Book Club Discussion: Notes on an Execution

[ufcasey]

So, it's already March. How did that happen? Sorry about that. But for the months of Jan/Feb, the book club pick was Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka.

As always feel free to just give your overall impression/review of the book. I actually couldn't find any discussion questions for this book

[ufcasey]

Tagging people who may have read this book:
charlatti, toepick, travella, dearprudence, sju

[charlatti]

I felt like I was just the wrong audience for this book. I don’t do true crime at all. I do like shows like Criminal Minds, but I like them when they are focused on the puzzle of figuring out the mystery and not so much on why the bad guy is bad. So I just really did not enjoy being in this serial killer’s mind. The women were interesting, but I also felt separated from them. The prison guard character was really strange to me and I wished we had heard more of her motivation.

[toepick]

I really enjoyed this book (although I read it almost a year ago so my memories are hazy!). I thought it was a very smart upending of our obsession with killers, especially white male ones.

I just finished I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai and feel that they have similar themes. It was excellent!

[ufcasey]

I read this almost a year ago too, so I've forgotten some of the details, but I really liked this book! For once I actually was interested in every narrator, when usually if there are multiple narrators I get bored by at least one of them.

[charlatti]

Mar 2, 2023 14:23:40 GMT -5 toepick said:

I just finished I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai and feel that they have similar themes. It was excellent!

i just finished that one too! I liked it a lot and it definitely is similar in theme and social commentary. Much more my style in terms of puzzles vs. inner workings of criminal minds.

[travella]

I gave this book 2*. It was ok, just not for me. I hated the chapters about Ansel. I didn't like the second person POV or the POV of a serial killer. I did the chapters about the victims and the investigator a little better.

[dearprudence]

Mar 2, 2023 12:28:53 GMT -5 charlatti said:

I felt like I was just the wrong audience for this book. I don’t do true crime at all. I do like shows like Criminal Minds, but I like them when they are focused on the puzzle of figuring out the mystery and not so much on why the bad guy is bad. So I just really did not enjoy being in this serial killer’s mind.

This is me exactly. I really don't enjoy reading about men hurting women - I think there's enough of it in reality without having to seek it out in fiction.

I thought it was a little... interesting? disingenuous? that the author has Hazel express that serial killers get glorified - "Books and documentaries and dark tunnels on the internet. Crowds of women, captivated." - and really she is capitalizing off that fact by writing this book. I think this would have read better for me if Ansel hadn't been given a POV at all, and it was only told from the women's POV.

[dearprudence]

Here's my "discussion question"

If Saffy hadn't intervened, do you think Jenny would have lived? Or is it inevitable that Ansel would have snapped at a later point?

Or

Did the death of Jenny, which led to Ansel's arrest potentially save Blue and other victims? Does Jenny's death prove that Ansel would never be able to live normally?

[charlatti]

This is not exactly an answer to dearprudence ‘s question, but I had the impression that Blue was always safe. She was family, so that was somehow different in Ansel’s mind.

[ufcasey]

And this is the downside to reading so many books - I really don't remember that part of the book exactly, and since I borrowed it from the library I can't look it up to refresh my memory. Which I should have done anyways in preparation for book club discussion (sorry!). I'll do better for the next book club discussion!

[sju]

I am adding some thoughts but may come back to edit. I listened to the book while commuting so I missed many details I’m sure. Overall, I enjoyed the book but didn’t love the male narrator.

I do not like books written in second person but I liked that it was used to take power from Ansel.

If I remember well, toddler Ansel came out of the forest with a bloody animal in his hands so that’s the first glimpse of what was coming?

Lavender’s love for Ansel was so strong. Those were some very sad parts.

I didn’t catch why Ansel thought baby Packer had died. Perhaps they lied to him or he thought that after the baby was adopted.

The parts about Saffy surveilling for years and him not noticing were odd.

I agree with charlatti, I think Blue was safe because Ansel was feeling that he had found family. However, I don’t think much time had passed since he had moved so he could have still snapped later on.

dearprudence, I think he would have killed again.

Lastly, towards the end, when the author lists what was missed because Ansel killed the victims was so sad, like everything Jenny could have done as a nurse.

[dearprudence]

sju I don't know if Ansel thought the baby had died. He never expressed anything but the baby screaming and crying. We heard about the baby dying from Saffy - it was a rumor at the foster home, and even she mentions that it wasn't clear what the truth was.

[aurora]

I realized I'm resurrecting an old thread but I finally finished this book last night.

My overall impression is that I liked the book but didn't love it. I am usually drawn to multi-POV books so that helped. The thoughts at the end about how the women's stories get drowned out by the men who hurt them is an important point. I liked that all of the characters has realistic flaws but most were still likeable.

I did get confused a few times by the timeline, for example when Saffy went to interview Jenny and she and Ansel were just engaged, but I thought it was about a decade later. I know the years were in the chapter titles and guess I should have paid more attention.

[aurora]

Mar 5, 2023 21:49:02 GMT -5 dearprudence said:

sju I don't know if Ansel thought the baby had died. He never expressed anything but the baby screaming and crying. We heard about the baby dying from Saffy - it was a rumor at the foster home, and even she mentions that it wasn't clear what the truth was.

I'm too lazy to find it but I think I remember Ansel saying his baby brother had died and he was alone in the world (obviously before he met Blue). But, that might have also been related to the foster home rumors as well.

[aurora]

Mar 3, 2023 12:00:27 GMT -5 charlatti said:

This is not exactly an answer to dearprudence ‘s question, but I had the impression that Blue was always safe. She was family, so that was somehow different in Ansel’s mind.

I don't think anyone would be safe with Ansel forever.