Speaker 1: So we are deep in the middle of a story
Speaker 1: about anger and sadness. But do not worry. We are
Speaker 1: here for you. We're all in this together. Friends. I'm
Speaker 1: Dana Schwartz. This is Popcorn Book Club from My Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: and as always I am joined by Jennifer Wright, Crawmadan,
Speaker 1: Qua Tiantran and Melissa Hunter. Today we're continuing on our
Speaker 1: discussion of I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb,
Speaker 1: now a series on HBO. This week we finally get
Speaker 1: a peek into Domenico's memoirs and they are something Oh
Speaker 1: my stupid wife who I love, Oh my god, my
Speaker 1: soulmate never gave me any sons. So my line ends
Speaker 1: with me and my stupid daughter, who is annoying and
Speaker 1: is a burden upon me. This is part three of
Speaker 1: our conversation, So if you haven't listened to parts one
Speaker 1: and two yet, go ahead and start there. Don't worry.
Speaker 1: This episode will be waiting for you when you catch up.
Speaker 1: Trust me, we're not going anywhere. We've talked about. Thomas
Speaker 1: sort of has that that origin of what dominic usus
Speaker 1: is schizophrenia. The summer after freshman year, Thomas then drops
Speaker 1: out of school is drafted, fails the psychiatric exam of
Speaker 1: the draft. They go to McDonald and that's really where
Speaker 1: Dominic I think, Let's allows himself to see for the
Speaker 1: first time how um, how affected his brother has become
Speaker 1: by his his mental disorder. And and they mentioned that
Speaker 1: that's when when Thomas is committed for the first time.
Speaker 1: But we sort of get a series of incidents. We
Speaker 1: get I think he literally has a tinfoil on his
Speaker 1: head watching TV. He's he's talking erratically, he dates um,
Speaker 1: Angie does his system. And there's a strange event where
Speaker 1: where Angie I'm so sorry that I'm gonna say these words,
Speaker 1: where Angie talks about how she breaks up with him
Speaker 1: because he's weird, because he comes while she reads the
Speaker 1: stories of murdered saints, like the violent stories and murdered saints, uh,
Speaker 1: which she just thinks, it's like, oh, that's so gross
Speaker 1: and weird, but it's clearly a symptom, a sign of
Speaker 1: his h descended to mental illness. I'm wondering if Angie
Speaker 1: just didn't even have the language for how traumatic that was.
Speaker 1: So like gross and weird was the only thing that
Speaker 1: she could use to describe how like disturbing and traumatic.
Speaker 1: That must have been to the experiencing that. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting that Angie says I just want
Speaker 1: a normal boyfriend and then starts dating Leo. It's also
Speaker 1: like if anyone has if you guys have sisters, um,
Speaker 1: the idea that like, yeah, like I'm competitive with my sister,
Speaker 1: and like if you're competitive with your older sister, you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: she has a boyfriend, I'll get a boyfriend, I'll date.
Speaker 1: She didn't that, she didn't do it for tones, No,
Speaker 1: there was it was that. And she said when she
Speaker 1: first met Dominic that he had a hot body or
Speaker 1: something to that effect, like when they were having dinner
Speaker 1: with their parents. Angie. I honestly think that it makes
Speaker 1: sense that Angie together in a way because they are
Speaker 1: both very chaotic, except she is a benign chaoic Eleo
Speaker 1: is literally evil. Yeah. Yeah, she's chaotic neutral, Yeah, she
Speaker 1: is chaotic neutral. And Um, so she says that Dominic
Speaker 1: has a hot body and then dates his twin brother
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, and then moves on to his Dominic's best friend,
Speaker 1: Like she's just trying to get in with her sister,
Speaker 1: like trying to find a way to like be in
Speaker 1: competition with her is so interesting when you compare it
Speaker 1: to the relationship between Dominic and Thomas as well, because
Speaker 1: your competitiveness between Dominic and Thomas, it just Thomas can't
Speaker 1: really function in the same way that and she can. Yea, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I will say that Angie definitely does know how to
Speaker 1: lean in because she was like, I can't have Dominic,
Speaker 1: how can I get close? Yeah, she like dried one
Speaker 1: bath that She's like, no, no, no, this this experiment failed.
Speaker 1: Let's redo the variables. And she's like, Leo, this is in.
Speaker 1: This is my way in. She saw him and you're
Speaker 1: a good man Charlotte Brown and he played Snoopy. I
Speaker 1: can we just say a side note? I love this comedic. Uh,
Speaker 1: the story of that Leo is an actor, it's like
Speaker 1: an aspiring actor. And how he's like when he visits
Speaker 1: him in the hospitals, like, oh, yeah, your friend. He
Speaker 1: said he's going to be in a movie this like
Speaker 1: it's gonna it's gonna be my shot this time. I
Speaker 1: just love It's the only comedy. Yeah, Like when he's
Speaker 1: when he's talking to the insurance agent and he Leel's
Speaker 1: like I was in New York recently. Like it's so
Speaker 1: it's like so perfect. You know who that you. I
Speaker 1: think it's because we're all, yeah, we're all sort of
Speaker 1: in the industry, and you know exactly who Leo is
Speaker 1: as an actor. It's that like douche bag of a
Speaker 1: person who just wants to drop at any moment that
Speaker 1: they've done an audition here, or have gone here, or
Speaker 1: like was in a city here. It's so perfect. If
Speaker 1: this were happening now, he would be the type of
Speaker 1: actor who has his head shot as his Facebook profile picture. Yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1: He also feels like he would be like a hat
Speaker 1: a necklace guy. Yes, I mean I just looked up
Speaker 1: who wait, guys, who has not seen the show I have?
Speaker 1: I haven't seen. I haven't gonna start watching. I guess
Speaker 1: who Leo is played by. It's a tough one, but
Speaker 1: just I want you guys to know. But that would
Speaker 1: be great. Guest. How how old is he? Forties? And
Speaker 1: he typically is known for more like comedy comedy. You know.
Speaker 1: I looked up the cast on IMDb, and for the
Speaker 1: life of me, I cannot remember anyone except for Mark
Speaker 1: Ruffalo and of course Juliette Lewis, who we talked in
Speaker 1: the group chat who I'm afraid of running into because
Speaker 1: waved her dog? Well, now I can only picture Matt Dylan,
Speaker 1: who is sorry. It's it's Rob Hubill, which is such
Speaker 1: a great. Yeah. I like Eilent casting. And I didn't know.
Speaker 1: You guys know who plays deatha Catherine. Yeah, of course
Speaker 1: it's it's of course she's so good the Angel Yeah
Speaker 1: she's Yeah, this is perfect. I was. I was waiting too,
Speaker 1: because this is so twisty and turning. I just I
Speaker 1: wanted to wait to finish the book before I started
Speaker 1: the show because I didn't know exactly because it's like
Speaker 1: going back and forth between like the sixties and the nineties,
Speaker 1: and oh, I just want to say time wise, I
Speaker 1: went back to the beginning to check the date that
Speaker 1: Thomas cuts his hand off, and it was October twelve.
Speaker 1: And the car accident, which we literally haven't talked about yet,
Speaker 1: a car accident was on Halloween. So all of this
Speaker 1: stuff that we're reading about, because it's also about him recollecting,
Speaker 1: like every time it goes back to the sixties or
Speaker 1: the fifties, it's about his recollections and like him talking
Speaker 1: it over in therapy and relating it to what's going
Speaker 1: on now and stuff. So this is all like two
Speaker 1: and a half weeks. Oh yeah, because she said it's
Speaker 1: two weeks for his visitation. Yeah if Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: thinking about it, I was like, this feels like it's
Speaker 1: been a lifetime. This truly feels like this has taken
Speaker 1: ninety years. So I don't even talked about the fact
Speaker 1: that he like fell off a balcony. Three stories. Yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna just whip us through the recap
Speaker 1: of this situation and then we have to get to
Speaker 1: the last chapter because that one. Yeah, alright. So Dominic
Speaker 1: is prepping for While he's prepping for visitation to the
Speaker 1: committee to get his brother out of hat, he's really stressed.
Speaker 1: He's anxious. He goes home on Halloween. His girlfriend it
Speaker 1: tells him that in the middle of the night, tells
Speaker 1: him that she's pregnant. He is angry and homophobic and
Speaker 1: reeks out, and a bunch of kids in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night egg his car on Halloween because that's
Speaker 1: what high schoolers do. Um. But for whatever reason, he
Speaker 1: decides to take his anger out on a drive. He
Speaker 1: goes out on a drive in the middle of the night,
Speaker 1: crashes his car. Oh bad, and I'm going through this
Speaker 1: so fast while he's high on pain medication. Um. He
Speaker 1: has his dad pick him up from the dealership because
Speaker 1: that's just where he had the people drop him off
Speaker 1: because he doesn't have a car anymore. And he met
Speaker 1: Leo there, his stepdad. Sorry, he'd be mad that I
Speaker 1: called him. His dad, very stepdad. Ray picks him up
Speaker 1: and it's like, we need to pick up your prescription
Speaker 1: for more medication, and he's like, well, I need to
Speaker 1: take these shutters off this goddamn house. They kept bugging
Speaker 1: me about it and I and he's like timing into
Speaker 1: the hour. He's like, okay, I could spend like forty
Speaker 1: five minutes there and then I'll go home and shower
Speaker 1: and then prep for this nap somehow a good man.
Speaker 1: That's not good, but it's never gonna happen. But he's
Speaker 1: at a certain point. He does the math and he's like,
Speaker 1: this nap is not and he's like that's the one
Speaker 1: relatable thing. I'm like, I've done that math before. Like, no,
Speaker 1: there's no room for a nap. And he's like, okay,
Speaker 1: I just gotta make it to two hatch for my
Speaker 1: brother's meeting, but first I got to take off these shutters. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm high on pain medication from my car crash that night,
Speaker 1: and my hand hand is actively bleeding from and also
Speaker 1: the stitches are are splitting as he works. So while
Speaker 1: Ray leaves and he leave drops him off at this house.
Speaker 1: The wife is like, you need to go. My husband's
Speaker 1: having a really tough time. And he's like, but you
Speaker 1: let me voicemails, so I'm kind of do it. So,
Speaker 1: while his hand is actively bleeding and these stitches are splitting,
Speaker 1: he angrily starts ripping the shutters off his home, being like,
Speaker 1: I don't even know how I'm going to get these
Speaker 1: shutters back. My truck is broken. Um, he decides to
Speaker 1: climb up to the third store someone else take it over.
Speaker 1: I don't want it. I read this right before I fell.
Speaker 1: I fell asleep and I was like, God, damn it, Wally.
Speaker 1: So he goes up to the third story starts taking
Speaker 1: off the block the shutters. At first, a bat freaks
Speaker 1: him out, and you're kind of like, who is he
Speaker 1: going to fall? Because the bat, like, there's a bat there,
Speaker 1: and he's like trying to get rid of it and
Speaker 1: wax at it. And then he looks into the attic
Speaker 1: window and it's Henry Rude. The client of his stares
Speaker 1: at him and puts a gun to his into his mouth,
Speaker 1: pulls the trigger, and because of that, Dominic falls off
Speaker 1: the roof. And the next thing we know is that
Speaker 1: he is at the hospital and he missed obviously, and
Speaker 1: he obviously missed Thomas. Thomas is hearing and several days
Speaker 1: later for a hospital stay. Yeah, he comes to like
Speaker 1: four days or something and that he has a FARTI roommate.
Speaker 1: That's so hilarious. Details, Okay, police, police, Mr Police. He's
Speaker 1: one of the few good men, good guy book. He's
Speaker 1: just like a sweet, gassy guy loves and he loves
Speaker 1: lime dancing. That his girlfriend line dancer. His girlfriend, uh huh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they got matching Western alf That's cute. That's cute. And surprise, surprise,
Speaker 1: who is his girlfriend but our good friend. Even in
Speaker 1: that moment, I had to laugh too, because I was like,
Speaker 1: this is just this is just too soap opera now,
Speaker 1: like everything is coming to your ahead, Like the woman's
Speaker 1: boyfriend is in the same hospital room as Dominic, Like,
Speaker 1: come on, it is a small town. It's a small town,
Speaker 1: that's true. I kind of thought that Needro Frank had
Speaker 1: just driven off, like into the sunset, though I thought
Speaker 1: she might eat any different part of the country. By now,
Speaker 1: she was always going to come back. She was. We
Speaker 1: gave her too much real estate earlier. I didn't find
Speaker 1: it too soap opery, only because I think when you
Speaker 1: we're reading it, we forget that, like that happened a
Speaker 1: long time ago, now, like when your mother died, so
Speaker 1: it had. I mean, I don't know how many years
Speaker 1: ago that. I think it was four. Okay, I think
Speaker 1: he was where his mother died and he was forty.
Speaker 1: As this as the occurring, I buy a coincidental run
Speaker 1: in at this point. You get one, Wally, you get one.
Speaker 1: You get one drop off with the autobiography where he
Speaker 1: has nowhere to go and has to stay in and
Speaker 1: read it. The perfect the perfect Needra detail is she
Speaker 1: dropped the heavy manuscript I had shattered black. She's she's nice, funny,
Speaker 1: she's great. I love her. You're listening to Popcorn book
Speaker 1: Club for My Heart Radio, and we'll be back right
Speaker 1: after the break. Okay, we're back with Popcorn book Club.
Speaker 1: Then we get the first taste of Dominico's autobiography that boys,
Speaker 1: she was she was absolutely right. He's a terrible person
Speaker 1: who thinks very highly of himself. I'm also glad that
Speaker 1: the mom didn't read it, because all he says is
Speaker 1: that she's a deformed like rabbit. I'm like a burden
Speaker 1: and it would never give him to great children like
Speaker 1: what he did. But well, I know, I think the
Speaker 1: grandchildren was the issue because he was like or whatever,
Speaker 1: what was his last name. No, it was Tempesta Tempesta,
Speaker 1: which sounds like it might need to store angry. You're
Speaker 1: very angry. Yep, exactly. So he was like, oh, my
Speaker 1: stupid wife, who I love. Oh my god, my soulmate
Speaker 1: never gave me any sons. So my line ends with
Speaker 1: me and my stupid daughter, who is annoying and is
Speaker 1: a burden upon me. He's always trying to keep me. Yeah, like,
Speaker 1: my stupid daughter has made dinner for me again, I
Speaker 1: gotta go. I love that he's throughout the chapter two
Speaker 1: he's like, I'm the best man of the town and
Speaker 1: I'm the smartest. They're lucky to have me. I'm the
Speaker 1: man about town. I'm just like, you suck. So it's
Speaker 1: actually made points, and he leaves his mother like to
Speaker 1: be essentially a beggar on the street and then marries
Speaker 1: as an enemy whatever. But it was just like, what
Speaker 1: a terrible thing to she marries his uncle who's his enemy.
Speaker 1: And I was like, Oh, this is big Hamlet energy,
Speaker 1: which is funny because Leo did not get cast as
Speaker 1: Hamlet did. That's great. Yeah, another Shakespeare rest Shakespeare happening.
Speaker 1: And I also thought it was interesting there's the parallel
Speaker 1: of um of Domenico the grandfather and Dominic both being
Speaker 1: people who went into academic fields but then because of
Speaker 1: family reasons, had to leave those academic fields and then
Speaker 1: end up involved in manual labor of some sort. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: because Domenico was going to be a priest. Because when
Speaker 1: they first started saying that, I'm like, Okay, that clearly
Speaker 1: doesn't pan out. So what happened? Uh? And it was
Speaker 1: like I love, I like, Domenico is clearly a jackass,
Speaker 1: but I think that he does have a very interesting story,
Speaker 1: like from his his grandparents being like burned in a
Speaker 1: volcano volcanic eruption and his mother burning her hand and
Speaker 1: having this deformity because she tried to like cling to
Speaker 1: childish things by trying to grab her dollies from the
Speaker 1: hot lava, all the way to the fact that the
Speaker 1: town was like, Wow, you're special because this virgin statue
Speaker 1: cried in front of you. We will all pull our
Speaker 1: money together to send you away to study so you
Speaker 1: can become a priest. You are especialey Thomas has convinced
Speaker 1: that he has also been touched by God and he's
Speaker 1: so special God on earth. There are so many parallels
Speaker 1: in the in this chapter to Thomas, the schizophrenia that
Speaker 1: his mother, that the grandfather's mother clearly had, with the
Speaker 1: moth speaking to her, and all the religious obviously qualities. Um.
Speaker 1: One thing that I blag that I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this has to mean something, and then I realized that
Speaker 1: it was written when written in the night right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So they sailed on the morning of September eleven one,
Speaker 1: and I was a hundred years before. Sometimes I was like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: the ship is but a prophet. Yeah. Um. I thought
Speaker 1: the parallels were interesting with with the wife burning her hand,
Speaker 1: the thing they reference it as like her twin, like
Speaker 1: her her hand as her twin, like the scarred twin.
Speaker 1: And it was a lot of twin. Uh. That's so
Speaker 1: interesting about about hands. I mean, that's the idea of
Speaker 1: that hand is that they are mirror images of each other,
Speaker 1: but they're not the same, They're not identical. They have
Speaker 1: they have symmetry across the horizontal axis. I don't know
Speaker 1: Matt for that. For the listeners, we are all holding
Speaker 1: and I'm sure there's that weird trauma of the fact
Speaker 1: that Dominic's first accident his truck accident. I means stitches
Speaker 1: to his hand. I think damage to that and he
Speaker 1: was always holding up his pristine hand is like I'm
Speaker 1: different than my brother. I have both hands. Uh always.
Speaker 1: I mean blessed Wally for really making it clear when
Speaker 1: when that tension is ramping up between him coming home
Speaker 1: finding out that Joy is pregnant and crashing his car
Speaker 1: like that period until he falls off the roof, He's
Speaker 1: like tension City. Yeah yeah. Earlier I could, like hear
Speaker 1: the score of the HBO Committed series in my head,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh man, this is not good at home. Okay,
Speaker 1: where do we think it's gonna go next? Before we
Speaker 1: wrap up, because I want to put in over that
Speaker 1: for the worst possible outcome, which is um I think
Speaker 1: he's going to end up with Jasa again. I really
Speaker 1: hope yourselves. I'm just saying that's uh, it feels like
Speaker 1: it is curving in that direction. He's single now, Dosa
Speaker 1: is still a big part of his life. She's still
Speaker 1: helping out Thomas. It is my worst I mean, the
Speaker 1: worst version of that is if he showed up and
Speaker 1: gave her this book read about my grandfather, and then
Speaker 1: they get back together. Oh you mean okay, wait, Tan
Speaker 1: you mean the book that Domenico wrote. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought you met like, oh I wrote this is true. Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe that's better. My my worst fear prediction is because
Speaker 1: we got so much of text from Thomas talking about
Speaker 1: paranoia but also being raped that I'm very scared that
Speaker 1: some of the bad orderlies the one that like doctor
Speaker 1: not Dr. Lisa Shepherd was like, oh, I don't like
Speaker 1: that one. I feel like maybe Thomas is actually being
Speaker 1: violated in terms of in terms of trauma BEINGO that's
Speaker 1: what because they clocked that a few times. I wonder
Speaker 1: if it ends with Thomas and Dominic living together, if
Speaker 1: Thomas comes home, that's the ending, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It just feels like It's interesting to me with a
Speaker 1: book like this, with with a character that has done
Speaker 1: such horrific things of like, what is redemption for a
Speaker 1: man like this or what what is his destiny? What
Speaker 1: is his fate based on all of these horrible things
Speaker 1: he's done. But it feels like it feels like they're
Speaker 1: like magnets, right, and they're gonna like come back together.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. See, my thought is that maybe
Speaker 1: Thomas doesn't end up with him because Dr Pateell keeps
Speaker 1: saying things like this treatment can't like one brother's health
Speaker 1: can't come at the expense of the other brothers. And
Speaker 1: so for me, I was like, maybe his redemption is
Speaker 1: finally realizing that he doesn't have to always take care
Speaker 1: of Thomas. Maybe like that is a burden that he is,
Speaker 1: like because he clearly is just trying to take on
Speaker 1: way too much in this last like forty eight hours
Speaker 1: of his life, that maybe the lesson is him just
Speaker 1: being like, you can't fix everything. Yeah, it feels interesting
Speaker 1: because for Thomas, I hope that he does end up
Speaker 1: in a you know, a good group home with UH
Speaker 1: with some support. But it it does feel like you're right, Dominic,
Speaker 1: he has has this murdyr complex, which is interesting because
Speaker 1: murders are talked about so much in reference to Thomas
Speaker 1: Dominic and but Dominic has behave excused his bad behavior
Speaker 1: be through Thomas, like he is angry because of this
Speaker 1: brother that he was given and he has to protect him.
Speaker 1: Therefore he can act in a way that is um.
Speaker 1: Should he constantly um? And I wonder if that really
Speaker 1: You're right? It depends on what kind of ending Wally
Speaker 1: wants to aid. I was checking to see how many
Speaker 1: pages the book was and I accidentally read the last
Speaker 1: line of the book. I will not tell you what
Speaker 1: it is, but it did not give anything away. I'm curious. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's I know as much as true. I was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's I saw that. I was like, oh, stop looking. Um,
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to say what I think is
Speaker 1: going to happen. I'm going to put in a bid
Speaker 1: for what I want to happen. This will come as
Speaker 1: a shock to you, but I want to know who
Speaker 1: their father is. I think, yes, we should know that
Speaker 1: this will here plot twisty, that like it's a soap operate,
Speaker 1: that like, there's no way he's not going to give
Speaker 1: us a surprise. Father reveal Melissa, Y, Yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like it's not good going to be a happy and
Speaker 1: well okay, just there was a point at which I
Speaker 1: was like, here are my options for who their dad is.
Speaker 1: I'm very focused on finding out who their dad is.
Speaker 1: Um I was like, what if it actually is Ray,
Speaker 1: like really hates them in the way that a stepfather would. Well,
Speaker 1: there are some dads who hate their kids the way
Speaker 1: stepfathers stepkids up in the fact that these aren't his children,
Speaker 1: or maybe he hates them because, you know, because he
Speaker 1: had and he felt obligated till they come back. Like
Speaker 1: he got this woman pregnant that he didn't love, I
Speaker 1: didn't care about, and he resents the babies for forcing
Speaker 1: him to stay with this woman. Okay, so that's one option.
Speaker 1: Then for a minute I was like, what if they
Speaker 1: have the same father as Penny and Drinkwater and Ralph
Speaker 1: Drinkwater because they're both twins. But then I did a
Speaker 1: little bit of genetic research, by which I mean I
Speaker 1: googled can twins come from dad's And the answer is only,
Speaker 1: uh no. Basically no, there is a gene for fraternal twins,
Speaker 1: but it is through the egg that it comes because
Speaker 1: it's about releasing a lot of eggs as also, are right?
Speaker 1: Are right? They aren't Ralph and Penny half black and
Speaker 1: half Native American. Well. The thing about being mixed race, though,
Speaker 1: is that not all kids come out looking the same.
Speaker 1: And it made sense to me for their mother not
Speaker 1: to say who the father was if he was a
Speaker 1: person of color, and yeah, so I was like, that's
Speaker 1: it and it still could be true, but the twin
Speaker 1: gene thing doesn't make it likely, like because I was
Speaker 1: wrong um. And then the other option, of course, was
Speaker 1: there's the guy that does the transcriptions for um for Domenico,
Speaker 1: the Italian man. Yeah, because he just disappeared. And then
Speaker 1: it's like, well, my kids are Italian. That's all I needed.
Speaker 1: That's how it felt like she was. And then here's
Speaker 1: the sad option. What if it is Domenico and I
Speaker 1: don't think it's I don't think it's Domenico because he
Speaker 1: has said the implications about his daughter. I wonder that
Speaker 1: I was thinking about the uncle's that came over. That
Speaker 1: makes sense with Domenico, which I hate, But it's already
Speaker 1: let's listen, uncle stuff has already been presented. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna be I don't think it's gonna be happy. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's gonna be like, it's not gonna be happy.
Speaker 1: I know that's Disney. I know it's not going to
Speaker 1: be happy, But just one I want to know because
Speaker 1: I am nosy and too. I want to know because
Speaker 1: I never got the satisfaction of knowing who um Connall's
Speaker 1: father was in normal people like some I need to
Speaker 1: know who someone's dad is. You're listening to Popcorn Book
Speaker 1: Clive for my Heart Radio. We'll be right back after
Speaker 1: this quick break. Al Right, so let's get back into it.
Speaker 1: Is there anything else about these pages that is that
Speaker 1: someone is uh eager to talk about? Because I feel
Speaker 1: like we will. A lot happened really fast, and we've
Speaker 1: probably missed some stuff. Well, just the um, the relationship
Speaker 1: that the town has with the Native American people in
Speaker 1: it and the tribe which I am probably gonna butcher
Speaker 1: the pronunciation. I think it's aquantic um, and that sounds
Speaker 1: like it's in the realm. But the aquatic tribe and
Speaker 1: how they're building a casino, and that's a big thing
Speaker 1: that keeps coming up. And I think it's interesting the
Speaker 1: way that all these white people in the book are like, Oh,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be so rich, Like, screw these guys, man, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't believe that electric boats going under. We're not
Speaker 1: gonna make submarines anymore. But these dudes get money from
Speaker 1: an investor in Malaysia and get to build a casino.
Speaker 1: Screw though, was lucky Baster, Yeah, lucky Ralph who's been
Speaker 1: exploited for child pornography as an orphans stage of ten
Speaker 1: now working as a janitor. Oh, what a lucky break.
Speaker 1: But it seems very interesting because there was that history
Speaker 1: teacher in high school who was basically like, oh, whatever
Speaker 1: happened to the Quantics? They've disappeared? Who will ever say?
Speaker 1: Who could know? And then Ralph is like, um, I'm here,
Speaker 1: and like there have always been in at least through
Speaker 1: Dominic's eyes, because we are seeing this through Dominic's eyes,
Speaker 1: There's always been this relationship, and there's this specific burial
Speaker 1: ground that the Department of Public Works also tends to.
Speaker 1: So this there's this like relationship that is unspoken but
Speaker 1: ever present. And I thought it was interesting that the
Speaker 1: night nurse for dominic Um also was married to a
Speaker 1: woman who was part with Quantic, and so it's like
Speaker 1: a thing that is a part of their society, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't come up until it needs to come up.
Speaker 1: And like with the rest of the country, where it's
Speaker 1: like we've ignored the fact that this is their territory
Speaker 1: and we're trying to wipe them out. But it's nice
Speaker 1: to see that they're still there and they're still active
Speaker 1: in the area and still active in the community and
Speaker 1: trying to build. Yeah, the attitude is like who can
Speaker 1: never know, like the teacher, just like it's like very
Speaker 1: passive voice, like they were massacred. We don't know how.
Speaker 1: It just happens. They walked into some disease. Um. Yeah, oops,
Speaker 1: all genocide. America loves it passes it really does Dollywood
Speaker 1: and they do a show about the history of America
Speaker 1: and all the Indians turned into birds. Uh, it's just
Speaker 1: one day. They all decide Native Americans all decided to
Speaker 1: become birds, and then they put on their costumes and
Speaker 1: flutter away. Um. Then I asked, how does Dollywood? How
Speaker 1: does Dallywood do the civil It's very upsetic. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if you already know because it's just like a
Speaker 1: leading question. So, um, I hope that since I went
Speaker 1: to Dollywood, this has changed. This was years ago, but
Speaker 1: um fingers crossed, this has changed. So they rereate a
Speaker 1: civil world through pig races where USh, I'm sorry, there's
Speaker 1: a blood race. So okay, I have the follow up question,
Speaker 1: who are the pigs? Is everyone a pill? Okay, this
Speaker 1: is very important. Um. All of the pigs get um
Speaker 1: weird little names like Scarlett o'hamma, like exact for General
Speaker 1: Robert E. Lee. They do not funk around with General
Speaker 1: Robert E. Lee. That pig is just called general. How
Speaker 1: would you stuff a pig pun into Robert E Lee?
Speaker 1: Robert Piggy Rocky Piggley, Piggy Piggy Wiggligley, Like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to have to mom on the spot. So then
Speaker 1: they raced the pigs and it was out the way.
Speaker 1: Mostly Winds. I talked to worked there, and they were
Speaker 1: like usually the South Winds because they have better pigs. Okay,
Speaker 1: I have more follow up questions. Yes, yes, go off
Speaker 1: for his name though they were pigs Robert e squeaks.
Speaker 1: They wanted to do a pig punch. I would love
Speaker 1: to afrational comedian. No no, I would just love to
Speaker 1: do a special podcast episode on Dolly because I did
Speaker 1: not expect this when I love Dolly Pardon, like, what
Speaker 1: what a lovely woman. Um I I went there for
Speaker 1: my bachelorette party and uh, you know, we we spent
Speaker 1: the day of the amusement park and it was really fun.
Speaker 1: And then in the evening they were like, they do
Speaker 1: this show, it's kind of like a rodeo. We should
Speaker 1: get tickets. And it was collectively the weirdest thing we
Speaker 1: have ever seen in our lives. And the South won
Speaker 1: the Civil War. What I was, what a gift to
Speaker 1: exit being single. It's like, yeah, no, I don't need
Speaker 1: anymore Mary Daniel and lock it down. Yeah, I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna I'm gonna be gone. Um yeah, good
Speaker 1: goodbye to the South, to the North, to the north
Speaker 1: where where history is accurate and there are so many
Speaker 1: pig puns. So yeah, sin, they's still a part of
Speaker 1: the sense that is trafficking very heavily in Native Americans.
Speaker 1: Just disappeared, just became surely. Yeah, I'm just really I
Speaker 1: cannot stop focusing on this, Like Man in the High Castle,
Speaker 1: but the Civil War but pigs. Yeah, I don't think
Speaker 1: I'm gonna move on from that one. I think if
Speaker 1: you were to want to write about it. Um, if
Speaker 1: they are still doing this, you should a going write
Speaker 1: about it, because I don't know I'm going to. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just get to hang up and call that send you
Speaker 1: out there to write about that particular phenomenon. Oh, for sure,
Speaker 1: it was Sorry, that was an interesting digression. No, I
Speaker 1: mean necessary, clearly, But that's where the book ends. Dominic
Speaker 1: and Thomas go to Dollywood, Dolly. The pigs all raced,
Speaker 1: and we were the pigs, and the pigs were us.
Speaker 1: I know, as much as true. I left from from
Speaker 1: pig to man and man to pig. The other thing
Speaker 1: that I didn't want to say that we didn't touch
Speaker 1: upon was I really liked chapter thirty one because it
Speaker 1: was primarily Domenico's autobiography, and it was kind of refreshing
Speaker 1: to have a voice that wasn't Dominic's narrating, even though
Speaker 1: truly the worst voice he like, nature was right. She
Speaker 1: was like, he's kind of horrible, and that was her
Speaker 1: polite way of saying he is truly a monstrous human being.
Speaker 1: But it was very interesting to hear somebody else's voice
Speaker 1: and to remember, like, oh right, not everyone in the
Speaker 1: world is Dominic. Yeah. Well, you know what's interesting is
Speaker 1: right the chapter right before that was the joy type
Speaker 1: and so that obviously, but it was interesting to put
Speaker 1: those two chapters right next to each other. Of like
Speaker 1: that's why it does feel like it's an interesting time
Speaker 1: to stop, like for this section to end, because it
Speaker 1: is like sort of feels like a shift into like
Speaker 1: what is Dominic's next chapter now, and we you kind
Speaker 1: of buffer that with the grandfather with the Grandfather's letter
Speaker 1: and Joyce take. Maybe this is so dumb, but from
Speaker 1: Dominico's writing style, I got like a very warrior energy
Speaker 1: for party, just like his use of exclamation points, like
Speaker 1: I am degree to party, he is warrior. I would
Speaker 1: love a side trip to the the guy that um
Speaker 1: that typed it all up for him, just like yes,
Speaker 1: you're just like drinking and be like you're sure you
Speaker 1: want to say that, you want to say it's that word, Okay, No,
Speaker 1: it's your book, your book, buddy counter. I don't think
Speaker 1: he's a warrior. I think he's a wallauigi. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Italian energy energy. Yeah, love that, love those Italian caricatures
Speaker 1: that Nintendo continues to profit from. Well this was a
Speaker 1: delight of trauma. Yeah, all right, Well, we'll see how.
Speaker 1: We'll see if we find out who that is. See how,
Speaker 1: see how it is? Thank you can't wait to keep
Speaker 1: reading the worst stuff Thomas would Gemba And that's our
Speaker 1: show for the week. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1: I'm Danish Swartz and you can find me on Twitter
Speaker 1: at Danis Schwartz with three z's. You can follow Jennifer
Speaker 1: Wright at Jen Ashley Right Garrama. Donqua is at Garama Drama,
Speaker 1: Melissa Hunter is at Melissa f t W and Tan
Speaker 1: Tran is smart enough to have gotten off Twitter, but
Speaker 1: she is on Insta at Hank Tina. Our executive producer
Speaker 1: is Christopher Hassiotas and we're produced and edited by Mike Johns.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to David Wasserman. Next week we continue I
Speaker 1: know this much is true. We'll get some more birdsy
Speaker 1: family history and things, frankly get a little bit bizarre.
Speaker 1: I will not have a wife. I will have this monkey.
Speaker 1: If you saw that in a cross stitch on someone's house,
Speaker 1: you'd be like, I gotta get out of this house.
Speaker 1: Popcorn Book Club is a production of I Heart Radio