HuffPost Book Club: The Tiger's Wife By Tea Obreht, Part 3 Of 3

The final part of "The Tiger's Wife" Book Club discussion, chapters 9-13 inclusive, lives here. See our previous discussions here and here. To add to this discussion, please comment below or on our Facebook page, or you can tweet to us with the #hpbookclub hashtag. We want to hear from you!

A little about who you'll be hearing from...

Andrew Losowsky, Books Editor
I'm British, so anything you think I've spelled wrong, is actually just spelled older. I look for stories to take my brain into new spaces, and I'll be particularly discussing the facts as we think we know them, and the clues I think we're being given by the story.

Zoë Triska, Associate Books Editor
I was a Literature major so I can't help analyzing every single thing (from the syntax and language to metaphors, similes, you name it). I (reluctantly) admit that I'm one of those people who Googles phrases, places, names every couple of pages when I'm reading. There are constantly things that stump me, though so I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Madeleine Crum, Assistant Books Editor
I like looking at language particularities, but in case you think that's a snooze (you wouldn't be alone), I'm also interested in reading what critics say about books and whether their reviews are spot on or way off. Let's talk about it.

Annemarie Dooling, Community Editor
Quotes, locations and descriptions speak to me the same way characters do. I love dissecting the same details that tell us more about the story than the actual prose. If you read the same books over and over and over again the same way you visit an out-of-town friend, we're going to get along just fine.

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What did YOU think?

We want to know your thoughts on the book! Feel free to tweet using hashtag #hpbookclub!

@ ThatsVy : Finished The Tiger's Wife today, and while it was well-written & thought-provoking, it lost me in the end. #hpbookclub

We will be announcing our next Book Club pick tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Vote here and let us know what you thought of "The Tiger's Wife"!

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My thoughts on the book

Zoë: I absolutely loved this book. Even after problematic areas were pointed out to me, I couldn't help but love it.

I love the notion of superstition as a coping mechanism for reality. At the end of the book, it didn't matter if things real real or an illusion, if they didn't actually happen or they did. Regardless, a great story was beautifully woven.

It seems that Natalia's present is supposed to be cemented in reality, and the past is more folklore. However, one day, Natalia's present will be her past. What will she tell her own grandchildren about the deathless man? Will she distort her own story to indicate that she actually met him? Despite the digging family probably getting better from the medical attention that they receive at the hospital, it it clear that they will tell everyone it was due to the proper burial of the misplaced dead relative. Is all past essentially folklore of some kind because everyone, in reality, is an unreliable narrator?

Faith and reason are at odds with each other in this novel. I think this is a struggle that most people have. I can only imagine how applicable it is to a warring country. It is difficult to have faith in things that can't be seen, to trust in things that are unknown. But for most of us to lead comfortable lives, we have to do this.

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Ch. 13: The River (and Epilogue)

The story finally comes back to the present, and Natalia continues to follow the stranger in the dark.

When he goes past a fence that says "MINES," she is convinced that it MUST be the deathless man. She follows him through the mine field and into a village.

She follows him all the way to a house and then opens the door on him.

The man greets her with the same sentence that the deathless man has greeted her grandfather with: "Hello, Doctor."

However, the reader soon discovers that it is NOT the deathless man that she has encountered. It is someone else. He mentions his wife on numerous occasions, and definitely lacks the demeanor of the deathless man.

However, the reader is still played with. The man asks for water, as the deathless man always does.

Natalia eventually leaves him, promising she will never reveal his identity to anyone.

The epilogue discusses Natalia's grandfather's legacy. She is sure that "The Jungle Book" has been taken by the deathless man:

"But the book is gone-not lost, not stolen, gone- and to me this means that my grandfather did not die as he had once told me men die-in fear- but in hope, like a child: knowing that he would meet the deathless man again, certain he would pay his debt."

This quote reveals Natalia's giving into superstition and using it as a coping mechanism. She continues with this to describe the tiger's continued life, personifying him.

He lives in a cave in the mountains.

"Everything lies dead in his memory, except for the tiger's wife, for whom, on certain nights, he foes calling, making that tight note that falls and falls. The sound is lonely, and low, and no one hears it anymore."

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Ch. 12: The Apothecary

The story goes back to when Natalia's grandfather was a child.

Dariša the Bear's mangled body is found. Her grandfather is convinced that the tiger's wife needs his help now more than ever.

Natalia then launches into the apothecary's backstory. He was spared as a child by luck. He travels with a man named Blind Orlo, and they go from village to village as conmen. They predict the future, read tea leaves, etc. The apothecary becomes extremely good at reading body language.

The apothecary observes that

"people would turn first to superstition to find meaning, to stitch together unconnected evenets in order to understand what was happening."

This is a recurring theme in the book. Characters are constantly trying to use superstition to get through their difficult lives. The diggers think that a dead body buried in the wrong place is making them sick. Natalia's grandmother uses the 40 days as a means of coping with her husband's death. Galina's townspeople convince themselves that the tiger's wife has forged an alliance with the devil so that they can gossip about her and feel guiltless about not helping her. In the end, even Natalia herself, the epitome of skepticism, succumbs to superstition in her tightly held belief that the Deathless Man took "The Jungle Book" from her grandfather.

Eventually, the apothecary and Blind Orlo do a botched job and the latter is murdered. Left without his partner in crime, the apothecary heads to a new village to make over his image. He becomes a doctor of sorts in Galina.

Natalia's grandfather reveals everything that happened with Dariša the Bear to the apothecary.

The apothecary has a complicated relationship with the tiger's wife. They are both Muslims by blood, so he identifies with her and pities her, but at the same time, he feels the need to protect himself as well.

When Luca fears that he has actually murdered her, he comes to the apothecary to get help. Though the apothecary is horrified at the damage that has been done to the tiger's wife, he only gives Luca a warning that he will run Luca out of town if it happens again, but he never takes action again after that.

Because of this, the tiger's wife does not trust the apothecary at all. When he tries to bring her a concoction that will supposedly help with her pregnancy, she refuses to drink it and actually hisses at him.

The apothecary knows that she trusts Natalia's grandfather, so he asks him to run the errand. Natalia's grandfather happily does so.

It turns out that the apothecary betrayed Natalia's grandfather. The concoction was not for pregnancy, but rather it was poison, and the tiger's wife dies the same day.

The apothecary is hanged for his crime.

This chapter was actually very confusing for me. I still can't really find the motive for the apothecary murdering the tiger's wife. I wish that his character had been clearer. To me, he didn't seem like a horrible man. He also seemed like he wasn't completely selfish. He switched from being a panhandler to being a somewhat legitimate doctor. He was clearly a great influence on Natalia's grandfather in inspiring a desire to help people (at least before he was ultimately betrayed by him).

I don't know what he hoped to accomplish with his murder. Did he think the townspeople would glorify him as a hero for murdering a pregnant woman?

Let me know if you have any thoughts!

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Ch. 11: The Bombing

Zoë: This chapter goes back in time again to earlier in the war, a few years before Natalia's grandfather dies.

The cities were being bombed non-stop, and the animals at the zoo reacted. Wolves ate their their cubs, the Arctic fox disemboweled its mate, and the tiger began slowly eating his own legs.

The City's inhabitants don't know how to process the bombings until the zoo's African elephant gets bombed and dies instantaneously. People begin marching and protesting. They go to the zoo dressed up as their favorite animals. Natalia joins them, dressed, of course, as a tiger.

On one of these nights, Natalia's grandfather goes to the zoo with her. It is here that he relates his final tale about the deathless man:

Natalia's grandfather knows that Sarabor will be bombed and destroyed the next day, so he journeys there to visit one last time. It is a place of nostalgia and sentimental value. His wife is from Sarabor, he was married and honeymooned there, and he raised his daughter there in her early years.

He goes to the Hotel Amovarka, where he stayed during his honeymoon. When he gets there, there is only one waiter and an entirely empty restaurant. He sits at a table on the balcony and watches the bombs light up the night sky.

He is soon surprised to find that there is another guest on the balcony who he soon discovers is the deathless man.

They sit down together to have a large, luxurious dinner, and the deathless man reveals yet another piece to the book's puzzle.

It turns out that HE was the physician who came to cure Luka's friend, Amana. HE was the one who fell in love and ran away with her, setting Luka on a path of destruction.

During dinner, Natalia's grandfather worries constantly that Gavo is there to collect him, to tell him that he was about to die. He reveals that he is not; he is there to collect the dutiful waiter.

Natalia's grandfather feels immense pity for the waiter, but Gavo says,

'"Believe me Doctor, if your life ends in suddenness you will be glad that it did, and if it does not you will wish that it had. You will want suddenness, Doctor.'"

To this, Natalia's grandfather replies, "'I do not do things, as you say, suddenly. I prepare, I think, I explain.'"

In the end, it seems, Natalia's grandfather gets to die the way he wants to, as he dies slowly of cancer. At the end of dinner, the deathless man lets him break his cup and leave.

The story comes back again to the tiger that eats his own legs. As he won't stop, his caretaker decides to put him out of his misery and shoot him.

At the end, Natalia says "They say the tiger's mate killed and ate one of her cubs." This leads to the distribution of the cubs among zookeepers, who then raise them as pets.

I find it interesting that the book is weaving more and more folklore into reality, to the point where it becomes unclear where the folklore and reality actually meet. Were the tiger cubs really raised as pets? Or was it just something that "they say," like so much other gossip and folklore that travels around?

How much of this story do you think is reality, and how much do you think is folklore? Is Natalia a reliable narrator, or is she twisting reality to suit her needs as a story teller?

And moreover, how reliable are the people she is talking to? Most of the stories she tells are told to her by someone else, and then SHE tells them.

Also, does it really even matter? Does an unreliable narrator matter in a compelling story? At that point, maybe, who cares?

Let me know what you think!

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Chapter Ten: The Crossroads

This one's a short chapter, and after the epic tale of Dariša, that's something of a relief.

Click below for the spoilertastic discussion.

So, following female vulnerability and death in the previous chapter, here we have our narrator trying to be brave.

We are reminded that Natalia's family's patron saint is Lazarus - kerching - and she carries the heart of a stranger to the crossroads to bury it, a chapter after the tiger's wife is found digging a hole in the forest herself. There couldn't be more parallels between the chapters if they had been written on train tracks.

Following the violence of Chapter Nine, we get fear, implied danger, darkness. It's a mini ghost story, complete with "What was that? Oh, an owl."

And of course, the driving force behind her taking on the task is the suggestion, while partaking in a ritual based on ancient superstition, that she might meet The Deathless Man.

Suddenly... a figure arrives. He takes the heart and the money. He walks away. Natalia follows.

I don't know about you, but her story was starting to get a bit dull for me in the previous chapters. Here's where it got interesting again.

What did you think? And if you haven't read on yet... who is that figure? Could it be the Deathless Man? And if it is... what should she say to him?

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About Death

The personification of Death in the young Darisa's mind in Chapter Nine brought to mind Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld character Death.

Do you have any favorite literary personifications of death? (And "Bill and Ted" doesn't count.)

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Chapter Nine: The Bear

Not long to go now. Chapter Nine - and with 100 pages to go, we meet an entirely new character: Dariša the Bear.

Click below for a spoiler-filled discussion, led by Andrew Losowsky

This chapter introduces a new character, with an incredibly detailed psychological make up and backstory, only to kill him off by the chapter's end.

As so often before, Dariša has a distinct relationship with nature, and with Death - the two overwhelming themes of the book.

His introduction reminds me of that point in the dumb action movie when the hero seemed to have removed all the violent obstacles to his goal, and then suddenly the REAL assassin arrives on the scene, usually wearing sunglasses, carrying an innocuous suitcase, and having a casual encounter with a law enforcement official, IF ONLY THAT OFFICIAL KNEW.

In this case, the tiger's wouldbe assassin is well liked in the village, a village that has already turned against the grandfather and the tiger's wife. And we find out soon enough that, just as with Luka, Dariša's story centers around a sad tale about a young girl he loves (in this case, his sister), with a tragic ending, the result of which turned him violent.

His story includes tales of the Winter Palace of Emin Pasha, a mystical royal place that is distinctly Ottoman in its descriptions, another reminder of the complex cultural and political histories of this part of the world, which is followed by graphic, yet unemotional descriptions of the art of taxidermy and hunting.

I feel that Dariša is presented as highly sympathetic, until the point that he attempts to rape the tiger's wife. He's an attractive character turned ugly by circumstance and desire, and though we're relieved that the ugly present-day figure is dead, we also miss the younger Dariša, as he is presented. Now there's a character I could savor in a prequel.

We also get another insert of the story from the third-person perspective of the tiger itself, a voice that avoids contractions (no "doesn't, hasn't" - the tiger always thinks "does not, has not"), and always in the third person, giving it a simple, antiquated tone. Do you think these sections work?

And suddenly "my grandfather" (as he is throughout, always reminding us of the narrator and the kindly man he became) is himself a killer. How do we feel about this?

Finally, some footnotes: Dariša isn't a name that Google seems to recognize beyond this book. Again, if we are to take Google as a source - and when dealing with Central European folklore, perhaps it's not wise to do so too much - "the fabled wolf of Kolovac" doesn't appear either, but its mention helps give a touch of authenticity.

If you're interested in the art of taxidermy and the people who practice it, Melissa Milgrom's Adventures in Taxidermy is well worth reading.

And though the Emin Pasha didn't have a winter palace, some of the descriptions reminded me vaguely of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Well worth a visit if you happen to be passing through the former Ottoman capital.

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Comments

[Justin KieBurdick]

02:27 PM on 02/05/2012

Finished this book in a week after starting late into the Book Club. I felt that it was a great, nay WONDERFUL story, but in the end I was a little put-off by the long-winded writing. At times it was just too descriptive for my taste. I feel like I could have skipped at least 25 pages here and there and still felt the same effect. I would fly through some chapters, but others just dragged, bogged under the weight of too many details and descriptions. As others have said, the ending left a little to be desired for me as well.

Final Thoughts: An excellent story and a decent read: 3.5 out of 5

[Jodi Lampert]

12:21 PM on 02/04/2012

I haven't quite finished, yet, so I am not reading the comments, here. But I really do enjoy the war part of the story. It's so descriptive! Sadly, you can certainly plug in any plight. But I had mentioned that there were gems along the way, and I wasn't taking note.
However, I just read this passage, and my toes curled! Upon hearing about the death of a man's brother at the age of fifteen during the war, the narrator (says),
'I said: "I'm sorry," and regretted it immediately, because it just fell out of my mouth and continued to fall, and did nothing.'

[Carolyn1960]

11:29 AM on 02/06/2012

I totally agree with that passage about the I'm sorry. Beautiful

[Annemarie Dooling]

09:31 PM on 01/31/2012

Thanks for joining us everyone. Hope you'll enjoy the next book!

[Carol Mahoney]

12:00 PM on 01/30/2012

I enjoyed the book and the thought-provoking discussions here.

[Jan de la Rosa]

10:14 PM on 01/29/2012

I gave the book a 2/5.
I'll quote Natalia when she's waiting at the crossroads: "... and then I thought the hell with this."
I tend to like or find likeable a lot of texts and this sadly was not the case. It's great to step out of confort zones and this was a great oportunity to do so. Thank's to the club.

On related note, I found myself telling a friend about the book and how the folk stories it contained felt so close to home and had a very distinguishable flavor of familiar weirdeness. I'm mexican, we have this thing with Death, you know,we literally invite her for dinner once a year.
Well, I told her that the book remembered me how strangely common Youguslavia and Greece felt to me when I was there during the 90's. War was fresh, yet the people and their very core felt almost latinamerican to me.
My friend then asked If the book had any distinguishable cultural references at all and I couldn't pick one besides the stories set on Muslim lands (where colors and fabrics and texture are almost protagonist themselves). Aside from that, I couldn't think of anything.

BTW, I totally called the deaf-mute girl to be AWESOME even before we knew the book was titled after her! I rock, that's why I'm into publishing forever, he.

So, HP, what's next!? I have NOTHING to read tonight!
(Kidding...)

[Annemarie Dooling]

11:42 AM on 01/30/2012

Hahaha. Very cute summary. Lots of mixed reactions on this one, huh? We'll be hinting at the next book very soon, so stay tuned. :)

[TheLadyOphelia]

12:36 AM on 01/29/2012

About a week ago I wrote about my very mixed feelings on this first attempt at a novel for Ms.Obreht. I could tell she is a wonderful short story writer by each chapter seeming like a story within itself. And her descriptive talent is plain to see and a joy to read. The mood and setting were very well done and I could hear and feel much of what she portrayed.

Unfortunately, I felt the plot to be weak and the ending somewhat vague and unsatisfying. The main character seemed poorly drawn, and hard to like. Much of the time I couldn't tell what she was feeling - and she was supposed to be in her 30s? She seemed really young to me - almost late teens.


I really wish she had concentrated more on plot coherence and continuity than rampant descriptive passages.

Reading this on my Kindle, I couldn't really tell if I was at the very end of the book. So I was completely surprised when the book did end the way it did. I thought there would be more to actually tie up the loose ends.

I think the novel was alright, but not good and I wouldn't recommend it to friends. People seem to be forgiving her flaws because of her age and how wonderful she does for such a young age! It is repeatedly brought up in reviews and interviews. I think she has a bright future, but needs to mature and hone her style.

[PlumaDame]

03:55 AM on 01/29/2012

LadyOphelia -- This is where I would click "Like."

[fatamo]

11:53 AM on 01/28/2012

I couldn't help it anymore and read all the way till the end! I really enjoyed Chapter 10: there was some much needed suspense.

After getting to the end of Chapter 10 I had no doubt in my mind that this was the deathless man, and had already formulated a tidy little ending for myself!

It's interesting what the editor above mentioned about parallels, I started noticing a lot of them from Chapter 9 onwards, and I felt it tied the stories up nicely. Would look great in a movie I think!

I have to say, that whilst I still don't think Natalia is a very well-developed character at all, Obreht redeems herself in the final third of the book with some excellent mini-stories and developing the other characters as well as the plot.

[Carol Mahoney]

03:15 PM on 01/27/2012

Chapter Ten revealed to me a surprising side of Natalia, her willingness to suspend her scientific view of the world, based on empiricle evidence, to satisfy her curiosity about the deathless man. She would have grown up in the era dominated by atheistic communism. People throughout time, in the absence of scientific knowledge or faith, have invented fables and myths and superstitions to explain life's mysteries. Even though she thinks it's "unlikely" for the deathless man to appear at the crossroads, the blue bag with her grandfather's possessions seems to pull her over to the side of the myths.

That Natalia (uncertainly) told Dure' her family's patron saint was Lazarus is interesting in that he was the patron saint of lepers. (The order named after him was devoted to their care, so there is some connection to the medical field.) The Gospel of Luke, 16:19-31 tells the story of Lazarus, the leper, who was sent after death to "the bosom of Abraham." Natalia wants to ask the deathless man about her grandfather. What happens to our loved ones after death? Where do they go? Universal mysteries.

[Sarah Gay]

02:28 PM on 01/26/2012

Loved this book. Agree with the comment above about "a different way to look death in the face." In reading the last few chapters, I decided I'm going to have to read this one again at some point, as I think it will be a different story when you know a bit more about what happens at the end.

[Tomazulob]

10:56 PM on 01/22/2012

I listened to the unabridged version of this book, as I drive over one hour to work every day. It was performed by a British woman named Susan Duerdon while an older man read the grandfather telling his stories with the Deathless Man. I am still mulling over this book, but the Brit did the book no favors. I had difficulty holding my attention to the story as she made me very sleepy. At least the grandfather kept me going, but man did I struggle otherwise. Was it the book that dragged or the reader? In this case, I think the book was more interesting than the reader. I enjoyed the stories and the references to the descriptions before and after the war started over there. The stories of the isolated towns were well done. I am glad I read/listened to it, but I need to avoid the next book Duerdon reads.

[Annemarie Dooling]

12:51 PM on 01/26/2012

That's an interesting way of looking at it. What was your favorite fable?

[bonsterblack]

05:08 PM on 01/26/2012

I found the book very easy to read and got through it fairly quickly. I think it must have been the reader Duerdon.

[Grey Author]

12:21 AM on 01/17/2012

In short, I thought it was a magical read.

Here is my review on Good Reads (too much to post in a comment):
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/256585569

And also, I wrote a "One Sentence Review" on my blog:
http://greyauthor.com/one-sentence-book-review-the-tigers-wife/

[Lauren Gallant]

10:16 PM on 01/23/2012

Thank you for this beautifully crafted review. While I may, at some point, reread the novel in search of a firmer sense of meaning to various events, overall I am content to bask in the atmosphere Obreht has created. Staring death in the face has never been presented so appealingly.

[Annemarie Dooling]

12:50 PM on 01/26/2012

When you reread, I hope you'll use this as a guide again. Was there anything else you would have liked to see here?

[Sally Sandwich]

12:05 PM on 01/16/2012

The ending of this book is so wonderful. If you haven't gotten there, push on. I detested the reductive and badly-plotted end of Swamplandia! I was afraid Obreht would, in her first novel, fall into the same mistakes, but she preserves the magic.

[Caryn Banker]

02:48 AM on 01/05/2012

I thought it was beautifully written. I loved the narrative and the drifting in and out of different realities. It reminded me of a Marc Chagall painting; all of these realities are there, the modern, the historical, the superstitious, the 'legend'....
BUT: My copy had at the back "suggestions/points for discussion" and some of the questions stumped me.
Can anyone answer: Why did the orphans keep painting and drawing Bis, the dog? & Why were the Tiger and his wife always eating heads in the dream?

It made me feel there was some symbolism I was missing, or maybe these questions have no answers and were just meant to provoke discussion?
I think I'd have to read it again to piece together any symbolism of th modern story or the greater story of the Balkans in the war to any of the Village legends. I'm not sure she meant to do that anyway,

Anyone?

[mschutte3]

12:18 PM on 01/04/2012

Well, I read the Tiger's Wife based on the first comments you guys made about this book club one month ago. I was impressed by the book in the sense of combining the mystical world with reality that Obreht accomplished. The idea that the historical narrative of these Balkan villages combined these aspects of life from the distant past is intriguing. I do not believe Americans have such a narrative and wonder whether this is good or bad.

[Caryn Banker]

05:46 AM on 01/05/2012

In relation to this book, I think Americans do have a similar narrative. This book only encompasses history or local legends from 2 generations back. Although we are not so disastrously fragmented as the Balkan countries, we are fragmented enough and each region, each state etc... seems to have a fairly distinct sub-culture and it's own local legends: In the Pacific NW, there is Sasquatch, in Central New Jersey there is the Jersey Dev!l, loads in the Carolinas and New England, etc. There are superstitions of the Native Americans and every group of immigrants who brought their old ghosts and bogeymen to these shores with them.....

I can see your point though in that perhaps it would be better if we didn't have these.

Glad you liked the book, I did too.

[Annemarie Dooling]

09:30 PM on 01/31/2012

Thanks Caryn! Loved your commentary this past month. Hope you'll join us for the next book!