The Round House

We gathered at Katie's for a warm and welcoming dinner around her fire for a discussion on The Round House by Louise Erdich.  The Club had read other works by Louise Erdich in the past and distant past and these novels had received mixed review.  The Round House was unanimously liked by all Club members.  We were just missing Ed, who we wished had been there to help explain the tribal laws referred to in the novel.  There were so many layers and themes in the novel, which was the fun part of the discussion.  Some were struck by the morality dilemmas, others by the trauma and response to trauma, while others the coming of age/loss of innocence.  The writing was beautiful and the metaphors worked.  We agreed that all the characters appealed to us accept, Lark.  We also found parallels between the themes of Native American segregation and separate laws and our own Abenaki Tribes here in Vermont.    We topped the evening off with  Lexi's legendary holiday cookies.  All words were lost as we grappled with which cookie to choose to end the evening!  Thank you, Lexi!

Next month we are at Mindy's -She is getting home late from work and makes no promises.  Cindy is raiding the freezer and bringing ice-cream.  Lexi is bringing left over cookies (yum).  See you soon.

Stoner

John Williams-Doesn't he look like William Stoner?

Terry suggested the novel, Stoner by John Williams in November.  His wife Debbie had read the novel and said she loved it so much that she could not put it down.  The novel was written in 1965, yet was not appreciated fully until the decade of 2000 when the novel was reprinted and pclaimed the "perfect novel."   The majority of the book club loved Stoner for its simple story of an ordinary life.  The book was described as elegant, painful and beautifully written.  Lexi, Tim, Chrysanne, Katie and Ed said they could not put the book down.   Chrysanne went on to say that what she loves about our book club is the discovery of this sort of novel- A novel you would not otherwise know about, except that someone knew someone who also loved to read and did not want this book to end!  While Terry, Mindy and I all appreciated the novel, we found the painful unfolding of William Stoner's life difficult to take and therefore could not feel the same fondness for the novel as others had-only depression!

Next month, we are reading The Round House by Louise Erdich and we are meeting on December 16th at Katie's House.  Here is the NY Times Book Review.

And because Chrysanne is going out of town and we will miss Ed this month, we have scheduled a book and a date for January-unusual, I know.  We are planning to read The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt and we are meeting at Mindy's on January 6th.

The Flame Throwers

This month we read the The Flame Throwers at Kate's suggestion.  Chrysanne reported that Kate, who is a writer, found Rachel Kushner's work to be brilliant.  We were hoping to get a review by Kate for the blog, but a week or so has passed and I felt the need to take a clumsy stab at it.  But the minute we receive something from Kate, I will add in her words.

The Flame Throwers received a big mixed review with Tim and Chrysanne on one hand loving the novel.  They noted the brilliant metaphors and descriptions:
“It was not the case that one thing morphed into another, child into woman. You remained the person you were before things happened to you. The person you were when you thought a small cut string could determine the course of a year. You also became the person to whom certain things happened. Who passed into the realm where you no longer questioned the notion of being trapped in one form. You took on that form, that identity, hoped for its recognition from others, hoped someone would love it and you.” 
 They admired the amount of research Ms. Kushner must have done in order to capture the art, motorcycles and New York culture.

Mindy, Lexi, and Terry were on the other end of the spectrum, not understanding the role of the main character was who was never even referred to by her real name, but by her home city, Reno.  They were unable to warm up to the characters and found the writing artistic-but to pondered, to what end-sure the writing was great, but what was the purpose of the work?

Ed and I were in the middle, admiring the writing, yet not loving the novel itself.  There was some thought that it felt like a series of essays or short stories threaded together with the same characters and setting.  Both Ed and I, who lived a much straighter and  more traditional life during the 70's, were a bit fascinated by the edgyArt-as-Life-New York world that we were aware of, but had missed. 

So I close with Rachel Kushner's lines:

“The answer is not coming. I have to find an arbitrary point inside the spell of waiting, the open absence, and tear myself away. Leave, with no answer. Move on to the next question.” 

Next month we are reading Stoner by John Williams and we are meeting at Terry's on Wednesday, November 13th.  See you there!

Fathers and Sons

We enjoyed a fine Summer evening meal and book club discussion at Tim's tonight.  Against a backdrop of the sounds of the County Fair, we talked about Turgenev's Fathers and Sons.  I love 19th Century Russian novels.  Give me the strife of the peasants against the opulence of the aristocracy and the looming revolution any day of the week.  I love old Russian novels.  Some of us loved it, some of us did not love it, but there was a general consensus that this was a great work.  Turgenev popularized the term nihilism in this novel and sets the stage for the oncoming social revolution in Russia.  He wrote:

A nihilist is a man who does not bow to any authorities, who does not take any principle on trust, no matter with what respect that principle is surrounded.

We agreed that Bazarov was a great character-his youthful arrogance, his wavering commitment to his cause when he felt love, and his dramatic death.  The novel was important because it was set during the six years between Russia's defeat in the Crimean war and the emancipation of the serfs.  Turgenev's novel was not well received in his country prompted him to leave the country after Fathers and Sons was published.  He had a tense relationship with Tolstoy in 1862.  So it is really something when in 2013 Chrysanne says, "I think Fathers and Sons was way better than War and Peace!"

Next Book is the Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner and we are back at Mindy's on September 30th.

Spies of the Balkans

For July, we read Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst.  Alan Furst was well known to Ed, Tim and Fred who have read some of his previous spy thrillers.  Alan Furst is noted for his accuracy in the reporting of historical political intrigues.  Spies of the Balkans was set in Salonika, Greece in 1941 during the beginning of WW2.  Our main character became part of a movement to help Jewish people escape from the Nazi's by way of a route that traveled through Greece.  The group all agreed that the setting and historical facts were interesting and provided for some good discussion.  We thought that the author disappointed in his development of the relationships, particularly those involving romance.

I think I speak for all when I say that the highlight of the evening was the dinner, prepared by Lexi in the Greek tradition!  Here are a few shots of dinner (sorry you missed it, Terry):

Next month, as planned, we will read a classic: Fathers and Sons by Turgenev.  We will meet at Tim's on August 27th.  

Shadow of the Wind

This month, we read Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  I am late writing this update because I don't know what to say.  In our bookclub, we refer to books as being 'bookclub books'  or 'not bookclub books.'  Now, I knew when I suggested this book that it was in danger of being a 'not bookclub book.'  Don, a former member would explain that a book that was based on plot and action is difficult to discuss.  When we couldn't decide on a book, I threw it out because, well, it did sell 15 million copies, lots of people have read it in their bookclub and it is a book about books.  I just loved the idea of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books and the coming of age ritual of choosing a book from the Cemetery and protecting that book.  Ok, as my bookclub members discussed, the plot does unravel into a highly unlikely story and there wasn't really all that much to discuss...except for the great cheese and wine Fred provided for us to accompany a great summer meal complete with decadent dessert!

Next month, Fred suggested Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst.  And after that the Bookclub members have vowed to read a classic and everyone is charged with bringing a suggestion.  I have mine all prepared and I hope everyone is working on theirs!  See you on July 30th at Mindy's House!

Canada by Richard Ford

Remember last blog where I wrote about our crazy process for choosing new books? Lots of suggestions, then decisions, then amendment to the decisions? Well, this has never happened before, but one of our members read the wrong book! Terry read Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore-one of the books Fred had suggested. When in fact, the group had decidedly chosen Canada by Richard Ford!

For each of us, the reading of Canada was a different experience. Everyone agreed that the language in the novel was beautifully crafted. Everyone also agreed that Ford articulated some amazing insights shared by his 6o something narrator explaining the details of his trauma filled 15-year-old life. From there we had mixed reactions. Chrysanne thought the book was just too wordy and too long. For Mindy and myself, we were puzzled about the lack of emotion in the narrator's retelling of his story of bank robbery, murder, and abandonment. Mindy cited a great quote: I was only 15 then and used to believing what people told me-sometimes more than what I believed in my heart...I didn't connect these feelings to my feelings now, or recognize they meant the same thing.  We each thought that the description of what it felt like to be part of and victim to an unhappy relationship was well developed.  Ford writes  of his parents' relationship: The longer they stayed on, and the better they knew each other, the better she at least could see their mistake, and the more misguided their lives became-like a long proof in mathematics in which the first calculation is wrong, following which all other calculations move your further away from how things were when they made sense.  Finally, for Ed who had lived in the area of the world where the novel was set, he loved the novel wrapped in this setting.  And Tim, I think Tim liked it as well-albeit he agreed that the novel was lengthy.  Terry was a great sport and filled us in on Sacre Bleu!

Next month we are reading something a bit light: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zaffon.  We will be meeting at Fred's house on June 26th.

Lacuna

 Lucana means a missing part or an empty space.  Last night we had a lively discussion about Barbara Kingsolver's novel, Lacuna.  Chrysanne chose this book perhaps to keep a bit of Mexico with her since her return from Oaxaca this Spring.  There were mixed reviews with members either loving the book, liking parts of it,  with others not able to continue reading.  Ed had an interesting comment when he said it was strange to read historical fiction about a time in which he had lived.

The beginning of the novel is set in Mexico in the midst of the chaotic household of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.  Our main character, Harrison Shepherd lived and worked with Rivera and Kahlo until they had a falling out with their house guest, Leon Trotsky.  Then Harrison Shepherd lived and worked with Trotsky, witnessing his death and motivating him to move back to the US.

Fast forward, Harrison Shepherd ends up in Ashville, North Carolina where he settles into an agoraphobic lifestyle with the ever efficient Violet Brown as an assistant.  He writes novels about the Aztecs until he is interogated by the FBI under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover.  We experience the horrors of the MeCarthy era where up to 12,000 people lost their jobs and careers after being blacklisted as a communist threat to the United States.  Tim shared a great Vermont fact that it was a Vermont Senator, Ralph Flanders who was noted for introducing a 1954 motion in the Senate to censure Senator Joseph McCarty.

We end the novel with Violet Brown writing what we know as Lacuna with the diaries she has kept of Harrison Shepard's life.  We also revisit the lacuna Harrison found when he was a boy on the coast.  Other connections with lacunas were found in the book including Frida Kahlo's moving central quote about how the most important thing about a person is what is not seen or hidden.  Mindy pointed out this central theme while other lacuna's were cited as the gaps in Harrison's relationships, as well as references to the ending of the novel.

Our discussion mirrored the positive NY Times Book Review and the not so positive NPR Book Review.  In any case, the discussion was lively and fun, as usual.  Preceded by a much more lively conversations of topics worthy of a murder mystery!

Our next novel is Canada by Richard Ford.  Here is the NY Times Review.  We will meet at Cindy's on May 20th.

The Return of the Soldier

 As Terry so aptly put, after a long discussion on The Return of the Soldier, Who would have thought we would have had so much to say about such a short book-it shouldn't even be a book!  It's a short story!  We discussed the love story, the World War I, feminism in 1918, Freud, Jung, amnesia, class structure, and sexuality -all themes covered in our short book.  Some have called it the perfect novel.  Terry just couldn't believe a work so short could be called a novel.  Mindy was busy looking up the definition of a novel, but we never did get the answer.

Everyone was united in hating Kitty and feeling sorry for Chris when his memory returned-which Terry still doubts since the book ended saying he 'walked like a soldier..."  What does that mean, anyway?  We wondered about Jenny's passions and allegiances-was she in love with Chris?  or Margaret? or both?

Some of us loved the language and long elaborate sentences, while others found them too long and tedious, pointing out that it distracted from the meaning of the text.  Everyone, however was happy for the reprieve of a shorter piece and the lively discussion.

Between all of us, we put together facts about Rebecca West which intrigued most of us...Rebecca West was a pseudonym for her birth name, Cecily Isabel Fairfield.  She was also known as Dame Rebecca West.  She was a prolific writer who wrote in different genres: fiction, nonfiction, journalistic reporting and reviewing literary works.  She was an active feminist as well.  She had long affair with H.G. Wells and they had a son together.

The next meeting will be at Chrysanne's house.  Just back from Mexico, Chrysanne thought reading Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver was a good choice for our next book.  We will meet on April 22nd.

As an afternote, people often ask us how we choose our next book.  Last night was a great example of our process.  Those of us who had books presented them to the others.  We must have had at least a dozen great choices.  We passed them around, giving  our opinions of pro's and con's.  Since the meeting was at Chrysanne's she had the lead in the choice.  She suggested Lacuna to start.  Then we continued to discuss choices, or rather shouted and interrupted one another for about 10 minutes before  Chrysanne said, "Ok, let's take a vote."  Then somehow a book the club had read before which wasn't even on the list of books we were considering ended up thrown into the mix.  Chrysanne gave us each two votes and then took about 3 more votes before bringing us right back to Lacuna as a choice. We all agreed that  discussion of book choices for the next meeting is sometimes more lively than our actual discussion! 

The Last of the Mohicans

 Let me begin by saying that we all loved reading James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans.  Not only was it enjoyable and at times a page turner, but we all found it inspiring in our own ways.  Ed, ever the historian proudly pointed out the two framed maps in the entrance to the kitchen which displayed on the one side, the French version of early United States and on the other, the British version.  Ed, having grown up on the Hudson explained where Fort William Henry and Fort Edwards were located and where many parts of the novel were set along our present Northway!  All this with Louise in the backdrop cooking up a feast of crab cakes, roast beef and vegetables which she referred to as cod cakes and venison.

Tim was able to explain all the in's and out's of the many Indian tribes referred to in the novel with some poetic license. In fact, he researched that there are actual Mohicans alive today and that James Fenimore Cooper merged two different tribes together in his writing about the Mohicans-who can blame him for a little poetic license in 1820?

Mindy began our discussion by reading a quote from the end of the novel: "It is enough," he [Tamenund] said.  "Go children of the Lenape, the anger of the the Manitou is not done.  Why should Tamenund stay?  the pale faces are the masters of the earth and the time of the redmen has not yet come again.  My day has been too long.  In the morning I saw the sons of the Unamis happy and strong; and yet, before the night has come, have I lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans.  She pointed out how interesting it was that James Fenimore would make a statement of such strength and controversy in 1823 when the sentiments against the Native Americans was still strong.  And I was impressed with James Fenimore Coopers daring reference to a possible romance between a British Woman and a Mohican.

Terry referenced how interesting it was to remember and think about the French Indian war and enlightened us on the connection with the seven years war in Europe and the battle to prevent Frederick the Great from total domination.  And consequently how Great Britain won the colonies at such a cost that they were forced to impose large taxes to make up the debt which of course led to the Revolutionary war.  This discussion was such a great history and economic lesson all wrapped up and topped with the best lemon pudding and fresh fruit cake created by Louise!

For next month, we only  had a short reading period and so we read through another book club's blog and chose a short novel, The Return of the Solder by Rebecca West.  We will meet at Cindy's house on March 13th at 7 PM. 

The Transit of Venus

A transit of Venus across the sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth (or another planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2012 lasted 6 hours and 40 minutes).  Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena. They occur in a pattern that generally repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. The last transit of Venus was June 5th and 6th 2012, and was the last Venus transit of the 21st century; the prior transit took place June 8th.  The previous pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882. The next transits of Venus will be December 10–11, 2117, and in December 2125.


This month we read the Transit of Venus, or should I say, most of us attempted to complete the very complex and ornately written novel.  acceptance of larger patterns beyond the individual's fate.  The title implies an While we found Shirley Hazzard's sentences to be each a piece of artwork, the reading was tedious at times.    We all appreciated what an incredible novelist Shirley Hazzard is, having spent 7 years writing the Transit of Venus, however, it was, nonetheless wanting for many of us.  We had difficulty identifying with or being taken in by the characters.  While the romantic intrigue kept some of us going, most of us had difficulty understanding that at the end, Carolyn and Ted actually do become a couple, albeit for about an hour.  I think it is safe to say that we all agreed that Shirley Hazzard's novel was a great piece of literature-just not a preferred style of writing by our members.  But in the wise words of Mindy, this is why we love The Greater Westford Literary Society Bookclub-the choices of novels sometimes stretches us to read books we would not have reached for on our own.  We are all glad to have met Shirley Hazzard's prose and are duly impressed. 


For next month, Ed suggested a classic adventure novel, The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper.  We are anxiously looking forward to a venison stew or perhaps one of Ed's famous Lasagnes on February 13th.  Since it is over 500 pages, I am on it already!

Update!!!  We have moved bookclub to the 18th at Ed's due to some very important legislative activities for Tim.   Now that I have finished the book, I am really hoping that Ed does not serve raw deer meat!