Page Turner's take on Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the March meeting, but thank you for humoring me with the April selection. You can read my thoughts on Animal, Vegetable, Miracle here (and check out the other things I've been reading, too). Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

I'll see you in a few weeks!

Page Turner (Heather)

April selection: The Book Thief

The author's website says: "It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . . Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul."

Hmmmm . . . very intruiging. Next meeting: April 15.

March selection: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

HistoryBuff made the March selection of bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver's non-fiction Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (written with Camille Kingsolver and Steven L. Hopp). She and her family documented a year of procuring as much of their food as possible from neighboring farms and their own backyard. "Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet."

Having enjoyed The Poisonwood Bible in our first year, we have reason to expect good things. Our next discussion is March 18.

The Genius Factory, by David Plotz

I've put my review of the book on BFL's Pro-Life Pastors' Corner blog. Our February club meeting was well attended, with lively discussion of this compelling topic. I hope other members will post their thoughts.

The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins

"Frailty, thy name is woman!" Hamlet Act 1, scene 2

Wilkie Collins doesn't hold women in much higher regard, despite his ability to paint a strong, able, intelligent Marian. Yet even she succumbed to severe illness, brought on by a cold and fever. Okay, they didn't have antibiotics, and they had to wear corsets, but please! Poor Laura was brought down by the mere sight of her friend's illness. Too much of the story hinges on this frailty.

But don't let my impatience on this minor point hinder you from a gripping tale. It is a "sensation" novel. It does have well drawn characters (Fosco). Every chapter leaves you hanging. It would have been fascinating to receive every installment in serial form.

Our discussion Thursday, January 21, plumbed this subject and others. Group members, add comments and posts here! Be sure to read Page Turner's review on her blog, Lines from the Page.

What Would Jane Do?

Today's readers tend to appreciate Austen despite her didacticism rather than because of it. She can be positively priggish, and that is an embarrassment. The contemporary reader who loves Jane Austen sort of blips over the moralizing sections and tells himself that they don't really count. It is possible to ignore this aspect of her work, just as it is possible to discuss a religious painting with hardly any reference to the artist's religious intent. But this seems absurd: Ignoring a writer's central concern is a strange way to attempt to appreciate and understand her.

The question arises, then, of how to reconcile Austen's moralism with modern sensibility. To address this problem, it would be useful if we could find someone with this modern sensibility who actually reads Austen for her moral instruction (in addition to the literary pleasure she provides). How convenient that we have someone who fits that description available to us: me.

By James Collins, from A Truth Universally Acknowledged (Random House), excerpted in the Wall Street Journal

Interview with Wendell Berry

Diane Rehm interviews one of our favorite authors, Wendell Berry. He talks about farming and a recently published book of poetry.

Interview with John Irving

Here's an interesting interview with the novelist John Irving. He talks about how he writes.

January Club selection: The Woman in White

Experience what it was like to read a serialized novel, to be left in suspense for a week until the next installment. One hundred and fifty years after its first publication, The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is being published once more in its original, weekly parts. Three parts have now been published. You can even see images of the original periodical pages.
 
The story first appeared as a serial in Charles Dickens's periodical All The Year Round beginning with the issue dated Saturday 26 November 1859 and ending with the issue dated Saturday 25 August 1860. The story was published simultaneously in New York in Harper's Weekly.

The first part of the reprint was available on Monday 23 November 2009 and the last will be on Sunday 22 August 2010, in the morning UK time. (The day changes because of the Leap Year in 1860.) The parts are e-texted with all faults exactly as printed.
 
A separate pdf is also published each week which captures the feel of the original in a more readable form. It can be read on-screen or printed out. Or you can subscribe free to receive it week by week in your in-box by emailing Paul Lewis. Access it all through The Woman in White web page.

The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls never got to live in the glass castle her father conjured up as the ideal family abode, but that did not cause her to cast stones. Her memoir is an unflinchingly honest yet warm appraisal of her growing-up years. I think we all came away from the book marveling at how she and her older siblings not only survived but thrived in their environment. A key question on all our minds was how did she not grow bitter?

Our discussion was wide-ranging. A main topic of conversation concerned parenthood. If the Walls children could grow up to be responsible adults having had virtually no supervision, then do modern parents over-protect? The reverse-side-of-the-coin question is, Is it right for parents to cause their children to suffer in the pursuit of their (the parents') dreams? There are no easy answers, but we have a case-history in the lives of Rex and Rose Mary Walls (as told from the point of view of one of the children). They are fortunate to be able to say their children fared no worse for neglect, or indeed their 'contributing to the delinquency of minors' in their household. How many 'helicopter parents' have seen their children become irresponsible adults? Considering Maureen's difficulties, three out of four isn't bad.

It could be said that the sink-or-swim method of parenting yields positive results. How much of that is due to the individual determination of Lori, Brian, and Jeannette Walls is impossible to say. Was it a kind of reverse-psychology that led them to work diligently, budget and save frugally, and crave cleanliness? Rex and Rose Mary filled their home with books and were avid readers themselves. Was that what gave the children a vision of a better life?

The biggest mystery of the book, to me, was how the three oldest were able to safely and sanely sort through the mixture of myth and fact their parents had given them. Psychologist couches are filled with people paralyzed by the lies they'd internalized growing up. Rose Mary, especially, had an answer for everything. Stinking, starving, shivering? It's a grand adventure! Other children have Christmas presents and three square meals a day? Who wants to live such a conventional life?!?

I could forgive them almost anything, but not Rose Mary's reluctance to get glasses for Lori. How can a parent justify leaving her child in near-blindness with the claim that every artist has a different vision? Vive la difference? Not hardly. I'd have a lot more patience with their dream-chasing if they had actually for one minute tried to provide for their children. There's a big difference between not being able to provide for ones' children and not even trying -- and covering it up with high-minded philosophy. It left me thinking that the only people who can afford to be Progressives are ones with money.

Apparently, Rose Mary was reacting against her own starchy upbringing, and Rex was escaping his traumatic one. If ever there's an example of why blaming your parents is a crock, this book is it. The lesson is, you make your own future (by God's grace).

Yes, there were positives, obviously. There was attention paid to the children, even if it was a little oddly expressed. They were loved. Their minds were nurtured, if not their bodies. There was a tremendous feeling of togetherness and inter-dependency among them. They made their own fun and fought their battles together. The children inherited a genius for creativity and resourcefulness (Jeannette's homemade braces, leaving Welch and making it in the big city). At numerous points throughout the story, disaster loomed but never materialized, thanks to the quick thinking and bravery of one or the other. It's a profoundly positive tale, one I wished had been longer.

Notable quotes:

• Page 69 - "We were always supposed to pretend our life was one long and incredibly fun adventure."
• Page 103 - "Mom and Dad liked to make a big point about never surrendering to fear or to prejudice or to the narrow-minded conformist sticks-in-the-mud who tried to tell everyone what was proper."
• Page 129 - On one occasion of Jeannette's embarrassment: "'Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy,' Mom told me. 'You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.'"

There is truth in this view of life, but at whose expense? If I could point to one instance where it was the parents who suffered for their philosophy instead of the children, I'd have a lot more sympathy.

One club member pointed out that Rose Mary could very well have been depressed or bipolar. That fits with much of what occurs. We can be thankful, then, that Someone watched out for her little ones.