The Master Butchers Singing Club-Chapter 4-SPOILERS

[Curmudgeoness]

This thread is set up for discussion of the book by Louise Erdrich, and will be posted chapter by chapter (as I finish them or if you want to participate, you can post an OP for the next chapter). This way, we can see how our opinions of the book and characters change or not over time. If you are joining the discussion, stop after each chapter and post before going on so you don't have more information than anyone else reading this.


Chapter 4

Wow. Just wow. We are looking at a truly dysfunctional family life for Delphine. To have called her father "the town drunk" was more than an understatement. When I read books like this, I have a sadness for the people I have known who came from homes where the parents were not taking care of the kids properly. I cannot imagine living like this, and I am exceedingly impressed that Delphine is a functional adult. She is tough as nails. She is a survivor.

And if Delphine's home life was a shock, I have to admit that I had Cyprian's character all wrong too. He is not as useless as he seemed prior to this. He was willing to do what needed to be done to help Delphine clean up the house, although this was possibly the most disgusting thing he had ever seen. The condition of Delphine's father, Roy's house was so bad, it was impossible for me to imagine.....everything just thrown all over the floor, never picked up. Food, clothes, piss, vomit, bugs, rats----all over the house. Delphine was right to be angry, knowing that this was intentional to show her that he couldn't make it without her. And the false tears of her father at her return was enough to make me sick.

And I am not the only one who learns that there is so much more to these characters---they learn it about each other too. Cyprian sees her break down, something that he didn't realize she was capable of doing---she has always been a rock. And Delphine had always seen Cyprian as someone who couldn't do "jack shit", but he was up to the task of helping clear the house out. And he did it with good spirits. I believe that they fell in love with each other at a higher level than the physical love we often find ourselves in.

And the plot thickens. Along with the stench in the house. When the stench seemed worse the next day, they decided that maybe it was coming from the cellar. And it was---in spades. There were three dead bodies in the cellar. And how they got there is even more bizarre. Well, we really don't know how they got there, except that when he father is confronted with this, he remembers a wake after which a man, a woman, and their son disappeared. What in the hell happened?

Cyprian was the level-headed one, knowing that they had to go to the sheriff when Delphine wanted to burn the house down. They go to the sheriff and tell the story the best they can from what Roy told them. They can't stay in the house now, and pitch their tent on the property. Delphine heads into town to get some food and goes into Waldvogel's Meats....and meets Eva for the first time.

[Little Star]

1. This books getting good! Keep...

reading for us.

Faster please. Just kidding! I'm really enjoying this.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. It really is getting good.

And bizarre. But I suggest that at this point, it is such a well written book (unlike my feeble comments), you should pick up the book yourself. There is so much more that I am not sure how to interpret yet, so I have ignored those parts. This could be like a Sherlock Holmes book where one of those little tidbits matters at the end of the book, and I just don't know it.

There is a rich description of little things that I find interesting but cannot comment on. As an example: "The smell came at them as they slowly approached down the road. It seemed to have settled in a tent about the house. They went inside to battle it and immediately rushed back out. It was as though they hadn't even touched the place yet, or worse, as though they'd only succeeded in lifting the lid off the source of the odor, which still emanated, Cyprian thought, from the cleared-off floor." And all I have to say about that description is that it smelled really bad. I do an injustice to Erdrich.

[fadedrose]

3. The smell

It's 1934, and after 4 months of show biz on the road, Delphine has a need to go home, so Cyprian and she just now arrive at Argus. She worries constantly about her dad Roy needing her.

The smell in her home and garbage was enough to chase them out of the house and they were about ready to burn down the small building. But after a short rest outside, they decided just to burn all the contents and scrub everything, which they did. They got a room at a hotel with a bath, and got a room for Roy. Then they proceeded to clean up the urine, spoiled food, vomit and whatever they could carry, they took out and burned.

After all the cleaning was done the house still smelled as though they hadn't done anything, so they decided to investigate the celler. There was a door with a ring in the pantry, and it was covered by broken jars of peaches, dried up, and a dead dog. They managed to pry it open and stepped down into the earthen lower level. Here the smell was even worse then it was on the main level. They were flabbergasted and sickened when they saw three bodies - a man in a black suit, a woman and child.

They went to the hotel and found out from Roy after a series of questions about the deceased's clothing who they were. It seems they were there at the house for a wake of their relative. Roy had to have the wake so that Mr. Strub did not have to have a typical funeral. He'd wanted a goodtime wake, drinking, etc. When it was over, Roy went out and slept in the shed and out of grief for Cornelius Strub, stayed at a bum's jungle by the railroad tracks. He doesn't know when he went back to the house. He didn't know the bodies were in the basement or how they got into the basement. They were "Porky" and Doris Chavers and their little son, relatives of the deceased, Cornelius Strub, and of Delphine's best friend, Clarisse, whose father it was who died.

They contacted Sheriff Hock and were all cleared of any crime.

Those were the basic facts in the chapter.

What I got from Chapter 4 was the realization that Roy truly loved his daughter Delphine. He cried like a baby when she came home. He was a romantic who missed Minnie, supposedly Delphine's mother, of whom Delphine knew nothing. Roy started out drinking to mourn her death, or leaving, but ended up drinking because he couldn't stop. He kept her fuzzy pictures and looked at them frequently. Delphine kept a cigar box that she assumed was her mother's, with a scarf and small stone inside, and a small lacquer bureau. She was glad they hadn't burned down the house after all or she would have lost her keepsakes...

When they first saw the mess and the smell, Cyprian told Delphine he would help her and she figured his help was useless because he knew nothing except how to stand on his hands. But he amazed her. He carried out tons of garbage, burned it and was very sympathetic about her problems. At the hotel where they stayed at night, they took baths together, no sex, and he tenderly washed her and babied her, again, no sex. She really appreciated him and would gladly have married him if she could only know he was through with men. Cyprian on the other hand, loved her as much as he was able. He was unsure of whether Delphine had seen him and the man on the bench in Canada on their acrobatic tour.

Delphine took everything to heart. She was empathy personified, and she got that way from listening to all the drunks and their sad stories whom their dad invited to the house. She quit the Catholic school because she couldn't believe all the lies about God, then got a lot of low-paying jobs, and Roy used her money to buy alcohol. Once though, she became angry. After coming home from work at a brickyard, she was very tired, and Roy's drunken friends came into her bedroom (not for sex) and wouldn' leave. So she wacked them with a broom, then got an axe and hurled it down on the poker deck on the table and the drunks all ran out saying she had lost her mind. Then her dad got sick from being out in the cold and she had to quit her job to take care of him.

No matter who had a problem, she knew how they felt and sympathized. That's why it was strange she felt no sympathy for "Porky" and the way he died. Clarisse had told her bad things about him.

Oh, it turns out that Fidelis was wrong about dogs and their feelings. The dead dog in the pantry was the Chavers' dog who would not leave them. Roy had noticed the dog lying on the trapdoor and didn't know why it wouldn't leave. He had heard faint knocks but never associated them with anything living, as he always "heard" stuff. They were a short distance from Walvogel's and we know that the dog could have gone there for food.

We leave the family. Roy wants quiet time by the river, where he has a bottle stashed...Cyprian and Delphine unload the DeSoto and pitch a tent to sleep outdoors because the inside is still a crime scene. Delphine takes the car to buy some food and supplies while Cyprian is to watch that Roy doesn't go swimming once he gets drunk.

Delphine has so many times wished she had a mother and that she had a clear picture of her own mother, and in this mood, goes to Waldvogel's Meats where she will meet Eva Waldvogel...

Will now read Curmudgeoness' discussion....

[Curmudgeoness]

6. I had totally missed the link

between Delphine's mother and Eva. You are right, she was being very nostalgic about her mother when she went to Waldvogel's Meats and met Eva. I did realize that Eva had a soft spot for Delphine after hearing who her father is, and realized that she needed a friend/mother. But you are right, Delphine was also looking for that.

We seem to have stumbled onto two women who both have empathy. Eva was extremely kind.

[fadedrose]

4. Only one disagreement here...

I think the dad's tears were real, but he does go for melodrama a bit.


He may be town drunk, but he does have a good heart for having the wake for his friend, the wake the friend would have enjoyed. Evidently people came and overlooked the filth....

[Curmudgeoness]

5. I noticed that you thought his tears were real.

I have no doubt that he missed her, and it was said that he was a romantic. But I think that he was trying to manipulate her. He needs her. If she is not there, and not working, I figure he has a harder time getting booze---and apparently he cannot take care of himself...or more importantly, he refuses to take care of things.

I will put a disclaimer here---my father had alcohol problems, and I have zero tolerance for drunks. This may taint my thinking on it. But I will stand by my opinion that he is just putting a guilt trip on Delphine. Time will tell if this holds up.

Do you think that the filth was as bad at the time of the wake? I would figure it was shortly after she left, since there was so much filth obviously after the wake---since they couldn't even open the cellar door. Ugh!