Our April book club selection was The Leavers by Lisa Ko. Winner of the 2016 Pen/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, the novel was also a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award. Although I chose the book last year to give us insight into immigration issues and to celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month (May), reading it in March as the world reacted to the new coronavirus with fear, loss, disbelief and even xenophobia was challenging.

The language was clear and easy to follow, but the time-line and perspective jumped around enough to keep me uncertain, at least at first, who, where and when the characters were. Was it the story and characters that disinterested me or the distraction of reading in the midst of what seemed to be a possible end to civilization as we know it? I had trouble liking either Polly or her son, although I appreciated their angst, their desire to control their own destiny, their need for something that is missing – a parent, a calling, relevancy. I identified more with the adoptive parents. I felt that their characters were treated shabbily, barely developed—shallow in comparison to the adoptive parents in our previous selections, TheTea Girl of Hummingbird Lane or Digging to America. In contrast, I very much admired Michael, Vivian, even Leon. Perhaps that was easier because we saw their final successes without living through their struggles.

Lisa Ko started writing The Leavers in 2009 after travelling to Fuzhou and researching immigration. She wanted to capture “the story behind the story, a tribute to heart, sweat, and grind.”[i]I think she succeeded in writing compelling fiction rather than political commentary. However, I would have liked more information about the detention centers.  I find it horrifying that we would hold someone over a year in a detention center, with only minimal explanation, but the final reveal and explanation for Polly’s leaving was disappointing.  Lisa Ko’s essay, “A Better Life,” has the same title as the 2011 film about an Hispanic-American immigrant father and son,[ii] a film we showed in our Second Sunday Movie Club and one I definitely recommend.

I know there is more I could discuss here, but I miss the community of our group.  Often, when I am disappointed in a book, our members surprise me with a new perspective.  They help me find what I didn’t know I liked.  They teach me to be less critical or challenge me to defend my praise. As we are locked down in our homes, communicating by phones and computers, I miss the feel of energy in a room with people, kinetic, the haze through our overhead lights, even the anxiety of beginning.

Our next scheduled book is The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which has a huge list for the e-book.  The downloadable audiobook is available through HOOPLA with your library card. I suggest, though, that we read something else and pass on the recommendation – more like a book circle. Keep notes on what you are reading – I want to hear about it!

Until we meet again . . .

[i]http://lisa-ko.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ko-essay-THE-LEAVERS.pdf

[ii]https://lvccld.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1802331134    A Better Life (2011) Directed by: Chris Weitz, Cedric Kahn  PG-13

Hello Everyone!

We met this week to discuss Hillbilly Elegy: a memoir of a family and culture in crisis by J.D. Vance.  The book made the top of the New York Times Non-Fiction Best Sellers List in August of 2016.[1]  According to the Washington Post, by February, 2017, Hillbilly Elegy had sold “half a million copies in hardcover and 280,000 digital and audio editions.”[2]  A film version, directed by Ron Howard and starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams, is due to be released in November this year.

Our first responders liked the book and most seemed to find it easy to read, although one of us almost stopped reading because it seemed too sad. The first and most powerful part of our discussion was about poverty.  Were the problems Vance described because of the hillbilly culture or because of a culture of poverty?  One of us noted that the author’s mother is not the only nurse to have an addiction problem. Another member has worked most of her life in welfare/social-type work and she felt that the author gave one of the best explanations of the behavior she has read. We discussed the importance of mentors and a support system. One of us shared her own sense of loss in not having a support system. Several of our members are grandparents who participate heavily in their grandchildren’s lives.

Nevada is filled with settlers from around the country, the world even, yet I am always amazed by how many connections we find.  One member grew up in South-Western Ohio, in a town very similar to Middletown, with a lot of transplants from Kentucky. He said that the author did not emphasize enough how the Kentucky/Southern accent made people stand out. He also felt that the author over-emphasized the problems and dysfunction of the area.

We still weren’t sure if the author explained well enough why people would change from democrats to republicans.  One member mentioned that the change had taken place with Reagan. We discussed that the author’s relatives could not identify with the polish and education, even elitism, of the democratic candidates, identifying more with Trump’s rough edges. The discussion got a little tough and I intervened to remind us that we needed to try to stay away from politics and get back to the book.

One of us wanted to talk about question six[3], which asked what we thought about Vance’s difficulty with neighbors who were on welfare and yet had a cell phone. She was particularly disturbed at how much help from the government people get – free phones and food stamps —while not working. Others brought up that food stamps are intended to help children, although this varies by state. I mentioned the free food distributed at the library on Thursdays, available to anyone. The discussion was heated and emotional. I moved us on because we can all share stories that frustrate us, much like the author does, but the need is great and the intent is to help.

Another member directed us to question seven, that “critics of Hillbilly Elegy accuse Vance of ‘blaming the victim’ rather than providing a sound analysis of the structural issues left unaddressed by government.” She believed that the author was trying to show that government policy cannot solve the problem.  People have to want to change.

It was a difficult discussion.  One of my coworkers had read the book, liking it at first and then deciding that the author was just patting himself on the back. A couple of people around the table seemed to agree.  When I mentioned that the author had moved back to Ohio and started a non-profit[4]to help with the issues he identified in Hillbilly Elegy, one member said she like him better knowing that.

One of us had watched several videos, including a Ted Talk by J.D. Vance. I played a short clip in which Vance had a discussion with country singer Kacey Musgraves[5]. In this video, he shared family pictures and a story about how, after his grandmother died, they found 19 loaded guns all over her house, strategically placed so that she could always reach one easily. We laughed and commented that Vance doesn’t have an accent.

When I left the library after the meeting, the night was dark, drizzly and smoky – an unusual combination that made me think of the fires in Australia over our winter and last summer’s devastating fires in California.  Yesterday, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 “the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.”[6] I write this blog as a snapshot of our discussions, to remind us what we read and what we thought, including the atmosphere. We don’t always agree, there may never be answers to our most pressing questions, but we have made connections.  Check out the other works discussed—most of them were previous book club selections and are experiences we can all share.

• OTHER WORKS DISCUSSED:
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) by Sherman Alexie
• Fruit of the Drunken Tree (2008) by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
• The Namesake (2004) by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Perfectionists (2018) by Simon Winchester
• The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane (2017) by Lisa See
• There There (2018) by Tommy Orange (July 2020 selection)
• Winter’s Bone (2006) by Daniel Woodrell

• Book review not discussed but recommended:
• Rothman, J. (2017, June 19). The Lives of Poor White People. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-lives-of-poor-white-people

____________________________________________

• [1]https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2016/08/27/
• [2]https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/hillbilly-elegy-made-jd-vance-the-voice-of-the-rust-belt-but-does-he-want-that-job/2017/02/06/fa6cd63c-e882-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d_story.html
• [3]Discussion questions were taken from litlovers.com:  https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/non-fiction/10799-hillbilly-elegy-vance?start=3
• [4]https://ourohiorenewal.com
• [5]Kacey Musgraves And JD Vance: Small Towns, Big Success | The Influencers | TIME       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WTsh8YfcSE
• [6]https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19—11-march-2020

I am often asked how I choose our book club selections.  Do members make recommendations?  Do I favor any genres? Members do make recommendations, but we try to find titles for which I can get a lot of copies through the library – enough so that we could perhaps catch the attention of new members to bring new perspectives to our discussions, enough copies in large print and in audio versions for different needs.  I try to make sure I choose books by female and male authors equally throughout the year, including at least one non-fiction book.  I think mysteries and historical fiction tend to be popular, but we also like to learn and be challenged.  Some members don’t finish a book if they don’t like it, others read our selections like homework.

I chose An American Marriage by Tayari Jones for our February selection because the book came highly recommended, longlisted for the National Book Award, winner of the 2019 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Fiction, winner of the 2019 Women’s Prize for fiction, and the February 2018 Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection.  February is also African-American Heritage month and it’s Valentine’s Day week!

Our discussion got off to a bit of a rocky start. We had been discussing movies and the Oscar winners when we seamlessly slid into our book, with mixed reviews. Different. Not interesting. Liked.  Since none of our members are black, I shared that one of my coworkers felt that the story captured well the African-American woman’s sense of being subjugated to black men.  The subjects of innocent incarceration, prison in general, infidelity, abortion, and women’s rights are huge and we rambled.

So, earlier than usual, we referred to the publisher’s discussion questions to give us direction, starting with the appropriateness of the title.  Which marriage? Several of us seemed to think that the story was primarily about Roy.  And he was unfaithful during the short marriage, so if Celestial had been incarcerated . . . He didn’t even wait when he wanted to save his marriage.  Andre was sweet.  We didn’t like Roy or Celestial much.  I think we liked Big Roy and Olive.  What did the tree Roy attacked represent? Was Roy attacking Celestial indirectly?  Why did she go into the house and watch Roy beat up Andre? Why did she have the abortion so quickly?  Was the author just proselytizing? Why didn’t they communicate better?  Do we communicate any better in our own lives?

One of us had worked in a prison in Utah and felt that it was highly unusual for an innocent person to be in prison.  She understood Celestial’s unwillingness to be treated like the majority of women who visited, smuggling in drugs made to look like M&Ms or who knows what.  We believed in Roy’s innocence and one of us said she had expected me to bring pears for our snack.  If only I had thought to bring pears and M&Ms!

We ended by discussing the writing.  We had mixed opinions here, too.  Well-written, with interesting metaphors, yet we wondered if the author wasn’t trying too hard. One of us had read reader reviews and said that the book seemed to be rated either a five or a two – they either hated it or loved it.  My impression is that if you averaged our responses, we would rate the book a three.  One of us ended by reading  the following excerpt:  “Human emotion is beyond comprehension, smooth and uninterrupted, like an orb made of blown glass.” What does that mean?  Our hour was up. But the discussion doesn’t have to stop here.  What do you think?

• Other Works discussed:
• Just Mercy (1919) film and book by Bryan Stevenson

That place where everyone knows your name. Where milk bottles are delivered to your door and the horse doesn’t let the driver miss your house. Ice blocks are delivered, too; and the deliveryman breaks off pieces for children in the street. Everyone leaves doors unlocked.  At delivery, the birthing mother first learns that her newborn will come out the same way it got in! Such is the nostalgia that opened our discussion of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Our Town.

The week before our discussion, some of the book club members joined a few other library patrons for our first Table Reading.  We read out loud, sitting around a table on the stage of our beautiful theater – not as a performance, but as a chance to step outside our comfort zone and do something different and challenging. As a bonus, I found that hearing the play read, imperfectly and yet movingly, helped me appreciate this outwardly nostalgic and simplistic play all the more. For those of us who participated in the reading, our experience and understanding could not be but different than those who did not. During this month, as people at the library noticed the book selection, several stopped to share that they had performed in this play during high school!
[i]

We discussed how the play’s stage manager role, minimalistic set and lack of props was groundbreaking for 1938. Our Town won the Pulitzer Prize in 1938 “For the original American play, performed in New York, which shall best represent in marked fashion the educational value and power of the stage, preferably dealing with American life, $1,000.”[ii] Does “in marked fashion” mean obvious?  One of us had trouble visualizing the story through reading. Was the author the stage manager? Thornton Wilder did actually portray that role on stage.[iii] We discussed the change in gender roles and society over time.  If Emily had lived, would she have achieved her “dream of greatness?” Probably not. [iv] What did we think Mrs. Webb meant when she says that sending girls into marriage is cruel?[v] Work? Sex? Dr. Gibbs doesn’t want to travel because he might then be dissatisfied with Grover’s Corners. Well, what about Mrs. Gibbs and her dream? If the town takes care of those who can’t take care of themselves, why does the drunken choir director commit suicide?

None of us had seen the 1940 film version and I believe all of us were surprised that the dream-sequence third act was not a Hollywood happy ending but a choice by Thornton Wilder: “He wrote to Sol Lesser, the film’s producer, ‘Emily should live … in a movie you see the people so close ‘to’ that a different relation is established. In the theatre, they are halfway abstractions in an allegory, in the movie they are very concrete … It is disproportionately cruel that she die. Let her live.’”[vi] Ah, allegory. Life. Love. Death.

We discussed many more things in snippets. Comparisons with previous book club selections, films, our wages over the years. One of us wondered if anyone else had found the play just too saccharine. No real drama or action, compared to say, Tennessee Williams.[vii] I had researched the relevance of Our Town in the Twenty-First Century for that very reason! Our discussion helped, but we wondered about the validity of updating such a classic to reflect modern times.[viii] Perhaps it should remain as a time capsule.

We could have continued, but our discussion lasts for just an hour. And like the characters in the play, I don’t remember all the details. We ended with one member’s comment about something like a dose of daily joy.  If we take anything away from this play, it should be to notice the joy in what appears to be mundane, everyday life. And for many of us, that is certainly not simplistic.

Other works discussed:

• The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
• War of the Worlds by HG Wells
• A Street Car Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
• Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
• Paterson 2016 film starring Adam Driver

[i] Even in 2019, Our Town, first produced in 1938, made NPR’s list of Top Highschool Plays and Musicals #4: https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2019/07/31/427138970/the-most-popular-high-school-plays-and-musicals. The play came to my attention because one of the main characters in the  2017 film Wonder plays Emily in her high school production. The play ranked sixth in a 2010 list of most important American plays https://www.denverpost.com/2010/02/11/the-10-most-important-american-plays/.

[ii] https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/thornton-wilder-0

[iii] The Stage Manager, played by Wilder himself for two weeks in the 1938 Broadway production, breaks the fourth wall by directly addressing the audience. http://www.twildersociety.org/works/our-town/

[iv] Discussion question 2: https://www.arts.gov/national-initiatives/nea-big-read/our-town

[v] Discussion question 5: https://www.arts.gov/national-initiatives/nea-big-read/our-town

[vi] https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/528278/15-remarkable-facts-about-thornton-wilders-our-town

[vii] Two of Williams’ plays made the Denver Post’s list of top ten American plays:  A Street Car Named Desireand Glass Menagerie. https://www.denverpost.com/2010/02/11/the-10-most-important-american-plays/

[viii] Here we discussed the alteration of Mark Twain’s classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jan/05/huckleberry-finn-edition-censors-n-word.

This last month we read Elevation by the King of Horror[1], Stephen King.  The book is more novella than novel and when I announced the selection, most members were glad the book was short.[2]  Stephen King is the author of 62 novels, 20 collections, 32 novellas, and 11 non-fiction works[3], including On Writing, which was required reading in my younger daughter’s ninth-grade English class.  King graduated from the University of Maine in 1970 with a degree in English.  After graduation, he worked in an industrial laundry and then as a high school English teacher. His first major publication was Carrie in 1973.[4]  Even if we haven’t read any Stephen King, is there anyone who hasn’t heard of Carrie?  A google search reveals that 83 films, television series and other remakes and adaptations have been made from King’s work.[5]

So what did we think of Elevation?  Most everyone liked the story. We found it easy to read, uplifting, and thought-provoking, even if a bit vague with details.  Our first responder listened to the audiobook, which was read by the author. He found it a good book and particularly liked this well-placed summation, “She remembered something she’d read in college—Faulkner, maybe: Gravity is the anchor that pulls us down into our graves. There would be no grave for this man, and no more gravity, either. He had been given a special dispensation.”

Our second responder found three messages worth noting:  The importance of friendship, making a difference the way Scott did for his neighbors and the town, and elevation as a good description of dying.  Another of us liked the book and the characters but wondered, what did it really mean?  It isn’t clear, although as the discussion bounced about the table, most felt that Scott’s acceptance and eventual ascension was his reaching a state of Nirvana.[6]  We wondered at descriptions of the book as “eerie”[7] because none of us found it creepy at all.

One of us is a huge fan of Stephen King and felt a personal tie because so many of his works seem to reference places in Colorado, her own home ground.  She considers his books less horror than weird, although she remembers reading Salem’s Lot in little bits because it was so scary.  She believes that Stephen King trusts that his readers are smart enough to take what they need/want from his fiction.

We found plenty to discuss. After reading several blogs about the book, I had learned that King has been making some seriously anti-Trump tweets on twitter and I wondered if this book is his effort to practice what he preaches.[8]  I had found Scott Carey’s acceptance of his demise to be eerily similar to suicide and wondered if anyone else had considered this.  Mostly, we were moved by the positive messages in the story.  Scott elevated people all around him.  His enemy, Deirdre, became his confidant.  Were the numbers in the story significant? One of us particularly appreciated how she felt invested in the characters, unlike Magpie Murders!  Another member remarked that the hallmark of a well-written book is that you don’t notice it—and we agreed that he is a good writer.  We ended the discussion talking about closure and someone pointed out that the cover of the book shows the fireworks set off by Scott as he ascended.

Stephen King dedicated the story to Richard Matheson, who wrote The Shrinking Man and whose protagonist is also named Scott Carey. If any of us had read that book, or seen the movie adaptation, we might have had even more to discuss!  As always, connections abound:  Several members remembered a recent article about students standing up for a fellow student and reporting a substitute teacher for anti-homosexual shaming.[9]  Keep reading, think about it, discuss it, stay connected!

• Other Works Discussed:
• I am sure we discussed some, but I don’t remember anything other than what’s mentioned in the journal!

[1]When I googled “which author is King of Horror?” the picture and biography of Stephen King appeared. At the library he is the go-to author when people ask for horror, but I never before wondered if his name helped him gain this moniker!

[2]Elevation, listed as a novel, is 160 pages.  In comparison, The Standis 1200 pages long and ITis 1184 pages!

[3]Web accessed 12-12-2019: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/k/stephen-king/

[4]Web accessed 12-12-2019: https://www.stephenking.com/the_author.html

[5]Web accessed 12-12-2019:  Looking past the general google search, I liked this list of his adaptations, https://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-king-novels-and-stories-adapted-movies-tv-shows

[6]Random House Dictionary definition of Nirvana: “a place or state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain, worry, and the external world.” Web accessed 12-12-2019: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/nirvana?s=t

[7]2018Publishers Weeklyreview referenced on the lvccld.org website: “In this surprisingly sweet and quietly melancholy short novel, King (The Outsider) weaves an eerie, charming tale of the ways that strange circumstances can bring people together.”

[8]“What’s most surprising about “Elevation” is that this would seem the perfect moment for King to twist the fury of his Twitter feed.” Web accessed: 12-12-19:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/stephen-kings-halloween-book-is-shockingly–heartwarming/2018/10/29/82bc41f6-db1d-11e8-b3f0-62607289efee_story.html

“The political divisions running wild through the country are absolutely part of the story, which in the end turns out to be a wish-fulfillment tale in which people actually are able to be friendly despite their differences.  All it takes is for the right spark to come along.”—Bryant Burnette. Web accessed 12-12-19: http://thetruthinsidethelie.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-brief-review-of-elevation.html

[9]“Classmates act as boy with two dads draws sub’s wrath.” The Associated Press. Salt Lake City. Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV) – December 2, 2019 – page 4

We met last night to discuss Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. We read Horowitz’s first Sherlock Holmes novel, The House of Silk, in 2015 and several of us had seen his television contributions/creations, Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders.[i] Magpie Murders received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus and was billed by the publisher as a “classic whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie [woven] into a chilling, ingeniously original modern-day mystery.”

So what did we think?  Our first responders were enthusiastic. They liked it.  It was complicated with thirty different characters and several of us stopped to take notes while reading. One of us thought it was the most complicated story we have read. Another said it was the most complicated story she had liked! We had been frustrated when the vintage-style murder mystery suddenly stopped just shy of the final denouement. Some of us had paged forward. And some of us had lost interest.

At 496 pages, Magpie Murders is long for a book club selection and one of us thought the author was too clever for his own good; she felt left out by not understanding all of his literary, cultural and geographic references. Another had not yet finished it and after our spoilers probably won’t! One of us looked up place names even as we met – such is the wonder of the Internet.

We discussed the author’s purpose, wondering if his reference to plagiarism was personal.  One of us mentioned that Nora Roberts had sued Janet Dailey and another of us found that Roberts had recently sued a Brazilian author who is accused of stealing material from “more than 40 writers and nearly 100 books” so far.[ii] Is it stealing if it is not intentional? Horowitz also highlights how authors can create characters from the people around them and how stories are filled with more murders than could possible occur.  One of us even quoted how many deaths are in Midsomer Murders.[iii]

Others noted that the novel had been formatted with different fonts for the separate story lines and even different page numbering styles. The audio book had a male and female reader to distinguish the stories.  The kindle version was less helpful.

Our discussion was light and peppered with references to other books and facts. I misspoke when I said that The Word is Murder is a second book in the same series as Magpie Murders – it is actually the first in another series that looks to me to be more promising. If you decide to give The Word is Murder a try, let me know what you think.

• Other works discussed:
• Rhys Bowen
• Sandra Brown
• Malcolm Gladwell (Talking to Strangers 2019)
• John Grisham
• Murder She Wrote (T.V. Series with Angela Lansbury)

[i] According to litlovers.com, which references Wikipedia, born in 1955,“Anthony Horowitz, OBE is a prolific English novelist and screenwriter specialising in mystery and suspense. His work for children and teenagers includes The Diamond Brothers series, the Alex Rider series, and The Power of Five series (aka The Gatekeepers). His work for adults includes the novel and play Mindgame (2001) and two Sherlock Holmes novels, The House of Silk (2011) and Moriarty(2014). He has also written extensively for television, contributing numerous scripts to ITV’s Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Midsomer Murders. He was the creator and principal writer of the three ITV series—Foyle’s War, Collision and Injustice.”

[ii] León, C. D. (2019, April 24). Nora Roberts Sues Brazilian Writer Who She Says Plagiarized Her Work. Retrieved November 13, 2019, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/books/nora-roberts-plagiarism.html.

[iii] “Up to and including episodes 1 – 8 of series 14, the Midsomer Murders death toll is 246 murders; twelve accidental deaths, eleven suicides and eight deaths from natural causes.” Facts and Trivia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2019, from https://www.visitmidsomer.com/facts-and-trivia/.

Our group has now read three books by Anne Tyler: The Beginners Goodbye, Digging to America, and Clock Dance.  I chose Clock Dance because, after our last few serious books, we could all use the subtle humor and optimism for which Tyler’s literary fiction is well known, especially as we head into the winter holidays.

The group’s reaction was low key, perhaps indicative of the calming effect of a good story, boredom or a reaction to the early darkness. Our first responder took exception with the title. Why Clock Dance? We discussed the girls’ slow, ticking movement versus Willa’s vision of a “spinning blur of color.” One of us used her Kindle to look up the actual passages, helping us to remember and understand. She suggested that the Clock Dance was important because the girls’ dance represented society’s expectation and later the “racing . . . madly whirling” dance was Willa breaking free.

One of us had listened to the audiobook and gave a concise yet negative summary of the story.  She hadn’t liked any of the characters and had not been hooked. She even found the young girls at the beginning to be annoying.  Although one member agreed with that unfavorable assessment, we wondered if the audiobook performance was less engaging than it could have been.

We discussed why Willa was willing to fly across the country to help a stranger. Would any of us? Not only did Willa desire purpose, she needed to be needed. I was particularly struck by a member’s observation that Denise and Cheryl cared for Willa. One member was glad that Willa finally wised up! How could she have put up with Peter so long?

One of us had been so appalled by Willa’s mother that her passion jumped onto the table, drawing our attention to the fact that Willa’s turbulent, traumatized, childhood made Willa a mother “whose prime objective was to be taken for granted.”  We disagreed about Willa’s father’s innocence. Was he truly clueless about his wife’s madness? Shouldn’t he have protected his children?

Willa took after her father. Her son seemed to have chosen a new girlfriend like his mother. Neat, perhaps obsessive Cheryl was not like her messy mother Denise – but she obviously loved her.  And was Denise a bad mother? Negligent? Especially in comparison with Willa’s mother? We discussed cleanliness and someone said, “Nobody’s headstone says she went to heaven for a clean house!” Still others mentioned how they were raised to keep the house “company ready” or remembered keeping the house ready for the minister’s unexpected visit!

The majority of us liked the novel. We found it easy to read.  Anne Tyler is a “good stylist.”  We discussed funny parts.  There is no such television show as Space Junk—we know because one of us looked it up. And can’t we just imagine crime tips in the back of comic books?  We knew how things would likely turn out, but we enjoyed the telling. Anne Tyler makes the ordinary interesting. I know that I found myself looking forward to reading Clock Dance, not for the suspense of the story so much as for a visit with a friend.

Before the meeting we discussed books and trains and grilled cheese sandwiches. You’d just have to be there to see how it all fit together!

• Other works discussed before and after:
• Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles
• The Indian Lawyer by James Welch
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• The Whistler by John Grisham

Fruit of the Drunken Tree was inspired by author Ingrid Rose Contreras’ experiences in Colombia, South America, from 1989 – 1994 during the reign of drug lord Pablo Escobar. Reviews for the book include “simple but memorable prose and absorbing story line” (NY Times Book Review), “dazzling and devastating” (San Francisco Chronicle), “simultaneously propulsive and poetic” (Entertainment Weekly), “politically daring and passionately written” (Vogue), “a seemingly unlimited reservoir of striking details” (Booklist).1  I was concerned that the book might be a little too devastating, a little too timely and political; I had been warned that another library book club had universally disliked the book, or as our multi-book clubber member said: “it wasn’t hated, it just wasn’t a favorite.”

We had a good attendance for our meeting. Out of fifteen, only two of us hadn’t read it. Our first responders seemed to like the book – not gushing as many had for The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane or The Rosie Project, but reflective and thoughtful. Our discussion was personal. We remembered the hardships of our parents and grandparents. We shared our own experiences with domestic abuse. We wondered how we could ever leave the house with such reality of kidnapping and violence outside our doors. We wondered about the impact of media that keeps violence in front of us, whether or not it is even in our community. We compared it to other book club selections: the drought in The Dry, the potato famine in News of the World, American complicity in The Lost City of the Monkey God.

Some of us were disappointed in missing details. We considered the young narrators and how their innocence heightened our sense of fear and dread. We discussed more details than I remember. Were the characters fully developed? We didn’t understand the mother’s behavior entirely. Did we prefer Chula or Petrona as a narrator? Gorrión seemed to truly love Petrona, but still he allowed her to be brutally raped.  Can and should we ever be forgiven for our mistakes? There was so much we could have discussed. Layers and layers.

We reviewed a list of some of the many books we have read together over the years. We chatted and snacked and discussed the Sacred Datura plant that grows wild in Southern Nevada and is related to the Drunken Tree used for the title – another shared experience through a book!

1 Litlovers.com website offers summaries, author bios, and reviews from various sources, discussion questions and more.  I often refer to their popular book list for ideas and we have read several books on their lists.

Lundquist, M. (n.d.). Fruit of the Drunken Tree (Contreras) – Book Reviews. Retrieved from https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/fiction/11333-fruit-of-drunken-tree-contreras?start=2

Our usual meeting place was in use, so we met on our concert hall stage to discuss News of the World by Paulette Jiles. A painted black wooden floor, a table made of four smaller tables surrounded by sixteen chairs, a single bulb on a stand, centered at the edge of the stage, both a lure and a warning! The air seemed foggy, the overhead light filtering down to us unevenly, the back and edges of the stage in relative darkness. A grand piano, heavy curtains, and 250 empty seats. In retrospect, it helps me imagine Captain Kidd setting up to read in strange venues, lit by lanterns, collecting dimes and performing. The news of the world he read was as fantastical to many of his audience as this story seemed to us today, depicting a post-Civil War Texas where handguns were illegal and abducted children wanted to stay with their captors.

Our first responder volunteered by email: “This is an incredible reminder of just how tough ordinary life was for our ancestors. I wish everyone who complains about their quality of life could read this book. I didn’t suspect it was based on a true story until the very end. My only criticism is that the title led me to think that this would be an ordinary novel about contemporary life. It needs a much more dramatic title. Can we put our heads together and come up with a better title? I’ll start the ball rolling. The Kiowa Maiden.” Later she added: “Return of the Kiowa Maiden.”

After some discussion, we decided against changing the title. Some of the appeal of the book was thinking about the news of the world, in the book and in today’s reality: immigration, political polarization, gun control.

We considered why the author wrote without using punctuation for dialogue – again with mixed results. Some of us hadn’t noticed it, some had been annoyed, mostly it didn’t seem to matter. One of us found the story predictable. Another was pleased to have a book that “moved.” It was refreshing, easy to read, informative, and with a happy ending. However, one of us wondered if Captain Kidd’s rescuing of Johanna in the end was a bit out of character. We seemed to feel that the author was reliable, but we did not delve in to many details. Discussing the publisher-provided questions, we did feel the author followed the arc of the hero’s journey, much like the story of Odysseus, with some of us championing Captain Kidd, some Johanna, and some for both. We felt that Johanna had benefited from her captivity, learning much needed life skills and then adapting to her return. One favorite scene was when Johanna used dimes for ammunition and then later charged forth, ready to scalp her attacker.

Our discussion bounced around considerably, including comparisons with previous book club selections Orphan Train, The Perfectionists, Mrs. Sherlock Holmes, and Dragon Teeth. One of us had read parts of Captured by Scott Zesch, the book Paulette Jiles recommended for further study. We came back repeatedly to the topic of why children would not want to return home, wondering about the appeal of the native lifestyle and religion, even to people today.We briefly discussed Stockholm syndrome and the Irish Potato Famine (An Gorta Mor)[i]

Although I’m fairly certain our club liked News of the World, it’s only an impression. An impression intensified by the birthday cake we shared before the discussion started and the good feeling of friendly, caring people surrounding me.

• Other Works discussed:
• Dragon Teeth (2017) by Michael Crichton
• Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) by Viktor Frankl
• “A Modest Proposal” (1729) by Jonathan Swift
• Mrs. Sherlock Holmes (2017) by Brad Ricca
• Orphan Train (2013) by Cristina Baker Kline
• The Perfectionists (2018) by Simon Winchester
• Book Circle recommendations:
• Historical fiction by Susan Wittig Albert

[i] The author says in her afterword that Doris best explains Johanna’s situation by comparing it to the Irish Potato Famine: “You can put her in any clothing and she remains as strange as she was before because she has been through two creations. . .”(pg 56).