First, a late and contrite note on the book club meeting for March. Held on a rainy evening at the warm fragrant Tiglio farmhouse, furnished beautifully in contemporary elegance, of Helen Fentimen, we wined and dined sumptuously and discussed Daphne du Maurier’s My Cousin Rachel. Did she or didn’t she? No one knows for sure. Selene felt it was a real page turner filled with manipulation and revenge and Margaret added jealousy, obsession, and love. Someone mentioned overdrawn hobbledehoy. In short, the mystery-romance story of two bachelor cousins falling in love with a beautiful half Italian distant cousin and the effect she had on them, published in 1951 followed on several years of Noir drama films where the nefarious female character was always foreign and exotic. The question throughout was whether she had poisoned Ambrose and was in the process of poisoning his young cousin Philip. Du Maurier’s character was mysterious, charming and clever and sufficiently duplicitous that one never was sure whether she did indeed do the deed.Margaret's thoughtful notes follow:
Written in the first person by Philip and therefore of necessity slanted. We see and know only his truths. He sees everything from a narrow viewpoint, that of a young man who has not yet matured…until his encounter with Rachel he is a virgin. One suspects that the same was true of Ambrose. They were both therefore easily manipulated by Rachel.
THEMES: obsession, jealousy, love and hate.
CHARACTERS.
Philip: naive country bumpkin brought up in country in a household of men, secure childhood, morbidly attached to Ambrose. No knowledge of women apart from Louisa his childhood friend who he never sees as a woman. Limited knowledge of the world. He loves nature and is extremely aware of it, but only in his own area, specifically, his estate. When he travels to Italy he sees none of the beauty, only ugliness and poverty. He is infantile in his behaviour, his sulks and jealousy, his loves and hates. His love for Rachel could be seen as oedipal…his father-substitute’s wife. He inherits Ambrose’s estate, money, family jewels and ….wife.. He becomes or subconsciously wishes to become Ambrose. Irrational, he oscillates from believing one thing to believing the opposite. His jealousy and paranoia cause him to commit murder.
Rachel: worldly, sophisticated, spend-thrift. Insecure childhood, marriage to gain security first to Sangalli then to Ambrose. Sensual, attractive to both sexes. Sense of humour. Is careful to secure a livelihood. She is a woman alone in a period when women had far fewer rights. Money will give her independence, and the strength to face life and live it to the full. She appears to be caring, as when Ambrose and Philip are ill. Has great knowledge of plants and like the witches of old, knows the virtues of medicinal plants and poisonous ones. She casts spells. She could also be a murderer. However, why would she have murdered Ambrose when he hadn’t signed the will? Rachel is shocked by the similarity between Philip and Ambrose. While she is dying , she calls him Ambrose.
Rainardi: viewed with suspicion by Philip he represents the unknown, all that is foreign and therefore untrustworthy. He is dark and sinister and speaks another, incomprehensible language.
Louisa, good, innocent and in love with Philip. She is open and honest, contrasting Rachel’s secretive and complex character
Nick: incapable of putting a brake on Philips wild decisions. Perhaps he also sees the chance for his daughter of marrying money, disappearing. He is the voice of reason which cannot be heard by the besotted Philip.
Daphne du Maurier said that when she wrote the book she became Philip and therefore like Philip did not know whether or not Rachel murdered Ambrose .
The April meeting was held at the vibrant, cozy, familiar and always welcoming home of Krysia Bell. The book we discussed, most of us had read many years ago and, on re reading found it a different book altogether. This time around the themes that impressed us most were sociopolitical, socioeconomic, socialism, sufferance, equality, and existentialism. Helen remarked on the class differences writ large within the beautiful sensitively, vividly descriptive. Margaret cited the essentially tragic age of upheaval and change, the social situation and class destruction. She brought the author's background and current social status to our attention, with reference to its impact on the story. Krysia called it not a book for sissies. The book under discussion was Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H Lawrence. Here are Krysia’s extensive and intuitive notes:
The novel is set in the Midlands at Wragby Hall, the home of Lord Clifford Chatterley and his wife Constance, Lady Chatterley. Clifford owns the colliery bordering Wragby Hall separated by a small wood and a park. This is a perfect setting to explore the theme of Lawrence’s novel, the nihilistic/existential monotonous life of the Aristocracy, the slavish existence of the working class, and the Marxist theory that there is no such thing as the individual only the struggles between classes.
The sex scenes for which it is famous are disappointingly mild now and of course we wouldn’t be shocked by the use of the ‘f’ and ‘c’ word running through it or the sexual freedom and adultery which takes place. The acquittal of Penguin books in the famous trial was a crucial step towards the freedom of the written word.
I don’t expect the ruling classes much liked Lawrences’ portrayal of aristocratic males as spineless, arrogant, nonsensical prattlers, with wives who have lost interest in them or divorced them, children in search of their nanny’s as Clifford becomes with Mrs. Bolton at the end. Clifford is a typical example. A priggish, self centered, pompous man paralyzed in The Great War and confined to a motorised bath chair who finds most aspects of life meaningless. Even his writing, clever spiteful stories about people he has known, are in themselves, as his father-in-law points out, quite meaningless. Connie on the other hand seems to have more resolve; intelligent, outgoing, worldly, free thinking in comparison to Clifford, educated in the cultural centres of Europe, she throws her energy at the void, the dream, the simulacrum of reality in which they live, dominated by Clifford’s writing which she practically co-authors. Clifford needs her to be at his side every moment of the day, but of course it’s not long before she tires of this. The loneliness of Wragby Hall, the absence of a husband in any physical sense, the prospect of no children, and the reality of Clifford’s blank insentience and vacuity drives her to an affair with Michaelis another listless purposeless man with whom she has to compromise herself. Mick asks her to marry him and when she declines he turns nasty. ‘He brought down her sexual feeling for him like a pack of cards by saying that women either don’t come off or wait until a man has and then the man has to hang on while the woman does and why can’t a woman synchronise her coming off when the man does?’ I suppose this would have been considered a shocking thing to voice in the Sixties.
As the years pass it’s the fear of nothingness in Connie’s life that affects her. She grows numb of the bitch goddess (which is the name they give to success) and this is another nothingness. The bitch goddess of success had two main appetites: one for flattery, adulation, stroking and tickling such as writers and artists gave her and the other, the meat and bones, were provided by the men who had money in industry.
I thought it was a great book. I loved the way we were taken into their private thoughts, especially Connie who was in some way as shallow and whimsical as Clifford although quite likeable, but what I loved about it most were the poetic colourful descriptions of the wood.
This is the newly graveled path when she first sees Mellors -‘When the rock and refuse of the underworld had burned and given off its sulphur, it turned bright pink, shrimp-coloured on dry days, darker, crab coloured on wet. Now it was pale shrimp-colour, with a bluish-white hoar of frost.’
And this one; a beautiful metaphor for their love making.
The wood was silent, still and secret in the evening drizzle of the rain full of the mystery of eggs and half-open buds half unsheathed flowers in the dimness of it all trees glistened naked and dark as if they had unclothed themselves and the green things on earth seemed to hum with greenness.
Mellors never says much until his letter at the end in which he reveals his extreme earthiness and the obsessions about people being so interested in money that they had lost themselves.
Having made a big mistake marrying his wife Betty it looks as if he is about to make another mistake with Connie.
Connie in search for something more meaningful finds passion and erotic love. That is what they have in common which seems pretty futile in the great realm of things. Would they grow to really love one another. Mellors wasn’t a fool but how could Connie put up with that awful dialect he spoke. You couldn’t understand what the man was talking about. And someone who said things like ‘you’ve got a fine arse to stroke on yu woman like you needs proper graftin.’
They both loved flowers, they both loved sex, would that be enough for a lifetime. Maybe for Mellors but unlikely for Connie.
Thank you to everyone who contributed and participated.
Here is a recap of the upcoming details, by title, date and venue:
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, 21 May at Palazzo Salvi
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson, 26 June at Margaret Moore's
A Heart So White by Javier Marias, 31 July at Pietro and Marijke's
Thank you again,
Kerry and Krysia
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
A new normal
Having just, at great effort, dug ourselves out from under considerable snow in the countryside, some of us not entirely successfully even this night, and under threat of yet more snow, the Barga Book Club members braved the elements and met at the warm and cozy hearth of Isobel in Canale, Tiglio.
Krysia writes: On our arrival Isobel lit all of the candles in the dining room, a custom which Isobel and Pete brought back from their time in Norway. We then proceeded to eat courses of wonderful food: warm Camembert cheese, salads, Isobel's delicious lasagna followed by cake. We had a lot to say about the book 'Why Be Happy, When You Could Be Normal?' by Jeannette Winterson and we almost unanimously considered it a great read. Next month's book is My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier. For future reading we decided on Black Swan Green by David Mitchell as the May title and for June another Jeannette Winterson book, The Passion. The other books we talked about were 'The Matter of Death & Life' by Andrey Kurkov, 'The Stranger's Child' by Alan Hollingshurst and 'Canada' by Richard Ford.
Please send me your suggestions for future reading and also your comments on the books we have suggested here.The March Book Club meeting is on Wednesday, 20th. March to be hosted by Helen.I look forward to seeing you then.
******
The book under discussion was Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal, the ironically entitled autobiography of Jeanette Winterson. Helen led the enthusiastic discussion citing her intense interest in trying to keep up with the frenetic pace of Winterson telling her story of a turbulent tale of survival, fighting a complex abusive relationship with adoptive parents. Winterson’s developed technique to overcome horrific circumstances in this dysfunctional oppressive atmosphere was to make up stories and read literature, starting with author’s whose names began with A and working her way to Z at the local library. Thus she studied life, politics, and socialization. Librarians, teachers and others encouraged her resilience and resourcefulness in a complex emotional matrix.
Everyone agreed on Winterson’s matter of fact recitation of events and a great appreciation of the superbly placed historical, social and literary references rounding out the story.
Margaret adds: what I call matter of fact, some call detachment, but it isn't cold, anything but. There is even humour. I liked the simplicity of those first chapters because she is talking about when she was so very young and the style is compatible with that. Her anger becomes evident only later on and the target of it becomes her adoptive mother because Connie isn't there any more. She is scarred, but writing the book was good for her and a form of release, just the setting it down. She is capable of loving but has trouble receiving love and always pushes it away. However I understand she does have relationships and I think very close and strong ones. She is in survivor mode even though she was a victim.
Krysia adds:
I loved this book and it made me cry. Jeannette Winterson writes beautifully with conviction, honesty, humour and passion.What a great title as well; Why be happy, when you could be normal which is what her mother says when Jeannette tells Mrs. Winterson that the girl she has fallen in love with makes her feel happy.
From the first paragraph: ‘When my mother was angry with me, which was often, she said “The Devil led us to the wrong crib.” just about sums it up. We know right from the start that she was adopted, unwanted and her mother a religious fanatic. Of course we learn the horrors of Jeannette’s childhood as the story evolves. Her mother, Mrs. Winterson, a deeply unhappy woman who kept a gun in a draw and was waiting for Armageddon suffered from cycles of erratic behaviours; long silences when she would stand at the stove for hours stirring a pan of egg custard, bouts of anger and retribution thrown onto those around her, and then her self absolution when she would read the Bible throughout the night. Jeannette and her father never knew when she would strike. When you live in a home like that it’s probably best that you vacate to the doorstep. At least you are safe.
But this autobiography not only tells the story of an adopted child living with a monster as a mother but also tells the reader about the rich and fascinating history of Manchester. ‘Where you are born, the history of the place, stamps who you are.’ Manchester was the world’s first industrial city. It spun riches beyond anybody’s wildest dreams and wove despair and degradation into the human fabric. It was Utopian – the Quakerism, feminism, its antislavery movement. It was where Marx and Engels wrote their Communist Manifesto and the first trade union conference took place. Jeannette Winterson spent her childhood in a street of two up, two down terraces in Accrington, on the outskirts of Manchester where families lived from hand to mouth. and had outside lavatories. Women were brash, strong, capable and intelligent. They were the ones who kept the whole framework of society together and maintained it; the ones portrayed on seaside postcards as towering ogres wielding rolling pins chasing after their weedy little husbands.
What interested me the most, though, was how she became a writer. Well, she lived in a world surrounded by stories. There were always narratives in day to day conversation on the bus or in the street. Mrs.Winterson read the Bible to Jeannette and her father every evening after church where she listened to the preacher’s sermons.The language of the 1611 King James Bible was the language they were used to. Older people quoted from Shakespeare and the metaphysical poets like John Donne, without knowing the source, often misquoting and mixing them up like, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls.” ‘A tough life needs a tough language and that is what poetry is about.’ Jeannette read avidly in secret at the local library and when her mother burnt her books she started to create her own stories ones that no one could destroy. ‘I needed words because unhappy families are conspiracies of silence’
And what determination she had to get the thing she wanted; to go to Oxford and become a writer. What I wanted does exist if I dare to find it.’ She says. ‘There is a lot you can’t change when you are a kid but you can pack for the journey.’
She says that she and her mother were matched in their loss and losing. She had lost the warm safe place of the person who loved her and Mrs. Winterson had lost/was losing her life.
Near the end of the book when she seeks out her real mother Ann and Ann criticises Mrs. Winterson, Jeannette says ‘she was a monster, but she was my monster.’
Every page was studded with gems. A masterpiece in my opinion.
Kerry, the sole dissenting opinion, felt that it was a disingenuous screed of anger, resentment and discompassionate self serving vindication.
The title for the March 20th meeting is My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne Du Maurier and April is Lady Chatterly’s Lover, D. H. Lawrence.
Thank you very much to everyone who participated.
Krysia writes: On our arrival Isobel lit all of the candles in the dining room, a custom which Isobel and Pete brought back from their time in Norway. We then proceeded to eat courses of wonderful food: warm Camembert cheese, salads, Isobel's delicious lasagna followed by cake. We had a lot to say about the book 'Why Be Happy, When You Could Be Normal?' by Jeannette Winterson and we almost unanimously considered it a great read. Next month's book is My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier. For future reading we decided on Black Swan Green by David Mitchell as the May title and for June another Jeannette Winterson book, The Passion. The other books we talked about were 'The Matter of Death & Life' by Andrey Kurkov, 'The Stranger's Child' by Alan Hollingshurst and 'Canada' by Richard Ford.
Please send me your suggestions for future reading and also your comments on the books we have suggested here.The March Book Club meeting is on Wednesday, 20th. March to be hosted by Helen.I look forward to seeing you then.
******
The book under discussion was Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal, the ironically entitled autobiography of Jeanette Winterson. Helen led the enthusiastic discussion citing her intense interest in trying to keep up with the frenetic pace of Winterson telling her story of a turbulent tale of survival, fighting a complex abusive relationship with adoptive parents. Winterson’s developed technique to overcome horrific circumstances in this dysfunctional oppressive atmosphere was to make up stories and read literature, starting with author’s whose names began with A and working her way to Z at the local library. Thus she studied life, politics, and socialization. Librarians, teachers and others encouraged her resilience and resourcefulness in a complex emotional matrix.
Everyone agreed on Winterson’s matter of fact recitation of events and a great appreciation of the superbly placed historical, social and literary references rounding out the story.
Margaret adds: what I call matter of fact, some call detachment, but it isn't cold, anything but. There is even humour. I liked the simplicity of those first chapters because she is talking about when she was so very young and the style is compatible with that. Her anger becomes evident only later on and the target of it becomes her adoptive mother because Connie isn't there any more. She is scarred, but writing the book was good for her and a form of release, just the setting it down. She is capable of loving but has trouble receiving love and always pushes it away. However I understand she does have relationships and I think very close and strong ones. She is in survivor mode even though she was a victim.
Krysia adds:
I loved this book and it made me cry. Jeannette Winterson writes beautifully with conviction, honesty, humour and passion.What a great title as well; Why be happy, when you could be normal which is what her mother says when Jeannette tells Mrs. Winterson that the girl she has fallen in love with makes her feel happy.
From the first paragraph: ‘When my mother was angry with me, which was often, she said “The Devil led us to the wrong crib.” just about sums it up. We know right from the start that she was adopted, unwanted and her mother a religious fanatic. Of course we learn the horrors of Jeannette’s childhood as the story evolves. Her mother, Mrs. Winterson, a deeply unhappy woman who kept a gun in a draw and was waiting for Armageddon suffered from cycles of erratic behaviours; long silences when she would stand at the stove for hours stirring a pan of egg custard, bouts of anger and retribution thrown onto those around her, and then her self absolution when she would read the Bible throughout the night. Jeannette and her father never knew when she would strike. When you live in a home like that it’s probably best that you vacate to the doorstep. At least you are safe.
But this autobiography not only tells the story of an adopted child living with a monster as a mother but also tells the reader about the rich and fascinating history of Manchester. ‘Where you are born, the history of the place, stamps who you are.’ Manchester was the world’s first industrial city. It spun riches beyond anybody’s wildest dreams and wove despair and degradation into the human fabric. It was Utopian – the Quakerism, feminism, its antislavery movement. It was where Marx and Engels wrote their Communist Manifesto and the first trade union conference took place. Jeannette Winterson spent her childhood in a street of two up, two down terraces in Accrington, on the outskirts of Manchester where families lived from hand to mouth. and had outside lavatories. Women were brash, strong, capable and intelligent. They were the ones who kept the whole framework of society together and maintained it; the ones portrayed on seaside postcards as towering ogres wielding rolling pins chasing after their weedy little husbands.
What interested me the most, though, was how she became a writer. Well, she lived in a world surrounded by stories. There were always narratives in day to day conversation on the bus or in the street. Mrs.Winterson read the Bible to Jeannette and her father every evening after church where she listened to the preacher’s sermons.The language of the 1611 King James Bible was the language they were used to. Older people quoted from Shakespeare and the metaphysical poets like John Donne, without knowing the source, often misquoting and mixing them up like, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls.” ‘A tough life needs a tough language and that is what poetry is about.’ Jeannette read avidly in secret at the local library and when her mother burnt her books she started to create her own stories ones that no one could destroy. ‘I needed words because unhappy families are conspiracies of silence’
And what determination she had to get the thing she wanted; to go to Oxford and become a writer. What I wanted does exist if I dare to find it.’ She says. ‘There is a lot you can’t change when you are a kid but you can pack for the journey.’
She says that she and her mother were matched in their loss and losing. She had lost the warm safe place of the person who loved her and Mrs. Winterson had lost/was losing her life.
Near the end of the book when she seeks out her real mother Ann and Ann criticises Mrs. Winterson, Jeannette says ‘she was a monster, but she was my monster.’
Every page was studded with gems. A masterpiece in my opinion.
Kerry, the sole dissenting opinion, felt that it was a disingenuous screed of anger, resentment and discompassionate self serving vindication.
The title for the March 20th meeting is My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne Du Maurier and April is Lady Chatterly’s Lover, D. H. Lawrence.
Thank you very much to everyone who participated.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
A sense of the ending
The Book Club met on a cool drizzly winter evening in the exquisite antiques meet modern interior of the home of Salene. Comfort was the order of the evening, from the fire burning in the sitting room wood stove to the delicious Cottage Pie served by the hostess and delectable leek and fennel gratin from Isobel and remarkable and beautifully presented mixed tuna salad from Margaret, as well as other delightful entrees.
The book under discussion was ‘The Sense of an Ending’ by Julian Barnes. The response was insightful, thoughtful, and overwhelmingly positive, save one.
The story begins with a list. A list of things the principle character remembers about his school years and a group of very close friends and one woman. He is reflecting on a series of events and their repercussions throughout his life and the lives of the other friends involved.
Tony was part of a clique of 4 boys when the real story begins. They are close and insidiously competitive. One of the boys is clearly more intelligent, but almost autistic in his interaction with the others and they all measure themselves against him. A tragedy occurs at school which is much later repeated by one of the members of the group, later in life and forms the central trauma of the story.
Led by Margaret, who always reads and reviews with deep understanding of the material and writing, the group found much to praise and discuss in this book about the imperfection of memory, or how selective our memories are. The question was raised as to whether we could trust Tony’s recollections. The themes that were carried throughout were repression, psychic and emotional damage, instability, incest, pretentiousness, rage. Obviously all the characters were filtered through Tony’s self serving, self indulgent, and self aggrandizing memories of them and skewed and reflected in his eyes, but manipulated in his avoidance of reality.
Most felt the characters were well drawn, and well represented in their complexity and complex relationships.
The ultimate sense of the ending was the unreliability of memory.
Everyone contributed remarkably astute insights that lent the book substance and gravitas.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday, 20th February at Isobel's - to discuss Why Be Happy When You Could Be No Normal by Jeanette Winterson, and then
Wednesday, 20th. March at Helen's - My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier
Wednesday, 17th. April at Krysia's - Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H.Lawrence.
Thank you all,
Kerry
The book under discussion was ‘The Sense of an Ending’ by Julian Barnes. The response was insightful, thoughtful, and overwhelmingly positive, save one.
The story begins with a list. A list of things the principle character remembers about his school years and a group of very close friends and one woman. He is reflecting on a series of events and their repercussions throughout his life and the lives of the other friends involved.
Tony was part of a clique of 4 boys when the real story begins. They are close and insidiously competitive. One of the boys is clearly more intelligent, but almost autistic in his interaction with the others and they all measure themselves against him. A tragedy occurs at school which is much later repeated by one of the members of the group, later in life and forms the central trauma of the story.
Led by Margaret, who always reads and reviews with deep understanding of the material and writing, the group found much to praise and discuss in this book about the imperfection of memory, or how selective our memories are. The question was raised as to whether we could trust Tony’s recollections. The themes that were carried throughout were repression, psychic and emotional damage, instability, incest, pretentiousness, rage. Obviously all the characters were filtered through Tony’s self serving, self indulgent, and self aggrandizing memories of them and skewed and reflected in his eyes, but manipulated in his avoidance of reality.
Most felt the characters were well drawn, and well represented in their complexity and complex relationships.
The ultimate sense of the ending was the unreliability of memory.
Everyone contributed remarkably astute insights that lent the book substance and gravitas.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday, 20th February at Isobel's - to discuss Why Be Happy When You Could Be No Normal by Jeanette Winterson, and then
Wednesday, 20th. March at Helen's - My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier
Wednesday, 17th. April at Krysia's - Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H.Lawrence.
Thank you all,
Kerry
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Brave New World
One of the most wonderful aspects of our small but active book club is its platform for launching flights of thought and ideas. Whether it is in the research of the author’s background or other titles, or the historical or social significance of the book there are always many interesting topics put on the table.
On the coldest December evening thus far we stepped from the cobblestone via into the old world warmth of a medieval palazzo to a sumptuous meal at the long narrow dark heavy wood table, beautifully laid in deep red with cut crystal wine goblets and white china, before discussing the contemporary implications of the novel Brave New World, by Alduous Huxley.
At Oxford, tutored by H.G. Wells, Huxley, originally inspired to write a parody of the period’s popular future utopia novels, wrote instead a dystopian saga which resonates 80 years later. Contemporary themes of societal control, genetic engineering, cloning, bioethics, coercive consumerism, drug use and sexual promiscuity are explored.
Huxley was a member of several hedonistic societies and explored and experimented with LSD and mescaline, in addition to being prescribed antidepressants. A trip to the United States, and an inadvertent study of the writing of Henry Ford on industrialization, mass production and consumerism as a key to peace, strongly influenced his pessimistic outlook for the future of Europe and inspired him to write Brave New World with America in mind.
The society consists of a genetically engineered hierarchy of consumers. Consumerism being the new religion, everyone was inculcated in the process of goods to make, buy, use and throw away. Today the practice can be seen in the elaborate advertising schemes and pressure to buy on too easily available credit in a vicious cycle which has resulted in seriously undermining world wide financial systems.
As panacea and to alleviate stress and anxiety the mood enhancing fictional drug Soma was used routinely. Its relevance today can be felt in the alarming use of psychoactive drugs to enhance, modify or control the behaviour of adults but most disturbingly that of a growing number of children. The production of Ritalin, the drug of choice to control a variety of behavioural issues in children, has increased 500% in five years. An estimated 5% of boys and 2% of girls in the United States, are prescribed these drugs beginning with children as young as 3 to 4 years of age. Young adults and adults are using them for memory and mental performance enhancement. This does not even begin to address the serious abuse of performance enhancing drugs.
The regulated and controlled society forbid any engagement in arts or literature, especially the work of Shakespeare from which the title is borrowed. Family connections were eliminated through genetically engineered reproduction which brings us to the main plot in the story when two characters go on vacation to the world at large and find two refugees from the colony. The two refugees, one the paternal offspring of a member of the colony, return and confusion and chaos ensue through the introduction of a blood relative.
It was not an easy read. The almost textbook descriptions of scientific endeavors were a slog. All in all, those who read and enjoyed it did so with an eye to its relevance today.
Thank you very much to Liz and everyone who contributed delicious food and Margaret, Krysia, Helen and others who brought well researched thought provoking ideas to the table.
The book we will discuss on January 23rd will be The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.
The book for February is Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal, by Jeanette Winterson
March’s book selection is My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne du Maurier and April will be discussing Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence.
We look forward to lively discussions.
On the coldest December evening thus far we stepped from the cobblestone via into the old world warmth of a medieval palazzo to a sumptuous meal at the long narrow dark heavy wood table, beautifully laid in deep red with cut crystal wine goblets and white china, before discussing the contemporary implications of the novel Brave New World, by Alduous Huxley.
At Oxford, tutored by H.G. Wells, Huxley, originally inspired to write a parody of the period’s popular future utopia novels, wrote instead a dystopian saga which resonates 80 years later. Contemporary themes of societal control, genetic engineering, cloning, bioethics, coercive consumerism, drug use and sexual promiscuity are explored.
Huxley was a member of several hedonistic societies and explored and experimented with LSD and mescaline, in addition to being prescribed antidepressants. A trip to the United States, and an inadvertent study of the writing of Henry Ford on industrialization, mass production and consumerism as a key to peace, strongly influenced his pessimistic outlook for the future of Europe and inspired him to write Brave New World with America in mind.
The society consists of a genetically engineered hierarchy of consumers. Consumerism being the new religion, everyone was inculcated in the process of goods to make, buy, use and throw away. Today the practice can be seen in the elaborate advertising schemes and pressure to buy on too easily available credit in a vicious cycle which has resulted in seriously undermining world wide financial systems.
As panacea and to alleviate stress and anxiety the mood enhancing fictional drug Soma was used routinely. Its relevance today can be felt in the alarming use of psychoactive drugs to enhance, modify or control the behaviour of adults but most disturbingly that of a growing number of children. The production of Ritalin, the drug of choice to control a variety of behavioural issues in children, has increased 500% in five years. An estimated 5% of boys and 2% of girls in the United States, are prescribed these drugs beginning with children as young as 3 to 4 years of age. Young adults and adults are using them for memory and mental performance enhancement. This does not even begin to address the serious abuse of performance enhancing drugs.
The regulated and controlled society forbid any engagement in arts or literature, especially the work of Shakespeare from which the title is borrowed. Family connections were eliminated through genetically engineered reproduction which brings us to the main plot in the story when two characters go on vacation to the world at large and find two refugees from the colony. The two refugees, one the paternal offspring of a member of the colony, return and confusion and chaos ensue through the introduction of a blood relative.
It was not an easy read. The almost textbook descriptions of scientific endeavors were a slog. All in all, those who read and enjoyed it did so with an eye to its relevance today.
Thank you very much to Liz and everyone who contributed delicious food and Margaret, Krysia, Helen and others who brought well researched thought provoking ideas to the table.
The book we will discuss on January 23rd will be The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.
The book for February is Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal, by Jeanette Winterson
March’s book selection is My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne du Maurier and April will be discussing Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence.
We look forward to lively discussions.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
The Handmaid's Tale
Krysia cited this research:
Most people don't want to read about a book before they actually read it, but with this one, I wish I had. It was an uncomfortable and disturbing read.
Margaret Atwood had a fascination with dictatorships and how they functioned as well as an interest in dystopian literature.
The defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment, the rise of the religious right, the election of Ronald Reagan, and many sorts of backlash (mostly hugely misinformed) against the women's movement led writers like Atwood to fear that the antifeminist tide could not only prevent further gains for women, but turn back the clock.
Feminists took many different lines on pornography and advertising demeaning women. Some said that the portrayal of women sexually and erotically should be completely censored, and at the other end of the spectrum that censorship resulted in loss of freedom and therefore dangerous.
The sub-theme of this tangled debate which seems to have particularly interested and alarmed Atwood is the tendency of some feminist anti-porn groups to ally themselves with religious anti-porn zealots who opposed the feminists on almost every other issue. The language of "protection of women" could slip from a demand for more freedom into a retreat from freedom, to a kind of neo-Victorianism.
Contemporary Islamic women sometimes argue that assuming the veil and all-enveloping clothing protects them from sexual harassment and sexual objectification.
In the Old Testament, Hebrew, it was considered legal for a husband to procreate with his servant, if his wife was infertile, and during the birth the wife would embrace the servant to show that she had a right to the child.
Margaret added these insights:
The Secret Services took the eye from the one dollar bill as their logo and then Homeland Security used it.
Between 76-83 in Argentina the generals took the children from dissidents. 3000 people disappeared
In Basra 45% of pregnancies end in miscarriages and 50% of children are born with birth defects due to the lead, mercury and white phosphorous shells.
Liz added that on second reading many ideas came to the fore.
Anne, who also brought wonderful fresh milled olive oil, mentioned closed societies and children with genetic defects and an overall mistrust of governing bodies.
The next meeting will be held on December 12, graciously hosted by Liz at Palazzo Salvi. We will be discussing Alduous Huxley’s Brave New World.
The title chosen for the January meeting is The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, date and venue to follow.
Thank you to everyone who participated and we look very forward to seeing you in December.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Swimming Home
The Book Club met on a cool mid fall evening in the elegant, warm and cozy kitchen of Krysia and Christopher Bell. While appetizing fragrances wafted from the oven we enjoyed appetizers and prosecco and caught up with the members whom we had not seen for several weeks and reflected on those who could not be there, wishing them well.
We sat down to a delicious and hearty meal and evocative anecdotes provided by the members and hosts and eventually got down to the business at hand which was to discuss Swimming Home by Deborah Levy. Opinions were radically but amicably divergent.
The Story revolves around the incidental introduction of a very beautiful but zany young naturalist botanist amidst a group of five friends on Holiday in Antibes. The opening pages are intriguing, evocative and promising but in the majority opinion it goes down hill from there. A few readers felt an immediate and strong affinity for the characters and were drawn into the story which follows the 6 main characters, and several ancillary, through several discomforting and eventually tragic days. Some characters were very well drawn psychologically others were mystifying and frustratingly quixotic.
Margaret insightfully remarked on the metaphor of the swimming pool drawing references to watery grave, Ophelia and suspension as represented by a floating body at the beginning and end of the story. The main protagonist was cited as a catalyst for change in otherwise stilted dysfunctional lives. Selene recognized the powerful force of the water imagery and swimming as metaphor for being lost, or at sea as it were.
Apart from the two very strongly positive reviews, over all it was felt that the story just didn’t hang together, that its otherwise described hallucinatory aspect was unjustified. The author tried very hard to create a cohesive story but did not succeed, as Elisabeth felt it was too long to be a good short story but too short and disjointed to have achieved what was needed to make it a good novel.
The next meeting will be held on November 21st, at Kerry’s Barga location, to discuss The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and the following on December 12th when we will discuss Huxley’s Brave New World, as it relates to the 21st C., venue to be announced.
A few recommendations to add to the reading list are:
The Death of Grass by John Christopher
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
Several Titles by Gianrico Carofiglio
Thank you very much to everyone who participated.
We sat down to a delicious and hearty meal and evocative anecdotes provided by the members and hosts and eventually got down to the business at hand which was to discuss Swimming Home by Deborah Levy. Opinions were radically but amicably divergent.
The Story revolves around the incidental introduction of a very beautiful but zany young naturalist botanist amidst a group of five friends on Holiday in Antibes. The opening pages are intriguing, evocative and promising but in the majority opinion it goes down hill from there. A few readers felt an immediate and strong affinity for the characters and were drawn into the story which follows the 6 main characters, and several ancillary, through several discomforting and eventually tragic days. Some characters were very well drawn psychologically others were mystifying and frustratingly quixotic.
Margaret insightfully remarked on the metaphor of the swimming pool drawing references to watery grave, Ophelia and suspension as represented by a floating body at the beginning and end of the story. The main protagonist was cited as a catalyst for change in otherwise stilted dysfunctional lives. Selene recognized the powerful force of the water imagery and swimming as metaphor for being lost, or at sea as it were.
Apart from the two very strongly positive reviews, over all it was felt that the story just didn’t hang together, that its otherwise described hallucinatory aspect was unjustified. The author tried very hard to create a cohesive story but did not succeed, as Elisabeth felt it was too long to be a good short story but too short and disjointed to have achieved what was needed to make it a good novel.
The next meeting will be held on November 21st, at Kerry’s Barga location, to discuss The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and the following on December 12th when we will discuss Huxley’s Brave New World, as it relates to the 21st C., venue to be announced.
A few recommendations to add to the reading list are:
The Death of Grass by John Christopher
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
Several Titles by Gianrico Carofiglio
Thank you very much to everyone who participated.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
The Man Who Loved China
A warm early fall evening found a dozen or so members of the Barga Book Club enjoying a glass of wine or water, speaking quietly and watching the sun set slowly behind the Duomo. As the air chilled we gradually retreated to the warm and softly lit interior of the home of Pietro and Marijke Bianchessi. A buffet of fragrant, some Asian inspired, dishes provided by the book club members arrayed around the elegant ivory and black accented kitchen was taken to the long dining table and enjoyed before we began our lengthy discussion.
The book under discussion was “The Man Who Loved China,” the story of Joseph Needham, the Cambridge scientist who painstakingly chronicled the rise of the many Chinese arts and sciences which preclude most western discoveries and inventions. From astronomy through nautics, medicine, engineering and many other areas the Chinese were far ahead of the western world but the west knew nothing of their work until Needham researched and recorded it in multi-volume detail beginning in 1943.
The opinions of the readers were varied but most found the information on China, its history and culture very interesting and engaging. The author, Simon Winchester, did a thorough job of covering Needham’s work and life, balancing the two subjects well, straddling history and biography. As to the work, most readers were appreciative of the detail with which the author explained and documented the multitude of Chinese inventions and discoveries. As in the perpetual quandary, does the Art justify the artist’s bad behaviour, some readers were very disturbed by the peccadilloes of the subject.
The discussion was greatly enhanced by the contribution of the guest speaker Frank Viviano, long time international correspondent and bureau head for The San Francisco Chronicle and other media who spent many years living in and/or reporting from Asia. Drawing on his personal and professional experience in China Frank added in depth perspective and background to much of the substance of the book as well as insight about the culture and the author’s professional background, which Elisabeth Marseglia had also included in her well composed opening statement.
So, in addition to reading an interesting book, we learned a lot about the history and circumstances of which it was written.
We have selected The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood for November’s book club meeting which will be held at Kerry’s Barga address.
The next meeting will be held on 17 October at the home of Krysia at which we will discuss Swimming Home by Deborah Levy.
There were many other books to add to our suggested reading lists which include:
This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson
Four Fish by Paul Greenberg
Shantarum by Gregory David Roberts
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Morakami
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiuro
anything by Dave Eggers
Thank you very much to everyone who participated and contributed and especially to our guest speaker Frank Viviano for taking the time to add his deep and fascinating perspective.
The book under discussion was “The Man Who Loved China,” the story of Joseph Needham, the Cambridge scientist who painstakingly chronicled the rise of the many Chinese arts and sciences which preclude most western discoveries and inventions. From astronomy through nautics, medicine, engineering and many other areas the Chinese were far ahead of the western world but the west knew nothing of their work until Needham researched and recorded it in multi-volume detail beginning in 1943.
The opinions of the readers were varied but most found the information on China, its history and culture very interesting and engaging. The author, Simon Winchester, did a thorough job of covering Needham’s work and life, balancing the two subjects well, straddling history and biography. As to the work, most readers were appreciative of the detail with which the author explained and documented the multitude of Chinese inventions and discoveries. As in the perpetual quandary, does the Art justify the artist’s bad behaviour, some readers were very disturbed by the peccadilloes of the subject.
The discussion was greatly enhanced by the contribution of the guest speaker Frank Viviano, long time international correspondent and bureau head for The San Francisco Chronicle and other media who spent many years living in and/or reporting from Asia. Drawing on his personal and professional experience in China Frank added in depth perspective and background to much of the substance of the book as well as insight about the culture and the author’s professional background, which Elisabeth Marseglia had also included in her well composed opening statement.
So, in addition to reading an interesting book, we learned a lot about the history and circumstances of which it was written.
We have selected The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood for November’s book club meeting which will be held at Kerry’s Barga address.
The next meeting will be held on 17 October at the home of Krysia at which we will discuss Swimming Home by Deborah Levy.
There were many other books to add to our suggested reading lists which include:
This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson
Four Fish by Paul Greenberg
Shantarum by Gregory David Roberts
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Morakami
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiuro
anything by Dave Eggers
Thank you very much to everyone who participated and contributed and especially to our guest speaker Frank Viviano for taking the time to add his deep and fascinating perspective.
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