2004

Booklist
 Schedule
 History



 
 

 

 November 
Pompeii 
Robert Harris 
Discussion recapped by Fran

We met at Susan T's home, to spare her from giving one of her special circus performances whereby she drives the car with her left arm, including twisting under the steering wheel to reach the ignition... only one member got lost in the dark, which is a feat for the club. Besides Susan T., in attendance were Anne-Marie, Helen, Melissa K, Melissa M, Allison, Sarah, Susan K and me.

I was apparently the only one who did NOT like Pompeii. Everyone else thought it was a fascinating rendition of a historical period and one of its defining cataclysmic events. Although no one defended my criticism of the book's lack of character development (or indeed, lack of characterization, period), they weren't troubled by it. I didn't get much support for what I felt was a) utterly gratuitous graphic sexual references and b) anachronistic language to describe same. Prick is apparently a very accurate translation of whatever word the Romans were using at the time (and, it seems, they used it a lot). Forgive me, I didn't know. (No one could defend the use of the word "rookie," however.) The group was very impressed with Harris's research and description of the science involved in building an aqueduct. I was disappointed by how superficial this aspect of the book was.

Maybe what bothered me was how similar Pompeii society seemed to be to our present day culture. In fact, I can easily imagine someone 1000 years from now marveling by how advanced our technology was in 2004, and how tragic it is that we were all wiped out by a catastrophe we were too ignorant and obsessed with consuming our planet's resources in the production of tschotskes and packaging to prevent.

I found the group's discussion to be much more enlightening and intriguing than the book. In particular, Sarah's description of visiting the site was vivid and fascinating. (And she did it without even mentioning oral sex or pedophilia!) The web site printout Susan K passed around was also extremely interesting.


 
 

 

 October 
Coast Road 
Barbara Delinsky 
Discussion recapped by Clare, Helen, Laura, Susan, Anne-Marie

I looked and looked, and finally found it in the Romance section! That could sum it up, but in fairness, I'll flesh out (no pun intended! As Laura pointed out, Fabio was not on the cover!) some critiques.

My main complaint was that I didn't ENJOY reading it. It made me value the book club's recommendations, as I nearly always can appreciate some aspect of a book and haven't read a dud in quite a while. The joy of escaping in well-developed characters or artful prose was missing here. The author erects little signs ("Feel Sympathy for Jack--He's Evolving!") to tell you how to feel.

My second major objection was the relationship between Jack and the hairdresser. Due to those helpful little signposts, I understood the psychological issues she had with him. I just didn't understand why he didn't bar her from the hospital room after her first inappropriate insult. Others were more charitable than I, so I'll let them soften the review.
-- Clare

I found the book an easy read and a good break from the heavy tome we had just read. Even though I knew from the beginning how it would end, I liked the way the transformations unfolded and shed a tear when they seemed about to live happily ever after. Unlike some of the books we've read, it was so transparent that there weren't a lot of questions or topics for discussion. We did talk about life in an isolated setting like Big Sur and how an illness or injury can cause a relationship to change, and we wondered about what the favorite books revealed about each of the characters since we weren't familiar with all the titles. Besides not having much to talk about gave us plenty of time to take eclipse breaks.
-- Helen

We also talked about how believable/unbelievable the characters were. We accepted that they were all stereotypes with a specific role to play, but some of them made at least one contribution. Faith provided a bit of humor. Each of the girls and Katherine had sections in their own voices that at least I felt provided an interesting departure. And those shifts in voice were far less intrusive and more flowing than in many of the books we've read. I didn't spend the first several paragraphs going "okay, who is this? what happened to the story line I was following?" We felt that the older daughter (whose name I have forgotten already) was the most believable. Hope was too mature to believe, though perhaps having such a burden of a name contributed to her unusual perceptions. Rachel, the coma-chick was least believable. I mean, hell, you've been separated from this guy for 6 years after even more previous years of letting you down and you take him back in such short time just 'cause he painted some backgrounds?

We also discussed briefly how well the author evoked the natural surroundings.
-- Laura

Pro: I read the whole book, which I do not always do. Even though I knew from page 1 how the book was going to unfold, there were little spots of interest. I agree that the different voices added a lot. (CF The Poisonwood Bible for the ne plus ultra of this trick in fiction.) [Actually, I hated the different voices in Poisonwood Bible, found them disconcerting; Kingsolver did a much better job in Prodigal Summer. –Laura]

Con: I care more about style and character development than about plot -- and this book had no style and stereotypical character development -- but some said that Jack had evolved, at least.

I am glad we read it -- we needed something light. But I need the group to help me parse complex books, to analyze why a book is "important" or a "classic," to think about how the book fits into English language literature. These are things I find difficult or impossible to do without the sounding boards of other people.
-- Susan

I can only say that the book was OK, the characters were all pretty much stereotypes, : not altogether hopeless male who eventually "gets it", feminist friend representing hardened woman and loyalty, naive young child who is the "hope of the family as she provides an important link in helping her father reconnect with his paternity. Not particularly well written, though I thought the author wrote well in capturing the ambiance of the Big Sur redwoods.
-- Anne-Marie


 
 

 

 September 
Slaves in the Family 
Edward Ball 
Discussion recapped by Fran

We met on September 29 to discuss Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball, suggested by Cindy. Present at Susan K's house were Susan K., Susan T. (who will probably have to miss several meetings because of surgery for a torn rotator cuff), Anne-Marie, Fran, Helen, Laura, Melissa K, and Rachel.

The general reaction to the book was negative. It was universally acknowledged to be poorly written, tedious, hard to follow, and flat. We were perhaps most disappointed by the fact that none of the characters came to life—not even those still living, whom the author met in person. The best Ball could do, apparently, was regale us with a litany of different descriptions of the various skin hues possessed by his interview subjects. How many different kinds of wood did you find? I counted maple, oak, cherry, and of course, multiple iterations of that all-time favorite, mahogany. (The white people, apparently, were all the same color, however.) [I saw two people described as cardboard colored (I guess that's wood if you trace the family tree of it). One was from the owned side and one was from the owning side. –LO] Frowns, smiles, grimaces, sighs, voice tones (generally soft spoken) and hand gestures were also recorded in careful detail. None of this gave us any sense of what anyone was actually like as a person. Given the book is about the fundamental moral wrong of failing to treat human beings like humans, Ball's writing is not only bad, but ironically bad. More irony: even the family tree was badly written, being printed in a nearly illegible script.

We also had difficulty with the way the narrative leaped around in time, making it unnecessarily confusing. That, added to the fact that none of the characters stood out, made the reading experience numbing rather than moving.

We did, however, like the photos (several people said that whatever they gained from the book came from the photos).

We discussed the central question posed by the book—does s anyone have responsibility (or, accountability) for the actions of his/her (long-dead) ancestors? Anne-Marie suggested that the author's distinction between responsibility and accountability is meaningless. Ball appears to claim that by writing this book and thereby braving the tide of family disapproval (the extent and ramifications of which are completely unclear—maybe some second cousin took him off the Christmas card list?) he's expiated his guilt. Some in the group suggested that the extent to which any of us are "responsible" for our ancestor's sins or crimes depends on whether and how much we've benefited from them. (Ball himself asks the descendants of the slave-sellers in Sierra Leone if their families have benefited from their commercial activities of the 18th century, and implies that his hasn't.) But is it really fair to say that Ball hasn't benefited because he's not still earning dividends from the rice plantations and therefore, he's got nothing to worry about? For one thing, thanks to his ancestors' activities, he's got a National Book Award under his belt, and by the end of the book I was definitely wondering what he's done, or what he's doing, with his royalties. For another, the slave seller descendants are living in Sierra Leone, one of the poorest regions in the world, while Ball is a graduate of Brown University living in the richest country on earth. Is that all due to Ball's own intelligence and industry? Would he be in the same place today if someone had thrown his great-great-great-great grandmother into the hold of a ship, sent her thousands of miles from home, put her in an alien culture and imprisoned anyone who tried to teach her to read and write?

My final carp is that he's patronizing. "Look! The ancestor of a slave went to college! Look, the ancestor of a slave has a clean, neat home!" The absolute nadir was when he was describing an all-white singing group that performs spirituals. He actually makes some "joke" about "too bad there aren't slaves anymore, so we could be sure we're doing this right." UGH.


 
 

 

 August 
Middlesex 
Jeffrey Eugenides 
Discussion recapped by Allison

We had a lively discussion of Middlesex last evening at Melissa M's. house. She graciously provided us with snacks, including some delicious home-grown tomatoes. Melissa M., Anne-Marie, Susan T., Helen, and I were in attendance.
 
The book received mixed reviews. Everyone enjoyed aspects of the book; however, it was agreed that the narrator could go on and on. His long-windedness was punctuated by insightful comments that lent a rolling rhythm to the tale and kept your interest. Melissa M. did raise the question of why the book had won the Pulitzer and Susan T. felt that the discussion of the Detroit race riots was the most likely reason.
 
We also got into a discussion of gender identity and transgender issues. We discussed Calliope's objectification by the gender specialist and her motivation to disguise her true feelings due to concerns that she would be considered a freak because of her hermaphrodism.
 
Susan T. also questioned the believability of the narrator, as Calliope seemed to have no internal conflict or visible suffering. Anne-Marie followed by stating that although she noted the poetic license taken by the author in having no one notice Calliope's condition until her teens, she felt that Cal definitely felt conflict over the cost of the situation to his family and the fact that he did not get the opportunity to make peace with his father. Melissa M. felt that Calliope felt guilt and depression and clearly conflict over how she fit in to society. Helen brought up the change in levels of acceptance over the years, both in terms of individual gender identification and sexual preference, which led to a discussion of documentaries following people undergoing the change from female to male and how as hormone levels increased, their spatial perception and ways of looking at things changed along with their physical being. This was also touched upon by Cal in the book when he realized he was now "the man."


 
 

 

 July 
Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam 
Andrew X. Pham 
Sorry, no recap



 
 

 

 June 
A Dove of the East 
Mark Helprin
Discussion recapped by Clare

I will try my best to fill the shoes of the incomparable Fran! After hearing effusive praise for her witty, lucid treatises that somehow capture the crux of the conversation despite its many tentacles, I was tempted to curse my voluntarism, but alas, it was too late to back out. So, here goes:

Helen, Alison, Cindy, Britt, Anne-Marie, Betsy (welcome!) and I met at Anne-Marie’s house to discuss Mark Helprin’s collection of short stories, A Dove of the East. The group agreed that the book was worthwhile. It even overcame my bias against the genre. His writing was described as lyrical, painterly, and as poetry. His stories often dispensed with plot (a virtue in a short story, in my opinion), instead, using imagery to capture a moment. Discussion jumped from story to story, but a few themes emerged. (1) The stories often begin by setting a bucolic scene (using colors to great effect), but end in violence, death or tragedy, either real (e.g., “The Homefront,” “Katrina”), or symbolic (“The Silver Bracelet”). (2) Helprin’s skill as a writer is illustrated by how packed the shortest stories can be. We spent some time discussing the four pages of “Because of the Waters of the Flood.” Like most of his stories, the ending leaves the reader up in the air, allowing it to be read more than one way. Was she gripping the spoon because of the tension of not knowing whether her husband would be sent to war? Was the ambivalence the reader feels a result of the implied criticism—perhaps the first criticism--her husband expressed? Or was he not critical at all? “Shooting the Bar” had a similar effect. The stories come across as emotionally valid. They provide no answers, but this rings true to life. For me, “Flood” displays the author’s ability to convey a scene as vivid as it would be if one were watching it performed at a theater. The communication between the characters is in the looks they give each other, or the small moments experienced between partners, not explained in words. (3) Helprin has an unfortunate habit of describing every woman as tall, willowy, ethereal and beautiful, usually wearing a white dress. Johanna in “Willis Avenue” was the only unattractive woman and didn’t find love, and that was the point of the story. We came to the conclusion that it was too much youthful testosterone (he wrote these stories when he was in his early 20s! He’d also had accumulated a lifetime of experience in exotic locales by then, so he was writing what he knew, despite the wide variety of settings). (4) Each ending is also a beginning. In “Yellow Sky” she reached her goal. Was she disappointed? Was the journey, itself, the point? What comes next? To close, I cite a quote that captivated Britt, illustrating the poetry in his prose: “Levi learned that soft lesson and it became the steel of his life.” (p. 33, “First Russian Summer”).


 
 

 

 May 
Life of Pi 
Yann Martel
Discussion recapped by Fran

Despite the flurry of "I can't make it"s that I received yesterday, five us of showed up at Susan T's house last night to discuss Melissa M's pick The Life of Pi. I was there, Susan T., Susan K., Melissa M., and Anne-Marie. Melissa facilitated a great discussion, starting off by asking the group whether the author's prediction that "this story will make you believe in God" was fulfilled or not, and why or why not. We discussed extensively our different interpretations of the "animal" version of Pi's tale versus the "other story." If the "other one" was the "real" story, how "real" was it? Could you translate the "animal" story into the "real" story word for word, or was some of it either myth or perhaps metaphor for a different (larger?) truth? How much literal truth, or factual accuracy, do each of us need in order to buy into the essential (emotional, moral) truth?

All of us, I think, said that we preferred the animal version, though certainly not all of us agreed that it gave us faith in a higher power. Our experience seemed to prove, however, that we at least *want* to believe! So is faith necessary, or is it simply more fun?

The humor and the intelligence of this strikingly creative novel won all of us over.

Susan Turner's amazing cherry clafoutis deserves kudos here as well. I've included below a recipe for this dish that I found on the internet, which says that it is "traditional to leave the stones in the cherries as they add a bitter, slightly almond flavour to the clafoutis" but I think we (and our dentists) were grateful that Susan bucked tradition on this one—her cherries were impeccably pitted. I did the conversions myself using "convertit.com" - a useful web site.

Place about 500 grams (1.1 pounds) of cherries in a buttered, shallow, heat proof serving dish.

In a bowl, whisk 2 eggs lightly.

Add 1/4 cup caster (would this be granulated?) sugar and 1/2 cup self-raising (self-rising) flour and stir gently until smooth.

Gradually stir in 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup cream, and 1 tablespoon kirsch or brandy until mixture is smooth.

Pour mixture gently over cherries.

Bake at 190 C (that's 375 F) for about 25 minutes, until the top is risen and golden brown. Serve warm with thick cream.


 
 

 

 April 
Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before 
Tony Horwitz
Sorry, no recap



 
 

 

 March 
Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times 
Elizabeth Wayland Barber
 Discussion recapped by Fran

Last night's meeting was held at Anne-Marie's house to discuss our March selection, Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth & Society in Early Times, by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. (Note, you aficionados of Eats, Shoots & Leaves - my punctuation of the title was copied from the amazon website). Anne-Marie, Fran, Melissa K., Alison, Susan T. and Laura (our chooser) attended. Laura felt the book did not hold up to a re-reading; her criticism was perhaps the harshest although she didn't really get a chance to tee off because the rest of us liked the book so much. We were able to find some fault with the organization (we suspect an editor who tried to hard to make the book 'readable' by chopping it up and arranging the chapters by a 'theme' as opposed to just marching us through history in straightforward fashion) and one or two of us pointed out that there was a lack of scholarly attention paid to the "other" point of view, or conflicting opinions that may be held by other experts in the field, as well as a tendency to leap from hypothesis to conclusion without much supporting evidence. But these flaws were more than compensated by the wealth of new information we were given on a very interesting subject (or what Barber turned into an interesting subject). When we're entertained and educated at the same time, it is difficult to complain. We hoped to find that one of our members was a closet weaver (although reading and weaving may not be such compatible activities as minding a toddler and weaving, for example) -- the closest we got is a friend of Alison's (male) whose living space is consumed with a giant loom and samples of his work, and a friend of Susan Turner's. We did learn about some fascinating uses for old cloth some members have come up with, however. For example, did anyone know that one of our thrifty and environmentally-conscious members uses articles of her clothing as dustrags (and if they're not too dirty, washes and wears them again)? Also, Anne-Marie can darn socks (although she's a modern wasteful American these days who just buys new ones when holes appear now). And I was very impressed by how much everyone except me knows about the flags of different nations.

[Have since learned that Melissa M. used to weave.]
 

 
 

 

 February
Money 
Martin Amis
Discussion recapped by Fran

We had a decent turnout for the rain-delayed meeting to discuss February's selection (by me) – Martin Amis' novel MONEY. Attending were Alison, Cindy, Laura, me, Rachel, Anne-Marie, Britt, and Helen. General consensus was quite negative, ranging from those who utterly loathed the book and refused to finish it on the ground that life is too short to waste time reading books you hate (I agree with that principle generally, but I do think this book had a payoff for those who managed to plow through to the end), to those who could at least read it and found parts interesting/clever and occasionally funny. A couple of people had always been curious about this writer and/or his more famous father, both of whom enjoy stronger reputations in England than in the U.S., and were gratified to have had their curiosity satisfied, at least. No one liked the device of the author's semi-cameo appearance in the novel – we’ve seen this before, and it annoys us. (I thought it was an OK way to hightlight John Self's alter-ego, but I was pretty much alone on that.) Those of us who were the most repulsed by the book seemed to have taken it the most literally, pointing out that Self had no redeeming characteristics, was brutal, shallow, vulgar, depressing... (again, I differ, but stand alone). Some seemed to appreciate the satire, a little bit at least, though there was criticism that Amis was too obvious (the Orwell novels, the dog Shadow...) I think we were able to agree, at least, that however reprehensible otherwise, Self did NOT have a toupee (rug is simply slang for hair, real hair). His alcoholic excesses were tedious for several, but led to an interesting digression on alcoholics in general, alcohol abuse among the 20-something crowd, drinking in the U.S. vs. drinking in Europe, and how none of us can stay up past ten-thirty these days, drinking or no. (We all would have collapsed after 24 hours in Self's skin.)


 
 

 

 January
Everything is Illuminated
Jonathan Safran Foer
Sorry, no recap

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