Last night I accidentally arrived an hour early to meet friends for dinner. I went for a walk around the neighborhood and found another branch of our local library! (Yes, I still made it to dinner, but it was a close thing.)
So I have in hand two novels by two of my favorite authors — but I have never read these books and don’t know anything more about them than I can find on the cover flaps. Let’s have some fun with the Lenormand! Chris Bohjalian and Barbara Kingsolver, you are the next contestants on “is the Lenormand right?”
Before You Know Kindness, by Chris Bohjalian
The flap on this book implies that there is an accident involving a gun in the course of the story. So my questions for the Lenormand are, who gets shot? who commits the accidental shooting? what is the outcome for the family? Three cards, in that order: the Stork, the Lily, the Garden. So who gets shot? The Stork card also shows a tiny inset of the Queen of Hearts. This card seems to represent a woman, possibly a mother, but in any case a woman who is very warmhearted and loving, and who is well loved. Who commits the accidental shooting? The Lily tends to represent a male, often an older male, and inset on this card is the King of Spades. I think the shooter was a male who has often been the scapegoat in the family, but who truly did not mean to commit this particular act. Someone who does not normally reveal his true self on the outside. Finally, how will this act affect the family? The Garden. It will bring them together all in one place, literally and figuratively. They will have to meet each other — and maybe meet each other in a more true sense, as in learning more about who each of them really is.
Update for Before You Know Kindness: I started reading this…and discovered in the first few pages that my first two cards were utterly wrong. Or maybe sarcastic! There is still some hope for the third card, though.
Final update for Before You Know Kindness: I finished the book! Last card, correct. So, 33% accuracy on this one. Now, onward to The Lacuna!
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
The cover flap for this book says that the main character is Harrison Shepherd. And he has an exciting journey ahead of him (to put what the cover flap says in a nutshell). For The Lacuna, I am going to consider The Man as a significator for Mr. Shepherd, shuffle, and then use the “opening the book” method of reading the cards, spreading the cards out to see where in my shuffling The Man ended up, and what cards fall most closely before and after him.
Now, the problem with this method is, how do you know where to stop in reading the cards that come after the Man? I stopped when I came to the Anchor. Just before the Man, we have: the Key, the Woman, the Clouds. So I take it Harrison has a clouded past involving a woman, and that it’s weighing on him as we begin the book. That’s somehow the key to his character. Following the Man we have: Fox, Rider, Mice, Tree, Bear, Clover, Ship, Anchor. Interesting that the Anchor so closely follows the Ship! I think that Harrison gets a job (Fox) involving moving around and carrying messages, or a job that is in some way connected with communication — could be journalism, but there are other possibilities, like working as a spy, or handling communications for the military. But the point here is that he is likely to traffic in words/information in some way. Some way that causes him to have to be a bit crafty and use his wits, like a fox. The mice I connect with theft. Will he meet a thief? Will something be stolen from him? Will he become a thief? At the center of these eight cards we have the tree and the bear. Health, strength, protection. Perhaps he comes into his own at this point, finding his ability to be strong, to stand up (like a tree) for others. Perhaps he puts down roots in a place and stands up for the people there, trying to protect them. If so, I think he may have a little luck with that (Clover), but eventually must move on (Ship) before finding his ultimate destination (Anchor).
Have you read these two books? Would you like to weigh in on my interpretation? Please comment below! I haven’t read either of these books yet and it may take me a while (I have other things ahead of them on my reading list at the moment, too!), but I will be sure to post a follow up after I read the books — we’ll see how accurate these cards were!
Quiet Mystic 