SixthStreetBookGroup

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Elena Ferrante: A Fan?

Listen to her translator speak with Leonard Lopate.
R.K.sent the following link:

Information on Leonard Lopate Broadcast...

Signature of All Things: Discussion

A novel in the style of Dickens, fittingly so as it took place in the 1800's, brought us all together in agreement: A really enjoyable book. Including G! (Although there was a moment when she almost talked herself out of liking it..)

Linear with a plot that chugged along, years flew by...written off in a sentence--Signature of All Things was a welcome change from last month's book. No time switching, no spiraling around to get to the truth...just a steady trip forward from point A to point B.
However, members commented: Characters were flat, one dimensional--like the ones that people Dickens' novels.

Some comments not heard: Blogger had not finished book.
Sexual stuff felt forced and anachronistic. Agree?
Character went on her own journey filled with Food, Love, and Spirituality similar to author's journey in Eat, Pray, Love?

How are evolution and altruism compatible? Here is a link if you want to read up on it.

Next month: My recommendation is up. Yikes.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Next Up: The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

March 16, 2016

NPR review

A Perfect Spy...Discussion

Thanks to B.B. here are notes on discussion:

Eight of us met on a dark and stormy night to discuss the perfectly marvelous A Perfect Spy. Our sponsor gave a rundown of John Le Carre aka John Cornwall’s life--important as this book is considered his most autobiographical. She also provided a link to an interview with the author.

John Le Carre Website

Those of us who haven’t read A Perfect Spy for a second time are about to. It’s so dense, so layered, so beautifully written that a second read is an enhanced experience of the first. The psychologist in the group said that Magnus spends his whole life seeking what his parents had failed to give him and that that’s a doomed endeavor for anyone. Tom, the beloved 12-year-old son of Magnus and Mary, is the hope for the future. Rick, Magnus’s father, we decided, fits the definition of a sociopath, but not Magnus himself because that shape-shifter at least possesses a conscience. No one except Tom is an innocent here, including Mary, and yet our heart goes out to her because, although her marriage was engineered, she loves her family—not only Tom but also Magnus, whom she has come to view not as a cover but as her husband. We thought this more of a psychological novel than a spy story. It’s only in the last 150 of the 600 pages that a chase sets in.

Several members emailed that they couldn’t attend because they hadn’t read enough of the book. This is not a book the reader can breeze through. Some of us tried to skim through a second time and found that we had to read word for word all over again. And it’s worth it!

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Off Shore by Penelope Fitzgerald: Discussion Notes

A tragic farce whose dark humor found fans among the book club members. The book didn't engage some readers at first; it took a while to be drawn into the various characters' stories, And sometimes unlabeled dialogue required some rereading to figure out who said what to whom. The implausibly precocious children--could they really have the insights that they did--was another flaw for some. But overall, the story of the dysfunctional group of Thames houseboat dwellers in the early 1960s appealed to readers.

Image result for offshore fitzgerald review

Other books by Fitzgerald were recommended even more highly by the sponsor and others.

Two mentioned include:

The Blue Flower

Human Voices

Why Off Shore then? The sponsor picked it because it won The Booker Prize! Shouldn't the prize givers know best??? Will be checking out her other work!

What struck me and (perhaps others) was that the author didn't start writing until she was in her 60's. Giving hope to me (and others?) that it wasn't too late to write a novel or in one member's case--a second novel? (Although, I'm closer to 70 than 60.) Is all of that critical thinking about books a way to channel that writing bug? Stop blogging and start novelizing. Now.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

The True History of the Kelly Gang: Discussion Notes

Ten of us gathered to discuss The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. One member worked on the scarf she’s knitting for her daughter for Christmas. Because of the scarf, she hadn’t finished the book—although her husband had read aloud a portion as she knit. From the book’s sponsor, we learned that Ned Kelly was a real person who really did fabricate for himself and his gang the armor that explains why Australia players donned armor in the recent Olympics. Ned Kelly divides Aussies into those who revere him and those who despise him. Peter Carey, a native Australian, was living in New York when he attended a showing of artwork featuring Kelly. Influenced by the writings of Faulkner, Joyce, and a 58-page account written by Kelly himself, Carey sets out in this novel to tell the story from Ned’s point of view. The author grew up in a region where people talked like Kelly, which may explain his ability to relate almost the entire story in an ungrammatical, yet—most of us felt—lyrical and colorful voice. Our sponsor then played for us a rendering of Mick Jagger singing in the persona of Ned Kelly.

We found Ned’s childhood the most affecting part of the story. In an Oedipal element, he bears some responsibility at the age of 12 for his father’s death, and he forges such a strong bond with his mother, Ellen, that others accuse him of acting as though he were her lover. Ellen, is a strong and well-drawn character, who helps and hurts her son in equal measure. From her, he learns the old Irish stories. Family love and loyalty persist in the onslaught of prejudice, governmental injustice, and the pursuit by crooked men of the beautiful but what we would today label woefully codependent Ellen.

In his devotion to family, his work ethic, and his skills, Ned has the makings of an upstanding citizen. Because his mother apprentices him in his early teens to a robber, however, his short life consists instead of aiding and abetting, serving prison sentences, committing murder, living on the run, robbing banks, and hanging by the neck until dead. Knowing this fate from the beginning doesn’t ruin the novel’s suspense. There are plenty of twists and much humor in this dark tale—and much noble behavior on the part of outlaws.

Our discussion turned to the “outlaws” in our own country and around the world, some of whom have had no more opportunity than Ned Kelly to live respectable lives. At evening’s end, a couple of members noted that the knitter wasn’t make much progress and, given the rapid approach of Christmas, suggested a faster method. The knitter explained, however, that since this was the only way she knew, she would just have to carry on as she had begun. Sort of like poor Ned Kelly.

B.B.