Wellesley Book Group

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Discussion recapped by Bonnie

We met at Bonnie’s house to discuss Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, recommended by Rachel N and Ariel. Attending were Anne-Marie, Helen, Jean, Josephine, Georgia, and Bonnie. Josephine provided theme related snacks, including a couple of tasty Dutch gouda cheeses.

We were all glad to have read the book, and we marvelled at Hirsi Ali’s recollection of details from her childhood. We speculated that her memories may have been enhanced by her grandmother’s early instruction in the history of her family and clan, a Somali cultural tradition. We went on to discuss politics, religious fundamentalism, multi-culturalism vs. integration of immigrant communities (melting-pot), the power of literature to expand one’s horizons, the subjugation of females, physical and psychological abuse, and violence, which were all issues raised in the book. We also discussed differences between autobiography and memoir and the differences between Hirsi Ali’s life and that of her siblings. In all, it was a very thought-provoking book.

Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith
Discussion recapped by Ariel

Attendees: Helen, Sheila, Jean, Bonnie, Susan K, Anne F, Josphine, Anne-Marie, Joan, Rachel, Claire, and Ariel

Synopsis: “In the small town of Little Wesley, intellectual publisher Victor Van Allen decides to discourage his wife Melinda’s many lovers by hinting to them that he may have killed her previous beau, Malcolm McRae. However, the game turns sour when strangers begin to grow wary of him, thus denting his social esteem and also blurring the line between fiction and reality; after a while, Vic wonders if he may really have blood on his hands.”

Main points we discussed:

• Patricia Highsmith’s character- apparently she was sort of depressed and crazy herself, taking lots of lovers and not treating them particularly well, someone described her as a cruel person — she was a known alcoholic as well. Most of her novels are about murderous young men like The Talented Mr. Ripley
• Whether the novel was fully realized or more of a writing exercise - We felt that a lot of it was simply a character study. It was strong writing and certainly kept you reading, but the plot was a bit weak and unbelievable
• The meaning of the term psychopath - Was Vic one? What does that mean?
• The nature of Vic and Melinda’s relationship - whether or not they were always so distant and dysfunctional. Was Vic pushing Melinda to “act out?” or did Melinda push Vic to “lose it.” Was Vic controlling? Did they ever care for each other? Vic comments early on that Melinda pretended not to care for him, but he had actually bored of her? Is this simply more egotism on his part? Does that mean she DID care about him?
• If Melinda herself is not crazy –Why did she stay with Vic when she really felt he was a murderer? Why did she always prepare dinner for him for so long? Was she a good mother? Why did she take on so may lovers?
• Vic’s relationship to his daughter- Did he only enjoy her because he was clearly superior and the relationship was clearly defined and easy for him to dominate? If she had grown to be a teenager would they have gotten along so well? Did he really have relationships with anyone? Or did he just like the appearance or relationships? At the end of the novel, his daughter is an afterthought, which made most of us feel he did not really love his daughter, but rather liked playing the “role” of “good father”
• Vic’s egotism and whether or not it was caused by general self-absorption or rather because of his feelings regarding class.
• How far Melinda and Wilson went to catch him — if they set up the roll of paper to entice him back into the quarry?
• If his getting away with the first murder was plausible — or if Highsmith relied too much on our believing in the town of little Wesley and it’s desire to shelter Vic from all accusations. Most of us felt that was unbelievable. In the 50s this couple would have been ostracized — no one would have wanted to associate with them, let alone help cover up a murder!
• Whether the snail or any of the publishing titles had significance in the novel; snail shells are obviously protective, but also fragile
• Whether the quote at the start of the novel helped us to better understand the author’s motivation for writing it: “There is no better doge than one’s own character, because no one believes in it…”  Dostoevsky’s The Possessed

Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Discussion recapped by Helen

The November/December discussion of Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro met at Susan K’s house with Susan, Rachel S (provider & baker of prodigious delicious snacks), Ann F, Laura, Clare, Susan T, Helen, Anne-Marie , newish members Bonnie and Jean, and brand new members Josephine and Rachel N. In case you’re counting that was twelve of us, and we now span a 53-year class range from ‘55 to ‘08.

We all liked some things about the book, and our opinions ranged from “loved it” to “didn’t dislike it.” It prompted some comparisons with The White Tiger and Elegance of the Hedgehog both of which also dealt with members of the serving class and their relationships with their masters — we much preferred the “hedgehog” and her ways of escaping from behind her concierge facade to the way Stevens buried himself in his profession and denied himself any personal interests or even self-awareness.

Over all, we liked the way the book was crafted, gradually revealing more and more facts about events and characters. Some books that are not linear are confusing — we didn’t find the transfer between the “present” and earlier times a problem in this book. We found the latter part of the book interesting as an example of the ancient literary tradition (cf The Odyssey, Huckleberry Finn) of the protagonist’s discovery of himself while on a journey.

We talked at some length about Ishiguro’s portrayal of Stevens as a masterful character study of a person in denial and his formal way of talking and acting with the other household employees including his father. Not until the very end when his “heart was breaking” did we have any sense that he realized what might have been with Miss Kenton. We also looked at the times, the difference depicted between the British and the Americans, some historical information about Nazi sympathizers in Britain.

The Archimedes Codex by Reviel Netz and William Noel
Discussion recapped by Helen

We met at Anne-Marie’s house to discuss The Archimedes Codex by Reviel Netz and William Noel, recommended by Laura who was unable to attend because of a tight schedule and the Bay Bridge closure. Attending were Rachel, Clare, Susan K, Anne-Marie, Helen, and three new members who are recent transplants to the area: Jean, Liz, and Bonnie. Susan provided theme related snacks, both Italian and Greek, including Gorgonzola cheese to remind us of the moldy palimpsest and triangle shaped crackers to tie in with Archimedes’ geometry.

Over all, we were glad to have read the book and all found both the history of the palimpsest, itself, and both the dedication and technology involved in deciphering the original text fascinating. We wondered what other treasures may be out there, the paths by which other ancient texts have come to us, and how many others have failed to survive. None of us were aware that ancient Greek was written without spaces between the words. We also talked about how well papyrus, parchment and high quality paper survive, and the evanescence of modern electronic media. How soon will you have to transfer your digital photos to another medium to be able to continue to view them?

We were a bit more ambivalent about the Archimedes sections. As a group, we were generally annoyed when the authors switched and assumed that we would all figure it out from context rather than identifying the author of each chapter — we eventually did, of course, but it was a bit frustrating to read “I” and have to stop and figure out which author was writing at that point. Some of us skipped or skimmed the more mathy parts (including, in some places, the two math grads in the group), others dug into them more carefully, especially the section on the Stomachion which fascinated us all. We also wished Netz had been a bit clearer about which parts of Archimedes were known to later mathematicians and the paths by which they were known, which topics were included both in Codex C and other works, and which were not known to the modern world — some kind of chart in an appendix could have easily made that clearer.

There was a brief discussion of some mathematics history — the origins of geometry and algebra and how an Archimedes comes to be. Aside from the mysterious Mr. B, are there currently any patrons of the arts or sciences who allow great minds the freedom to be creative without the strictures of academia? We also regretted that Laura was unable to attend — we’ll have to have her share relevant information from the archivist world (and SLAC) at a future meeting.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Discussion recapped by Melissa K

[This recap was meant to be a round robin, but Melissa did such a good job that it never made it ’round.]

Last Wednesday, September 30th, six of us met at Helen’s home to discuss The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. We agreed to do the write up as a round-robin, and I will depend on others present to add both additional factoids about the meeting and also their thoughts on the discussion.

We were all glad to have read the book, and found it to be a great story. We liked the title and how it came about in the book. We felt the main character/protagonist was well developed. That is where the absolute unanimity ended.

While nobody at the meeting said anything specifically negative about the book, it was noted that the review sent to this email list by Susan K did say some negative things about the book, along the lines of “here’s another negative book about India, by someone who didn’t grow up there, just painting a bad picture of what India is like,” etc. A few of us present at the meeting had been to India, all in different decades, and had similar experiences — somewhat along the lines of what we read in the book, and certainly not so positive in terms of the living circumstances for many of the people living there, whom we encountered while walking around various cities. Now for some comments on the book itself: we all enjoyed the story, but some had more sympathy for the murderous protagonist, Balram, than others.

We discussed the matter of whether or not he is/was a psychopath given the manner in which he killed his master, and also the fact he killed the master perhaps least “deserving” of such a fate at Balram’s hands. Some felt sorry for his family, given their likely fate, and others felt he was not dealt so nice a hand by his family so his sin against them, knowing what would happen to them due to his murder of one master part of a family powerful back in Balram’s home village, seemed less egregious. We discussed the use of the word “Darkness” in the book and all its different meanings — the extremely poor geographical areas of India - mostly in the north — , the hopeless plight of those born wretchedly poor with no hope of being anything but servants. We also discussed whether or not we could relate to Balram, or at least sympathize with him, given his lot in life and how he was treated by both his family and his employers, specifically with the auto accident and everyone else’s plan for Balram to take the wrap for someone else’s crime.

Overall, Balram seemed to us at least somewhat conflicted, in that he was able to commit murder and steal money, but also took his young family member with him and cared for the boy, and also did use the money to build a business that employed others who Balram then protected, etc. Now that I have said all this, I can’t wait to read what my fellow meeting attendees have to say!

P.S. to add to the round-robin summary before anyone else rings in, I have just talked to a colleague who grew up in Hyderabad, India, in the state of Andra Pradesh, still pretty far South and much more well off than most of the North. I paraphrase his comments here:

Adiga is not authentic, and as an Indian, you can tell that as you read the book. It’s fine to write the book and become famous as a novelist, and we all have our criticisms of the caste system, etc. There is a lot that must change in India, but it is clear Adiga is not writing about all this from the POV of a native Indian. It would be like a native Indian writing a book about the US, critical of American culture and practices — it would be from a completely different POV than that of someone who grew up in the US.

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I thought hearing that directly from a native Indian may be of interest, especially to those of us who also read the review sent by Susan K.