Request
Eileen, would you post about your book club meetings? (If you're not too busy that is.) I'm interested in what comes out of them, especially on the next book. If there are lots of things to be said about that book, I want to hear too! :) Curious minds just want to know.
3 comments:
Well Maxie, I'll see what I can do. We really just talk about what we thought of the story and characters though...
First things first - I'm in a book club with some other girls I work with. We meet every other month and vote on which book to read next at each meeting. The overall "topic" of our book club is, I guess, modern literature but people can really just suggest anything they've heard is good. It seems we tend to nominate books that have been nominated for some award or other.
This past meeting we had read "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver and surprisingly, it seems that we all generally liked it though found that it started slowly. One of the main things we discussed was the character development as the story goes along - particularly the differences between the characters during the bulk of the novel compared to how they behave in the epilogue and the idea that Africa left them all changed, or rather, Africa never left them. For instance, Adah had perhaps the most obvious change as she "re-learned" how to walk and in the process lost the ability to read backwards. I personally though find this a little sad. Her backwards poetry was such a part of her and in the end she seems like she's just like everyone else.
We had a little more debate discussing Leah and Rachel. Most people liked Leah's character but I found her annoying, particularly in the epilogue. To me she seemed self-righteous and that she could never really truly feel what her neighbours felt because in the end, she could go back to America if she chose - as in fact, she did a couple times. Even her children chose to go to school there. This option wouldn't have been open to the bulk of the African population and I feel like she never really acknowledged this - though I was alone in this opinion. I also took particular note of the scene in which Leah is crying as she tells Adah and Rachel of Pascal's death and Rachel mistakingly thinks Leah is talking about her son. Reflecting on the early part of the novel, I don't remember Leah being all that close to Pascal (the others in my book club disagreed with me on this point as well) so I found it very affected that she would be so upset about his death.
We also discussed that each of the characters was strong in their own way. Adah and Leah were a little more obvious with their strength. Rachel however, was written as such a character - a very obvious flake with no apparent depth. But ultimately, despite choosing to stay in Africa because she was too ashamed to return to America, she developed her own kind of strength. She made up her mind to stay in Africa and set out to live the best life she could under those conditions. And although she "made it" through numerous marriages, in the end she was on her own and running her own business. And I thought that Rachel's was actually the saddest story. Leah and Adah both ended up ultimately happy - Leah married and Adah a physician - but Rachel was never truly happy in Africa. She always felt that some other, better life had been robbed from her.
We spent a bit of time discussing Nathan as well - just debating what he would have said had he been given the opportunity to narrate a chapter. Ultimately though we decided that it was better to have that little bit of mystery.
Anyway, that's about it. Our next book is "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time". We won't be meeting until the first weekend of May, but if you want Maxie, I can post what we dicuss.
I read the Poisonwood Bible while back-packing in Europe. I thought is was a horrendous choice for back-packing, so take all of these comments in that vein. My friend brought a Terry Pratchett, she was much wiser.
I thought the book was good, but really didn't like it, y'know? I was just constantly angry with all the characters. I think that is part of the point, the culture clash between the americans and africans, but I felt the author didn't acknowledge it well enough (like your observation about Leah never really understanding her neighbours).
She also glossed over a lot of historical stuff about the Congo, I think in an effort to simplify the African landscape for the characters, but I think it does the book a disservice.
The story, to me, was about typical white bread americans facing the enormity of how sheltered their life was, with a dose of abuse to get them and keep them there. I guess I find that obvious and don't necessarily sympathize with people having to realize that.
Absolutely LOVED the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
Thanks Eileen - Great post. I wish that I had finished the book when Kara lent it to me but her comments on it touched a personal pet peeve of mine and I couldn't get into it.
And for a person who likes race theory and stuff I've actually avoided reading any Afrian English lit. I avoid it b/c I'm working on several other areas right now; I'm going to get to it soon though. I think I'll have to read Heart of Darkness for example. That was supposed to be a central example of "typical" writing about Africa from a white, male colonial perspective; I wonder what comparisons could be made between Heart of Darkness and the Poisonwood bible.
Anyways I appreciate that you posted and I'm totally looking forward to the next one as most of us have read it.
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