Group Read: Arcadia by Iain Pears

This thread is for discussion during a group read, starting on March 1st, 2022, of Arcadia by Iain Pears.



See you all in March!

I pinned it, so it doesn't get buried.

Editing this to add the the discussion threads:

Chapters 1-11 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/339721
Chapters 12-22 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/339731
Chapters 23-33 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/339793
Chapters 34-44 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/339919
Chapters 45-55 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/340064
Chapters 56-66 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/340065

>2 clamairy: Thank you!

Great thanks! I only wish I had downloaded the app that was designed for the novel. All I can say is take copious notes. It all connects.

>4 Bookmarque: I had no idea about the app. I have just looked it up. This could be quite the rabbit-hole.

There’s an app? Should that fact scare me away from this book?

>6 catzteach:
I came across this article when investigating the idea of an app for the book.

I will try to join. It's a lot of pages! but it sounds fascinating.

hes one of my favorite writers: Loved Stones Fall ,The portrait, dream of scipio plus all of his art detective stories. Havent read Arcadia but its time i did.

>7 pgmcc: thanks for that. Sounds like a complicated read. But good, too. I’ve requested it from the library.

I'm looking forward to this!

OK. So some folks are getting ants in the pants to start sharing and it seems I should try to organize this thread and take suggestions on how to structure things going forward.

Should we have separate threads for chapters? - there are no major sections to divide by.

Separate threads for timelines? I'm not sure how obvious they are until you stumble on them, but it could be a good way to divide the threads.

One thread for non-spoiler posts? General observations, links to reviews or articles about the book. Stuff like that.

Any other ideas on how best to keep things straight and on track are welcome.

Also sound off if you're going to participate. It would be nice to know who's coming down the rabbit hole with us!

I should have borrowed the ebook when I saw it available, now it's out and has 3 people waiting. Good thing I have my hard cover.

id like to be involved,when does it start?

I just picked up a copy by interlibrary loan so I can join in.

>12 Bookmarque:
There are 66 chapters, so a thread per chapter may not be the way to go. :-)

A spoiler-free thread is good, but we will need to post a general spoiler warning on the thread(s) we use to discuss the book.

In the past breaking a book into parts worked well as long as there weren't too many, as you pointed out. I think I'm about 1/3 of the way through.

I am joining but not for at least a week. I have another group read that I started yesterday. Really liking that book so far so I should finish it fairly quickly.

I will be joining too though I'd like to finish my current chunkster (A tale of love and darkness) first if possible.

This is shaping up to be quite the party. We will have to get the Green Dragon catering team lined up to provide drinks and cheese. Perhaps the occasional cake.



Barrels of ale and crates of wine will be required, as well as fruit juices, gallons of tea, and some coffee.

I'll join. I've got an audio version.

>20 majkia: Once food is mentioned everyone wants to join. :-)

Looking forward to our discussion.

Yay, glad you guys are coming along.

Thirds sounds about right and then we can take chapters in chunks if we want. It's a pretty dense story.

I want to finish the ebook I have going and then I'll dive in. Unless I change my mind. LOL.

>19 pgmcc: chocolate. must have chocolate,dark of course. with strawberries....

>23 cindydavid4:
A chocolate fountain to dip the strawberries in. I like the way you party.

>19 pgmcc: I’ll bring a cheesecake. :D

>25 catzteach: Excellent. I like cheescake.

>25 catzteach: Cheese and cake!! Mmmm ...

I started reading Arcadia tonight. Nearly 100 pages in and really enjoying it so far.

I've started it and have finished 6 chapters.

I'll start a new thread with my notes, observations and this -

Characters in order of appearance

Jay - 11 year old boy, belongs in Anterwold

Henry Lytten - 50-something academic, England 1960, writing fantasy book which creates Anterwold, likes Rosie, the girl who feeds his cat

Thompson - crony of Henry’s

Persimmon - crony of Henry’s

Davies - crony of Henry’s

Rosie Wilson - local girl, 15, feeds Henry’s cat

Professor Jenkins - Henry’s cat, named for horrible teacher in his past

Jack More - low-level security employee of scientific compound in the future

Angela Meerson - researcher and inventor of important tech at the scientific compound

Dr. Robert Hanslip - the ultimate bureaucrat and dictator, head of the scientific compound that employs (ed) Angela

Zoffany Oldmanter - rich and powerful head of a business that gobbles up others as investments, etc. Think Berkshire Hathaway but as run by Stalin.

Lucien Grange - sales rep/shill/fixer for Oldmanter

Alex Chang - very low level employee, worked for Angela doing data analysis and finding wayward people sent back in time.

Gunter - hapless janitor used by Angela to experiment with time travel, went mad in the 1890s and became a monk

Etheran - deceased Scholar, Hanary’s mentor, Stoic in the vein of Cato

Portmore - WW2 to 1960 Head of British Intelligence

Samuel Wind - Also British Intelligence, somewhat of a Henry follower and possible frenemy.

Lady Catherine - Mistress of an independent domain in Willdon, Anterwold, widow of Thenald

Pamarchen - former heir of Thenald, now leader of disaffected malcontents, suspected of murdering Thenald

Gontal - Scholar

Volkov - Russian defector

The Very Reverend Horace Williams - cleric and friend to Henry

Renata & Beltan - married couple from Cister (Anterwold)

Aliena - singer, student of Rambert (Anterwold)

Rambert - Aliena’s teacher (Anterwold)

Sylvia Glass - leader in a Retreat
Emily Strang - Angela’s daughter (never have they met)

Antros - Pamarchon’s friend

Sgt. Maltby - 1960 copper, Special Branch

I pinned the 1st discussion thread. Should I unpin this one, or leave it pinned for now?

You can if you want but it might get full with all the threads. I cam put links to them in the first one if you want.

Yes, maybe that's a better idea.

Here are the individual discussion threads

Chapters 1-11 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/339721#n7766606
Chapters 12-22 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/339731

Oh and I found a little clip where Pears explains why the app.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpnWPCl_v1Y

It makes me sadder I don't have it.

>33 Bookmarque: I found that clip too but the app seems to now be abandonware. Even if it were available, it was iOS only. More useful to the rest of us would be a website or a PDF document that explains the narrative map. I assume it would simply be a listing of page numbers to skip to when following a specific character's thread? I have been unable to find that information though. Does anyone have any specifics on how the whole "choose your own narrative" thing is supposed to work?

This initial read will be linear for me but I would love to explore the other options in future. I have a feeling it would really help cement the story in my memory better than simply reading from page 1 straight through to page 594.

Yeah I'd settle for a website or something to show where the path breaks are and how Pears envisioned those paths/timelines.

This is when a physical book would come in handy. We could add colored tabs or sticky notes where the narrative switches. I'm just not motivated enough to do that, though.

I expect to finish my chunkster this evening so will be starting Arcadia soon! I'm really excited about this!

Before the Read

Arcadia was published here on 3rd September, 2015. I ordered it on 10th November, 2015, which would indicate I was not aware of its publication in advance but quickly became aware of it and ordered it at the first opportunity. My eagerness to acquire it was due to the pleasure I had reading An Instance of the Fingerpost and Stone’s Fall. They are super books.

I was not sure that Arcadia was going to be about. My mind told me it must be about fairies or their land. ”Probably Their land.” I thought.

It is a big book of some 594 pages, and I must have had a lot going on at the time, as I did not read it immediately. In fact, it has been sitting in full view of my desk since I bought it and the year is now 2022. So many other good books tempted me.

Arcadia was mentioned in my Green Dragon thread a few weeks ago. In Post #97, Bookmarque was commenting on another book, Golden State (a book bullet they were firing at several people), and how it was a book that she felt like reading again straight after finishing it. Bookmarque stated that Arcadia prompted the same desire when she had finished it.

That got the ball rolling and here we find ourselves on a group read thread for Arcadia by Iain Pears.

At one point during our discussion about possibly having a group read, I took the book off my shelf and read the first page. That page desribed a beautiful rural landscape and showed the harvesters busy in the fields, introduced Jay and informed us of his insatiable curiosity and the problems that presented in his society, and raises the myster of what lies outside the valley where Jay has spent his entire eleven years of life to this point. In addition, the writing was beautiful and did not presesnt any jarring mismatches of words or interupt the gentle flow of the narrative. It was after reading that page that I knew this book was going to be a great read.

More comments to following the the various book section threads.

>38 pgmcc: Ow, I think that's a hit! Is it really about an eleven year old though?

>39 Karlstar:
People do not stay eleven. Have faith and venture forth.

I find that I too have been swept up into the group read. Just adding a quote that leapt off the page at me (page 12 of the printed paperback):

"It is easy to imagine a world where not only can few people read, few need to or want to. Serious reading can become the preserve of a small group of specialists, just as shoe-making or farming is for us. Think how much time would be saved. We send children to school and they spend most of their time learning to read and then, when they leave, they never pick up another book for the rest of their lives. Reading is only important if there is something worthwhile to read. Most of it is ephemeral. This means an oral culture of tales told and remembered. People can be immensely sophisticated in thought and understanding without much writing."

Is that a theme? No, don't tell me. I'm going to finish thru chapter 11 hopefully before I have to start preparations for dinner.

OMG I can't believe you let it sit and stare at you for that long without reading it, Pete!! I'm about to get back to it right now.

>42 Bookmarque: I am glad I waited. I have enjoyed it greatly and that joy would have been long gone by now I had read it earlier.

>41 jillmwo:
That was a part that jumped out at me as well. He does have a few little hidden gems scattered through the book to be enjoyed and pondered.

Adding this here, as well:

Chapters 1-11 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/339721
Chapters 12-22 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/339731
Chapters 23-33 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/339793
Chapters 34-44 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/339919
Chapters 45-55 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/340064
Chapters 56-66 - https://www.librarything.com/topic/340065

Okay, what strikes me as I'm reading (and I'm up to Chap 47) is that I can see why the addition of an app might have made Iain Pears' work even more engaging and/or exciting as an experience for the reader. (Did someone say that the app was no longer available? Or that it was no longer supported?) This is one instance where format (whether print or digital) makes a real difference. I wonder why the author and/or publisher didn't seek to do anything interesting when it was made available on the Kindle. (On a Kindle, the experience is basically linear -- just as with the print -- and there are no hyperlinks built in other than numbered chapter divisions.)

Yeah, I'm super bummed I didn't download the app when it was available - it appears to be abandonware now and no longer appears on any download site, including cNet which is usually reliable.

I have an Overdrive copy on hold at the library, but I haven't gotten it yet so I have no idea how the text is handled and whether any of the snakey timelines can be followed through with a guide like the app provided.

>46 jillmwo: >47 Bookmarque: I just finished the (print version) today. Looking at Overdrive, there is a 2-week wait time so I will likely skip that for now. However, in the Overdrive Reviews, I found this:

This new work from Pears is so puzzle-box fascinating that he's designed an app to help readers sort out the ten story lines. These plots enfold four characters: Sixties Oxford don Henry Lytten; whip-smart 15-year-old Rosie Wilson, who feeds Henry's cat; Angela Meerson, a psychomathematician centuries hence who's playing with a powerful new machine; and scholar's apprentice Jay.

At least that confirms which protagonist to follow for each thread. I kept notes on which character was featured in each chapter so, with this info in mind, it should be pretty easy to parse the narrative threads during a re-read, (I hope). If anyone else would like the chapter list I kept, I'm happy to share it - but the list does include spoilers simply by existing so should probably be posted in an appropriate place. Thoughts...?

Oooh a chapter list! Nice. Maybe the last part of the discussion - no spoilers there.