Dead Cold Reading Blog

Part A
C.C. de Poitiers
“God that means she’s written more books than she’s read.” (P.30) This quotation has more meaning to it than one would first interpret. Everyone thinks of C.C. as a person who is very ignorant and self- centred. This quotation describes this when Ruth jokes about how bad her book is. By reading more books you would have a better understanding of how they are supposed to be written and C.C. did not grasp this apparently.

Ruth Zardo
“This elderly, wizened bitter poet from Three Pines had won the Governor-General’s Award.” (P.26) This quotation describes her very well in that she was not the most pleasant person to be around. This being said many were forced to admit, despite her filthy personality, that she was indeed an accomplished poet.

Clara Morrow
“But while Clara knew that was the sensible thing to do, most of her decisions weren’t really sensible. But they suited her life.” (P.9) Clara is a good-hearted woman but at times can be asleep to the world around her. One would call her naïve based on the fact that she rolls through life only to make decisions based on what she wants at the present moment without thinking of the future. This is what this quotation is talking about when they say most of her decisions aren’t really sensible.

Inspector Beauvoir
“Jean Guy Beauvoir was constantly at war with himself, at odds over his need to wear clothes that showed off his slender, athletic build, and his need not to freeze his tight ass off.” (P.75) Beauvoir is another character that would fall under C.C.’s category of self-centred. Maybe not as extreme as her, but from this quotation we can definitely see his level. It is clear from how he wants to show everyone his body how vain he is.

Part B
Crie Lyon is an overweight, desperate for attention fourteen-year-old girl in this novel. Crie, being the child of C.C. de Poitiers, was constantly judged by her physical physique. She was never truly appreciated for who she was as a person. There is nothing that she wants more in the world than to be noticed and be beautiful. Crie joins the Christmas pageant for the first year in her five years at Miss Edward’s School for Girls. She decides to become a part of this because in the past she had been jealous of the pretty girls in their little dresses dancing and signing. “To surprise mommy, she’d told herself, trying to drown out the other voices.” (P.8) Crie says she does it for “mommy,” and when C.C. does not show up to the pageant, Crie’s heart is broken. When Crie notices that her mommy is not there she literally freezes and it so upset she cannot move. “Move lardass.” “The insult slid off Crie, as they all did. They were the white noise of her life. She barely heard them any more. Now she stood on stage staring straight into the audience as though frozen.” (P.21) The main reason she kills C.C. in an ingeniously thought out fashion, is because of how she in underappreciated as a child.

Part C
One example of Louise Penny’s humour breaking the tension in this novel comes during the scene when inspector Gamache and Beauvoir are inspecting the crime scene. During this scene, all Beauvoir can worry about is how you can look stylish, but warm at the same time in a Quebec winter. “It was nearly impossible to be both attractive and warm in a Quebec winter. And Jean guy Beauvoir sure didn’t want to look like a dork in a parka and stupid hat.” (P.76) This quotation of humour breaks the obvious tension of going to a scene where a murder has taken place. Another example of Louise breaking the tension, takes place just after she writes about how devastated Crie is that C.C. isn’t at the pageant. C.C. is talking about her first guru, Ramen Das to Saul. She says that they met in the mountains and had an instant spiritual connection and that she wanted to “seek the truth.” When C.C. has finished rambling on about her story of Ramen Das, Saul thinks, “Saul wondered whether she was confusing an Indian mystic with a KKK member. Ironic, really, if she was.” C.C. goes on and on saying that Ramen Das told C.C. she needed to spread her spiritual message and to write the book “Be Calm.”