What Makes a Meaningful Death?

Title: Martyr!

Author: Kaveh Akbar

 

The Pulitzer-prize-winning novelist Junot Diaz wrote this in his New York Times review of Kaveh Akbar's new novel:

 

"Cyrus Shams, the aching protagonist at the heart of Kaveh Akbar’s incandescent first novel, is a veritable Rushdiean multitude: an Iranian-born American, a “bad” immigrant, a recovering addict, a straight-passing queer, an almost-30 poet who rarely writes, an orphan, a runner of open mics, an indefatigable logophile, a fiery wit, a self-pitying malcontent. But above all else Cyrus is sad; profoundly, inconsolably, suicidally sad.

"His oceanic sorrows are fed by many Styxes, but the deepest and darkest is his mother Roya’s “unspeakable” death. Just a few months after Cyrus was born, Roya boarded a plane from Tehran to Dubai to visit her brother Arash, “who had been unwell since serving in the Iranian Army against Iraq.” Soon after her plane took off, it was blown up by a missile fired from a U.S. Navy warship: “Just shot out of the sky. Like a goose.”....

"In Cyrus, Akbar has created an indelible protagonist, haunted, searching, utterly magnetic. But it speaks to Akbar’s storytelling gifts that “Martyr!” is both a riveting character study and piercing family saga.  

"Young Cyrus tries to hold it all together, first by chatting with famous people in his dreams (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Madonna, Batman) and later through art, intoxicants, recovery and friends. But none of these palliatives eases his survivor’s guilt or stills the “doom organ,” as he calls it, “throbbing all day every day” in his throat, the siren song of the suicidaire...

"All that holds him back from the abyss is an obsessive desire for his life and his death to matter. He wants the opposite of his mother’s meaningless end, to sacrifice himself for a higher cause..." 

Insights and Opinions

+ Some of our group found the initial going difficult. Both Steve and Lois expressed some impatience with the early sections of the book, but were converts by the time they'd finished. Steve wasn't taken by the first half but was swept away by the end. Lois often gets impatient during the early pages as an author lays the groundwork, but then falls into it as themes and stories began to knit together.

+ Language is an important underlying theme throughout. Akbar is, as Diaz states, "a dazzling writer." Cyrus's musings on words -- which ones are necessary to convey meaning and which ones are not -- should be an essay on its own. One can say "May I have a glass of water, please" or just "Water" and the listener knows what's being asked. The idea of a dictionary designed to spell out the parts of speech you don't need is novel indeed. Further, Akbar's use of metaphor delights and surprises, calling the reader to stop and savor. "I thought this was one of the most beautifully written books I've read in a long time," said Margy.

+ To Steve, the inadequacy of language is one of the basic themes of what he calls "a thoroughly existential novel, which took me back to my existential years in the 70s. What is our life like? What does it mean?" Shirley balked at Cyrus's contention that "the language will never be the thing. Writing will not bring my mother back." But to Shirley, that's one of the points of writing -- to make you understand. "You wouldn't write if you didn't want people to see your writing as teaching them about something."

+ Most of us found Cyrus's poems nested between chapters to be inscrutable. Lois thought maybe that was the intention -- that Cyrus is trying to be deep but hasn't figured out yet how to write good poetry.

+ We asked ourselves this question: What is this book about? What are we to take away from it? Steve feels the book is about gay people dying for love. Liz and Linda disagreed. Instead, they believe the book's message is the self-absorption that grows out of trauma and how the protagonist must recognize and move beyond his/her own trauma to be able to see the other. As Linda said, "He is focused on having a meaningful death, but in so doing, he is also trying to figure out how to have a meaningful life."

+ Addiction is masterfully described here, both the experiences of the active addict and of the sober addict. "The self-absorption exists before addiction. Addiction is self-medication to ease the pain. Then, addiction nearly kills you and you must get sober. So, now you're sober, but the original self-absorption is still there."

+ Loose threads: There are a great many themes in this book, and some of them are dropped along the way. Cyrus's childhood bed wetting does establish him as an anxious child by nature, paving the way for understanding his anxiety-ridden adult self. But a later chapter digs back into his mother Roya's past, when she believed she was wetting the bed, was humiliated by it, and starved herself of liquids, only to discover that her brother was urinating on her while she slept. This is a powerful scene, which made us hearken back to Chekhov's gun principle -- that every story element must be necessary or it should be removed. Perhaps Akbar thought the double bedwetting theme highlighted something important in the Cyrus/Roya saga, but if so, we didn't find it.

+ Shirley was struck by the number of themes and elements about which she knew very little. "I found so much in this book that I had so many questions about, things I didn't know about." The Overton Window is one such thing, which was a new concept to Lois (and probably to the rest of us), but Google has a lot to say about it, so go look that up if you want to know more.

+ Circling back to this book's purpose, Steve had this to say: "It's about searching for the meaning of life, the meaning of death, the importance of language, American life, addiction, immigration, sex and the centrality of sex, dying for love, and finally, coming up with your own philosophy of life." Perhaps it was this surfeit of themes that left Chris without an anchor: "From the beginning to the end, I don't know what this book is about."

+ No book club discussion would be complete without at least some controversy and, in the case, it was the novel's ending. Liz asked others what they thought happens at the end. Margy, Linda and Steve all felt it was a forced happy ending. Liz was just confused as to whether or not the world was actually ending or if the apocalypse Cyrus experiences is a grandiose metaphor.

+ No one disputed that Akbar is an amazing writer. Probably the best description we've found so far is from a Kirkus review: "It's a philosophical discourse inside an addiction narrative all wrapped up in a quest novel." We couldn't have said it better.

Oddments and Telling Details

+ It took us awhile to get started, and nobody remembered to take any photos since our official photographer is off duty at the moment and the rest of us were busy. Lois was fussing in the kitchen, Steve was on tech support, and the rest of us were engaged in random motion. Next time, we'll do better, but we thank Margy for sending us this image from our Zoom chat and Chris for taking the photo. 

This photo of our group is very meta -- a bit of a fun house mirror.

+ Atticus the cat is a huge drama queen who should be the star of his own film.

+ Margy and Chris joined us via Zoom, which is challenging for them, but they are good sports about it.

Our Next Books

April 15: Poetry

We will read and discuss Michael Ondaatje's new book of poetry, A Year of Last Things: Poems. Attendees are encouraged to bring one of two of their favorite poems (by any poet) to share. Lois will host.

May 20: Book to be determined

Chris and Margy will host at Margy's house.

June 17: Someone we know and love

We will read Doorman Wanted by Glenn Miller. Jocey will host and the author will attend!

The Heaven and Earth that Sustain Us

Title: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

Author: James McBride

Our meeting this month was a mix of laughter, grief over the losses suffered by two of our members, enthusiastic discussion, and pie-eating. Having taken our host's request for "an attractive outfit" seriously, Steve presented himself in full cross-country skiing regalia, having found ways to ski this year even though there's no snow or ice anywhere. After a brief kerfuffle caused by demonstrations of ski footwear and a Lego Ghostbusters hearse, lunch-serving and eating, and technical "why the heck won't the laptop camera work?" difficulties, we dove into our hybrid meeting, with three of our members Zooming in via the tiny screen of Steve's phone. 

From the publisher: 

"In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us."

Insights and Opinions 

+ Right from the start of our conversation, it was clear that this book was a favorite of many of us. Chris had started affixing tabs to pages she thought were funny but ultimately gave up once she figured there would be tabs on every page. Steve took 14 pages of notes. Lois, who had read it before, reread it in preparation for our meeting and loved it even more the second time. Liz was so invested in the characters and their fate that she skipped ahead to the end to reassure herself before going back to finish in the right order.

+ Steve noted similarities between McBride's method and that of August Wilson. "Both will take their time and drop in a set piece that delays the story, but it's always worth it," he noted.

+ Liz was struck by the extent to which McBride tells his story primarily through dialog. His chapters open with a bit of back story to set the scene, but then slide into a conversation between people where all of the important points and much of the history are revealed. As a result, there is significant repetition but, rather than seeming redundant, this repetition illuminates and deepens the narrative.

+ Chris agreed, noting that there are a great many characters in the book, but because you hear them speak, the reader learns to know each of them.

+ Because of the way the story resolves and how the key characters prevail in their quest to save Dodo, Steve felt that, on many levels, it was a revenge story. Margy countered with a quote from Kirkus, stating that rather than a revenge story, it is "a boisterous hymn to community mercy and karmic justice."

+ McBride is a master of stepping inside a character. Even though we readers may not entirely understand Nate, for example, Linda said "There was always something about Nate that you knew was quiet danger."

+ In interviews and speeches, McBride has said he does not want to write villains -- that he feels that everyone, no matter how they appear to others, is really just trying to do the best they can. You can watch the whole talk here, and it's worth it:

James McBride Speaks at the Free Library of Philadelphia

+ As part of both the Black and the Jewish communities, McBride is able to write with a deep level of knowledge about both, as well as to the other immigrant groups and individuals who are part of this story. He treats none of them as monoliths. As Lois pointed out, "The old Jews were impatient with the new Jews, the Poles were impatient with the Romanians, even in the Black community there was distance between the Chicken Hill people and the lowgods."

+ Jocey recommended that anyone who hasn't already done so should read McBride's Deacon King Kong, which she feels is a masterpiece. In reference to that book, the Los Angeles Times raved "Shouldn't we just get it over with and declare McBride this decade's Great American Novelist?"

Fun and Games and What's Ahead

+ Many thanks to Lois for baking TWO sweet potato pies. We all had a chance to test both pies. (Our apologies to those who couldn't get a taste through Zoom).  

+ Our next book is Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. We need a volunteer to host.

Lunch is served.

Steve in full regalia.

Lois and her prize-winning pies (and Liz, who is just happy to eat them).

Not Exactly, Not Entirely, Not Love

Title: Day

Author: Michael Cunningham

Description taken from the book jacket:

 

April 5, 2019: In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and Isabel, husband and wife, are slowly drifting apart -- and both, it seems, are a little bit in love with Isabel's younger brother, Robbie. 

 

April 5, 2020: As the world goes into lockdown, the cozy brownstone is starting to feel more like a prison. (Daughter) Violet is terrified of leaving the windows open, obsessed with keeping her family safe...And, dear Robbie is stranded in Iceland.

April 5, 2021: Emerging from the worst of the crisis, the family reckons with a new, very different reality -- and with what they've learned, what they've lost, and how they might go on.

 

Insight and Opinions

 

As big fans of Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Hours, we were more than excited to dig in to his new work after a long wait. But our anticipation paled in comparison with how thrilled we were to welcome Faith, our long-lost compatriot, back into the book club fold.

Day bears some similarity to The Hours in that it unfolds in three parts, but instead of hours in a single day, the narrative takes place on the same date in each of three years.

+ Cunningham plays with the concept of "the love of one's life" here, with Robbie at the core. In an interview, when asked about why he references The Mill on the Floss, Cunningham says he used it because it's a novel about a brother and a sister who are the loves of each other's lives, which is what we have here. But Robbie occupies the same role with Isabel's husband Dan, as well as their daughter Violet. Jocey noted that, while this is clearly what the author wants the reader to understand, she needed more, to understand why everyone loved Robbie so.

+ Linda noted that what we do know about Robbie is that he's had three lovers, he has Wolf, his alter-ego who exists only on social media, and he did not receive the love he needed from his parents.

+ Lois was struck most strongly by Nathan, Isabel and Dan's son. "Everyone kept asking him how he was doing, but then none of them really waited to hear," she noted. At the end of the book, after Nathan immerses himself in the pond, it's Dan's brother Garth, whose peripheral life garners little respect from the rest of the family, who finds him and listens. To Steve, "Garth was insufficient and unreliable, but then with Nathan, he was astonishing."

+ What struck Liz about the book is that it is entirely interior. The reader learns about things that have already occurred, but you don't see them happen. Everything takes place within the minds of the characters. This style of writing is what turned Chris off, making it "not for me," she said. On the other hand, "This is the type of writing that made me go into literature," Linda said. Chris wondered why the book takes place on one date, each time a year apart. "I couldn't figure out why the characters advanced the way they did. And why did we have to know that the children picked a lousy spot to bury Robbie's ashes?" 

 

Fab lunch and our buddies in California Zooming in

+ Steve asked if we had a favorite character. To Margy, Robbie could not possibly be as good as he is made out to be. "I didn't like the characters, but I don't have to like them," she said. 

+ Linda noted that, in an interview, Cunningham stated that he wanted to write about the space between something happening and something else happening. He was aiming to strike a balance between "everything is fine" and "complete despair."

+ Cunningham's keenness of observation and understanding of human nature are a wonder. As Lois pointed out, this book is about love and not love. His prose is elegant, beautiful and nuanced. While none of us felt that Chess was a developed character, she has these thoughts about Garth, her "sperm donor" non-mate: "It would be easier if she were more innocent. It would be easier if she felt surer about the lines that separate pity from desire, and desire from rage. She does not love men. She does not love Garth. And yet something keeps shifting inside her, a queasiness that's not love but is not nothing and maybe, in its way, is not exactly, not entirely, not love."

Our Next Read

 

Our February book will be Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. at Liz's house. Get your copies now!

Power, Jealousy, and the Pursuit of Perfection in Poetry

Title: All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost

Author: Lan Samantha Chang

In the spirit of keeping things (relatively) close to home this month, we chose Lan Samantha Chang's most recent novel. She is the Director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, an institution close to the hearts and part of the pasts of several of our membership.

From the publisher: "At the renowned writing school in Bonneville, every student is simultaneously terrified of and attracted to the charismatic and mysterious poet and professor Miranda Sturgis, whose high standards for art are both intimidating and inspiring. As two students, Roman and Bernard, strive to win her admiration, the lines between mentorship, friendship, and love are blurred.

Roman's star rises early, and his first book wins a prestigious prize. Meanwhile, Bernard labors for years over a single poem. Secrets of the past begin to surface, friendships are broken, and Miranda continues to cast a shadow over their lives. What is the hidden burden of early promise? What are the personal costs of a life devoted to the pursuit of art? All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost is a brilliant evocation of the demands of ambition and vocation, personal loyalty and poetic truth."

Insights and Opinions

The title for this section should, more accurately, be renamed "So Many Questions." The word "thought-provoking" comes to mind. This book provokes.

Question #1: Jocey asked first. Was someone abusing power? And would the story have been different if Roman were a woman, or if the student and the teacher were of the same gender?

Reactions: The story begins in 1986. The #MeToo movement had not yet occurred. Romantic and sexual relationships between faculty and staff were not uncommon and raised few eyebrows. Linda: "The idea that a professor, no matter what, has power over a student...that was not something people would even think about back then."

Steve: "Faculty would have affairs with each other and with students, the faculty and students would socialize, it was just in the water." Shirley: "Was the culture so rampant that people crossed those lines without thinking of it?"

Question #2: Who was abusing power? Was it Miranda, the professor, who had power over Roman the student and the future trajectory of his career? Or was it Roman, the student, who had sexual power over Miranda and the power to withhold love? Or even Bernard who seemed innocent in so many ways, yet was a wily manipulator?

Reactions: Liz: "I think this story is more about people using each other than it is about power." Lois: "Roman was exerting the power that he felt was his."  

Chris: "Let's talk about Miranda. I've had professors who were unnecessarily cruel. And she is nasty. She enters into the relationship with Roman as her privilege. But then it flips on her and he is in the power position." Margy: "Do you think the author is making Miranda more of a Cruella De Vil because she was writing about a time when things were very different for women?"

Question #3: What about character development? Do we ever really get to know Lucy or the other characters in the book beyond Roman? Why are they so thinly developed?

Reactions: Chris: "You read the first half of the book, meet Lucy's parents, and then turn the page and they've been married for 15 years. So, what happened?" Shirley: "But I don't think Lucy is much of a character."

Liz: "All of the characters are ciphers to a degree because we see them only through Roman's eyes and that's all he sees.They are all undeveloped because, to him, they aren't important."

Question #4: Does Roman have a soul? Is he redeemed at the end when he stays by Bernard's side?

Reactions: Linda: "There is nothing in Roman except his regard for self. He was always about strategy." Liz: "I wouldn't say that Roman is redeemed. He just has a redemptive moment. He has a soul, but he hasn't found it."

Lois: "If there is a nuance to Roman, it's very well hidden." Margy: "That blind ambition. Seeing it that clearly is jarring."

Question #5: What is the message? What are we, as readers, to take away from this book?

Reactions: Chang's characters wax on about the importance of poetry, often proclaiming it as the highest of all art forms. Some members of our group rejected the notion that poetry is above it all, and Steve asked, "Is there something about all artistic pursuit that is inherently narcissistic and self-indulgent?"

Shirley: "This book is all about poetry. All of the sentences about the worth of poetry and that it is better than all other arts. I just don't dig it. I was impatient with the constant acclamation of poetry." 

Shirley takes a stand

 

Somebody (sorry, but you are only "S" in my notes. You could be either Steve or Shirley): Is Chang exploring the role of sexual relationships in teaching and writing? A rite of passage in the life of poets? Is she saying these teachers were imbuing their students with success through their bodies?" Lois: "She is just laying it out there, and not drawing a conclusion."

 

Question #6: Why is the name of the book what it is? What does it mean?

Reactions: Nobody knew. 

Conclusions: Overall, the group felt there were few redeeming characters in the book. For some, that makes a book a no-go. For others, that's a non-issue if the book is well-written and thought-provoking, which this one is. The fact that we could have spent another hour talking about it should tell you something.

What We Are Reading Next

There will be no meeting in December as everyone is busy. For January, we will be reading Day by Michael Cunningham.

Other books, which we are NOT reading for January but were discussed as possibles are listed here, should you be looking for added things to read that have been read and enjoyed by fellow book club members:

Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner), by Hernan Diaz

Serena, by Ron Rash

Ms. Demeanor, by Eleanor Lipman

Old God's Time, by Sebastian Barry

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride

Steve's box of dissertation stuff.

 

These are serious book people.

 

When the Student Becomes the Teacher and the Teacher Becomes the Student

Title: The English Experience

Author: Julie Schumacher

 

The third and final chapter in English professor Jason Fitger's hapless and hilarious stumblings through the halls of academe, The English Experience brings Schumacher's trilogy to a most satisfying conclusion. While this most recent work was our assigned text, most of us read the entire trilogy before the meeting, being both over-achievers and beside ourselves with excitement that Julie Schumacher herself agreed to join us for our session.

 

Despite his best efforts to avoid it, Professor Jason Fitger finds himself shepherding eleven Payne University undergrads through London and beyond for Experience: Abroad. Self-pitying and known around campus as an inveterate crank, Fitger is annoyed by everything, not the least of which is the extraneous colon in the course's name. His charges include a pair of star-crossed lovers, a student who thinks he is going to Cancun, a brilliant but angry student who rails against the patriarchy, and a lover of all things other-worldly who is obsessed with zombies, ghouls, and the dark arts.

The narrative unfolds through Fitger's passages and the essays the students are required to write, much to their horror, every day. Both the essays and Fitger's life are simultaneously hilarious and heart-breaking. This is a big-hearted book that teaches one as much about the challenges of academic life as it does about being a young adult or a jaded professional in the waning days of his career.

 

Q and A with Julie Schumacher

Julie Schumacher is a faculty member in the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English at the University of Minnesota. Her 2014 novel, Dear Committee Members, won the James Thurber Prize for American Humor. She is the first woman to have been so honored.

(Apologies to all for a less-than-verbatim transcription of our conversation).

Q: As someone who teaches writing at the collegiate level, how do you relate to Fitger? Or do you?

 

A: Actually, I like Fitger a lot. There are people who feel he's too much of a jerk, he has no diplomatic skills, he puts his foot in it, there are whiffs of misogyny. But the arts are being eviscerated everywhere, and I can just hand that to him and let him say it. There are reasons to be angry and upset about higher education. 

 

Julie Schumacher, our book club, stacks of books, and the remnants of our lunch.

Q: Did you always know this would be a trilogy?

 

A: I never planned for there to be a second book. And then Dear Committee Members won the Thurber Prize. Then, I was in a meeting and the Shakespeare requirement came up and I realized that would be a great topic. (Note: She then wrote the second book in the trilogy, which is The Shakespeare Requirement). At that point, I thought I was done with him. But, then I started teaching a travel writing class and took a group of students to Spain.

Q: Where did the idea come from to write the first book in the trilogy, Dear Committee Members, which is told entirely through letters?

A: I was teaching an undergrad fiction class, and used a writing exercise to start the session. Let's think of some starting point, some shape or form...recipes, music, something you know about. I suggested letters of reference, and then a colleague said that might be a good idea.

 

Dear Committee Members was the most fun to write. I'd done five books for younger readers, but my kids had grown up and I no longer had them as readers. I can't write YA anymore because their lives are so technological, which I am not. So, I started this as a dumb experiment. But the total lack of pressure, writing something just for myself, made it easy. It was a very fast writing project. It usually takes me years.

 

 

Q: All three books take some pretty tough shots at academic life. What reactions do you get from academics who read your books?

 

A: I get a lot of nice notes and those are almost always from teachers. The most positive responses I get are from academics. 

Q: These works are satirical. Is this a good time for satire? Does satire work in today's world?

 

A. It seems almost impossible to satirize now. Real events are satirical enough.

Q: Fitger is more vulnerable in The English Experience than in the prior two books. We see him developing a feeling of love for the students and they for him. I guess this isn't really a question.

A: The book originally ended with Fitger and Janet going home on the plane. But then my friend and primary reader said no, it needs to end with one of the students. So, it ends with Xanna. She was the one I had the most trouble figuring out, but it was nice for me to be able to take the students forward three years. As a teacher, you don't know about your students after they're gone.

Q: What are your favorite and least favorite things about teaching?

 

A: My favorite is just being in a room with people talking about books. Grad students are great because they are thoughtful, good writers. Freshmen are nervous, but fun. My least favorite? I worry about grading students' writing. How far should I go? You circle everything, and then you wonder, are they even going to look at this? Think about this?

(At this point, several members of our group shared their own experiences as teachers of writing and when they knew they'd reached the end of their own respective ropes.)

 

Chris joining us from California

 

Q: What are you reading?

 

A:  A few things: Wellness by Nathan Hill. It's a long, long book about marriage. And Dayswork, by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel. Also, All Is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost, by Lan Samantha Chang.

Q: What's coming up for you in the future?

 

A: I'm done with Fitger. I don't want him to wear out his welcome. But it's been a dozen years, and it feels somewhat like a literary divorce. I'm not sure what the next project is. But I have notes.

Coming of Age When You're Already Grown

Title: Leonard and Hungry Paul

Author: Ronan Hession

A feel-good wonder, Leonard and Hungry Paul is the story of two unassuming grown men, both of whom live with their parents, who prefer discussing facts and playing board games with each other to bigger, more worldly interests. Leonard is a ghostwriter of children's encyclopedias. Hungry Paul fills in for vacationing postal carriers. Both seem satisfied with what others would see as their humdrum, small lives.

 

But, the death of Leonard's mother and the impending marriage of Hungry Paul's sister Grace plant both men firmly on the cusp of futures destined to change.

Leonard and Hungry Paul was elected for One Dublin One Read and is Hession's first novel. The Chicago Review of Books reported "The narrative is cheerful and funny, and a meditation on loneliness and fear. In more than one way, it is a coming-of-age of the already aged." This is the first novel by Hession, who is an Irish blues musician known as Mumblin' Deaf Ro.

Gleanings from Our Discussion

+ Our group felt the novel was a nice portrait of men as platonic friends, enjoying their rituals of board-game-playing and buying matching day-of-the week socks. 

+ Liz, who wasn't there for the discussion, but has opinions anyway, appreciated the way the quiet lives of invisible people can sustain the reader's interest in the deft hands of a good writer. Leonard and Paul are two people to whom not much happens, yet we care about them and root for them. As the NPR reviewer states "It's a testament to the author's skill that this book, so lacking in the traditional trappings of drama, is somehow a total page turner."

+ Jocey wondered if she had missed the explanation for why Paul is called Hungry Paul. No explanation appears anywhere in the text. Lois' theory was that it may be ironic "because he was not hungry for more." (FYI, this is a commonly asked search term on Google and the answer appears to be "nobody knows").

+ Linda read a favorite passage: "Hungry Paul was good at just sitting...He never minded time...He always felt in time, just here and just around." We discussed Paul's ability to be happily in the moment, but acknowledged that he, no doubt, navigated his life with autism.

+ The satire delighted us, including a small town writing competition garnering hushed excitement and a $10,000 prize, and Paul (of few words) becoming a spokesperson for the mimes.

+ Although we enjoyed Paul's lecture to his sister Grace to drop her need for control (a few of us may even have related), we found Leonard's soliliquy to Shelley a bit contrived.

+ Margy characterized the work as "a lovely novel. I'd never heard of it, despite it being a cult hit in Ireland. It was just what I needed to read right now." 

Other Fun Things and Whatnot

+ Our thanks to Margy for hosting a book club meeting for the ages! Linda, Lois, Blanche and Jocey enjoyed the delicious pasta salad and cookies, causing the note-taker (Jocey) to start late due to gluttony. 

Yum.

+ At 1:11, Margy called us to order. She had taken Liz's homework assignment seriously and distributed an impressive (if we do say so ourselves) list of 150 books our club has read and discussed. And before we had finished gasping, Margy delighted us with a 15th Anniversary Slide Show. We loved seeing pictures of our friends who will always be with us in spirit -- Gail, Joanne, Faith, and Vicky.

+ Linda note "for the unfortunates who were not able to be with us, Margy has promised to share her photo show again at our September 18 meeting at Jocey's. You'll see highlights including cupcakes, Winnie the Pooh, Joanne's 90th, Faith's book launch, treats, Graywolf authors, Gail's 90th, Zoom COVID meetings, pet portraits, Palm Springs, Ray Bradbury, War and Peace, and our book and flower portraits. Thank you, Margy!

The small but mighty crew.

 

+ Margy's accounting of our reading achievements reminded us how much we've enjoyed the discussions led by our books' authors, including Jim Moore, Patricia Kirkpatrick, Ru Freeman, Brian Malloy, and our own Faith Sullivan. We therefore decided to invite Julie Schumacher sometime after her new novel The English Experience is released in the fall. Some of the over-achievers among us may want to read Dear Committee Members and The Shakespeare Requirement before Julie joins us to lead the discussion of this third work in the trilogy. 

Next Up

August:    No meeting

September 18: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese at Jocey's house

October 16: The Romanov Bride by Robert Alexander (our own RD Zimmerman, who will join us in person to discuss his work.)

Two Irish Novellas and a Birthday Cake

Title: Foster

Author: Claire Keegan

 

Title: Small Things Like These

Author: Claire Keegan

After our grueling battle with War and Peace last month, we opted to read two novellas by Irish author Claire Keegan. These two small books, each of which can be read in an afternoon, packs a powerful emotional punch. Keegan, whose work has been compared to that of Anton Chekhov and William Trevor, is spare with her sentences but generous with their meaning. 

 

Foster's narrator, who is never named, is a little girl who is farmed out to people she doesn't know because her own family is impoverished and overwhelmed by too many children. Through her eyes, the reader sees what love and care look like to a child who is experiencing both for the first time. 

Foster is now part of the school curriculum in Ireland.

 

Small Things Like These follows Bill Furlong, born to an unwed mother and now searching for meaning as a coal merchant with a wife and five daughters he adores. His quest exposes him to the hidden horror of the local Magdalen Laundry and brings him face to face with a terrible choice.

Small Things Like these was short-listed for the Booker Prize.

 

Insights and Opinions

 

+ Having read these two books together, we found ourselves comparing them. Small Things is less ambiguous than Foster in terms of what we think will happen after the last page. We know that things will go south for Furlong after he interferes with the Magdalen Laundry but we're not sure what will happen to the girl in Foster after her father returns. Will she leave with him and return home? Will she cling to Kinsella and stay where there is love and care? It's up to the reader to decide.

+ Linda rightly pointed out that these two books speak to each other. In Foster, Kinsella tells the girl "You don't ever have to say anything...Many's the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing." In Small Things, Furlong says something, and now he will lose everything because he missed his opportunity to say nothing. 

+ Both books are masterpieces of exquisite detail and the minutiae of Irish life. Keegan's artistry is humble and soft-spoken, never showy or grandiose. Small Things opens with a description of the town and the time of year..."chimneys threw out smoke which fell away and drifted off in hairy, drawn-out strings before dispersing along the quays, and soon the River Barrow, dark as stout, swelled up with rain." As the reader, you see it and feel it and want to clutch your coat a little closer.

+ Keegan's characters speak to each other but never about what they really mean. She skillfully captures the indirectness that hides a knife, conversations in which the words say one thing but the meaning is clearly something very different. Neighbors meet neighbors with pleasantries but then judge each other harshly behind each other's backs.

+ Some of us felt that Foster would be a wonderful novel. All the characters are there, the circumstances are in place, and there's so much more to tell. Then again, maybe we should just be happy with what Keegan has given us -- brief glimpses into Irish life where every word is important and the prose is poetry.

Happy Birthday to Us!

 

+ Turns out, we have now officially been a book club for 15 years! Linda should know, as book club formation was one of her last acts as Executive Director of The Loft Literary Center. Kindly, in addition to serving us a fabulous lunch, she provided a celebratory cake and we sang to ourselves before digging in. (Except for poor Chris, who was with us via Zoom).

+ As true archivists and lovers of all things book, we should have a complete record of what we've read on this blog, but we don't. The blog has only been around for 12 years. Things we read pre-blog are available for viewing on the Ancient History page, with descriptions thanks to Lois. But there were two years during which no blogging took place as this writer had faded from view. Word has it Margy keeps a record?

+ Anyway, congratulations everybody, for being such a fine group of excellent, smart people.

What's Coming Up

 

July: Leonard and Hungry Paul, by Ronan Hessian

August: The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese

Tackling War and Peace -- with Mixed Results

Title: War and Peace

Author: Leo Tolstoy 

 

Widely considered Tolstoy's finest literary achievement. War and Peace is a weighty tome that combines a fictional narrative with Tolstoy's considerations on history and philosophy. Originally published as a serial beginning in 1865, the novel was published as a whole in 1869.  Five aristocratic families, around whom swirl the Napoleonic Wars and the French invasion of Russia, form the bones of the story. Tolstoy himself said that War and Peace is "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle."

 

A Somewhat Challenging Discussion

 

Typically, our group eagerly devours our book club selection but this month, not so much. Some read the book in its entirety, some dipped a toe in and bailed, some tried to listen to an audio book, and some didn't read it at all. Consequently, the discussion was less rigorous than was customary, but we forged ahead anyway.

An Opening Quote that Resonated

Jocey opened with a timely passage from Professor Gary Saul Morsen's recent article in Northwestern Magazine entitled "Lessons from Great Russian Novelists." Morsen states:

"In my forthcoming book on the Russian literary and political tradition, Wonder Confronts Certainty, I explore the positions Russian writers took on issues that will always matter. Does life have a meaning, and if so, what is it? If the universe is wholly explicable in terms of material cause and effect, are right and wrong mere conventions, or do they have some objective basis? How do people avoid taking responsibility for their actions (or inaction)? Are the most important moments of life the dramatic ones we all notice or the countless ordinary ones, including the tiniest movements of consciousness, that we overlook precisely because they are so ordinary? 

Tolstoy, for instance, insisted that life is a matter of “tiny, tiny alterations,” that goodness really exists and is seen most often in the small acts of kindness available at every moment, and that people too often use great theories about life and society as an alibi to avoid taking individual responsibility."

 

Insights and Opinions

+ Both Linda and Liz had finished the book and so carried the lion's share of the discussion. Liz has read it three times, at three different stages in her life, with each reading many years apart. Linda read it for the first time and found herself slowing at the end, to savor the last pages.

+ Liz's first read was as a college freshman. Too busy to read it along with the rest of her studies and too wound up in feminist leanings, she dismissed Tolstoy as a mysogynist, skipped over the battles, and wondered why Natasha was such a boob. (Don't read it when you're 17. Give it some years). Reading it again at 45, she was able to understand it, be patient with it, and acknowledge it for the masterpiece that it is. Finally, reading it now for book club, she noted the similarities between the Russian nobles' view of war as the search for glory and awards combined with love for the Tsar as if he were a god and the current disorganized, imperialistic debacle that is the Russian attack on Ukraine.

+ What Linda appreciates most about this work is this: it's a great story, universal in many ways, in the way the marriages are portrayed and in the business of war and what it is that makes us kill each other.

+ Tolstoy's philosophical speeches are a bit of a slog and interrupt the narrative. Both Linda and Liz felt they were unnecessary as Tolstoy's message comes through clearly in the narrative passages. But it's obvious these interrupting sections exist because they are Tolstoy's purpose in writing this book and he wants to make sure the reader gets it. We do, Leo, we do.

+ Pierre, the constant seeker for truth, and the taker of many faulty paths along the way, may in fact be the voice of Tolstoy.

+ There are many translations of War and Peace, some much better than others. Liz felt that the version she had was sub-par as the language in many places was clunky and off-putting.

+ Hiding within the text are instructive examples of what life was like for Russian aristocrats at the time -- copious smashing of glassware at banquets with an offhand "after the servants cleared the broken glass," endless servants helping aristocrats on or off with their overcoats, Pierre's first meeting with the Masons when he takes off his fur coat "without the help of servants."

+ Recommendations from those who read it and loved it: Secure a good translation. Read it. Take your time with it when there's no deadline. It's well worth your time.

Steve Wilbers' Book is Alive!

Kudos to Steve Wilbers for his new book, Persuasive Communication for Science and Technology Leaders, published by IEEE Press. 

 

What We Are Reading Next

Our next session will be June 19, 2023, at Linda's. We will read two books by Claire Keegan: Foster and Small Things Like These. Both of these, Margy assures us, are short.

 

 

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk -- to Russia

Title: Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk

Author: Kathleen Rooney

Title: War and Peace

Author: Leo Tolstoy

It's a "two-fer" this month. Our aggressively ambitious book club decided to tackle two books at once, so we will summarize discussion on both (with thanks to Jocey, who both hosted and wrote what follows).

First Things First

Steve, Linda, Chris, Margy, Lois, and Shirley gathered on April 17 at Jocey's house. We appreciated sun shining upon us after this cold and never-ending winter.

Notes from social hour:

 

+ Lois witnessed protests in Paris, reported gifts being received in Venice with exclamations of "mama mia!" She also discovered the delights of doctors who make house calls and enjoyed being the recipient of a bartender serving his first Bellini. 

 

+ Margy endured (but did not hate) the cold and rain offered by Palm Springs this winter. The rain produced amazing spring blooms and the prettiest flowers were her visitors Chris and Vickie. Travel tip: Palm Spring's funky hotel named Twist.

+ Steve and Debbie jockeyed for book club audio book airtime on their epic road trip, which included Santa Fe, Bryce, Zion, and Grand Canyon. War and Peace may have lost that battle.

On to Lillian

+ We started our discussion with Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney. Those who listened were enchanted by the audio version and agreed the narrator impacts the book experience. We were impressed by the young author's insights into older years (what we assume older years to be). Margy thought this novel could be viewed as historical fiction.

 

+ Lillian lived life as she chose. She did not need to be married to be fulfilled. She would rather work and be the best paid person in the world. 

+ Lillian was a writer and Chris loved how she stood up to the world. This book felt real -- a woman who feels out of synch with he time. Liz, Linda, and Chris all identified with what each of them had to deal with in their own young professional lives.

 

+ We were struck by a few lines: "I'm old, I have nothing but time. Free time. Time to kill before time kills me." "A mute rant, one of many." "Unproductive churring."

 

+ As we thought about Lillian Boxfish in comparison to War and Peace, we noted that books about war are considered important while books about domestic life are not. 

 

 Tostoy's Turn in the Spotlight

+ After showing off our versions of War and Peace, we decided the Penguin Book version might be the best. Chris wondered if War and Peace was worth the time it took to read. Lois nodded and Jocey busied herself with note-taking.

 

+ We felt Tolstoy's brilliance lies with telling you what the characters say and then what they are thinking. We wondered why War and Peace is considered a masterpiece -- not that we refute this designation, but rather than we wanted to get to the heart of it. 

+ We marveled that Liz has read War and Peace three times and can't wait for her to come home from abroad, recover from COVID, and join our discussion. But she shared from afar that she loves how you are immersed in the culture from the standpoint of another time.

+ A theme that continues to resonate is how differently people are treated depending on how much money they have -- Pierre is ignored until he inherits money. "...they took off their fur coats without the help of servants." Jocey noted this is also a theme in Glenn's forthcoming novel, Doorman Wanted, to be released by Koehler Books in January, 2024.

+ Steve wondered if this is a novel of manners -- like Jane Austen's work. Other thoughts: Love stories, war, men are put into a box -- they go off to smoke. Men are portrayed as idiots. Woman are married to their rules and regulations.

+ Linda pointed out that Tolstoy is known for repetition, so the translation is important. Some translations avoid this repetition, yet repetition is key to the style. (Jocey is now hopeful she'll get some style kudos on this report).

+ Linda recommended watching the BBC eight-episode film version of the novel as a complement to help navigate the complexity of tracking the various characters.

+ Margy noted that War and Peace is the literary equivalent of running a marathon. We can all aspire to the intellectual athleticism of the Museum of Russian Art gift shop manager, who reads it every five years and understands it differently each time.

+ We marveled at the various translations (a conversation beween two languages) of a sentence and Linda shared examples of Tolstoy's gift for poetic brevity: "Drops dipped." "Quiet talk went on." "Someone snored."

Next Up

We will continue the W&P discussion on May 15 at Steve's home. We've not yet chosen our June book.