[music]
Why is this book on our list?
That was a great movie.
We pulled it out of the trash, I think,
or the newborn baby slab of clay is the main character.
Let this be a public service announcement to everyone
that "nice" is not a personality.
Oh, what's...
It's Caitlin-like, she's nice.
You have failed.
Nothing in this book resulted in a real struggle or conflict.
The book presents it like it really is good
that he likes baseball and sex so much.
He ignores her during that.
[laughter]
[music]
Hello everyone and welcome back to Mean Book Club.
This episode we read Brooklyn by Column Toibene.
And it's Irish.
Did you guys know that?
Very...
I knew it once we started the book when I started reading the book.
Yeah, because it's all right away from that author.
Yeah, come on.
Get out of here with the consonants and the vowels.
I knew because I saw the movie.
Oh, you saw the movie too, Sabrina.
Oh, there's a movie.
I saw the movie actually in theaters
with my friend from Ireland.
Oh, really?
That's cool.
That was a very cool experience
which I...
The book reading did not parallel that much.
It did.
And did I agree?
I saw someone who had seen the movie
and I was like, "Why is this book on our list?"
That was a great movie.
Yeah, I was like, "Oh, I see."
Yeah.
But as always, we are Mean Book Club.
We read New York Times bestsellers
that you guys read in your own book clubs
and you guys were like, "This sucked, please, please,
wine about it."
Fix it.
I need redemption.
Mm-hmm.
I am Sarah Burton.
Hello, I'm Clara Morris.
I'm Donna Scravis.
Hello, I'm Sabrina B.
Jordan.
Fun little rhythm.
Name and then just a hello
and then back to name and then a hello.
I like we're in sync today.
I know.
It's still fun.
It's sort of NPR.
I was sort of pushing an NPR feel.
And I was trying to exactly copy Clara.
Okay, we always do that.
All right, okay.
She loves that.
She loves to be commented.
They do.
Flattery.
All right, guys, why are we?
How do we find this?
Why are we reading it?
It's probably--
I pulled it out of the trash, I think.
Mm-hmm.
It's from Alessandra Rousseau.
And she wrote to us and she said,
"I need someone to tell me if this book is trash."
Oh, yeah.
"I read the book while I'm vacation
and repeatedly ignored my young children
in order to find out what compelled someone
to turn this novel into a movie.
I still have not figured it out
as you could probably surmise from the movie trailer.
It is about a young Irish girl who immigrates to America
and falls in love with an Italian boy.
The main character is the least interesting person in the story
who doesn't make any decisions
because she doesn't seem to actually have any ambition or drive.
She could have been replaced with a bi-apotted plant
and I am not sure it would have changed the story.
Yes.
And then she continues, this is a big reveal.
Okay.
I was the asshole who did not give a cancer trigger warning
for the book five years later.
So she, we have done one of her book wrecks before.
Okay.
She says, "Instead, I invited a group of young women,
some of whom were starting families to learn
that early signs of pregnancy could actually be
a horrific medical diagnosis."
That one's all so true.
Sorry about that.
And here you are again, Alessandra.
She says, "This book, Brooklyn, does have a character
who died young from a heart condition.
I hope none of you have been impacted by a similar story.
The book and the movies are generally well reviewed.
I just don't get it."
So great, great recommend.
Also, love it wasn't a long book.
So we were totally on board.
So how did you guys consume this book?
So for whatever reason, I got this book early
in our season recording and I feel like I've had it
from the library for the last six months
and the library doesn't care and they don't.
They just keep saying like, "I'd go ahead and renew it."
I still love November 9th by Colleen.
And the library doesn't care.
That's surprising.
Or they're after you.
I feel like this should be after you for the whole.
They're telling me that I have to pay for the book
or return it.
Yeah, that's a thing.
They're pretty toothless now that they can't find you.
They're just like shaking their fists.
They're not stopping me from checking out new books.
They shouldn't do that.
They should do that.
I would say return the book at this point, Sabrina.
No, keep pushing it.
Keep pushing it.
Protect me.
I don't want by the library anymore.
Okay.
I never did actually.
That's hard.
My library closed and I basically have to walk like two miles now to get to
the library and it's still able to return this book today
prior to its due date.
That's crazy.
You've returned it before the cast.
What if you want to look something up?
Because I switched to an audio box.
I have one.
Okay, I'm off the camera.
Okay, okay.
Yeah, I also did.
I did an audio book as well.
Did you listen to the audio book while you walked to return the physical book?
Yes, I did.
Fuck this paper.
I also had to return.
It was a real bomber trip to the library because I'd made this special two-mile trip.
I got a book I had just read and forgot I read
by Lucy Foley, the Paris apartment,
and that I picked up a book that was just randomly on like a,
this is a good book list.
Started reading it.
It's about a woman who is about to give birth to her baby
and it seems like something horrible happens.
Yeah, we don't want to read that.
That's a little book starts and I was just like,
slam shut.
No, I needed that book to be out of my house.
Yeah, out of my house.
Right away.
So it was a, yeah, a little bit of an infuriating trip.
Had to get those back.
Love it.
Had to get those right back.
Yeah.
Yeah, I did audio book.
Yeah, I did audio book two times speed.
Obviously, checked out.
You got to speed this one up, dear God.
You do.
Checked out from the Brooklyn Public Library.
Nice.
And you didn't have to go anywhere.
No, you're walking.
Just the libyat.
On your phone.
It's wonderful.
We love technology.
All right, so I guess we should do a quick summit up.
This is a Sarah sums it up.
Anybody want to do an Irish accent?
Oh, I could try.
So John wanted to do that.
John wanted to, though, so I don't want to take her away.
No, no, I think Irish is the hardest accent to do.
So I was already reflecting on what a crazy ask that is.
Okay.
Yeah, great, great.
Well, Sabrina, you have just most of the lines.
Okay.
And then I'm fine with that.
And then John, can you read the, what's italicized?
I absolutely would be honored.
Thank you.
Irish accent.
I will.
You're going to get where you get.
It's going to sound like the lucky charm sky.
That's good.
If I could do that, I'd be.
I think that would work.
That would work.
Yeah.
I think it would be.
But you know, I tell it's in an Irish accent as well.
Yes.
Okay, I'll do my best.
Yeah, just do your best.
Do your best.
Hi, it's his.
Brooklyn.
Respective of me.
Oh, crap.
My eldest daughter is dead.
I'm a witcher with a dead daughter.
I'm all alone.
I know.
I'll get my other daughter who I shipped away to Brooklyn
to come back and take care of me.
She's been gone for two years
in 160 pages.
But I bet nothing much has happened.
He doesn't have a backbone.
So she'll just slide into the role of me caregiver
and do as I say.
Hey.
Days later.
She's back.
And what's the this?
Letters from Aman in Brooklyn.
This can't be good.
I better set her up with the largest piece of acid.
Anstacorathy.
So she forgets that loser and stays here with me forever.
Weeks later.
Watch an Ellis make out with Jim from the sand dunes.
Excellent.
All go into plan.
Sure.
I know she's secretly married.
But it's an American marriage.
So who cares?
If Ellis never acknowledges it,
then I'll never have to acknowledge it.
And it's like it never happened.
Moments later.
Shite.
She just acknowledged it.
Just going back to Brooklyn.
Or oh my god.
Even now.
She's not sure what to do.
She wants me to tell her what to do.
Oh, she's pathetic.
It's so sad.
You know what?
Fine.
I'll tell her to go back to that Brooklyn man.
But she doesn't get to say goodbye to me.
That will eat you way in her.
Eat you way if you're good.
Dead inside.
Yen.
Really nice guys.
I realize when reading it that I do know
that her name is Eilish.
Yeah, it is really funny that you guys both kept saying Eilish.
I like the audio, but yeah, you listen to the audio book.
So we know it's Eilish.
And so.
So you know how to pronounce anything exactly.
But I was just the one word you would know.
You two, Johnnie, you said Ellis too.
You did.
You started it.
Yeah, I followed suit.
Okay, okay.
Now I see.
I follow suit.
Ellis Island, which is a place she went in the book.
It is close.
Here's the thing.
When it came upon me,
I didn't realize I was saying the main character's name.
You were saying the moment of the match.
Because you're hearing it.
You don't you're not expected to be spelled that way.
Right.
Yeah, these are cold roots.
These are cold roots.
Hard job.
Great job.
As a reader, I was on the Emerald Eil.
I mean, honestly, I'd say and we have,
we absolutely have listeners in the UK and in Ireland.
So I think, you know, right,
Ellis, how could that one?
Very studied in accents.
Listen, I really thought I was going to somehow like,
slip into like,
Dar's got it out of nowhere.
Jamaican, you have to watch out for it too.
Yeah.
I know.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
You're going in.
Sure.
And you're the only one that can.
Yeah, of course, of course.
Very good.
Then it was a good summary, I think.
We're really captured the main character
or the newborn baby slab of clay is the main character.
Yeah, it just was like when you're writing this,
I know the book that summary was not from the perspective
of the main character, but everyone,
we all agree that the main character was the most boring.
It's like, this character is much more interested to me.
So this is what I think was going on.
It sounds so few of the characters interesting.
I actually couldn't even name one that I thought was interesting,
but fair.
I agree.
I am more interesting than the mom, I guess.
Fair.
I think maybe the lesbian owner of the store that I know that's who I was just.
Is maybe the only person sitting again or something.
She was a lesbian.
I think maybe they--
Well, she kind of--
They implied that when she's trying to bathing suits,
they implied the story with such an interesting--
Oh, that was so weird.
Yeah, that was so weird.
She kept touching her butt and then making your change into a different suit.
And I was just like, are you sure I should change into another one?
And she holds the curtain open.
And she's like, yeah, we should see it in pink.
So all this happened to the main character and I still don't care about her.
I don't care about her.
She didn't, because she wasn't affected by it.
I at least appreciate that character shot or shot though.
At least she shot her--
Yeah, she shot her--
It was like a hint of personal talent.
Wait, was that the old crump--
Crumpity lady in Ireland?
No, no, no, she's in the US.
I was not miscalculating.
You know how eyelash worked selling like Panny Hose on the floor of that
department store?
Vagely, yes.
Okay, it was a pretty big--
It was a lot of people.
I need a boring part of the book.
Her job in America.
Her job in America, which she goes to on every page of the book, basically.
Honestly, I don't know that I've ever been less interested in a book.
I understand.
So funny.
And I think let this be a public service announcement to everyone
that nice is not a personality.
No.
It's not enough.
Is that authors, your character can't be nice.
And human beings, if people are like, oh, what's--
Caitlin like, she's nice.
You have failed.
Yeah.
But hey, what's--
She didn't get interesting until the very end of the book when you find out she's
a little FNSL.
Or--
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, she's not nice at all, actually.
The one thing I thought about her--
Yeah, she's not even nice.
She's not even fucking nice.
And yet still not interesting.
Yeah.
No.
I'll say-- that was the only--
I did-- I was more into that part of the book,
but I kind of also haven't seen the movie.
It was like waiting for it.
I was like, when is the good part, where it's like interesting?
Because--
She cheats on her husband, basically.
We'll get into it.
Yeah.
But that was the very end.
Like, the big twist, I guess, is that like, of the two men that ever pay her attention
in her life, she marries the first one and then immediately cheats on him with a second part.
It doesn't look good for her future.
It certainly doesn't look good.
No, no.
No, it's gonna happen.
In her defense, though, the one that she does cheat on him with hadn't previously hit on her,
so she didn't know he was a possibility.
Yeah, that's true.
Well, that's why you don't marry the first guy.
You don't marry the first one, sorry.
Yeah.
Because what if another one wants to fuck you, too?
Yeah, yeah, you got to win.
You can have it a little bit at time.
Anyway, here we go.
Johnna's jugs, what do we got?
So, as you know, I've been on a root beer kick and I will be for four more rings.
Thank you.
And then we're gonna go back to some real Johnna's jugs.
But until then, I did just go on and--
She's got that as milk titties, sorry.
Yeah, then we'll all be getting something special in the mail.
But I actually did, for this book, choose an old-timey root beer called Dr. Browns.
And it says it's from 1869.
And so I thought--
And it's from Ice Cream Parlor, New York.
So I thought, perhaps, this is, in fact, even a root beer that even I wish might have tried,
although she seems like the type who's like, I just drink water.
Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know water.
She drinks milk for sure.
Yeah, she drinks water.
She had one beer.
Oh, really?
But one beer, Coney Island.
And she-- I don't think she liked it.
Yeah.
Or it was at the Dodgers game.
Sorry, it was at the Dodgers game.
I don't like chocolate.
Well, coasters scare me.
Okay, well, rollercoasters are going to be scary and that doesn't make you--
No, it makes you pretty much.
Oh, well, it's going to hold your bag when you're on the rollercoaster.
You know, you're going to put it in the cubby.
And your wrist left?
Yeah, I feel okay.
Are you excited for that?
They're not responsible for that?
They're your friend, nearby.
Holding your bag.
Actually, put it up.
Claire's referencing something sort of specific,
which was for Sarah's best friend.
I wasn't right for her.
I was one.
Okay.
That we went on.
That's true.
Which was--
We went to Disney for Sarah's best friend.
I was going to make a big help this, I forgot.
I wasn't--
I wasn't referencing it.
I don't like rollercoasters.
But that is where I learned it.
I don't like rollercoasters.
But Sarah insisted that actually it was important for all of us to go on all the ride.
Yeah.
Well, I couldn't possibly--
Including--
I went on one.
The Tower Terror.
Which Sarah's told Claire would be no big deal.
And it was like barely rollercoaster.
It was not really a rollercoaster.
We went on a rollercoaster.
You didn't let me sit next to someone I knew.
You made us go in the single's line so we go faster.
And I was like, okay, I'm a big kid.
I can do a rollercoaster, whatever.
And I hated every second of it so much.
I don't remember which one that was.
Then we immediately went to Tower of Terror.
Right after that.
So let me just say--
We sat down in the cart and it was scary.
We had to stop the ride so Claire could leave.
I was about to have a big weekend.
She was trapped.
And so they had to--
But then because--
And Sabrina, do you remember--
I was like telling you like I need to get off
and you were like, do you want to hold my hand?
But then I was like, no.
But then because they had to stop the ride and open it,
there was like, what was it?
The air pressure or something to make the ride work?
Was all messed up.
So we all had to get off the ride.
So we had to get off the ride.
And then if I recall, we all re-borted the ride.
And I sat down and buckled my seatbelt.
And then for some reason I unbuckled it.
And then that triggered something else.
I got a little bit of--
We had to like re-bort the ride again.
That was really funny.
It was-- we were the worst people at the park.
You'd think when you're like adults in your late 20s,
you'd go to Disney and like, oh, we'll walk around and like have food.
And probably like drinks.
And it was the most intense trip to an amusement park I've ever had.
It was like the least relaxing time I've had in my life.
Yeah, there were no food breaks.
There's no lunch.
At one point we had to add, we were like, can we just quickly grab
like maybe they have a granola bar or something at this place
that sells burgers and fries.
But then we could eat while we walked.
I didn't know we would have had caught.
It was like, we got to hit everything.
And I'm like, I'm going to be wasted.
And if anybody's been to Disney World parks,
I made an entire group of, yeah, 20-somethings,
go to three parks in one day.
It was crazy.
And we hit every ride, every event, and every park.
I got to have lunch while you guys were going
on your precious rollercoaster, by the way.
Nice.
And you know what?
It is nice to have somebody holding the bag.
Clear your abs, right?
Right.
Wow.
Anyway, eyelash sucks in all.
We got to have a commercial break.
We got to go, this commercial can have more personality
than eyelash.
Have fun.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We're back.
Before we start complaining about the book,
let's just do some quick background.
Brooklyn, the book, came out April 2009.
It won a bunch of awards.
The 2009 Coast and Novel Award.
It was shortlisted for International Dublin Literary Award.
And I think it was like longlisted for Booker.
And must have been a slow year for books.
Like, wait, wait, wait, wait.
But then in 2019, this novel is also ranked 51st
on the Guardians Lift of List of 100 Best Books in the 21st century.
They didn't read it.
What?
They didn't read it.
All these people just watched the movie.
They didn't read it.
They didn't understand it.
Yeah, but that's fair because--
Wait, what else is on that list?
I don't know how to look.
Is it a really piece of shit list?
Let's go.
Yeah, let's go, please.
I'm like--
Let's do quick--
Maybe like only--
Maybe 99 books came out that year.
100 is kind of a lot.
Yet is I'm trying to--
We got money balls on it, atonement, again, just movies.
They are those hard--
Probably why I read them because I recognize them.
A lot of these I don't know.
The Argonauts, Underground Railroad,
Rapture by Carolyn Duffy.
I don't know that.
Lolita.
Normal people by Sally Rooney.
Again, that's a TV show.
That's why I know this.
Ooh, I guess I really only know things.
The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.
That's a great book.
The Road by Cornwall McCarthy.
It's just kind of just like any book in the--
The Corrections by John A.R.
Andy's and me.
I mean, you could argue that, I guess, if you--
I'm gonna tell you how else did this get on?
Somebody paid somebody to sneak this on the list.
Yeah, good, good piano.
But this book became a New York Times bestseller
after the movie came out.
So it was a paperback trade fiction New York Times
bestseller starting in 2015 when the movie was released.
And it stayed there for 24 consecutive weeks, which is a lot.
But you have to remember all the people who bought it
did not finish it.
The author, Colum, he was--
he's Irish, obviously, he was born in 1955 in NS Corp.
Which is also heavily featured in this novel.
Just some fun facts.
His grandfather participated in the Easter Rising in 1916,
which is, I think, pretty baller.
Apparently, Colum was unable to read until the age of nine.
He had a stammer, blah, blah, blah.
He goes on.
He lived in Barcelona in the 1970s.
He gay.
Just so you know.
He was the editor of a news magazine in the '80s.
In 1990, he came out with his first novel, The South.
Which, how would it be?
It would have been like '35, is that right?
Yeah, '35.
OK, like that, I appreciate that as an age for a first novel.
He also wrote a novel.
A novel called The Master in 2004, which won a ton of awards,
also shortlisted for Booker Prize many times.
OK, so now I'm suspicious that maybe The Master was a good book.
You know, like, you know how sometimes you get an author,
kind of gets in a flow, and people are like, that one's good.
That one's good.
And then they just write whatever piece of crap they don't
like it.
That must be good too.
If I didn't get out of hand, it.
Yeah, he won the International Double Literary Award in 2006,
which I think gives you a lot of money.
Oh, I just thought that was interesting.
This was just how he writes novels.
When working on a first draft, he covers only the right hand
side of the page.
Later, he carries out the sum, rewriting on the left hand
side of the page.
And he keeps the word process in another room on which
to transfer writing in a later time.
I just thought that--
Oh, so hand writes his books.
That's interesting, right?
I just thought that this didn't work.
It's interesting, but it doesn't work.
And again, this going-- and then finally, the book,
where Talking Mac came out in 2009.
And I listened to a BBC interview of him.
And he said that the book was inspired
by this childhood memory he had of a neighbor who's daughter
had gone to Brooklyn.
And then she got married and never came back.
And the woman was upset about it and carried around her letters.
So I thought it was kind of interesting.
I understand.
That would be upsetting.
Yeah.
So he didn't really know the person he was.
Yeah, it just stood--
That comes through.
And he currently teaches at Columbia University.
So all my New York members of the club
can just bump into him at any time.
I hate that that immediately makes me go,
like, I'd love to take a writing class at Columbia University.
I just say we're going to have a Columbia
with the crew they have teaching.
Yeah.
Go somewhere else.
And as we mentioned, this was adapted 2015.
Sir Sharon is starting it.
It was a nominated for Best Picture Academy Award
among other stuff.
I think it maybe won a BAFTA and stuff like that.
Again, I really enjoyed the movie, but we can talk.
We'll talk about that.
We'll talk about the differences somewhat later.
Yeah, I'd like to know what the--
What's Example O make this?
Yeah, it was an example of, I think,
when you take a book and you're like, let me see--
what we're going to discuss.
Let's talk about these flaws.
Let me just change them.
I don't know.
Yeah.
But it was-- it's not like-- it didn't make huge changes.
But to me, it was like the tweaks did make a huge difference.
But let's just dive in.
We're starting the main character that we
are going to really rag on this entire time is Eilish Lacey.
She is the youngest, I believe, of a bunch of kids.
She's got older brothers.
You would assume no one knows.
Like, she's so wide-eyed innocent.
But I would also expect the youngest to have a hit more
personality for God's sake.
When you're the youngest, you're kind of the star of the family.
Oh my God, this John is the youngest.
Can you tell my God?
Maybe it's different in Ireland.
Oh, maybe it's different in Ireland.
OK, maybe you become really like this.
Just wet cabbage.
Yeah, that's--
You're the only one with an Irish friend, Sabrina.
So I studied abroad in Ireland.
I resent that.
And you didn't-- none of us know.
She's the oldest, though.
I'm the oldest.
She's the best.
OK.
Yes.
Well, Eilish, she has an older sister, Rose,
who had got all the personality, apparently,
and there wasn't any left for Eilish.
But we didn't get to really see that.
We just sort of got--
Yeah, so we just get from kind of--
you read between the lines, Rose is like--
I think 30, but she's not married,
which is very unusual, but she's like a boss at her job.
She's like a big town golfer, everyone loves her.
She can like talk her way into anything.
He sounds gay.
And she's super hot.
Yeah, right.
Like that might have been interesting,
but it didn't--
Right.
It's not part of the book.
That would have been extremely interesting.
Yeah, there's a lot of hints about that.
And she's also extremely charming.
And like, she's not exactly described as beautiful,
but she seems like she's able to use her looks in her allure
to make people do things for her.
And that actually was interesting, right?
It's like a character who's--
But we have to see those things.
Makes themselves appealing, not necessarily
by virtue of just their physical being,
but just the way that they speak to people.
But she and me--
We had to get all this information through Eilish's eyes.
So I had pretty watered in there.
I met the window of my bedroom, and I
see her coming home.
It's like, are you seven?
What the hell is going on?
A relationship doesn't feel like a sister relationship at all.
And I know I have to look at this through the lens of--
it's just past World War I.
It's not the kind of sister relationship you'd obviously
see now, but still--
So like--
And then--
They have a pretty big age gap.
It sounded like two, at least 10 years or so.
At least a big majority gap, for sure.
But yeah, so Rose basically arranges for--
Eilish to go to Brooklyn.
And it is because there's not really a lot of job
or male prospects.
It seems like in Ireland.
And it's supposed to be so great in Brooklyn.
It's supposed to be super hot, dude.
Yeah, it wasn't really a strong enough reason
to be like, goodbye.
You're being shipped off to Brooklyn to never see you again.
It's like, there's-- you could get a little job at a store,
which you already have here.
It seemed like to me or that Rose was trying
to give her a better life.
She probably knew later you find out
that she is a heart condition.
And she probably--
This is Rose again.
A Rose, I'm sorry.
Yeah, Rose.
Rose had a heart condition.
At least would have made Eilish interested.
Yeah, so she--
Yeah, yeah, would have loved Eilish to have some sort of--
ailment, ailment, and--
She'll be fine.
She had home sickness, anyway.
So then we're following Eilish to Brooklyn.
And it's just we-- the part of the book that's just started--
and it didn't stop.
This didn't stop was just that like, oh,
look, it was so easy for her to get a place to stay.
So easy for her to get a job.
It was so easy for her to emigrate over to the US.
Like people were like, oh, sometimes it's hard.
Nope, not for Eilish, very easy.
You're just like, no, it was just wild to me.
I was like, wow, everything's really going Eilish's way.
Yeah, you just sort of signed up for a place to live
and signed up for a job and got it.
And people are so nice.
And then like your father flood was like, oh,
are you a little home sick?
Why don't I enroll you in the best college in Brooklyn?
Brooklyn college.
And have someone else pay for it.
And she's like, all right, OK.
Like she just is like, OK.
Yeah, like, yeah, everything seemed, I mean, it's funny
because she obviously had struggles, but because her sister died.
But everything seems so easy.
It was crazy.
Everything was so, everybody loved her.
And it was hard.
You were just like, when are we going to find out why people like her
and do think all the time?
Because it was a mystery the entire book.
The reason she even met a man was like, she was at the dance
and looked sad.
So another girl was like, come here.
I'll do your hair and your makeup at the bathroom with the dance.
And then she came out and a boy falls in love with her.
Yeah.
And also, yeah, we can talk about this room.
I mean, do you guys want to talk about this romance between Tony?
What's his name?
Tony Ferello.
And Eilish, which again, doesn't happen to like,
I feel like 80 pages of the book.
For a book that to me should mainly be about like,
oh, is it this guy or this guy?
Is it Brooklyn or is it Ireland?
That happening--
It's pretty far into the out-farm book.
But there's no wills they won't they, period.
Yeah, exactly.
It is immediate.
She sees him and then they will.
That's all the life.
All the life.
Everything else she just slides into it.
And it's--
Right.
And I think that--
And he slides into her and about a bang, lot of them.
Guess what?
She doesn't get pregnant.
So there's no drama there.
That was an upsetting sex scene, guys.
Oh, yeah, I didn't love that.
It was--
Oh, my God.
Stand up for yourself, Eilish.
Oh, Mike, well, OK, so this is a quick happen.
It's after and we mentioned it already.
So the big twist in the book is that her sister Rose dies.
And so she finds this out.
A character way barely knows.
But obviously, it was more interesting than--
I think you lost to the golf course.
Yeah, just truly, truly.
She's very sad.
Tony's making her feel sad for her.
And then she finds like, all right, fine, I'll let him.
She sneaks him into her room and is like, fine, I'll
let him have sex with me.
But she like immediately regrets it.
It's happening.
She's like, I'll squeeze tighter to let him know.
I don't like it.
And he's just like, yeah, that feels good.
Yeah.
Can you do that again?
He's like, clearly not even paying attention to her reactions
or checking on her and how she's feeling.
But then in her-- because we're just hearing
eyelashes mine.
In her mind, then she starts rationalizing.
And like, wow, it's so wonderful that he can just like get
in his own head and he doesn't have to worry about other people.
He doesn't have to worry about me.
And when I'm thinking--
Yeah.
--he's just passionate.
He just throws himself in everything he does.
So it's just like, what are you talking about?
Like any flaw of Tony, she would just like--
anytime Tony was like being a bad boyfriend or like shitty lover or anything,
she just be like, find a way to romanticize it.
And it was so fucked up, I thought.
But we also--
She feels like--
No enough about Tony to even know if he is a bad boyfriend,
because he's just kind of like good and fine.
Yeah, he was fine.
There's nothing--
But just like--
There's no red flags really.
Like, one time he comes back from plumbing a toilet.
It doesn't seem like he washes his hands right away.
But that's the only thing I could say was a bit of a red flag.
When they go to the Dodgers game, he's ignoring her.
But that's another example of her being like, oh, I love you ignoring me.
I love how he now doesn't care about me.
I love that.
She loves when his eyes get glazed over with passion.
And he forgets about other people.
It's so weird.
Also that--
It feels a little bit like, wait, is this a complex character
than if she's-- is she like the unreliable narrator
where she-- we're seeing her twist his bad characteristics
into good characteristics.
And eventually, there'll be some sort of reckoning.
No, no, no, it's not that.
They really are.
The book presents it.
Like, these really are good characteristics.
Yeah, it really is good.
It's like, baseball insects so much.
She ignores her during the--
Also--
The chapter where she goes to the Dodgers game was so funny,
because it was so clearly written by someone
who fucking hates baseball.
Just like, it was the most boring description of everything
that was happening.
And it just showed-- it was just very funny.
I was like, don't make it this long.
Don't why are you making it so long saying nothing.
She kept saying that she couldn't understand the game
even though people were explaining it to her.
How--
Not back out, I know.
Yeah.
She was obsessed with--
She likes Irish sports.
Yeah.
She really wanted a half time.
It's like, well, the whole thing, you can do whatever it is.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Not a good half or something.
I can't miss anything.
Go ahead.
Go do whatever.
I went to a Brooklyn Cyclone's game.
I'll tell you what, I don't even think the players care.
And the stadium let us bring dogs in.
Oh, you went to one of those--
Oh, that's so bad.
Oh, no.
And Sarah went to one of those--
That was so bad.
I really bad.
Wait, why was it bad?
Maybe they made it better since we went--
It was so hot.
And then the areas where you bring the dogs--
That's not the parks fault.
OK, sure.
But no, no, no.
The area where they put people with dogs
was the hottest part in the sun.
It was everywhere else.
They normally don't sit people there.
But they were like, the dog people can go there.
There's no more.
And then you couldn't go anywhere.
There was any sort of coverage or anything.
It was just like a disgusting--
Oh, that's horrible.
Yeah, they only let you into this little tiny space.
There was one concession stand that had only something
grow, so I don't remember.
And then I got a hot dog.
And then a random dog who had a camera on his head ran up
and ate my hot dog.
This is a newscaster dog.
What?
It's a cover div.
Like somebody had a GoPro.
GoPro, that's what--
Somebody put a GoPro on their dog and the dog ran up
in my hot dog.
And I don't know.
Then they know exactly what their dog did.
And yet you still did not receive a apology hot dog.
It was also filled with only freaks.
It was a bit--
It was like a little bit of looking into the future.
It was like multiple dogs in one stroller,
or always in baseball outfits.
Like baseball gloves sewn onto the side.
It was women alone with their dogs doing their dog voices,
but I would older women--
What was your experience?
Excuse me.
What the fuck is that?
I have to say it was the same experience
rather than you guys are just driving in.
And it was like we were shuffled to the furthest edges
of this stadium.
And I paid $5 extra to get a dog toy for Willow.
And then when we arrived, we got there just as a Game of Thrones
store, and there were no more dog toys.
Which it seems like just have enough--
Yeah.
--that paid to get a special dog toy.
And I also ended up not being able to bring Willow.
I forget, oh, he got diaries.
Wait, so you just went dogless?
I went dogless.
So is that maybe why you had a bit of time?
Because you could go into the stadium.
Yeah, I guess I could go anywhere,
but I did stay in the little dog section.
But there was a dog near us named Dot, who was a beagle,
and Dot sat on my lap for a little while.
So that was fun.
All right, well, yeah, that's baseball, folks.
That's baseball.
Yeah, that's baseball, that's what you get.
Anyway, to go, I guess, to the story of the book,
she finds out she's got to go home to help take care of things.
She knows her mom's going to want to make her stay.
Even though it's not like her mom's sick and needs
to be taken care of.
She's just sad because the daughter died.
Also--
But I think it was--
She's like brothers that live in Ireland.
But all the--
That's the thing, they don't live in Ireland.
They live in, I think, England.
Yeah, and they all--
OK, well, it's hull of a lot closer.
But you're absolutely right.
It's fucked up.
But I do think that was also a bit the time period of like,
it falling on the women.
And I don't think that--
And it still does.
I think that is still a good one.
That's true.
Especially then, it was normal for you
to leave your widowed mother alone.
So that's why part of the reason why Rose was with her,
for all that time.
But we don't know, because again, we don't know--
We don't know for sure.
We don't know anything about--
Big deal.
We don't know if she ever had a lover.
We don't know how she felt about dying.
I don't know why she didn't tell anyone.
That sort of is an annoying character trait
makes me dislike her a little bit.
She seems like only for the book to have a surprising moment.
But it's not that shocking, because it's not a character we know.
It doesn't affect us.
I was shocking, I think, because you expected it to be the mom,
if you're like, oh, somebody died as your mom.
No, it was a sister.
That sucks.
That's all the person you told me.
It was a bit of a twist.
I didn't care at all.
Yeah, there's no emotion.
And usually when a character dies, that's an easy way to get paid
those.
But I had no emotion.
It's also just like--
I just don't understand how nothing in this book
resulted in a real struggle or conflict.
Even the sister dying, it's like--
and even the weird sex that happens after she's sad about it.
It's like, I don't care.
We move on.
She goes to Ireland.
No, she gets married for a secret marriage.
She gets married.
OK, she's like, I want to lock down the sex for the rest of my life.
She has premarital sex.
She's like a little nervous about it.
They go to confession.
The priest is like, hell, yeah, you had sex?
Yeah.
Probably because you want to marry him.
But for you, you want to fuck up.
Well, put a ring on it.
Do you like him?
Is he nice, Jewish?
She's like, yes, I love him.
And he's like, OK, well, say one Hail Mary, but really mean it.
It's just so crazy.
So that's fine.
They get married.
No one knows that's fine.
She goes back to Ireland to help her mom who
is like, storing letters says nothing, doesn't matter.
She rubs her butt up against this other guy's dick.
She makes her husband--
Yeah, makes out with him.
And then also not really a problem just goes back to Brooklyn.
And we don't know how--
She's really one--
But the reason she's like--
She's not even sure.
She's just like, when this is all happening with the gym,
she's kind of like, maybe I do like--
I wish, guys.
Maybe I do like him.
I don't even remember Tony, like Tony, who?
Right.
And so it's not even like she's like, I really
really-- it doesn't seem like she's really struggling with it.
She just is like letting things happen as she always does.
Right.
And the Miss Kelly, I guess the villain, is like,
I heard from somebody in Brooklyn or like Mrs.
Keeho that ball-balled that you're married and like,
infers that she knows that she's married.
And then I was just like, denies it.
And then she's like, walks out and is like, well,
I guess she's going to tell everyone.
So I should go back.
And that's not right.
It's like, well, I can't just stay here and pretend I'm not
married and married gym.
Which she-- that was sort of where she was headed.
It did sound like--
Yeah, it was a distinct possibility that she's like, well,
that possibility is not a possibility anymore.
So I guess I'll go back to that guy that I don't really
know if--
And she's just on the boat.
And you don't actually know whether she goes back to him
or not.
She's just kind of like, she was in Brooklyn.
I think she definitely goes back to you.
Because it would be a way too of an interesting choice
for her to not.
That would require some sort of self-motivation.
This is just like--
Yeah, you're right.
--for her to get carried along.
It's just going to go.
Also, someone she's dated for somewhere north of six months.
I don't know the exact--
I think it's more than a year.
I think they've been together for a while.
I think it's more than a year.
He's a wonderful guy.
They get married.
And then she literally goes on one date with another man
and is already ready to be like, that Tony stuff just
feels like a dream.
Maybe I should just stay here and marry Jim.
It's like, you're a bad person.
I just don't--
I don't quite understand it.
Because I feel like there is--
and this is just me thinking of my study abroad experience.
There is an aspect of when you're in a different place
and you're deep in it that these relationships
feel very deep or whatever.
When you come out, they're not at all.
So that aspect, I do recognize.
But I also think if in that, you were in deep enough relationship
to get married.
Like, you wouldn't immediately forget them.
Like, it's not-- you would definitely miss them more.
I don't know.
I kind of think she very much was not
ready to get married in any way, shape or form.
I agree with that.
This marriage is no more deep than if it
had just been some random guy that she met at a dance.
Like, there is nothing to this other than proximity.
So she got married.
And then once they weren't proximate anymore,
she did give a shit.
She does-- what does that baby thing the babies have?
Yeah, the object permit doesn't have object.
She doesn't have object.
She doesn't.
And she doesn't have object permit.
There's also a weird moment in the book
where she meets Tony's family and Tony's
little brother, Frank, who I think is in high school.
And there's a couple pages where I'm like,
is she going to hook up with Frank?
It's like the most personality she shows in the whole book
where she's like, he's obviously beautiful.
Like, I see the way he looks at me.
And it's just like, then you learn about this gym guy.
And you're like, oh, no.
She's just someone that, like, if anyone shows her attention
even a teenage boy, she's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
That part was happening.
And the words were just cascading over me.
I was like, did I forget which one she's dated?
Yes, it's actually Frankie.
And no, that's not, she's just, like,
she's just drawn to anything that has a beat.
Yeah, that let him say like her.
You know what?
I also am now calling one of the people.
I would say as a people.
The scene in the store with the woman
that she's like, she was hitting on me and looking at my naked body.
I'm like, no, I don't think she was.
I know, I'm just helping you find a nice one.
Absolutely.
Also, like, when she goes back to Ireland
and she's with this guy, she's like, whoa, how?
They're like taking a photo and it's four of them.
And there's like an actual couple
and they're standing really close to each other.
You know, body's touching as you do in a photo.
And this other guy is standing near her.
But she's like, but he isn't rubbing his penis up against her.
Which would beat you much.
How respectful.
This is real.
It's like so.
And then she's like, maybe I could love him because he did.
And Rob is penis.
And I know.
And honestly, that leads in the conversation.
I want to have, which is Tony versus Jim.
And I just want to know what people are.
Team because I'm team Jim.
And I'm going to because he did shove his cheek into her.
No, no, wait.
I'm sorry.
Because he didn't shove his pep into her tone.
Tony did.
I think Jim was a lot more Mr. Darcy like he was a lot more like
people don't get me.
And I'm quiet.
And then I was like, that was like hotter for me.
I was like, wow, I'm way more into this guy.
And yeah, go for him.
And it's also like your married.
You shouldn't be doing it.
It's much hotter.
Go for it.
That was my feeling.
I've actually been waiting for a pause to get this idea, which is similar.
It's a similar girl.
No, no, no, no, no, it's good.
It's good.
I could have been more aggressive.
But the idea that like normal like love triangle or story where a woman has two men
or like an old boyfriend of likes are in a new boyfriend or whatever, you have one that you're rooting for.
You know, I didn't care.
I didn't have one that was better than the other.
I didn't care who she ended up with.
Yeah, I wasn't rooting for one of them.
I don't know.
I'm also not rooting for her.
It was also good.
Yeah, yeah.
So I'm sure I think part of it was part of the issue.
But I just felt like personality wise.
I was like in a book romance.
I like a Jim.
And I found Tony felt immature.
Like he was sweet and cute.
I'm sure like in real life, maybe a better person, but like in a book, I'm like black, black, bad, bad, bad, bad, who can take, take care of her more.
Tony's gonna start a company with his partner.
Okay, wait, wait, Tony has a house.
Tony has property long island, but it has no house on it.
And there's no running water and there's no electricity.
Sarah, it's gonna be worth cut to 2020.
Sure.
It's worth five million dollars.
I don't think in 1955 that's super like you don't know that that it does wait.
This is 1955.
I thought this was just post World War one.
And now it's after World War two.
It's after World War two.
It's don't they talk about the Holocaust.
Yeah, they do.
The professor.
Yeah, was in the Holocaust.
Oh, yeah.
You're right.
Doesn't affect eyelash.
No, first of all, didn't think of it until someone says it to her and then she's just kind of like, oh.
Yeah.
And there actually is a weird amount of discussion in the book of like the Italians and the Jews.
I wish I could tell them apart.
Yeah.
It's kind of and I get it is of the time, but it's like this was also written in 2009 and it feels a little like I get it.
All right.
It's not like it was about its historical accuracy.
But I do think we did a lot of research in it from the BBC.
There was a lot of there was an odd amount of there was a lot of historical accuracy in the at least in the research.
I think maybe that's why I can't like it.
No one like it.
But like the stuff because you know they spent so long in the pantyhose.
Well, apparently that was all accurate and there was a lot of description of pantyhose and how they were now making it for black people.
So some.
What about the boat?
Oh, now I do remember that part about the pantyhose thing.
I've had a good research about the boat.
Remember when I literally is the only idiot in the dining room.
Like being a six-course meal and it's like where is everyone and then bomb it's all.
Yeah, very funny.
It's funny, but it was also super unpleasant to read.
It was that was actually perhaps the only little interesting tidbit in the book which feels like it might be historically accurate, which is the third class cabins.
Would share a bathroom between them and that the one cabin would go in and lock the door.
Yeah, I believe that they had a private bathroom.
I've got that that was this book.
I was so long as the beginning.
There's just like the movie Triangle of Sadness.
I think I conflated the two.
Oh, yeah, that is two parts in it too.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, so Eilish, after she has the six-course mutton meal, gets back to the cabin, the door is still locked.
She's of course Eilish about it, so she's like, "How'd we plight?"
And she waits like six hours and then suddenly she's like, "You know, she has to pee and she has to...
She has a movement in her bowels."
And so she walks down the hallway until she finds some poor janitorial workers closet, finds a big bucket,
pees and it wipes herself with the dirt.
Oh, yeah.
She wipes herself with a mop.
Have you ever gripped, gripped, gripped, dry?
Okay, anything better than a fucking mop?
That must have been the shater.
She must have had a new tie.
I bet she also pooped in it.
She doesn't say that she shits in the bucket, but we have to.
I have to.
But like, tell us that she's shat in the bucket, so we don't think there's absolutely no reason that she's using a dirty mop.
To clean herself.
Why?
It's just Irish people in the fifties, guys.
Let's take what I have to say.
Can I quickly about a little bit of a pee story?
How about it?
Yeah.
And it involves someone from the UK, so this might be a...
All right.
You want you, can you do it after the commercial break?
Yes, I do.
Okay, we're gonna...
Oh, it's a clip after the...
We'll be right back to the pee story after this commercial break.
And we're back.
Janna, please, the pee.
Okay.
So in college, I went to England for New Year's Eve one year for a couple weeks.
It was like a mini course credit thing.
It was a class that we took.
And on New Year's Eve, we were out.
And we were watching the ball drop.
And you...
They...
All the bars and restaurants on the street were closed, so there was nowhere to go to the bathroom at all.
And so I ducked into this alley and I was like, "Oh, please don't get arrested."
I might like fourth day in the UK for public indecency.
But I went to this alley and there was a British girl in the alley before me and she was also peeing.
And I was like, "Okay, this is fine then."
And she peed.
And then she found a scrap of toilet paper or something on the ground and she picked it up and she used it to wipe.
And I was really drunk and I still was like, "That's insane."
That's so crazy.
A scrap of willing garbage.
No, well, the Irish guy is so easily.
Yeah, so true.
Yeah.
Anyway, that stuck with me and I've forgotten most of college, but I guess I think about that in the long-drenching.
Okay.
Okay, no one was too impressed.
I heard.
I was a little bit impressed.
I was horrified.
Yeah.
Okay, okay.
Sarah knew it.
Because I think I visited Sarah and Ireland shortly after the pee and so yeah.
Sarah said, "I've been wiping myself with scraps on the street all the time I've been starting in a broad."
What a weird, weird place.
Ireland.
I just want to quick talk a little bit about the movie and book.
I know it's not all that I've watched it, but I just, again, because I really liked the movie.
I was like, "Wow, why is this book really not doing it for me?"
I think, well, first of all, Sarah should wrote them, you know?
Yeah.
So likable.
She could add so much to it.
She also had a lot more, her character, I think, was written to have a little more, to definitely have more agency.
Or to be like, maybe she starts out passive, but she's gross to have more agency in a way that was more pronounced than in the story.
Yeah, then in the book.
And there's things like she makes the decision to go back to, like the ending is a lot more, like, instead of just being like a, it was like, she makes the decision to go back.
I also don't think she cheats on Tony, but she definitely like flirts with him, but it's not like she's letting him fill her up and like making out.
Who is a good guy?
Who do you want her to end up with?
I think you want her to end up with Tony, but you also still really like Jim.
And I still think you still think Jim's hot.
Like you understand why it's a hard choice, but I think you're like, you do want her to go back to Tony.
I felt they also cut the brothers, they like simple, they just like simplified stuff.
And also she's like immediately in Brooklyn, like, it's like 10 minutes in, she's in Brooklyn, which is why again, I was surprised reading the book.
I was like, when is this fucking start?
And then it's like, she's in Brooklyn, she meets Tony.
Like it happens pretty quickly, whereas like, which to me is more of, she doesn't fight me for so long.
And that homesickness bit before I didn't like that it was like, then she meets a boy and everything's fine.
Like I didn't like that, but, but we're early in the book.
So I mean, I have bigger problems.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I actually think it was supposed to be that she's starting doing school and then feels better, which is also, which is even weirder.
Yeah, but she was still so depressed, remember?
Yeah, but remember she's at the dance and like, can you, didn't even like brush her hair?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.
But then she meets Tony, everything's fine.
She loves this Brooklyn.
And they have like a good chemistry, like in the movie, it's like, yeah, it just doesn't have chemistry.
It's interesting.
It's, it's much, but I really liked it.
Although, you know, I have to say in the book, I did get emotional in the last like scene with the mom and her when she was like, I married and the mom said like, I like, well, you married him.
Like, must be nice.
And then it's just like, don't say goodbye to me.
And it's just like, goes up to a room.
I don't know.
I just thought that mother was again, so that's why I thought she's such an interesting character because she was just like, I don't just like wildly like to me controlling, but still like had that touch of like, all right, I'll do like one nice thing for you, which is
give you direction here and tell you it's okay.
You married him, but like, I'm this is hard for me.
This is painful for me. Please don't talk to me now.
Like that, I thought that was like a very, that that really got me as like a mother daughter relationship kind of choice.
That's a good thing to point out.
I think that's also very human.
Yeah.
And it's such a true reaction that a mother, I think, would have to be like, especially a mother that wants to be controlling and hold on to their child.
And even sort of contrived this whole thing where she gets her back to Ireland, she gets her a job.
You know, she she ends up sort of being the machination behind like Jim reentering her life.
Is that how you say that?
Yeah, I think you did it.
Great.
Yeah, to sort of realize she's lost in such a huge way and is really like hurt by it.
She can't even yeah, she doesn't even have anything to say.
Yeah, she all that she can be like is like, you go just go back to it.
And then she's like, I have to go to my.
I can't even I can't even talk to you anymore.
I'm like, she must like, I imagine she went into a room and like screamed into her pillow or something after she does.
I am, I what I like about that section is that the mom says that and then I let you like, I felt so much like knocking on her door and saying goodbye to her.
But she said not just that long.
What the fuck could be a person?
Yeah, she also like, I let you seems like she's headed for a train wreck in a way that the narrative voice of the book doesn't recognize.
Because she's also when she's in Ireland, she's like, I'm going to stay for a few weeks longer.
Yeah.
And she has a job that has given her one month unpaid leave and she's literally like, I'm going to stay.
And when it gets time that I'm supposed to arrive back at the store, I'll just write them a letter and let them know that it's going to be a while long.
But everything, everything is gone away up till then.
So I understand why she's like, yeah, it's probably going to swing my lashes way.
I'll just play loose.
Everything's going to come up.
It was all something I just remembered along those lines was like, so she's working at this store.
The preskissor into the school she becomes an accountant or whatever.
And the store is immediately like, oh yeah, in a couple of months, we'll have an opening for you to be an accountant.
It's like, what the fuck is going to murder the entire thing?
Yeah, that's the other thing.
It seems like she actually did well in school, like kind of enjoyed it.
And then like she has this moment in the book where she's like, I married Tony.
I guess I have to go move out the Long Island, have babies.
I guess I can't have a job anymore.
And I was like, this is sad.
Like you spend so much time for her to like seem to be reaching above and beyond.
Like she's only female in her Brooklyn College class.
And like, I don't know.
Like, oh, she seems she's striving in some way, even if it's like everything's being handed to her.
It's still like she's still doing something maybe impressive for the time.
But then she's like, but I guess I'll just go babies.
But we don't even know how she feels about that really.
She just seemed like it's like she just extended it.
She's just like, yeah, so then that happens.
I thought her thoughts ended with her being like, maybe I could do the book she did.
She did the company Tony starting anyway.
Yeah, it was just like, yeah, maybe they'll let me do play with numbers with their thing when they're in their free time.
I don't know.
So maybe Tony, let me have a count.
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
The gentlemen in your lives let you work, let you have calculators that you do.
I don't want to get it.
Yeah, I don't want any math.
I don't want any accounting in my life at all. The fact that I have to look at my bank account sometimes and watch that number go down.
I'd rather have babies until you've never looked at my bank account.
I need to look at it far more often because there's certainly things that I subscribe to that I should have canceled.
I just canceled my pret coffee subscription today.
I'm really proud of my gradulations.
Is that if you visit pret a mongi stores, you get a special price for your coffee?
No, it's it was actually it was a pretty good deal when I started when I started it was 24.95 a month.
Okay.
For up to five coffees a day.
Wow.
It's desperate.
And what's the one thing you've been to a print?
Well, there's a print right downstairs.
My office.
Okay.
And my office, the commute, it's like 50 minutes.
So carrying my contigo was something I was like, I'm over this.
I care about the environment, but not enough to carry a contigo all day.
That's a good deal actually.
No, I will.
Is the copy up there?
I'll bring it to $40.
So I bring it to $40.
I understand that.
Yeah.
And is the coffee a prep good?
I've never heard of it being as spoken of as a good coffee.
That's why it's not Duncan.
It's fine.
It's a lot of coffee in New York and Brooklyn.
It's never the one that I coffee.
The ice coffee is not bad.
Ice cream tea.
I actually really like.
I would get a lot of those.
With that count was that count.
Yeah.
Actually, yeah, I wouldn't have canceled that.
I would re-subscribed.
What are you doing?
Yeah, I wasn't using it.
I've actually really cut back on coffee because I started drinking the Celsius drinks, which
I thought was like somewhere between green tea and coffee.
And I was so wrong.
It's like more caffeine than a monster and more than a red bull.
It's like, I've been doing cocaine all day basically because it's 200 milligrams of caffeine.
And I was not always having just one.
That's different though.
Sabrina, you got an ADHD.
It caffeine affects you differently.
I don't, I think you're fine.
Go ahead, do it.
I felt really good every day.
I was having that.
At least one every day.
Sometimes in addition to coffee, sometimes in addition to other Celsius drinks.
I can have caffeine and then take a nap.
It's just not the, it's, I think your, I can also do that.
I can do that.
Get a stomach ache.
I get a stomach ache in time.
Yeah, well, you got to eat.
I think that's maybe part of it.
Yeah, you really know that it affected you differently.
It does.
My psychiatrist says if you're taking Adderall, you should probably not be taking, or if you're taking,
you shouldn't, if you're taking caffeine in Adderall, you need to be aware because it's going to be,
you shouldn't be doing, probably shouldn't be doing both.
I haven't taken ADHD medicine since pandemic.
I've been doing it for a couple of years.
instead of caffeine and beer, it's caffeine and wine,
it's called "buckfest."
- Yeah. (laughing)
- And it's banned from,
you can't bring it into bars
'cause people go crazy on "buckfest."
- Delicious.
We should outside.
(upbeat music)
- All right, here's Darwin eight years.
- Review, good reads review.
He or she, they say,
sometimes you read a book because you want to be overloaded.
You want a pro's whirlwind.
You want maximalism and fractals and end-known sitecos,
you want to feel lost and found buried and redeemed.
But this isn't that book.
This is a book you read because you want serenity, peace,
careful beauty.
You want quiet control.
You are seeking a beautiful story told beautifully.
This is a violin solo and a ballet.
- Five stars. - Sometimes you want.
- Really good pros and sometimes you want simple.
- I mean, I don't know.
- I can see the, I mean, not much happens.
So I guess if you did just want to be like,
I don't know, maybe this could have helped,
I could see this helping your migraine,
Johnna, did you get it?
- I can't even follow this person.
- All right, all right, all right, all right, fair.
All right, here's Johnna Thins review.
He says, context is a crucial element understand
for reading any text.
Or in the case of this review,
the context in which I read Brooklyn.
This is important because in the last six months,
I have been inactive on good reads due to five major reasons.
The first is that I moved to the country
at the start of the year.
The second is that I became a provisionally registered
English teacher.
The third is that on June 25th,
I married my beautiful wife.
The fourth is that I have been busy
as a result of the previous three.
The fifth however, is that during my few moments
of free time began writing consistently
on the concept for a novel.
And also have taken to blogging over at
jtaritan22.blogspot.com.
It is in this context that I found myself
cooking up Brooklyn as a year 12 VCE English text.
Upon reading through it, I found myself impressed
by the manner of its construction
and the variety of the themes it tackles.
Five stars.
I really liked the twist of context is important.
I thought we're going to get some historical context
or something in my life when I was reading the book.
I was stupid.
So I liked it.
I was happening.
It was just so funny and then he named
drops his blog.
I don't know what killed me.
I was like, this is a really funny review.
Loved it.
Yeah.
Well, look at the good reads.
That's a classic.
Good reads, five stars.
Very good.
Lot of personality in both of those reviewers, which
was a nice break from the book.
The book.
Sure, sure, sure.
Do you guys want to do hate rates?
Let's do.
I do.
OK.
All right, I'm going to go one out of five.
Wow.
One is because it gets one point for not being like nightmare
fodder, like some of our books, but it loses four points
for being pointless and boring.
And I don't even know if it felt long.
I don't know if this was actually long.
It wasn't.
It was actually my shorter than most of our books.
Basically a novella.
It felt really long.
I agree.
Yeah.
It was hard to get into it for me.
Like, I got 13 pages in for a long time.
You know, then it was like a week went by.
I'd be like, I'm 14 pages.
But this book did not inspire hate in me in any way, which
that's when you're going to get the low ratings for me.
Because it's probably--
Because it's boring to--
--into a sterile state.
Yeah.
So extinct.
Yeah, it was just very neutral.
It was kind of calming.
It was like listening to a meditation app.
And so when I listened to it on my way to the library
to return its soft-bodied cousin, OK?
That was weird.
Weird way to try a physical book, but OK.
You know, I was just very relaxed.
I was listening to their little Irish lits.
And I didn't mind that.
So I'm going to give it a four and a half out of five.
Oh, holy shit.
That's right.
It was nothing.
It's just nothing.
It's not-- didn't make me mad.
It didn't make me feel any zero.
It's not your rating.
Is Sabrina?
No, I was just saying nothing is a zero.
She has a pretty good point there.
I know.
We said we didn't like math.
It's fine.
If that's four--
All right.
She didn't know four out of five.
All right.
Sabrina?
I was going to give it a one out of five for being short.
But then as Clara pointed out,
it felt really bad.
And also, I'm pretty convinced that my computer was so upset
to be listening to discussion about this book
that it went crazy.
I've never seen a computer do this.
Popping noise was made.
And then--
This is crazy.
--it was like from the '80s, little pink square.
And then I just got my computer's checkered all over the screen forever.
But like, I got my phone out to record it.
And then it went black because it didn't want to be caught.
And so I don't think I can give it any points.
I think I have to give it at least negative one.
Because now, I don't even have my recording anymore.
Sabrina, is this the same computer that's been giving you trouble
since the podcast began?
No, I bought a new computer.
So confused.
Yeah.
What computer do you buy?
Books fault.
I bought--
You're doing these computers.
--I bought the newest version of the Mac book.
That's interesting.
Whatever.
It's the books fault.
All right.
OK.
Clara's right.
You see, negative one was that?
Always.
Was that what you ended up on?
Negative one.
OK.
So points for this book.
It was short so that you get to point there.
I lived in Ireland for six months.
And I just felt like in some ways I was
like love hearing about Ireland.
So I get to point for that.
What about Brooklyn?
Where you live?
That's not really where.
It's not how I really related more to the Irish parts
than the Brooklyn part.
You lived in Ireland of the 1950s, but you lived in Brooklyn
in the 2010s.
I've been to Coney Island.
I just-- the Irish-- the Irish Sea is going to win every time.
I-- so that's good to point again.
I did think Jim was hot, so that felt--
that was pretty hot.
I got to get to point for that.
And also, this book reminded me of a movie, which I loved.
It wasn't--
Did it remind you of the movie?
It reminded me of the movie.
I'm so interesting.
In that I was like, I really--
This is not-- it was like this book is not as good as a movie,
but I might rent it.
Like I might rent it tonight and watch it again.
I really like that movie.
So 4 out of 5 for me.
Jeez.
Yeah, make sure--
Make sure I add tonight.
Real make sure I add tonight.
Yeah, I just surprised that this inspired low ratings,
I guess, because it's so nothing.
What?
Well, I don't know how many times we
have to tell you that nothing is zero, zero, zero is--
I don't know.
[LAUGHTER]
All right.
I mean, it's Sabrina's point.
I don't mean to steal it, but it's--
No, no.
She needs to keep hearing it, so--
I see how the alliances are forming.
As we go into Little Fucker, I see.
Mm-hmm.
I guess.
Yeah, there is the people who voted
as they had spoken the whole time.
[LAUGHTER]
Then the people who surprisingly were like, really good.
Yeah, fine.
[LAUGHTER]
I think.
I forgot to mention one thing.
I just want to say real quick, which is there's a moment
in the book where they talk about what
it was like to make fun of people old-timey style.
And there's a character named Nellie Kelly,
and they go like, oh, that's a real name,
but the nuns used to get mad at us
because we were called her by a different name.
And the characters like what name is that?
They're like, Nettles Kelly.
And it's like, I wish Stere silently and takes this in,
which is how I assume how she responds to everything.
[LAUGHTER]
Oh, yeah.
Nellie Kelly is funny with the Nettles Kelly.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Your name already sucks.
You don't have to do a thing.
Yeah.
Six on Vosie in front of it.
Smelly Nellie Kelly.
Oh, beautiful.
Yeah.
There we go.
So Sarah was a female version of Nellie Kelly.
Yes.
Yeah.
The way that came email.
Part two, that's how you knew I liked you.
If I was mean to you.
That's still how we know.
It's still how we know.
OK, again.
But we are at-- this is the season finale.
This is the season finale.
Little fucker.
Sorry.
Negative five.
I'm just meant for the last little fucker of the cast.
So--
No, I know.
But this book just doesn't deserve to be the season finale.
It doesn't-- yeah, you're right.
Yeah.
How does it look?
You gave it a full one and a half.
Right.
I am thinking back to that.
I'm trying to get this one.
It's not deserved.
I thought it was to be the finale.
It was a great episode.
Should we do one more?
I thought it was a great episode.
I think it was fun talk about--
Yeah, we were good in it.
Well, no, the book.
It's a well-known book.
People watch the movie if you haven't.
Yeah, I think it was great.
I think we did great five stars on us.
Yeah, we did great.
Of course, we made a good episode.
But it's just like how we have to go out
after reading them boring things.
Well, what I'm saying is, do we do one more?
We don't go out on this.
Johnny, you're having a child soon.
You can't.
All right.
You can't.
You do not--
Something to think about.
But right now, we have to choose a little fucker.
Unless--
Yeah, I don't know.
OK, yeah.
Well, I complimented Clara and said she was right.
And she said always.
I didn't like that.
Ridiculous.
But I think I didn't like more Sarah's sort of denial
and cast offishness about living in Brooklyn.
And she forgot.
She ever lived here.
And then when we reminded, she was like, oh, yeah, that time.
That wasn't even anything.
That was nothing.
I barely even think of it.
Yeah.
So hey.
And it was the most highly investigatory.
I'm going to invest in my life.
So I'm going to put Sarah Littlefucker
for silencing Brooklyn and silencing
that period of our friendship when we live together.
Wow.
Yeah.
All right.
That's a good vote.
Yeah.
That's crazy to me since--
Don't know why he had to put a dig on me.
But--
I came out on a game.
Somehow.
That's crazy.
That's a crazy vote.
Yeah.
You didn't run across my core crux tonight, Sabrina.
Wow.
Sorry, I didn't hurt her experience in Brooklyn of going
to church and dance's Dodgers games.
I didn't relate to it.
Sorry about that.
We literally told the story of going to a baseball game
when we were talking about it.
That's in the Dodgers game.
Now I go to Dodgers games and they're in LA.
Wow.
It actually really seems like you could have related.
I'm so many left.
[LAUGHTER]
I don't know who to vote for.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's hard.
I know that it's not Clara, but I also--
Thank you.
It's just not you, for sure.
Yeah, I'm amazing.
Like my main driver for wanting to vote for both of you
is your insane rating of this book.
Like you talk a big game about how much the sucked
how this character totally sucked.
And then you give it a really high rating.
Like, who even are you?
I guess I don't know.
I'm--
Look.
The kid--
Sarah gave me that really good part
to read for the summary.
So and Johnna led me down the road
of calling the main character Ellis instead of Ilus.
So I think for those reasons it's going
to be Johnna for me.
I mean, and actually, predominantly, it is the vote.
I just couldn't distinguish between the two of you
for your ranking.
So I had to think of who did more for me.
And it was Sarah.
OK.
I did forget Sarah and I were in an alliance and sort of a team.
So I do regret my--
That was also why it was here.
Yeah, it was.
It's weird that I did that.
Yeah, I regret that a lot.
But I mean, I don't know who--
I know that the more I wait, the more my vote matters,
but I don't know who to vote for.
I don't know.
I mean, yeah.
I think because Johnna, we were in an alliance
and then Johnna turned on me.
I'm going to--
Yeah, exactly.
I feel weird about that.
Like, I feel I wish I hadn't made that vote.
I wish I had stuck with my god and said Clara.
Like, she was the first person to come to mind.
I said Clara.
And then I just pivoted.
Really hard to you out of nowhere.
And I regret that.
I'm sorry.
Well, it's happened.
It's all happened.
OK.
Clara, go ahead.
Well, it's not going to be Johnna because she didn't pick--
Yeah.
It's not going to be Sabrina because of the nice things
she just said.
OK.
So it is Sarah.
I mean, I guess that only have a couple of reasons for it,
which is in the outline, we have established that doing
the author and then the book.
Is that what you did in the outline?
Did you do the author and then the book?
No.
So I don't like that format.
I don't like that format of the outline.
OK.
Well, I have a way I like the outline and you did it differently.
And then I guess you brought up your study abroad a lot.
And I didn't study abroad and it made me a little jealous.
So is Sarah.
And I know Johnna did it too, but it was--
Johnna brought up hers as well, but it was just a--
seemed like a shorter--
It was the P story.
So it's not like anything.
And it was a shorter trip, wasn't a whole semester.
But it seemed like it was a really nice time, made you light,
really like the whole thing.
Yeah, I joined the comedy society when I was--
I'm in Trinity.
It was really fun.
What does--
Does that sound fun?
So now it's Sarah and I feel good about the choice.
It's Sarah.
OK.
So there's a split between me and Sarah,
which is we're back in an alliance.
I guess it was a split.
Hard to say.
You voted for each other.
Yeah, there's no tiebreaker even, really,
because you voted for each other.
There's nothing we can do for each other.
Well, Sabrina voted for me.
Well, that's the season.
It's Sabrina vote for Johnna?
What?
I voted for Johnna.
So Johnna's little fucker.
No, goddammit, she's not in the split.
No.
Yeah, but that's fun.
All right, fine.
Johnna and Sarah, little fucker, something cast.
Yay, friends again.
So fucked up for us.
All right, guys.
We are Mean Book Club.
Please join our Patreon, Becoming Patron.
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We are things sent to you.
Also, please rate, review our podcast
so more people can find us.
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Five stars.
Yeah, five stars, please.
You don't want anything less.
And you can say whatever you want.
It can be really mean--
Give the fucking stars.
--and then go ahead into the review
if you have comments, criticisms, and--
As mean as you want.
As nasty as you want.
Five stars.
Or as nice as you want, your choice.
Your choice.
Yeah.
But don't be nice and do one star.
Don't do that.
That'll piss us off.
It's done.
Don't get mixed up.
Do the five stars.
Yes.
And it's like, I had-- fuck.
All right, it's gone.
There's something else I was going to say, but I lost it, so--
There's also a Patreon bonus episode,
so you can still sign up for the Patreon
and get that one as well, and then you'll get two bonus episodes.
Yeah.
And probably more.
Probably more.
I think we're--
Yeah, well, yeah, for this season.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Probably more.
We have a new review, do you guys want to--
Oh, excellent.
--to be in fire.
Yes, Sabrina.
Yes, yes.
Let's go.
Lozoo, hi.
Five stars.
The title of the review is Funny Hosts.
And she says, this is one of the few podcasts
that I actually laugh out loud at the host jokes.
My children--
Hey!
--are amazing, but it's great.
And now I've started reading the books along with them, so it's fun.
I'm so sorry about that.
Hey, it's so much.
That's so nice of you reading the books along with us is hard, but--
Yeah, but maybe--
I wouldn't--
--but maybe some podcast, even--
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
More validating?
Probably clearer.
I think we don't always explain the book that much.
Yeah, that's fair.
That's fair.
You understand what's the book?
Yeah, it might be vague.
We might speak vaguely.
I think we're great.
Well, if these people did better jobs of writing books,
we could do better jobs of clarifying what happens.
Certainly, certainly.
All right.
And we do a really good--
Yeah, well, congratulations on season 16.
Send us your recs.
We did it.
To the listeners, send us your recs for next season.
MeanBookClub@gmail.com.
We love to hear them.
Goodness-- and how you describe the book,
and whether you're not you attach a link that it's a New York
Times best seller does sway us whether we pick it.
So--
Now you know--
It's harder for us to find it than you might think.
Yeah.
Because we're lazy.
Yeah, because we're lazy.
We're reading a book a week, people.
We can't be looking up if it's a New York Times best seller.
Yeah, please.
It is the thing that we set up to do and promise today.
It's so annoying.
It's OK.
We didn't promise to book it up.
The fame has gone to our heads.
We can't be bothered.
The New York Times website is not easily
searchable, and it is not--
It's really not--
Not user friendly, so.
Yeah.
All right.
Help us.
All right, guys.
So much fun.
See you next--
I guess, bonus episode or next season.
See you next season.
Bye.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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A