SPOILER ALERT: Dinna read unless you have read (and loved...and scratched your head majorly at) "A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows".
WTF, Y'all?!?!?!
I am confused. AND LOVING IT. But confused. Am I correct in assuming that Diana has TOLD US THAT ROGER WENT THROUGH with Buck in Echo....and went back too far...and somehow knew his father was hiding....and helped him get back through the stones to his own time?!?!
Here's what I loved: Here Dad, take one of my gemstones... I've got a bunch here in my satchel.
And why didn't they go through WITH him?? Or - not WITH him, to the 1940s - but right AFTER him to the 1960s?? Why would they have stayed behind??? Maybe just because those people were chasing them and they wanted Jerry to get safely through... and couldna go at the same thing. And what were those hillbillies speaking?? It wasn't the Gaelic... because Jerry knew/had some. Holy shit - maybe...no wait, never mind. I was going to say "maybe they were in another country" but duh... they went through in Scotland.
The ending baffled me. And only because I'm anal and once I've made up my mind to something, I have a hard time veering away from it. Like...didn't Marjorie DROP Roger in the tube station during the raid? In this, she handed him UP to Jerry. Maybe Roger just forgot (the kid was what, TWO at the time? Seems to me his memory wasn't the best. Or maybe MY memory isn't the best, which is entirely possible...and why I occasionally put things like stuffed animals in the refrigerator or the milk in a cabinet... but I digress.)
WHAT AN AMAZING READ. I miss new Diana/Outlander so much it hurts me to the core of my being.
And how sweet was FRANK to Roger and Marjorie when he came to visit?? Because he felt guilty, y'all. GUILTY FRANK - what a new concept...NOT. I was cracking up like "See? Even MARJORIE HATES FRANK". LOL Kidding...I get it, I get it. He's a good soul, even though I want him to be nothing more than a womanizing cheater.
SOOOOOOOOOO - shall we expect Roger and Buck to be missing in Book 8 because they're wandering around Scotland in some past century? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW!!!!!
PS - CONGRATULATIONS to Lesley who just had a baby a week ago!! And I have to throw out another CONGRATULATIONS to our other friend and new mom, ANGELA, who I am way overdue in congratulating on the blog! We wish you and your new babies all the best and hope they grow up to be Outlander fans! :)
Thank god you read it already. Sheeesh.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that Roger & Buck were not alone in...Northumbria or Scotland or wherever. Roger couldn't go with Jerry because he couldn't risk existing in two places. Why he didn't keep Jerry...I don't know. Unless it would've endangered him and thus endangered whatever mission he was on (had to be Gem or Mandy or Bree related, right?)
I don't know for sure, but I recall Roger's mom throwing him up, not dropping him, but that means nothing. Maybe someone remembers where that part was and can clarify.
The other thing I want to refresh on is: what exactly did Roger hear when he heard his father's voice that time he almost died going through the stones?
Was that not the coolest short story ever?!
To clarify-I meant Roger couldn't risk existing twice in the same spot which his father would most certainly be returning to. I think. But I'm confused, too (-:
ReplyDeleteOK, this is how I remember it - for whatever it's worth :)
ReplyDeleteRoger's mom threw him up and over a low wall, but down to where the other people were standing on the platform, below the landing on the part of the stairs where she was. (And now we know that she wasn't just heaving him over to some random stranger - how cool is that?) Because then the roof fell in from above and killed everyone that was up there with her and her mom.
North, I think you're right about Roger not being able to go to 1940 with his dad - he can't cross his own life while time traveling.
AND... I know the reason that Roger and Buck didn't end up in the 1700s with little Jem, but that explanation involves a fairly major book 8 spoiler that I read over on compuserve, so I'll just leave it at that. If you really want to know - check it out over there. (Carol, you know I'm a spoiler queen, hehehehe)
My thing is, obviously Frank knew who Roger was when they met him at the Reverend's house at the beginning of Outlander. AND, he knew about Jerry, WHO ALSO DISAPPEARED NEAR SOME STANDING STONES (see, Carol, you're not the only one who can type in all caps!) Anyway, doesn't this mean that he might have 'believed' Claire's story - if only a little bit - and researched it enough to know stuff that he was gonna tell Bree in that crazy letter she found???? So, once again, the question is - what did Frank know and when did he know it?
Roger's mom threw him down to Jerry. Looking at the story again, Jerry was looking up at the growing crack in the ceiling. As his eyes made their way back down from the ceiling, he saw Dolly on the stairs. Dolly then lifted Roger over the railing and tossed him down to Jerry. Roger's telling of this incident is in Chapter 98 of TFC, :-)
ReplyDeleteDiane in GA
Looks like ChristieH and I were typing at the same time! :-) Definitely go read the thread about this story on Compuserve. That cleared up a few things for me and I didn't even have to post anything!
ReplyDeleteDiane in GA
There's LOTS of fodder for speculation in this story, that's for sure!!
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see more in-depth discussion and speculation about "Leaf" and what it all means, go here to see the main discussion thread on Compuserve. You're all welcome to come and join in the discussion there, if you want to.
One interesting tidbit from that discussion: Diana says the Author's Note at the end is "a Clue", intended to let readers know that Jerry traveled to a year prior to 1752, when the calendar changed.
I would also recommend re-reading the following relevant bits from the OUTLANDER books:
FIERY CROSS chapter 98 ("Clever Lad"), starting p. 859 in the hardcover - this is the scene where Roger tells Bree the story of what happened when his mother was killed.
ECHO chapter 21 ("The Minister's Cat"), starting on p. 227 - this is Claire's story about what happened to Jerry.
Karen
P.S. If you are concerned about Book 8 spoilers, just avoid reading post number 187 in that thread! I think everything else in the thread is just speculation based on what we see in "Leaf". And I wouldn't want anyone to be scared off of reading a very interesting discussion because one post in it just happens to refer to something in Book 8. (No, I haven't read that particular message, so I have no idea what the spoiler is, nor do I want to find out!)
ReplyDeleteKaren
Jeez Louise. I wait for DAYS for Carol to finish the story, and go to bed without checking the blog ONE NIGHT, and wake up--and rather early, I add--and there's already a post and several comments!!! Dang--things happen quickly in Purgatory! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI second/third/whatever the recommendations to go over and read the Leaf thread on CS--lots of great insight.
So yeah, I would have totally lost the bet of "Did Roger actually go back." And Carol, re: why didn't R/B go back with Jerry--I just assumed that at this point, they're still looking for Jem. I think the consensus on CS is that they've only recently arrived themselves and that perhaps they aren't even sure what time period it is (??). And they have no way of knowing that Jem DIDN'T go through, so I didn't really expect them to go back at that point.
So am I the only one who completely, totally loves the team that is Roger and Buck? OMG I want there to be a TV show where they fight 18th century crime. They're like Starsky and Hutch meet The Odd Couple.
Christie: the question at the end of your post (So, once again, the question is - what did Frank know and when did he know it?) is by FAR my biggest takeaway of the story. I kept wondering--was Jerry the only pilot that went down? Were there others that had this sort of Bermuda Triangle experience? Was THAT the reason (and not the whole "take pictures of the camps" thing) that the mission was kept so secret? And if the answer to any or all of those questions was yes, WHAT DID FRANK KNOW???
Also Christie--I wondered the same thing re: Frank at Rev. Wakefield's house. DID he realize who the five year old asleep in the chair was???
OMG, Book 8 JUST. GOT. INTERESTING.
This is so much fun! Do you think DG could maybe give us a 40 page side story ohh, say.... once every month? :) I keep saying I want a Frank story , there is so much about him we don't know.
ReplyDeletePost Scriptum: Aunt Helen having surgery tomorrow - hopefully she will have a speedy recovery.
Well, I have no idea what the deal is with Roger and stuff.... I didn't even know it was him. I just finished a breath of snow and Ashes and I'm buying echo tomorrow. So idk. But I'd like to ask you if you felt like at some point Diana gave too much info about world war two. I almost felt like it made it a lot less tragic in the end, if you remember I sent you that story but just that one night and it was from marjories point of view? I think mine was just a lot more heart wrenching, but with this one I was like "what? What happened?" idk if that was because I haven't read echo or what but yeah. I liked it a lot. Jerry is exactly how I imagined him. The whole time I was bashing on stupid frank.... I'm sorry, I just don't care about him. Haha. I really liked that story though, Diana never ceases to please.
ReplyDelete-miranda
@miranda The deal with Roger is that this story picked up a cliffhanger from Echo. So, just keep reading. It will make more sense after you finish Echo. :-)
ReplyDeleteDiane in GA
Carol-thanks for the shout out girlie! So nice of you! I still have to get this book. Excited to read!
ReplyDelete@Tracey - I like the Roger/Buck duo, too! I like it when Roger is in action, DOING SOMETHING rather than reacting to all that has happened to him. I hate it when he gets all contemplative and theological (is that a word?). I think Buck will be good for him in, as you said, an odd-couple way!
ReplyDeleteFrank may have known who the very young Roger was, simply because he sent his father to his 'death' with regards to the mission. There is NO way (unless Frank was a traveller himself) that he could have had ANY idea that Roger was going to grow up, travel through time on several occasions, and save his own father so he (in turn) could save young Roger ....... Let us be honest here, his reaction to Claire's claims were of complete, utter and total disbelief. Not a nanogram of belief did he possess. Perhaps later on, as he pieced things together (remember he's a historian himself) he may have come to suspect what happened to Jerry and Claire, but at the time?? No way. Even with the body missing from the wreckage, there would have been no reason to suspect that Jerry got sucked through a time vortex to random-era Northumberland (the odd language isn't an issue when you consider how difficult it is to understand Northumbrian even today if the accent is broad enough, and that is with decades of regular exposure to SP through modern media - and I'm from there!!)
ReplyDeleteMy two cents for they're worth: I think the underlying reason why Frank brought M. the metal was because he liked her. We know from previous stories that Frank cheated on Claire before and after...
ReplyDelete