From Booklist Watson's previous novels, including Montana 1948 (1993), have dealt mainly with quiet desperation in the small towns of the West. Here the setting moves to the East and Midwest, and the desperation is much more verbal. The story of Paul Finley, son of a charismatic Boston book editor, begins in the 1950s, when 11-year-old Paul meets 22-year-old poet Laura Coe Pettit, his father's lover. We follow Paul through childhood and adulthood, as his parents divorce, his father dies, and he marries. Throughout it all, though, it is his obsession with Laura that drives his inner life. Watching that obsession consume Paul's soul is an agonizing process, painful yet hypnotic. When he finally attempts to act on his longing for Laura, to say yes to life for the first time, we are as embarrassed as we are inspired. Watson never takes the easy way out: Paul is both a romantic hero (a Freudian's Heathcliff) and a silly fool. The great strength of this uncompromising novel is the way Watson portrays coming-of-age as a decidedly mixed blessing. Bill Ott
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Topic:
Laura by Larry Watson (1 of 11), Read 19 times
Conf:
Constant Reader
From:
Sherry Keller shkell@starband.net
Date:
Friday, August 17, 2001 06:24 PM
I just finished. I was surprised at the way it ended. I'm still
a bit shaken. What do you think, Anne and Lynn? It was
fairly emotional for me, and I was always trying to mentally
shake some sense into Paul's head. Do you think it's
realistic someone could be this obsessed for so long?
Sherry
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Topic:
Laura by Larry Watson (2 of 11), Read 19 times
Conf:
Constant Reader
From:
Kay Dugan okaychatt@yahoo.com
Date:
Friday, August 17, 2001 06:38 PM
I wondered the same thing, Sherry. His pull to Laura was
otherwordly, and I kept hoping he'd outgrow it. She
dominated every day of his life and cost him personal
happiness.
Is it possible Laura acted as a buffer from the circumstances
of his childhood? By dealing with her, he could avoid the
dysfunction of his family, even in his adulthood.
K
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Topic:
Laura by Larry Watson (3 of 11), Read 19 times
Conf:
Constant Reader
From:
Sherry Keller shkell@starband.net
Date:
Friday, August 17, 2001 06:53 PM
I think you're right, Kay. He used his obsession as a way of
disengaging the life he was really living. Or the life he was
meant to live. He sort of imprinted on Laura at an early age,
and her celebrity kept him focused on her. If she had turned
out to be just a normal person, married to some plumber in
Nyack, I doubt if his obsession would have held. But then he
probably wouldn't have had it in the first place.
Sherry
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Topic:
Laura by Larry Watson (4 of 11), Read 22 times
Conf:
Constant Reader
From:
R Bavetta rbavetta@prodigy.net
Date:
Friday, August 17, 2001 07:26 PM
So is it worth buying? The library here doesn't have it.
Ruth
"Nobody belongs to us, except in memory." John Updike
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Topic:
Laura by Larry Watson (5 of 11), Read 19 times
Conf:
Constant Reader
From:
Lynn Isvik washualum@yahoo.com
Date:
Friday, August 17, 2001 08:38 PM
Yes, the ending shook me too. It seemed to me that Paul's
feelings for Laura were inextricably linked to his relationship
with his father. The loss of his father seemed to strengthen
his obsession. Even though he felt he was in competition
with his father for her attention and affection, she was also
a common bond between them.
I was glad when Paul decided to go back to his wife and
family, but found it hard to understand the wife's willingness
to take him back given the long-standing nature of his
feelings for Laura. I know I couldn't have done it under
those circumstances!
Lynn
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Topic:
Laura by Larry Watson (6 of 11), Read 18 times
Conf:
Constant Reader
From:
Kay Dugan okaychatt@yahoo.com
Date:
Friday, August 17, 2001 09:59 PM
Good point, Lynn. Laura was a common bond with his
father.
I was not particularly impressed by Laura as a person, were
you? I have no idea whether her poetry merited the
attention, or if, as Paul's mother suggested, it wouldn't last
much longer than Laura. Without her charisma, I don't think
it would have made such an impression on people.
That's what I found so sad about Paul's obsession. He was
so caught up over a tad better than ordinary woman, who
was incapable of maintaining a meaningful relationship. Or
am I being too harsh on her? She was vulnerable, and
terribly afraid of living the common life. I had to wonder how
much of a defense that stance was.
K
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Topic:
Laura by Larry Watson (7 of 11), Read 18 times
Conf:
Constant Reader
From:
Lynn Isvik washualum@yahoo.com
Date:
Friday, August 17, 2001 10:23 PM
Laura was a hard character to deal with. I think she liked to
manipulate people and play them against each other, just
as she did with Paul and his father. But I agree that she
was very vulnerable. I can't remember now if we were ever
given a reason for her strong desire to live something other
than a "common" life, but I felt that she must have had
some mental instabilities driving her most of her life.
I'm not sure it mattered whether her poetry was really of
lasting quality or not. In fact, I don't think it was her talent
that drew Paul as much as the sense of mystery and the
unusual that surrounded her and the fact that she was
essentially unattainable.
As for whether you should buy this or not, Ruth, I can't say.
But I will tell you that I read it back in early June and there
are scenes that are still very vivid in my mind in spite of the
fact that I usually don't remember details very long after I
finish a book.
Lynn
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Topic:
Laura by Larry Watson (8 of 11), Read 17 times
Conf:
Constant Reader
From:
Anne Wilfong anne.wilfong@gte.net
Date:
Friday, August 17, 2001 11:28 PM
Wow. This one will stay with me for a long time. Lynn, you're
right, the ending rocked me. I was fighting tears the last 50
pages or so.
Why is it that rational people (and Paul did his best to come
off as a deliberate, rational man) have such irrational
obsessions? The pedestal he put Laura on when he was
twelve held up through the years, somehow. He just
couldn't see her flaws for all her charisma. And even when
he could, it just didn't matter. He was sucked in.
I didn't like Laura as a person. But I didn't struggle too
much with that because Laura could care less what I (or
anyone) thought about her. In the discussion with Watson
at the book's end, he said love her or hate her, Laura
ignites a passion one way or the other. He didn't care,
either, how we felt about her--as long as we as readers felt
passionate about it.
This book seems like such a departure from his others. But
according to Watson, his first draft of LAURA came before he
wrote M1948 and WHITE CROSSES. He felt he was unable
to finish LAURA until he got a bit older and had a certain
level of maturity under his belt. Perhaps he had to age with
Paul to come to closure.
These characters had such an air of authenticity to them.
The ending broke my heart because it was so believable.
Yet, there was hope, too. As a writer, Watson did his job
well--he told a story I will long remember.
Anne
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Topic:
Laura by Larry Watson (9 of 11), Read 18 times
Conf:
Constant Reader
From:
Lynn Isvik washualum@yahoo.com
Date:
Friday, August 17, 2001 11:38 PM
That's an interesting idea, Anne, that Watson had to mature
along with Paul's character in order to finish the book.
Maybe we can remember to ask him about it in Milwaukee.
Lynn
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Topic:
Laura by Larry Watson (10 of 11), Read 16 times
Conf:
Constant Reader
From:
Sherry Keller shkell@starband.net
Date:
Saturday, August 18, 2001 07:25 AM
Ruth, if you can wait until I see you, you can borrow my
copy and read it up at the cabin.
That's interesting, about his starting this before M48. I think
this is one of those books that will really stay with me. It's
already kind of "curing" in my mind. I may like it better after
it all settles, than while I was reading it. Obsession seems
to be a really hard thing to capture and have the reader
believe in it. Most people would just say "get over it." I
remember having that "get over it" feeling when I read
Dancing at the Rascal Fair. I think Watson did a good job
balancing my empathy for his obsession and my desire for
him to have a normal good life.
Sherry
Topic:
Laura by Larry Watson (11 of 11), Read 17 times
Conf:
Constant Reader
From:
R Bavetta rbavetta@prodigy.net
Date:
Saturday, August 18, 2001 11:40 AM
I thought of Dancing while reading these notes, Sherry.
Thanks for the offer on the book, but it would be nice to
have read it before seeing Watson. I've got it in my basket
at Amazon. I'll let you know.
Ruth
"Nobody belongs to us, except in memory." John Updike
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