Week Four of Sound of the Mountain

We are in the final week of Sound of the Mountain.

Our meeting is scheduled for next Thursday, 8 May, at 7PM.

Mary is over half-way through the book, Jack and Jeremy are somewhere around a third through it, I haven't heard from others.

How is everyone else doing?

There are a couple of relationships that are juxtaposed to one another in the book, Im thinking of these pairs:

• Shingo and his son, regarding "success"
• Kikuko and the mistress, regarding their pregnancies
• Shingo's son and daughter, regarding their relationships with their spouses, and how Shingo sees/interacts with their spouses

Some other things I'm thinking about and may do some googling:

• What do the different flowers and trees signify to Shingo?
• Is the relationship between Shingo and Kikuko inappropriate?
• Why the dog? why the snake? why the birds? do these mean anything?

I'm very much interested in hearing what folks think about this novel, and about whether we want to read around the globe or read "closer to home".

With this entry, we've read from England, America, Columbia, and Japan.  Should we keep working around the globe?  Should we try some non-fiction?

I would like folks to shoot me comments about your reading experiences with Sound of the Mountain, or about how you feel about the club selections so far, and where you might like to see the club selections going in the future.