Friday, September 27, 2024

Centuries of Secrets

Title: The Cliffs 
Author: J. Courtney Sullivan 
 
A big best seller due to its selection as a Reese's Book Club pick, The Cliffs is blurbed by Ann Napolitano, author of Hello Beautiful, as "J.Courtney Sullivan's best book yet." This is what the publisher has to say about it:
 
"On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century’s worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother.

Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine following a terrible mistake that threatens both her career and her marriage. Jane is horrified to find the Victorian is now barely recognizable. The new owner, Genevieve, a summer person from Beacon Hill, has gutted it, transforming the house into a glossy white monstrosity straight out of a shelter magazine. Strangely, Genevieve is convinced that the house is haunted—perhaps the product of something troubling Genevieve herself has done. She hires Jane to research the history of the place and the women who lived there. The story Jane uncovers—of lovers lost at sea, romantic longing, shattering loss, artistic awakening, historical artifacts stolen and sold, and the long shadow of colonialism—is even older than Maine itself.

Enthralling, richly imagined, filled with psychic mediums and charlatans, spirits and past lives, mothers, marriage, and the legacy of alcoholism, this is a deeply moving novel about the land we inhabit, the women who came before us, and the ways in which none of us will ever truly leave this earth."
 

Before We Begin

We started the meeting with some important housekeeping, which is The Matter of Blanche's Email. Please make sure to use her AOL address for all future communications as she has not been receiving most of what we've been sending. We, the Management, are not publishing said address here to avoid its being scooped up by robots or other nefarious actors and because you already have it.
 

Insights and Opinions

With Margy as our host and surrounded by her garden dahlias, we settled into a robust discussion despite missing so many of our group who were off doing other supposedly more important things.
 
+ Steve got us rolling with his first question: Is it possible to do too much research? What followed was an interesting back and forth surrounding the gruesome history of the indigenous tribes in Maine that appears around page 137 in the hard copy book. Some felt this section interrupted the flow of the story, Margy finding it "a bit preachy." Linda disagreed, finding it instructive and eye-opening. "For some of the dates mentioned, I remember reading in my high school history books the headline 'white man tames savage Indians.'" Steve, on the other hand, felt that this section is interesting and important in and of itself, but is a long back story that stops the reader. Because the book starts with a bang and moves along swiftly, he found this change of pace to be jarring.

+ Liz was struck by the richness of the book and the many topics and stories the author weaves together. "It feels like two books to me. One is the story of Jane and her life and what she's grappling with. The other is Genevieve and the ghost and the disturbed graveyard and the terrors and evils of the ancient history with the native population. A great editor might have said 'I think you have two books here.'" Blanche agreed that two books would have given the many threads in this novel more room to breathe. Steve pointed out that books like this that cover a span of time invite the reader to take the long view.

+ In searching for the central theme of the book, we doubled back to the book's inherent richness. Is this a book of place? Yes. Maine and its history are central characters. Is this a book of abode? Yes. A historic house is an obvious device used well in the story of Genevieve as well as the house's prior occupants. Is this a book about addiction and the generational wreckage it leaves behind? Yes. Jane's comparison of addiction while visiting a demented Betty is one example: "There were versions of death that existed inside of life, Jane thought. Her drunken blackouts, that time unaccounted for. The state Betty and the other patients here were in, almost the opposite of being ghosts -- a body with no awareness, no memory. The shadows of past lives all around in graveyards in old houses, in Jane's work as an archivist. In stories." In some measure, the author pulls together all of the strands of her story in this one passage.

+ Then, there was a brief uprising of chat about aging and how we're all falling apart, interrupted by Linda who got us back to the book.
 
+ Another beautiful element in the story is the portrayal of the lesbian relationship. Sullivan's telling is delicate, as it would have been at that time in history. It starts with just a kiss and moves forward with tender love that can't be acknowledged.
 
+ The long set piece about the kidnapped native close to the end of the book stopped us all. It's a compelling story and beautifully written. But its placement so close to the end of the work, when the reader wants to find out what will happen to our main character and to the other present-day themes, disrupts the flow and tosses the reader out of the flow. Maybe this is the theme in which Sullivan was most interested and felt should be given pride of place, but as readers, we felt that it was misplaced.

+ Our bottom line: Sullivan is a serious writer who engaged us all. There are many riches in this book, but we all wanted more of each "rich." Several of us plan to seek out Sullivan's other titles.

Our Next Read

For our October 21 meeting, we will read The Playground by Richard Powers. He's all over the place right now promoting the book, which was just published, so you should be able to find his interviews out there if you're of a mind. Linda will host.

This good-looking group.




 

Monday, September 2, 2024

Swedes in Love with Crying Americans

Title: Big in Sweden
Author:  Sally Franson
 
First, a brief summary from the publisher:
"Paulie Johansson has never put much stock in the idea of family: she has her long-term boyfriend Declan and beloved best friend Jemma, and that’s more than enough for her. Yet one night on a lark, she lets Jemma convince her to audition for Sverige och Mig, a show on Swedish television where Swedish-Americans compete to win the ultimate prize: a reunion with their Swedish relatives. Much to her shock, her drunken submission video wins her a spot on the show, and against Declan’s advice Paulie decides to go for it.

 
Armed with her Polaroid camera, a beat-up copy of
Pippi Longstocking, and an unquenchable sense of possibility, Paulie hops on a plane to Sweden and launches into the contest with seven other Americans, all under the watchful eye of a camera crew. At first, Paulie is certain that she and her competitors have nothing in common besides their passports and views their bloodthirsty ambitions with suspicion. Yet amid the increasingly absurd challenges—rowing from Denmark to Sweden in the freezing rain, battling through obstacle courses, competing in a pickled herring eating contest—Paulie finds herself rethinking her snap judgments about her fellow countrymen, while her growing attachment to her Swedish roots increases her resolve to win the competition herself."
 

Insights and Opinions

One of our goals, in this long-term ever more venerable book club, has been to read more works by local authors and, where possible, invite them to join us for the discussion. Franson is both local and a friend to The Loft Literary Center (the genesis of our book club), so her new book was an easy choice for us.
 
Laurie Hertzl's review in the Minneapolis Star Tribune is a good match for our discussion, so rather than do a lesser job, I'll just post some of her review here:

"And then along comes a chance at “Sverige och Mig” — “Sweden and Me.” In Sweden, the show is known as “Crying Americans,” and with good reason. There is a lot of crying in this book. Paulie “bursts into tears” every few pages, which might make the reader roll their eyes, but which also makes, apparently, good TV.

The show’s producers encourage this behavior, asking questions such as, “Talk about how far you have come since you first arrived in Sweden. … If you cry, that is okay.” And “Talk about what you love about Sweden. … Consider crying as you say this.” And “Talk about your friends who have already left the show … If you cry, that is great!”

Paulie obliges. She cannot help herself. She is an emotional basket case, vulnerable and insecure while also deeply competitive and sometimes mean. (“You have too many feelings,” one of the other competitors tells her.) Her parents — a homophobic closeted gay minister and an alcoholic mother — have left her with a yearning for a traditional, loving family.

Anyone who has traveled alone to an unfamiliar place will understand the heightened state of awareness that Paulie experiences during her five weeks in Sweden. Everything there is so different, so clean, so beautiful! The people are so kind! The producers are so sexy — well, one of them is.

Franson’s writing is smooth, filled with apt metaphors and zingy one-liners. Watching a burly Swedish man cry was like “watching a bear use a fork and knife.” A meek woman’s posture was “as bent as a hanger.” A breeze swept through an open window “like a burst of laughter.”

The book shifts so quickly from one scene to the next that the reader begins to crave a bit of summary — does everything have to be shown? The narrative is so detailed it starts to feel as though the five weeks in Sweden unfurl in real time.

Franson is skilled at mixing slapstick with serious. There are pratfalls and belches, fisticuffs and stolen kisses and so much drinking. Everything is exaggerated. But at the same time, Paulie’s desire for a family connection is deep-seated and moving.

Big in Sweden is funny and mostly satisfying, certain to be big here, and a worthy successor to Franson's A Lady's Guide to Selling Out, which is being developed for Netflix by Meg Ryan."

Because we can't help ourselves, and because we love to read works we can really dig into, we did agree that we would have liked to see the characters more deeply developed. But the humor in this book, and Franson's deft hand at storytelling carried us all easily to the end. 

Our Next Read

For September, we will read The Cliffs by J. Courtney Sullivan. Margy will host.

The usual suspects (minus the photographer)

 

Us in a holy glow, and our photog is in the shot!

Liz showing off an eyeball she painted.


 

 

Monday, July 22, 2024

A Dual Trip Along the Mississippi

Title: James
Author: Percival Everett
 
Title: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Author: Mark Twain

(Many thanks to this month's guest scribe, Jocey Hale, for the following discussion summary).

We gathered at Blanche’s home with Linda, Steve, Margy, Louis, Shirley, Jocey, and Chris with the bonus of her friend Pam. 

After admiring Blanche’s award-winning garden, we enjoyed chicken salad and cornbread (as a nod to this month’s book) as we sat around her beautifully set dining room table. We were so eager to discuss James by Percival Everett that we jumped into “book club” before finishing lunch (but not before we discovered that Shirley has a sweet spot for a talented martini-shaking bartender at Spoon and Stable. We like your style, Shirley!)


Our book discussion started by comparing the various versions of Huck Finn we had pulled from our bookcases – including Steve’s 45-cent paperback to Jocey’s hardback from Glenn inscribed to him by his mother. We were appalled to see many had racist trope illustrations. Some of us had read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for school and others had not.

All enjoyed reading Huck Finn along with James and we all employed different methods for approaching the duel read – Huck first, James first or both together, chapter by chapter. Chris started with Huck Finn. Steve read them together. Lois read Huck and reread James. Steve found it to be an extraordinary reading experience.

The conversation jumped between the two books so these notes will be intertwined. 

+ Margy discovered the “N word” was used 219 times in Huck Finn. Steve wondered if Mark Twain attempted to be extreme in the book to make his point about racism. 

+ Chris and Pam were interested in how characters in Huck Finn and James would know about the Civil War. For the people at that time who did not travel and did not have access to reliable news, how would they trust the information they were hearing? It also helped give context to what we’ve learned about Juneteenth.

+ Blanche lived in Selma from 1966 through 1969 when her husband Thane was training pilots. It felt to her like they were still living in a slavery framework. “It was awful to witness the way Black people were treated.” Lois is currently reading An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin, which she found to be an interesting companion piece and more context to other times our country was torn apart.

+ Percival Everett said in an interview “Twain was not misinformed, but uninformed.”  The dialect was incredible. In Huckleberry Finn, Linda wondered how intentional Twain was at the ending. The boys did ridiculous things before freeing Jim and the novel presented at the end that “Jim was pleased to death…” Was this irony by Twain? Twain portrays Jim as smarter than Huck yet allowed only Huck the opportunity to learn and grow as a character. Jim was a character there to offer an opportunity for Huck’s moral grown but not for his own personhood. 

+ A major theme in James is the importance of reading and language. James reflects on the power of fiction, and the novel is a love letter to the ability and power of reading and writing. “… At that moment, I realized it (reading) was a completely private affair, and completely free, and therefore completely subversive.” Shirley noted that women are currently facing the lack of access to reading in many parts of the world.   

+ We wondered why, in James, he had Huck as the son. How did that change the moral choices in the books? Did that change the friendship between the two? In Huckleberry Finn, Huck has a moral debate about sin. In James, the debate is between Huck being white or Black, and which he would he choose to be.  

+ Throughout James, we noted the theme of passing. With the ministerial show, passing was portrayed as Shakespearean -- the concept of passing Black dressed as white dressed as Black. 

+ Why is Huckleberry Finn more of a classic than The Adventures of Tom Sawyer? Huck Finn grapples with more moral questions rather than just being a book about the hijinks of young lads. And yet, we wondered if Huckleberry Finn should continue to be highlighted as essential literature. Some thought it was a masterpiece, others were bored by it. 

+ We wondered why James diverged so much from Huckleberry Finn

+ A quote we liked: “If words can have meaning, then life can have meaning, then I can have meaning.” George sacrificed himself for writing and likely knew what he was doing.

+ We worried that someone would find the pencil. 

+ Linda noted in James that white folks were described in these ways:

  •       It pays to give white folks what they want
  • White folks expect us to sound a certain way
  •      They need to be superior
  • White folks like to buy stuff
  • White folks look alike
  • White folks need to laugh at Black folk
  • White folks like to feel guilty
  • White folks like thinking we (Black people) are stupid
  • It always made life easier when white folk could laugh at slaves

+ James’ growing anger is an important theme. He begins to observe his own anger and then decides it is okay. Jumping to current day, Black people now are not allowed to be angry. 

+ The hair-touching scene was a way to talk about the common complaint of white people touching Black hair.  

+ We marveled at Twain’s descriptive language of storms and the Mississippi. His writing displays rhythm and musicality.

The assembled masses

 

 

Our gracious hostess with her family vineyard's Chardonnay.



The happy result of that delicious wine.



What We Are Reading Next

Big in Sweden by Sally Franson

1 pm at Steve's house

Dessert will be served.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Lost in Books for 15 Years

A 15-year Compendium of What We've Read

After 15 years of coming together in each other's homes or at Open Book to choose, recommend, digest, and discuss books, we thought it best to list our achievement so we could all sit back and admire it. Our Chief Research Fellow Margy Ligon accepted the task of poring through the annals and created this list. Being an over-achiever, she also added the publication year and, where relevant, major prizes won.

2023

January:  Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (2021)

February:  Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (1993)

 

March, April, May:  War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1869)

 

June:  Small Things Like These (2021) and Foster (2010) both by Claire Keegan

 

July:  Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession (2020)

 

September: The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (2023)

 

October:  The English Experience by Julie Schumacher (2023). Julie attended the session.


November: All is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost by Lan Samantha Chang (2010)

 

2022

January:  The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (2021) Women’s Prize

February:  The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (2021)

 

March:  Bewilderment by Richard Powers (2021)

 

April:  The All of It by Jeannette Haien (1986, republished 2011)

 

May:  The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson (Milkweed, 2021) Minnesota Book Award

 

June:  The Party Upstairs by Lee Conell (2020)

 

July:  2AM in Little America by Ken Kalfus (Milkweed, 2022)

 

Aug & Sept:  The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (2021)

 

October:  So Big by Edna Ferber (1925) Pulitzer Prize

 

November:  Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1951)

 

2021

March:  The Sun Collective by Charles Baxter (2020)

 

April:  Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Takarczak (2009) translated from Polish in 2019 after she won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature)

 

May:  Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin (2018, translated from French 2020)

 

July:  After Francesco by Brian Malloy (2021) Brian led the discussion.

 

August:  Turbulence by David Szalay (2018)

 

September:  Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong (2020) MN Book Award

 

November:  Matrix by Lauren Groff (2021) National Book Award

 

 

2020

April:  Weather by Jenny Offill (2020) COVID! Started meeting via Zoom

 

May:  The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich (2020) Pulitzer Prize

 

June:  Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (trans from Spanish 1988)

 

July:  The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (2020)

 

August:  Writers and Lovers by Lily King (2020)

 

Sept:  The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (1984) American Book Award

 

 

2019

April:  The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich (1999) 

 

May:  Virgil Wander by Leif Enger (2018)

 

June:  My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love by Dessa (2018)

 

July:  Circe by Madeline Miller (2018) NEA Big Read

 

October:  Ruby and Roland by Faith Sullivan (2019) attended the book launch at Open Book and Faith led our discussion

 

November:  Gratitude by Oliver Sacks (2015)

 

2018

January: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015) Pulitzer Prize

 

February:  The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott (2017)

 

March:  The Wife by Meg Wolitzer (2003)

 

April/May:  Less by Andrew Sean Greer (2017) Pulitzer Prize

 

June:  Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (2018)

 

August:  The Overstory by Richard Powers (2018) Pulitzer Prize

 

Oct.: Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne (1926), The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (1982)

November:  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868) 150th anniversary

 

2017 (dates are approximate)

January: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wacker (2013)

 

March: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (translated from Swedish 2013)

 

February: The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (2013)

 

April: Wintering by Peter Geye (2016) Minnesota Book Award

 

May: Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout (2017) The Story Prize

 

August: The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle (1995)

 

September: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (2017) Man Booker Prize

 

2016

February:  The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood (2015)

 

March:  The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota (2015)

 

April:  Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (2015) National Book Award, NBCC Award

 

May:  Vinegar Girl: The Taming of the Shrew Retold by Anne Tyler (2016)

 

June:  We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (2013)

 

September:  When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (2016)

 

October:  Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (2016)

 

November: The Underground Rail Road by Colson Whitehead (2016) National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize, Andrew Carnegie Medal, etc. etc. etc.

 

2015

January:  Let Me Be Frank With You by Richard Ford (2014)

 

February:  A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (2013)

 

March:  The Waves by Virginia Woolf (1931)

 

April:  Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar (2015)

 

May:  Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2014) NBCC Award

 

June:   Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania  by Erik Larson (2015)

 

July:  Old Filth by Jane Gardam (2006)

 

August:  H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald (2014) attended her talk at Open Book

 

September:  On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks (2015)

 

October:  To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) OR Go Set a Watchman (2015) by Harper Lee, OR The Mockingbird Nextdoor: Life with Harper Lee by Marja Mills (2014)

 

November: Good Night, Mr Wodehouse by Faith Sullivan (2015) Faith Sullivan led the discussion.

 

2014

January:  Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver (2012)

 

February:  Dear Life: Short Stories by Alice Munro (2012) Read when Munro won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature

 

March:  The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2013) Pulitzer Prize

 

April:  Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1861)

 

May:  Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932 by Francine Prose (2014)

 

June:  Dancing Fish and Ammonites by Penelope Lively (2014)

 

July & Aug:  Middlemarch by George Eliot (1871-2)

 

September:  My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead (2014)

 

October:  Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich (2011)

 

November:  Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (2014)

 

2013

January:  The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro (2012) National Book Critics Circle Award (NCCB)

February:  Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009) Man Booker Prize and NCCB Award

 

March:  The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (2012)

 

April:  A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy (2012)

 

May:  Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel (Graywolf, 2013)

 

June:  Odessa: Poems by Patricia Kirkpatrick (Milkweed, 2012) Minnesota Book Award, Patricia led our discussion.

 

July:  Transatlantic by Colum McCann (2013) attended his talk at MPL

 

August:  Jewelweed by David Rhodes (Milkweed, 2013)

 

September:  In Times of Fading Light by Eugen Ruge (Graywolf, 2013)

 

October:  On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman (Graywolf, 2013) with Ru via Skype


November:  Tumbledown by Robert Boswell (Graywolf, 2013)


2012

January:  State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (2011)

February:  Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James (2011)

 

March:  How It All Began by Penelope Lively (2011)

 

April:  The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (2012)

 

May:  A Backward Glance by Edith Wharton (1934)

 

June:  Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie (2011)

 

July:  A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (1964)

 

August:  The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (2011)

 

September:  The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (2003)

 

October:  Canada by Richard Ford (2012) Andrew Carnegie Medal

 

November:  The Round House by Louise Erdrich (2012) National Book Award


2011

What We Read, our book blog, goes live in July.

February: The End by Salvatore Scibona (2011)

March: Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (1987) Man Booker Prize

April:  Invisible Strings: Poems by Jim Moore (Graywolf, 2011) Jim led the discussion.

July:  Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (2009) National Book Award and Dublin Award

August:  The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal (2010)

September:  The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker (2009)

October:  In Caddis Wood by Mary Rockcastle (Graywolf, 2011) Mary was to lead our discussion but had to cancel.

November:  The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (2011) Man Booker Prize

 

So, What Can We Learn From This List?


+ Apparently, we can't get enough of Louise Erdrich.

 

+ We like to invite the authors of our books when we can. We should do it more often.

 

+ There are many more books on this list than there are blog posts as there was a period of time during which the blog was sleeping.


+ Fiction is our thing. The occasional non-fiction title sneaks in but is not made to feel very welcome. Poetry would love to be included but is rarely invited to the party.


+ Occasionally, we like to read a classic. As long as it's not War and Peace.