Some suggestions...See links.
Corydon by Andre Gide
Essays and a Writer's Guide by Phillip Lopate
Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett
The Tennis Partner by Abraham Verghese
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout
Send more....Add to comments section below.
.jpeg)
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Summer Time Reading
Some suggestions...See links.
Corydon by Andre Gide
Essays and a Writer's Guide by Phillip Lopate
Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett
The Tennis Partner by Abraham Verghese
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout
Send more....Add to comments section below.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Sense of an Ending: Discussion
Can you like a book about a fundamentally unlikable main character? Yes! No! That's what it boiled down to. No middle of the road wishy-washy mehs. Two readers said that Tony, the flawed main character, made it difficult for them to care enough to keep reading although they valiantly did. Others thanked the sponsor (me) for recommending the book. (A first for this blogger --me-- I believe.)
What kept me engrossed was not the hope that Tony would change...would finally get it and immerse himself in life; although that hope was there. It was the desire to "get" what Tony did not get until the very end of the book. And what the reader finally realizes after rereading and rereading is that it is just as futile to chase the truth in this book as it is in real life. As Barnes points out --our memories are filtered and distorted by our need to invent our own story. (Only more eloquently and powerfully.) And the lack of corroborating witnesses. And the very nature of remembering.
The discussion on memories brought up research on how memory works--the brain stores parts of memories in different sections divided by sense--thus memory of smell, sight, feel, ...and so on...are separate not "whole". How reliable is that? One b.g. member talked about a reunion of her sisters brought about a discussion of an event that they all witnessed/took part in. All remembered it differently.
Despite the realization that we can't really know the whole story of Tony, we tried to piece it together. Folly? (What is the real mystery we are all trying to answer? The story of our parents and their parents? How did the universe begin? ) The following big space is giving you an opportunity to avoid the spoiler discussion, (there is a twist at the end) read the book, and return.
Spoiler Alert
Hypotheses:
Why blood money? Veronica's mother left Tony 500 pounds because she felt guilty for helping to break up the couple. Sara tried to seduce Tony, he was clueless, and thus Sara talked against him. She wanted fresh boyfriends brought home to try for. Veronica going against her parent/rival gave one last try to keep Tony by seducing him. When Tony rejected her, she chose Adrian. A rebound choice that boomeranged tragically.
Another point of view on this question expressed after most of the group left for home...Veronica used the term blood money...to get back at Tony. For Veronica did love Tony and Tony loved her. Why else the strongly worded letter? And he threw their chance at happiness away. Sara's leaving the money may not at all have been an act of contrition for her; just a token?
Just as the meeting ended a new thread ...
Maybe this book is about good and evil. Tony or Anthony is named for the saint who finds/searches for lost things and people. Veronica had the cloth with Jesus's face printed on it...(the cloth a shadow of the truth -- a page of the diary?) Does that make Adrian Christ? There is a Saint Adrian...who was royalty from Hungary and killed by Vikings. Veronica is also Mary...explaining why she was a "second" mother to her brother. Why she never married. (Or did she?)
Futile. Stop. Now.
Third and Final draft.
What kept me engrossed was not the hope that Tony would change...would finally get it and immerse himself in life; although that hope was there. It was the desire to "get" what Tony did not get until the very end of the book. And what the reader finally realizes after rereading and rereading is that it is just as futile to chase the truth in this book as it is in real life. As Barnes points out --our memories are filtered and distorted by our need to invent our own story. (Only more eloquently and powerfully.) And the lack of corroborating witnesses. And the very nature of remembering.
The discussion on memories brought up research on how memory works--the brain stores parts of memories in different sections divided by sense--thus memory of smell, sight, feel, ...and so on...are separate not "whole". How reliable is that? One b.g. member talked about a reunion of her sisters brought about a discussion of an event that they all witnessed/took part in. All remembered it differently.
Despite the realization that we can't really know the whole story of Tony, we tried to piece it together. Folly? (What is the real mystery we are all trying to answer? The story of our parents and their parents? How did the universe begin? ) The following big space is giving you an opportunity to avoid the spoiler discussion, (there is a twist at the end) read the book, and return.
Spoiler Alert
Hypotheses:
Why blood money? Veronica's mother left Tony 500 pounds because she felt guilty for helping to break up the couple. Sara tried to seduce Tony, he was clueless, and thus Sara talked against him. She wanted fresh boyfriends brought home to try for. Veronica going against her parent/rival gave one last try to keep Tony by seducing him. When Tony rejected her, she chose Adrian. A rebound choice that boomeranged tragically.
Another point of view on this question expressed after most of the group left for home...Veronica used the term blood money...to get back at Tony. For Veronica did love Tony and Tony loved her. Why else the strongly worded letter? And he threw their chance at happiness away. Sara's leaving the money may not at all have been an act of contrition for her; just a token?
Just as the meeting ended a new thread ...
Maybe this book is about good and evil. Tony or Anthony is named for the saint who finds/searches for lost things and people. Veronica had the cloth with Jesus's face printed on it...(the cloth a shadow of the truth -- a page of the diary?) Does that make Adrian Christ? There is a Saint Adrian...who was royalty from Hungary and killed by Vikings. Veronica is also Mary...explaining why she was a "second" mother to her brother. Why she never married. (Or did she?)
Futile. Stop. Now.
Third and Final draft.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Next Book: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
New York Times Review
Huffington Post Review
Guardian Review
Julian Barnes Bio
NPR interview
Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t. I’m not surprised some people prefer books. — JULIAN BARNES
Discussion Board
Friday, May 31, 2013
Man From Saigon: Is it a Woman?
A popular book that kept everyone intrigued...except for one b.g. member. Not a great book...but a solid read was the majority opinion. Well researched and crafted. A book whose images served to bring us back to the 60's and 70's.
The Man From Saigon reminded us the war that help to destroy a president and briefly empowered a generation (ours) did not change our country as fundamentally as we once believed it had. Tragically, the war built on lies and domino theories and paranoia did not prevent us from becoming embroiled in a war built on lies and paranoid fears about terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. Did not prevent us from years and years of brutalization of a people--"innocent" and "guilty". Of fighting an enemy whose shape shifting led to mistrust of a whole race. "Gooks" --"Towelheads"... The parallels make this book relevant for us now.
We all commented on the one thing that has changed. Even in this day of ubiquitous screens, the images of the war are no longer bombarding our senses day after day. So we tolerate the unseen far away. We tolerate the drones. We feel safe as we create new generations full of anger at our country.
Vietnam is now a nation that welcomes American tourists...some of our b.g. members have visited. Will that be true in Afghanistan? Iraq?
.........
The book tells the story from the point of view of an embedded female magazine reporter, her Vietnamese photographer, Son, and TV news reporter. It is a love story--a triangle of sorts--that is intriguing and moving. You care.
One member wanted to discuss the choppiness of the structure--the back and forth from present to past. The very feature that disturbed the above mentioned dissenting b.g. member. (To be fair, she was reading quickly to finish in time...perhaps that was what was disturbing.)
After the meeting I read a review that says the choppiness was deliberate and intended to build tension and to mirror how a person in a perilous situation would actually think...constantly being jerked back into reality of mortal danger after drifting back into heightened memories of the past.
Another member, this blogger, was bothered that Son, the photographer, was the inscrutable Asian. An "Oriental" whose true self was hidden from westerners. Was he the man from Saigon or the man from Hanoi?
But he also is a character that you care about ... You want him to survive. You want him to find happiness and love. You want him to find peace in the Vietnam of his picture map--of natural beauty.
Read it. Comment.
The Man From Saigon reminded us the war that help to destroy a president and briefly empowered a generation (ours) did not change our country as fundamentally as we once believed it had. Tragically, the war built on lies and domino theories and paranoia did not prevent us from becoming embroiled in a war built on lies and paranoid fears about terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. Did not prevent us from years and years of brutalization of a people--"innocent" and "guilty". Of fighting an enemy whose shape shifting led to mistrust of a whole race. "Gooks" --"Towelheads"... The parallels make this book relevant for us now.
We all commented on the one thing that has changed. Even in this day of ubiquitous screens, the images of the war are no longer bombarding our senses day after day. So we tolerate the unseen far away. We tolerate the drones. We feel safe as we create new generations full of anger at our country.
Vietnam is now a nation that welcomes American tourists...some of our b.g. members have visited. Will that be true in Afghanistan? Iraq?
.........
The book tells the story from the point of view of an embedded female magazine reporter, her Vietnamese photographer, Son, and TV news reporter. It is a love story--a triangle of sorts--that is intriguing and moving. You care.
One member wanted to discuss the choppiness of the structure--the back and forth from present to past. The very feature that disturbed the above mentioned dissenting b.g. member. (To be fair, she was reading quickly to finish in time...perhaps that was what was disturbing.)
After the meeting I read a review that says the choppiness was deliberate and intended to build tension and to mirror how a person in a perilous situation would actually think...constantly being jerked back into reality of mortal danger after drifting back into heightened memories of the past.
Another member, this blogger, was bothered that Son, the photographer, was the inscrutable Asian. An "Oriental" whose true self was hidden from westerners. Was he the man from Saigon or the man from Hanoi?
But he also is a character that you care about ... You want him to survive. You want him to find happiness and love. You want him to find peace in the Vietnam of his picture map--of natural beauty.
Read it. Comment.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Sunday, April 21, 2013
The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News Discussion NOTES
Last month rave reviews. This month...lots of raving...but not all positive.
Opinions ranged from {paraphrased despite the quotation marks}:
--"I savored each part of the book wanting to enjoy every moment. I felt the way that I did when I first discovered Jane Austin." to...
--"I did not want to read the book...it was too awful, too dark." prefaced by: "Your reactions to a book are always determined by where you are in your life emotionally and could change if you picked up the book at another time." In fact that has happened to the member expressing this opinion more than once. But from the look of sheer disgust on her face, I doubt that she will ever pick this book up again.
"How can you want to read a book when you care for none of the characters?" To many in the group, not even the child victim Patrick is sympathetic. So they are certainly not going to find the grown-up Patrick appealing. After all, he looks at the world through nearly the same distorted lens as his father did--although on the surface he is kinder. And he has a profound understanding of his behavior.
In Never Mind -- no one never ever minded small Patrick?--one parents' neglect and the others' abuse are truly horrifying. But for some the dark humor, the marvelous insights into the British upper class society, the punishment of the abuser...make it all bearable and more than that --even eminently readable.
We meet the characters one by one and then watch the strong eviscerate the weak at a formal dinner. Parallels to Downton Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Upstairs Downstairs with just a dark, dark, dark slant.
In Bad News--not clear that a single human feels that the news is bad--we are caught up in Patricks' s search for oblivion through drugs as a way of getting beyond the bad news that has filled his life up until then.
A few members had read beyond the first two novellas and onto Some Hope and Mother's Milk. They report that Patrick's struggles do become a little wearying by book four.
It's clear that some of us will not be continuing on (maybe even placing their copy of the book on the stoop? or the recycling bin?) and a few others (about 25%?) will gladly continue to immerse themselves in the Patrick Melrose saga. Even purchasing the latest novella: At Last. .
Opinions ranged from {paraphrased despite the quotation marks}:
--"I savored each part of the book wanting to enjoy every moment. I felt the way that I did when I first discovered Jane Austin." to...
--"I did not want to read the book...it was too awful, too dark." prefaced by: "Your reactions to a book are always determined by where you are in your life emotionally and could change if you picked up the book at another time." In fact that has happened to the member expressing this opinion more than once. But from the look of sheer disgust on her face, I doubt that she will ever pick this book up again.
"How can you want to read a book when you care for none of the characters?" To many in the group, not even the child victim Patrick is sympathetic. So they are certainly not going to find the grown-up Patrick appealing. After all, he looks at the world through nearly the same distorted lens as his father did--although on the surface he is kinder. And he has a profound understanding of his behavior.
In Never Mind -- no one never ever minded small Patrick?--one parents' neglect and the others' abuse are truly horrifying. But for some the dark humor, the marvelous insights into the British upper class society, the punishment of the abuser...make it all bearable and more than that --even eminently readable.
We meet the characters one by one and then watch the strong eviscerate the weak at a formal dinner. Parallels to Downton Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Upstairs Downstairs with just a dark, dark, dark slant.
In Bad News--not clear that a single human feels that the news is bad--we are caught up in Patricks' s search for oblivion through drugs as a way of getting beyond the bad news that has filled his life up until then.
A few members had read beyond the first two novellas and onto Some Hope and Mother's Milk. They report that Patrick's struggles do become a little wearying by book four.
It's clear that some of us will not be continuing on (maybe even placing their copy of the book on the stoop? or the recycling bin?) and a few others (about 25%?) will gladly continue to immerse themselves in the Patrick Melrose saga. Even purchasing the latest novella: At Last. .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)