Things Change and Are Ever the Same

Title: Fahrenheit 451  

Author: Ray Bradbury 

 

Given our current dystopian times and the re-emergence of book banning, we dug into what may be the ultimate story about the burning of books to destroy ideas and free thought.  Originally published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is Ray Bradbury's dystopian take on what could happen if book-banning were taken to its ultimate conclusion.

Written during the McCarthy era, the book led to its own spate of book-banning. The novel follows Guy Montag, a fireman whose role is to root out books, all of which have been banned, and burn down the homes of those who've been keeping them. During one such mission, he is overwhelmed with the choice of a book owner to burn along with her books. Secretly, he pockets one of her books, takes it home, and hides it, setting into motion a series of events that lead to the destruction of far more than one woman's library.

 

Insights and Opinions

Although our group was small and we missed our temporarily lost ones dearly, we had what may be one of the best and most in-depth discussions ever. Chris joined via Zoom and, while being only a disembodied head, added plenty to the discussion.

+ Several members of our exceptionally studious group had boned up by watching old movie versions of Bradbury's story. Super-achiever Linda watched both the 1967 Francois Truffaut version and the latest version filmed in 2018. Both departed from the book in significant ways. Truffaut's journal, which he kept during filming, includes this: "...The subjects of films influence the crews that make them. During Jules et Jim, everybody started to play dominoes; during La Peau Douce, everyone was deceiving his wife or her husband; and right from the start of Fahrenheit 451, everybody on the unit has begun to read. There are often hundreds of books on the set, each member of the unit chooses one, and sometimes you can hear nothing but the sound of turning pages."

+ What struck many of us about this work is that, as early as 1953, the urge to turn away from technology -- to fear it -- was already taking root. Bradbury holds up technology as the enemy of thought, building a world in which people are mindlessly staring at the moving pictures on their living room walls and no longer able to carry on a conversation. Yet, as Margy pointed out, the belief that TV would ruin us all is just an old chestnut that hasn't stood the test of time. Per Chris, if the percentage of today's world population that reads were compared to the percentage that were readers when this book was written, you'd find them to be about the same.

+ In the same way that Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek foretold technological advances that eventually came to pass, Bradbury invents technology that did not exist in his day. His characters wear Seashell-brand ear microphones well before ear buds were invented. His living-room screen walls predate today's giant flat-screen TVs by 60 years.

+ Bradbury's prose can be thrilling and poetic. But it can also be a bit of a word salad. Sometimes, his verbal pyrotechnics get the better of him and the reader is left wondering what the heck. But to write it, he would go to the UCLA library and work in the basement with coin-operated typewriters. So, as Margy pointed out, given that method, "you might have a tendency to say "well, good enough."

+ Other elements of the story are most likely products of their time, such as his portrayal of all of the women, with the exception of Clarisse, as ditzes. Were the women more susceptible to mind control than people like Faber and Beatty?

+ Liz felt there were perhaps two themes at play here -- book-burning as a method of mind control and Bradbury's own fear of technology and where it would lead. Bradbury is quoted as saying he was "a preventer of futures, not a predictor of them."

+ Overall, Fahrenheit 451 is a quick read well worth your time, both as historical social commentary and the work of a deeply experimental story-teller.

Smarty-pants Department

The Bradbury letter - click to view

+ Margy produced a letter from Bradbury, which has been hiding in her archive since her days as Director of Education at Walker Art Center. Despite being a foremost writer of future-focused literature, Bradbury was apparently unwilling to fly. (Now we are all rooting through our archives to see if we have any letters from famous people so we can compete.)

 

 

 

 

Lunch in the Garden Room

+ Thank you to our gracious hostess for a lovely chili lunch, which has now raised the bar for the rest of us. 

+ And to our waiter, Larry, for hot coffee when it was needed most.

Look how pretty this is

Our Next Books

• January: Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (at Liz's house)
• February: The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
• March: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (you know you've always wanted to read it and now's your chance)
  

The Beauty of Cabbages in the Eye of One Beholder

Title: So Big

Author: Edna Ferber

 

After deciding that we wanted to read a classic, but unable to agree on the precise meaning of "classic," we decided that anything qualifies as long as it was written "awhile ago." Enter Edna Ferber. A bestselling novelist, short story writer and playwright of her day, Edna Ferber won the Pulitzer Prize for So Big in 1924. A member of the Algonquin Round Table, she was known for her strong female protagonists, a feature atypical of her contemporaries.

 

So Big is the story of Selena Dejong, a young woman determined to make her own way in the world, and her son Dirk, nicknamed "So Big" as a child. A devotee of beauty in all of its forms, Selena moves from a life of excitement and ideas with a ne're-do-well father to a hardscrabble life as the wife of a Dutch truck farmer southwest of a growing Chicago. Throughout, she embraces the beauty of life as she attempts to instill this same passion into her son.

Insight and Opinions

A few of our number who prefer contemporary fiction grumbled their way into the book only to discover a wholly satisfying reading experience. Both Ann Patchett and Charles Baxter are strong proponents of reading and reviving "lost" books like this one, and having read it, we have to agree.

+ Liz said that a book like this, written at the time of its story, contains a richness not possible to achieve by even the most talented writer of historical fiction, however well it's researched. There is an offhand nature to the simple details of the protagonist -- what she wears, how she bathes, how she moves from place to place, what she cooks and eats -- that anchors the reader solidly in another time.

Chris Zooming while zooming

+ Ferber has the habit of writing about the present moment and its consequences for the future, all within the same sentence -- something not seen in the works of contemporary authors. Margy rightly pointed out that a careful read of the first chapter gives the reader the entire story. It's worth going back to reread the first chapter after finishing the book to witness Ferber's mastery.

+ Linda pointed out a key moment in the text, when Selena first sees the vast fields of cabbages and tells the stoic Dutch farmer who is driving her to the farm "the cabbages are beautiful." It's clear he thinks this is ridiculous and it's a comment that will be repeated back to her for many years by the locals, as if it's her name. But Ferber writes "Life has no weapons against a woman like that."

 

Nothing better than a cozy fire.

+ Ferber writes with humor and insight, capturing the stern and sober nature of the Dutch farmers at the time and playing with images. In her hand-carved shoes, Selena's "feet were as large as minnows in a rowboat." Mr. Hempl's advice: "About mistakes, you got to make your own. If you try to keep people from making theirs, they get mad."

+ We wondered about the name of the book. On the one hand, "So Big" is Dirk's nickname, so should this not be his story and not Selena's? Jocey's view is that it's a commentary on great aspirations (Selena's) but also a commentary on Dirk. Yes, he does become "big" as one of the wealthiest young men in Chicago, but his bigness is ultimately hollow and small while it's his mother who is "big."

 

+ Reading a book written long ago teaches us much about daily life, but can also be jarring when certain words no longer considered acceptable pop up on the page. Be duly warned.

+ The ending was a bit controversial to our group as some felt the book has no real ending, turning the page to find out "oops, wait, what?" But others felt that, despite the lack of resolution, the reader knows what will happen to Dirk, Selena and Rolfe.

Other Things Unrelated to this Book

 + There was a hopeless kerfuffle about a series of greeting cards we were attempting to sign as a group, but we won't go into that here as it would spoil the surprise for those who will be receiving the cards. At least theoretically.

 + We did veer from the topic a bit and spent some time talking about trophy wives and what that's all about. 

Charming hostess with book nerds.

 

+ We all agreed we like to read books that don't make us nervous and we wondered if it's possible for books to sneak into your house at night because sometimes you find one that you have no idea where it came from since YOU certainly wouldn't have bought such a thing.

Next Up

For our November book, we will read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Encircling the Globe and the Century

Title: The Great Circle

Author: Maggie Shipstead

 

From the Publisher

"After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There--after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes--Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles.

A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to redefine herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian's own story, as the two women's fates--and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times--collide." 

 

Insights and Opinions

A small but mighty group of book nerds assembled at Blanche's beautiful lakeside home to take our monthly stab at literary criticism. Opening comments took a surprising turn, centering on the size of Shipstead's work and the sensory experiences of our readers that resulted from its sheer mass. 

This is a big book, running to 673 pages in hardbound. Shirley and Steve both read hard copies, a typical preference of book lovers. But the small typeface makes it a hard slog, even with the aid of a magnifying glass. Big books are heavy, Blanche noted, and can hurt when they fall on your face if you are reading in bed. Listening on audio is painless and pleasant and can be combined with a stroll outside. Those who read it via e-reader had no complaints.  (None of this would have even come up in an 1850s conversation about a book, but I digress. Just think about it).

But We Aren't Complaining About the Length

+ Clearly, this work is a labor of love. This is one of those books you love to read because it holds a long story arc, includes fascinating details about a whole panoply of fields, including aviation, art-making and collection, the film industry, bootlegging, and shipping, and brings the reader into the minds and motives of a host of fascinating characters.

+ As Margy pointed out, "It has to be long. It covers the entire 20th century." Liz agreed, but also felt that a good editor might have been able to convince Shipstead to let some things go. As Steve pointed out in reference to the mushroom scene, "just because you can write when you're high doesn't mean you should."

+ The characters in this book are rich, varied, and well-developed. So much so that there is much fodder here for a set of sequels or prequels, a la Kate Atkinson. Did we really get to spend enough time with movie star Hadley to make us care about her? Not really. Would we have benefited from greater insight into Addison Graves' reasons for abandoning his children after ruining his own life to save theirs? Absolutely.

+ The circle is the metaphor that ties together all of the threads of this story -- Marian's dream of circumnavigating the globe is the most obvious. But all of the disparate stories of the characters in this story, and their effects on the subsequent generation, form great circles of their own, starting in one place, looping forward, and connecting in satisfying ways at the end.

Passion in the Details

+ Shirley noted Shipstead's facility at writing about passion and what it's like to be passionate about something. Jamie's experience as a military artist, sent to capture the essence of war, shows perhaps the most compelling example. In the midst of a fire fight, he sketches furiously, intending to capture the moment. Then, when he later looks at what he had created, he sees it's nothing but slashes and furious lines, shapes and shadows. There is nothing, but at the same time, everything to see.

+ When asked if we felt that some parts of this story could have been eliminated to make room for the rest, we all said yes. But we also disagreed on what could have been eliminated. So that's the best indication that everything on these pages should stay right where it is. 

+ Astonishing to all of us is the amount of research Shipstead would have had to have completed to write what she has written. We've all experienced how great writers dive in to a topic -- be it a period of time or a type of work or a cultural system -- and teach us while they are entertaining us. But, Shipstead has written deeply and convincingly about aviation, World War II, painting, bootlegging, ocean navigation, and the film industry with staggering knowledge and a truly deft hand.

+ Ultimately, this book hits you on the head in more ways than one, and is well worth the read. Also worthwhile will be seeking out Shipstead's other novels, knowing this is a writer we admire.

Book nerds at lunch

 

Next Up

After some discussion about the desire to read a classic and then a somewhat failed chat about how to define a classic, we decided that for our next meeting, we will discuss So Big by Edna Ferber.

It's 2 a.m. Someplace, but Where?

Title: 2 A.M. in Little America

Author: Ken Kalfus

From the publisher (our own Milkweed Editions):

"From “an important writer in every sense” (David Foster Wallace), a novel that imagines a future in which sweeping civil conflict has forced America’s young people to flee its borders, into an unwelcoming world.

One such American is Ron Patterson, who finds himself on distant shores, working as a repairman and sharing a room with other refugees. In an unnamed city wedged between ocean and lush mountainous forest, Ron can almost imagine a stable life for himself. Especially when he makes the first friend he has had in years—a mysterious migrant named Marlise, who bears a striking resemblance to a onetime classmate.

 

Brimming with mystery, suspense, and Kalfus’s distinctive comic irony, 2 A.M. in Little America poses several questions vital to the current moment: What happens when privilege is reversed? Who is watching and why? How do tribalized politics disrupt our ability to distinguish what is true and what is not? This is a story for our time—gripping, unsettling, prescient—by one of our most acclaimed novelists."

This book has garnered a wealth of accolades, including:

An Esquire “Best Book of Spring 2022”
A Publishers Weekly “Best Book of Summer 2022”
A Kirkus “Best Book of May 2022”
A San Francisco Chronicle “Most Anticipated Novel of 2022”
A Literary Hub “Most Anticipated Book of 2022”

Insight and Opinions

So who are we to disagree with all of those accolades? Although we must admit, we do like to argue and quibble whenever a good book is in the hot seat.

+ Kalfus is disturbingly successful at capturing the prevailing disquietude of our times, posing the question "how do tribalized politics disrupt our ability to distinguish what is true and what is not? (Milkweed)." To Lois, reading this book while also watching the Congressional hearings about the January 6 insurrection made her question "where am I now?" This book, in combination with the hearings, was more than she could take.

+ As a group, our initial, energetic "blurting" focused on our confusion -- the way the book refuses to name places or provide anything as an actual event or fact that doesn't shift. Who are these people? Where are we? Is that woman the same as that woman? Who is that detective?

+ But to Jocey and Linda, that's the genius of the book. The confusion is purposeful. It's exactly how we are feeling right now in our world. We don't know what's true or not true. Everyone is confused.

+ The main character's memories of his science teacher explaining the workings of the camera obscura is crucial to understanding what Kalfus is about. Everyone sees something different. The way the camera obscura works is the same way this book works as well as the experiences of the people in it.

+ Kalfus has turned the tables on us, sending Americans out into the world as unwanted immigrants. His imagining of how this feels, how disturbing and rootless and fear-inducing it is, is masterful. To Linda, what he has done here is entirely present while also being prescient.

+ Steve vacillated between fascination and frustration, asking "how far should you push a concept novel?" While reading, what he wanted more than anything was a proper noun someplace in the narrative, any place.

+ All agreed that, while reading, they grew more and more anxious. Liz stated her appreciation for what Kalfus is about and his deft hand at doing it, but ultimately succumbed to overwhelming anxiety. "This is not why I read."

Upcoming

We will not be meeting in August as people are busy doing their various fancy things. So, we will group up again in September, when our read will be The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. Margy assures us that this is a weighty saga with a beginning, middle, and end and plenty of proper nouns to go around.

 

 

The Empty Chair

 

There is a hole in our book club now.

 

Our friend, mentor, and book club arguer Gail See died last week and now each of us is struggling with accepting that fact.

 

As a long-term force in the world of literature and the book, Gail could boast a CV miles long. That is, if she ever boasted.

 

She was a former president of the American Bookseller’s Association and a board member for the National Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. She was a much-sought-after leader of literary arts organizations in Minneapolis, including The Loft Literary Center, Graywolf Press, and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. She was instrumental in creating Open Book, the home for literature in Minneapolis. She was the long-term owner of The Bookcase, a prominent independent bookstore in Wayzata, Minnesota, that set the tone for others to follow.

 

She was all of these things. But to us, she was just Gail.

 

When we convened the first meeting of our fledgling book club – made up of former board members and executive directors of the Loft Literary Center – Gail was there, brightening the room with her shock of white hair and incandescent personality. For the next 14 years, she read voraciously, shared what she’d read, made recommendations, offered insights, argued with us, and enriched every meeting.

Margy Ligon, Chris Mahai, and Gail See

 

Sometimes, she came with a stack of books. Sometimes she came with a dog. Then later, she came with a cane. And finally, she came virtually with an email filled with regret that she could not join us in person. But a chair for Gail was always there.

 

Now that chair is empty, and our hearts are broken. But what we are, more than anything, is grateful.

 

Her generosity of spirit, her intelligence and wit were a continual source of inspiration to us.

 

Along the way, she suggested we read Oliver Sack’s Gratitude and, in particular, she loved this quote from the book:

 

“My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved, I have been given much and I have given something in return, I have read and traveled. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”

 

Gail See and Vickie Lettman

To us, sharing books and life with Gail has been an enormous privilege and adventure.

We will miss her forever.

 

 

 

 

 

The Gail See staircase at Open Book

 

 

 

Watch this video interview with Gail

https://vimeo.com/164717549

Giving Form to Emptiness

Title: The Book of Form and Emptiness

Author: Ruth Ozeki

Just when it seemed we were safe to come out of the basement and join the world again, COVID-19 paid a new visit in the form of the Omicron variant so we are back to BCZ (Book Club Zooming). This was not all bad, however, as it allowed us to fold in those who are vacationing or living in warmer, sunnier places.

To orient ourselves, let's start with the publisher's description:

"One year after the death of his beloved musician father, thirteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house—a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn't understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous.

At first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices follow him outside the house, onto the street and at school, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library, where objects are well-behaved and know to speak in whispers. There, Benny discovers a strange new world. He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret, who uses the library as her performance space. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many.
 
And he meets his very own Book—a talking thing—who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter."

Insights and Opinions

+ Once discussion started, our group drew immediate comparisons between this book and Ozeki's earlier work, A Tale for the Time Being, which we read years ago, discussed and loved. Steve and Linda pointed to the themes and devices common to both books -- grief and loss, the animating power of the written word and its ability to change one's life, the sentience of all things.

+ Lois highlighted the theme of reality and how it is experienced differently by each character, leading to the ultimate question with which Benny has to grapple -- what is real? There is Benny's reality, and his mother Annabelle's reality, the reality of the therapist, and the librarian. All profoundly different yet all profoundly real to the person.

+ To Steve, the objects themselves also became important characters -- the voices, the books, the snow globes, the teapots, Benny's Coping Cards, The Aleph's hand-written notes tucked away for others to find and follow or not -- even the precipitous bridge in the library addition.

+ As someone who spent time working in libraries, Margy appreciated the accuracy of the library as a character. Librarians do form relationships with their regular homeless occupants and libraries are also faced with the current-day challenges of deaccession and bindery closure as technology takes over.

+ There was some disagreement about whether the ending wrapped up too precipitously but then Steve rightly pointed out that everything that occurs in the closing pages is introduced as a possibility earlier on and, as a result, the book reaches its logical conclusion. To Steve, Kenji was there all along, perhaps nudging things toward a better place.

+ To Liz, Ozeki's treatment of every character was compassionate. As a result, despite the oppressive force overtaking Benny and Annabelle, a reader is led to understand everyone's point of view -- each player's reality. There are no good guys or bad guys. Just flawed people trying to make it through the day.

+ Ozeki is a superlative writer. As is our way, we brought our favorite passages to read aloud. There are too many to share here. But consider this quote from The Bottleman: "Ze truth about stories is that is all we are. A famous Cherokee writer named Thomas King once said this. We are ze stories we tell ourselves, Benny-boy. We meck ourselves."

+ Margy admitted to having actually read Walter Benjamin's Unpacking My Library, which amazed us all.

+ This is a perfect pandemic book and, as Lois suggested, should be kept on one's shelf, taken down regularly, opened to any page, and read until you are calm.

The best way to enjoy our book discussion.