Wellesley Book Group

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
Discussion recapped by Fran

At our December 7 meeting, we discussed The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, chosen by Helen. Meeting was at Joan’s house, attended by Joan, Bonnie, Jean, Anne-Marie, Helen, Susan K, and Fran.

That the novel was based on the author’s life added enormously to its appeal. The heartfelt emotion and vivid, searing expression of pain overcame the book’s defects—its purple prose and (at times) painfully slow pace. We discussed the variety and spectrum of sexuality that we know today, while “Well” sees only two categories: the happy “normal” and the despised “other” (where Stephen places herself). Stephen herself is probably what we would today call transgender, rather than lesbian: a man with female sex traits. While we liked her and sympathized with her, we also saw her very much as a man in her relations with women in a way that was not positive: her selfishness and overprotectiveness towards Mary, in particular. Mary was also probably the weakest character in the book. Other characters, however, were well-developed, such as Stephen’s father. Several of us found Jamie’s suicide the most painful part of the book, even more so than tragedy of Stephen and Mary’s parting.

Stephen’s father gave her her name “because he admired the pluck of that saint.” (p.12). I’ve attached some info about St. Stephen, who is generally acknowledged to be the first Christian martyr. The parallel between the martyr’s life and fate and the sacrifice of the book’s protagonist to her personal essential truth seem appropriate.

At the meeting, I mentioned Patricia Highsmith’s lesbian novel, The Price of Salt, which was originally published under the name Claire Morgan in 1952. (Highsmith refused to acknowledge the book as hers until 1984.) I liked Price a lot and it is a very interesting ‘compare and contrast’ exercise with Well, particularly thinking about the fact that Price was published a mere 24 years after Well.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Discussion recapped by Helen

A small group—Renee, Bonnie, Anne-Marie, Susan K, and Helen—gathered at Susan’s to discuss Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. We all missed the presence of Clare, the chooser, whose 18 year old car and AAA foiled her effort to make it to the meeting. We hope she will add her thoughts about the book and why she suggested it to these notes.

Bonnie brought the review from the Guardian and a blog review. There are many others available, all of which had reactions somewhat similar to ours.

Although there were only five of us, our reactions to the book were mixed and all over the map. They don’t lend themselves to a coherent summary, but here are some of our thoughts.

One person found it hard to get into but then couldn’t put it down. Another thought there was too much verbiage and wondered what all the fuss was about. Someone who listened to the audio version really enjoyed it especially the Sloosha’s Crossin’ story. We all found it hard to keep track of the characters between the first and second parts of each story. Bonnie saw through Dr. Goose right from the beginning; the rest of us were surprised at that plot twist at the end.

We each had different favorites among the six stories—one of us thought the Timothy Cavendish story was funny, another didn’t much see the point of it. Was the Luisa Rey story a powerful commentary on corporate greed hinting at the eventual corpocracy or a tired recycling of standard themes?

We all were impressed with Mitchell’s inventive use of language, especially the futuristic words and dialects.

We wondered about the significance of the comet shaped birthmark (perhaps some kind of reincarnation or recycling of the same core group of molecules) and whether the nested stories made it harder to read or contributed to connectedness of the stories and made you want to keep reading. And was the Cloud Atlas sextet a clever parallel to the novel or a contrived gimmick?

We spent some time discussing what was the author’s point. Corporate greed and man’s inhumanity to man are never going to change—is there any difference between the 19th-century missionary’s view and relationship with the natives and the 20th-century power company gambling with the lives of thousands and the futuristic corpocracy breeding clones to serve those to power and the greedy tribal warfare after the fall of civilization? Or is there hope and a possibility for change with the last line of the book noting that the ocean is made up of millions of drops pointing out that if enough of us change, the future can be different?

The latter reminded Anne-Marie of a childhood memory from camp where everyone was sitting around in the dark holding a candle. The director had everyone but herself blow out their candles. After sitting in that tiny glow for a few moments, the director extinguished hers. She used the difference between one little light and total darkness to help them realize that even a seemingly small act can make a difference.

Is the book a depressing commentary on the Darwinian survival of the fittest or a hopeful wake up call that it’s not too late to make a difference?

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Discussion recapped by Bonnie

The Help by Kathryn Stockett was discussed by Alexis, Anne, Bonnie, Helen, Jean, and Joan, who met at Helen’s house in September. The general consensus was that the characters in the book were 2-dimensional but that the portrait of the time and place was a good and true one. Some people felt that it was very unlikely that the maids would ever have agreed to talk to Skeeter. Half of the attendees had also seen the film, which was also discussed. Those who has also seen the film thought the film was better than the book, largely because of the extremely talented black actresses who played the maids superbly. A large portion of the discussion was of personal recollections of the ’60s, of life in the south, in small towns, at Wellesley, and of having household help, etc.

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Discussion recapped by Helen

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively got mixed reviews from the small group—Susan K, Clare, Jean, Helen, Anne-Marie, and Sheila (in town for a few weeks visiting family and house sitting)—who met at Anne-Marie’s. Unfortunately, Anne F, who had suggested the book, wasn’t able to attend due to illness.

Those who liked the book liked the wording, the writing style, and descriptions as well as seeing different scenes from different points of view, i.e. shifting the point of view within a scene, rather than chapter by chapter, as is done in other works. Those who didn’t like the book overall, thought it was more like a disjointed series of essays but not a novel—what was the purpose of the trip to Plymouth Plantation and why throw in the foreign student near the end? That caused some of us to wonder whether the author was deliberately trying to portray a kind of thinking that might go on near death.

Some of the other points we discussed:

• Claudia’s lack of maternal instinct—not liking her daughter and leaving her to be raised by grandmothers
• Sylvia’s plight as academic wife, not a part of her husband’s academic or intellectual world, which the two college professors in the group said was not atypical. No wonder she let herself go.
• The lengthy description of the desert—was it too long or was the length necessary to give the sense of the endless desolation in the desert?
• The relationship between Claudia and Gordon—did the author really develop it well? Somehow it slipped from childhood competition to become incestuous on an intellectual and emotional level.
• How we often don’t know what we think we know about people we’re close to—e.g. Lisa’s musing that her mother never had really been in love. Wonder what her reaction to finding Tom’s diary will be.
• Tom’s diary—was it a good portrayal of the combination of fear, arduous activity, and tedium that war can involve?

Houskeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Discussion recapped by Bonnie

The July 27, 2011 meeting was held at Anne-Marie’s house and attended by Bonnie, Helen, Anne, and Anne-Marie. No one took notes so I will give just a quick summary of the discussion.

We were all impressed by the vivid pictorial imagery of the writing, the author’s extraordinary use of language describing both external and internal landscapes. We mainly talked about the psychological aspects of the story, loss, separation, death, abandonment, and the similarities and differences between the generations in the family (Helen and Syvlie vs. Lucille and Ruth). Several of us quoted passages that we were moved by. We also discussed Ruth’s choice to leave Fingerbone with Sylvie rather than be separated from her by the well-intentioned townspeople, whether this had been a “good” choice and whether Ruth was “qualified” to make such a choice.

Although the book is somewhat vague about the location of Fingerbone, the fact that the author grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho, which is a small town on a large glacial lake in the mountains northeast of Spokane, gave us clues to its whereabouts and insight into Robinson’s ability to imagine so clearly the physical appearance of the place and the details of small-town life there.