2006

Booklist
 Schedule
 History


 
 

 

 November
The Makioka Sisters
Junichiro Tanizaki
Discussion recapped by Melissa 

We discussed several topics on or related to the book, including the story, the time period, the characters, the author's life, the context in which we needed to view the book/story/characters, other Japanese literature and what this book reminded us of.

Nobody hated the book, but the discussion was not a love fest. A few of us liked the story, some did not—especially the end, which seemed to just hang there. Weird, we thought...and yet...

Some felt they'd seen the story before, perhaps in Sense & Sensibility.

We did not really feel sorry for any of the characters, who seemed a bit too oblivious to what was going on around them - even though that was their culture, etc. Duh! The "China Incident"?? Is that all it was? Boy, were they in for a shock shortly after those letters of early 1941 came from their friends in Europe.  There were things in the book that each of us enjoyed, and some that we could even say all of us enjoyed, for example the visual descriptions of the cherry blossom viewing. Especially popular was the firefly hunt - this sent us on an enjoyable digression about fireflies in the US, some of the members' experiences catching them and even selling them back in their home towns. We love fireflies!

People did seem to find it interesting that all of Tanizaki's literary heroes, at least early in his career, were European and American. After learning that, it was then surprising to know that this particular book supposedly represented a departure from his penchant for Western writing, and was more Japanese...the characters and the setting were, but again, the story seemed a bit familiar to us in all our familiarity with Western lit.

Overall, I would say the general sense of the group was that we were glad we had read it, but were not sure exactly what we got out of it.


 
 

 

 October
The Shell Collector
Anthony Doerr
Discussion recapped by Fran 

We met last night at Helen's house to discuss The Shell Collector, a short story collection by Anthony Doerr, suggested by Laura. Susan K provided snacks including the best goat cheese ever and amazing chocolate seashells. Attending were Helen, me, Susan T, Susan K, Laura, and Melissa K.

On the 1-10 scale (10 being the best), we liked the book along a spectrum that ranged from 6 to 9. (I'm in the 9 end; I loved it). Several people mentioned they don't like short stories generally, but liked these. Overall, quite a positive reaction from this group. There was also a strong consensus that the best story was The Caretaker, a very powerful tale of a refugee from Africa redeemed by a deaf teenager in Oregon. The remaining stories we ranked in rough order (strongest to weakest) as: Mkondo (another immigrant/exile tale); For A Long Time, This Was Griselda's Story (involving two sisters, one married to a metal eater); So Many Chances (a janitor in Ohio journeys to become a janitor in Maine; is he better off?); July Fourth (the goofy story, and ALL about fishing); The Hunter's Wife (very mystical; reminded several of us of Ann Patchett's The Magician's Assistant. more huntin' and not so much fishin' here). Many of us felt that the title story was relatively weak although several of us were deeply impressed by the visual beauty of the blind shell collector's story. Probably the least accomplished, however, was A Tangle By the Rapid River (not only a fishing metaphor, but fishing equipment as metaphor, and it didn't go anywhere).  Our overarching criticisms included too much fishing in the stories, and not enough editing of the stories.

The goat cheese was a 9 and the chocolate a 10. Also, hazelnut chocolate and raw carrot sticks is a surprisingly good snack combination.
 

 
 

 

 September
The Known World
Edward P. Jones
Sorry, no recap 



 
 

 

 August
The Distance
Eddie Muller
Discussion recapped by Fran 

We met last night at Susan K's house to discuss the Distance by Eddie Muller, courtesy of Melissa M. Attending were Susan K, Melissa K, Anne-Marie, Fran, and an au revoir appearance by Alison, who leaves next week for grad school in Scotland!

No one was bowled over by The Distance, although we enjoyed its noir ambience and San Francisco in the 1940s setting. It was an OK mystery, we felt, but not, by any means, terrific. The protagonist was more or less an OK guy. Some of us didn't feel his reunion with his wandering wife was believable. We liked some of the devices in the book, such as Billy's habit of articulating his thoughts as a news article, and some of the snappy dialogue. Those of us who enjoy mysteries talked about our criteria for a good one: 1) must be a good novel to begin with character development, plot, good writing—the murder is simply an embellishment; 2) the murder must actually be solved by the end of the novel (apparently there is a new trend among mystery writers to simply leave the crime unsolved - NOT acceptable) 3) one must actually be able to find the clues to the mystery in the text, the solution can't be simply dropped from the heavens.


 
 

 

 July
Gilead
Marilynne Robinson
Discussion recapped by Clare 

Anne Marie, Clare, Laura, Susan K, and Susan T met at Anne Marie’s to discuss Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. We all enjoyed it to varying degrees (even Susan K, who had a negative impression of it from a book-on-tape). Impressions included:

* Wonderfully evocative writing, e.g., the moon scene at the grandfather’s grave in Kansas. Yet it was not “over written” (despite the fact that she is an instructor at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop).

* She captured both the voice of a pastor and the language used at the time, as well as the old-fashioned thoughtful and discursive style of writing. We lamented the passing of certain formalities like letter writing (Anne Marie’s parents used the formal “vous” with each other, even among family, reserving “tu” for their private moments. We also clarified that I am too old—40 next April!—to wear the unsightly fashions of the moment).

* We had a lengthy discussion regarding whether or not this was a religious book about Christianity. We agreed that, while the protagonist’s voice is necessarily steeped in Christianity, it is really a communiqué (epistle, missive—synonyms both derived from religious sources) to his son about who he is and how his “begats” shaped him. 

* Some of us felt it verged on mystical. We all liked the pastor considerably.

* Susan T. also felt it was about commitment—to his community, to staying rather than fleeing. We discussed why he stayed in a dying town rather than follow his parents and brother to Florida. In his community, he was someone. He had history and relationships from which he derived his sense of self.


* We did not resolve why he felt so strongly about Jack. Clearly, Jack was a strong personality—people liked him and didn’t hold him accountable for his wrongdoing. We thought perhaps the fact that Jack was his namesake and godson and was essentially “given” to him by old Boughton as his son carried a great deal of weight. But this explanation didn’t quite satisfy. Nor could we relate to the story of the Prodigal Son in the bible.

* We were most impressed by Susan T.’s recall of biblical stories. Having just returned from the Midwest and her 40th (!) high school reunion and Congregationalist roots, she found many parallels and synergies while reading the book (and got to gossip about the high school cheerleader).



 
 

 

 June
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
Charles Seife
Discussion recapped by Allison 

We met on 6/28 at Susan T's house to discuss my selection for June—Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife. Laura, Helen, Anne-Marie, Susan K, Clare, and Melissa K were in attendance. Susan T provided the fun snacks, which included “black holes,” “string” cookies, star cookies, and geometrically-shaped crackers and cheese.

Although filled with interesting facts, the group found the book generally repetitive. Since most of us had not studied Physics the latter parts of the book were beyond us. Susan T found it to be a very philosophical book and Helen was very patient, providing plain-English explanations of a number of mathematical concepts related to zero and infinity.

We found the historical aspects of the book intriguing, the development of the calendar, for example. However, some found the author's link between the vanishing point in art and zero to be a stretch.

Susan T pointed out that the author also has a book entitled One, which was passed around.


 
 

 

 May
The Belton Estate
Anthony Trollope
Discussion recapped by Fran 

We met last night at Helen's house to discuss my selection for May: The Belton Estate by Anthony Trollope. Besides me and Helen, attending were Susan T, Laura, Melissa K, Allison, and Anne-Marie. We snacked on Stilton and sherry provided by Susan.

Comments were surprisingly positive. Perhaps everyone expected to hate it and didn't. No one quite found it the page turner that I did - several commented that they found they needed to consume the novel in small doses, with rests in between readings - but the psychological details were interesting, I think someone even said "fascinating," and the group seemed to appreciate Trollope's humor. The social history aspect was also intriguing. Several people were very curious about the odd names for the characters - where did Amedroz (not a typically English surname) come from? And despite this oddity, why then two characters named Mary (perhaps to highlight how different they were)? This was everyone's first foray into Trollope, except for me who got to be the expert, because I've probably read six of his novels (only the last four of which I really remember at all). I urged anyone who had the slightest degree of interest in this author to read Cousin Henry (not, as previously reported, "My Cousin Henry" -- that's the Vinnie movie). Susan brought what looked like a fascinating biography of Trollope which was passed around and perused (I had to leave before it reached me, but it looked good). Trollope's childhood was difficult; even for the early 19th century, he was pretty neglected - essentially abandoned at boarding school when his parents and siblings went off to America to try to make their fortune (unsuccessfully). He himself had a happy marriage, however, which may explain why so many of his plots involve people burdened with difficult and/or absent and/or impecunious parents, who nonetheless overcome adversity and find happiness in marriage.


 
 

 

 April
Small Island
Andrea Levy
Sorry, no recap 


 
 

 

 March
The Dew Breaker
Edwidge Danticat
Discussion recapped by Helen 

Laura, Clare, Susan T, Fran, Helen and Anne-Marie met at Anne-Marie's house to discuss The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat. Susan and Fran dodged the great BART snafu by minutes, Clare arrived halfway through the meeting not having been so fortunate.

We spent awhile piecing together the various characters and their relationships and wondering, since versions of all but two of the stories had been previously published, whether the author had written them to hang together as a novel or had stitched them together after the fact. Some of us enjoyed the subtlety of the connections; others wished they had been a bit more obvious. Susan pointed out the economics of publishing and how landing a few stories in The New Yorker provides a better income than many novels.

Fran provided some current data on Haiti—ranking 163 out of 177 poorest countries and an economic and environmental disaster. 95% of the county has been logged; the border with the Domican Republic can be clearly seen in satellite photos. After reading the book, we all felt we knew more about Haiti in the time of Duvalier and the Haitian community in Brooklyn although Laura wished there had been more detail. Susan suggested the book the Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis which describes the use of blowfish to turn people into Zombies and gives some sense of a cultural mindset. Susan, whose concentration at Wellesley was in the philosophy of art, cautioned us against drawing too many conclusions since portraying "reality" is not the author's goal. The rest of us agreed but felt it was a matter of degree since a well-researched novel, a documentary, or the nightly news all pick and choose what information they give us.

We were perplexed at some of the interrelationships—Anne and the torturer, for example—but also realized that strange things can happen when a society is torn apart by a vicious dictatorship. Clare recalled being depressed for an entire semester in college while taking a course of the literature under dictators along with several anthropology courses.

Overall impressions of the book were favorable. It was an easy read and introduced most of us to a time, place, and community that we didn't know well.


 
 

 

 February
Provinces of Night
William Gay
Discussion recapped by Clare
We read "Provinces of Night" by William Gay. Clare chose it for the evocative language and cadence of the prose, but general consensus was that it was over-written. While Susan T. vouched for the authenticity of some of the language, we wished that one of our resident southern ambassadors had attended the meeting. Please weigh in! [If you mean me because I grew up in Tennessee, remember that my parents are Yankees and I'm from Oak Ridge which is kinda different being only 50-some years old plus it's East Tennessee while the book is Middle Tennessee. The language did ring true for me as much as I know. The whole TVA thing did not when I went looking at locations of TVA dams. That particular angle is borrowed from other parts of the state. If you are ever in East Tennessee I recommend visiting the museum at Norris Dam where they tell the story of the people displaced by the project. LO]

The characters are well-drawn and often quite funny (again, this may be more my opinion than others'). Though Anne Marie asked if Fleming is too good to be true? [My two cents again—I believe Fleming is at least somewhat autobiographical. I do know that Gay grew up in a small town and still lives in the same area as Fleming. LO] How could he have emerged such a sensitive soul from such a harsh background? Is this just a story of the harshness of poverty in the south or does it depict a universal longing for meaningful connection with other people?

Susan T. objected to aspects of the plot that did not strike her as real, such as the fact that Fleming did nothing to stop his father from attempting murder.

We also discussed whether literature—not just fiction—requires unhappy characters. Can happy, well-adjusted characters sustain the tension necessary to make a work interesting?


 
 

 

 January
Sputnik Sweetheart
Haruki Murakami
Sorry, no recap 



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