BBC's Best 21st Century Novels
Here is a link to our book group discussion on a few of the titles...
A Visit From the Goon Squad: Discussion Notes
Wolf Hall
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Visitation Street: Discussion
Ivy Pochoda's Red Hook mystery was well liked by a few members. Others found its characters too unrealistically good to be "great" literature. Much of the discussion has disappeared from this blogger's memory...a winter virus having wiped out any ambition to do anything especially anything involving thinking. When low and behold, BB, sent her piece on Visitation Street and its possible meaning. (The author could have named her book after another gentrified street: Pioneer Street, let's say.)
Thanks B.B.
Thanks B.B.
Visitation Street: we didn’t talk about the title. There is a Visitation Street and a Visitation Church in Red Hook. In the book, the church The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is mentioned so frequently that I think the reader is supposed to make something of it. In Luke’s gospel The Visitation is the story of Mary, pregnant with Jesus, hastening to the hill country to greet her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, whose baby leaps in her womb at Mary’s greeting. So, maybe it’s by design that the novel begins with two girls of similar background, Val and June, and that near the end we see two girls, Val and Monique, who represent two sides of a divide. And maybe we’re to see that hope for a more fruitful, united future lies within these two and others of their generation whom they represent.
When I raised this connection to DR, she thought it likely, but thought also that visitations referred to Marcus and June, an obvious connection that had totally escaped me.
Nevertheless, the book group discussion was rich and enjoyable.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Stephen King Discussion
I didn't attend the meeting. And although, L.C. gave a detailed report...it had a lot of info about the author's life and notes on themes. (See Below.) .I didn't get what I wanted to find out..and that is..
How did our members feel about Stephen King as a writer...was his work equal to other writings we have read as a group? Do we think King is a great writer of "pulp" fiction? Or a writer whose works should be taken more seriously? How many of us think his books will become enduring American literature? Did his stories foment a discussion? Did his themes and subjects strike an emotional chord?
We often gravitate to the highbrow choices...is this lowbrow to me just because they are so popular? Is there something in his work that even the most elite "highbrow" (not me) might benefit from? I have an unformed opinion and would have loved to hear from others. (I am easily influenced.)
Hope someone responds.
And someone did...B.B. Here are her comments:
His life:
His father ran off when he was 2 years old and he was raised by his mother and her relatives. He is very unpretentious and a sweet man. His mother had 'low class' jobs. He had an older brother. He lived in Maine and met his wife, Tabatha, at the university of Maine. She was a poet.
He had a teaching job and that left him the summer to write. He wrote Carrie as short story and then increased it to a novel; then a movie. He was paid $400,000.
Later, SK was addicted to alcohol and drugs. Tabatha invited everyone she knew over and she took out his bottles and his syringes and told him, "Please, this is unacceptable". SK went into rehab. It may have affected the writing of Misery. Tabatha said, 'you have to write' SK goes into his studio and turns on his stereo, very loud. He doesn't like giving autographs. He has a website where he sells shirts and the money goes to charity. He wrote the Shining and someone said that he makes references to the shining in all of his pieces.
In 1982 he wrote Shawshank Redemption and Apt Pupil. One goes up and the other down.
We got around to discussing evil and good. We decided that the Shawshank Redemption was two men on their way to redemption, and in the Apt Pupil, was a student and a man who are led down the path to evil. D. said 'evil is an addiction'. Apt Pupil discusses Todd's private life. Todd tries to escape evil sexually, but it doesn't work for him. Todd gives in to all his impulses.
His father is having an affair with his secretary. His mom is concerned about him, but his father writes it off. Another name for the title is "Summer of Corruption'.
SK had trouble with the movie, 'The Shining' as the movie is very different from the book. He has a way of writing the story with a number of views, someone said, I think it was D., that he did that in some paragraphs. We discussed that Alice McDermott and Virginia Wolfe do that. B.B. said he always tells stories with messages. J. said 'other wages of sin are death'.
We also discusses ,Thinner' a man who is distracted who inadvertently kills a man crossing the street and a gypsy woman told him that he's going to get thinner and thinner, which he does. After that we discussed the food coop, Sony and Cuba. And that's it, except for the parts I had to leave out.
How did our members feel about Stephen King as a writer...was his work equal to other writings we have read as a group? Do we think King is a great writer of "pulp" fiction? Or a writer whose works should be taken more seriously? How many of us think his books will become enduring American literature? Did his stories foment a discussion? Did his themes and subjects strike an emotional chord?
We often gravitate to the highbrow choices...is this lowbrow to me just because they are so popular? Is there something in his work that even the most elite "highbrow" (not me) might benefit from? I have an unformed opinion and would have loved to hear from others. (I am easily influenced.)
Hope someone responds.
And someone did...B.B. Here are her comments:
It was a good discussion. Only eight present; so a feeling of intimacy
and equally shared, unhurried conversation prevailed. Since time has
passed, my comments here may reflect more my own ideas than the
group’s. Both stories are morality plays of a sort. The first,
“Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” is about the
virtues of faith, hope and love. Indeed, the title of the section is
“Hope Springs Eternal.” In the dehumanizing world of prison, Andy
maintains faith in himself and the hope of escape. Once he is free,
he reaches back in love to Red, leaving a trail for his friend to
follow. Red is so diminished by his years in prison that he’s
barely able to cope on the outside. What redeems him is the love Andy
shows him. The story ends with Red setting out in faith and hope to
start a new, good life.
The
second story, “Apt Pupil,” has the section title “Summer of
Corruption.” Here we see a bond between two males that is mutually
destructive. This morality play is about evil and how evil corrupts.
The boy Todd dabbles in evil, eventually becoming evil. He stirs up
quiescent evil in Dussander, the old Nazi. Love redeems; evil
corrupts.
Although
the discussion was lively, we all, even GT, the sponsor of the
book—who was sold on King’s writing memoir, greatly admiring his
dedication to his craft and to his wife—said we wouldn’t care to
read any more Stephen King in a hurry, not even the next two in the
collection. The writing is masterful, but maybe morality plays
aren’t our thing. Maybe we prefer less clear-cut themes, more
character-driven stories with nuanced characters we can identify
with or who help us understand real people in our lives. King’s
characters seem to exist to work out his ideas.
And,
yet, I don’t want to dismiss King. He’ll always have an audience.
I think maybe I would have enjoyed him more when I was younger. As
you’ve hinted at, BT, his is not the genre for women like us—of a
certain age and with decided tastes.
Notes:
L.'s Notes:
G. said "How nice Stephen King is". M. said he's crazy.His life:
His father ran off when he was 2 years old and he was raised by his mother and her relatives. He is very unpretentious and a sweet man. His mother had 'low class' jobs. He had an older brother. He lived in Maine and met his wife, Tabatha, at the university of Maine. She was a poet.
He had a teaching job and that left him the summer to write. He wrote Carrie as short story and then increased it to a novel; then a movie. He was paid $400,000.
Later, SK was addicted to alcohol and drugs. Tabatha invited everyone she knew over and she took out his bottles and his syringes and told him, "Please, this is unacceptable". SK went into rehab. It may have affected the writing of Misery. Tabatha said, 'you have to write' SK goes into his studio and turns on his stereo, very loud. He doesn't like giving autographs. He has a website where he sells shirts and the money goes to charity. He wrote the Shining and someone said that he makes references to the shining in all of his pieces.
In 1982 he wrote Shawshank Redemption and Apt Pupil. One goes up and the other down.
We got around to discussing evil and good. We decided that the Shawshank Redemption was two men on their way to redemption, and in the Apt Pupil, was a student and a man who are led down the path to evil. D. said 'evil is an addiction'. Apt Pupil discusses Todd's private life. Todd tries to escape evil sexually, but it doesn't work for him. Todd gives in to all his impulses.
His father is having an affair with his secretary. His mom is concerned about him, but his father writes it off. Another name for the title is "Summer of Corruption'.
SK had trouble with the movie, 'The Shining' as the movie is very different from the book. He has a way of writing the story with a number of views, someone said, I think it was D., that he did that in some paragraphs. We discussed that Alice McDermott and Virginia Wolfe do that. B.B. said he always tells stories with messages. J. said 'other wages of sin are death'.
We also discusses ,Thinner' a man who is distracted who inadvertently kills a man crossing the street and a gypsy woman told him that he's going to get thinner and thinner, which he does. After that we discussed the food coop, Sony and Cuba. And that's it, except for the parts I had to leave out.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Next Up: Stephen King Different Seasons
December 17th: First Two Stories
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
Apt Pupil
Read the other two as well if you have time...
Guardian Review
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
Apt Pupil
Read the other two as well if you have time...
Guardian Review
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Italian Shoes by Henning Mankell
Once you start analyzing a book in an objective way--does a book lose its power to move you?
When the sponsor of the book gave the background talk, it was clear that underlying the "text" she read, was the story of her formative year spent in Sweden--in the 1960s. How lucky to find a book that connects deeply with your personal history.
When the sponsor of the book gave the background talk, it was clear that underlying the "text" she read, was the story of her formative year spent in Sweden--in the 1960s. How lucky to find a book that connects deeply with your personal history.
Others enjoyed the book; but were able to point out flaws in this story about a man, Fredrik Wellin, who slowly and fitfully reawakens to life. Some felt that the second half of the book was implausible...two major events even disturbing and unnecessary. We compared Fredrik to Kurt Wallander, Mankell's detective, and enjoyed noticing how similar they are. And we enjoyed speculating about why the author seemed to be drawn to writing about men who live in self-imposed isolation.
We got intellectual satisfaction from uncovering a possible connection between Mankell's mother's abandonment of him and Mankell's creation of a character who despised his mother. (Oh...perhaps the abandonment of his first love...his deepest love...was the author's way of trying to come to grips with his own loss? his father's loss? Fredrik, the abandoner in this novel says: "There is no abandonment that can be excused or explained. So I said nothing.")
Connecting this character to Julian Barnes' Tony in A Sense of an Ending, was a heady discovery. And, also enjoyable was sharing some of the clever ways Mankell created his characters, for example: using a few sentences to sum up Wellin's two marriages.
We got intellectual satisfaction from uncovering a possible connection between Mankell's mother's abandonment of him and Mankell's creation of a character who despised his mother. (Oh...perhaps the abandonment of his first love...his deepest love...was the author's way of trying to come to grips with his own loss? his father's loss? Fredrik, the abandoner in this novel says: "There is no abandonment that can be excused or explained. So I said nothing.")
Connecting this character to Julian Barnes' Tony in A Sense of an Ending, was a heady discovery. And, also enjoyable was sharing some of the clever ways Mankell created his characters, for example: using a few sentences to sum up Wellin's two marriages.
A good, fun discussion and mental exercise...
But, how much better if we all could have relived moving memories...
Hmmm...
Hmmm...
Can anyone recommend a book set in Martha's Vineyard in the 1960s?
This comment from B.B.: In our discussion of "Italian Shoes," we forgot to talk of Caravaggio. The main character's daughter was very taken with the painter and mention of him kept coming into the story. He, I find in a history of art book, was an outsider and a rough sort whose paintings, as opposed to the fashionable ideal, were gritty and real--like Mankel's works?
Sunday, November 2, 2014
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