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!