Book Reviews 2005-2006: LTBC

The Last Thursday Book Club
Summaries and Review Comments from the Meetings

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Summaries & Reviews from 2005-2006 Selections

Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney - January 2005

So: 'tis known that this bawdy band of Geeks
As the day of Thor advanced upon us all
Once more unlocked our word-hoard
And journeyed to the great hall.

No longer possessing the strength of the legendary son of Ecgtheow
But long life brings wisdom - with such treasures we must be frugal.
Though we were never much celebrated against the demon Grendel
Yet have we not searched out and slain the mighty Google?

Thus did we gather within the hall of the Great Dane of Dellwood
Nestled between the valleys of the Comanche and the Candelaria.
Proceeding toward the sunset, second abode: seven, five, nil, and eight -
We feared not the water nashed with reptiles, nor the insect with malaria.

- Bring forth the mead and the wenches !

...  well, at least some more mead ...

Side by side comparison of ~15 lines in two translations:

Translation by Burton Raffel
A powerful monster, living down in the darkness, growled in pain, impatient as day after day the music rang loud in that hall, the harp’s rejoicing call and the poet’s clear songs, sung of the ancient beginnings of us all, recalling the Almighty making the earth, shaping these beautiful plains marked off by oceans, then proudly setting the sun and moon to glow across the land and light it; the corners of the earth were made lovely with trees and leaves, made quick with life, with each of the nations who now move on its face.
And then as now warriors sang of their pleasure: so Hrothgar's men lived happy in his hall till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend, Grendel, who haunted the moors, the wild marshes, and made his move in a hell not hell but earth.

Translation by Seamus Heaney
Then a powerful demon, a prowler through the dark, nursed a hard grievance. It harrowed him to hear the din of the loud banquet every day in the hall, the harp being struck and the clear song of a skilled poet telling with mastery of man’s beginnings, how the Almighty had made the earth a gleaming plain girdled with waters; in His splendour He set the sun and the moon to be earth’s lamplight, lanterns for men, and filled the broad lap of the world with branches and leaves; and quickened life in every other thing that moved.
So times were pleasant for the people there until finally one, a fiend out of hell, began to work his evil in the world. Grendel was the name of this grim demon haunting the marshes, marauding around the heath and desolate fens;

So: Less than half[Dane] of the band gathered had read Beowulf before this selection. We few, we nine, asked many questions, and received geat (if not great) wisdom from within our Band of Brothers:
Q: to what purpose was the speaking out of Unferth against Beowulf?
A: [Genoni] This was pre-game trash talk; non uncommon among warriors even today - although you never want to say "Yo mama!" to Grendel.
Ken was able to distill the NFL metaphor in the myth, and the hero's rebuke: "...it was mostly the beer that was doing the talking" was not unlike John Wayne's admonition [in Red River? McClintock? The Cattlemen?]: "That's the whiskey talking, pilgrim!"
Joel pointed out that Hrothgar was the last refuge for the protection of his people: "The kröner stops here."
Charlie reminded us that art is different from science, and translation of a poem is a work of art.
Jack noted the role that pride played in this story, and the downfall in old age. All the forewarning by the narrator underscored the telling of the legend and the maintenance of the blood-feud: here the Swedes were waiting in the wings to attack after Beowulf's rule ended. During the banquet, the Finns were riling up their compatriots against the Danes. Ben noted that Norway has always been the poor man of Europe. Did it make sense for Beowulf to attempt this one last comeback, well past his prime? He no longer had game - it appeared to be "suicide by dragon." But enough of this fireside chat - Ben says let's vote and get on with the dessert.

Ben: I liked it - some compared the new translation of Gilgamesh with Seamus' here. It gave recurring themes, pictures of society. Beowulf was really the first Superhero myth, which today we see in Batman and Superman. I liked the Heaney translation - except for the side stories on family. A
Tom: I liked it - also I listened to the CD - the reading by Seamus Heaney covers two CDs, about two hours, but doesn't get you fidgeting. I didn't know anything about it - I was impressed with what Heaney did - each line I read, I asked myself: "how did he pick that word? What process did he use?" B
Mike: I think we need to examine this story from the mother's viewpoint: not unlike on Cold Case Files, I often see the mother of a mass murderer telling us, "But he was such a nice boy, always polite." Wouldn't any mother be outraged if her kid ran home with his arm ripped off by some big blond Geat-bully? I listened to Heaney on audio tape twice before I read it - I pictured Grendel as the Cave-Troll in Lord of the Rings, and Beowulf as the Mr. Hyde character in Sean Connery's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. When I read it, I was surprised to read sections that were not narrated in the tape. I have difficulty grading this book - how much do I relate to the oral tradition? how much to the transcribing monk? how much to Seamus Heaney? I ended up giving it a B.
Jack: Fascinating story that reflects our heritage better than anything else I've read. I enjoyed the way he handled the language: strength of the words, gave a strong impression. A
Ron: I read the author's Preface, which kept me sensitive to the alliteration and syllable rhythm. I could feel the rhythm as I read - I am still dealing with the themes. B+
Keith: [proxy presented by Ron]: Not that excited about it. I give it a B.
Charlie: I think there are two questions here: Beowulf (in the original) was a monument of the culture. It would be presumptious of us to vote on whether Beowulf was good literature, any more than we should vote on whether a Mozart concerto is good music. So we are left with question #2: what do you think of this translation? I think it was extraordinary, wonderful. I haven't listened to it yet, other that a little tonight, but I want to. Reading Beowulf in college was hard, but this translation made it easy, A
[note: LTBC met on Mozart's 249th birthday: Salzburg, 1756. NPR.org provided his Clarinet Concerto today.]
Ken: I did not read Beowulf in high school but I heard about it from my comtemporaries, so I was not thrilled to hear that this was to be our selection. I went to Page One Too, and found the cheapest copy - old English poems. Then I heard that the Heaney translation was required, and I was delighted to find Seamus had included the Cliff notes in the margin. I was hesitant, but now I agree with the others: I really enjoyed it, the writing was beautiful. And the genealogy chart in the back was great to keep up with the characters. Impressiviely written, overall B.
Joel: Of course this was my selection, I need to defend. In the movies, this theme of the hero against impossible odds of evil is blasé, overdone - but this was where it was done first. When this new translation was published several years ago, I received it from my family in hard cover, and I did not want to despoil it with my notes, so I went back and got a paperback when it came out. I am rating the story on its performance. The story is the sole entry in "Greatest Hits of 800" - it was among the first of the genre, and considering the previous reviews, one must listen to it: A, as oral, seminal work.
Don: My wife is Danish, so this encouraged me to look up some history of the Danes, Swedes, Scandinavia. I got a copy of the CD, listened, studied the historical background and I got much more out of it the second time. I was much surprised that I did so, as this was not totally my thing. I'm glad we read it, I learned more. B+

[from our dearly departed brethren:]
In Hetware and Hronesness, hurricanes hardly happen.  By Jove, I think I've
got it!  (The hurricanes hardly happen line infiltrated my mind fairly early in 
the book and I couldn't get it and its cadence out of my mind.)

Also, in Habilene and Halbuquerque, ....

This book is interesting for its antiquity, but I'm afraid I didn't find its 
story captivating or particularly interesting.  I just don't care for these 
sorts of fantasies with serial encounters with various sorts of strange 
creatures -- a la Lord of the Rings or Dante's Inferno -- or Max Evans' 
Bluefeather Fellini in the Sacred Realm for that matter, to cite one of the best 
of that genre(:-).  No doubt there's intriguing symbolism, too, but I don't have 
the patience or curiosity to puzzle it out.  Interesting choice, though.  I 
never encountered it in HS or college classes, as many apparently did.  So, I am 
glad to have become acquainted with Beowulf.

I'll give it a B-minus.

Having a good time in Abilene. Am keeping busy right now keeping class notes prepared 
ahead of class, coming up with and reading homework, preparing for quiz next week.Cheers.

Rob

The Ornament of the World by María Rosa Menocal - February 2005

Readers Blast Tolerance; Pope "Serene"

Dateline: al-Palmer Park, Al-BurQuerque: The seven not-so-deadly Cids came together with a Muslim brother to discuss the virtues of tolerance, poetry, Jedda cookies, Berbers, and Bedouins in Y1K Spain.   We learned the author, María Rosa Menocal, was born in Cuba and raised in New York. Her book is dedicated to her father, "the intrepid ... who has lived in lifelong exile from his own land of the palm trees." - certainly evocative of her description of Abd al-Rahman.
   We were honored to have as a guest at this meeting a friend of the host: Mamdouh Morsy Adbel-Gawad, a dermatologist who lives in Port Said and works in Cairo. Mamdouh is a serious student of Muslim history. He was most interested that we were reading a history of al-Andalus, and offered his insights during the discussion.
   General questions: Is it true that Islam has no icons? The crescent is a symbol, but - What about minarets? Is it true that Judaism has no (overall, Pope-like, or Caliph-like) leaders? Could the Patriarch of Jerusalem lead a military effort or call out Jews world-wide? We learned that the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, whereas (initially) the Moors only lost power - they could still worship as Muslims (this "guarantee" was later lost also).
   We found the members present held views on the book quite divergent from those expressed electronically by members who could not attend the meeting. Our views more closely agreed with those expressed by Harold Bloom (b: 1930), the outspoken Yale-based poetry guru, who wrote what must as a minimum be described as a most surprising Foreword to Menocal's book - a carefully worded left-handed compliment. The readers questioned how much of a history the book is - Bloom probably more acurately describes it as a love song addressed to the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian poets of what once we referred to as the High Middle Ages. Perhaps the most insightful theory on Menocal's book was offered by Ron B. in his summary remarks:

Ron: I could find no critical reviews of the book on the Internet, which is unfortunate. [Joel: some editorial reviews exist at Amazon.com; but for more critical, see these reviews.] The book had a jarring discontinuity with a 1382 - 1492 leap, when Ferdinand and Isabella closed out the rule by Moors in Granada - what happened? Why was this bloodless? I took the liberty to look up this history, and found an interesting story of civil war within Granada, with an exile who brought in guards from Alhambra - this missing piece made me question the book overall. Theory: The book appears to be written by a group of, say, three grad students, each writing a third. Some clues to support this theory: the first third uses the term "polity" profusely, a term which disappears in the second and third portions. The third section uses a Question and Answer approach to the writing which is not used elsewhere. This changing of writing styles was very distracting to follow. This book was not ready for publication - a good Editor would not have allowed it to be published, would have sent it back - it appears to be slapped together, didn't flow between major sections, and certainly omitted major historical events.
Having said that, the subject matter was very interesting to me - I knew nothing about Spain. (I recommend the movie "Stealing Heaven" which is the story of Peter Abelard and Heloise, very good.) I did find the book interesting - the first half was tough going, then in the latter part I saw some names I knew, and I found it more interesting. I'll give it a B+
Keith: [by proxy from Ron]. I didn't enjoy it - rambling, polyanna-ish, conflicts with scholars. Grade: D

The lady from Yale
I fail.

( it was rumored that Keith read only the first seventy pages)
Joel: I was looking forward to reading the book until I started. The first third of the book took forever - and she left out stuff I thought was quite interesting - the book would have benefited from an editor, and from more pictures. The pictures in the book also appear to be the work of a grad student, armed with a darkly filtered Kodak Instamatic with only black and white film. ( I recently saw a show on travel to Santiago, where they cover the facade of a mosque with Arabic structure, then torch it.) As to the subculture expressed here, the tolerance was not that great - there was fighting going on - Grade: C+
Mike: I am quite relieved to realize that I was not the only one that was not impressed by the writing in this book. I considered giving up the meeting in favor of the basketball game tonight, not wanting to depress the discussion with my opinion. Ron's grad student theory works well for me. The writing was some of the more irritating I have encountered. I bogged down in the middle of this book, and prepared to quit - but went on to the back, as I wanted to read any stories of the 1492 expulsion of the Moors. There I found the Don Quixote segment, and other stories that saved the grade from my initial reaction of a D. I thought a better subtitle would have been: "How Muslins, Jews, and Christians Had No Chance to Maintain A Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain." The tolerance died on page 100 of the book, with the sack of Cordoba by the Berbers in 1013. Why didn't she explore the idea of why tolerance didn't stick? Why did the country disintegrate into taifas? Our USA has also enjoyed 250 years of religious tolerance - which is more impressive? Can you imagine our country disintegrating?
I found a one page summary under Spain on the Internet that gave all the history that Menocal presented in this book - she provided very little detail and raised more questions than she attempted to answer. Why was Abd al-Rahman able to walk into Iberia and immediately be recognized as Caliph, to be declared over all of Spain in only five years? That is a big-time accomplishment - is there no history to explain that?
Overall, I longed for the effective meat-and-potatoes-with-anecdotes historical approach of Stephen Ambrose. Menocal tried to be "cutesy" to push her themes (e.g., it is manly to be a poet!). She wandered around the time period and chose some incidents to support her love story. She left out many harsh realities, e.g.: The Pope was requested by Ferdinand and Isabella to sanctify the Spanish Inquisition in 1482 against the Jews. Grade: C+
Don: <First, a request to Gary: don't publish your review until everyone has read the book!> I was anticipating looking at the subject through the eyes of someone who understood language well, someone interested in poetry, emphasizing bringing in the Jews: a good Editor could have reduced this book to 50 or 100 pages. This book was too long - great to an extent. We've been to Spain - the architecture is tremendous to behold - but if the author's view is, "Tolerance did it all" - well, I didn't see any solid evidence of that. Could have been a D, but I give it a C.
Tom: Everybody is critical of the author for something she didn't set out to do. She is obviously a romantic, not a historian. I liked the short history, but anecdotal-wise, she did jump around. The Don Quixote segment was inspired. Here she was putting forth speculation, with the translation by the marisco - would have been a great way to end the book. I'm a little worried that I'm losing my values, as here's a woman in an Ivy League college, that I like - but I also wanted more on the 250 years. B+ ... and can't one view this as demonstrating that much of the evil in this world appears to have emanated from organized religion?
Jack: I found it tough to read, but persevered. I wanted to learn more about this period - and the role that language played in this period of Spain. I liked her incorporation of opposites, holding the "yes" and "no" in the mind at the same time, which is an interesting way to look at tolerance. Granted, it only lasted for a few hundred years. I'd give it a B.
Charlie: Grade: B+ ... let's start with that. It's an important book, we need to know more about this part of the world with its cultural history, not a sequence of events. I had the same difficulty with the way she starts out with her fantasy sequence and then came back to pick up the facts - that was irritating. She gets an A for helping my education along, but her writing was B. Now I'd like to ask Mamdouh to provide some closing comments.
Mamdouh: On the idea of Tolerance: I can feel the end of the world now - everything is Power, Power - and Money, Money. We need to go back to this idea of religious tolerance.

de la absentia:

Dear Readers,

I thoroughly enjoyed "The Ornament of the World." The book is filled with
wonderful stories of how knowledge and culture flourished for several
centuries in Spain. We can be thankful for the many individuals of different
cultures and religions who preserved classical learning and enabled the
western world to acquire classical and Islamic philosphy and technology. The
book describes a period which is in contrast with the world today. The
current rise of intolerance and the inability of people of different
cultures to live in harmony is nothing new. This book shows that the
synthesis of different cultures can lead to new heights in social, artistic
and scientific achievement. Grade A-.

There are excellent photos of the Great Mosque in Cordoba and other Spanish
Islamic sites with descriptions at:

http://www.greatmirror.com/index.cfm

Under country select: Spain-Andalucia (8 chapters).

The Great Mosque in Cordoba is called "The Mesquita."

Best wishes,
Gary

Charlie,

Although I won't be in Abilene or Aukland, I will be in Costa Rica (leaving tomorrow) so I won't be able to make the meeting on Thursday. I tried to finish the Ornament before I left but only got through the first half. I got sidetracked since I bought my first digital camera last week for Costa Rica and the manual was 161 pages. Add to that fighting the leaks that found their way into my house from the recent rains. In any case, the first half of the Ornament was so fascinating and eye-opening, I definitely plan on finishing it.

Ken

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley - March 2005

The Spirit Warriors of the Last Thursday Book Club came together at Camp Blackledge-san at the end of
Stalgren Harbor to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the sunset services for the Land of the Rising Sun,
and for the Flyboys who helped to bring it about. They drank sake and ate rice balls and discussed moral
equivalence with their honorable guest, Chuck Loeber-san, author of "Building the Bombs."
Despite the best investigative efforts of these warriors, none brought forward hard biographical facts on
author James Bradley. We could only regurgitate that which he slicked up and prepared for our digestion.
Through deduction from his first book, "Flags of our Fathers," we determined that James was a product of
his father, John Bradley, arguably the only survivor of the six Marines who raised the American flag on Iwo
Jima's Mt. Suribachi on February 23, 1945. John returned from the war to his small hometown of Appleton,
Wisconsin, married Cora Gorp, his childhood sweetheart, fathered and raised a family of six boys and two
girls, and participated in community activities. James was one of the two middle children, born about 1954;
all the children were instructed to lie, "Dad's on a fishing trip" whenever a reporter called about "the" photograph.
After John died, the family found a box of mementos and documentation relating to the famous Iwo Jima
photograph experience, and that started James on his quest to tell the story. 27 publishers turned it down, but
today the movie rights have been purchased by Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood has requested to direct, and
Paul Haggis ("Million Dollar Baby") wrote the movie script. Production is due to start in September 2005.
We all learned much from Flyboys, much about the horrors of war, and how moral barriers can be trampeled
down in time of world conflict. No one had prior knowledge of the brutality that was part of the training in the
Japanese army, of the 250,000 Chinese deaths as retaliation for allowing the Doolittle bombers to land, that
more deaths occurred by the Samurai sword in WWII then by bullets.

Charlie: My grade for the book is B. The subject matter was most fascinating, and I would award it an A for what I learned. However, the presentation was disjointed, the writing skills lacking. B.
Ken: B+ - a fascinating read, I kept turning the pages, and didn't have to look up a single word in the dictionary. I found the author to be a little excessive in his criticism of the United States, as in the Mexican War, which I checked in other sources.
Jack: What came to the front of my mind as I read this was, "Why not use napalm on Chichi Jima?" And also the cliché, "So what am I, chopped liver?" The stories Bradley told (man's inhumanity to man) were so horrific I could not stop reading. I thought I had a good understanding of the War in the Pacific, but learned I did not. B+
Don: I was 14 years old on December 7, 1941, and can remember when we sat and listened to FDR declare it as a "day of infamy." I found Bradley's book heaped with too much information and poorly put together. Very interesting, but it should be edited down to 250 pages. C+
Joel: (to answer Jack's question:) Flamethrowers used napalm (jellied gasoline), correct? That works great in caves if you can force it into the cave, but from the air, flying several hundred miles per hour, may not have been the weapon of choice.
I thought the subject matter was an A. I agree that it was overly rough in attempting to demonstrate an equivalence of American to Japanese sins of war. Amazing that so few Japanese were brought to justice. Overall, the book was a B. It appeared at times to be a journalism project, e.g., for the Albuquerque Journal - pieced together, not flowing smoothly.
Ron: This was history written in a way people can read it. Some was knew information, but the comparison of fire bombing to the atomic bomb has long been compared. This was an easy read for the way it was written, difficult for the brutality of the subject matter. You don't hear much about this happening in the Pacific War (and I would hope our grandchildren would not have to read this - yet they need to know to prevent such horrors in the future.) This book was building up to the atrocities committed on the eight Flyboys, easy to read; other books present a great author, great ideas, and perhaps hard to read. How to balance the two types of books? Not easy, but I give this book an A-.
Keith: This book should have been titled, "Flyboys And Lots of Other Stuff." The book needed an editorial enema. 200 pages would be good. Why do we need so much verbiage to understand? Writing details to the first decimal point rather than the 10th is preferred. The story is one we still see today: fighting a theocracy. An amazing turn of events is that three of these Flyboys ended up in Santa Fe.
For me, historical work doesn't get good grades. It gets a C. The lesson learned is the horror of war - this may be of some value to younger people. But we are making the same mistakes ten years from now, with prison abuse. US is not a lily-white country.
Tom: Well.... I came away saddened by how history might have been different. The book tells how Billy Mitchell had a squadron of bombers hover over the Naval Academy to emphasize the point of air power. If he had just dropped a couple of 500 lb bombs ... opportunities lost.
I thought of Stephen Ambrose and his 3 x 5 cards - here Bradley's cards were shuffled, poor organization. C
Mike: Concern: Bradley did so much with his interviews and checking the records - but when he presented the talks alledgedly provided by the Japanese officers before they executed the Flyboys, he never challenged their claims of stating, "This is a brave fighter for his country..." - I doubt that the Japanese would be so complimentary of the enemy as they were attempting to build up "warrior spirit" by executing the Flyboys - why did Bradley not challenge these statements? I learned so much from this book - I enjoyed it from his opening paragraph, sitting down at the formica kitchen table with Bill Doran (USNA '46) and his pile of recently unclassified trial transcripts. The middle hit me as not being well written, as many mid-books are not, but by the last third, I was so fascinated with what Bradley had collected, and the stories he told, that I judge the effort an A-. World view changing book!
Chuck: Little did I know when I had lunch at the Coronado Club some 8-10 months ago that it would lead to this discussion. On the subject of novels vs. history - as a young man, I devoured novels, but as I've gotten along in years, I've wanted fewer novels, more history: Ambrose's Undaunted Courage; Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August are right up there for me with Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Given that bias of history over novels, plus my interest in the Nuclear Weapons Complex, I considered this great history of WWII. Yes, the author talked of this, then talked of that - but I was able to connect his dots - such as the "over-reaching" as retaliation to Doolittle's raid led to the over-reaching at the Battle of Midway, the decisive naval battle of the war. Not great writing, but an A-


Gen. Douglas MacArthur, President Franklin Roosevelt and Adm. Chester Nimitz aboard the USS Baltimore (CA-68), with Ron B's father- in-law, July 26, 1944. [ US National Archives]		American Prisoners of War after release coming aboard the USS Biloxi (CL-81), Commanding Officer A.D. Blackledge, at Nagasaki, Japan, c. August 1945. [in possession of M. Blackledge]

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson - April 2005

On the last Thursday of April, nine half-wild, lonely children ventured across the bridge, through the mist, over the nine speed bumps and past the four hills to discuss the housekeeping of Sylvie, the loyalty of Ruthie, and the gravitational pull of the iron horse. There we met guest Ed Duff of Kirtland AFB, and Don Tubesing (henceforth known as Don T.) of Placitas who has transposed MN for NM.
Housekeeping - The Movie

Host's Background: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson was published in 1981, and Bill Forsyth, director of “Local Hero” (1983, starring Burt Lancaster), made this slice of life movie in 1987, which was seen by and captivated the host. Robinson was born in 1943 in Sand Point, Idaho, received her BA from Brown in 1966, and her Ph.D. from U. of Washington in 1977. In the late 1980s, she espoused environmental causes, writing the non-fiction “Mother Country” about nuclear power concerns in England. Robinson was raised as a Presbyterian, but does not recall following a formal religion. She had a love of The Bible, and later became a Congregationalist (today sometimes presenting sermons as a church Deacon) although she describes herself as a Calvinist. For some time she has lived in Iowa City, Iowa, and has taught at the prestigious Univ of Iowa Writers' Workshop for 15 years. She cites many writers and books as an influence, including Moby Dick and Dickens. Robinson learned Latin and is a student of Cicero.

With Robinson’s interest in the Bible, Ron noted that Lucille means “Light,” and Lucille did try to move the family toward enlightenment. He wondered what Ruthie meant, and recalled from the Bible that it was Ruth who stated her loyalty: “Whither thou goest, I shall go..., thy people shall be my people...nothing but death shall divide us.” and certainly Ruthie did follow Sylvie across the bridge like Ruth followed her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi.
(Ruth 1: 1-18)
Theme: During the discussion, Don T. indicated that he had captured a page of different themes from the book. This caused him to develop an alternate title: “Lint Picking From Doilies.” Ron responded that it was more like “No Child Left Behind.” Mike questioned whether the story was a good argument for home schooling. One theme espoused by the critics was the theme of permanence and impermanence as related both to the town and the lives of the family members. Don T. indicated that the town people of Fingerbone felt threatened not by the truancy, not by the messy house, but by the transience – if people were to leave the town might fade away, and this was a concern. Jack suggested that the book offers its own theme – from page 13, after the grandfather’s death, “With him gone they were cut free from the troublesome possibility of success, recognition, advancement. They had no reason to look forward, nothing to regret. Their lives spun off the tilting world like thread off a spindle…” Don T. agreed that Sylvie lived purely in the present. And four pages from the end of the book, Ruthie confesses, “I have never distinguished readily between thinking and dreaming.” The Club members were more specific:

Charlie: B- My feelings about the book probably say more about me – I found it too literary, too studious; a tedious medium length novel. It felt cold to me, difficult to approach. B-
Ken: I found the book quite interesting, beautifully written with a believable story line. I do agree with Charlie, however – knowing this is supposed to be a great intellectual novel, I re-read paragraphs, trying to seek and grasp nuances. This turned a three-hour novel into a ten-hour novel, so I sped up my reading, and lowered my comprehension. I enjoyed it more. B+
Ed: As a newbie, I respectfully reserve judgment. I read a lot, but not this kind of book, usually more realistic, realism, but not this kind of realism to calibrate myself. It would take years for me to appreciate a book like this.
Don: The book was Tedious with a capital T.   I could see the author’s handling of words, she brings out many thoughts. However, if I compare, and look at my own family, if I had anyone in my family like these characters, I’d throw a bag over them. As I approach the end of life, I find my own three year old grandson could make these characters look like nudniks. I cannot appreciate such a book, as I am not that much of a person interested in the use of words. C+
Keith: Dark, dank, saturnine (for Naval Academy grads, that means gloomy). The story was dysfunctional, about a very dysfunctional family.    One goes off to civilization, one goes off to transience. The author does write well, poetically, but there is no product there, that is not product. In two years, I will remember only that they crossed the bridge, like gorillas in the mist. C
Ron: I thought it was remarkable writing – like the middle section of To the Lighthouse, but even better than Virginia Wolfe. This was poetic prose. She created a mood, a story that has been experienced – survivors! They were all survivors. The Grandfather at the bottom of the lake, the Mother joining him, the Great Aunts, then ending with Aunt Sylvie. Survivors – they coped. They crossed the bridge, sang songs – I could suspend disbelief. The word density of this book was low. I give it an A- and would recommend it.
Mike: Like we used to say about the DOE, this book put the fun back in dysfunctional. What do writers do? Keith once said they create places you want to be, or places you don’t want to be. They also, I submit, capture events, feelings, emotions, so when you read the description, you find yourself saying, “Yeah! That is right on!” Don T. mentioned that her work with Writer's Workshop is evident - perhaps a writing exercise produced her description of the pages burning in the fire. I found myself thinking of Robinson’s writing as Cormac McCarthy Lite. McCarthy sees life as interspersed with random violence, and Robinson’s world is peppered with random tragedy. Her characters are somewhere between Cormac McCarthy and Garrison Keillor, with something of the humor of both. Many examples; this line from page 152 is very much like McCarthy to me: "To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow." I think this is one of the top ten books we’ve read [collective groan]. Definitely an A.
Don T.: From your web site, I knew that you assigned a grade to the books you read. When reading this book, my thoughts of a grade flip-flopped [between low and high]. I knew I couldn’t give it a B or a C, the grade would have to be an A or a D. The book continued working, didn’t break the mood. I would not have finished it on my own – I have to have a little action, and I read slowly – I wanted something a little upbeat, some hope or some meaning. I’m glad she got it published – however, if I had been the editor, I would not have accepted this book, as how would I market it? Where is it going? I just didn’t “get” it, and I kept feeling dumb. But then I thought, perhaps it's not all my fault, maybe the writer needs to help. Too many themes. In grading, I’d probably go with the A side, not the D. So with clear equivocation, I give it an A-   I won’t recommend it, and would tell my wife not to read it.
Jack: Not everyone likes Bud, and not all of life’s stories are beautiful. I found this book a work of art. She gave form to experience (as Mike & Ron said) – an A.
Tom: I loved this book, it is in the top 10, maybe the top 5. I found myself comparing her to Nabokov – she writes as beautifully, but not as sharp in her wit and her edge. There were three or four climactic events in this book, and each was beautifully understated: "...the rest of the train slid after it into the water like a weasel sliding off a rock." I have not read as beautifully written a book in a long time. The story is compelling, very believable, a young woman coming of age. Top ten. A

Acqua Alta by Donna Leon - May 2005

Eight water-logged, opera-starved Venicians pulled on their plastic yellow boots and trudged through the snow melt waters overflowing from the Grand Arroyo to arrive at the Loma Linda palazzo of Ron B. Here they gathered at Ron's outdoor cafe to sip Heineken and consider Donna Leon as the Tony Hillerman of Venice. Ron had discovered Donna and "Death at La Fenice" in the waiting room of a hospital in Milwaukee, and found she had created some seven mystery novels with Commissario Brunetti. The first, "Death at La Fenice" introduced readers to Brunetti (as well as Brett and Flavia) and grew from a joking discussion following the poor presentation of an opera for which Donna and colleagues felt the German conductor should be disposed of. What's the best way to do it? And thus a writing career was launched.
Donna is a contemporary, born 29 Sep 1942, in Montclaire, NJ. She recently was still teaching English at "a university near Venice" which perhaps is a University of Maryland extension college. Her seven novels with Commissario Brunetti are very popular in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Donna must have been a foreign service spouse, as she first moved to Italy in 1965, then lived in Iran, China, and Saudia Arabia.
The host provided a large map of Venice on which were marked many of the locations of the story, including locating Brett's apartment. Venician glass samples and other museum pieces were on display. The dessert was carefully selected: Neapolitan ice cream topped with evil Palermo chocolate and assisted with Milano cookies. The readers seemed to enjoy learning about Venice. Perhaps Acqua Alta was a natural follow-on from last month's Housekeeping, where the main characters there also spent time slogging around in the water in their house as if it were a standard way to get through life.

Ken: I really enjoyed reading the book for the main character: Venice. It was interesting to me to see how the bureaucracy works, and how the culture handles the problems caused by annual flooding. The story line had lots of weak points, however it was fun to have a break in our reading. B
Joel: I gave this book to my wife - and I think we ended up kinda enjoying it. This is not the type book I usually read (a mystery). It does give a sense of place (beautiful yet miserable weather). I found some author artifacts to be sterotyped and intrusive: for example, the protagonist Detective's wife had connections, and thus Brunetti was able to carry more weight because of these connections.
Towards the end (when the group was breaking into the palazzo to rescue Brett) it was like a TV show. B
(note: the pus under the fingernail or footnail relief with a heated paperclip is a true dramatic emergency room procedure. See Don T.)
Ed: I liked it - the setting - having lengthy realism. I like that kind of book. For the inconsistencies: perhaps the author was using these to see if you're paying attention! B+
Don: I was somewhat surprised with the quality of the writing - the main characters, how they felt - the city itself. I've been to Venice and up and down the Grand Canal. There was too much going on. I give it a flat B.
Keith: On a logarithmic scale, at the higher end is Grapes of Wrath and the classics. At the other end is spagetti westerns. This book was nearer the spagetti end. However, it was written by a hooker - I got hooked! B
Tom: This book didn't make an impression on me - Larry Wright's wife reads many mysteries, and read all seven of Donna Leon's novels, and doesn't think this one is her best. I enjoyed reading it, but it wasn't any real mystery, more like an action story/adventure. Easy read: B-
Charlie: I have a problem judging a book like this by Grapes of Wrath. In my youth I read a lot of junk. By junk standards, this is an A; by Grapes of Wrath standards, a B. Someone once asked Steven King, "Why don't you write any good books?" He answered, "I'm doing the best I can!" I think Donna Leon is doing the best she can.
Ron: A good book, not a great book. On a plane, sort of an easy to read book. We did enjoy it like a Tony Hillerman. A-
Mike: I knew I would miss Ben Smith, and I especially would like to hear his take on this book, and where he would place it in the spectrum of mysteries from Maltese Falcon to Yellow Dog to Hound of the Baskervilles. Without Ben, I had to motivate myself by the words of Ken Gillen, who told us once he only kept reading one selection because of his Book Club responsibilities. I really didn't want to keep reading this book - again and again I found myself saying, "Oh, no" to another improbable or just plain stupid premise. What was the purpose of beating up Brett? Did the perps think she would not tell the police about this? (note they didn't warn her not to go to the police, just not to hold her meeting with the museum director Dottor Semenzato - how would that keep things under wraps?) Why didn't Brunetti go interview the museum director Semenzato as soon as he found out that was the connection with Brett's beating? No, he had to wait until Semenzato had been murdered. Dumb, unrealistic.
I developed no interest or concern regarding these shallow characters. I was further turned off by Brunetti telling his wife to lie to her class about the reference for the Henry James quote - why not just have the class try to find the source as an exercise? What's the big deal here? And then the "clever" scene about Brunetti finding the syringes in his teenage son's clothes drawers and, oh, isn't this funny, he actually thought his son was using drugs? Ha, ha, of course he hides syringes that we are going to use to pump poison into our worm-infested wormwood table, what did you think? ha, ha! Gad, this was lame! The detective wasn't clever, wasn't Columbo, wasn't anything special - the only unsual thing he did was break into La Cabra's pallazzo - and he had very little to go on there. Acqua Alta also had little to offer, and I would not recommend it. C

From the missing yet active:
OK...I will be absent this Thursday -- standing idly by near Mayo Clinic in case needed. All seems to be going well with my son so far.

Re the book.

The last 3/4 of chapter 16 brought me alive in my seat.

About ten years ago while helping to construct a medical clinic on the Amazon, downriver from Iquitos, Peru, I slipped on the silky smooth river mud that covered the open floor joists while carrying one end of a 200 pound mahogany plank --yep down through the beams and into the mud splat! And on the way down smashed my finger breaking the bone in the tip. The paper clip surgery was just the relief MS Leon describes. Later on the boardwalk, under a mosquito net, buffered by Tylenol with codeine (for the bone) and a beer (I know these don't mix well together!) and a cigar that would hardly stay lit due to the humidity I sat in a mud covered sleeveless T-shirt for a photo op in a Maharishi meditation pose. My staff later had it blown up and put on my office door with the heading, "Would you buy a used car from this man?"

Five years ago coming back from Utah with a load of alabaster for carving I smashed my thumb between two of the boulders. That night at "Bashful Bob's Apartments" near Lake Powell I tried making my left hand administer the treatment to my right thumb. I would get the paper clip red hot...and boldly poke the nail. But each time something in my brain in anticipation of the pain would make my left hand stop just before it burned through -- making the right hand, of course, hurt worse. Then I would dry the sweat off, stop hyperventilating and spend fifteen minutes trying to sleep, only to get up and start the process over again. By the time I finally burned the clip through the nail it had been more than two hours and the nail was polkadotted with seven partial soot rimmed holes ....and poor 'Bashful Bob's apartment walls were steaming with expletives. One hand simply doesn't seem to want to do it to the other! So, here is my favorite passage:

"That's all," he said, giving her ankle a squeeze.
"Do you think I could do it?" she asked.
"Do you mean on yourself or on someone else?" he asked.
"Either."
"I don't see why not."

Well, it is certainly easier said than done! Good luck, Ms. Leon and characters.

Oh, yeh, the book?
I enjoyed it -- especially the sex, which apparently was washed out by the rain and high water. (nothing better than imagination!)

be well
all
Don T.

Dear Mike,
Sorry I was not able to get to a cyber cafe last week to share my comments.  The 
villages along the Saone River were too small.  In short, I enjoyed the novel.  
It was a well crafted mystery story which made for great reading on the plane 
and trains we have taken over the past couple of weeks.  I would give it an A-
Jack

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - June 2005

Eleven Hazaras, S'hia, bearded readers of the LTBC kabulled together on the final Thursday of June, running kites through the Far Northeast Heights, nay, even unto the courtyard of Agha Don. There we found food to fill our bellies and wine and cold drink to quench the desert's heat. For it is written: run west of Wyoming, dodge between the Comanche and Montgomery, and thou will find the blue kite, bachem. We compared the gashes on our Western fingers (mostly from paper cuts) to the first novel of Khaled Hosseini. We found no monster, just a beautiful day.
We found that Khaled was born in Kabul in 1965, the eldest of five children. His mother was a teacher of Farsi and History at a large girls high school in Kabul. When he was 11, Khaled's family was relocated to Paris where his father was assigned a diplomatic post in the Afghan embassy. They tried to return him in 1980, but by then the Soviet invasion was underway and the family asked for and was granted political asylum in the U.S. They moved to San Jose, CA that year. Khaled attended Santa Clara University and graduated from UC San Diego School of Medicine. He has been in practice as an internist since 1996, and wrote this first novel post 9/11, published in 2003. Khaled Hosseini is married, with two children Haris (boy) and Farah (girl).
Amazon.com has some 600 reader reviews of this book; most are positive, a minority are negative. So are we to judge this book on the basis of first novels, or of the entire known body of Afghan literature, as a work of insight into the Afghan culture, a beginner's glossary of the Afghan language, as a return to Islamic principles, as a work of art ... let the readers come forth and speak ...

Tom: Did we have to have the villain of this Afghan story as a blond, blue-eyed psychopath? A half-German Hitler-youth, no less? Are there no swarthy villains in Afghanistan? I fall somewhere in the middle of the reviews. I was somewhat disappointed in the writing although I did like the story of the young boys - but all the plot contrivances were too much; C+   Nothing memorable.
Ron: I liked it - it was a Damn Fine Book - didn't dazzle the reader with how well it was written, but told a good story that was painted with the culture. I was willing to suspend my belief and go where the novelist took me. First novel, and I give it an A-     Good book, and I didn't notice the transition problems as did Ken.
Rob: I liked the first part, but was put off by the heavy foreshadowing. And the fact that he had to go to the Stadium and watch the stoning in order to make an appointment with the Taliban leader after the Blood Bath: B-
Keith: The range of emotions was primo - I was uplifted and dropped down - demons, euphoric - I compare getting a book to read with entering the lottery - buy a ticket and take a chance on your ten bucks or your ten hours - I hit it big here. I give it a good solid B+
Ken: Although quite contrived at the end, the book was a page-turner with interesting and well-developed characters. Fascinating portraits of the lives and thought-processes of Afghan people both in Afghanistan and as immigrants to the U.S. Many absorbing passages - for instance the kite flying contest and the escape to Pakistan. The first 2/3 of the book was highly enjoyable but the last third (Amir's return to Pakistan) was disappointing. I was turned off by the many coincidences and the feeble attempts at closure that occurred in this section. Even so, I would recommend the book as an enjoyable read. B+
Joel: I agree that the first two thirds of the book were better than the last third. But overall a good book. Gave a current perspective on the country. What we see on TV are hovels with no roofs and everyone carrying a Kalishnikov. I don't know why the British, the Russians, or anyone would be interested in taking over Afghanistan - a dreadful place. Their sugar cane growing was charming when times were better, but what a bad country to invade. Like "Reading Lolita in Tehran" I am always surprised to learn of a third world country's accoutrements. The culture (before the communist coup) was indistinguishable from European civilization - they had upper class, servant class, shopping, candy stores - they had it all. The plot was contrived, but overall A-
Charlie: I'd give it a B.   I read it in two days, easy to read, and I was moved by the story, but not by the writing.
Ed: I also enjoyed the book, give it a B. I could understand Amir's perspective, desire to be loved by his father, his equivalency with Hassan, what drove his cowardice, and that he had to have a way to redeem himself. I wonder why the book was so successful - because it appeared after 9/11? To expose the western world to the "real" Afghanistan? I enjoyed the book, it was a wonderful relationship success over ten years.
Mike: How was this plot contrived? - let me count the ways! I would have accepted it if Amir had been too terrified to step in if Assef had pulled out his brass knuckles on Hassan. But a sodomy rape? Amir was going to take off running through the streets anyway, all he needed to do was to just yell (or throw something - anything!) from his safely hidden area. Assef had his pants down, the two toadys were holding Hassan, absolutely no danger to Amir! Yell "Look! Assef's a fag!" which was an insult Assef had used during their earlier encounter - and run! I've done this hundreds of times! No, this became a stupid rape just for the plot advancement - in order that Hassan would have no visible marks for others to question. And then Hassan apparently blabs all to Sahib Khan but to no one else? Why? Did that make any sense at all? (except for the plot advancement to allow Sahib Khan to lay the guilt trip some 30 years later.)   But what really got me was that here are all these Afghans in the US, talking at every flea market, discussing the old country, and how they got to where they are today - and Amir did not know that anyone can come into the US on a six-month visa? How did his family first come in? (we were not told that segment.) Even the specialty lawyer suggested by the US embassy rep had never heard of a six-month visit visa for little Soghrub? come on! (and then Amir finds this great secret from his wife, and runs into the bathroom to tell little Soghrub, "You're saved!" only to find ... oh, the IRONY!) For me, the plot contrivances in this book were more than low reading speed bumps along the caravan route, they were amateurism truck bombs. For you, a thousand Cs.
Jack: I'm already impressed by someone writing in other than their mother tongue - (Nabokov, Conrad, ..) most impressive. I did gain some insight into the Afghan culture, but moreso I enjoyed the human story. A-   (and Joel, I'm relieved to know that a candy store is a sign of civilization!).
Don: I wasn't sure when I picked this book what it would be like. Despite some flaws, I thought it was a really good book. A-

From the NY Times review by E. Hower: "When Amir meets his old nemesis, now a powerful Taliban official, the book descends into some plot twists better suited to a folk tale than a modern novel. But in the end we're won over by Amir's compassion and his determination to atone for his youthful cowardice."
From BookMunch (on-line): "Hosseini's debut begins with the kind of episodic story-telling you know first found life in a creative writing workshop but very quickly eschews its primitive roots to forge something quite special: the passages detailing Amir and Hassan's life in Kabul as children is fierce and compelling. ... What you see in the book, the good that there is, remains even when the tale diverges most from the author's "truth" - he returns to Afghanistan, is beaten to a sticky pulp (with all the grace of bad pulp fiction) - but still, it doesn't completely derail the promise the book has. Hosseini shows a great deal of promise and it isn't hard to imagine a lot of people finding a lot to like in The Kite Runner, but - for me - Hosseini needs sterner editing if he is to graduate to the classics table."
define Hazara: The Hazara ethnic group resides mainly in the central Afghanistan mountain region called 'Hazarajat.' They make approximately 20% of Afghanistan's population. There are also significant populations of Hazaras in Pakistan and Iran.

Florence of Arabia by Christopher Buckley - July 2005

Once more into the turbulent Middle East thundered the proud remnants of our dirty dozen delinquent dromedaries. Uncle Sam had provided the encrypted code to enter the security confines of Mutter's Ventana Del Sol - Ursebia East. Praise be to Allah! Joel was left standing on his front lawn, Don was deserted in SE Wasabia - yet many eventually followed the spice trails to the mountain hideaway of Emir Rob. We learned that C. Buckley comes from good stock, Yale, but not Skull and Bones. What countries were the models for Chris Buckley? Tom reminded us that Qatar is pronounced "Cutter," thus raising the veil on the many malaprops by characters trying to say "Matar" (or even "matter") and coming out with "mutter." Ron looked up many of the references in the book, and found a near exact parallel for the Waldorf Group in the real-life Carlyle Group with Bush 41, Carlucci, UK's John Major, etc. And apparently Shem was not one of the original three stooges - that was Shemp. However "in the end" Shem demonstrated more pep than Manny, Moe, and Maliq.
The humorous book title may have been purloined from Noel Coward's quip to Peter O'Toole upon seeing David Lean's 1962 movie: "If you'd been any prettier, it would have been Florence of Arabia." Our brave dromedaries circled and huddled together against the wind, and spoke of 1001 tails - providing considerable natural gas.

Ken: Trying to be witty paragraph after paragraph for 250 pages gets a bit tiresome similar to watching an overly long Johnny Carson monologue. Coupling wit with some pretty serious truths (stoning women to death for minor or non-existent crimes) was somewhat troubling to me. That said I found some of the passages hilarious. Especially memorable were the annual requirement involving sucking on dromedary turds (thanks to our host Rob for offering up an Americanized version) and the destruction of Shem, the Camel Royal by ingested explosives. Although very funny in spots, the book does not make me want to read other books by Buckley. B-     (see side story)
Mike: This appeared to be a cautionary tale aimed at our colleague Tom - the book defined the dangerously thin line between NASCAR fanaticism and Islamic fundamentalism. Praise be to Allah and Earnhardt! I echo Ken's comments re: maintaining cleverness - Dave Barry columns are best read in short doses, not in book form. This book was actually constructed better than The Kite Runner - less plot contrivances ! I would have been interested to hear Ben's review; I did not consider this book to be a page turner. Why are so many books so strong in the beginning, and then drag in the middle - is it the reader that is no longer excited, or the writer? This was a smart comedy, the author was almost never condescending to his readers - you either caught his humor or you didn't, but only once did he explain it. (I never caught the "mutter.") Example that impressed me: when Florence left the first meeting with Uncle Sam, I was convinced she had successfully called his bluff - the genie could not possibly provide tomorrow's (classfied) Presidential Daily Briefing. Thus Buckley caught me by surprise when the PDB was slipped under her door the next morning. Smart, clever, B-
Don: Perhaps my recent health problems did not put me in the mood for humor, as I couldn't hack it. I made no connection with the author's humor. C
Ron: I also did not find it to be a page turner - the humor was cute, it wove historical incidents in - but 20, 30 years from now, I wouldn't know if readers would relate to it. The whole book was contrivances - it would be nothing without it - I found myself trying to pick out news stories. The character development was almost non-existent - even Florence was not well described. All the characters were two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. For me the book hovered somewhere between a C+ and a B-; I would award it a B-
Charlie: I thought it was a page turner - I read it in two days. The trouble with satire is that it is always topical - Gulliver's Travels has references that today make you go: huh? - but a lot has stayed constant over the years: the State Department, the CIA - nothing untimely with the fun poked at these agencies. I found very little to criticize in the book. I grade it an A- with the minus because of the Grapes of Wrath paradym.
Gary: This should be an important book - the Middle East I've found (J. Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel) is responsible for all our livestock as well as the world's three major religions. The group brought up lots of humor from the book during our discussion. Dave Barry is a good humorist, but can be too much at times. Mark Twain is always there. In this book, I found myself waiting for the canned laughter. This humor is hard to pull off in a book. Ben would have enjoyed it. Based on my ignorance of world events, grade: C
Jack: I knew I was in for something special when I read the Copyright disclaimer ("...any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. Got that? Any questions? It's all made up. Okay? Whatever.") The book much reminded me of a Mel Brooks movie. B
Tom:   Camel fart humor always works for me. I think this book was mentioned by Jonathan Yardley as a "by the way" and his list got me to read his other recommended books. I would have liked the book less if he had tried to develop his characters more - he needed cardboard characters for such a farce. I didn't think the adventure stuff was interesting or funny - but he brought it back together again at the end. The book was A- to B+; B+
Joel: This book was done in reverse of the normal: it starts as a farce and becomes a tragedy. I went through it fast and it gave me a hopeless feeling at the end. This is the way the world has always been. I always hope it will be like Iowa or Nebraska: if we get the bad people out then good will prevail. Saudis have been run by a monarch and hundreds of sub-monarchs. I wonder if that was Buckley's intent, to disguise critical comments on the world with humor. The Middle East is not going to change. I found the concept of the Waldorf Group, all freemasons controlling the world behind the scenes, to be spooky. The book was ominous but worthwhile. B+
Rob: A couple of reviews I've read were positive. The NY Times reviewer dismissed Buckley's idea of women's lib to be a combination of shopping and withholding sex from their partners. The stoning of Fatima was a jolt and took Buckley (and the reader) a while to recover. I once wondered if countries like Poland and East Germany had been subjugated for so long that the spark of democracy could never flame up again.   I give Buckley credit for more than slapstick - he highlighted issues. The middle did drag, but he struck a quality of humor. B+

dromedaries on patrol:
Keith: C+, superb satire but flummoxes females.

Side story: The discussion referenced lines from Florence that either rang true or triggered memories. E.g., page 224 states "The French technicians swiftly concluded their business so that they could proceed to the more important matter of lunch." Side story: Approximately 25 years ago near the beginning of his scientific career, Ken was giving a talk in Brussels as part of an International Conference on Aging of Nuclear Power Plants. Five other Americans were attending the Conference, none of whom had any credentials of note (e.g., all six Americans were hacks who had convinced their management that attending the Conference would be important to their careers). When some French attendees learned about the six American attendees, they wrote and invited the Americans to come to a nuclear power plant in Lyon, France "for a tour of the plant and high level scientific discussions," an invitation gladly accepted by the six. Upon arriving around 11:00 AM., they were met by a chauffeur holding up a sign: "American Delegation." After an hour ride in a Mercedes limousine, the group arrived around noon at the power plant which was flying the American and French flags and had a 20 foot banner declaring "Welcome to the American Delegation." What followed was a hasty 10 minute tour of the plant followed by a brief 5 minute "scientific" discussion with 3 French hosts. Then they announced it was time for lunch. Back into the limousine and off to a 3 hour, 6 course "lunch" at a Michelin 3 star restaurant that was attended by the 6 Americans, the 3 French hosts and ~35 other French workers from the plant the "delegation" had never met, seen, or talked with. Once lunch was over, Ken and friends had to rush back to the train station to catch the late afternoon train. The entire invitation was little more than a French ruse to obtain lunch for all.

LTBC Financial Planning: Ken has undertaken a Senility Savings Plan toward our October selection: "Since I forgot to buy a newspaper today, I've already saved 50 cents towards my 3 dollar debt - I should have the rest covered by next meeting."

Beloved by Toni Morrison - August 2005

Six.0 mostly mature mossy-toothed males exited beyond 242 to mourn the loss of gentle-D.0n and discuss the spite, the loudness, and the quiet of 124. schoolteacher jack taught us that Toni Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford in February 1931 in Ohio, educated as an English major at Howard University in Washington, D.C., was married to Mr. Morrison only from 1957 to 1964, and received the 1988 Pulitzer for Beloved after 48 black authors complained that the book should not have missed out on two earlier awards. "Part ghost story, part history lesson, part folk tale, Beloved finds beauty in the unbearable." Toni dedicated Beloved "to the sixty million" - the losses of Africans due to the slave trade. Should we play the number game here? The loudness continued:

Ed: I learned a lot, but didn't get through the book due to travel schedule. I'm currently about half through the audio version which is read by Toni Morrison. She reads in a monotone, fast, in a southern dialect. A lot of the language in the book was beautiful, highly descriptive. I found it difficult to hold my attention on airplane travel - no pauses. [Keith: then it was more like poetry than prose to you? wherein one needs to stop and consider the words.]
Joel: This book was kinda hard for me to rate - I had a hard time getting into it, but then once I did it became a page turner. It's almost heretical to read it through continuously. At least two of the chapters - "I am Beloved and she is mine" - almost need to be read aloud. The author's literary devices didn't work well for me. As an aside, at a visit to a museum in Greenville, SC, I was interested to see the slave trade described as "Labor practices in the South" - rather drastic labor practices. The desciption of life under the Fugitive Act, of tracking escaped slaves down and bringing them back was not a surprising practice, but astonishing. Parts of the book were annoying to me - such as the speech patterns of the stream of consciousness chapters. I found reading the first 50 pages through again explained a lot for me, and moved the book from a B to a B+.
Mike: I certainly don't presume to know Southern writers well, but the first 10 or so pages of Beloved screamed "Wow! Unusual, special writing!" and "Faulkner!" at me - I loved the writing. I continue to be trapped with the feeling that the books we've been reading the past year or two start so beautifully for the first third, then produce "filler" in the middle, then bring it all together with the last third. The three stream-of-consciousness chapters struck me as inserted filler. The book provided some beautiful phrasing, and I felt the non-linear chronological approach was very well done and almost required for such a violent act to be explained - we needed to discover Sethe's shocking background much later as did Paul D. and others in the story. I'm not sure I wanted to hear the narration by Beloved - she was a mystical character, and I didn't want to hear her internal musings, only her external discontinuous comments - leave her as mystical! The book began for me as a solid A, but completed as a B+.
Keith: My metaphor for reading this book was traveling on a pogo stick across a field of open man-holes - every so often you drop into a black hole, and you have to dig around and get out to proceed on across the field - until you drop into the next black hole. The streams of consciousness used in this book were a little muddy, turgid - you ain't gonna catch no fish in these streams! The book "portrays the bitter conflict between the powerful and the weak." I noticed a lot of similarity with Grapes of Wrath - the dead baby, the downtrodden - but Morrison convoluted the story for the average reader whereas Steinbeck was straightforward. Okies were treated as sub-humans in Grapes. It also reminded me of Faulkner's portrayal of poor whites in Mississippi. Solid C.
Tom: Two things occur to me: my opinion of Toni Morrison dropped, then rose again. It dropped with Charles Johnson's criticism, however his putting her down was perhaps overdone. I agree with the comments that have been made: the three "stream of consciousness" chapters could have been stripped. I loved that she took me along, made me look for how all the pieces were coming together. The book didn't need the stream-of- consciousness chapters. For me, Beloved could have been a real person - the supernatureal aspects were not required. It bothered me that Beloved was Sethe's daughter and Sethe didn't recognize her. But I'm not trashing this Nobel laureate: A-
Ken: I stared off hopeful this was a top A book, then it went downhill. I have never liked the non-linear progression of a novel ... until this book! So I appreciate that I have to go deeper into the book. Baby Suggs was beloved of the community, then she invited 90 people for dinner and they rejected her - why? But there was so much beautiful writing, so creative - "sending some foreskin to Jesus" - and "the pieces I am, she gathered them and give them back to me in order." Beloved is between an A and an A-
Jack: Any author who describes blackberries as “so good and happy that to eat them is like being in church” gets my vote. Morrison’s Beloved is an emotional and vicious portrayal of man’s inhumanity to man as seen by those who were the objects of slavery; it illustrates how slavery (or the dehumanization of anyone) degrades us all. Beloved is not an easy read. I found Morrison’s prose colloquial and rough, but often lyrical. It is not strict narrative. She uses narrative, verse and stream of consciousness. It is not a linear tale. The story is divided between past and present, natural and supernatural; the setting is divided between Ohio and Kentucky. The structure of the work is compounded with an ever-switching point of view. The perspective is divided among all the major characters (living and dead). It is written in fragments, pieces shattered and mixed up (like the lives portrayed in the novel) and left for the reader to piece together. In forcing us to read slowly and put the pieces back together, Morrison forces us to think about them. Additionally, I believe her use of symbolism and Biblical allusions creates additional force and drama. All of which results in the creation of more than just a story. I was hooked from the beginning, starting with the epigraph taken from the Bible to the last conversation between Sethe and Paul D., which reinforced my optimism by giving us closure, reconciliation and hope for the future. Taking all of this into account, I would rank her among the best American novelists living today. I picked the book, it's an A.

Reports from the fugitives safely beyond Ohio:
Ron: B+

The Actual by Saul Bellow - September 2005

Seven old Jews met on the back porch of the PL on PC. We verbally thrashed through attempts at administrative announcements, the passing of political posters to and fro, alert and fetching dogs, "The Last Waltz" (Martin Scorsese's 1978 capsule history of the Band), the heated side talk - when finally a book club meeting broke out. What do you remember about your First Love? Is she frozen in time without flaws since the relationship was never consummated? Does a book have to "be about something"? Is retirement a man-trap? Does old Sigmund Adletsky form the basis for Montgomery Burns of The Simpsons?

We learned that Saul Bellow won the Nobel Prize for literature and died very recently: April 2005, age ~ 90 years. We learned that of the members present, only Ron B had previously read any Saul Bellow - about 30 years ago, perhaps Hertzog. We learned that the parents of Saul Bellow moved to Canada from St. Petersburg, Russia in 1913, and Saul was born in 1915. When the US went dry in 1918, Canada became a supplier and Joel reports Saul's father became involved in bootlegging, perhaps smuggling booze across the frozen Great Lakes into Chicago. The father crossed some bootleggers in Canada which caused him to flee south with the family to Chicago in 1924, when Saul was nine years old. Saul attended the University of Chicago, obtained his BA from Northwestern in anthropology, and quit graduate school, determined to become a writer. He done good in this field, as the following testimonials bear witness:

Tom: My comments are brief, the book was brief - when I got to the end, I was sorry it ended. It ended with hope. When I was done, I definitely had the impression, "this guy knows how to write." Central theme resonated with me: an older guy looking back on life. I loved his style, loved his writing. Gave it an A.
Charlie: (well, I first read 200 pages of the the October book, until I mentioned to Joel how long it was, and he said, What? - but I am ahead 200 pages anyway! ) I gave this book an A-; it was charming, entertaining, wonderful book. I will read more Saul Bellow.
Ken: Not much of a plot, but colorful characters - Harry made mistakes, was abandoned by his parents, realized what was going on and reversed course. I liked the ending, and hope Amy's answer was yes. Give it an A-
Ron B: I enjoyed reading it - didn't strike me as all that interesting - but well written: B He never told us how be got from a 16 year-old, infatuated with Amy to an older guy, other than he went to Guatemala and made money.
Mike: Fascinating. The book kept surprising me ... what, the wife went to prison for a contract on her husband? And then the husband re-married her? Subtle humor: Harry the narrator always thought he had a Chinese face; but his new mentor Adletsky says Japanese, for sure! Good writing: Harry on Amy Wustrin: "...at 12 I saw her on roller skates - riding toward puberty." The first book we've read in a long while that has no seemingly inflated middle as filler - perhaps all novels should be novellas. I was thinking A- but Tom is right - this is an A book.
Jack: (I liked the description: "if sex was a drug like alcohol, then Jay Wustrin was a drunken driver.) I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I can relate to the middle-aged man looking back at his First Love. Loved the writing: "Like infantile paralysis, First Loves can be crippling." Peaked my interest in other Saul Bellow work: A
Joel: This seemed like a Seinfeld book - about nothing: "Harry and Amy go to the cemetery." But once I started it, I couldn't put it down. One thing that struck me was Harry analyzing people as he talks to them - I used to do that. Made me want to go into the book more. I give it an A.
Keith: Entertaining, enjoyable writing style: pithy. I was fully engaged. Many books we read I don't remember anything from, but I will remember many things from this book. Not a heavy banquet, but a delightful hors d'oeuvre. A-

No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin - October 2005

Eight well-seasoned Cabinet members rode the private train to the Big House to drink martinis and provide advice and consent and memories of life in the 40s and early 50s; stories remembered from our Dads, and the wonderment of a time in Eleanor - 1934

which reporters would not dish the dirt on the presidency. If this book had been a movie, the OM and the LL would have achieved Best Actor and Actress, respectively - Best Supporting Actor would go to Harry Hopkins, with Missy taking Best Supporting Actress. Mrs. Nesbitt earned Comedy Relief role (or roll). Russ McIntire wins all-time Most Incompetent White House physician. FDR's vice-presidents don't even get mentioned in the credits.
Goodwin provided as her premise: “This book is the story of the American home front, told through the lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the circle of friends and associates who lived with them in the family quarters of the White House during WW II. Marrakech - 1943

Although his role as commander-in-chief has been studied at length, less attention has been paid to the way he led his people at home.” We learned that Doris Kearns Goodwin was a Woodrow Wilson fellow and faculty member at Harvard, as well as a regular on the Jim Lehrer NewsHour on PBS. Her so-called "plagiarism" on her first history, The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys, is not consequential and should not be distracting. Some of us recalled Italian Prisoners of War rolling cigarettes as a war-time duty. Ron B. recommended the movie "A Very Long Engagement" (French w/ subtitles) by the director of "Emily;" and Joel suggested "The Best Years of our Lives" (1946) about returning WW II vets. As host, Missy provided a laptop of historic photos and Time covers from the 30s and 40s of Harry Hopkins, the Roosevelts, and Churchill. Like the book, the discussions were detailed, energetic and informative.

Ron: I read 400 pages and I want to finish the book. I found it very readable, almost chatty. It provided great insights - an A. I enjoyed it very much.
Joel: I got farther than Ron: 406 pages. I was side tracked into reading a couple of novels. I will award the book an A- in case there are defects later on. I'm glad we read it, and I plan to read the rest, but not the footnotes at the end.
Tom: I'm strongly opposed to reading history - and when I picked up this book, immediately it appeared to be a lot of words - like Undaunted Courage in length. But I found it very smooth reading - the insights were mainly about Eleanor. She made an impression on me; she had no role models on which to pattern her life. To some extent, so did FDR, but there was no one like Eleanor prior to Eleanor who had done what she did. She stands out as a singular personality. I like the book a lot and give it an A.
Charlie: I read 380 pages - but not all consecutively. The research was great, but there were perhaps 300 pages worth of book in this 600 pages. I compared it to David McCullough's biography of Harry Truman - the two books are quite similar in that both are very well researched and (as is the case with too many history books!) very long. The Truman book demonstrates that long does not necessarily mean tedious, as it is much more engaging, much easier to read and in my opinion much better written. Ms. Goodwin should look to Mr. McCullough as a model for writing "popular" history. No Ordinary Time: An A as a research project, an A as a history, but a B- as a book.
Jack: I enjoyed the book, very informative, filled in the gaps of what my Dad told me. Its fault? - too long; and I'd like to have her plug in more dates, so I downgrade it to a B+ (Ron: she did a lot of flashbacks so the book was not linear, but she needed that background to round out the characters.)
Mike: This was a chick-book ... the chick was Eleanor. The author lionized Eleanor, perhaps deservingly so - however she went too far when she created Eleanor's "feelings" - "Eleanor was devastated by this" - how do you know? What I li