This Really is the Book Group Blog

Sorry to send you to the school blog.  Google keeps switching accounts.  So...first book is Ways to Disappear and first meeting is October 24, 2018.

New York Journal of Books Review

Someone by Alice McDermott

Loved by all at the meeting, this small book about small lives touches on universal themes of family, faith, loneliness, identity, and love. Beautiful writing.  Touching moments.  Humor.  Insightful descriptions.   In short: Read It!

Don't believe us?  Read this review: 

Mesmerizes

It's been a long time...Look for a post shortly...

Shortly has been over a year and a half.  But we are back on line.  Hoping that members help add to entries.  

First meeting date of 2018 to 2019:  September 26th at the usual Sixth Street Home.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante: Discussion Notes

Mystery Solved?

Our usual biographical intro was quite brief...no one knows for sure who Elena Ferrante is.  She has said that she wants her books to stand on their own...not to be muddled by her real identity and biography. Some did not like the fact that someone tried to "out" her.  See link above.

Members listed authors whose true nature did impact their reading.  (Can't think of one.  Salinger?) Best  not to know and get absorbed in the writing.

One member read the 4 books out of order...she read Book 3 first.  Interesting that she did not feel order mattered.  Although she was confused by names. (Thus the list of characters in the front of each novel.)

One was pointed out that Lenu's mother, makes it possible for Lenu to advance beyond what is expected.  Will Lenu realize that as she ages?  

Another pointed out that the men do not come across very well.  At least not yet.  Will there be a mostly positive male  appearing?

Another mentioned that the complexity of friendship--with its ebb and flow from love to envy to emulation back to love--was beautifully portrayed.

Many have already read all four novels in the series.  Others are on their way.  

Next up:  Russell Banks The Darling

MISLAID by Nell Zink: Discussion Notes

Waited way too long to post the comments.  Since I left my copy home, couldn't keep notes in the margin. Perhaps the borders of my brain have retained some marginalia.  So here goes:

The quirky novel satirizes the American south of the 1960's.  Including:  Its view of race.  Attitudes towards gender and sexual identity. Traditional gender roles. The institution of marriage. The literary world of professors, celebrity poets and poetry critics. Zink, who now lives in Germany, has abandoned the America that she grew up in.  She said in an interview that from afar America feels like a third world country like Brazil. Thus the harsh humor?

Also Zink was married to a poet for a time. Could that be way she included this description about one celebrity poet?

"One of them brought along a Ouija board and let spirits write his poems." [page 18]

Just one sentence out of a whole passage of devastatingly hilarious comments.



Much to the joy of the sponsor, me, the novel was well received.  This novel...similar in structure to a Shakespeare comedy--has characters switch races and sexual roles, disappear for a while, and then reconnect to make a happy ending. It was a good amusing read for all (or most.)  Even non-attendees liked it...they weren't avoiding the discussion!  Surprising to me, because my quick reread made me sorry I recommended the book.   I realized that it is not a book to skim; the plot is not what it is about. Enjoy it slowly.  Savor the humor.

And once again, a popular book, made for a shorter discussion.  T---p dominated the discussion. I will not spell out his name.  Perhaps we are a third world country as Zink suggests.

Next Up:

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

BB Comment on Signature of All Things

"At book group, K, you said you thought the cave scene in “Signature” was silly. Since you missed the discussion, I want to point out that that scene completed a relationship of three’s of which there are at least three in the novel—the three young women; Alma, her husband and the "caveman;" and the three scientists. It seems to take three people, a trinity of sorts, to complete relationships, at least for this main character. Both she and the “cave man” loved the same man, and the cave sex scene completed and fulfilled Alma. “Signature” is constructed along the lines of an old fashioned novel, very artfully patterned.  “Mislaid,” on the other hand, seems purposely unstructured. "

Link to earlier post:

Brooklyn By the Book Event sent by LFC

Event

Brooklyn By the Book presents Jonathan Safran Foer

"Here I Am" is the monumental new novel from Jonathan Safran Foer. Unfolding over four tumultuous weeks, in present-day Washington, D.C., "Here I Am" is the story of a fracturing family in a moment of crisis. As Jacob and Julia and their three sons are forced to confront the distances between the lives they think they want and the lives they are living, a catastrophic earthquake sets in motion a quickly escalating conflict in the Middle East. Showcasing the same high-energy inventiveness, hilarious irreverence, and emotional urgency that readers and critics loved in his earlier work, "Here I Am" is Foers most searching, hard-hitting, and grandly entertaining novel yet.

This program will take place at Congregation Beth Elohim. General admission is $10; CBE/BPL-member admission is $7. Tickets may be used for a $7 discount on (1) copy of "Here I Am" on the night of the program. Book Bundles come with free admission. All books available for pickup or purchase at the program.

Please print tickets or have them available on your mobile device for faster admission. Doors at 7pm.

Brooklyn By the Book is a collaboration between the Brooklyn Public Library, Community Bookstore, and Congregation Beth Elohim.


Link to purchase tickets:

Jonathan Safran Foer