Journeys Back and Forth Through Characters and Chronology

Title: Transatlantic
Author: Colum McCann
Host: Margy

National Book Award-winner Colum McCann spins a masterful web of interlaced novellas in this loosely bound novel of connection between Ireland and America. Moving gracefully between present time and three transatlantic crossings at key moments in history, Transatlantic woos the reader with beautiful prose and fully realized characters.

Alcock and Brown, the first aviators to fly nonstop
across the Atlantic Ocean.

After a brief present-day prologue, we move to a gripping account of Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown's attempt at the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. Then, it's on to Dublin for Frederick Douglass' lecture tour among the sympathetic Irish. Finally, we join U.S. Senator George Mitchell on his 1998 work at mediating peace in strife-torn Northern Ireland. In each of these stories, we meet women who play a minor role, but are deeply affected by their connections to these three events. These women are the focus of the second half of the novel.

Frederick Douglass

Insights and Opinions

• All agreed that the way the stories overlap and intertwine is powerful, frustrating, rewarding, and heartfelt. The question was posed "is this a new trend?" More and more frequently, we find novels that do not follow the traditional novel arc, with a beginning, middle, and end. Rather, more of today's authors are playing with structure in fiction, knitting together short stories or novellas that share characters, or unplugging stories from their chronology, and stitching them together in a new order.

• At least one of us found the work frustrating for exactly this reason. McCann creates such engaging characters -- people who live and breathe and in whom we are completely invested -- that it's jarring to leave them and move on to somebody else. Any one of these characters could have been the book. We all wanted more time with each of them.

• The Alcock/Brown transatlantic flight chapter is astonishing. Joanne felt this chapter held more energy and commitment from the author than any other chapter in the book. On the other hand, she found the George Mitchell section less engaging.

• McCann's prose is masterful. Powerful sentence fragments. Images that transport. A rhythm to the words that is nearly music. This is beautiful writing -- the perfect gathering of words.

• Vicky pointed out (via email) McCann's ability to clothe historical events in an urgency that makes them seem as if they are happening as we read them. She characterizes him as "a smooth and generous writer."

• At least one of us was hopelessly confused about the letter and why Hannah thought it had anything to do with Frederick Douglass. But since this same person spent one sleepless night trying to reconstruct the chronology of the women and to figure out who was related to whom while flopping about sleeplessly, she should just be ignored as she should have taken notes while reading.

• Hannah is the only voice in the first person. Why is this?

• We spent some time trying to decide what was at the center of the book. Crossings? The women? Certainly not the big events or the great men. Maybe there is no center. Maybe that's fine.

• As a related follow-up, try this article provided by Margy, which seems to confirm our observations about the emergence of a hybrid form of literature, and traces its literary history:

The Rise of the Fragmented Novel

Oddments and Telling Details

• He-man Steve gets a major award for riding his bike to book club in the stifling humidity. Most likely his enthusiasm was due to meeting his August 1 book deadline for Mastering the Craft of Writing: How to Write with Clarity, Emphasis, and Style to be published next spring. Buy it, please.

• We are out of books to read for future meetings, so please come prepared to our next meeting with your suggestions, or feel free to send them ahead of time. The current list of possibles is listed in Under Consideration.

• Mmmm. Cucumber sandwiches.