Saturday, November 24, 2018

Wildlife

Book: Wildlife
Basic Information : Synopsis : Characters : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group :  Book References : Good Quotes :  References

Basic Information:
Author: Richard Ford
Edition: eBook on Overdrive from the Fresno County Public Library
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0679734473 (ISBN13: 9780679734475)
Start Date: November 21, 2018
Read Date: November 24, 2018
177 pages
Genre: Fiction
Language Warning: Medium
Rated Overall: 4 out of 5

Fiction-Tells a good story: 5 out of 5
Fiction-Character development: 5 out of 5

Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
The story is told through the eyes of a teenage son who got displaced in Great Falls, Montana while he was in high school. The son observes the dissolving of a marriage which on the face seems happy, but there is undercurrents of discontent. When Jerry loses his job as a golf pro at a local course, he needs to face up to the issue of can he continue to be a golf pro the rest of his life.

His wife sees their love and relationship slipping away. When he announces he is going to fight a fire which is close by, his wife is not supportive. This is the last straw in her mind about why they should stay together. When he leaves, she starts an affair with Warren Miller.

But she also has her son which she wants him to understand his father’s new endeavour is not a good one. So she takes him up to the fire, not so much to see Joe’s father, but to experience the intensity of the fire, the ugliness which it creates. This creates the effect that Joe sees this not as a glorified profession. But he also sees his father trying to figure out who he is.

Warren Miller starts to ingratiate himself to Joe. First by giving him a knife. Then trying to confide in him. Miller offers Joe a flight to Seattle so that he can see things from the air. The first gift Joe thinks maybe Miller is not too bad. But as these offers keep coming Joe, realizes he does not like Miller. So he starts to distance himself from him.

Jeanette realizes that Jerry needed to work on the fire because of losing his job. But she does not say why. Was it for the money? Or to buck up his self-esteem?

And then there is the seducement. Warren Miller moves in to their lives, so briefly for about a day and a half, or about half the book, however you are going to count it. He visits Jeanette at their house. Then the next night they are at his house for dinner. She gets drunk and wants to dance with Joe-which Joe feels is strange. Then dances with Miller. Joe goes around the house while this is happening and examines the moments of Miller’s life. The knife he gave to Joe? There are a couple copies in his drawer. Also a condom. Jeanette and Joe goes home. But later that night, Joe is awaken by a naked Miller going to the bathroom and then leaving.

Later that night Jeanette and Miller hook up at Jeanette’s house. Feeling uncomfortable, they go out to Miller’s car to finish up their time together-this is about 2am. Joe sees all of this, unobserved, until his mother comes back in and see him. She slaps him for spying on them and goes to bed.

The next morning, Jeanette takes off and rents a room. Joe misses school. He wanders the town thinking thoughts of what will he do now? When he gets home, he finds that his father has come back from the fire. There is a discussion where Jerry finds out the Jeanette has been unfaithful to him. Jeanette moves out.

The climax to the story is after dinner that night at a restaurant, Jerry takes Joe for a drive. They go and park in front of Miller’s house. There, Jerry dumps a gallon of gas around his porch and sets it on fire. While causing the porch to be blackened, there is thee threat of death, not the actual death of an enemy. Miller does not press charges. But when Miller was escaping the house, he came out with another female, not Jeanette.

The end is that Miller dies of illness a few months later. After a year, Jeanette comes back to Jerry, but with a loss of closeness.



Cast of Characters:
  • Jerry Brinson-Father. Jerry Brinson in his son’s eyes was innocent and he was honest. His son saw him as pretty much the perfect father who could do no wrong. But that does not really jive with when Jerry was fired as the golf pro, he raided the till.
  • Jeanette Brinson-Joe’s mother
  • Warren Miller, well-to-do farmer, employer of Jeanette's, her lover.
  • Joe Brinson - the son, story is told from his perspective.

Expectations:
  • Recommendation: First saw it as a title on Overdrive
  • When: November 13, 2018
  • Date Became Aware of Book: November 13, 2018
  • How come do I want to read this book: Title sounded interesting. Also there seemed to be an element of wildfires in the book. Maybe from the book’s title there is something about living in the wild.
  • What do I think I will get out of it? A story about living in the wild

Thoughts:
Warning about the structure of this book: there is no chapters. But it is not one continuous, page after page journal. There are both major breaks where a different episode is started, just not titles. Also there are minor breaks as well when the story moves on, but within the same time period.

This story is told from Joe Brinson’s point of view, Jerry and Jeanette Brinson’s son. He is a teenager, 16 years old for most of the book. He does more thinking than saying. Most of his words is agreeing with an adult figure, while trying to figure out what in the world is happening. You do not see emotional outbursts from him. But at certain points I have wondered if he has mild autism. He seems to withdraw pretty readily. Also is a loner, except for his mother and father.

Setting is Great Falls, Montana in 1960. A fire is burning which does not seem to be able to be contained or put out. It is not threatening the town, but it is on everyone’s mind.

The central story takes place in a three day sequence. Joe’s father had been fired, wrongfully and had wandered the streets for an unspecified amount of time. His mother was getting more despondent and there had been family quarrels. Joe notes that night in early September things began to move more quickly in our life and to change. This is Ford’s way to let us know that we had better fasten our seatbelts because the ride is about to start.

Joe makes a couple of points:
  • When you are 16, you do not know what your parents know or even what they can understand (mostly a paraphrase of what Ford said)
  • You do not understand what is going on between your parents
  • Joe thinks this is good, otherwise you miss your childhood and become an adult too fast.

Joe notes that his family was isolated. His father came to Great Falls with the idea of getting connected with rich people and somehow getting an “in” to being rich and the better things in life. Instead, Joe feels the isolation by saying that nobody comes and visits. Also throughout the book, he does not have any friends from school. Is this part of the family’s problem? There is no relief from each other?

There is a sense of where maybe his mother started into disillusionment. Joe in his wandering around Great Falls would occasionally see his father. When he told his mother where he was seen-a bar or library or someplace else, she probably was surprised, but said that she trusted him. She thought he was looking for a job. I am wondering if this is the start of where break-up from him. When she found he was not looking for a job and joined the fire-fighting crew, that broke her idea of him. She felt free to satisfy herself.

Talking about forest fires, but then going on with that image, Ford says that for humans, …, it was sometimes a good thing to be near a thing so uncontrollable and out of scale that you felt reduced and knew your position in the world. Also that may be Jeanette’s mind as well. Getting close to Miller because of him being uncontrollable-him being the controlling factor. I think this goes back to being alive statement which Miller said earlier. Knowing one's place in the world is something to consider. I think Ford realizes that often times we humans get too big for our britches. Something like a huge fire, or a hurricane, makes us realize how we do not control this earth. But there are places I go where I realize that without the destruction. Standing next to a Sequoia Gigantea makes you understand how small I am, also how this tree was standing 1500 years before me and if we do not destroy things, it will be there another 1500 years.

Joe makes an observation that if my parents had had troubles that I didn’t know about. Or if they had always had their heads turned slightly away from each other … That heads turned slightly away from each other than being truly devoted to each other caught my attention and as a reminder to keep my eyes on my wife.

Remember that Joe is introspective. He is on the thought that love was permanent, even though sometimes it seemed to recede and leave no trace at all. Is this statement at odds with itself? Can one fall out of love? Or was it really love at all? What is love? In some ways that love is a commitment that you will cherish someone-at least the love being talked about here. So maybe the falling out of love is a lessening of that commitment? That lessening happens until there is nothing left at all.

Warren Miller said that Sometimes you have to do the wrong thing just to know you’re alive. That does not seem like the type of being alive which I want to be. The actions which Miller did with Joe’s mother hurt many people. Is that really how I would have wanted to know that I was alive? I think actions to help others is a lot better indication that a person has a life which is worth living. Later on the wrong will be done to Miller. Sort of a what goes around, comes around thing.

Also Warren Miller seems to be the type of guy who will buy people trinkets to win them to his side.

Jeanette Brinson quotes from Wordsworth’s The World Is Too Much With Us.
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
First, thing which struck me was that Miller was romancing Jeanette through poetry. But the quote which Ford chose is interesting in the context of what is going to happen-death, destruction and separation happens from this relationship. Is Ford trying to clue us in to what will happen?

Miller continues his assault to seduce Jeanette. The poetry, then swim lessons. He offers her a job at his grain elevator. Each designed to bring her in contact with him.

Jerry announces that he will be going up to fight the fire. Jeanette is dead set against it. Why I have been wondering? Maybe it is because those whom I have seen and talked to are top class people-not socially or economically, but in person. Jeanette seems to view this as a lower class undertaking. On the other hand, I suspect Jerry looks at it as a way to revive his manhood. To see what he can tolerate.

Joe’s mother takes him up to where the fire is and has him experience the fire and the conditions. I think it has a couple of effects. First, Joe does not seem to be all that interested in the fire, or at least going up and fighting the fire. It does strike Joe that his father is in danger. But it seems to rise up his level of admiration for his father. Je does speculate about why his father is going up to fight this fire:
  • He does not have much of a life to lose
  • Or if he lost it, it would be a satisfactory end
Lies comes in many forms. What you say and how you say it. Also in what you do not say. But also in how you act around another person. Joe does not understand what difference a lie makes if you are trying to keep them happy. He figures for himself, he has not done much to make a difference, but for his mother, what happened will eventually come out.

The other thing is, is happiness the goal of all things? Is it worth a lie?

Other people’s incompetence is what makes you rich. From Miller. While that may be true, I do not think that a life well lived would look like a person who lives off of other people’s weaknesses is very attractive. In Warren Miller’s case, you understand that from his statement. He is a user not a creator. As a user, you get clued in that he likes the idea of having an affair with Jeanette rather than liking Jeanette.

Joe is a deep thinker. As he remembers meeting Miller with his Dad, he wonders about the pattern of our lives. Is there an order of things which happen? Or is there chaos and random events happen and sometimes seem to form a pattern? He wonders, but does not provide an answer. I think this also depends on how you view a deity. Is there one? Does the God control happenings in our lives? Does that God care about our lives? If the answer to those three is yes, then there is order. Otherwise, we may be dealing with chaos.

Golf is used to illustrate the effect of worry and care. No worries, or at least worries are not bothering you, then the ball goes in the hole. But if you have worries, then the ball is his short.

What could lead a mother to have an affair in front of her child? What effect does that have? Joe is woken up after the dinner with Miller-Jeanette and Joe are back at their own house. Joe hears the toilet flush and observes a naked Warren Miller returning to his mother’s room. Then Miller leaves with his mother going shortly afterwards. They spend time in his car. Joe becomes more of an observer until his mother discovers him hiding in plain sight. The result is that Jeanette slaps Joe hard. Why take it out on Joe that he observed something in his own house that she would have prefered to be kept to herself? This shows the character of Jeanette. She has become very much self-absorbed. She also has given up on her marriage as she does not care of Jerry knows what happened. Later on Joe’s Mom begs Joe to be kind. The orientation is on her, not on her guilt or on how is Joe doing with the affair.

Joe also understands that words have power. So he remains quiet. If he speaks, he will have to live with the ramifications of the words forever. Also sometimes, it is better not to speak or commit to an action.

Joe’s mother was moving out. But Jeanette gave a non-welcome welcome to Joe to move with her. So he is faced with thoughts of what do I do now. But he is not in a panic, what am I going to do mode, but more of this is interesting as if it is a third person.

This may have been the saddest statement in the whole book: I felt that maybe the best part of my life was over for me now and other things were starting. I was almost seventeen. You just want to say, it ain’t so. Escape the situation and take charge of your life. But that may not be the best answer either. Maybe it is better to say, learn how to love your father and father with with they need at this moment. This is followed by him realizing that he needed to make decision for himself. He gets caught up in the classic, I want to make the right decision, and trying to find out what the right decision is and ends up not making a decision. He then decides that his is not his decision-he is too young and his parents are still in the picture.

Joe felt that Death was less terrible at that moment than being alone, ...

Jerry comes back after fighting the fire for three days. Jeanette says that she had a dream/mystical experience where she thinks that the fire is there only to reinvigorate the men who are fighting it. But Jerry’s response is key. He says that fighting the fire takes you outside yourself… You see everything from outside. So in a way, it did reinvigorate Jerry. It gave Jerry a new perspective on himself and on his family and on what is important.

The title of the book comes from a statement from Jerry. He has just found out the Jeanette has been unfaithful to him. Jeanette suggests that Jerry takes Joe out someplace to eat. Jerry comments to Jo, This is a Wild life, isn’t it, son?

Later on the same page, Jerry makes a comment that he is wasted on Jeanette. She agrees. But then she says that We’re all wasted on everything nowadays. This seems so nihilistic. We are wasted when we feel we are either without a purpose or stray from that purpose. The question more is are we looking and/or working through our purpose?

I guess nobody sees through the eyes of a rich man. Jerry’s words.

Joe relives his night with his mother when they went to Miller’s house. He thought at that time, he did not have a choice. But now with his Dad, he felt he could have done something different.

Jerry asks the question which a spouse asks, What would it take to leave your spouse? I do not think I want to know the answer.

Jerry had gotten so fed up with Miller and his advances towards his wife, he tried to burn down Miller’s house. Some interesting things. When he looked in the front porch, he was checking to make sure his wife was not in the house. But I think he saw another woman there. Did this cause him to try to burn Miller’s house down? If Miller was alone, would he have lite the match? I suspect that Jerry tried to burn down the house because there was a different woman in with Miller. I think Jerry may have accepted if there was love involved, but Jerry realized that Miller was just a serial adulterer.

After starting the fire, Joe asks Jerry, if he wanted to move on. Jerry says that would not be the right thing to do. Jerry was willing to kill a man who did not love his wife, but had sex with her. But he would not run away from taking his punishment for his act. I wonder if Miller was ready to take his punishment?

Jerry says that Jeanette no longer trusts him. This whole thing is a matter of trust. Interesting twist. I wonder what sort of trust Jerry is looking for.

So why did Jerry try to burn Miller’s house? What did Jerry think he would accomplish? What would other think?That is Miller’s question to Jerry. Jerry’s answer is Maybe they think it was important to me. Miller’s interpretation is that they think that he wanted to commit suicide because nothing is important to him, even committing this act in front of his own son. To me this points to there are some things which you do which nobody else will understand the motivation of it. The question should be where does this action come from? To do good? To right a wrong? To prevent an evil? I think Jerry would have said yes to all three. But I do not think that he would have been right.

This brings up the question of if Jerry did not act, how would Miller have been punished for his act against Jerry? He probably would not in this life. Is punishment in the next life enough? Both on a personal and on a moral level? The Psalmist has that same complaint. The wicked just get richer and do not suffer. Why if God is good isn’t there more of a correlation to the deed?

The family are strangers in Great Falls. They have no eternal friends. How does isolation factor into Jeanette’s infidelity?

Jerry says to Joe, People think they live in eternity. And then adds that nothing goes on forever that there is no finality-I think he meant in human transactions. A reminder that what is current will not be the same tomorrow. Later on Joe says that I must’ve believed that I lived in eternity myself then, that I had no final answers and none were being asked of me. Seems like a limited a pretty limited eternity. But the essential of Ford’s eternity seems to be caught up in what Jeanette calls “limbo”, a state where you are neither moving forward or backward.

Jeanette write, We are always looking for absolutes and not finding them. You get an itch for the real thing and you are not on yourself. Introspective. You wonder where did she look? What kind of absolute was she looking for? Any of the monotheistic religions offers absolutes. But the second sentences gives it away. She herself cannot find because she does not want to face herself.

Parting-Joe realizes this is a season where he will be parting with stuff. First his mother is moving out. Then he will be moving with his father. Things do not last forever. He wonders if he will ever see the world as he saw it before. He is also amazed at the resiliency of his father with all which has happened to him. He also has learned, particularly from his mother, that your own personal interests do not usually come before other’s interests. But we do not learn what he does with this-the point of view is of later in life looking back.

Joe comments, which seems like good summary of the book: I did not have a life except for the life at home with my father. But that did not seem unusual to me…

Warren Miller dies during a lengthy but unspecified illness. You wonder what it was? Was it related to his promiscuous? Joe concludes that his mother loved both Warren Miller and Jerry. Ford quotes the saying that if you love two, you really love none. Joe felt sorry because he realized that was his mother’s story.

At the end, Jerry and Jeanette get back together again after about a year. Joe says that they lost something which they may have never known what they had, but they also still had something together. He uses the phrase that they lived together. I think he is saying that there was not a full life together, but it was better than being apart.

We should learn a lesson from everything said Miller. I wonder what lesson Ford wants us to take away from this book?


Evaluation:
Expect a story where the words are the main attraction and the words are put together well. They cause you to catch a cloud of thought and drift you into the story. Richard Ford’s story is short when compared to most modern books, but the proper length for what he wants to say. His story is told through the eyes of a sixteen year old as he watches his parents marriage falling apart. While he tells us what to expect, he says it in a way which makes you want to understand why the draw of Montana would cause two people to feel the loss of love.

Even though the title leads one to believe it may be about the wilds of Montana or the cover about wildfire, it is more about three people’s lives in a town in Montana.

 
Notes from my book group:

What is the significance of each of the family member’s names beginning with “J”?
How does Ford use fire as an image?
How does Ford show that Jerry and Jeanette are moving away from each other? How is Jerry announcing he will be going off and fighting the fire seem like the final blow to their relationship?
The family are strangers in Great Falls. They have no eternal friends. How does isolation factor into Jeanette’s infidelity?
If Jerry had not lit a fire on Miller’s house, what response to Miller’s act against Jerry would have taken place?

Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
  • Why the title of Wildlife?
  • Does this story work?
  • 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?
  • Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
  • In what context was religion talked about in this book?
  • Why do you think Ford wrote this book?
  • What would you ask Ford if you had a chance?
  • What “take aways” did you have from this book?
  • What central ideas does the author present?
  • How did this book affect your view of the world?
    • What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
  • Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
    • What was memorable?

Book References:

Good Quotes:
    • First Line: In the Fall of 1960, when I was sixteen and my father was for a time not working, my mother met a man named Warren Miller and fell in love with him.
    • Last Line: Though God knows there is still much to it that I myself, their only son, cannot fully claim to understand.
    • Choices don’t always feel exactly like choices.
    • People think they live in eternity.

      References:



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