Set in Germany, Saviors In The Night (Unter Bauern) and the documenatary Human Failure (Menschliches Versagen), reviewed at 2010 New York Jewish Film Festival, cover related issues of hidden children and appropriated property.
Desai, Kiran, (Indian) The Inheritance of Loss, 2006, 384 pages (Man Booker Prize winner) (Were there any sympathetic characters in this depressing but still cynically entertaining examination of a deluded, inter-connected, sweeping ensemble of generations and national identities in post-colonialism/pre-capitalism-boom in a mid-1980’s India Himalayan backwater?) (4/10/2007)
____________, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, 1998, 209 pages (One dissenter thought the author was nasty and condescending, but the rest enjoyed a fun satirical romp through the foibles of human nature, with particular jabs at foolishness unique to an Indian culture not comfortable with self-deprecation.) (2/4/2008)
Diaz, Junot (Dominican-American), The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, 2007, 352 pages (Other than some frustration at only being able to infer the meanings of the extensive Spanish vernacular (vs. other people who might not get the Lord of the Rings and other sci fi references), we all loved the creative language that vividly alternated generational and gendered points of view of the Trujillo dictatorship and its impact on DR culture at home and in the U.S. FYI Diaz added incidents in the lives of the colorful characters in other short stories.) (11/17/2008)
Dorris, Michael, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (Quite a sympathetic view of a pedophile) (3/4/1997)
Doyle, Roddy (Irish), Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha
Dufresne, John, Louisiana Power and Light, 1995, 306 pages (A light read that's either parodying or playing on Faulknerian Southern stereotypes.)(2/26/2002)
Dunn, Katherine, Geek Love (Bring a strong stomach.) (8/1995)
Dunne, John Gregory, Nothing Lost, 2004, 352 pages (A fast read, obvious social and political satire, like imitation Tom Wolfe/T.C. Boyle, with one-dimensional characters, though there was an amusing theme of double-ness in names and secrets as the one genuine human connection brings down the whole media-fueled house of cards.) (6/6/2006)
Erdrich, Louise, The Master Butchers Singing Club , 2003, 416 pages (A good-read family saga of a literarily neglected ethnic viewpoint, rural German-Americans from WWI to WWII, but we think the reaching for further symbolism with something about underground, symbolic character names, twinning relationships, let alone bringing in links to Native Americans, were too-deep stretches that didn't quite work.) (11/8/2005)
Eugenides, Jeffrey, Middlesex, 2002, 529 pages (A lively discussion of nature vs. nurture in gender identity and a disagreement about the implications of the main character's choices but all loved the humorously epic portrait of a Greek immigrant family battling the culture wars of the 20th century from Asia Minor to Detroit and San Francisco) (1/6/2004) (Note – we read it before it was an Oprah Book Club selection!)
Faulkner, William, The Sound and the Fury (can't remember the date but we read it way before Oprah!)
Fitzgerald, Penelope, The Blue Flower, 1997, 225 pages (If you really care to read a weak Austenesque satire of the German aristocracy at the close of the 18th century based on real people) (7/6/1999)
Ford, Richard, The Sportswriter, 1995, 375 pages (Another in the genre of Alienated Guy Book, but which generated a lot of discussion as to the author's vs. the lead character's viewpoints. More of the same in the award-winning sequel Independence Day but he is neatly portrayed more sympathetically through key commissions and omissions.) (9/14/1999)
Foer, Jonathan Safran, Everything Is Illuminated , 2002, 276 pages (A majority thought it was one of the best reads of the year and a good locus for discussion, as each person had made a different connection or had a different confusion worth elucidation. While the book starts out as comic magic realism in the tradition of I.B. Singer, that innocuous base turns out to have important clues towards an intense exploration of memory, guilt and responsibility pre, during and post-Holocaust, family and American-Ukrainian-Jewish relations through a tour de force of language and imagination. It was made particularly poignant for the group as there were dramatic parallels with the experiences of a member, Tamar Rogoff, Guggenheim Fellow, who choreographed a dance piece The Ivye Project in Belarus around some similar themes.) (4/15/2004) My review of the movie.
Franzen, Jonathan, The Corrections, 2001, 560 pages (A rollicking social satire through a complicated ensemble of characters, but some of us thought it more significant as an attack on the downfall of patriarchy rather than just a funny skewering of the New Economy) (1/7/2003)
Frasier, Charles, Cold Mountain , 1998, 449 pages (A Civil War "Odyssey" through the Appalachians, with a too superman and too superwoman characters, the picaresque travels through the back country of an anarchic society destroyed by a war irrelevant to them, is nevertheless fascinating-- an entertaining and symbolic page-turner.) (6/19/2001) My movie review
Fuentes, Carlos, The Old Gringo , 1985, 208 pages (Not knowing much about the Mexican Revolution or Ambrose Bierce we're sure that some of the myth debunking passed us by, but the symbolism led to much discussion and rereading of passages.) (6/19/2001)
Gaines, Ernest J., A Lesson Before Dying, 1997, 256 pages (An apropos book to read before McVeigh's execution, a compact revelation of a specific time and place that provoked a lot of discussion about who learned what lesson) (5/7/2001)
Garcia, Cristina, Dreaming In Cuban
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel, Love in the Time of Cholera, 348 pages (A classic that we've used as a base of comparison with other books)
Goldberg, Myla, Bee Season, 2001, 288 pages (While a few felt the characters were more intellectual constructs than full-fledged people, all had a great discussion, including pointing out classic lines, about whether all of them were crazy -- and how much could be autobiographical as is usual with first novels) (My review of the movie.(1/22/2002)
Goldman, Francisco,The Ordinary Seaman, 1997, 387 pages (Recommended by John Sayles, some thought better as sociology of Central American emigrants than literature.)
Gordimer, Nadine, My Son's Story, 1991, 277 pages (Not great literature but interesting for South African perspectives) (8/9/1998)
______________, The Pickup, 2001, 288 pages (Our lively discussion focused on the ending – Credible? Permanent? Feminist? Just personal to the character?) (12/3/2007)
Greene, Graham, The End of the Affair, 192 pages (Mixed review, though it was more intriguing than the movie. We admired the writing style, but the atheists in the group balked at the believability of a central character choosing "falling in faith" over "falling in love.") (3/7/2000)(My review of the movie)
Grenville, Kate, (Australian), The Idea of Perfection, 2002, 402 pages (While most of the guys derided this as a chick book, most agreed it was a good read view of small town, middle-aged bush life from different interior perspectives, with different readers picking up different plot and character clues.) (2/6/2006)
Guterson, David, Snow Falling On Cedars ( My review of the movie)
____________, East of the Mountains, 1999, 304 pages (Most felt this was a thin, didactic tale such that our enjoyable discussion was about criticizing its superficiality and simplistic style.) (9/2003)
Habila, Helon (Nigerian), Measuring Time, 2007, 382 pages (Most thought the narrative style was flat storytelling, but we had a lively discussion about how much to extend this one family in a small village to a depressing window into Africa from pre-colonialism through the 1990’s.) (10/1/2007)
Haddon, Mark, The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, 2003, 240 pages, (Marvelous read and we were all impressed at the author's consistency in keeping the POV of an autistic teen and sympathy for characters caught in difficult situations, but the only discussion was about what emotional context means if you can't understand complex emotions.) (4/5/2005)
Hazzard, Shirley (Australian), Transit of Venus, 1980, 352 pages (Only two of us finished the book, the rest could barely make it to page 40 as they had zero interest in the tiresome characters, so we cancelled the session.) (3/1/2005)
______________________, The Great Fire, 2003, 288 pages in hardcover, 326 pages in paperback (The majority hooted that it read like a lost post-colonial Graham Greene retread from 1952.) (3/1/2010)
Heaney, Seamus (translator), Beowulf, 2000, 215 pages (Most of the group had to be reluctantly convinced to read this atypical for us selection, but the marvelous translation led to a lively discussion of what the three monsters represented, the pagan acts vs. the Christian poet's viewpoint as well as the roles of the other storytellers, and the tenets of valor in a warrior culture.)(12/7/2004) (My movie review)
Hegi, Ursula, Stones from the River, 1994, 525 pages (Mixed vote, down the middle)
Hijuelos, Oscar, Our House in the Last World (His first novel)
Hoban, Russell, Riddley Walker, originally published in 1980; 1998 edition published by Indiana University Press has useful glossary and afterword, 256 pages (A fascinating post-apocalyptic read and essential discussion -- tip, it helps to read tough but phonetic sentences out loud! -- that even though it comes out of 1970's Cold War/Anti-Nuke tensions still has powerfully provocative points about religion, politics, civilization, technology, violence, society, and the power of storytellers and artists. And something about dogs, but not much about women.) (7/5/2005)
Hoffman, Alice, Practical Magic (Much better and more sophisticated than the movie, but heck the movie does have Sandra Bullock and Aidan Quinn)
Hosseini, Khaled, The Kite Runner, 2003, 372 pages (While there's some one-dimensional characters, plot coincidences and autobiographical projections that betray this as a first novel, all were caught up in the gripping story from a culture we don't get to see this close up, of (primarily male) Afghanistan before and during the Taliban. Some saw this as allegorical about the country in general; others saw a religious tale of sin and redemption.) (11/9/2004)
Hynes, James (Irish), Wild Colonial Boy
Ibsen, Henrik, A Doll House
Ishiguro, Kazuo, The Remains of the Day
Jen, Gish, Mona in the Promised Land, 1996, 304 pages (Mixed vote between those of us who thought it a witty take on ethnic identity and those who thought it a glib rehash of coming-of-age in suburbia in the late '60's)
Jin, Ha, Waiting, 2000, 320 pages (Is it about universal humans or particularistic about Chinese? And are these Chinese particularly Communist or reflective of traditional Chinese culture? Or is this more of a analogue for modern Chinese history?)
Jones, Edward P., The Known World, 2003, 432 pages (Most felt this was a fascinating recreation of the full range of complexity of the ante-bellum South, where the acceptance of owning other human beings complicates issues of race, sex and class, though this docudrama has a long set-up to get to the suddenly fast-paced surprising conclusion) (10/5/2004)
Joyce, James (Irish), Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (This was one of our few attempts at a classic - and not everyone read it!)
Kashua, Sayed (Arab Israeli), Let It be Morning (translated by Miriam Schlesinger), 2004, 271 pages (We discussed if it was a satire or just satirical elements in encapsulating the ironic future of Israel/Palestine through the lens of an Arab village, north of Tel Aviv, full of believable characters whose politics reflect their personalities and relationships since birth.) (1/5/2010)
Optional addition: Dancing Arabs (translated by Miriam Schlesinger), 2002, 227 pages. He also writes wry newspaper columns about life as an Arab in Israel. My review of the 3rd Other Israel Film Festival included Forever Scared, a documentary about the author.
Kawabata, Yasunari, Snow Country (Knowledge of Zen poetry and Japanese culture would help) (9/1994)
Khadra, Yasmina (nom de plume for Algerian army officer Mohamed Moulessehoul), The Attack (translated from the French by John Cullen), 2006, 272 pages (We had a lively discussion of just how didactic and one-dimensional is this bleak view of Israeli/Arab/Palestinian relations, especially the opaque central couple.) (4/6/2009)
King, Lily, The English Teacher, 2005, 256 pages (Majority, but not all, disliked it, including one who had read Tess of the D'Urbervilles which is used like Mrs. Dalloway is in The Hours, some disliked the characters, some the writing style, some the plot credibility of the central focus on PTSD from rape or the conclusion.) (1/7/2008)
Kingsolver, Barbara, Pigs in Heaven (This is actually a follow-up to The Bean Tree)
_______________, The Poisonwood Bible, 1999, 566 pages (I missed the meeting but all readers were really moved and entertained by the creative writing perspectives of unique characters, though they get a bit stick-figurey towards the end. This beat the sophomore jinx we've experienced of reading books by the same author.) (4/3/2001)
Kinsella, W.K., The Iowa Baseball Confederacy (3/1993) (One of my all time favorite books -- hard to believe that Richard Greenberg didn't read this before writing Take Me Out)
Kirn, Walter, Up in the Air, 2002, 320 pages (Most felt it was a static one-note with no catharsis or interesting characters, even though it does nail business consultants.) (3/9/2004) (Jason Reitman's film adaptation is much better because he included the reactions of real fired people and women who tell off the main character.) (12/10/2009
Krauss, Nicole, The History of Love, 2005, 272 pages (One of our favorites! The discussion started before the meeting time and, unusually, continued through our (Eastern European) take-out dinner. Several members immediately reread the book and we all enjoyed checking the plot twists, but also the themes of love and survival, words and translations and magic realism. And yes, there is a real Universal Edibility Test.) (1/9/2007)
___________, Man Walks Into A Room, 2002, 256 pages (Most felt the central character was too unsympathetic to care about and that the plot became too picaresque, but we liked seeing emerge in this her first novel the author's talent for giving different characters' unique voices and we enjoyed discussing issues of memory and identity.)
Similar issues are raised in the possibly faux doc Unknown White Male and the real, but less interesting, Thomas Lien's Hunting Down Memory, seen at the 2009 DocuWeek.) (3/6/2007)
Kundera, Milan, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (6/6/1995)
Kunzru, Hari, (British-Kashmiri), Transmission, 2004, 288 pages (A very funny, light-read, globalization satire that some thought was very bitter, with no grown-ups, but all well-hit targets.) (9/10/2007)
_________________________, The Impressionist, 2002, 465 pages (Even without sympathetic characters, its broad satirical scope is impressive, with marvelously outrageous vignettes, for its attack on the British colonial empire and the damaging legacy of racial and cultural identity confused by context and perception.) (9/14/2009)
Lahiri, Jhumpa, The Namesake , 2003, 304 pages (Most of the group were fascinated by the generational saga of Bengali immigrants to the U.S., though the scenes worked better as a series of sharp short stories than a novel overall. Gogol's The Overcoat has some sort of thematic and structural link that we didn't get because we didn't read it.) (2/1/2005) (I was disappointed by the film adaptation.) For other novels reflective of the Immigrant Experience in America:
classics, not all semi-autobiographical and newer books, not all fiction or for adults.
Le Clézio, J.M.G. (French) (Nobel Prize winner), Onitsha (translated by Alison Anderson) 1991, 206 pages (The dream-like linking of the Nile and Niger Rivers through African history lifted this above his bitter childhood memories of British colonial racism as the empire ran aground, symbolically and in fact.) (11/2/2009)
Lee, Chang-rae, The Native Speaker (Korean-American)
___________, Aloft, 2004, 384 pages (While we appreciated amusing vignettes of Queens and Long Island types, almost all were disappointed in this Updike imitation with an inauthentic sounding and feeling first person narration by an unappealing guy with the titular attitude to his life. A big let down from his debut above that we really liked.) (9/11/2005)
Lethem, Jonathan, Motherless Brooklyn, 1999, 311 pages (We all fell in love with the language of this very NY book, and especially with the protagonist, a Tourette's-afflicted detective.) (1/2/2001)
Levy, Andrea, Small Island , 2004, 448 pages (All enjoyed this perceptive examination of the fall of the British Empire from the perspective of male and female, black, white and mixed race colonials and the Mother Country.) (5/11/2005)
Lightman, Alan, The Diagnosis, 370 pages (With one dissent by the scientist in our group, the rest thought the writing pedestrian, the characters one-note and the meaning either cliche or confusing, other than a few vivid scenes that felt like separate short stories) (6/11/2002)
Livesey, Margot (Scottish), The Missing World, 2000, 336 pages (We mostly parsed why this manipulatively plotted book, with its static, unappealing, narcissistic characters, was acclaimed, and reminisced about other books on this list we had preferred reading.) (The possibly faux doc Unknown White Male came to a different conclusion about an amnesiac's second chances.) (5/11/2009)
Lodge, David, Therapy, 1995, 321 pages (Veddy English - is it a "guy" or "chick" book?)
Lorca, Frederico, The House of Bernarda Alba (Play, whose translations vary in quality)
Lynch, Jim, The Highest Tide, 2005, 272 pages (An enjoyable and educational read around Earth Day with both colorful human and marine characters, leading to discussions about the narrator and if there was metaphor or satire, in addition to surprising parallels with the TV series Surface.) (5/1/2007)
MacLeod, Alistair (Canadian), No Great Mischief, 1999, 283 pages (Impac Dublin Literary Award winner) (With a few gripes about repetition, most were struck by the powerful evocation of family tribal history and concomitant obligations, particularly vividly described between men and about death – even though no one wanted to listen to my large collection of traditional Cape Breton and Scottish fiddle music and laments.) (4/7/2008)
Mahfouz, Naguib (Egyptian), Palace Walk, originally published in Arabic in 1956, in English in 1990, 498 pages (Made us wonder if the concept of hypocrisy is culturally defined. I also read the remaining two books in the trilogy to satisfy my curiosity as to what happens to the characters; this first is the best written and most subtle.)
Mallon, Thomas, Henry and Clara, 1995 (8/14/1997)
Malouf, David (Australian), An Imaginary Life , 1978, 154 pages (What we didn't know that we didn't know about Ovid meets Truffaut's L'enfant Sauvage in beautiful wordplay.)
__________, The Great World, 1991, 330 pages in hardcover, 340 pages in paperback (While not quite a quorum read it in the heat of the summer that also distracted our discussion, we admired the author's sympathy for three generations affected by war, particularly those sharing PTSD over decades. However, we protest the poor quality of Vintage's typeface selection and printing that made it that much harder to read.) (7/11/2010)
Márai, Sándor (Hungarian), Casanova in Bolzano, originally published in 1940, 2004 translation by George Szirtes, 294 pages (While half our group was daunted by the book and didn’t show up, the rest had a tremendously lively discussion about the characters and what metaphors they represented – were they power/order vs. hedonism/ego-centricity vs. love/beauty?-- in general and in the context of European politics when the book was written, as prescient post-modern deconstruction or satire.) (6/3/2008)
Martel, Yann (Canadian), Life of Pi, 2002, 348 pages (Lively discussion -- particularly when we discovered that there were two different versions of the paperback editions that changed a crucial paragraph--according to the simplistic "reading group notes" at the end--as we tried to figure out if the author was really dissing religion in "telling the better story" or intending the book to be taken metaphorically straight. Much disagreement as to whether it was about evil vs. religion or about nature vs. civilization or if those were the same things.) (10/7/2003)
Martin, Valerie, Property, 2003, 208 pages (Through the eyes of a surprisingly unsympathetic yet fascinatingly consistent protagonist, a searing look at how complicity in a morally corrupt system--here slavery--corrupts the oppressor almost as much as it damages the victim) (8/3/2004)
McCann, Colum, Let the Great World Spin, 2009, 368 pages in hardcover, 400 pages in paperback (While some disagreed with the author that it was a 9/11 book, all agreed it well evoked diverse all-borough voices in NYC of the 1970's, and admired his use of the impact of Pettit's high-wire walk more for kismet than coincidence.) (6/7/2010) (The title is taken from Tennyson's "Locksley Hall": "Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let us range,/Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change."
McCarthy, Cormac, All The Pretty Horses
_______________, The Crossing (Mixed vote on it being pretentious and redux.)
_______________, The Road, 2006, 304 pages (selected by both Oprah and the Pulitzer Prize) (Though all appreciated the language, story-telling and portrait of paternal devotion, mixed vote on the author’s continuing obsession with the warrior mensch, as well as credibility about science, individualistic vs. social human nature and the meaning of it all.) (6/11/2007) (The movie adaptation expands on the mystery of the wife/mother, but is grimly faithful.)
McDermott, Alice, Charming Billy, 1998, 280 pages (Are these Irish-American stereotypes or an evocative portrait of a family network that enables alcoholism and self-deluding romanticism? They missed the chance to cast Richard Harris in a movie version – maybe Aiden Quinn is old enough now.) (3/9/1999)
McEwan, Ian, (British) Atonement, 2002, 368 pages (Sharp schisms in a passionate discussion even of the facts in the story: turned off by a distasteful narrator, some thought it was too much literary manipulation; others appreciated turning literary conventions from Austen to Hemingway and beyond on their heads in dealing with class and culpability, among many other issues.) (6/3/2003) (My review of the movie)
Millhauser, Steven, Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer, 1997, 293 pages (Mixed reaction) (11/18/1997)
Mitchell, David, (British) Ghostwritten, 2000, 448 pages (I recommended this because one character of the intersecting ensemble includes a transmigrating spirit from Mongolia, but we all enjoyed this clever puzzle of a read, with each picking up different clues with different interpretations of the penultimate chapter and The Meaning of It All -- spiritual? sci fi? and eerily prescient about religious fanatic terrorists.) (12/4/2001)
____________, Cloud Atlas, 2004, 509 pages, (A rollicking tour de force that was a font for discussion--and every reader picks up other clues and connections to reveal to other readers--with a sextet of spiraling tales of history past and future, each written in a different, full-fledged genre and voice from a satirically witty array of literature and film -- Huxley, Hitchcock, Kesey, Melville and Vonnegut to name a handful -- for a cynically original commentary on globalism and human civilization.) (6/7/2005)
___________, Black Swan Green, 2006, 304 pages (A surprisingly straight-forward but still layered, semi-autobiographical feeling examination of bullies--in the family, school, community and nations-- from the POV of a young teen boy in 1980's exurbs, with amusing references to characters from his earlier novels.) (12/6/2006)
Moore, Alan (writer) and Gibbons, Dave (illustrator), Watchmen, 1995, 416 pages, DC Comics (compilation of the 12 "magazine" issues originally published from 1986-1987- our first graphic novel) (Half our members were so annoyed at the selection and the politics, slowness and violence of the work that they found excuses not to come, but the Rest of Us were intrigued by its multi-layered contemporization of Nietzschean superman analysis through interweaving the far and recent past, present and future of an alternative history of the Cold War with eerie echoes today. Who is a liberal? Who is a conservative? Who is evil? Who is insane? Can the end justify the means? We have not seen the movie adaptation.) (6/1/2009)
Morrison, Toni, Beloved (Absolutely shocking that this is not on the Modern Libary list of 20th Century classics)
Murakami, Haruki (Japanese), South of the Border, West of the Sun, 1998, 224 pages (Is it a guy book or a girl book? Is she real or fantasy? Is he having a psychotic breakdown or just a mid-life crisis? And how much is autobiographical? Great discussion! The group was disappointed that I didn't think to bring illustrative jazz CDs. We liked it so much we're reading his longer, more difficult master work next.) (8/20/2002)
_____________,The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, 1997, 607 pages (We all agreed this was a special, unpredictable book that we could only run out of time to discuss all the recurring themes (pain, water, animals, dark, isolation, clairvoyance), metaphors (what are men? what are women? Japan and its militaristic past vs. individual history?), characters (who is real and who isn't?) Even though he repeats some elements from the later book of his we read, we would even love to read this one by a different translator for comparison. (10/3/2002)
_____________, Kafka on the Shore, 2005, 480 pages (The most accessible of his books in a captivating page-turning story, brimming with direct and indirect high and pop culture references, from inspirational to satirical, in fusing an East/West mythology with his ongoing themes that made for a lively discussion about metaphors, memory, guilt and temporal anomalies.) (9/4/2006)
Tony Takitani is the first full-length movie adaptation of a Murakami story.
Naipaul, V.S. (Indian diaspora), A Bend in the River (5/1993)
Némirovsky, Irène, (French), Suite Française, originally written 1942, published 2006 in a British English translation by Sandra Smith, 448 pages (All were astounded by this incisive and fairly bitter critique of France’s La Comédie humaine amidst war and occupation, written astonishingly clear-eyed while the events were happening, and lots of discussion about the “what if. . .” of being left uncompleted by a Russian ex-pat not anticipating her own murder at the hands of what she thought was a civilized enemy. Catherine Bernstein’s documentary Murder of a Hatmaker, seen at the NY Jewish Film Festival, is useful contextual complement.) (11/12/2007 and (12/28/2007) We still hope to get to the Museum of Jewish Heritage's exhibition Woman of Letters: Irène Némirovsky and Suite Française
Ninh, Bao (Vietnamese), The Sorrow of War (translated by Phan Thanh Hao, edited by Frank Palmos) 1995, 224 pages (While we debated whether the characters were metaphors for the country, all were fascinated by this vivid, unideological, view of the ravages of the war, on men and women, from the opposite perspective than what we were told, like an updated All Quiet on the Western Front.) (10/5/2009)
Norman, Howard (Canadian), The Bird Artist (12/17/1997)
Nunez, Sigrid, The Last of Her Kind, 2006, 384 pages (While all the baby boomers relished the evocation of our social and political awakenings here in New York City, most found the characters shallow and not completely credible.) (12/7/2009)
Oates, Joyce Carol, We Were the Mulvaneys, 1996, 464 pages (Oprah's Book Club selection 2001) (While several members couldn't get into it and gave up, the rest got involved in the family saga full of symbolism, even if not all the characters' actions were credible. Oops, we forgot to cast it!) (7/6/2009)
O’Brien, Tim, In the Lake in the Woods (Effective evocation that the Vietnam War still isn't over in hearts and minds)
Oe, Kenzaburo, A Personal Matter, 1969 (Wrenching, whether or not it's considered a Japanese critique or a universal young man's book) (1/5/1999)
Ondaatje, Michael, The English Patient (We liked the book much better than the movie.)
______________, Anil's Ghost, 2001, 320 pages (Our session was originally scheduled for 9/12/01 -- what a difference reading it before 9/11 and discussing it after, with terrorism come to our home town. Much discussion of whether one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter and if religion and art can be a salvation, or just an excuse and an escape. And who is her ghost?) (10/23/2001)
Otsuka, Julie, When the Emperor Was Divine, 2002, 160 pages (While we all admired the literary style of the individual voices and points of view of the experiences of members of a Japanese-American family vs. their neighbors after Pearl Harbor, most of our conversation centered on how chillingly it showed how it could absolutely happen again -- and is thisclose to happening again. The moving doc The Cats of Mirikitani vividly brings all these connections home.) (1/3/2006, supplemented 3/24/2007)
Oz, Amos, (Israeli) Black Box, 259 pages (Very effective epistolary novel that we all felt works sensitively about very individual Israelis and some felt was also specific metaphors for Israel.) (late ‘90’s)<
Pamuk, Orhan (Turkish), Snow, 2004, 448 pages (While we felt we had to slog through characters at first spouting different viewpoints, the fascination of the absurd takes over, as he cynically savages all views, including his role as a writer, in Turkish society for fusing the personal and the sexual with the religious and the political so we divided on whether to laugh at it as a satire or cry at it as a pessimistic observation on the role of suicide. It certainly made us aware of his legal problems with the government and the debate on Turkey's admission to the EU with more clarity.) (10/11/2005)
Patchett, Ann, Bel Canto, 2001, 336 pages (The majority enjoyed this imaginative riff off a real political hostage taking in Lima, Peru into an examination of fate, opportunity, and self-fulfillment from different perspectives.) (5/6/2003)
Percy, Walker (Southern American), The Moviegoer, 1961, 256 pages (It just seemed as if all his existential malaise wasn’t any more profound than could be cured by the coming of change.) (early ‘90’s)
Perez-Reverte, Arturo, The Club Dumas, 1997, 384 pages (A too-look-at-me-I'm-clever detective yarn filled with literary references, especially about book collecting and classic mysteries, with a dollop of male fantasy fulfillment. Instead, read Agatha Christie's The Murder of Dr. Roger Ackroyd or Sherlock Holmes or catch an The X Files for more interesting treatment of the attraction of the devil.) (7/6/2004)
Petterson, Per (Norwegian), Out Stealing Horses, (translated into British vernacular by Anne Born), 2007, 256 pages (All admired the spare language style that matched the physical environment to memory and aging, even though we had to parse out plot interpretations.) (10/20/2008)
Proulx, E. Annie, The Shipping News
Robbins, Tom, Skinny Legs and All (8/1993) (Prescient satire)
Robinson, Marilynne, Housekeeping, 1981, 224 pages (Though all loved the imagery, mixed reaction, with half either falling asleep or not finishing it, but spirited discussion as to whether characters were eccentric or just plain crazy.) (11/10/2006)
Roth, Philip, Goodbye Columbus
_________, Operation Shylock
_________, The Plot Against America, 2004, 416 pages (While there was one vote that it was over the top, the rest of us marveled that even though this was part of the "Roth" novels that are inspired by vividly recalled details from his real life, here his youth in ethnic Newark, it was misogyny-free and even mother-affectionate as it step by step from the real to the surreal created another, more artistic version of It Could Happen Here that most felt had scarily contemporary warnings.) (3/7/2006)
Rowling, J. K.: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1), (the Americanized title), 312 pages; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, (Book 2), 352 pages; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3), 435 pages, (all Scholastic). Also available unabridged on tape and CD (from Random House Listening Library). (The consensus was that this is classic children's "cross-over" literature for adults too, on a par with "Alice in Wonderland.")(8/2000) My reviews of the movies: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Roy, Arundhati (Indian), The God of Small Things, 1998, 336 pages (Dazzling view of the English language from India post The Jewel in the Crown.)
Rushdie, Salman, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, 2000, 575 pages (A rock 'n' roll Orpheus and Euridice) (While some complained that the length could have been trimmed and that the author was showing off his multicultural and popular culture erudition, all concurred the book is phenomenal and engendered much enthusiastic discussion.)
Russo, Richard, Empire Falls, 2001, 483 pages (An enjoyable, cinematic, small-town, family saga that also works on a metaphorical level, encouraged by the symbolically named characters.) (4/1/2003)
Saramago, Jose, Baltasar and Blimunda, 1987 (Portuguese) (A tough read --OK it took me months to finish it-- but quite an audacious Balzacian take on Portugal in the 1700's.) (4/13/1999)
____________The Cave, 2002, 320 pages (While several members noted that this is a Marxist interpretation of Plato's Cave with an idealized, intellectual proletariat that all noted is a slow stream-of-consciousness read, the conception of a we're-almost-there-yet future of controlling capitalism vs. people enlivened by creative production was intriguing.) (6/1/2004)
Schlink, Bernhard (German), The Reader, 1995 (Ignoring the lack of character development and focusing on the complex symbolism, this fast read spurred one of our best discussions as it explores the banality of evil in post-Holocaust Germany.) (2/1/2000)
My review of the film, and my commentary on the Jewish women. Thoughtful Schlink interview about the book and film. The documentary 2 Or 3 Things I Know About Him (2 oder 3 Dinge, die ich von ihm weiß) raises similar issues.
Sebald, W.G. (German), Austerlitz, 2001, 304 pages (Split down the middle: half thought it was intellectual pretension, the other half thought it was an insightful tour of memory and cultural and personal identity of Europe from Napoleon to Hitler to the EU.) (11/11/2002)
Shakespeare, Nicholas, The Dancer Upstairs, 1997, 288 pages (I missed the meeting, but the group reported the discussion centered around the hopelessness of the middle between extremists.)(7/15/2003) (My review of the movie )
Shields, Carol (Canadian), Stone Diaries, 1994, 386 pages (late-‘90’s)
Shteyngart, Gary, Absurdistan, 2006, 352 pages (LOL at some scenes, the majority felt it was a repetitive display of too-clever crude humor that overstayed its welcome with unsympathetic, unchanging characters by an author who did himself no favor claiming the mantle of a Russian-American satirist in the vein of Heller, Sterne, Swift and Voltaire.) (3/3/2008)
Singer, Isaac Bashevis, Satan in Goray, 160 pages (And he was only 26 when he wrote this vividly mature first novel.)
Smiley, Jane, The Age of Grief, 1987, 213 pages (a novella and short stories, which led to our policy decision that short story collections don't make for good discussions.) My review of the movie version - The Secret Lives of Dentists(2/1993)
__________, A Thousand Acres (5/13/1997)
Smith, Zadie, White Teeth, 2000, 464 pages (We all enjoyed this ensemble romp through the multi-cultural British empire that is now London. While this debut novel was particularly sharp on adolescent experiences close to the author's very young age, we had a jolly good discussion about fate, chance, and who is actually representing Britain. And about the differences in how the author looks in her photo on the hard-cover edition vs. the paperback edition.)
Sofer, Dalia, (Iranian-American), The Septembers of Shiraz, 2007, 368 pages (While we debated how much was autobiographical in bringing to vivid life the travails of Jews in Iran under the Shah and the mullahs, our discussion parsed the author’s views of torture vs. the unsympathetic aspects of the central characters.) (9/22/2008)
Soueif, Ahdaf (Egyptian), Map of Love, 1999, 544 pages (Our discussion was better than the book, which we all agreed required a great suspension of disbelief for its plot, inconvenient gaps, and not always convincing changes in POV. We ended up having more of a discussion of the historical, colonial roots of the current Mess O' Potamia and the hopeless future of liberals anywhere in the world than its literary merits.) (8/13/2006)
As quoted in a lecture on "Resurrecting Empire: The End of Year II of the Occupation of Iraq" by Professor Rashid Khalidi: T.E. Lawrence in The Sunday Times, August 1920 - "The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We are today not far from a disaster…. Our unfortunate troops, Indian and British, under hard conditions of climate and supply are policing an immense area, paying dearly every day in lives for the willfully wrong policy of the civil administration in Baghdad… but the responsibility in this case is not on the army, which has acted only upon the request of the civil authorities."
Spragg, Mark, The Fruit of Stone, 2002, 304 pages (Is it a guy book or about laconic, taciturn Westerners for whom loyalty is more important than communicating?) (12/13/2005)
Stegner, Wallace, Crossing to Safety, 1987, 341 pages (No sex, no child abuse, no adultery, just married couples struggling with the frustrations of academic and real life. Starts off in the '30's but feels very contemporary.) (2/9/1999)
Straight, Susan, I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots, 1993, 355 pages (While there were complaints that the heroine was a super-hero and the two parts of her life seemed like two books stitched together, we were impressed by the evocation of the rural and urban South at the turn of the civil rights movement.) (12/7/1999)
Unsworth, Barry, Stone Virgin, 1995, 309 pages (A meticulously organized look at the erotic in artistic impulse inspired by the madonna/whore duality of the Annunciation through history- yeah, a guy book.)(2/13/2003)
Verghese, Abraham, Cutting for Stone, 2009, 560 pages in hardcover, 688 pages in paperback, unabridged audio book available on CD and Audible download, and on Kindle (While this book gave us the opportunity to do our first take-out dinner from an Ethiopian restaurant, we enjoyed the narrative detail about distinctive Ethiopians, Indians and colonials, but found little of depth to discuss.) (5/17/2010)
Vonnegut, Kurt, Timequake, 1997, 272 pages (Read in commemoration of his work having inspired founding of the Book Club, all enjoyed and admired how he used humor in a valedictory last blending of fiction with his real life and the world.) (6/11/2007)
Whitehead, Colson (Brooklynite), The Intuitionist, 1999, 256 pages (Is it a satire or an allegory on race as it re-imagines urban race relations and the zen of elevators?)
_______________, John Henry Days, 2001, 400 pages (While a couple of members were so turned off by an early, unsympathetic protagonist to not finish the book, the rest were fascinated by the structure of multiple contacts with an African-American musical and cultural myth, as we tried to work through understanding the ending--accompanied by many versions of the song from my CD collection.)
_______________, Apex Hides the Hurt, 2006, 224 pages (Split vote on whether this entertaining read rose to the level of Swiftian satire or was just shallow with a racial and historical overlay.) (See the documentary Banished for background on and the impact of memories of African-Americans driven from their communities.) (8/7/2007)
Wiggins, Marianne, Evidence of Things Unseen , 2003, 400 pages (We were all charmed by a sympathetic family saga of the Harry Truman generation that becomes an allegory about America's tragic faith in science and technology. The lovely love stories and the language withstood the obsessive references to Moby Dick.) (1/11/2005)
Winton, Tim (Australian), The Riders, 1995, 384 pages (We still can't decide what the horses represent.)
_________, Dirt Music: A Novel, 2002, 416 pages. There's also an accompanying 2 CD "riff" on the book with Winton's commentary on his music selections (scroll down). (Mixed vote on the likability of the main characters and the outcome of their triangle but all liked the use of language and evocation of a distinct place and culture.) (2/3/2004)
Woolf, Virginia, Jacob’s Room, 175 pages (2/6/1996)
Yalom, Irvin D., When Nietzsche Wept (Well, if you want to read about a philosopher.)
Yehoshua, A.B. (Israeli), The Liberated Bride (somewhat awkwardly translated by Hillel Hankin), 2003, 576 pages (Even with an obnoxious narrator, we all enjoyed the satirical vignettes, some that were very funny, though we were split on interpretations of the dysfunctional family elements and political allegories such that we weren't sure the book as a whole hung together.) (4/18/2006)
Zabor, Rafi, The Bear Comes Home, 1998, 484 pages (We spent most of the lively discussion--to the sounds of jazz CDs-- on the first question: "Why a bear?" Is he a metaphor? a literary device? really a man?)
To the Mandel/Shultz Maven's Nest
Comments, corrections, additions, questions welcome! Contact Nora Lee Mandel at mandelshultz@yahoo.com
Hold a book in your hand and you’re a pilgrim at the gates of a new city.
--attributed as a Hebrew saying by Anne Michaels in Fugitive Pieces
Copyright (c) 2010