The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Barga Book Club convened Tuesday with a spirited discussion of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid, led by Margaret Moore who presented an astute and cogent account of her reading of the story.

It is told as a monologue by the Pakistani protagonist who recounts his personal history, as a gifted student who achieves select placement in the financial sector in New York, to an unknown American listener in a cafe in Lahore, Pakistan. It is an intricately woven tale of multi-layered symbolism and allegory. There are intriguing suggestions of a complicated conspiracy to assassinate either the listener or the protagonist. The strength of the story is in poignant and beautifully composed passages describing his relationship with a bereaved American woman and in vivid descriptions of his homeland and its history. Through historical references intertwined with topical subject matter, such as 9/11 and an allusion to the assassination of Daniel Pearl, the speaker tells his tale of infatuation and disillusionment in what amounts to an upbraiding of American capitalistic arrogance and hegemony.

Thank you very much to Margaret and everyone who participated.

The book we’ll discuss on Tuesday March 2nd, is Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, by J.D. Salinger. There are a number of copies in circulation so keep in touch if you would like to borrow a copy to read.

The following book will be Small Island, by Andrea Levy.

We look forward to seeing you in March,

Kerry and Julie

The Book Thief

An enthusiastic group of 7 Book Club members met on Tuesday to discuss The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the story of a young girl in Nazi Germany, sent by her distraught mother to be taken in by foster parents at the height of the war. Narrated by an omniscient and omnipresent figure of Death, it is a poignant story of a family struggling not to become overwhelmed by the war effort, and to maintain their principles under the circumstances.

The meeting opened with an engaging discussion of members’ associations with the war and its aftermath. Several members recounted moving connections with survivors of the war from both sides of the conflict, as well as their own local associations, whether it was observing bombed buildings, studying historical texts, or an exhaustive investigation of the Imperial War Museum.

The readers’ responses were at extremes. Some felt the book was a moving and captivating emotional tale of characters with whom they could identify and empathize. Common agreement was expressed as to the wholesome nature of the portrayal of the protagonists relationships and certain well written aspects. Others were extremely frustrated by the author’s devices, which seemed contrived, its lack of effective imagery, and moreover, by the flippant superficiality with which the author treated the historical subject and circumstances of the war.

The book chosen to be discussed on Tuesday, January 12th, is the novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid.

Thank you very much to everyone who participated and for bringing incredibly delicious food and beverages and a special thanks to Julie for hosting the gathering, and providing more delicious food and punch!

We welcome any comments or suggestions for future meetings.

We look forward to seeing you January 12th, the date set to allow everyone a chance to enjoy the holidays.

Best wishes for a lovely holiday season to everyone, wherever you may be,

Kerry and Julie

November Book Club Meeting

As it turns out we can meet on Tuesday, 3 November, and most likely it will be at Julie's apartment in Barga Vecchia. Now if I could just find a copy of that book...

See you there

The Buddha of Suburbia

On Tuesday evening Julie Flynn Ciniglio articulately presented her selection, The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi, to an enthusiastic group of least 12 Barga Book Club members in the lovely and convivial atmosphere of her own studio apartment in Barga Vecchia.

The Buddha of Suburbia is an engaging story of the trials and tribulations of an ethnically diversified young man coming of age in the London suburbs in the late 20th Century. The protagonist, Karim, with a long suffering English mother and charismatic Indian father, is presented growing up through the lenses of pop music and culture clouded by his ethnic heritage.

Political and sociological themes of family, immigration, racism, class, spirituality, religion, sexuality, and mysticism are explored. The author deftly negotiates the subject of discrimination in post-colonial Britain, remaining seemingly objective, while focusing on the exploits and evolution of society from the early 70’s onward. In addition to cultural issues concerning race, the conflicts of a multitude of religious influences from Christianity through Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism are wrestled.

The book’s title refers to the protagonist’s father who develops a, first, suburban and then urban, following as a guru and spiritual leader, though his son can’t shake the feeling that he is more charlatan than shaman. Karim’s English mother fills an uncharacteristically subdued role of neglected partner while his father runs off with an artistic, sexually liberated sophisticate.

Karim himself goes through a laundry list of casual sexual exploits expected of the liberated.

Julie also thoughtfully provided the audio of an interview with the author in which he answers questions from a live audience and email queries. He gracefully skirts the prurient questions as to the book’s autobiographical nature and explains the story as the evolution of a new breed of British citizen, presenting the contradictory Indian characterization of sage and beggar by adaptation of identities and escapism.

The book seems to be a deceptively affectionate portrait of late 20th century British social issues and conflicts and covers many themes of contemporary interest.

The next Book Club meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 10th and the book presented will be All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy.

The following month we will discuss The Tehran Conviction, hopefully with the author himself, Tom Gabbay.

Many thanks to everyone who brought food and/or wine and stayed to help Julie tidy up.

We look forward to seeing you all at the next meeting,

Kerry and Julie

Spilling the Beans

The autobiography Spilling the Beans by Clarissa Dickson Wright is a sober account of the devastating effects of alcoholism and the violent physical abuse she endured at the hands of her father, neither of which discriminate against the class or economic status of her well connected and privileged youth. Even as she proudly achieves the hard won goal of youngest barrister and successfully practices for a time, her alcoholism takes its toll. After finally extricating herself and her mother from the abuses of her father, her mother dies and this sends her into severe depression and alchohol abuse. In a matter of fact account of her institutionalization, and ultimate salvation through AA, of which she spends much time extolling the virtues of twelve step programs, she describes her addiction and its toll. Ultimately through pluck and nerve she pulls herself up by her bootstraps and soldiers on, finding comfort and purpose in food and cookery. Avoiding self pity and the celebrity tell all, she recounts her life in carefully edited prose.


The book selected for the December 1st meeting will be The Tehran Conviction by Tom Gabbay and will be introduced by the author.

To recap the upcoming books:

October 6th: The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi to be introduced by Julie Flynn
November 3rd: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy introduced by Kerry Bell

I have added the following titles of suggested reading to the Book Club reading list:

A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

A sincere thank you to everyone who participated!

We look forward to seeing you in October,

Kerry and Julie

Passed by the Skin of Its Teeth

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

A Legacy of Loss

An enthusiastic group of about 18 Barga Book Club Members and friends gathered for an animated discussion of
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, many of whom had read the book.

Opinions varied widely. The story was characterized from richly described narrative to depressing overblown cliché. The consensus was that the strength of the book was the voluptuous imagery of its setting in the shadow of the Himalayas. The palpable images of everyday life in post colonial India, from impoverished vestiges of the Tea ritual to the interior of a once grand, now derelict, home and its surroundings left little to the imagination. No detail was spared in the lush description of the torrid build up to the monsoon season and its steamy consummation.

The characters were represented through the back and forth of past and present reminiscences and the veil of the controversial relationship of the legacy of colonialism and conflicted sentiment toward its cultural fusion. The discrepancy between aspiration and oppression was an important theme. Intense pathos as a consequence of failed ambition was one aspect of the legacy of loss that touched all characters lives.

To some book club members, though the setting and characterization were richly portrayed, there remained a sense of detachment from emotional issues despite the representation of some inexcusable interpersonal violence driven by circumstances. The characters remained tentatively involved and the ending seemed flat and unresolved.

The book raised many more questions we didn’t have time to address and is a recommended read for the well written vibrant imagery and as a treatise on the human condition.

The book that was chosen to read and discuss at the Tuesday August 4th meeting is: In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje.

We will meet next on Tuesday July 7th to discuss The Other Side of You by Salley Vickers.

I will be posting several recommended reading lists of English Literature generously copied and contributed by Isobel Dodds.

Thank you very much for your enthusiastic participation and all of your contributions.

Kerry and Julie