The Story of Edgar Sawtelle Book Club Discussion Questions

As promised, here are some of the discussion questions for David Wroblewski's The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel that my book club brought up:

1. It is quite rare that a person is born mute but not deaf. How do you think the fact that Edgar could hear but not speak, added or detracted from this story and his relationships with the people and animals in his life?
2. Tell us about your pet(s) or comment on how you feel about dogs, dog breeding and training.
3. Claude is a curious presence in the story. What does he want, when did he start wanting it and how do you feel about the ways he went about obtaining what mattered most to him?
4. The book contains much symbolism and some unexplained events that are left to the reader’s interpretation to understand. Give one (at least) example of symbolism, or a mystery, and explain how you came to understand this by using your imagination and/or logic to determine how it best fit within the story.

Enjoy!

Book Club Trouble

I found "Fought Over Any Good Books Lately?" by Joanne Kaufman published December 5, 2008 in the New York Times very interesting:

“Who knew a book group could be such a soap opera?” said Barb Burg, senior vice president at Bantam Dell, which publishes many titles adopted by book groups. “You’d think it would just be about the book. But wherever I go, people want to talk to me about the infighting and the politics.”

I am a member of several online book clubs and while I haven't actually fought with anyone about the book selections I too have been disappointed by some of my book club's selections.

But since they are all online books, I don't feel guilty skipping a book or two or just staying quiet when everyone else loves a book that I hated (or vice versa).

Any thoughts on book clubs?

Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being

I found myself thinking about Milan Kundera's modern classic novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being today.

No reason really, it just came to mind.

I read this a few years ago because I'd heard so much about it, and because I'd enjoyed Kundera's Ignorance with its themes of memory, loss, and homesickness.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera's novel of love and politics in his homeland -- communist-run Czechoslovakia -- between 1968 and the early 1980s.

It's a must-read, in my opinion.

Click here to read an excerpt of The Unbearable Lightness of Being and here to read an excerpt of Ignorance.

I didn't read either of his books for book clubs but I think they would be fascinating to discuss. In fact, I think I'll suggest one or more of his books the next time I'm supposed to lead the discussion!

Here are some discussion questions for The Unbearable Lightness of Being, in case your looking for some for your book club:

1. What kinds of being carry the attribute of lightness? How is the "lightness of being" of the novel's title presented? In what ways is it "unbearable"? What is the difference between "the sweet lightness of being" that Tomas enjoys in Zurich, after Tereza's return to Prague, and "the unbearable lightness of being"?
2. How does Nietzsche's myth of eternal return, with which Kundera opens his book, function in the novel? What does Kundera mean when he refers to "the profound moral perversity of a world that rests essentially on the nonexistence of return"? How does what he calls the unbearable burden of eternal return contrast with the "splendid lightness" of our daily lives?
3. How would you describe the three central relationships of the novel--Tereza and Tomas, Tomas and Sabina, Sabina and Franz? How do they embody Kundera's primary concerns and themes?
4. In what ways does Kundera explore what he calls "the irreconcilable duality of body and soul, that fundamental human experience." In what ways does he show this duality to be fundamental?
5. Both Tereza and Tomas repeatedly think of the series of fortuitous events that brought them together. What is the rule of fortuity, chance, and coincidence in their lives and the lives of others? What does Kundera mean when he writes, "Chance and chance alone has a message for us"?
6. In what ways may Sabina's description of her dual-level paintings--"On the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unintelligible truth"--apply to every aspect of the characters' lives and relationships?
7. What meanings and importance do each of the main characters ascribe to fidelity and betrayal? In what instances, for each character, do fidelity and betrayal have either positive or negative qualities?
8. Kundera insists that "the criminal regimes were made not by criminals but by enthusiasts convinced they had discovered the only road to paradise." What visions or versions of paradise are presented in the novel? By whom? How does each vision/version of paradise affect the lives of its enthusiasts and the lives of others?

And here are some discussion questions for Ignorance:

1. As in his previous novels, Kundera isn't content to merely tell a story; he also comments on it, via digressions on themes ranging from history to etymology and music. What is the effect of this method? Does it emotionally distance you from the narrative and characters or cause you to see them in a different light? Would you describe Ignorance as a realist novel?
2. When her Parisian friend Sylvie urges her to go home to her country, Irena replies "You mean this"--meaning Paris -- "isn't my home anymore?" This exchange suggests that "home" may be a relative phenomenon, that today's home may not be tomorrow's. How is this theme developed elsewhere in Ignorance? Can any of Kundera's characters be said to have a true home, or is home in this book always changeable, unreliable, and perhaps even illusory? And is going home a guarantee of happiness?
3. Even as Ignorance questions the permanence of home, it also raises doubts about the authenticity of the self, as in this moment when Irena glimpses her reflection in a department store mirror: "The person she saw was not she, it was somebody else, or…it was she but she living a different life." [p. 31] How would you sum up this novel's view of identity? Have Kundera's characters chosen their identities or have their identities been imposed on them by outside forces?
4. Early in the novel Kundera draws a series of correspondences and oppositions: between homesickness, nostalgia, and ignorance; between the longing for a place and the longing for a vanished past or a lost love. How does he develop these themes? Is Irena's nostalgia, for example, merely an expression of ignorance? Conversely, what is the reason for Josef's "nostalgic insufficiency?" [p. 74] When do these characters confuse homesickness with other types of longing, and with what consequences?
5. What is the significance of Ignorance's frequent references to The Odyssey? Do any events in this novel parallel those in Homer's epic? Is Josef's devotion to his deceased wife, for example, meant to recall Odysseus's devotion to Penelope? Compare the way Kundera uses The Odyssey in this book to the way Joyce uses it in Ulysses.
6. "Our century is the only one in which historic dates have taken such a voracious grip on every single person's life." [p.11] In what ways are the characters in Ignorance shaped by history and their personal destinies determined by it? Are they ever able to resist history? Does Kundera's view of historical forces hold out any hope for the freedom and dignity of the individual?
7. How would you describe Irena's and Josef's relationships with their families and old friends? Why are these so often marked by suspicion, incomprehension or outright hostility? In contrast, Irena and Josef seem to share a frictionless instant intimacy, even though they are little more than strangers. Is Kundera suggesting that the intimacy of strangers is somehow superior to the stifling, conventional closeness that prevails within most families? Are some of the characters' relationships more genuine than others?
8. What role is played by Irena's friend Milada who, unbeknown to Irena, was once Josef's girlfriend? Does Josef's past treatment of Milada predict his future behavior toward Irena? Is he morally responsible for Milada's mutilation or has Milada merely sacrificed herself for a sentimental fantasy? What do you make of Kundera's use of coincidence? Does he seem to view it the way Irena does -- as an expression of fate?
9. Are you surprised by the sexual encounter between Irena's mother and her boyfriend? Does it strike you as a betrayal of Irena, who at the time is betraying Gustav with Josef? Is Josef himself guilty of betraying Irena by his silence? How would you characterize this novel's attitude toward sex?

I should probably pick up some of Kundera's other books -- any suggestions?

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - Message from David Wroblewski

Just received this message from David Wroblewski, author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel, through one of my book clubs:

Message from the author David Wroblewski

In my earliest memory—earliest of any kind—I am kneeling on the couch in the living room of our house in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, looking out the picture window. Our collie, Princess, is perched on the cushion beside me, and together we are watching three women coming up the sidewalk. I can't be much more than 2 years old, and I don't recall our visitors' purpose, but I must have set my hand against Princess as we looked out the window, for I can vividly recall the warmth and reassuring mass of her body and the texture of her fur against my fingertips. I suppose that moment is the beginning of my interest in the canine world, though who can pinpoint such things? Perhaps I was just born with a kind of certainty about dogs and our relationship to them. What I know is this: in my memory of that instant, there is no boundary between us. I am me, yes, and she is her, but we are also somehow the same. We are connected as we watch the women approach. They are talking and laughing, swaying along in a friendly, triangular formation. Then they are at the door. They are wearing woolen coats: It must have been spring or fall. Fall, I think. It may have been my birthday, because they are carrying something, and there must be some reason this otherwise ordinary afternoon has stayed with me all these years. One of the women reaches out. The doorbell rings.

When I was about 12 years old, someone abandoned a half-grown pup on the road near our farm. This pup ran wild through the woods for I don't know how long, appearing to us periodically as a flash of orange and white bolting through the field. One morning, my father spied him eating the gravel off the road. In time, we were able to coax the dog into the yard, and he become "my" dog, though, considering that he refused ever to come into the house or even allow a collar to be put on him, it was difficult to know who was adopting whom. We guessed he was half collie, half German shepherd. I named him Prince. For some reason, during those years, there was an explosion in the skunk population, and Prince took it as his sacred duty to corner any skunk that trundled into our yard, keeping the animal trapped (often under the bathroom window) with what was to me a mortifying and fascinating single mindedness, an electric ferocity in his movements. My father, worried about rabies, forbade us from going outside when this happened; he would go to the gun case and fetch his shotgun and trudge out the back door. Long before he arrived on the scene, however, Prince would have been soaked with scent, repeatedly. I spent many summer mornings making Prince stand still for a bath, scolding him. I remember his response: an unrepentant, almost prideful, gaze, which seemed to say, "No regrets. I can see what's right and wrong."

A final memory: one afternoon, now years ago, as I was struggling to revise a draft of Edgar Sawtelle, my partner, Kimberly, gave me this advice: Imagine someone reading Edgar's story on a long train ride home from work. That was all she said, nothing more, yet it is probably the single most useful bit of writing advice I've ever gotten. Before she turned away, I'd already filled in the details: that person was a man, and he'd had a dispiriting day at work; he'd grown up in the country, but now he worked in the city, and on that particular day he was feeling as if he'd lost his way in life—that his life had been reduced to a train ride from here to there and back, over and over again. I understood that the man was not me, exactly, but rather some version of me, and because this was so I could remind him: you were once connected to the wild world. Don't forget what that was like. I could see him, alone in his train car. As the fluorescent ceiling lights gradually superseded the dusk outside, the window glass became a long, black mirror. The man's head was bent over his book. I badly wanted to talk to him, but it was impossible, and eventually, when I had watched him long enough, I turned my attention back to the manuscript and got to work.

These memories reflect, I'm sure, some of my lifelong preoccupations, one being the extraordinary quality of our relationship with dogs, because The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is unabashedly a dog story. A love story, in fact. Writing it has given me a chance to consider how intertwined our species have become. How, over millennia, we've changed dogs and how dogs, in turn, have changed us. How the rituals and obligations of animal companionship also grant moments that transcend human experience. Another preoccupation of mine, not unrelated to the first, has to do with the nature of wildness in the human character. We glimpse it in ourselves every day, from the surge of emotion that rises from nowhere to the flash of inspiration we can't explain. Even memory itself, the very core of our identity, remains slyly feral, heedlessly retrieving all manner of incident and image, indifferent to whether its discoveries are burdens or gifts.

Since the book's publication, readers have occasionally turned to me with questions. While it's true that I love talking about Edgar's story, I've also found myself admitting that I don't want—and don't have—any final answers, any overarching, ambiguity-smashing point of view. Writing a novel may not absolutely require losing perspective, but I nonetheless have. Edgar, Almondine and the people in their world feel as real to me as anyone I have ever known, and thus, by turns transparent, inexplicable and fascinating. It is as true for the writer as for the reader that any novel worth its ink should be an experience first and foremost—not an essay, not a statement, not an orderly rollout of themes and propositions. All of which is to say: stories, too, are wild things.

Will post some additional discussion questions from my book club over the next week.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle Discussion Questions

A few days ago, I finished the latest selection from my book club: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel by David Wroblewski.

Quite a powerful story. I recommend this book and I definitely suggest, as many others have, that you do not read anything about the book (especially not the inside cover) before starting the book. The inside cover gives a basic (but thorough) summary of the entire story.

If you have read the book, take a look at some of the author's discussion questions (warning, spoilers):

1. How would Edgar's story have been different if he had been born with a voice? How would Edgar himself have been different? Since Edgar can communicate perfectly well in sign most of the time, why should having a voice make any difference at all?
2. At one point in this story, Trudy tells Edgar that what makes the Sawtelle dogs valuable is something that cannot be put into words, at least by her. By the end of the story, Edgar feels he understands what she meant, though he is equally at a loss to name this quality. What do you think Trudy meant?
3. How does Almondine's way of seeing the world differ from the human characters in this story? Does Essay's perception (which we can only infer) differ from Almondine's? Assuming that both dogs are examples of what John Sawtelle dubbed canis posterus, "the next dogs", what specifically can they do that other dogs cannot?
4. In what ways have dog training techniques changed in the last few decades? Do Edgar's own methods change over the course of the story? If so, why? Do different methods of dog training represent a trade-off of some kind, or are certain methods simply better? Would it be more or less difficult to train a breed of dogs that had been selected for many generations for their intellect?
5. Haunting is a prominent motif in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. How many ghosts, both literal and figurative, are in this story? In what ways are the ghosts alike? Who is haunted, and by whom?
6. One of the abiding mysteries in Edgar's life concerns how his parents met. In fact, Edgar is an inveterate snoop about it. Yet when Trudy finally offers to tell him, he decides he'd rather not know. What does that reveal about Edgar's character or his state of mind? Do you think he might have made a different decision earlier in the story?
7. At first glance, Henry Lamb seems an unlikely caretaker for a pair of Sawtelle dogs, yet Edgar feels that Tinder and Baboo will be safe with him. What is it about Henry that makes him fit? Would it have been better if Edgar had placed the dogs with someone more experienced? Why doesn't Edgar simply insist that all the dogs return home with him?
8. Claude is a mysterious presence in this story. What does he want and when did he start wanting it? What is his modus operandi? Would his methods work in the real world, or is such behavior merely a convenient trope of fiction? Two of the final chapters are told from Claude's point of view. Do they help explain his character or motivation?
9. In one of Edgar's favorite passages from The Jungle Book, Bagheera tells Mowgli that he was once a caged animal, until "one night I felt that I was Bagheera - the Panther - and no man's plaything, and I broke the silly lock with one blow of my paw and came away." There is a dialectic in Edgar's story that is similarly concerned with the ideas of wildness and domestication. How does this manifest itself? What is the "wildest" element in the story? What is the most "domestic"?
10. Mark Doty has called The Story of Edgar Sawtelle "an American Hamlet." Certainly, there are moments that evoke that older drama, but many other significant story elements do not. Edgar's encounter with Ida Paine is one example out of many. Are other Shakespearean plays evoked in this story? Consider Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and The Tempest. In what sense is The Story of Edgar Sawtelle like all Elizabethan stage drama? Is it important to know (or not know) that the story is, at some level, a retelling of an older tale? Do you think Elizabethan audiences were aware that Hamlet was itself a retelling of an older story?
11. Until it surfaces later in the story, some readers forget entirely about the poison that makes its appearance in the Prologue; others never lose track of it. Which kind of reader were you? What is the nature of the poison? When the man and the old herbalist argue in the Prologue, who did you think was right?
12. In the final moments of the story, Essay must make a choice. What do you think she decides, and why? Do you think all the dogs will abide by her decision?

Loving Frank Discussion

One of my book clubs just finished its discussion of Nancy Horan's Loving Frank, a historical novel fictionalizing the love affair of Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright that my book club just loved.

Our first discussion question sparked much conversation as did our final discussion question:

How did Mamah's relationship with Ellen Key (the Swedish feminist whose work so profoundly influences Mamah) mirror - or differ- from hers with Frank Lloyd Wright?

Will write more about my thoughts on this book later.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

One of my book clubs has just selected yet another Oprah's Book Club book as it's next selection: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel by David Wroblewski.

Some of the girls in my book club said that Oprah told her viewers not to read the inside cover of the book until they have read the book, and the girls in my book club who have already read the book suggested not reading anything about the book until you've read the book in its entirety.

So all I know about this book is what I read in Janet Maslin's review for the New York Times "Talking to Dogs, Without a Word" published june 13, 2008.

That's all I'll say since I'd hate to spoil the book for anyone.

Click here to visit the author's website where you can read an excerpt, find discussion questions, and much more.

Loving Frank discussion questions

I'm enjoying Nancy Horan's historical novel Loving Frank.

Since I'm reading this for a book club, I've looked up some discussion questions as usual.

Here are some discussion questions courtesy of Random House:

1. Do you think that Mamah is right to leave her husband and children in order to pursue her personal growth and the relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright? Is she being selfish to put her own happiness and fulfillment first?
2. Why do you think the author, Nancy Horan, gave her novel the title Loving Frank? Does this title work against the feminist message of the novel? Is there a feminist message?
3. Do you think that a woman today who made the choices that Mamah makes would receive a more sympathetic or understanding hearing from the media and the general public? 
4. If Mamah were alive today, would she be satisfied with the progress women have achieved or would she believe there was still a long way to go?
5. In Sonnet 116, Shakespeare writes, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments. Love is not love/That alters where it alteration finds. . . .” How does the relationship of Mamah and Frank bear out the sentiments of Shakespeare’s sonnet? What other famous love matches fill the bill?
6. Is Mamah’s story relevant to the women of today?
7. Is Frank Lloyd Wright an admirable figure in this novel? Would it change your opinion of him to know that he married twice more in his life? 
8. What about Edwin Cheney, Mamah’s husband? Did he behave as you might have expected after learning of the affair between his wife and Wright?
9. Edwin’s philosophy of life and love might be summed up in the following words from the novel: “Tell her happiness is just practice. If she acted happy, she would be happy.” Do you agree or disagree with this philosophy?
10. "Carved over Wright's fireplace in his Oak Park home are the words “Life is Truth.” What do you think these words mean, and do Frank and Mamah live up to them?
11. Why do you think Horan chose to give her novel the epigraph from Goethe, “One lives but once in the world.”?
12. When Mamah confesses her affair to her friend Mattie, Mattie demands, "What about duty? What about honor?" Discuss some of the different meanings that characters in the novel attach to these two words.
13. In analyzing the failure of the women’s movement to make more progress, Mamah says, “Yet women are part of the problem. We plan dinner parties and make flowers out of crepe paper. Too many of us make small lives for ourselves.” Was this a valid criticism at the time, and is it one today? 
14. Why does seeing a performance of the opera Mefistofele affect Mamah so strongly? 
15. "Why is Mamah's friendship with Else Lasker Schuler important in the book?"
16. Ellen Key, the Swedish feminist whose work so profoundly influences Mamah, states at one point, “The very legitimate right of a free love can never be acceptable if it is enjoyed at the expense of maternal love.” Do you agree?
17. Another of Ellen Key’s beliefs was that motherhood should be recompensed by the state. Do you think an idea like this could ever catch on in America? Why or why not? 
18. Is there anything that Frank and Mamah could have done differently after their return to America that would have ameliorated the harsh welcome they received from the press? Have things changed very much in that regard today?
19. What part did racism play in Julian Carleton’s crime? Were his actions the product of pure insanity, or was he goaded into violence? 

Back to reading. 

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

Last weekend, I also finished reading Walker Percy's The Moviegoer, just in time for my book club's discussion of this piece of classic Southern literature (my book club started it's discussion a bit later than planned).

I'm happy to report that I liked this novel! It was a bit slow to start, but Binx Bolling's search for meaning is timeless.

Given that this was written by a Southern writer, I was surprised to find a few references to Buddhism. Here's one: "My aunt likes to say she is an Episcopalian by emotion, a Greek by nature, and a Buddhist by choice."

Here are a few other quotes I liked from The Moviegoer:

Only in time of illness or disaster or death are people real.

I do believe the South has produced more high-minded women, women of universal sentiments than any other section of the country except possibly New England in the last century. Of my six living aunts, five are women of the loftiest theosophical panBrahman sentiments.

By heaven she is just like the girls in the movies who won't put out until you prove to them what a nice unselfish fellow you are, a lover of children and dogs.

And considering the title I was surprised to find references not just to movies but also to many books:

• A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman
  
• Arabia Deserta by Charles Doughty
• Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
• Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
• Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
• The Greene Murder Case by S. S. Van Dine
• The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• What is Life? The Physical Aspects of the Living Cell by Erwin Schroedinger
• The Universe as I See It by Albert Einstein

Of course a fair number of movies were also mentioned:

• Panic in the Streets
• It Happened One Night
• Red River
• The Oxbow Incident
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Dark Waters
• The Charterhouse of Parma

I've haven't seen any of the movies mentioned and read only a few of the books mentioned. I think I would like to read Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet and I've been meaning to read Grace Metalious's Peyton Place. And of course I have to make it a priority to read Tolstoy's War and Peace.

All in all, I liked this book a lot more than Carson McCullers’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (click here to view my posts on that book).

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

One of my book clubs has just selected Loving Frank by Nancy Horan as our next selection.

I first heard about this from a New York Times article titled "Notes on a Scandal" by Liesl Schillinger published September 27, 2007. This historical novel sounded intriguing then and I'm happy to have an excuse to read it.

Loving Frank is a novel about Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney -- an educated woman who scandalized Chicago when she left her husband and two young children to flee to Europe with Wright (who left behind a wife and six children of his own).  Their love affair, in the early years of the 20th century, was a scandal in Chicago society and beyond, wherever Wright's name was known.

Click here to read an excerpt of the first chapter.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Discussion Questions

As my book club gets ready to discuss Michael Pollan's The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I've re-read the discussion questions provided by Borders Book Stores and the Sierra Club and I've found a few more (courtesy of Penguin Group); they also seem to be relevant for discussions of In Defense of Food:

1. Michael Pollan approaches eating as an activity filled with ethical issues. Do you agree that the act of eating is as morally weighty as he says it is? What questions concern you most about the way you eat or the way your food is created?
2. Some readers might argue that Pollan’s ethics do not go far enough, perhaps because he does not urge us all to become vegetarians or possibly because of the zeal with which he pursues the feral pig that he kills toward the end of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Did you find yourself quarreling with any of Pollan’s ethical positions, and why?
3. Pollan argues that capitalism is a poor economic model to apply to the problems of food production and consumption. Do you agree or disagree, and why?
4. Pollan also shows a number of instances in which government policies have apparently worsened the crisis in our food culture. What do you think should be the proper role of government in deciding how we grow, process, and eat our food?
5. How has Michael Pollan changed the way you think about food?
6. At the end of In Defense of Food, Pollan offers a series of recommendations for improved eating. Which, if any, do you intend to adopt in your own life?
7. Which of Pollan’s recommendations would you be least likely to accept, and why?
8. Do you think that the way Americans eat reveals anything about our national character and broader shared values? How is Pollan’s writing a statement not only about American eating, but about American culture and life?
9. In both The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, Pollan quotes the words of Wendell Berry: “Eating is an agricultural act.” What does Berry mean by this, and why is his message so important to Pollan’s writing?
10. In each part of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan has a particular friend to help him understand the food chain he is investigating: George Naylor in Iowa, Joel Salatin at Polyface, and Angelo Garro in northern California. Which of these men would you most like to know personally, and why?
11. What, in the course of his writing, does Michael Pollan reveal about his own personality? What do you like about him? What, if anything, rubs you the wrong way?
12. If Michael Pollan were coming to your place for dinner, what would you serve him and why?

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

I've just started reading The Moviegoer by Walker Percy for a book club.

I've been so busy this summer I found myself with just a few days to read this book club selection, which won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962.

The Moviegoer concerns the life of the searching and rootless Binx Bolling, a young stockbroker in post-war New Orleans.

It is said to be a classic piece of Southern Literature, like Carson McCullers's The Heart is a Lonely Hunter -- which I also read for a book club and did not particularly enjoy (click here to read all my posts related to The Heart is a Lonely Hunter).

So I am keeping my expectations for The Moviegoer low.

I'll write more once I finish and again after my book club's discussion.

If you are also reading this for a book club, you may be looking for discussion questions:

Discuss why John feels that everyone around him is dead, although they are obviously still living. What makes him feel this way?

How does the title of "The Moviegoer" relates to the theme of the book?

What is the root of Kate's depression? What terrifies her the most in life?

Explain the significance of Aunt Emily's home, Elysian Fields?

Got to finish this book quick!

Leap of Faith by Queen Noor

Sadly, my book club's discussion of Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor was quite poor (click here to read all my posts about this book).

Maybe it's because Israeli-Palestinian issues are a sensitive subject or maybe most of the group didn't read it but no one seemed willing to discuss the book!

Oh well, I enjoyed the book and that's what matters.

Any suggestions on books to learn about Israeli-Palestinian history and politics?

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes - Book Club Discussion

Last month I read Julian Barnes's Arthur & George for one of my book clubs (click here to read all entries related to this book) and we've just started discussing it.

While I enjoyed the book, my lit sisters were less than impressed with it. Generally, they thought the book was well constructed, well researched but tedious to read.

My book club found George's character and his family incredibly boring, though most did feel sorry for him once Arthur became involved in his defense.

However, I was in agreement with the group that George Edalji's father's refusal to defend his son against the terrible accusations made against him, the family's bizarre sleeping arrangements, and their total denial about any racial motivation behind the strange persecution they lived with for years were baffling.

The discussion continues this week . . .

Leap of Faith by Queen Noor

I felt mesmerized reading Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor (click here to read all my posts about this book), which I finished a few days ago.

Queen Noor is really a remarkable woman and role model. She is an international humanitarian activist and an intelligent and outspoken voice on issues of world peace and justice -- she has worked with the World Wildlife Fund International, Seeds of Peace, United World Colleges, Landmine Survivors Network among many others.

The beautiful love story of King Hussein and Queen Noor nearly brought me to tears.

As someone who feels rather uneducated when it comes to issues of the Middle East, I was grateful to learn the differences between Shi'a and Sunni Muslims (Shi'a are a minority and believe that only direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad may have spiritual or political rule over the community), what the term Hashimite means (direct descendants of Muhammad), and about the tragic and complex history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

I urge you to read this thoughtful intelligent memoir.

Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor

I have been reading the extraordinary memoir of Queen Noor of Jordan, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life.

This book is incredibly touching, from the breathless romance of their courtship to the painful stories of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

I'm a sucker for letters and I was particularly moved by the 10th anniversary letter King Hussein of Jordan wrote to Queen Noor, pubilshed in Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor (which I'm reading for a book club).

Here's the letter:

This is a very special time, this is a very special month and a very special year. We are ten years older and ten years old. We will never be ten again, but with God's blessings we shall continue to grow and mature together all the more for many other years to come. Silver, gold, who can predict?

I thank God for our life of love and the children we are blessed to have. I thank you for so much. I know it is not all that I would have wished for you or anything close to that. I know myself, I know my shortcomings, and I also know I am blessed to have you by my side, loving, caring, brave, and pure. All the finest things in life grow more valuable as they grow and mature. I hope the times to come will be better than those that have passed, and I treasure all the happiest of memories of our travel through time. For despite the fact that everything changes from time to time and one drives down to start a hill climb, the balance I feel is in the realm of goodness as together we climb through the years.

This is a special time, a special month and year. I am every proud of you as you stand by my side. I pray for God to bless you through the years and give us strength and courage, happiness, contentment, and the comfort of sharing and giving of our best. God bless our family. And many thanks to you for being you. The One God blessed me by bringing us together ten years ago to start through life a loving husband and his beloved wife. With you by my side, I celebrate each day. Happy 10th and with God's blessings, many more to come.

With all my love,

Hussein

NYTimes.com - A Book Club Courts Liberals

I've just heard about the new Progressive Book Club in Motoko Rich's "A Book Club Courts Liberals" published June 16, 2008 in the New York Times.

Members can join and buy three books at $1 apiece in exchange for the obligation to buy four books over the next two years.

Members of the Progressive Book Club will be offered a slate of books each month, reviewed and chosen by a panel that includes the novelists Michael Chabon, Erica Jong and Barbara Kingsolver; John Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation magazine; and Todd Gitlin, the author and a journalism and sociology professor at Columbia University.

The offerings for June include:

• The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker by Steven Greenhouse (click here for my entries on this book)
• Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte (click here for my entry on this book)
• Outright Barbarous: How the Violent Language of the Right Poisons American Democracy by Jeffrey Feldman
• Mudbound, a novel by Hillary Jordan
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (click here for my entries on this book)
• Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
• Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America by Cullen Murphy
• Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America by Steven Waldman (click here for my entry on this book)

The club will also offer about 200 older titles such as:

• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Common Sense by Thomas Paine
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
• Oil! by Upton Sinclair
• The End of Nature by Bill McKibben

I doubt I'll join -- I've been trying to limit my book purchases by borrowing books from my local library -- but it seems like it'll be a good place to check for new books.

Leap of Faith by Queen Noor

I just picked up Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor at my local library; it’s the next selection for one of my book clubs.

This is the memoir of Queen Noor, the fourth wife and widow of the late King Hussein of Jordan. Born Lisa Najeeb Halaby as an American, Queen Noor is of English, Swedish, Scottish, and Syrian descent. Educated in the United States at Concord Academy and Princeton University where she studied architecture and urban planning, she met King Hussein while working in Jordan on the development of the Amman Intercontinental Airport. The couple married on June 15, 1978 and had four children.

Should be quite interesting!

Click here to read an excerpt.

And since I’m reading this for a book club, I looked up some discussion questions:

1. In the Acknowledgments section Queen Noor states, "This book was written in the spirit of reconciliation, which I hope will contribute to a greater awareness, especially in the West, of events that have shaped the modern Middle East, and encourage a deeper understanding of contemporary challenges facing the Arab world." Prior to reading Leap of Faith, what was your perception of Jordan and the Middle East? Did reading this book change your opinion in any way? How is it different to get a personal perspective rather than journalistic accounts in the media?
2. What circumstances in Queen Noor's background-ie, her Arab-American heritage, her family's international travels, etc-gave her an advantage in assuming the role of Jordan's queen? What, if any, were detriments?
3. In one instance Queen Noor recalls her "first impressions of Jordan" (pg 2) as being "overwhelmed by an extraordinary sensation of belonging and an almost mystical sense of peace." Were you surprised at how quickly she embraced life in Jordan? Why or why not?
4. What do you think attracted Queen Noor and King Hussein to one another? Queen Noor admits that she agonized over her decision of whether or not to marry King Hussein. One of her concerns was that his "own people might feel antagonistic toward their King, even betrayed, by his choice of an American woman, albeit one with Arab roots" (pg 82). How, ultimately, did she know it was the right decision to marry King Hussein?
5. Queen Noor reveals that the "most precious gift" (pg 95) the King ever gave her was her name, which means "light" in Arabic. As she said, "Over the next few weeks and months, a transition gradually took place in my mind, in my dreams. I became Noor." Why did this bestowing of a new name have such an impact on her? Why do you think she was willing to change her name?
6. "My attachment to Jordan and Jordanians came very naturally, but it was harder to define exactly what my role should be in terms of contribution to the well-being of the country" (pg 128). What role did Queen Noor ultimately define for herself? Were you surprised that King Hussein encouraged his wife in the pursuit of a non-traditional role for a queen?
7. The marriage of Queen Noor and King Hussein was inescapably intertwined with the politics of the region and the world. "My memories of those personally challenging times are inextricable from my memories of the political dramas we were engaged in" (pg 139). How did she make her marriage work under these circumstances? If you had been in her shoes what, if anything, would you have done differently?
8. When Queen Noor told her family of her decision to marry King Hussein, her mother and father were both concerned for her future but for different reasons. Her mother "expressed her concern that our culturally different backgrounds might prevent us from finding a common language." Her father's anxieties "were more political" (pg 91), wondering if his daughter could handle the intricacies of a Byzantine royal court and fearing for her safety amid the turbulence of the Middle East. How did these concerns-personal and political-come into play in their daughter's life as Jordan's queen?
9. During the Gulf War, Queen Noor visited the United Stated and believed that her husband "was being made out to be an enemy of the United States, when he was anything but" (pg 318). What was your perception of King Hussein as a ruler in the Middle East? Discuss the significance of King Hussein's friendship with Prime Minister Rabin of Israel.
10. Upon her marriage to King Hussein, Queen Noor found herself stepmother to his eight children, and she later gave birth to four children of her own. What challenges did she face being both mother and stepmother to twelve children, and how did she overcome them?
11. What surprised you the most about Queen Noor?
12. What will you most remember from Leap of Faith?

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

Last week I finished Arthur & George by Julian Barnes for one of my book clubs (click here to read all entries related to this book).

This novel is moving, intelligent and thoughtfully deals with issues of race, class, morality, honor, spirituality, friendship and love. Barnes's elegant prose is compelling, particularly the riveting dialogue, and carefully crafted characterizations.

Arthur's voice is saturated with that of Sherlock Holmes and the contemplations of Alfred Wood (Arthur's assistant) that he is to Arthur as Dr. Watson is to Sherlock Holmes add a light-hearted nature to the miscarriage of justice that George Edalji suffered.

I smiled when Barnes had George read "a tattered cheap edition" of The Hound of the Baskervilles in prison and "judged it excellent."

I felt uncomfortable reading about Mam's developing relationship with Brian Waller, just six years older than Arthur.

I read with mixed feelings about Arthur's affair with the young classically trained mezzo-soprano and accomplished horsewoman Jean Leckie and Mam's subsequent approval of the relationship. The flirtation would be so delightful if not adulterous:

He looks down into her hazel-green eyes. "Are you flirting with me, young lady?"

She looks straight back at him. "I am talking to you about skiing." But those, it feels, are only her nominal words.

"Because if you are, be careful I do not fall in love with you."

He barely knows what he has said. He half means it entirely and half cannot imagine what has got into him.

"Oh, you are already. In love with me. And I with you. There is no doubt about it. No doubt at all."

I was outraged when Mam went so far as to give Jean a small pale cabochon sapphire ring (which had once belonged to her great-aunt) because Arthur chivalrously wished for Jean to wear a ring to symbolize their love.

And I was saddened to read of Jean's introduction to Arthur's dearest sister Lottie and even to his wife's mother with assurances that Touie will "be shielded at all cost from knowledge, pain and dishonour" and it pained me to read of the heated disagreement between Arthur and his sister Connie and brother-in-law Willie regarding Arthur's impropriety.

I laughed out loud at the use of the chess term zugzwang (a player whose turn it is to move whose every possible move would worsen their position is said to be in zugzwang) to describe what Arthur's life feels like and I read with curiosity Arthur's deepening interest in "spiritism" and mysticism:

"If you look at what it actually says in the Bible, if you ignore the way in which the text has been altered and misinterpreted to suit the will of the established churches, it's quite clear that Jesus was a highly trained psychic or medium. The inner circle of the Apostles, especially Peter, James and John, were clearly chosen for their spiritist capabilities. The 'miracles' of the Bible are merely -- well, not merely, wholly -- examples of Jesus's psychic powers."

And as I mentioned before, I was disgusted by the descriptions of animal mutilation and saddened by the racism endured by George Edalji at the hands of policemen and others.

Ultimately I felt joyous reading about the Courts proclaiming George innocent and about Arthur's work in this verdict help lift Arthur out of his depression.

It is because this novel evoked such emotion in me that it was so captivating.

I'm looking forward to my book club's discussion of Arthur & George!

And I must borrow a copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles from my local library to re-read.

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

I've written a few times about Julian Barnes's Arthur & George, which I'm reading for one of my book clubs.

This wonderful piece of historical fiction is a joy to read; I can see why it was shortlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize!

I'm 50 pages into Part II, Beginning with an Ending, which is about one quarter of the way through Part II and I am hooked.

I feel quite sad for George Ernest Thompson Edalji, newly educated solicitor-at-law and author of Railway Law for the "Man in the Train," and the racist persecution he endured at the hands of menacing strangers and the police and the graphic descriptions of animal torture disgusts me.

In the meantime, Arthur Conan Doyle's literary career has taken off at the expense of his medical career while his wife, Louisa (Touie) has been diagnosed with tuberculosis (known as consumption at the time).

The contrast and similarities between the lives of these two men makes you wonder how their paths will cross later in the book.

Can't wait to find out!