Pacing in Connection with the Themes

Use this forum to discuss the February 2018 Book of the Month, "The Reel Sisters" by Michelle Cummings.
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melissy370
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Re: Pacing in Connection with the Themes

Post by melissy370 »

The pacing was one of my worse peeves of this book. It dragged a lot in the beginning with the descriptions of fly fishing. I can always tell if I will like a book by the first chapters. If the details were placed more in other areas of the story it would have been more interesting.
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Post by bookowlie »

Kieran_Obrien wrote: โ†‘21 Feb 2018, 04:12 I'd never thought of this but I suppose the slow pace does thematically link with the slow pace of fly fishing... that doesn't make it interesting though!
Pacing was a huge issue for me, even during the heightened events near the end I was still screaming at the book to hurry up. Having to endure every scene multiple times from multiple perspectives was maddening sometimes ๐Ÿ˜…
I was the same way - I wanted the story to move along already, especially during the last sections. The multiple perspectives really bogged things down at the end. Five alternating points of view were just too much for me.
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Post by Jeyasivananth »

The pace of the book was in coherence with the central theme of the book. The leit-motif of the book fly-fishing , demands patience. Similarly, life too is not meant to be rushed through. We need to be patient and aware to live it to the fullest, to became adept fly fisherman.
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Post by bookowlie »

I also think the slow pace of this type of sport gave the women time to chat about their lives. If their get-togethers were based on a different hobby, it might not have allowed as much time for chit-chat.
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Post by CommMayo »

Jeyasivananth wrote: โ†‘25 Feb 2018, 11:41 The pace of the book was in coherence with the central theme of the book. The leit-motif of the book fly-fishing , demands patience. Similarly, life too is not meant to be rushed through. We need to be patient and aware to live it to the fullest, to became adept fly fisherman.
I think this is one of the reasons why I never picked up fly fishing. Surf fishing, yes, but there is a lot going on and not as much patience required.
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Yolimari wrote: โ†‘21 Feb 2018, 06:08 I was not bothered at all by the pace of the story. It was joy for me to read such a tranquil story. I think the pace matched very well with the natural and sublime setting of the story in Colorado. As for the fly fishing details, I thought I was going to be bored. Surprisingly, I was not. I got into its organic ambience.
I have not read it, but this is definitely something I would be worried about, so I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing.
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Post by bookowlie »

Many of us have commented on the pace being slow due to the alternating perspectives. I have noticed the use of alternating points of view is being a trend in novels. Personally, I don't like this format as I will finish a chapter about one character and then want to know what happens next in their life. In this book, it was particularly frustrating because the chapters were long and I had to wade through four other characters' sections before finding out what happened with the first character. It might have not been as annoying if the chapters were shorter.
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Post by Ashiyya Tariq »

kandscreeley wrote: โ†‘05 Feb 2018, 11:09 I think I'm more of a fan of either telling the story from one person's perspective or an omniscient type narrator. To me, when you have 5 people's perspectives such as this, it's hard to keep straight who each person is. Which person liked this and which one works for that company. I think you could still have a slow pace and have one narrator.
It is to cover one person perspective. More perspectives make the story complicated and slow paced. But the plot of this story is quite strong, so slow pacing doesn't affect the main theme.
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Post by bookowlie »

Sarah Tariq wrote: โ†‘26 Feb 2018, 12:07
kandscreeley wrote: โ†‘05 Feb 2018, 11:09 I think I'm more of a fan of either telling the story from one person's perspective or an omniscient type narrator. To me, when you have 5 people's perspectives such as this, it's hard to keep straight who each person is. Which person liked this and which one works for that company. I think you could still have a slow pace and have one narrator.
It is to cover one person perspective. More perspectives make the story complicated and slow paced. But the plot of this story is quite strong, so slow pacing doesn't affect the main theme.
I actually thought the plot wasn't strong. The story was much more character-driven and there wasn't too much going on in the plot that involved all of the women. It felt like the plot went off track a lot to discuss things going on in the women's individual lives such as Amanda being upset her husband was away...and when we returned. When all the women were together, it wasn't really much of a plot - just fun weekends and light banter.
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Post by Anirudh Badri »

A slow pace doesn't really work for me with multiple narrators. It feels like the story is just plodding along when that happens because I am basically reading 5 different POVs and it feels like nothing is happening across 5 different stories/versions of the story.
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Post by bookowlie »

Anirudh Badri wrote: โ†‘26 Feb 2018, 20:41 A slow pace doesn't really work for me with multiple narrators. It feels like the story is just plodding along when that happens because I am basically reading 5 different POVs and it feels like nothing is happening across 5 different stories/versions of the story.
I know what you mean. I also felt like I was reading five individual stories, but chopped up with other people's chapters in between.
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Post by Mailis »

CommMayo wrote: โ†‘08 Feb 2018, 16:58
Cotwani wrote: โ†‘08 Feb 2018, 16:51
CommMayo wrote: โ†‘08 Feb 2018, 14:21
I have read some of J.R Ward's books and now that you mention it, I remember one perspective can leave you on a cliffhanger but the ensuing ones involve you in so much drama you forget the cliffhanger until she picks the perspective much later on! All in all, enjoyable.
That is a perfect summary of how J.R. Ward does it! She changes perspective and you think, "Noooooo!" and then you forget all about the cliffhanger until she creates another cliffhanger before going back to the prior one! I think you have to really love a book and the characters to put up with a lot of that. For me, the Black Dagger Brotherhood series is totally worth it :D I had trouble getting so invested into the characters in this book.
Yep, I agree with J.R. Ward observation. She also carries those storylines across several books, it's especially distracting if there is a longer gap between reading them.
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Post by sepicatt »

I found the pacing to be slow as well. I'm not a fan of too many points of view. It was too much and I found myself not wanting to read about all five characters. It's the same thing in the Red Queen series that had three and four points of view at times. I find it distracting.

As for the technical aspects of fly fishing, it's a hard balance. I give the author credit for the attempt at trying to weave in the details. They were a bit overbearing but it's hard to do and not many authors can achieve a smooth flow in fiction with technical jargon. But I actually enjoyed it more then the five view points bc at least I can say I learned something.
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Post by bookowlie »

sepicatt wrote: โ†‘27 Feb 2018, 19:14 I found the pacing to be slow as well. I'm not a fan of too many points of view. It was too much and I found myself not wanting to read about all five characters. It's the same thing in the Red Queen series that had three and four points of view at times. I find it distracting.

As for the technical aspects of fly fishing, it's a hard balance. I give the author credit for the attempt at trying to weave in the details. They were a bit overbearing but it's hard to do and not many authors can achieve a smooth flow in fiction with technical jargon. But I actually enjoyed it more then the five view points bc at least I can say I learned something.
I totally agree. The fly fishing details were a little overwhelming, but the author did a good job in making the information easy to understand. It's not like some books where I feel like I am reading a foreign language when I read the technical info.
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Post by Melchi Asuma »

I love stories told from one character's point of view. This is however not to say that I did not enjoy the narration from the five different characters. Far from it. I think it worked and as such it's pace was quite alright.
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