A Book to Read Twice. Or Three Times.

Title: The Sense of an Ending
Author: Julian Barnes
Host: Joanne

What happens when the photographer is late to the session.

Yes, our group was small this month, but a small group makes for in-depth analysis and time spent considering nuance. Had Shirley been able to join us, we would have asked for a grade on our discussion. We're sure it would have been an A.

Insights and Opinions

+ First words spoken: "I'm not finished, but I am loving the language."
+ Second words spoken: "As soon as I finished, I immediately wanted to go back and read it again, this time re-visiting cues I missed or glossed over on first read."
+ Seemingly simple, a straightforward walk through memory and past events that collide with present-day experience, this work plays with memories and their accuracy. The readers sees the past through the eyes of the first-person narrator, but at some point begins asking -- is that really what happened? Is he a reliable source?
+ The main character regrets the fact that he married someone safe and settled into a quiet life. Now on the other end of life, he asks "did I just let my life happen to me?" His musings are provocative. Was Adrian a coward? He's disappointed in how he's led his life -- holding himself up to some kind of standard and coming up short. But is his view accurate?
+ The book structure is interesting -- told more as a tale, with long pages of exposition and very little scene. Our writing teachers tell us not to do this. Barnes makes it work so well.
+ Many of the mysteries in this book are never solved, which made all of us immediately want to go back and read it a second time.
+ Barnes' use of language is masterful -- great prose punctuated by humor makes every sentence a joy.
+ Question: is this a book you would enjoy or might interpret differently if you were 25? (Hint: none of us are 25).

The Final Verdict

The Sense of an Ending is not just a good read, it's a re-read.

Gail's fabulous library. Sigh.

A Literary Walk in the Woods

Title: In Caddis Wood
Author: Mary Francois Rockcastle

Sweets and hydrangeas

Despite the absence of more than half of our sorely missed discussers, we had a great conversation anyway because we weren't interrupting each other.

Insights and Opinions

+ This work delivers strong momentum from page one. Carl's first experience of "something hot and galloping in the room, black walls leaping like a Tilt-A-Whirl, the steady thump of his heart," pulls the reader in. We know we are in good hands.
+ With two primary viewpoint characters -- successful architect Carl and his writer wife Hallie -- we questioned whether we understood whose story this is. Further, there are two daughters, each of whom has suffered enormous tragedy. And then there is the land -- nature -- which is also a key character. Ultimately, we decided it's the marriage's story. How does a marriage grow, shift, suffer, shrink and expand over a lifetime and through tragedy and betrayal?
+ Back story is revealed in small increments over the course of the novel, which sometimes caused us to falter. But by novel end, all of the back story has been revealed, and the last two chapters soar.
+ The prose is lyrical, poetic, beautiful and a joy to read.
+ So much of this story is told through memory, which stimulated us to ponder the nuances of how a story shifts, depending on who is doing the remembering. Did it really happen that way? Was it the same experience for both?
+ Layers of destruction populate this book. There is natural destruction -- from a hurricane, from lightning. And then there is manmade destruction -- a poisoned piece of land Carl works to restore, Carl himself poisoned by exposure. Recovery is everywhere in the aftermath of natural destruction. There is no recovery from the manmade destruction. Is there a message here?
+ Throughout, Hallie is trying to understand the meaning of her own life. Can this woman artist work wholeheartedly and all-consumingly in the way her driven architect husband can?

Oddments and Telling Details

Joanne's fabulous library, of which we are
all insanely jealous.

+We've decided to open our blog up to public scrutiny.
+ Then, we spoke American Sign Language for awhile, having been distracted by a plugged ear and the fact that two of us can speak ASL. Who knew?
+ We are all as excited as can be about Graywolf Press' recent successes -- one of our favorite hometown small presses that every reader should adopt.

October Selection: In Caddis Wood

Title: In Caddis Wood: A Novel
Author: Mary Francois Rockcastle
Host: Joanne

From Publisher's Weekly

“As she did in her debut, Rainy Lake, Rockcastle once again melds family drama with a palpable sense of place. . . . Suffused, appropriately, with imagery of the natural and man-made worlds, Rockcastle’s skillful pacing weaves together the family’s tumultuous history with its uncertain present. A mature love story offering a clear-eyed glimpse of the challenges and rewards of a long marriage.”—Publishers Weekly

From New York Journal of Books

Told from the alternating perspectives of a husband and wife, In Caddis Wood explores the competing rhythms of romantic love, family life, and professional ambition, refracted through the changing seasons of a long marriage. Beneath the surface, affecting their collective future, beats the resilient and endangered heart of nature.

Hallie’s career as a poet has always come second to her family, while Carl’s life has been defined by his demanding and internationally acclaimed work as an architect. The onset of a debilitating illness and the discovery of Hallie’s cache of letters from another man set Carl reeling and cause him to question not only his previously unshakable belief in himself but also his faith in Hallie’s devotion. As the memories multiply and the family gathers at their longtime summerhouse in the woods of Wisconsin, Hallie and Carl’s grown-up daughters offer unexpected avenues toward forgiveness and healing.

With warmth and generosity, Mary François Rockcastle captures the way that the aging mind imbues the present with all the many layers of the past as she illuminates the increasingly unbreakable bonds borne of a shared life.

“Rockcastle has written a simple, but not simplistic, satisfying story of love, loss, marriage, fidelity, and family. . . . This family is so real, so understandable, so in need of comfort each in their own way, that we want to embrace them in their grief, applaud their reconciliations, and learn from their loving fortitude.”

Special Appearance

The author will join us to read and discuss (we hope and pray, if she is willing).

Readers without a Map, but with a Purpose

Feeling the end of summer, darkness descending toooo early, some of us sort of lost our way--but eventually, 10 of us showed up at Faith’s, to be warmly welcomed with a delicious, appealing spread.

Literature with cheese and champagne grapes

Insights and Opinions

Where would we begin?  Shirley dived in, asking “Why couldn’t he write the introduction to the anthology?”
+ Writers’ block? Because Roz left him? Because he was depressed?
+ If he was depressed, was it short term because of Roz leaving him? Because of losing his job? Or was it brain chemistry. Or, if it wasn’t depression but procrastination, was it because it wasn’t his idea?+ But he really was writing it--this book is the introduction to the anthology. It even, Linda noted, had the right number of pages--230--if you took out all the blank pages between chapters.
+ Whether he was depressed or not, there were nods all around at the suggestion that “it was the sweetest love story.” ‘Actually, someone noted, there were parallel love stories: between Paul Chowder and Roz, and between Ted Roethke and Louise Bogan.
+ Several of us had felt compelled to find and read The Fish by Louise Bogan, and then to look up her The Roman Fountain, and agreed with Paul Chowder that the first verse is terrific, but the rest doesn’t quite measure up. Sometimes just one word or one line, is brilliant in a poem.
+ As Margy said, “who knew iambic pentameter could be so hilarious?” Again, nods all around that this The Anthologist was comic, but dead-serious about poetry:
- A wonderful introduction to poetry, perhaps, even a Poetry 101 introduction.
- It’s a history of poetry, with brilliant insights but playful, both facetious and serious at the same time.
- Paul Chowder is a bit reactionary and contrary.
- He makes arguments for rhyme, and does a lot of rhyming at the end of chapters.
- It was a humorous, inviting, literary lark, arcane (but not to us!)
+ We all loved that in his talk at the poetry convocation near the end, he told his listeners, “write about the best moment of the day.” I think we agreed that this is an effective secret to writing poetry.
+ We asked ourselves why Paul Chowder cried in front of his class, near the end of the book. Thoughts:
- He set the bar too high for himself
- He was coming to terms with just being ordinary
- He was a pathetic, zany, off-beat person who stands for love and art, and is trying to discover “what really matters.”

Oddments and Telling Details

+ This wasn’t a poem, but an observation by Paul Chowder, but the only gentleman in attendance noted that he was particularly taken with the sentence, “a really good fuck makes me feel like custard.” We did not discuss whether that feeling was more significantly a male reaction, but I doubt it.
+ Toward the end of the discussion, someone (was it you, Vicki?) mentioned that listening to The Anthologist on audio was very satisfying--you could hear the beats in the poetry, the music to which he set the poems, and “it sounds exactly like Paul Chowder.”
+ Ten readers attended. Eight gave the book a "thumbs up." We welcomed Blanche, who abstained as she had not yet read the book.

 

September Selection: The Anthologist

Title: The Anthologist
Author: Nicholas Baker
Host: Faith

From Publishers Weekly

In Baker's lovely 10th novel, readers are introduced to Paul Chowder, a study in failure, at a very dark time in his life. He has lost the two things that he values most: his girlfriend, Roz, and his ability to write. The looming introduction to an anthology of poems he owes a friend, credit card debt and frequent finger injuries aren't helping either.

Chowder narrates in a professorial and often very funny stream of consciousness as he relates his woes and shares his knowledge of poetry, and though a desire to learn about verse will certainly make the novel more accessible and interesting, it isn't a prerequisite to enjoying it. Chowder's interest in poetry extends beyond meter and enjambment; alongside discussions of craft, he explores the often sordid lives of poets (Poe, Tennyson and Rothke are just some of the poets who figuratively and literally haunt Chowder).

And when he isn't missing Roz or waxing on poetics, he busies himself with a slow and strangely compelling attempt at cleaning up his office. Baker pulls off an original and touching story, demonstrating his remarkable writing ability while putting it under a microscope.

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Torrent of Conversation in a Torrential Rain

Normally unenthused about non-fiction selections, the group dove into discussion of Edmund de Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance as if it were a plate of fresh cookies. This elegant family memoir is so much more than a recitation of facts that even the most concerted searchers for the perfectly written sentence found nothing to criticize.

Still Life with Tri-Color Hummus

Insights and Opinions

+ This is not a quick read. Every sentence is dense and information-filled. Take your time. It's worth it.
+ The heart of the book is acquisition -- the careful collection over time of something treasured -- and then the turning point, when treasured items become "stuff." How does meticulous, passionate collecting migrate into extravagant shopping and then diminish into one small collection of treasured objects whose history has been lost?
+ Astonishing to consider that none of us had ever heard of the Ephrussi family, even the art historian among us. Yet this family was as wealthy and powerful as the Rothschild family and equally influential.
+  De Waal himself is a passionate collector -- he has collected stories, and it's these stories that prevail.
+ The work is very readable, and engaging on many levels -- as social commentary, as an examination of the collector's process, and as a new view of the effects of anti-Semitism.
+ We all want to go to Paris and Vienna and visit the houses built by the Ephrussis.
+ Our question to each other:  if you had to choose one object that is the essence of your family, what would it be?
+ Keep your provenance on treasured objects. Somebody, someday, will care very much.

Oddments and Telling Details

+ We were too busy enthusing about the book to notice that it was raining pitchforks -- two inches between the beginning and end of our session.
+ Vicky invented a new cocktail which involved Campari and mint and some lemony stuff and now we want the recipe.
+ A special thank you to Joanne for sharing her grandmother's ivory shoehorn with the amber eye, and to Vicky for displaying the beautiful handmade dress she wore at the age of eight.

August Selection: The Hare with Amber Eyes

Title: The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance
Author: Edmund DeWaal
Host: Vicky

From Publishers Weekly

In this family history, de Waal, a potter and curator of ceramics at the Victoria & Albert Museum, describes the experiences of his family, the Ephrussis, during the turmoil of the 20th century. Grain merchants in Odessa, various family members migrated to Vienna and Paris, becoming successful bankers. Secular Jews, they sought assimilation in a period of virulent anti-Semitism.

In Paris, Charles Ephrussi purchased a large collection of Japanese netsuke, tiny hand-carved figures including a hare with amber eyes. The collection passed to Viktor Ephrussi in Vienna and became the family's greatest legacy. Loyal citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Vienna Ephrussis were devastated by the outcome of WWI and were later driven from their home by the imposition of Nazi rule over Austria. After WWII, they discovered that their maid, Anna, had preserved the netsuke collection, which Ignace Ephrussi inherited, and he settled in postwar Japan. Today, the netsuke reside with de Waal (descended from the family's Vienna branch) and serve as the embodiment of his family history. A somewhat rambling narrative with special appeal to art historians, this account is nonetheless rich in drama and valuable anecdote.

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

More About Netsuke

The International Netsuke Society

Video

Interview with the author in his studio

Hot Weather, Lovely Garden, and Spirited Discussion

Although we missed several of our regulars, our group of seven guaranteed a lively discussion of Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. The fact that we met on the hottest day of the year -- anywhere on the globe -- was softened by air-conditioning, a lovely garden view, and Heathcliff the dog.

Tableau with non-soggy biscotti

Insights and opinions

+ Phillipe Petit's unauthorized tightrope walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center is the unifying thread in this work, but the characters and their stories are so compelling they could have stood on their own without the wire walk. The feat is a metaphor for the struggles of McCann's characters. Each is poised over a personal abyss, risking everything.

+ The author skillfully inhabits his characters, bringing each of them to life, making them believable, and making the reader care.

+ Some found the structure of the book jarring at first. Just as you sink into a character's story, you're forced to leave that character and meet another. But within a few paragraphs, the new character takes over and you are fully engaged. The reader is in good hands. And, patience pays off in the end.

+ McCann is particularly adept at engaging all of the senses in his writing. We smell the city, hear its sounds, taste what the character is tasting. He is equally comfortable in the judge's chamber, the hooker's stroll, and the wire walker's training -- and we believe it all.

+ The female characters in this work are more fully fleshed out than the male characters -- interesting, given the fact the author is male.

 

Would we recommend?

With seven of seven "recommends," the answer is a strong "yes."

July Selection: Let the Great World Spin

Title: Let the Great World Spin: A Novel
Author: Colum McCann
Host: Linda

From Publishers Weekly

McCann's sweeping new novel hinges on Philippe Petit's illicit 1974 high-wire walk between the twin towers. It is the aftermath, in which Petit appears in the courtroom of Judge Solomon Soderberg, that sets events into motion. Solomon, anxious to get to Petit, quickly dispenses with a petty larceny involving mother/daughter hookers Tillie and Jazzlyn Henderson. Jazzlyn is let go, but is killed on the way home in a traffic accident. Also killed is John Corrigan, a priest who was giving her a ride. The other driver, an artist named Blaine, drives away, and the next day his wife, Lara, feeling guilty, tries to check on the victims, leading her to meet John's brother, with whom she'll form an enduring bond.

Meanwhile, Solomon's wife, Claire, meets with a group of mothers who have lost sons in Vietnam. One of them, Gloria, lives in the same building where John lived, which is how Claire, taking Gloria home, witnesses a small salvation. McCann's dogged, DeLillo-like ambition to show American magic and dread sometimes comes unfocused—John Corrigan in particular never seems real—but he succeeds in giving us a high-wire performance of style and heart.

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Video

Philipe Petit's Twin Towers tightrope walk.