What do you think the title means? Whose luck does it refer to? Is it only good or bad luck, or does the word "luck" shift in connotation as the novel goes forward?
Created: 10/13/14
Replies: 7
Join Date: 10/15/10
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Join Date: 04/21/11
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I think we always try to figure out why things happen. Is it luck or is it fate? There are many things that are not totally controlled by our actions i.e. crop success, disease, personality traits, wars, the weather. I am sure the list goes on. The Langdon family needed some luck many times to carry on. Sometimes it happened and sometimes it didn't . Perhaps, wishing for some luck, gives one hope.
Join Date: 04/18/12
Posts: 73
I noticed the first time the phrase was used. Granny said in response to the remembering of the night Frank was born: That was a piece of luck, Walter. But what would we do without some luck? It seems to me that the whole family, with a couple of unfortunate exceptions, has some luck. They survived the depression with their farm, Frank survived being a sniper in WWII. It was something that they all needed and it was something that as a family they had. And to a certain extent, they were lucky that they came through that time, because not everybody did.
Join Date: 06/13/11
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Join Date: 10/15/14
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I love this title and see it in many ways in the book - even Frank's wife interjects a bit of luck as the cigarettes she smokes - too many of them - are Luckies. The word luck appears often and I wish that I had circled it as I read - something to do later. Is the title spoken with the emphasis on the word Some or on the word Luck. It seems to me that it can be said both ways and however it is said will reveal different results. This family does have Luck and often it looks to be good and like more than many of those around them experience. But at the same time, it is also obvious that Some luck - as if expressed in a dour or sarcastic way - is also very apparent: Mary Elizabeth's death, for example, or Joe's loss of the dogs, Frank's disconnect with his family, Claire's very little connection with her mother. I see a lot of foreshadowing and symbolism in this book - lots of irony, too - so I am eager to see where this saga goes - I'm hoping the emphasis of the title is positive and not negative
Join Date: 04/18/12
Posts: 73
susiej, I like the idea of a sarcastic or ironic reading of the title. My tendency was to think of good luck, but there are certainly plenty of examples of bad luck in there, Mary Elizabeth's death being perhaps the biggest example. And Walter's experience at the well had aspects of both bad luck and good luck--bad luck that he fell in in the first place and good luck that he caught himself and pulled himself back out.
Join Date: 01/31/13
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Join Date: 10/19/10
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some luck or stroke of fortune is part of everything that happens to a person. We are not always in control of events, and the road we choose is not always the "lucky" one. It could lead in the other direction. In all of the lives played out in this story, luck or "fate" had a hand in the outcome.
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