In The Lake Of The Woods Wrap-Up And New Book

Well, fellow book clubbers, it's been a crazy, hectic summer. Forgive me for such a dearth of posts. It definitely was not for lack of fascinating discussion for Tim O'Brien's In The Lake Of The Woods. I found O'Brien's meditation on trauma, memory, truth, and relationships to be searing, almost to the point of pain sometimes. Living through something traumatic, so painful that you relive moments of the event at random times in perfect detail, down to the smells of medication, the fuzzy feel of cotton swabs, the reflections of light off of an oxygen tank, is something I'm very familiar with. O'Brien, in my opinion, perfectly captures how that trauma affects every part of your life and how you interact with everyone around you. Wade, his fascination with magic and smoke and mirrors, all are told to us after the fact. It all seems like a great and wearying magical act to really disguise the pain and suffering beneath everything. I'm not doing the book justice, and several book clubbers may have more to say about the lack of characterization or poor dialogue (neither of which I agree with).  

Peggy picked quite the challenging next read for us. David Foster Wallace's final, unfinished, novel, The Pale King. Not exactly summer reading, you might think, what with it being 500+ pages and a story about the intricacies of the IRS and boredom. Give it a try though -- Wallace is one of the premier voices of my generation, a voice that was cut off too soon. We'll be meeting at the Shack at 530 on Monday, August 13. Happy reading!

Sunflower recap and next book picked

April showers bring May flowers, so the saying goes. We've had flowers for a while in this part of the country due to some unseasonably warm weather, but no sunflowers in my garden, sadly. Thinking about the seasons brings me back to our wandering discussion about Krudy's novel, Sunflower. I'll only speak for my thoughts on the novel -- leave comments about your own perspectives, fellow readers!

The story of Eveline, the romantic, young ingenue; her parasitic, wastrel lover; her outspoken best friend; her lighter than air admirer Almos-Dreamer; and her earthy, fleshy neighbor Pistoli never pulled me in. This is not a novel focused on plot, however, and many discussed their love of Krudy's prose and way with a metaphor. I felt that the translation was subpar, however, with some real clunkers. Surely the Hungarian version of the names Almos-Dreamer and Kalman Ossuary are more subtle? And hot diggity dog and son of a gun as an exclamation and description? Really?

I also couldn't get beyond the character's view of women. We get most of this view from Pistoli, and what a rotten view it is. To him all women are mad and no not what they do, and if they aren't, if they are like Eveline, they are destined to become hags or harpies like Maszkeradi:


"Up on one mountaintop in the far distance sat Eveline. Her benevolent face was distorted, her curls hung in grizzled knots, her dear eyes were veiled by cataracts, night had descended over her lips, like a madwoman’s...And this hag had been her, once: the kind, noble, lamblike, dove-hearted one...This ancient, deranged crone had once been Eveline Nyirjes...Pistoli covered his eyes and sobbed. But even through his tears he could see the other mountaintop on the horizon, where Miss Maszkerádi bobbed like a crazed belly dancer. Her tresses undone, her voice screeching, her talons curving, her eyes spitting flames and knives, her legs like a wolf’s, her neck ringed like a serpent’s."

Krudy, Gyula (2010-09-15). Sunflower (Kindle Locations 3841-3845). Random House Inc Clients. Kindle Edition.

Perhaps someday I'll go back and reread and view it differently. But there are so many books to read and so little time!

Kyle has picked our next book, Tim O'Brien's In The Lake Of The Woods. We'll be discussing this at the shack on Tuesday, June 5th.

Happy reading!

Sunflower

Ah, I've been a terrible blogger, forgive me! Our next book club meeting is Wednesday, April 18, and we'll be reading Sunflower by Hungarian author, Gyula Krudy. Get ready for a novel where, according to the New York Review Books, "the plot twists and turns; elemental myth mingles with sheer farce: Krúdy brilliantly illuminates the shifting contours and acid colors of the landscape of desire."


It'll be an interesting discussion in our return to fiction, especially tackling the fact that this is a translation (and luckily for us, there is only one translation).

Happy reading all! 

Rin Tin Tin Discussion

Sorry for the lack of posting fellow Ferret book clubbers! A vacation in sunny Fort Meyers with a happy, but sick, toddler will do that to you. Our previous book club meeting to discuss Rin Tin Tin was fabulous, as always. I’ll let others speak for themselves, but I did enjoy the book for the most part. Orleans has a fabulous way with turns of phrases (I’ll post some favorite quotes in the comments). But, I felt that the book bogged down in several places. I really found it hard to get into at first; I have no experience with Rin Tin Tin the phenomenon, so I wondered if I’d be interested in the story at all. Of course, Orleans makes the story so much more than just about the wonder dog of the cinema. Somehow she manages to include in the story of a man and his dog details about the use of dogs in just about every capacity in WW1, the birth of cinema, the rise of dogs as household pets and obedience training, celebrity imposters, rabid fans, and more.

We also discussed what it means to be a work of nonfiction. I think that the delineation between fiction and nonfiction is extremely blurry. When we read any kind of book, there is a single author who has crafted a narrative, whether using facts or not. The author leaves items out, presents information in a dramatic form (otherwise, why would we read the book?), chooses a timeline (or to artificially play with that timeline), etc. All of this is expected in a work of fiction. In a work of nonfiction, these tactics serve to distance you from whatever truth you believe you may be reading about. Which parts of a person’s memoir does the author choose to reveal to you? Who do they interview and how does their own view of the topic (total stranger, tremendous fan, extreme critic) affect how they approach subjects to interview, angles to focus on?

All in all, yet another great discussion for us.

Happy reading!

Rin Tin Tin Discussion Questions

Hello Ferret book clubbers! Next week on Tuesday, March 6, we'll be meeting at the the shack after work for another round of book club. Let's see what we all have to see in our first foray into nonfiction for the club. I'll be adding discussion questions directly to this post; now, it's the weekend before the meeting, so if you haven't finished reading, well, get cracking! But, just in case, there may be spoilers in the questions below. So stop reading now if you haven't finished. We'll bring a copy of the questions to the meeting. Next up for the book pick is Matt. After that, it makes the most sense to just keep going in the same cycle, so Amy would be next.

Happy reading!

**Possible spoilers ahead**

The first question is from Diane:

"How well do you think this book was edited? Would you have made different editorial decisions? How did you feel about the research and fact checking?"

Additional questions:

1. Were you familiar with Rin Tin Tin before reading this book? What memories do you have of the famous dog? What was it like to delve back into the history of Rin Tin Tin? If this was your first introduction to him, what impressions did the book give you?

2. Orlean attributes Lee's fierce love of dogs to his traumatic childhood, in which both his mother and father abandoned him for a time. As Orlean writes: "The experience shaped him; for the rest of his life, he was always deeply alone....The only companion in his loneliness he would ever find would be his dog, and his attachment to animals grew to be deeper than his attachment to any person." (p. 15) Do you agree with this assessment? What other forces, if any, contributed to Lee's love of dogs?

3. Lee and the first Rin Tin Tin shared an incredibly close bond. Do you think Lee's devotion to Rinty was more of an endearing character trait, or a symptom of deeper personal issues? Consider the many people who felt wronged or resentful toward Lee—his daughter Carolyn, his wife Charlotte, and his wife Eva, in your answer.

4. Lee steadfastly believed that Rinty was destined for greatness and, as Orlean writes, "he was lucky to be his human guide and companion." (p. 34) Do you think Lee underestimated, or misunderstood, his importance in creating the Rin Tin Tin juggernaut?

5. On the strangely frequent coincidences that kept Rin Tin Tin's narrative alive, Orlean writes, "Everything connected to Rin Tin Tin was full of happenstance and charm, lightning strikes of fortune and hairpin turns of luck; from a standstill, life around Rin Tin Tin always seemed to accelerate out of the depths of disappointment to a new place filled with possibility." (p. 262) Reflect on a few such serendipitous moments. Do you think life tends to look coincidental in hindsight—or was Rin Tin Tin's story really blessed?

6. Although he never made concrete plans to ensure the continuation of Rinty's legacy, Lee insisted that "There will always be a Rin Tin Tin." (p. 3) Was Lee being prophetic or delusional—or both?

7. The original Rin Tin Tin was considered essentially human in popular culture. A review of one of his films, for example, describes his eyes as conveying something "tragic, fierce, sad and…a nobility and degree of loyalty not credible in a person." (p. 71) Why was Rinty so completely and earnestly anthropomorphized by millions of fans? Where do you stand on the scale from "a dog is a dog" to "Rin Tin Tin was essentially human"?

8. Orlean notes that "when Rin Tin Tin first became famous, most dogs in the world would not sit down when asked." (p. 123) With that in mind, how much of the awe and reverence surrounding Rin Tin Tin the first would you attribute to the novelty of trained dogs? How much stands the test of time?

9. At the height of his earning power, Rin Tin Tin was paid eight times as much as his human co-stars. Do you think this was fair? Why or why not?

10. Orlean writes that Rin Tin Tin, alive on the screen, "was everything Americans wanted to think they were—brave, enterprising, bold, and most of all, individual." (pp. 87, 89) How much of Rin Tin Tin's emotional depth do you think came from viewers projecting their own feelings on him?

11. Orlean writes, "As his fame grew, Rin Tin Tin became, in a way, less particular—less specifically this one single dog—and more conceptual, the archetypal dog hero." (p. 97) In what ways did Rin Tin Tin shift from a literal representation to a symbolic figure? What specific moments, if any, highlight this shift?

12. How did the evolution of the film and television industries dictate the various reincarnations of Rin Tin Tin? Why was Rin Tin Tin—the dog and the archetype—so wildly successful, both in films and later in television?

13. By the late 1950s, Rin Tin Tin's aura of invincibility was beginning to wear off. Orlean explains, "Now, instead of being a miracle, he was a model. He was the dog you could aspire to have, and maybe even manage to have, at home." (p. 217) What explains this shift? Is it necessarily a bad one?

14. The criteria used to determine Rin Tin Tin's descendants evolved as the Rin Tin Tin ideal expanded through time and across mediums. As Orlean concludes, "The unbroken strand is not one of genetics but one of belief." (p. 137) Why did this evolution from genetics to belief occur? Do you think this reliance on human decisions, rather than canine pedigrees, undermines the magical reverence of Rin Tin Tin the first?

15. Orlean writes that at one point she felt like "everybody I met or heard about in connection to Rin Tin Tin was a little crazy." (p. 282) Do you agree? Why or why not? Consider the various actions that Lee, Burt, and Daphne took in the name of defending Rin Tin Tin's legacy.

16. Bert takes over as the protagonist of the book after Lee dies. How do you feel about the way the narrative continues after Lee's death?

17. What do you think Lee and Bert would have thought of this book?

18. Orlean wonders, of the many different iterations of Rin Tin Tin, "Could that wide, wide range of manifestations really belong to anyone?" (p. 297) What do you think? If yes, who owns which parts of the legacy—legally, sentimentally, practically? Do you think Orlean herself now owns a part of the legacy, too?

19. Orlean writes that she sometimes "began to wonder if the legacy of RTT was finally contracting." (p. 311) What do you think? How does her book factor in this observation?

20. Orlean delves into many historical events and movements in the book—dogs in the military, obedience training, movie and television history—to name a few. Which facts surprised you the most?

21. Do you believe that there will always be a Rin Tin Tin? Why or why not?

Rin Tin Tin

At last, Diane revealed our next book: Rin Tin Tin: The Life And Legend by Susan Orlean. March 6, Tuesday at the shack folks. Check out the excerpt below for more on this fascinating book:

When I was very young, my grandfather kept a Rin Tin Tin figurine sitting on his desk. I wanted desperately to play with it, and even more desperately I wanted to have a German shepherd dog of my own, a dog just like the star of The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin, which debuted on television in 1954. I knew nothing about Rin Tin Tin other than that he was the perfect dog, and that he was a character on television. When by chance I learned that Rin Tin Tin was a real dog, not just a television character — a real dog with a real life that was extraordinary — I was drawn into the story and eventually to the idea of writing this book. After digging through hundreds of pages of archives and files and photographs, I came to understand that this was not just a story about a dog, or even the many different dogs who make up the Rin Tin Tin legacy; this is a story about a beloved icon who has played a role in decades of American popular culture.

—Susan Orlean

The Marriage Plot Discussion

Great discussion last night even though we missed out on a key contributor, who despite heroic efforts to finish the book caught the tail end of the cold bug that's been running rampant in our department, *and* we had a minor run-in with a surly conference goer hording bar tables and a discombobulated bartender. Still, we soldiered on, buoyed by Prosecco, vino, and tea, and had a fabulous discussion.

This post will mostly serve as a placeholder -- let's put our discussion in the comments if that works for everyone. Happy reading!

The Marriage Plot: A Novel

I've been dying to read something by Jeffrey Eugenides, but just never found the time -- thank you for the book choice, Lara!

The description for The Marriage Plot: A Novel on Amazon notes: "It's the early 1980s—the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever." Hm...doesn't sound too different to the times we live in now, does it? In a decade that looked at relationships through the lens of "Kramer vs. Kramer," "Mr. Mom," and "Working Girl," what could the novels of Jane Austin and George Eliot that ended their stories with a happy marriage, have to do with anything? Looks like we'll find out along with Madeleine Hannah, an english major delving into the intricacies of marriage plots.

Our next meeting to discuss this book is Thursday, January 26. Happy reading!

The Dispossessed: Post quotes and suggestions in the comments to this post

Great discussion this last Wednesday at the Summer Shack. Some said that they felt that some of the ideas of revolution and propertarianism versus anarchy, played out as they were with states mirroring the US and the USSR of the middle to late 1970s, were dated and that the focus of the story was too much on the ideas and not the story or the telling of the story.

Of course, I can't speak for anyone else but myself. I really enjoyed this story and the characters, most especially Shevek. I grew up in a time with, in my opinion, a near unhealthy worship of the antihero, the cynical -- if you don't believe in anything, then no one is going to pull the wool over your eyes. Shevek is a man of moral integrity who enters any situation with empty, but open hands, ready to help and to trust. Is that more important than a readiness to see, and to accept, flaws? I don't know, maybe it's just as needed. But the book was so much more than anarchism, then competing philosophies. It's about how our language affects how we think, how we form notions of ownership, love, brotherhood.

What a great discussion we had though; we recommended books in a similar vein, maybe more on the dystopian side, by Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale, Orxy and Crake, etc.). If you've got more books to suggest, feel free to add them to the comments. I'll use the comments to also continue to put quotes from the book that touched me.

Our next book club will be on Thursday, January 26. Lara picked The Marriage Plot: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides. Can't wait to see you there!

More info for The Dispossesed

Here are some more interesting links.

This is a great study guide from WSU. If you're still reading, it's a thought-provoking series of questions arranged by chapter: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/science_fiction/dispossessed.html.

This is a great interview with Ursula K. LeGuin specifically about The Dispossessed:

Ursula K. Le Guin Interview from Jefferson County Library on Vimeo.

Book club next week! Discussion questions in comments

And the countdown begins. No, not to Santa arriving but to our fabulous book club meeting this coming Wednesday at the Shack. I'll paste in some book discussion questions into a comment for this post for all you naughty ferrets who aren't close to finishing the book to avoid revealing any spoilers.

Remember, Lara will be picking the next book (Lara feel free to add the book to this blog in advance of next week's meeting if you've already got one picked out. We may want to start adding books earlier to the blog so people have time to reserve them at the library).

We'll pick between Matt and Diane for the meeting following's Lara's meeting -- I foresee a bruising bout of thumb war or perhaps arm wrestling. Or, maybe Diane and Matt could just flip a coin. After that, we'll start the random picks again.

Happy reading!

The Dispossessed

After visiting a night-time world of magicians dueling against a circus backdrop, we take a jaunt to a no less fantastical tale about Utopian possibilities: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Do the words "anarchy," "mother planet," and "utopia" intrigue you? Ok, maybe only sci-fi/fantasy nerds like me, but we'll find out if this book breaks out of the genre ghetto at our next book club meeting at the Summer Shack: Wednesday, December 14 at 530 pm.

Happy reading!

The Night Circus Book Discussion Questions

SPOILER ALERT! Do not read any further if you have not yet finished Night Circus!! Below are a few discussion questions I found that I thought might help get the conversation started:

1. What role does time play in the novel? From Friedrick Thiessen's clock to the delayed aging of the circus developers to the birth of the twins -- is time manipulated or fated at the circus?

2. Behind the scenes, the delicate push and pull of the competition results in some sinister events (e.g., Tara Burgess' and Thiessen's deaths). How much is the competition at fault for these losses and how much is it the individual's doing?

3. What is Hector's role in determining the final fate of the competition? He lectures Celia about not interfering with her partner, yet he largely influences the outcome. How much does Marco's underestimation of Isobel affect the outcome?

4. Tsukiko is aware of Isobel's tempering of the circus and when Isobel worries that it is having no effect, Tsukiko suggests that " perhaps it is controlling the chaos within more than the chaos without." What and whose chaos is Tsukiko alluding to here?

5. Celia tells Bailey that he is "not destined or chosen" to be the next propietor of the circus. He is simply "in the right place at the right time ... and care[s] enough to do what needs to be done." In this situation, is that enough? Can the responsibility of maintaining the circus be trusted to just anyone, or, unlike Celia suggests, is Baily truly special? How does Celia's belief relate to the struggling philophies of the game, that is, nature versus nurture, and the ultimate outcome?

Night Circus

Yay, we're off an running on another round of the Ferret Book Club! Our first meeting will be at the Summer Shack after work on Thursday, October 27. Amy has made our club's first selection, Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. One of my favorite book reviewers, Laura Miller from Salon.com, describes it as "a tale of romance and dueling sorcerers set in a nocturnal carnival." Definitely an intriguing pick for the spooky month of October.

Check out the guidelines at the end of this blog for details on where and when we'll meet and for how we'll pick books. Feel free to add new posts, comment on old ones, or let me know how you'd like to change the blog or add items to it.

Happy reading!

Who Are You Sophie?

What a fascinating book club discussion today. Place: My house. Food: tasty chips, dip, snacks, mushroom soup, and cookies. Book: Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy. Many of us had not finished the book, but the discussion was lively, and we uncovered multiple connections between the philosophical ideas being described and the twists and turns of the story. In fact, the discussion may have inspired several of the readers to finish the book, and it definitely inspired me to reread the book some time, maybe.

I enjoy reading about philosophy, and I found the first half of the book an enjoyable read. Not only did Gaarder, in my view, provide an easy to read primer on philosophy, he also interwined the lesson with an intriguing mystery story. However, by the middle of the book, a great twist occurs that completely deflated any interest I had in following the mystery story to the end. I also felt that Gaarder was too ambitious tackling the entirety of Western philosophy and trying to cobble together a novel at the same time. The second half of the book felt entirely too rushed to me, and it became a bewildering rush of philosophers and philosphies and the dramatic engine of the novel portion of the book stalled for me.

Our next book club meeting is Wednesday, January 28. We'll be reading A.J. Jacobs' The Year Of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. Also, don't forget to bring along three suggestions for books to read as we'll be picking our next three books.

Happy reading!

Belated Clan Of The Cave Bear

Forgive me for the lack of posting; the delay was definitely not for lack of good conversation, observations, and food. For this meeting, we trekked over to Hungry Mother for some new southern cuisine and some good discussion about Jean M. Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear.

My impressions of the book were pretty meh. I thought that Auel's descriptions of a the fateful meeting between the more developed Cro-Magnons (Ayla) and the doomed Neanderthals (the Clan) and the world that both species inhabited were inventive. But, I wasn't able to willingly suspend my disbelief for most of the book. Ayla was too perfect. Tall, blonde, unaware of her own beauty, she's a feminist 30,000 years too soon. Somehow she magically makes all of the jumps in logic that it would take an entire species to do all by herself. I also felt that the villain of the book, Broud, was fairly one-dimensional. I felt the author pulling her strings and manipulating me into hating him, waiting for him to get what was coming to him.

At today's book club meeting, I heard that a fellow intrepid book clubber watched the movie over the holiday's. We want details about how bad it was!

Unaccustomed Earth

Yes, this delinquent blogger is finally posting about our great discussion about Jhumpa Lahiri's collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth. As we ate a tasty Indian meal at the Bombay Club in Harvard Square, we discussed stories of children in various states of dislocation searching for identity, family, and love. I had never read the Namesake, also written by Lahiri, but I found her prose spare and yet perfectly descriptive of the characters' journeys to discover who they really are in relation to as well as outside of their families' Indian roots.

Have any further thoughts about the book? Don't be shy -- leave a comment!

Next up -- We travel to Hungry Mother to discuss Jean Auel's Clan of The Cave Bear. See you there!

And, don't forget to get started on Sophie's World: A Novel About The History Of Philosophy.

Next three books

At our last discussion, we randomly selected three people to choose books and picked the following three books:

Wednesday, October 29: The Clan Of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel. Amazon description: Although this story takes place roughly 35,000 years ago, its cast of characters could easily slide into any modern tale. The members of the Neanderthal clan, ruled by traditions and taboos, find themselves challenged by Ayla, who represents the physically modern Cro-Magnons. And as Ayla begins to grow and mature, her natural tendencies emerge, putting her in the middle of a brutal and dangerous power struggle. This first in the series of four is a wonderful story of survival. Ayla's personal evolution is a compelling and relevant tale.

Thursday, December 4: Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder. Amazon description: Wanting to understand the most fundamental questions of the universe isn't the province of ivory-tower intellectuals alone, as this book's enormous popularity has demonstrated. A young girl, Sophie, becomes embroiled in a discussion of philosophy with a faceless correspondent. At the same time, she must unravel a mystery involving another young girl, Hilde, by using everything she's learning. The truth is far more complicated than she could ever have imagined.

Wednesday, January 28: The Year Of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs. Amazon description: Make no mistake: A.J. Jacobs is not a religious man. He describes himself as Jewish "in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant." Yet his latest work is an insightful and hilarious journey for readers of all faiths. Though no fatted calves were harmed in the making of this book, Jacobs chronicles 12 months living a remarkably strict Biblical life full of charity, chastity, and facial hair as impressive as anything found in The Lord of the Rings. Through it all, he manages to brilliantly keep things light, while avoiding the sinful eye of judgment.

A night of Devils and the White City (and some wine and cheese!)

Sorry for the long time between posts. Our discussion this past August about Erik Larson's The Devil And The White City was fantastic. The book is a fascinating window into a period of history -- the end of the 19th century -- launched by the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Many of us felt that we didn't learn as much about the vaunted architect of the fair, Daniel Burnham, as we did about the devil lurking at the edges of the fair, luring victims to horrific deaths, Dr. H. H. Holmes. Larson, in his copious notes, let the reader know that he created and dramatized many of the thoughts that Holmes and his victims may have had based on notes from the time period as well as psychological theories of psychopaths. Is this purely a work of nonfiction if there are large pieces of dramatization inserted to fill in the gaps in the historical record? What are your thoughts? If you have any additional thoughts about the book, comment away.

Next up: Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (Wednesday, September 17).

Of elephants and muses

Our first actual book discussion meeting was a success! We all met at the The Elephant Walk in Cambridge. Over tasty shrimp won ton and spring roll appetizers and a mixture of French and Cambodian entrees, conversation flowed about the merits of Judith Jones' memories in food. While many of us were disappointed that she didn't share more details about her life, there was also much appreciation for how she described (and indeed played a hand in) reshaping American cuisine.

Personally, I hadn't read very many memoirs before, so I didn't really know what to expect. I had thought I would find out more about her motivations for why she choose certain paths; most everything in her life seemed to happen through serendipity and family connections.

Have any more thoughts about the book? Comment away!

The book for our next meeting (Monday, August 25) is The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson. Until then, happy reading!