Discussion Summaries 2023
Wednesday, December 13, 2023: On Java Road by Lawrence Osborne
There were mixed reactions to this political mystery set during the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong (probably 2019). The narrator, an aging mediocre British journalist, drifts between the old, wealthy, respected families who believe their future is best assured aligned with the Communists and the younger protestors, with indifference. The main characters seem shallow, especially the rich playboy. Life revolves around partying, consuming expensive local delicacies and getting drunk. “Ambiguous” was best felt to describe both them and the plot. We are left uncertain who is manipulating and who is lying.
For some of our members, this uncertainty was part of the appeal of the book. We enjoyed reading aloud the narrator's detailed descriptions of different locations in Hong Kong, from luxury penthouses to seedy diners, and the subtle interactions and power plays between the characters. EK
Wednesday, November 8, 2023: Gentleman Overboard by Herbert Clyde Lewis
There was little dissent among the ten participants who turned out to discuss this rediscovered novella from 1937: we all very much enjoyed it, some of us even thought it a small masterpiece. There was some slight disagreement on a few points, such as why Standish would leave his family in the first place – was it depression, a mid-life crisis, or just the desire to break out? Some thought it implausible that Standish would be able to float in the Pacific Ocean for 12 hours while he waited to be rescued. Not everyone saw the humour in what has been described as a sad comedy. We puzzled over the enigmatic last sentence and even after the discussion, some of us continued trying to parse its meaning.
We talked briefly about the ship’s other passengers, who might be viewed as a cross-section of society at the time. We agreed that this could have been written today, with just a few minor tweaks. An existential parable, it is timeless and universal. MH
Wednesday, September 13, and Wednesday, October 11, 2023: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
A sure sign of a good book is one that inspires inquiry, dialogue and curiosity. These were surely on display at our two evenings discussing “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides.
The Pulitzer Prize winning novel follows the life of Calliope/Cal Stephanides, an intersex person and her/his journey through life. Born into a family of Greek immigrants in Detroit, Cal narrates his journey through his childhood as a girl, the conundrum of puberty, first love with “The Obscure Object” and his decision to express himself as the male (that he genetically is) after the harrowing discovery of his intersexuality.
Eugenides deftly interweaves historical fact (e.g. the rise of the Nation of Islam, the notoriety of Dr. Luce, a.k.a. the real life Dr Money, a so-called expert in gender issues,) and witty allusions to Greek mythology with personal events in Callie/Cal’s life. His flight from home and from his old self as a female is the start of a journey taking him full circle to his true identity.
Not everyone enjoyed the peripatetic jumps throughout the narrator’s life but most were thrilled by his vibrant writing style, his choice of words and his exceptional descriptive abilities. His playful use of words was generally appreciated, as shown by several readings of our favorite passages.
All felt that the narrator was speaking directly to the reader and most agreed that the novel was a captivating read. SW
Wednesday, August 16, 2023: A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler
translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
A slim masterpiece about one man's life or "alpine Rosamund Pilcher" kitsch. Those are the two opposing takes on Seethaler's latest novel, though most of our group were decidedly in the first camp. Set in the Austrian Alps, it is the apparently simple story of Andreas Egger, his relationship with the landscape, the value of solitude, and the moments that make us who we are.
One careful reader pointed out some minor inaccuracies which the rest of us had overlooked. Another found several of the scenes hackneyed (facing down the cruel Kranzstocker, for one). But even conceding these apparent weaknesses, most of us loved the book, and found Andreas Egger, in his humility, dignity and humanity, a kind of unsung hero. MH
Wednesday, July 13, 2023: An Odyssey: A Father, a Son and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn
Mendelsohn is a classics professor at a small college in New York. "An Odyssey" is his memoir of the semester his 81-year-old father asked to sit in on Mendelsohn’s undergraduate seminar on Homer’s Odyssey. He takes the reader through the Odyssey alongside his class while using memoir to draw comparisons between his and his father’s journeys and those of Odysseus and his son, Telemachus. In this story of familial reckoning, Mendelsohn tells how he and his father truly get to know each other in the last year of his father’s life.
The Book Group agreed that the first two pages of the book are so beautifully written that you are drawn into the story. Yet some felt intimidated due to not having a classics background nor having read Homer’s Odyssey. We agreed that there was often too much detail, the story got bogged down by history and repetition, and the complex sentence structures made reading a bit of a slog in spite of the warmth of the memoir. Some surprise was ruined by Mendelsohn using the Homeric style of the Proem or “prequel” describing the adventures to come. The Book Group felt that "An Odyssey" is about identity: that you can’t really know others, especially those closest to you, and that the journey is more important than the destination.
Four of us would recommend "An Odyssey" to others; one would not because they don’t know to whom that can recommend the part lessons in the classics, part memoir book. KS
Wednesday, June 14, 2023: 1984 by George Orwell
For those of us who had read "1984" decades ago and barely remembered it, and those who had read it for the first time, it was an interesting experience to explore expressions like "Big Brother" and "Orwellian" that have become part of our vocabulary. Much of our discussion focussed on the role of language and how organizations distort language to advance their goals. We enjoyed reading aloud our favorite passages and sharing examples from the present day in advertising, government slogans and social media. We also discussed how Winston, representing the common man, progresses from an idealist to a brain-washed victim of the state. All of us were impressed that over 75 years ago, Orwell accurately described the rise of the modern surveillance state, the scientific use of propaganda, the cult of the leader, and continual warfare as a means to terrorize and control citizens. ML
Wednesday, May 10, 2023: Weather by Jenny Offill
Seven of us met to discuss Jenny Offill’s third novel, "Weather," published in 2020.
"Weather" is narrated by Lizzie, a Brooklyn wife, mother and Ph.D. dropout turned university librarian. She was a grad student of Professor Sylvia, who now has a podcast about the climate change catastrophe and travels widely to lecture on the subject. When Sylvia is in town, she visits Lizzie at the library to offer her a job answering Sylvia’s emails related to the podcast. This is the basic frame of the story. Within this frame, Lizzie reckons simultaneously with daily life and the impending global crisis as well as the tension between self-involvement and social engagement. There are funny and absurd moments throughout, in spite of the shadow of pre-apocalyptic dread.
The book is written in a fragmentary style. It feels like reading someone’s Tweets or personal blog, with characters, encounters, themes and some deep insights randomly weaving forward in and around each other. Offill says “I have always liked compressed and fragmentary forms … I feel like the white space in my writing is for the reader to bring their own thoughts and ideas to the book.” The book ends with www.obligatorynoteofhope.com – a website of “Tips for Trying Times” as an antidote to fear and dread.
"Weather" has earned many rave reviews and is on many best-books-of-2020 lists, which is why the book was recommended. The Book Group had a mixed experience.
Many people found it hard to get into the book because of the fragmented form. For some, getting into the story happened after a couple of false starts. Some found the form and the lack of a cohesive storyline irritating – they got the theme of existential dread, but not much else from the story. The reviews made the book seem more than it is.
Others found the fragmented form unique and brilliant for its kind. They appreciated how the story juxtaposed Lizzie’s anxiety for her family and the future and how life keeps intruding on activism. Some big questions were raised in the story yet without definitive answers. The humor was fun yet it felt native to New Yorkers and might not be easily picked up by other cultures. When asked whether they would recommend the book, three said definitely not; four said yes, but not to everybody. KS
Wednesday, April 12, 2023: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (restored edition)
Hemingway and his first wife Hadley spent happy years living in Paris in the early 1920`s and he counted himself fortunate to have been there as a young man and well before Europe was devastated by war. The group felt that the book, a collection of sketches and short essays on people and places familiar to him, gave us an insight into the author as a young adult. He is eager to hone his literary skills, reads voraciously and gets to know poets and authors, all expatriates like himself, whose friendship he values and reciprocates. Hemingway, meanwhile, is developing his own unique writing style, which in turn will influence many authors to come. Some of us found that the book had been an eye-opener in the sense that the young Hemingway portrayed in the book is altogether different from the image fostered later of him as being a big game hunting macho.
Three Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway: The Snows of Kilimanjaro, A Clean Well-lighted Place, The Killers
We were unfortunately unable to spend much time discussing the short
stories, but those familiar with them were very impressed by the symbolism they contain. In any case, our session was lively, because everyone present contributed something to the discussion. DS
Wednesday, March 8, 2023: The Gown by Jennifer Robson
After reading some challenging books over the last few months, our group was glad to turn to an uplifting historical novel. Set in London after World War II, the “The Gown” revolves around two young women who work for the fashion house that designed the dress for Princess Elizabeth’s marriage to Prince Philip. We were interested to learn about the process of creating the elaborate gown and embroidery for the princess as well as other wealthy clients, set against the background of a battered country where food and clothing have been rationed. We also appreciated the main themes of the novel - the bonds of friendship and family, overcoming difficult situations through hard work, transforming craftsmanship into art. However, most of us felt that the characters were thinly drawn to the point of being stereotypes. The plot, in particular the various romances, were predictable, and the connected story of the granddaughter in present-day Toronto did little to enhance the novel. Despite these criticisms, we enjoyed reliving the royal wedding that inspired the people of Britain during a difficult time. ML
Wednesday, February 11, 2023: An Immense World by Ed Yong
A small grouping found the 350 pages impressively documented, well presented and awe inspiring. The author describes how animals have senses perceiving sight, sound, taste, touch, pain, electric and magnetic fields, vibrations, magneto-reception, not shared with humans, to connect to their surroundings and to each other (their Umwelt). Animals are multi-sensory, never relying exclusively on one sense.
Our reading heightened our awareness of the wonders and diversity of our world. In the process, we discovered multiple examples of mind-boggling complex systems in the animal realm.
The book succeeds in adopting a style between textbook and popular anecdotes. Its dense but accessible information is best absorbed by chapters, with breaks “to digest”. EK
Wednesday, January 11, 2023: Foster and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Each of these novellas is about 100 pages long but goes into as much depth as many of the long novels we have read. In "Foster,” a young girl experiences her first taste of freedom and learns to decode the complex world of adults; in “Small Things Like These,” a respectable citizen in a small town uncovers the hypocrisy and cruelty of the Catholic Church, passively accepted by the residents. Everyone who participated in the discussion was enchanted by Keegan’s sparse but precise descriptions of Irish farms and villages, her ability to get into the main characters’ minds, her careful unfolding of secrets. We enjoyed reading aloud our favorite passages and discussing the evolving relationships between the characters. If we disagreed about anything, it was over which of the novellas we liked more. Neither novella has a clear ending, but that makes them more believable. ML