just for Sex
Sara thinks that how little people have expression with their eyes. I am not sure about this one. That is someplace I look to see what a person means is their mouth eyes, and eyebrows.

On the other hand, Amy wrote to Sara to say, never marry a man who doesn’t have laughter in his eyes.


Mrs. Hurst (Books 4-Life 0)
What should married life look like? a kind of magical world...everyday life and friendship. Was that really too much to ask? But she says nothing about the disagreements, the work which it takes to live together, the yielding, one to another, …


Broken Wheel Drowns Its Sorrows
What do we make ourselves fools over? Another person? Money? Possessions? …

A town has got to have a center, and it usually is a person where everything swirls around. It had been Amy, now Sara.


=============================================

There was two disappointments with this book. The first, the title was the antithesis of what the book was. In the chapter titled Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend it was not the readers in Broken Wheel who were recommending books. In fact, there was very few readers in Broken Wheel. The only true reader was Sara who was from Sweden.

The second thing which I was disappointed in this book was that the book did not have more about books. Yes there was a lot of books referenced. But there was very few books discussed and I cannot remember a book being discussed in depth. So if you are interested in a list of books, that is this one. But if you are interested in knowing about books, good luck.



Evaluation:
This seemed to be the summer of reading fiction of stories where lots of books are referenced. These books have lots of references to good books, but are these stories swayed by the books referenced?

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend falls into this category of lots of good books referenced, but the quality of this book does not reflect their influence. This is a feel good story of a female coming from Sweden to a dying town. By her presence, the town is revived only to be faced with her loss when her visa runs out. As the story goes lumbers to its conclusion, you know how it will end.

The story starts off well enough, but then starts to go down hill as it progresses-I do not think the story ever was trying to be realistic. But in places there was certain amount of “Really?” is this the best you could do? Such as when a religious middle-aged lady takes up with a young bisexual male. She never seems to feel guilt or a sense of any issues of morality. Instead, it is all about how will it be perceived.

Probably as a summer read, it is OK. But if you are looking for anything beyond that, you should look elsewhere.

 
Notes from my book group:
Why the title of Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend? Does the title reflect the book? Or do you feel there could have been a better title?

Maybe some better titles could have been:
  • One Reader at Broken Wheel Recommends
  • Fixing a Broken Wheel

How does this story work? There seemed to be an unevenness of the quality of writing

Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?

Which character was the most convincing? Least?
Which character did you identify with?
Which one did you dislike?

Why do you think the author wrote this book?

What would you ask the author if you had a chance?

Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What was memorable?

How might Sara’s visit have been different if Amy had been alive when she arrived? (From Reading Group Choices)  I do not think anybody felt comfortable in staying around very long after they found out that their pen pal friend had died. But there is the problem of limited funds and an unchangeable airplane ticket.

Why do you think everyone in Broken Wheel felt so responsible for looking after Sara when she arrived? (From Reading Group Choices)

When Sara first arrives at Broken Wheel and is starting to stay in Amy’s house, she ponders that How could it be possible to have traveled thousands of miles and still be the same person when you arrived? Does travel change a person? What factors play in? What changes happens to a person when they travel?

In the To Read or Not to Read, That is the Question chapter, Amy’s brother goes about saying “Respect the Words!” What does this mean? Where is there truth in that statement? How can you respect words? What are the issues which come about from this “respect”?

Which is your preference, books or people? And why? (Commitment of Trees) Which do you respect more? Which do you have, more friends or good books? Books or people-which do you prefer? When i asked this question, as the words came out of my mouth, I felt how ridiculous the question was. Of course you need both to complement each other.

Sara thinks that people thinks she uses books to to withdraw from the world-I am assuming fiction books. Is reading a means to avoid reality?

Bivald notes that books are The perfect excuse to do nothing. Do accept this? Is this why you read?

Sara notes that It was borning to think of books a something you should read just because others had,... she includes classics, Nobel, Pulitzer and Booker lists in this group. How do you find these groups.to read? Why do we care what others read? and what makes a person’s recommendation worthwhile to you? Pretty much in agreement-books on a list do not make good reading. Friends do and how people review a book can help guide us.

If you are reading with people around you, are you being rude? How about if they are not talking with you?

How do you recommend a book to a person? Is it because you like it or it fits the person or it expands the person?

Do you throw or give away a bad book? Why? This question gave people pause to think. Most of thought we should get rid of the bad book in one way or another. A visiting professor of American Literature noted that this seems to be more American than German. Here we have a tendency to move on from a book. In Germany there is a tendency to keep the book.

how exactly did you become someone who had dreams and goals? Or as a 60+ year old, how do you continue to have dreams and goals? What place does a book have in formulating these in this process?

Bilvald through the Caroline character says that Very few people had sense enough to appreciate silence. Why is that? Why do we seek to fill in the silent times? How can we make room for silence in our lives?

How does Josh saying No one is good at forgiveness. Not in practice, help to disarm Caroline? How does Caroline working to forgive herself help her to forgive others shortcomings?

Sara thinks, Why would anyone prefer banknotes to books? Picture your most favorite book-not the best story or novel or book, but the one which you have worn out reading. The question which this raises is how much money would it take to pry that book from your hands?

Sara says that the scent of new books. Unread adventures. Friends you haven’t met yet, hours of magical escapism awaiting you. How does this resonate with you? Everybody was going ugh? Nobody smelt a book. In my review there is a sense of what was she smoking. There was certain scents from used books picked up from a previous owner, not all of them good.

In the Nothing to Tell chapter, Josh has sex with Caroline. What is the reactions of both characters? What is Bivald trying to convey to us about how this affair was carried out? Does it seem realistic?


Publisher’s questions as presented on Reading Group Choices
1. Sara and Amy develop a close relationship through exchanging letters. Have you ever had a pen pal? How might a friendship conducted entirely through writing be different than an in-person relationship?
2. Even though we never met Amy in person, we get to know her through her letters to Sara. How did her letters influence your understanding of Amy and Sara’s relationship?
3. How might Sara’s visit have been different if Amy had been alive when she arrived?
4. Why do you think everyone in Broken Wheel felt so responsible for looking after Sara when she arrived?
5. Broken Wheel is a dying town, and a bookstore brings it back to life. How accurately do you think The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend portrays small town America? Have you ever been to or lived in a place like Broken Wheel?
6. There is a strong rivalry between Broken Wheel and Hope. How do you think the residents of Hope viewed the people of Broken Wheel? How were their perceptions changed once the bookstore opened?
7. Sara arranges the books in her shop through unconventional genre names, including “Sex, Violence and Weapons” and “For Friday Nights and Lazy Sundays.” What are some creative categories you might use to group your favorite books together?
8. Why do you think Sara was so reluctant to return to Sweden? What was missing from her life that she found in Broken Wheel?
9. How did you feel about the progression of Sara and Tom’s relationship? Were you happy with the status of their relationship at the end of the book?
10. Why do you think Caroline and Josh felt so much pressure to keep their relationship a secret?
11. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend focuses on how books can change lives. How have books affected your life? Is there one book in particular that changed the way you see the world?
12. If you were to open a bookstore, what are some of the books you would absolutely have to have for sale?
13. Where do you think Sara, Tom, and the rest of the residents of Broken Wheel will be in five years? What do you think will have changed, and what will stay the same?


Questions from LitLovers
1. One of the themes in The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is how a single individual can strengthen a community or repair fragile lives. First, why does Sara Lundqvist decide that the people of Broken Wheel need a bookstore? Next, how does she become a catalyst for change—what is it about Sara that gives her such influence?

2. Discuss the nature and contents of Sara and Amy Harris's two-year correspondence. What do the letters reveal about each of them. Amy, for instance, writes the following:
John says I think about historic injustices too much. Maybe he’s right, but it’s just that it doesn’t feel historic to me. We never seem to be able to accept responsibility for them. First, we say that’s just how things are, then we shrug our shoulders and say that’s just how things were, that things are different now. No thanks to us, I want to reply, but no one ever seems to want to hear that.
—What do you make of Amy's view of human indifference to injustice. Is she cynical, overly idealistic, or realistic?
—What about Sara? What do the letters reveal about her character?
3. Have you ever had a long-lasting correspondence with someone you didn't know...or even with someone you did know? Can letter writing form as deep a relationship as personal contact?
4. What do you think of Sara's emotional engagement with books:
Sara couldn’t help but wonder what life might be like if you couldn’t daydream about Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy...because you yourself had created him.
—Is your attachment to books as strong as Sara's? Do you sometimes wonder if your involvement with them takes precedence over your real life?
5. Another theme in Broken Wheel is the power of books to change lives. What gives them such power—what's their secret? What is the town of Broken Wheel like when Sara arrives, and how does it change by the book's end.

6. Follow-up to Question 5: Now talk about specific characters in the novel and how individual lives are changed through reading. Which character's story engaged you most?

7. What book has changed your life...or the life of someone close to you? Most of us could not pinpoint a book. Most of said that books have shaped our lives and helped to form how we act. Some books have guided us in our choice of places. Such as one person said they went to France based upon The Three Musketeers while her sister went to Germany based upon another book.

8. What other works does The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommends bring to mind? Have you read, for instance, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, 84 Charing Cross Road, or The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry? If so, how does this book compare to any of those?The Charing Cross book was mentioned specifically.



Book References:
  • In the back of the book, there is a list of all the books and series of books mentioned. Also the authors and the book categories as well.

Good Quotes:
    • First Line: The strange woman standing on Hope’s main street was so ordinary it was almost scandalous.
    • Last Line: And they would all live happily ever after.
    • Books that had already been read were the best. Chp Fox&Sons
    • It was boring to think of books a something you should read just because others had,... Chp Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend
    • Very few people had sense enough to appreciate silence. Chp Persons and Principles
    • No one is good at forgiveness. Not in practice. Chp Persons and Principles
    • Why would anyone prefer banknotes to books? Chp A Book for Everyone

      References:


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