As we wrap up our deep dive into EL James’ “The Mister”, we have a lot of questions. Well, one question really: What the hell?
But also: Why was absolutely nothing resolved? Why do Maxim and Alessia treat her father like his opinion should matter at all? How much were they paying that translator? Is that another half-finished hotel? Do automobiles actually qualify as a “fun theme”? Why is our hero thinking about his mother during sex? Tickety-boo????
We’ll address some of these questions, but we’ve also got a ton of listener emails, Dumb Sentences, an Amazon review quiz, a Goodreads review quiz, a look at the role of Albanian translators in perilous situations throughout history, as well as a listen as to what Alessia’s father’s wedding toast might have sounded like.
Our Patreon supporters have a chance to win our copies of The Mister, in addition to getting every episode early and other things nobody else gets to see. Enter to win and join them here!
We ALSO have a very fun anacrostic puzzle that listener Amanda made for us. Download it and give it a shot here!
Thank you for reading along with us on The Mister, especially everyone who wrote in, created fanfic and memes, and shared their comments here! This one was a lot of fun. We’ll take next week off for the fourth but will have a book giveaway and a Trucking Through Time assignment soon!
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Solved the puzzle, good fun. One part on the second line I was sure I’d made a mistake, until Google assured me it was a relevant proper noun.
(I listened to the audiobook, so forgive my misspellings of names and lack of perfectly mimicking the original paragraph layout.)
I found E.L. James’ depiction of handguns very confusing. In one of the last chapters, when Alyssia and Anatoli are at one of their hotel stops, Alyssia disarms Anatoli’s handgun while he’s asleep:
“Beside her duffel, she spies Anatoli’s suitcase… Carefully, she unzips it… There are some clothes, and his gun. *The gun!* She fishes it out… The PISTOL is weighty in her hand…
“She unclips the magazine, and is surprised to find only four bullets in it. She removes them, and then sharply pulls the slide back and catches the remaining round as it’s ejected from the chamber. She reloads the magazine into the gun and pockets the bullets.”
So not only has Alyssia suddenly developed a snarky sarcastic attitude, but she’s also suddenly become a badass at handling firearms.
Then, during the final confrontation, Anatoli tries to put his handgun to use only to be stopped by its lack of bullets:
“From his coat pocket he whisks out his REVOLVER and takes aim at Maxim’s face… ‘I have enough bullets for all of you!’
“‘No, you don’t,’ Alyssia retorts.
“Anatoli frowns. ‘What?’ And he measures the weight of the gun in his hand.
“‘This morning, in Zagreb, I took the bullets out while you were sleeping.’
“…seething, Anatoli takes aim again, this time at her father, and pulls the trigger.
“‘No!’ Alyssia and her mother shout in unison. But nothing happens. The hammer clicks and echos against an empty chamber.”
I’m not a firearms expert, but I’m quite certain there’s no such thing as a REVOLVER that makes use of a magazine and slide, as a revolver has a REVLOVING cylinder. Either Anatoli has some sort of magic gun that can change its form or E.L. James doesn’t know what she’s writing about, as anybody who’s “watched a lot of American television” should know the difference between a revolver and a pistol since so many shows have exhibited the cylinder of a revolver dramatically revolving as the trigger is slowly pulled or the hammer is cocked by a thumb pulling back a lever. Heck, play any shooter video game from the last 20 years and you can see that there’s an obvious difference between pistols and revolvers. I’m surprised it wasn’t described as a “fully semi-automatic” weapon.
This also begs the question: If Anatoli is such a bad man who likely uses a handgun in great frequency to do his bad work, why would he sleep with his gun zipped up in suitcase in a different room, especially while kidnapping a woman, then carry it in his coat pocket after getting dressed? It seems that this kind of person would always keep his gun close by and most likely wear a holster — if not simply stuff the gun down his pants — for convenient access.