2007 book choices

What we read in 2007:

The Gospel of Gods and Crocodiles by Elizabeth Stead

Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

The Women's Room by Marilyn French

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan

In the Name of Honour by Mukhtar Mai

Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie

Minutes November 2007 Book: The Gospel of Gods and Crocodiles

The Gospel of Gods and Crocodiles by Elizabeth Stead
(chosen by TeamSAK)






Apologies for the scant and tardy minutes...blame a long, hot summer holiday and a bad memory! Anyhow, for the record, here are the ratings:

Ratings

Average: 7.33
Range: 6.5 to 8.5

Next book: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Minutes October 2007 Book: Theft by Peter Carey

Theft: A Love Story
by Peter Carey
(chosen by Fairlie)







At one of the bookclubs I went to during my year in Perth, one of the ladies bemoaned the fact that most of the books we had read that year were a little depressing in their content. "I'd just like to do a love story," she said.

The very next day, I saw a review for the newly released Theft, a book which is sub-titled "A Love Story". That caught my eye, and when I realised that the plot of the book was centred around a case of art fraud, and was written by Peter Carey (who also wrote Oscar & Lucinda which I really enjoyed), I was sold.

Like the main character in Theft, Peter Carey was born in 1943, in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia. His parents had a General Motors dealership. He attended Geelong Grammar School, and studied briefly at Monash University, but left after failing his first year science exams. He then worked as a copywriter in advertising agencies in Melbourne and London. He started writing in 1964. He moved to Sydney in 1974 where he continued copyrighting. His first collection of surreal short stories, War Crimes, was published in 1979.

In 1990/1991 he moved to New York, with his wife, Alison Summers, a theatre director, and his sons, to teach creative writing at University of New York. He still lives in New York, and still teaches Creative Writing at New York University. He is now divorced and his ex-wife has accused him of using this book to attack her and distort the story of their marriage breakdown. Carey does, however, refute this claim strongly.

(general biographical details from here)

Description of Theft from Random House website:

'I don't know if my story is grand enough to be a tragedy, although a lot of shitty stuff did happen. It is certainly a love story but that did not begin until midway through the shitty stuff, by which time I had not only lost my 8-year-old son, but also my house and studio in Sydney where I had once been as famous as a painter could expect in his own backyard.'

So begins Peter Carey's highly charged, recklessly funny new novel. Narrated by artist Butcher Bones and his 'damaged 220 lb brother' Hugh, it recounts their adventures and troubles after Butcher's plummeting prices and spiralling drink problem force them to retreat from Sydney to northern New South Wales. Here the formerly famous artist is reduced to acting as caretaker for his patron and nurse to his idiot-savant brother. Then mysterious American beauty Marlene turns up one stormy night, clad in a pair of Manolo Blahniks. Claiming that the brothers' neighbour owns an original Jacques Liebovitz, she sets in motion a chain of events that could be the making or ruin of them all.A truly brilliant novel - an act of fantastic writing bravura from Peter Carey, in which he once again displays his extraordinary flair for language - THEFT is a love poem of a completely unexpected kind. Ranging from the rural wilds of Australia to Manhattan via Sydney and Tokyo and exploring the ideas of art, fraud, responsibility and redemption, this is a dark, thought-provoking and stirring story that will also make you laugh out loud.

What we discussed about the book:

• What is the purpose of the dual-narrative format of the book? Which narrator is more credible? Why do both narrators address the reader directly?
• The use of capitalisation in Hugh's narrative. How did that add to the voice of the character? How did the quote at the beginning of the book about the use of capital letters contribute to our understanding?
• What form of disability did Hugh have? Do we need to know that information for our reading of the book?
• Does the dust-jacket consist of a photo of the Twin Towers? If so, what is the reason for this choice?
• The final line of the book, "How do you know how much to pay if you don't know what it's worth?" How many different parts of the story could this have applied to?
• The concept of manipulating an artist's 'worth' by creating an artificial market - i.e. the sell-out show in Japan. How does that affect an artist's sense of self-worth?
• What was the "love story"? Was it brotherly love? Romantic love? Lustful love? Love of the art?
• How do the concepts of dishonesty, fakery and forgery apply to more in this story than just the art fraud?
• Why is there a note about the typsetting at the back of the book?
• Does this book push the language to somewhere new?

Then we were sidetracked into:

• How does the concept of "droit moral" work? See Wikipedia entry for quick overview.
• Do you need to have a knowledge of the art world to be able to get the most from this book?
• Would the main character, Butcher, really have gone to prison in Australia for stealing his paintings back from his ex-wife?

And in other news, we discussed:

• How much is reasonable in a divorce settlement?
• Are A-line dresses and baby-doll dresses EVER flattering on anyone other than tall, willowy, young models?
• The curse of insomnia.
• The expectation of being "busy" - i.e when someone asks you how you are, you are almost expected to reply, "I'm busy." The clever ladies over at Do You Speak-a My Language have a post on exactly this subject.

Ratings
Average: 7.0
Range: 5 to 9.5

Next book: The Gospel of Gods and Crocodiles by Elizabeth Stead.

October book: Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey

Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey (chosen by Fairlie)

Meeting date: October 16th
Venue: JM's house

Some links for background information to get you started...

• The publisher's page on the book
• Sydney Morning Herald review
• The Age review
• Wikipedia entry
• Powells.com reviews and interview with Peter Carey
• New York Times review

Minutes September 2007 Book: Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (chosen by Domestic Goddess)


Domestic Goddess chose this book after M suggested it with a hearty endorsement. (Domestic Goddess has decided to no longer enlist her husband's support in making book choices after the reception of the last few he had input to!)

Irène Némirovsky was born into a wealthy banking family in Kiev in 1903 and emigrated to France during the Russian Revolution. Her first novel, David Golder, was published when she was 26. Several other novels followed. In July 1942, she was arrested by the French police and died in Auschwitz in August, aged 39 (she was Jewish by descent, but had converted to Catholicism in 1939). Her husband, Michel Epstein, was arrested shortly after and was sent straight to the gas chambers in Auschwitz. They had two daughters, Denise and Elisabeth (then aged five and ten), and they were able to remain hidden and flee in the care of a family friend/nanny, Julie Dumot. (biographical details from here)

Description of Suite Francaise from Random House website:

SUITE FRANCAISE has all the ingredients of a major bestseller: the story behind its rediscovery is extraordinary; the life of the author is fascinating and moving; but, most importantly, it is a hugely compelling work of literature, elegantly, subtly and simply written, with astounding insight into the moral complexities of the human condition. It comprises two parts of what might have been a four or five-part work had Irene not been taken to Auschwitz. She conceived of it as a symphony - or her War and Peace. In the first part, Storm in June, she tells of the exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion. Bourgeois and working-class characters alike pack up their belongings and flee, forced to rub shoulders in traffic-jams on the crowded roads south, some behaving with dignity, others with nauseating selfishness. In Part Two, Dolce, we meet several of them again in a small French village where Nazi soldiers are billetted, and watch Lucille's story unfold as she tries to resist the attractions of a sensitive German officer, and takes the risk of defending a young farmer who joins the resistance. The intertwining stories of all these utterly engaging and vivid characters combine to produce a unique portrait of France at that time, and of the subtle calibrations that exist between collaboration and resistance.

What we discussed about the book:

• How essential the reading of the appendices is to the overall experience of the book.


• The sense of desperation in the letters Michael Epstein wrote to try to find Irene after her arrest (included in the appendices).


• Was the description of the death of Phillipe a comment on civil war?


• The use of the Bach suite to provide a framework and rhythm to the work as it was intended.


• How were class issues represented?


• Does the book read like a draft (which it is)?


• The author's notes provide an enlightening insight into the author's thinking. Rare glimpse of the writing process.


• "Dolce" = sweet and soft. How this related to the second part of the book.


• Is the book primarily an artefact of history or a work of fiction?


• How well it portrayed the impact of occupation on common people. Was it a rosy-coloured portrayal of occupation?


• Does the story of the author overshadow the writing itself?


• Is the magic of this book is the exposure of the process?

Then we were sidetracked into:

• How difficult it would be to harbour someone during wartime. Could we personally do it?

And in other news, we discussed:

• The growth expectations of goldfish. Are KE's goldfish freakishly large for their bowl?
• How many of us are blood donors?

Ratings

Average: 7.3

Range: 7 to 8

Next book: Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey

September book: Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky

Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky
(chosen by Domestic Goddess)
Meeting date: September 18th
Venue: KE's house

Some links for background information to get you started...

• Sydney Morning Herald review
• Sydney Morning Herald bookclub blog
• New York Times book review
• bookbrowse.com's bookclub reading guide
• Wikipedia's biography of Irène Némirovsky
• M (whose Sydney bookclub has already done this book) highly recommends listening to a radio interview with Irene Nemirovsky's daughter Denise Epstein and Suite Francaise translater Sandra Smith. Denise tells the story of this book from her own point of view.
  The interview is conducted by US nationally syndicated radio host Diane Rehm and can be listened to by clicking the appropriate link on this site.

Minutes August 2007 Book: The Women's Room by Marilyn French

The Women's Room by Marilyn French (chosen by JM)



JM chose this book after reading an article about Marilyn French in the Good Weekend magazine in May. The article referred to it being the 30th anniversary of The Women's Room this year, and highlighted the importance of this novel. JM hadn't ever heard of, so decided to choose this novel to "drag herself out of the cultural wasteland" and to haul all the No.1 Melbourne Ladies' Bookclub members along with her!

French was born in New York to a family of Polish descent. She did a BA at Hofstra College in Long Island in 1951, and left the college to marry. She started to write seriously in 1957, but it was 1976 before her first book was published. She has two children and divorced their father in 1967. She gained an MA and a PhD, and has taught in universities/colleges.

French's first book was her thesis on James Joyce (1976). A year later it was followed by The Women's Room. Her sixth novel was released in 2006 and is called In the Name of Friendship.

21 million copies of The Women's Room have been sold. It has been translated into 20 languages and has been made into a TV movie (1980).

In 1992 at the age of 61, French was diagnosed with metastasized esophageal cancer, and was given no hope. She did, however, win her battle. (Biographical details from here)

The synopsis of The Women's Room from amazon.co.uk:

A landmark in feminist literature, THE WOMEN'S ROOM is a biting social commentary of a world gone silently haywire. Written in the 1970s but with profound resonance today, this is a modern allegory that offers piercing insight into the social norms accepted blindly and revered so completely.

'Today's desperate housewives eat your heart out! This is the original and still the best, a page-turner that makes you think. Essential reading' Kate Mosse

'They said this book would change lives - and it certainly changed mine' Jenni Murray

'Reading THE WOMEN'S ROOM was an intense and wonderful experience. It is in my DNA' Kirsty Wark

'THE WOMEN'S ROOM took the lid off a seething mass of women's frustrations, resentments and furies; it was about the need to change things from top to bottom; it was a declaration of independence' OBSERVER

What we discussed about the book:

• To what extent is this book still relevant 30 years later?
• Are men scared of women's sexuality? Is that at the heart of attempts to retain power over women?
• Did Mira do the right thing in refusing to accompany Ben to Africa?
• The rape of Chris highlighted injustices in the way the judicial system in the 1970s dealt with victims of sex crimes. Is this still the case?
• The suburban party scenes of the first half of the book - where married couples flirted (and took it further) with other husbands and wives. What was the motivation for this behaviour? Did it spring from the fact many had married young and inexperienced, and later yearned for some adventure?
• Was Mira's name intended to be a reference to her acting as a 'mirror' to all women? Was 'Norm' intended to represent the normal man?
• Is this book a cautionary tale about the futility of searching for 'love' in a relationship?

Issues we were sidetracked into:

• Why are (traditionally) predominantly male-occupied jobs (eg. engineering, law, accounting) paid more than predominantly female-occupied jobs (eg. nursing, teaching)?
• Is it neccessary for both partners in a marriage to work? What risk does not working pose to the non-working partner?
• How can you change long-held attitudes across a whole society? How have some of the Scandinavian countries managed it?
• Does the 'knight in shining armour' mentality still exist among the young Australian women of today?
• Is there an ideal age difference between partners in a marriage? Would an older man be better suited to a younger women, and an older woman, a younger man?
• Does 'education' alone cause women to question the status quo...or does it depend on the type and content of the education?
• Could communal living work better for women than nuclear-family living?

And in other news:

• Kensington is doing well with her gorgeous baby boy!
• TeamSAK is back on track with her chemo...having only missed a few days.
• M will be down from Sydney for the Writers Festival next weekend and hopes to catch up with as many No.1 Melbourne Ladies as possible on Saturday night.
• T-Rex had seen Ian McKellen in King Lear and was most impressed with his performance. Melbourne radio media has commented in past weeks about his nude scene at great length!

Ratings

Average: 5.875

Range: 4 to 6.75

Next book: Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

August book: The Women's Room by Marilyn French

Sorry ladies, I've been very tardy in loading up this post - slap your blogmistress's wrist. But, in the interests of completeness I'm putting it up now. You never know when you may like to wander back through the archives and do a bit of background research on past book choices!

The Women's Room by Marilyn French

(chosen by JM)
Meeting date: August 21st

Venue: T-Rex's house

Some links for background information to get you started...

• Review and comments at bibliofemme (an Irish bookclub)
• Editorial reviews at amazon.com
• Article by Nuala O'Faolain in The Guardian on Saturday September 13, 2003
• Article by Sharon Krum in The Guardian on Friday 16 June, 2006
• Starting Out Submissive by Anne Tyler in New York Times, October 16, 1977
• Marilyn French in Wikipedia
• The Women's Room TV movie (1980) entry at imdb

Minutes July 2007 Book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (chosen by Gypsy)





Gypsy chose this book on the recommendation of her sister-in-law. She was initially worried that she had chosen too substantial a book (584 pages), but soon realised it was a very quick read.

Markus Zusak was born in Sydney in 1975. He is the son of an Austrian father and a German mother and is the youngest of four children. He is married with one daughter, and lives in Sydney. He started writing teen novels while doing a teaching degree at university and now teaches occasionally, devoting most of his time to writing. (Biographical details from here)

The Book Thief was originally supposed to be a 100 page novel, inspired by stories his mother had told him about life in Munich during the Second World War.


From Markus Zusak's website:

Australian author Markus Zusak grew up hearing stories about Nazi Germany, about the bombing of Munich and about Jews being marched through his mother’s small, German town. He always knew it was a story he wanted to tell.

“We have these images of the straight-marching lines of boys and the ‘Heil Hitlers’ and this idea that everyone in Germany was in it together. But there still were rebellious children and people who didn’t follow the rules and people who hid Jews and other people in their houses. So there’s another side to Nazi Germany,” said Zusak in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald.

Interesting fact: Zusak traveled to Germany to research some of the detail of book, including the "seasonal habits of apple trees" (see interview with Zusak at teenreads.com for details). While there he carved Rudi and Liesel's names with a coin into a tree by the river he imagined Rudi had jumped into to save Liesel's book.


What we discussed about the book:

• Death is the narrator. What did we think of this approach? Why did we all assume Death was male? What devices had Zusak used to create that impression?
• Was Death judgemental? The character had been personified - was he likable? Did we empathise with him?
• The theme underlying the book that words have power. Words are used to inspire, to lead, to connect, to motivate, to create fear, to escape, to bring hope. Hilter's ability to manipulate words as a propagandist.
• The symbolism of pages of Mein Kampf being painted over and used to create a new book, The Standover Man.
• Zusak's use of metaphor. Often unusual, frequently clever, always beautifully crafted.
• The symbolism of the gifts that Liesel collected for Max (e.g the tin soldier, battered and broken, but still able to stand on his own)
• The significance of the titles of the books Liesel collects/steals.
• The shared humanity of Max and Liesel as described through their nightmare experiences.
• Did Max and Liesel end up marrying?
• Where did Death carry the souls off to?
• The use of colour throughout the book to evoke emotion. Red, black and white seemed to feature (representing the Nazi flag?) Death commences the story by saying, "First the colours. Then the humans. That's usually how I see things. Or at least I try."

Issues we were sidetracked into:

• Gypsy highly recommended If This is a Man & The Truce by Primo Levi, referring to it often during our discussion. In it, Italian author Levi describes his experiences in Auschwitz during WW2.
• The idea of survivor guilt. Which would be easier to live with - knowing you had survived through sheer luck, or through personally-attributed actions ?

And in other news:

• Kensington's baby is due in 10 days.
• KE was sporting a deep-shade-of-bronze tan after a relaxing holiday in Fiji.
• RR (to henceforth be known as T-Rex) is back from her holiday in France and we admired her new haircut (very Katie Holmes).
• Gypsy regaled us with tales from Vietnam, including that of a mono-toothed old woman's fascination with Gypsy's derriere!
• We discussed how cold it had been today (the coldest day in nine years in Melbourne). Who says Melburnians get bored of talking about the weather?
• Is it possible to eat only seasonally-available and locally produced fruit and vegetables -viz. Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? What would our options be at this time of year in Victoria?
• Are bedbugs the most creepy little pests we could imagine? Are they an issue in hotel rooms?

Ratings
Average: 9.06
Range: 8.5 to 10

Next book: The Women's Room by Marilyn French

July book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

(chosen by Gypsy)

Meeting date: July 17th

Venue: Elster's house

Some links for background information to get you started...

• Markus Zusak's website
• The Age review
• New York Times review
• The Guardian review
• Amazon.com editorial reviews
• Picador Australia reading group notes
• Markus Zusak talks about the writing of The Book Thief
• The Book Thief was Perth International Arts Festival's One Book choice for 2007.

Minutes June 2007 book: Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (chosen by Elster)

Elster chose this book because she wanted to do a 'scary' book...but she chickened out on choosing a Stephen King! She had read it previously years ago.

Interview with the Vampire is a novel by Anne Rice written in 1973 and published in 1976. This novel was followed by several sequels, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles.

Rice was born and spent most of her early life in New Orleans, which forms the setting for many of her stories. Her given name was Howard Allen, because her mother thought an unusual name may give a woman an advantage in life. On her first day of school, however, Rice told a nun that her name was "Anne", and her mother never corrected her.

Interview with the Vampire was Rice's first book. In addition to an extensive collection of work as Anne Rice, she has also published adult-oriented fiction under the pen-name Anne Rampling, and explicit sado-masochistic erotica as A.N. Roquelaure.

From Anne Rice's website:

Originally begun as a short story, the book took off as Anne wrote it, spinning the tragic and triumphant life experiences of a soul. As well as the struggles of its characters, Interview captures the political and social changes of two continents. The novel also introduces Lestat, Anne's most enduring character, a heady mixture of attraction and revulsion. The book, full of lush description, centers on the themes of immortality, change, loss, sexuality, and power.

Interesting Fact: The original manuscript for Interview was quite different than the final published version. After the rights had been sold to Knopf, Anne rewrote the book, adding the entire Theater of the Vampires section and bringing Lestat back after his supposed death by fire.

What we discussed about the book:

• Was this a scary story? What make a book scary? (suggestions included: elements of reality, suspense, the unexplainable, depiction sf pure evil) Are we becoming immune to horror?
• To what extent was the book based on Hollywood imagery of vampires s the historical evidence of various cultures?
• How did Lestat continue to live? Were we convinced by the "rules" of the vampire "life" or were there holes in the logic?
• The idea of graduation of sin, degrees of evil. Louis seemed to draw lines in the sand that he wouldn't cross, then with the right motivation crossed those lines.
• Was Claudia the most evil of the vampires?
• The interesting perspective of experiencing this story from the vampire's point-of-view.
• Was the love exhibited in this book beyond gender? Vampires are not human, therefore do not meet human expectations.

Issues we were sidetracked into:

• The mythology of vampires is common to many disparate cultures. Why would this be the case?
• Was Bram Stoker's Dracula a scarier book?
• Do vampires shower, shave and go to the bathroom?

And in other news:

• The shooting this week on the city streets of Melbourne, has thrown into the spotlight the Good Samaritan principle. What do we think we may have done in the same circumstances? We discussed the tragedy of the death of the Good Samaritan in this case.
• We sympathised with Domestic Goddess, who had all four wisdom teeth out the week before last and is still suffering the effects. And went on to discuss how in our grandparents (? - or perhaps a little earlier) generation it was relatively common to get all your teeth removed around your 21st birthday and replaced with a set of falsies.
• We discussed the theory that hanging whites on the washing line on a full moon will whiten them (!!)

Ratings

Average: 6.99

Range: 6 - 7.5

Next book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

June 2007 book: Interview with the Vampire

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
(chosen by Elster)

Meeting date: June 19th, Venue: Fairlie's house

Links for background information

Anne Rice's official website

Amazon.com editorial reviews

Anne Rice interview with Don Swaim at wiredforbooks.org

Wikipedia entry

Barnes & Noble "Meet the Writers" interview with Anne Rice