The August meeting of The Barga Book Club opened on a spellbinding note in a spectacular setting with an august dissertation presented by Elliot Grant which covered almost all salient points of the story, plot, character, and setting of the first novel by Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion. Some of Elliot’s remarks are in italics.
As first novels go this was a tour de force contrasting images of, characteristically breathtakingly, life threatening swings of a monumental Toronto bridge girder with credibility threatening swings of story line and character. The book seems to be a series of stories which lacked a continuous narrative, a disjointed tableau of stories linked in a serious way in the end, only held together by the finest thread of artifice.
The book opens with introspective descriptions of insect inspection and pastoral life in rural Canada and continues with lyrical invocations of manual labor in adverse conditions, glorifying the dignity of labor, which is then blown out of the water, literally and figuratively, with images of the protagonist's father’s violent dynamite blasts to keep the logs moving down river.
Among several beautiful vignettes the most beautifully rendered story early in the book introduces new principal characters with a hymn of praise to the construction of a spectacular bridge with compelling descriptions of death defying manual labor practices of the period and a heart wrenching act of life saving recounted with the impact of religious zeal which lays the foundations for many of the important themes.
Unfortunately, from there the book devolves into patience defying plot manipulations of obsessional love, labor union struggles and workers rights issues intertwined with anarchist and politically edged themes with Beder Meinhof associations.
In conclusion the overall sense of the book referenced Pilgrims Progress in its exploitation of characters and symbols as metaphor. Of the few who read the book most agreed to about a passable 3+ out of five, citing the inherent contradictions of the sublime written imagery and poignant set pieces with violence and the banal treatment of the story line and seemingly arbitrary agitprop dialogue during perfunctory sex scenes.
Books have been chosen for the months of September and October to give members the opportunity to get a head start on the order process so that we might have a better turnout of those who have had a chance to read the books and thereby more viewpoints.
Huge thanks go to Elliot Grant who did such a thorough and enthralling job of introducing the book overcoming the distraction of bats and cicadas with aplomb in an altogether sublime setting. Thank you very much too, to our most gracious host. Thank you as well, to all who participated in the discussion and offered thoughtful suggestions for future meetings.
The book that will be introduced by Julie Flynn on September 8th (please note date) will be: The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi.
The 6th of October book will be All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy.
In view of the problems we have had procuring books there have been a number of helpful suggestions: An alternative book provider suggested by Elliot is AbeBooks.com Plan ahead, and if you have not been able to find a copy of the book email Kerry or Julie early and we’ll put the word out to other book club members who may have a copy to lend. Hopefully this will ensure that everyone who attends the next meeting will have had the chance to read the book.
We look forward to seeing you in September,
Kerry and Julie
