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.

 

 

 

 

 

A New Gospel for a Grim Future

Title: The Parable of the Sower

Author: Octavia E. Butler

 

The first science-fiction writer to win a MacArthur Fellowship, Octavia E. Butler, who died in 2006, is finally having her moment. Her novel Kindred, which transports the protagonist to an 1815 plantation where she must grapple with the horrors of slavery, is now available to view as a dramatic series on Hulu. The novel Fledgling is in development by HBO.

 

Called "remarkably prescient" by the New York Times, Butler's works combine issues like global warming, wildfire, and rising sea levels with speculative elements like time travel, human super powers, and supernatural possession.

 

Whether or not this novel can be defined as science fiction is debatable. As Butler herself said "I write about people who do extraordinary things. It just turned out it was called science fiction."

 

A Brief Synopsis

From the publisher:

 

"Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren's father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.

 

When fire destroys their compound, Lauren's family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind."

Insights and Opinions

+ Butler published this book in 1994, writing about a civilization in collapse in the year 2024. To her, this must have seemed impossibly far into the future. To us, it's right around the corner, which made Chris pose the question "how close are we to actually being there?" In Butler's story, few people work, there is little food, homeless people are the majority, everyone is armed, and there are no safe places. Lois, Steve and Linda all feel we are not far from this point. Others were more hopeful.

 

+ Lauren, the main character, is a 15-year-old girl, but this is by no means a YA novel. Like most YA protagonists, Lauren is smart, resourceful, and faced with an overwhelming task only she can solve. But there is no happy ending here.

 

+ Lois pointed out that Lauren's Earthseed is a gospel for a new way of thinking and living. She writes this while her family is still intact. And despite the fact that her father is a Christian preacher, Lauren's is a gospel more tied to Naturism. To her, God is change. Hers is the seed of a new belief system. Lauren is motivated by this God who is Change, and this becomes a driving force in the book. Lauren is also literally carrying seeds which will be the future nourishment for her growing flock of followers.

 

+ We wondered about Lauren's hyper-empathy and whether it was important to the story. Much is made of it in the early pages, but it seems to recede to the background as Lauren's diaspora begins. 

 

+ Butler is a talented writer whose sentences are strong, spare and clean. She tells this story with dispassion, as Lauren resolutely places one foot in front of the other, picking up strays along the way, sharing her food, building a new family. By the time she reaches her destination, the reader understands that she has formed what is essentially a new religion, formed around her gospel. But the story itself is relentlessly grim -- so much so that we all wondered whether Lauren's colony would survive in its new-found haven. There is a subsequent book that has the answer, but none of us wants to read it to find out.

What's Next for Us?

Having read three dystopian novels in a row, we have all packed our bags and are leaving Dystopia, maybe even for good. We've all decided we need a palate cleanser. 

 

March: Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney

Steve will host but will call around first to see who can attend as some of us will be off doing our various things.

 

April: In acknowledgement of the length, we are moving War and Peace to April and will be reading only Books 1 and 2. Please don't be a whiner.

 

Seven Centuries, Six Stories, Seamlessly Woven Together

Title: Cloud Cuckoo Land

Author: Anthony Doerr

For scene-setting, let's begin with a brief synopsis from the publisher: 

 

"In the 15th century, an orphan named Anna lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople. She learns to read, and in this ancient city, famous for its libraries, she finds what might be the last copy of a centuries-old book, the story of Aethon, who longs to be turned into a bird so that he can fly to a utopian paradise in the sky. Outside the walls is Omeir, a village boy, conscripted with his beloved oxen into the army that will lay siege to the city. His path and Anna’s will cross.

 

In the present day, in a library in Idaho, octogenarian Zeno rehearses children in a play adaptation of Aethon’s story, preserved against all odds through centuries. Tucked among the library shelves is a bomb, planted by a troubled, idealistic teenager, Seymour. This is another siege.

And in a not-so-distant future, on the interstellar ship Argos, Konstance is alone in a vault, copying on scraps of sacking the story of Aethon, told to her by her father."

 

Insights and Opinions

Following our preferred book-club-gathering format, we began with a random assortment of chatter we refer to as "catching up." This day's catching-up topics included Linda's recovery from a dramatic and painful encounter with a scooter demon in New York City, travels planned and completed, home repair challenges, current ski conditions, and Lois' first taste of kombucha.

We missed Margy and Blanche, who were off where it's warm and sunny, as well as Chris who was "wheels up" somewhere on her way to keeping the wheels of commerce turning.

+ Most of us confessed to having difficulty getting into the book and sustaining the read. Reasons were varied and not necessarily the fault of the author.  For some, it was the distraction of the holidays. For others, the frequent switching between multiple characters interrupted forward motion. Because there are so many characters -- and each requires careful attention -- the book demands extended periods of concentration to keep the reader engaged.

+ Steve listened to an audio version on a 10-hour drive. Linda started on audio due to two broken wrists, and then switched when she was able, at which point she was able to enjoy it more. Liz found it a hard slog because the lives of each of the characters seemed to her to be relentlessly grim, making it hard to enjoy.

+ What connects these characters are stories, libraries and a manuscript written by Antonius Diogenes, the Greek author. Although Diogenes is real, Doerr has invented this manuscript, which touches and is touched by all of the main characters. Somehow, Doerr is able to link characters who are alive in 1453, 1940, 2020 and 2046. In his NPR review, Jason Sheehan says "The book is a puzzle. The greatest joy in it comes from watching the pieces snap into place."

+ The importance of the written word, the book, and librarians are the blood and marrow of this book. The lives of each character are shaped by them. And they unite at the end in a satisfying way. Again, from Sheehan's review: "It is a tragedy and comedy and myth and fable and a warning and a comfort all at the same time. It says, Life is hard. Everyone believes the world is ending all the time. But so far, all of them have been wrong."

+ While we all agreed that the weaving of the fictional Diogenes work through and between the stories of the characters was masterful, none of us were quite able to grasp the meaning of the fable itself. Linda proposed that perhaps it means we can find happiness at home and don't need to go so far to find it -- that utopia isn't necessary. Steve admitted that the tale is the part he had the most trouble with and liked the least. Given the fact that it's the wisdom of antiquity that's supposed to bind everything together, shouldn't we be able to grasp what that wisdom is?

+ All five main characters function both as people who strive and suffer and as archetypes. A consistent theme is the importance of librarians, who seem to swoop in like saviors at key moments to propel characters along a better trajectory, or at least a trajectory that's convenient to moving the story along.

+ Liz, who is consistently the crabbiest reader, felt that Doerr's self-described "paeon to books" elevates the book while sacrificing the people. But line after line, the writing is beautiful.

What We Are Reading Next

Please note the changes to our schedule. Those who have been beefing about War and Peace will be pleased. 

February: The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

March: Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney

 

April: In acknowledgement of the length, we are moving War and Peace to April and will be reading only Books 1 and 2.

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