All Passion Spent Review

All Passion Spent:  Review

Difficult to be host and post...I know there must be gaps...hard to keep up with the discussion as I brewed coffee, served the wine, drank a lot of wine, etc.  (One unstated rule, is that we have snacks and drinks at book group. Perhaps that rule has added to the group's longevity?)

Here are some disjointedly written and remembered statements.  (Please add to or correct sister book groupers.)

The sponsor of the book remembered her first reading of this novel.  In her youth the theme of women's right was powerful. Twenty odd years later the theme of aging struck her more deeply.

All agreed that it is still, today, more acceptable for men to live a self-fulfilling life...not to mention the contemplative, passionate, artistic life Lady Slane wanted to  have.  And that women, perhaps more than men,  conspire to keep each other in a narrowly defined role of wife and mother. Also mentioned was how privileged Lady Slane was to be able to regret in leisure,  her choice of marriage instead of art,  especially in contrast to her servant Genoux's regrets.

A number of members felt the characters were one-dimensional...in particular Lady Slane's children. On the other hand, a member talked about how moved she was by the Lady Slane's scenes with her great-granddaughter.  (An aside: This member, unable to purchase the book,  listened to the CD version read by a British actress, Wendy Hiller.  And loved the experience.)

The artists among us, felt that Lady Slane's pining for a  thwarted career as a painter  rang false.  I hope I get this right...to them an artist is a passionate person who cannot suppress the desire to create.  Lady Slane was fooling herself; she was regretting something that she probably would  have never achieved.   She had never even picked up a paint brush.  Other members, felt that her dream of being a painter was a metaphor for the human desire for passion, romance, finding a personal reason for living.  It didn't matter that she would be unable to paint...it is the freedom to pursue this dream, any dream, that would have made her happy.

Only after her husband died, did Lady Slane find "a room of her own." ...but she didn't paint in it...she spent time in it just being herself.  The sponsor read a poem by Vita Sackville West that reflects the author's need for a similar kind of space and time.  Here's the beginning of it...

Days I enjoy are days when nothing happens, 
When I have no engagements written on my block, 
When no one comes to disturb my inward peace, 
When no one comes to take me away from myself 
And turn me into a patchwork, a jig-saw puzzle, 
A broken mirror that once gave a whole reflection...

Wolf Hall Review

A long book, a small group, and a short discussion....

The sense was that people liked the book...but couldn't finish it in just three weeks. 

Not an easy book to read in short snatches...what with all of the Thomases, Lords, etc.  A book for leisurely vacation days. With time to check the historic events.  Much of the discussion compared historic events with events in Wolf Hall.  Broad historic outline syncs up with the novel.

Some comments:

Wolf Hall is a rebuttal of  A Man for All Seasons ... Cromwell is a modern, humanist hero who is a loving mentor and father; and a loyal straight-forward advisor to both Cardinal Wolsey and the King. 

Why did Mantel make Cromwell the hero? Does she identify with him? Here are some parallels...

Mantel says that at 12 she lost her religious faith.  Her Cromwell questions religious practices and beliefs such as purgatory.

Mantel was poor and raised in a small village which she is quoted as saying:" ...was a bleak place, dominated by gossip: harsh people in a harsh moorland landscape." Cromwell's childhood was bleak.

Mantel studied the law--as did Cromwell.

Both traveled the world...

Members enjoyed the humor and the language in Wolf Hall (there was a short discussion on anachronistic language...why did she use such modern English...but the thread was dropped.) Absent member was quoted as saying she loves Mantel... Definitely an author to explore further.

OH YES...

The Wolf Hall title comes from a Latin variation on the phrase dog eat dog world...the exact wording of which has slipped away ... there are many wolves ready to devour each other in Henry's kingdom.  And too,  from the name of  the manor home of Anne Boleyn's  replacement--Jane Seymour.

Great Books Review

Six members met last night to discuss David Denby's "Great Books: My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and the Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World."  The book's sponsor began by holding up Denby's two subsequent books--"American Sucker," in which Denby tries to make a killing in the stock market and gets clobbered and "Snark," which is about the low level of civic discourse.  Denby puts enough of his own story into his writing that "American Sucker," in particular, feels like a sequel to "Great Books."

We were fortunate that one of our group had done six years of graduate work and college teaching in philosophy.  She relished Denby's book and deepened our appreciation for it.  Another member, recently returned from Ethiopia, found that the Old Testament chapter reminded her of a way of life that still exists today.  

The rather small turnout and the fact that only half of those present finished the book suggests that it was a bit long and weighty for our group. 

Five out of six members felt,  however, that these classics are still relevant for today's college students.

Guest blogger:  BB

Overheard at a party celebrating a new pair of knees:

 If you are going to read any chapter read the chapter on  Shakespeare.   Denby writes about parallels between his mom and the character King Lear and reveals some memoir-like insights on his parents' influence on his life.