What do you suppose was the author's intention in including the short chapters featuring dialogue between Ivan and Lulu? What did you think of these chapters?
Created: 08/07/19
Replies: 20
Join Date: 10/15/10
Posts: 3442
What do you suppose was the author's intention in including the short chapters featuring dialogue between Ivan and Lulu? What did you think of these chapters?
Join Date: 03/14/19
Posts: 208
Candidly, I did not like those short chapters and found them more intrusive than useful to the narrative. I understand LuLu's desire to pull the covers over her head and ignore al the sorrow, but her husband's position does not allow that, so that puts the two of them at odds. I am still struggling with the reason for those chapters, so I will give it more thought!
Join Date: 01/01/16
Posts: 454
Join Date: 02/14/18
Posts: 64
I think these short chapters were an interesting way to represent the "official reaction" to the tragedy. I did wonder how accurately they depicted the mayor's wife. I did not find them distracting at all; I thought they were useful to remind the reader of the milieu in which the other fictional events were happening.
Join Date: 10/13/14
Posts: 176
I did not really understand these chapters. I suppose "teacher reader's" idea that they represented the "official reaction" to the tragedy is a reasonable one, but this did not really occur to me as I was reading the book.
Join Date: 05/12/19
Posts: 14
Teacher reader brings up an interesting point, because it never occurred to me to wonder if this was an entirely imagined version of the mayor's wife or something based in reality. I thought these chapters served in part as (dark) comic relief, just because Lulu's behavior was so absurd at times. Their dialogue was like an Abbott and Costello routine. Later, though, when Ivan broke down during one of these chapters and finally expressed his real feelings of grief, I was relieved to see a crack in the facade. It was kind of an interesting window into a marriage, seeing how these two characters supported each other.
Join Date: 02/15/17
Posts: 24
I agree that teacher reader brought up a good point about the inclusion of these chapters. While I was reading the book I found them to be intrusive. In fact, I was always disappointed to see a chapter with those two and was relieved to know they would only be a couple of pages long!
Join Date: 02/06/17
Posts: 438
My first reaction was to judge Lulu harshly for not grieving the way I THOUGHT she should (or should not) be grieving. I reconsidered my feelings (a little bit) when I reflected on a recent BookBrowse discussion that helped me see the danger in judging others without taking the time to know them or their life experiences. We all grieve in different ways. Lulu was unable to function. Raif could not afford to grieve because he had children to raise alone. Piedmont ran away. Ivan stayed busy. Robert got drunk. Coleman celebrated.
I think Lulu's overreaction (see, I'm still pretty much judging her) to an event that only affected her a little bit (she lost no children, spouse, parents, siblings in the crash) served to COMPARE and CONTRAST white and black Atlanta at this time. Piedmont's roommate, Michael said, "We have losses. Every day. Every single day we suffer losses. But no one talks about those." While Lulu was lying in bed in utter shock and disbelief and neglecting her responsibilities, African Americans were terrified about losing their lives just driving down the road or walking into a hospital. And they didn't have the luxury of lying around wallowing in their grief. They were angry that 120 wealthy people were being grieved while not one black man was. Lulu was completely oblivious to the loss and subsequent grief of large percentage of Atlanta's population.
Join Date: 05/09/18
Posts: 90
I felt like Ivan and Lulu's chapters brought me away from the main characters of the book. Ivan and Lulu provide a glimpse of what life was like in Atlanta during the time after the crash, but without the view from the other story of Robert, Lily, Piedmont, Coleman, etc. It felt like a wake up call - "hey, Atlanta is still struggling over the crash without the drama of these others folks too." I like how this flowed with the feeling of the rest of the book.
Join Date: 04/26/17
Posts: 258
As many others have indicated, I thought these short chapters interrupted the flow of the book and in a way reminded the reader that this was all a made up story around a true tragedy.
Join Date: 10/16/16
Posts: 40
Join Date: 05/31/11
Posts: 166
My impression is that these two characters represent the stereotypes of the time and place. The strong, emotionless, public servant and the southern belle, helpless, emotional wife. The last chapter broke the mold and showed their truth.
Join Date: 08/30/14
Posts: 265
Join Date: 07/18/18
Posts: 37
The author may have included them as a break from the other characters who're more closely affected by the tragedy, but I found them annoying. Mayor Ivan Allen did have the responsibility to "keep it together" whereas his wife reacted by staying in a state of shock rendering her unable to cope with daily activities.
Join Date: 04/16/19
Posts: 44
I did not find the chapters distracting or intrusive. I thought it was symbolism of their relationship - it was as if he was trying not to be emotional or spend much time on emotions but she was emotional and was trying to slip her feelings in.
Join Date: 02/08/16
Posts: 514
I did like the chapters about Ivan and Lulu. We didn't get an in-depth character depiction, but I found their relationship interesting. He was forced to put up a front of strength and she could barely function though her grief. I was sometimes annoyed by how he treated her and expected her to behave. In the end, there was relief for his character when he could finally drop the charade of strength and openly grieve.
Join Date: 09/30/17
Posts: 13
Join Date: 08/06/17
Posts: 56
I saw them as just another perspective of the event. They seemed out of place among the other chapters somehow; likely because the couple were not fictional but real people.
Join Date: 08/12/16
Posts: 246
I kind of thought these characters were ridiculous... I found Lulu to be almost goofy acting... and I thought their reactions were unrealistic. At the very end when the mayor was breaking down, I wasn’t sure if he was having a heart attack or just grieving. I didn’t think these excerpts added anything to the story line.
Join Date: 05/11/11
Posts: 80
Join Date: 10/28/18
Posts: 12
I found the chapters a different take on grieving. You had Lily on one side moving forward with life and facing the new reality and then Lulu who wanted to hide from the new reality.
Reply
Please login to post a response.