Book summaries - 1998-1999

SETA - Alessandro Baricco

UNDERWORLD - Don De Lillo

There are no comments on this book as there was no book club discussion about the book. The book club meeting was cancelled at the last moment because in the course of the day five people made it clear that they would not be coming to the meeting that night. A future discussion was ruled out (by me, mostly) because only two people other than myself had finished the book and many of the others had made very little progress. This leads me to question the validity of a book club where there is not a commitment on the part of all members to read all the books which are proposed from beginning to end so that a half- way decent attempt can be made at the discussion. I feel we have all (and I include myself in this certinly) been getting lazier and lazier about this commitment  and this was for me the straw that broke the camel's back. My personal feeling is that a decision has to be made whether this is a book club and  a social gathering or simply the latter.(M)

SIBERIAN DREAM - Irina Pantaeva

Everybody , except for Eva who unfortunately wasn’t feeling well and sadly Helle , who was away, came to the bookclub and we had the added bonus of Christina, who was in Rome for a few days.

It wasn’t a fantastic discussion. The book didn’t quite come up to my expectation. The most interesting part, which was life in Siberia, we all found fascinating and the story of her difficult childhood in a completely unknown environment but unfortunately that was only mentioned during the first part of the book.

Dominique was brilliant and brought up some interesting points. The way her career was so much easier in America, after her struggle in Paris, proving that life for the young , unknown and "unusual" has many more opportunities and possibilities in an unbiased, younger country. Because of her oriental, out of the ordinary, looks the Paris fashion houses wouldn’t accept her and personally I think it would have been the same in the other European capitals.

When she went to China it was interesting to see her amazement when she found how many things were available in the shops after the frugal life, and long queues for everything in Siberia – something we were suprised about.

It was interesting to read of the short six weeks summer when she stayed with her grandparents near Lake Baikal and how everything had to be prepared during that period and put aside for the long Siberian winter.

We all thought the book had big "gaps", e.g. what ever happened to Larissa who had helped her so much in the beginning? Her parents were hardly ever mentioned except when she helped them financially. We would  like to have known more about them. What was the point in mentioning the lesbian episode when it led to nothing?

Even though it was her story – her climb to success – she came through as a rather selfish egocentric being and we all thought that with her background, her uniqueness etc., she could have enlarged on the vastly different cultures and made "Siberian Dream" far more interesting.

Margy’s philosophy is that one should never read one’s book beforehand – I don’t think I agree! SORRY! (G)

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA - Arthur Golden

First of all, the novel was enjoyed by the "bookclub" as it transported them to another time, another place.

The complexity of the Japanese society seems to be brought to life through the story teller and one wonders how a Japanese, reading the story, would feel about it. In addition, some of us were suprised when reading the end of the book to find out that it was an entirely fictious account, all invented, and we were certainly amazed that a westerner could write so well about the life of a geisha.

In this context it was also underlined that it would be interesting to read about Liza Dallay, an American women who became a geisha and wrote a book "Geisha", an anthropological study of geisha culture.

Now, looking at the novel ‘per se’, one was faced with the questions as to the origin of geisha where we understand that originally, it did relate to ancient theatre where actors put masks on and ‘transported" to real life all relationships in the society. However, increasingly, when the play was over, the geishas keep their role as they revert back to their normal roles in society.

For one member of the bookclub, the relation with the ‘chairman’ didn’t seem realistic-maybe too romantic to understand the complexity of the relations between the different personalities and in particular, the chairman ‘vis a vis’ Nobu.

The other striking facts concerning the life of a geisha is the ‘drinking of saki’ and the so-called drinking "games" to entertain their guests. The conversations of the bookclub at this point come to the discussion of modern geishas-and reference was made to a TV programme recounting that in Japan, girls entertain business men in compensation of a lot of money.

It was also pointed out that only 80 traditional geishas remain in Japan. (D)

We had a good discussion at Dominique's house, after she had spoilt us first with delicious food, coffee and wine.

We were finally able to meet Gill and Francoise who have joined us to "replace" Christina and Helle, even though we are hoping that Helle will mostly be able to get down to Rome from Tuscany to participate in the discussions. Which in fact she had done on Tuesday evening, but unfortunaltely it was Froukje who couldn't be with us because she was expecting a very important phone call from Holland.

Our discussion was very lively (as usual!), and my only complaint is that there was more than one discussion going on at the same time, which makes me terribly frustrated because I would like to hear what EVERYBODY  has to say. So I wished we could find a way to be a little more disciplined about allowing everybody to express their opinions, one at a time, before wanting to present our own, without making our get-togethers too formal. Because the reason for our long success must
be that we are not terribly formal but are prepared to bring ourselves into the discussion, which usually livens up our evenings a great deal and makes them quite special.

We liked the book because it was well written and opened up a totally new world to us. What appears to us outsiders as a mysterious and somehow enchanting world, was shown to us as a very harsh and often cruel life for young Japanese girls and women. To be a geisha was nothing short of being a personal slave to either the men who owned you or/and to the person who owned the okiya that had invested in the purchase of young girls to be trained as geishas.

Although the author has invented the story, we felt that his research and knowledge about very detailed facts of a geisha's life were very substantial, and were also so authoratative that many of our group had thought that they were true memoirs of a geisha, written down by a chosen confidante.

However, the "chairman" and his unfading attraction to Sayuri throughout her whole life was felt by some of us as a romantic invention that would have been hard to believe had the story been a true biography. Others, though, found this long-lasting feeling quite conceivable, especially since they felt that it represented hope in an otherwise harsh reality. 

Although we would like to believe that our thinking as regards to the role of women and men in society has advanced a great deal since the time of the geishas, we had to   admit that some of our customs, wishes and desires were not really terribly far removed from a time where personal slavery was regarded as quite normal. The wish to be powerful over something or someone is still with us, even though its manifestations vary with the times. The imporant thing in life is how you perceive yourself and not how others perceive you. The women's lib advocate might think of every woman who stays at home to raise a family and look after a husband as nothing more than a kind of slave, whereas the woman who has chosen to do just that  might consider her job as the most important of all jobs. The emphasis is surly on the "has chosen" and on her own perception and not on anybody elses. In the book Sayuri did not have any choice in the beginning but later on had a choice of either staying in Japan and possibly losing the chairman, or move to America and begin a totally new life with him being a part of it. (R)

THE POISONWOOD BIBLE - Barbara Kingsolver

After many telephone calls and even more e-mail messages I was pretty sure that we had finally managed to successully change the book-evening from the 14th to the 13th of April, without losing anybody's attendance in the process. Unfortunately, Jill, one of our new members didn't make it in the end because she had only come back at midnight from a journey the night before and felt too tired to join us for our discussion of Barbara Kingsolver's book "The Poisonwood Bible" . (The original date was changed because Gillian had to leave for the UK today, but we had hoped that last night would be alright for all of us that were in town!). Francoise, the second new member of the group, couldn't be with us in any case because she had left Italy to go on a trip to Indo-China.  We are sorry that both Jill and Francoise have missed the book-evening and are hoping to see them next time.  Helle, however, was with us all the way from Tuscany and it felt like she had never left Rome in the first place. We also had a "visitor" (my neighbour, Susan Haight) who was curious to "listen in" on our discussion because she is a member of another bookgroup and was perhaps hoping to get some new ideas for their own meetings. During the course of the evening she was certainly presented with numerous examples of how-not-to-conduct a discussion, but assured me afterwards that she had very much enjoyed the evening, anyhow. And having read the book, she was also able to join in with the discussion......   which turned out to be extremely lively, very far-reaching and mostly somewhat wild, because everybody seemed to have so much to contribute that nobody had the patience to wait for the other person to properly finish expressing their thoughts. I find this quite frustrating because I am so curious and interested to hear what everybody has to say, and I am so afraid of missing out on all sorts of good ideas when we begin to have little side-discussions.
"The Poisonwood Bible"  turned out to be liked by everybody, and yet provided and provoked really interesting points of discussion. Very often that is not the case when a book is unanimously liked, and the discussions are usually better when everybody has a totally opposed opinion to the next person.  Some members of the group found it a little difficult to get into the book and were also impatient and angry at the Prices' initial insensitive reaction to the Congo and its people. But as they read on they became involved with each person and felt that the story was extremely well written.
It's a story of characters, of social injustice, of political disaster and unrest. But most of all it's the story of the Price women and their individual biographies. Each person tells her own story seen through her own "window": the mother in retrospect from Sanderling Island in the States and the daughters from the Congo as their lives unfold after their arrival in Africa. This story- telling- technique of experiencing everybody through everybody else's eyes,  all of us found very impressive and effective. The writer also has a very fluent style and a great gift for detail which allows the reader to "enter" the African Congo instantly without any prior experience of Africa. Many in the group, however, had already lived in Africa at some stage in their lives, and for them the story took on yet another dimension. They felt impatient with the naivity of the American missionary family, the father's stupidity of totally ignoring the local customs and the people's better judgement, i.e.tnot to have their children baptized in crocodile infested waters, and they could also not understand why the family wanted to isolate themselves from the whole village and thereby emphasize their cultural differences even more, rather than to look for something they might have in commen. Others were quick to point out, though, that intolerance on grounds of cultural differences was less surprising really in the Price family and their situation, than in our-day European travelers who can't cope being in a country where there isn't a bidet in the bathroom!!!.( At this point we got just a little side-tracked as to who uses bidets for  what, or what for, and it took a few minutes to wind up this heated discussion about such an important issue!!!!!) Or where food is not exactly prepared in the customary way, etc. We all know many examples of cultural snobbery that are far worse than the genuine cultural shock of a simple and totally unworldly American missionary family finding themselves in the African Congo.
Therefore so much more fascinating, too, to watch them develop and slowly realize that the Congolese way of life had a simple beauty, a strong sense of community and need for each other, and as the girls and their mother became more open to this knowledge they began to see and accept their own ignorance.To expresss it in Leah's words:" Everything you're sure is right, can be wrong in another place. Especially here."
Everybody thought that the twins were very interesting characters, Ada, very critical and with a sharp wit; and Leah, at first totally devoted to her father till she realized he was only a simple, ugly man, was full of empathy and developed a very keen understanding of ethical values. Both Leah and Ada seemed to have gone through a much more impressive development on their way to adulthood than Rachel, the eldest daughter, who stayed mainly very self-centered and was more concerned with her material well-being than with anything else that was happening around her.  Ruth May was a  bright five-year old who was the first in the family to open up to her new surroundings and its people when she started playing with the Congolese children. Although she tragically died at such a young age, her voice was still being heard through Orleanna, the mother, who keeps on talking and listening to her youngest daughter in the top of the trees. Someone felt that the twins and Ruth May fitted the family, but that Rachel was "way over the top"..."and could the apple fall that far from the tree?" Most of us thought that she was definitely part of that family, too, and that she didn't feel "wrong" to us at all, even though she was so different.

Nathan Price does not tell his own story, nor do we get a chance to get to know his "women" through his eyes with his own words. We only hear about his actions and his words (mostly quotations from the bible) via his children and his wife. But he manifests himself as a narrowminded, dogmatic and unsympathetic person that would be extremely difficult to like. Although he was a major influence in his family, one gets the feeling that every member slowly sheds him like a snake does with her old skin.

We didn't really have enough time to talk more about some of the other characters in the book, like Axelroot, Anatol, the chief and the medicine man and some of the very vivid women characters in the village. The political situation was hardly touched; only to the extent that Margie nearly had a fit when she heard that whilst she was having political sit-ins for or against Lumumba at College I was singing nonsensical children songs that had Lumumba's name in them as a 12 year-old. This was causing yet another heated side-discussion of which we had quite a few during the course of the evening, and which had only a very distant reference to the book. Yet they seemed very essential at the time!!!!!

I believe the clock was moving very rapidly towords 1 a.m. when I finally switched off the lights and hoped that everybody had a safe journey home. Perhaps I have not given a complete account of last night's get-together, but I hope that other people will fill in the missing bits. As usual I enjoyed the evening and am looking forward to the next bookclub meeting.  (R)

Rose-Marie already wrote who attended the evening - and why and whynot, so I will start almost straightaway with the comments. I write "almost", because I would like to point out that I am a bit disappointed that so few of us are commenting on the evening and the book and I feel a bit discouraged about expressing my opinion with very few others of us "counterbalancing" it.

- Having finished the book I realized, that more than half of it - actually the African time of the family - I was rejecting it and only the part afterwards I enjoyed, which was, for my taste, written more balanced and with better knowledge.

- I like the language and the structure of the book with its different chapters written by different members of the family.I find the characters very well worked out, all realistic and believable.I think the author did a very good and sensitive job on them and even following their life over about 40 years was without any crack in it. I think, it was wise not to have the father write his part of the story because Barbara Kingsolver, being a woman, might have problems to express the very intimate ideas of a man, and describing him, being beyond any usual standards, might have overloaded the already fully packed book.

- The political and social diversities and changes are very interesting and need a lot of background information and knowledge.  But I have some points, important for me, which I do not appreciate :
- Unless the story really happened, I cannot understand : - why the author had the family go to Africa, - which in the mind of every person in the industrialized world is full of danger, snakes, spiders and
diseases – as unprepared as they were. Since the father was somehow a lunatic and not able to cope with normal life, the mother should have known better and was responsible as well.
- why the author had the mother of 4 children, the oldest of which was 16 years old!!!, only mature in 18 months of deepest Africa ? Having educated children for many years should have made her mature much earlier.
- The different points of view of the girls are written as young girls do it.And what they wrote is true, but, although I know that adolescents are hardly ever tolerant with anything different from themselves, they should have sensed, if not learned - being 16 and 14 - that there might be the possibility of other traditions and habits...Or the author could have written their opinions differently. For me there is quite a touch of arrogance in it  and I wonder what an African would say about the way the children were
describing the African clothing, behaviour, surroundings and life. Although children are supposed to have said it, it is still printed in a book forever.

- There is a lack of knowledge, which I can say, because we lived in a place most probably very similar to the one this family lived in:
- manioc does not have the nutritional value of a brown paper bag, it is a staple food like potatoes or spaghetti for us
- hookworms don't live or survive on concrete floors, so the family did not have to wear shoes in their house because of hookworms as the author said. In the dark you better wear shoes because of scorpions...
- filaries do not close the pores of your body but live in the lymphatic system
- spitting cobras don't kill a child by spitting - they spit, to blind their enemy temporarily in order to escape
- no African or well informed foreigner would ever behave with a quietly sleeping green mamba the way it is written in the book.

- As I said before, more than half of the book I did not like too much and wonder why 18 months in Africa can shake the life of a family who already lived together for 16 years in the way it is described here and I prefer the after - African part of the book as being more sensible and realistic.  E.

INTO THE WILD - Jon Krakauer

We were having Helle for the last time as a Roman Citizen. From now on the ''Tuscan Lady'' will try to come as much as she can. Two new members are appointed and one was already there: Francoise Alheritiere, who some know from back to Junior English schooldays. Welcome to you Francoise.Dominique, Rosemary and Jill Bennett (the other new member) were unable to
come. Eva announced to be late for she had to fabricate a ''condom'' for her son. That would be his carnival costume (theme: the seventies). We waited for her with the discussion.

The book has the story of the boy (young man) Chris and the story of the writer about the challenge with yourself. Chris went to Alaska to survive alone for sometime in the wilderness and did not come back alive; Jon did a trip up an Alaskan peak alone (and badly equipped as well) but lowered his objective and proved himself on the ''easy'' side of the mountain - which almost cost him his life the same. Other adventurers declare somewhere or other in the story that they realise very well not to be heroes and  more intelligent than Chris, just luckier to have survived their youthful enterprises.

For the mostheard first reaction is: how could that stupid, unsensible boy do this to his parents and his sister, having a bright future ahead of him, given his social background and schooling. One of us was at least very hurt as a mother. All mothers in us were chilled to the bone by such a thing happening to our own children, but most had the feeling ''life is yours'' and at a certain point you have no obligation to live with your parent's feelings as a condition. Of course this is theory and real life taken apart.

The suggestion that the skeletons in the parents' closet were the trigger in this tragedy was not generally accepted as a fault in the parents. Who does not have skeletons in the closet belonging to his or her youth and when is the moment to haul them into daylight in front of your children? Also, what is a skeleton to one person, may be a laugh to someone else.

The way the story developed was what I liked in the book. Starting with fact: boy goes into the wild; cuts contact with family and perishes. Connecting chapters to questions like: why would he do that to his parents  can you imagine why he gave away or left behind everything he possessed; why was accepting a closer relationship with people so scary to him, we learn about our own feelings towards certain subjects and come to  understand Chris's focussedness. That life is only possible when you make compromises and when you compromise too early on you don't fully live your own life. Some said: aren't we all unhappy? Others: No not true. The romantics and the realists? And can you change your inner make-up?

The stories of people the boy met in the two years of wandering previous to his ''final exam'' made clear human life depends much on belonging and sharing. Towards the end of his life Chris (who called himself Alex supertramp while transgressing) mentions in his diary that he is ready to go back to society, have a family - which means conditions and sharing very closeby. All the people he met felt he left the moment they came too close personally. Even though Alex afterwards sent many of them letters and cards with well meant messages of love and caring.

In Alaska he was going to cure this fear of hurt he had and come out a healed person.

What went wrong when he died?  He was not very adventurous to go far away from the bus, to try a
solution elsewhere. He could not know but normal life went on just a few miles from his campsite. Or did he not want to walk out to save himself, but romantically waited to be saved. He was not a mad person but a person fighting with himself to become mature. He was talented and skilled in many ways but the art of living and surviving life-as-it-comes was too complicated for him to understand.

Starting every chapter with a few passages from books Chris was carrying and had underlined, or books the writer used to show similar cases of wandering and questing people (more or less famous) helped to play down the madness of the boy's adventure. As Margy said: loads of youngsters dissappear every year in the States. These parents at least knew where it ended. (F)

Quickly to the book: (Comments from an unable-to-attend member)

My rational "ego" thinks Christopher McCandless was an utter twit and unbeliebably stupid, My mother- and parental "self" wants to wail to have lost such a young and vulnarable person in such a tragic way and my adventure and dream-chasing "ego" thinks that he couldn't do anything else but pursue his dream, irrespective of the outcome. And the psychiatrist in me says that he was probably quite a genius but totally mad.

Have a good discussion!!!! Wished I could be there.(R)

We were a small group at the evening at Fraukije's - only 6 of us. One of our new members, Francoise, was with us and I hope she likes our group,even though she did not meet all of us. Anyhow : welcome to the famous - infamous Castelli Bookclub, Francoise !

The discussion about the book was quite lively - some of us were wondering  why Chris, alias Alex, was hurting his family the way he did, why he was  going into the wild and so on and so on. We tried to find psychological  reasons but as far as I am concerned I think we tried to put too much into this book.  For me it was simply the story of a young person trying to find his limits, his freedom, his own power, his own attitude towards life - as happens  to many, many young people who escape for a certain time or even forever from the   conventional life.
As I said at the evening : like Cat Steven's song "Father and Son" - the   son who feels the urge to go away and the father who doesn't understand him and tries to calm him down.
Only because Chris was very, very unlucky and did not come back, this adventure turned out to be a tragedy.
The author's own experiences going into the wild I found interesting and his journalistical, fast way of writing made the book easy to read. But like Tine, I wonder if the author wrote about other adventures of  young people only to fill up pages?
I don't see any importance to write a whole book about this story - in my opinion some newspaper articles, like  the author obviously wrote before writing the book, would have been sufficient to let us know about  the tragedy which hit Chris and his family. (E)

MENDEL'S DWARF - Simon Mawer

This was the last Book Club with Christina as a local member since she and Pino are moving to "Pump Cottage", near Shaftesbury, UK; further I am going into semi-retirement in Tuscany, but will try to attend as often as possible. This means that there would be left six permanent local members. Therefore a thorough discussion ensued as to who might be roped in to join our group and fill the two empty seats. After much debate it was established that the departing members should propose a choice of replacement , and once a nomination is decided, would confirm acceptance with the nominee. The result will be known by the next meeting , scheduled on 15 February.

Now to the book: trying to summarise is not an easy task, but one taken on in response to Margi’s initiative, our Website Mistress! As you know "Mendels Dwarf" is written by Simon Mawer, a "Roman Settler" of many years standing. Unfortunately he could not be with us, as he was heading for the USA the following morning, to make an address to the Mendel Society over there. But we hope to arrange a brief get-together with him in the early spring to consolidate our discussion.

The book was greatly enjoyed by all and indeed promoted a heated and very animated discussion: at one point I thought I might have to call in the UN Peace Keeping Force!!

We started by expressing opinions on DNA Cell Engineering; plant breeding and talked on the importance of having clear legislation; on the pros and cons of this most sensitive subject. The discussion went on to dealing with the feelings of a dwarf- being different to the norms in society and indeed our (being "normal") attitudes towards beings with different norms, be they physical or mental. This conversation continued as the story developed. The relationship between Jean and Ben, the first abortion being a very hot topic: who wanted the abortion-Jean or Ben? Or was Ben practising his trade of experimenting?. There was a mixed response of opinions as to the good or bad aspects of implants and the subsequent impact on society today i.e. women who would prefer to be single mothers. Could this give a better life for a child rather than that of a two-parented family with social ills such as beating of wife and children or fights between parents. Returning to the dwarf problem it was generally agreed that Mr Miller in his attitude to Ben was being very condescending, and further, unfortunately, was representing the greater part of societies attitude today.

Given more time (it was mid-night when retiring from discussion), we could well have continued to the early hours of the morning! Thank you for your commitment and that of our ‘old’ members, also thanks to Simon wishing us well and do hope you will be able to meet with us at a later date-perhaps at Rosemarie's, who lives on the Cassia.(H)

There are too many of us leaving in too short a time and the book - evening at Helle's was the last time at her place on the via Appia Antica - and it is somehow "shattering" habits I grew fond of.
Since we have several women who would like to be part of our group ( which normally is not the case) we lost a lot of time deciding how to choose our next two new members - eventually it will work out one way or the other.

The discussion about the book was, as the author hoped it to be, really heated, even to a point where I wondered where we had left our usual tolerance. For me the most precious experience in our group always was, that we met and discussed more or less heatedly but were always tolerant towards the diverse opinions of the others and I  hope that this will never change.
As we said in the dedica for Christina's farewell : "20 Years ... no offensive words - no angry looks." It has been  a very peaceful time and I hope it continues !

We all found the book very interesting.
We discussed if it would be better to manipulate genes to have only   "perfect" people and what would "perfect" mean  or rather try to educate society to accept that it is not  the physical appearance of a person that  counts but  the personality. Some of us (including me) said,  that they feel awkward towards  the handicapped for instance. But do we feel awkward because we reject them or because we don't know how to approach them since they don't react as we are used to ?  

But as was written in our last book : the general opinion of health nowadays is "always to be in top form" - which you can transfer to appearance as well and appearance is overestimated nowadays to a degree that - many people have cosmetic surgery done - black people want to have white skin - whites want to be suntanned - blue-eyed people wear lenses to have green eyes and and and...

The manipulation of genes is a step further after the success of organ-transplantation and we wondered if it would not be advisable  to come back to a bit more of  humbleness and have the courage to leave us to our fate. But nowadays fate and a "capricious" God is not acceptable because we think with our advanced sciences we can control everything. But as we see in the book : luckily it does not work.

I think highly of the sensitive way the author developed his characters, the dialogues and especially the very elegant end. And I liked the way he mixed the past, the present and science in an interesting plot - it is a book you don't put aside easily. But although I am not prudish at all I found the language he used to speak about Benedict's sexual desires and experiences a bit too crude.

The other thing I would like to point out is, that you can't put for example"Hungarians,Slavs and Jews" in one sentence although it happens often. But a Hungarian is a person with Hungarian nationality, while a Jew belongs to the Jewish religion. You can either talk of national  or racial or religious affiliation. Excuse me for playing the"know-it-all"... but especially me with my German "burden"  try to let people think before they talk about Jews ( or other minorities or outsiders ) and races and nationalities, I prefer rather not to generalize.

As I said before, I think the end of the book is a very elegant solution to have the story finished. Benedict, such an intelligent  and very, very clever gene-scienitist, made a mistake not taking into consideration that blue-eyed parents never can have a brown-eyed child ! In the end he felt really god-like having  a baby out of his sperm and most probably having the mother living with him as well. His heartless and triumphant way to tell Hugo the truth about the origin of the baby was -as I see it - the death sentence for his own child. Hugo's desperate reaction was  comprehensible.And the message of the book is great : You can't win playing God  (E)

Here's what I remember and what I would have liked to have said:

Our book discussion about Mendel's Dwarf by Simon Mawer was more chaotic than I can remember any other book evening ever to have been. I am sure this was partly due to the fact that Christina is finally leaving Rome at the end of the month, and last night's meeting was our last one together before her departure for the UK. We will also "half" lose Helle who is going to live in Tuscany as from February, and even though we shall (hopefully) spend many more discussion evenings together in the future, the  book group will now inevitably undergo a few changes. And although we were unanimous on keeping the group going we were still finding it a little hard to cope with the good-byes of two members that have been part of the group almost from its beginning twenty years ago. I wish Christina and Helle good luck and many happy hours in their new homes. For Christina and us there is fortuanately the digital way to stay in touch, and Helle, no doubt, will try and fit in her frequent Rome visits around our book evenings!!!!

So there was in fact some plausible excuse for not having done justice to Simon Mawer's book, which, however, I felt quite sad about, really, because I enjoyed the book tremendously for its very sensitive insight into human nature and behaviour vis-a-vis the "abnormal".I loved the humour and wit in some of the chapters. I was intrigued about the use of scientific language even in places were it wasn't strictly necessary, but had it not been used something of the atmosphere of the book would have been lost. And quite apart from that: it kept me on my toes (mentally and literally! ) Whilst I was reading the book I spent half my time jumping up and dashing to the bookshelf either to get hold of a dictionary or an encyclopaedia. Benedict Lambert not only keeps the readers on their toes but everyone else in his own life who becomes involved with him, however brief the encounter.
I admired the conversations  that the characters had throughout the story. They were never false or artificial: they felt totally authentic and could have come out of a perfect script for the stage, cinema or a radio play.

Benedict Lambert's story is not only a description of a very tragic human destiny , but it confronts us with issues of the rights and wrongs of genetic engineering, of choices that we could have as regards to what kind of world we would want to live in depending on which way and how far we allow research to develop. It throws up questions of a capricious God who leaves us to the tyranny of chance, we are asked to consider the origins of genius- is it in the head or is it in the heart? And what about people who are in favour of eugenics? Who in fact will have what kind of choice : when where and how? Benedict says more than once: you can only be brave if you have the choice. The book is about a very personal struggle but equally about the moral, historical and philosophical implications of the work of two scientists, namely G. Mendel who begun with his genetic research in the eighteen-hundreds, and Benedict Lambert, a brilliant geneticist and descendant of Mendel who continues  the work with the same dedication and obsession.

Benedict Lambert is a very complex person, only a dwarf in stature! Otherwise quite a giant: he has more wit than the average person around him can truly cope with. He is intelligent, he has got insight, he is cynical, he has a sense of humour. He is extremely sensitive, yet equally relentless. But the love that he carries inside of him has only very brief moments where it dares to come to the surface. The dwarf with the giant potential for love finds himself in a stunted world: his own father never looked straight at him.Never, throughout his whole life could he remember him looking directly at him. Later on .......he (Benedict) never moved into the bedroom with her (Jean). He wanted to spare her the fright of seeing him as he was; and as she never suggested that he should , he guessed that she was happy to be spared.........

"Mendel's Dwarf" is a very special book with a very special message: "You can tell nothing from a man's appearance, nothing except the depth of your own prejudice". I  believe that whatever our scientific achievements will be, they won't have a real impact until we learn the true implications of the above message. ( R )

THE CUNNING MAN - Robertson Davies

It was great that all 8 members of the bookclub made it up to the Castelli to huddle in my sitting room around the fire. My turn always seems to come at mince pie time which is a shame. I was a little disappointed that so many members hadn’t managed to finish the book though I know three weeks was a short time, but the book so diverse and full of information that to have a full discussion we all needed to have finished the book. In fact the main part of our discussion was on the latter part of the book and the medical methods used by Jonathan Hullah in his private clinic; the importance of the balance between mind and body and how diseases can actually be created by the mind. Hullah was a diagnostician who practised a type of psychosomatic medicine with a holistic approach.  It fascinated me to think how many ailments are in fact caused by ourselves through our negative feelings.Although I am in agreement with Diane that Hullah was rather pleased with himself he did admit to many failures in attempts to cure his patients and firmly believed in Anangke – fate. He seemed to me a rather aloof, lonely character with, in fact, few friends.

The ladies and their view of the doctor through Pansy Todhunter’s letters I thought hilarious and their characters  were described in a very incisive way.  Emily, of course, if she had consented to visit him, would have been a typical patient of Hullah’s, with her depression at only being a second rate artist and the nagging regret she had that she had not after all married Gussie leading her to not ever trying to cure herself until it was too late.

Thinking over the evening there were many aspects that we did not discuss in depth i.e. the influence of Mrs. Smoke, Hullah’s schooldays or the ceremonies at St. Aidan’s.  I am afraid except for a quick glance at Carlotta’s wedding photos we inevitably spent quite some time discussing my move to England etc.! (C)

The book-evening at Christina's was sad because of two reasons:
1. it was the last time that we met at Christina's place in the castelli before her moving back to England and
2. because 4 of us ( which means half of us) had not managed to finish the book , me being one of them. Normally it does not happen that so many of us don't finish the book and it would be interesting to know why ?

For me it was because the book is full of so much truth and philosophy that I needed time to "digest" it and reading a demanding book at the time of the preparations for Christmas having the children coming home, which means a temporary change of life, is more difficult than just reading a nice relaxing book before going to sleep...

"Cunning" in my feeling for language meant always something not too good, somehow like "clever" or like the Italian "furbo" which in my eyes is not a compliment for a person.
Starting reading the book I tried to find out where Jon was cunning, but the only thing I realized from the beginning was, that he was a very sensitive person - living extremly intensely, and already as a young boy learning for life from whatever he happened to get into touch with :
- the different approaches of Mrs. Smoke, being an Indian "wise woman" and the always drunken Dr. Ogg towards medicine and sciences
- analysing himself as how far being a delicate child has spoiled his character
- when is mother is depressed : "This is one of the things not always recognized about illness: many people other than the obvious victim may be strongly affected"
- his experiences in the army where he learnt that although only listening to and accepting the different characters and situations of people, their despair, their rage, their loneliness did not improve their situations, did not bring back a lost arm or leg, but changed their attitude towards life, brought back courage
- preferring medical calls at the patient's home to learn from the furnishing, the smell, the music they are listening to about the person and his attitude towards life
- there are people who must have their poisons, or they are not themselves, like his friend with his whiskey and his pipes
- like WHO he interprets "health" : " when nothing hurts very much" but the general opinion nowadays is "to be in top form"
- Nuala being seen by her son's friends not as a beautiful woman but as a mother
- watching himself resenting Charly occupying his own bed
and so on and so on and so on and his conclusions :
- are there not as many healths as there are bodies?
- his realizing that " character lies deeper than any question of psychosomatic medicine and contains the key to cure"
- about marriage: "in a real union sex becomes just another kind of happy talk...which does not need explanations and considerations."
- "a disease is the signal, that comes late in the day, that life has become difficult to bear"
- " body and soul cannot be separated while life lasts"
and so much more wisdom
"The still, sad music of humanity " -
"A little of what you fancy does you good, but moderation must be observed: "The Golden Mean"

What I found disturbing in the book was the murder of his god-son, which I find out of place because I could not connect it with any of his philosophy, whereas his falling in love in old age with the young Esme and, although denying it, but most proberly(probably?, properly?, (Margie's note)) having sexual desire is part of his tolerance towards life .
His own poor approach towards life was that he rather preferred to betray his friend with his wife than take the responsibility for a permanent relationship and he did say some nasty nonsense - at least in my opinion:
" longing is some of the best of loving" and "getting there is half the fun" - which is not wise at all !

Finally, in the end I learnt what "cunning" in this book meant : There used to be a "Wise Woman" or a "Cunning Man" in English villages.
I am very impressed by this sensitive approach towards life and I wish there would be more "cunning men" around in our world.

I wonder, is the book pure fiction or is it the life-story of a real person ? (E)

THE GRASS IS SINGING - Doris Lessing

Since we read two beautiful books "The God Of Small Things" and "Dina's Book" - both very much catching the atmosphere of the country they are acting in,  I presented "The Grass is..." hoping to contribute a book letting you feel  the African  atmosphere 25 years ago I lived in a place very much the same as the Turners in the book are living in and in that time I read this book.
I was very fascinated how Doris Lessing managed to let you feel the heat, the dust, the crisp early- morning - atmosphere,  the loneliness and the despair and desperation of living in a place like that.
But now, 25 years later I am diappointed, because, although still remembering the "African atmosphere" I did not manage to really feel it - Hermann Hesse would say : "meine gute Stunde trat nicht ein" which translated could mean " my good hour" or better "my lucky or happy hour did not come, did not touch me" - the feeling deep inside you of old, old memories creating a time long lost.

This disappointment might be because I am now used to another way of writing ? another style ? or getting more demanding ?  - this is my personal disappointment about the book but the bookclub "girls" seemed to like it.

We did not discuss much about the book, about poor Mary and poor Dick never being able to adapt to each other or about his stubborness not to change his way of farming for both their sakes, her not loving life enough to make the best out of it, or her relationship with Moses - and Moses and his attitude towards her.

The discussion started right  away being embarrassed about the fear (somehow) of the whites to accept the capability and intelligence of the blacks - we were wondering why, but knowing that it is the easiest  way to keep yourself in power and to conceal your own feeling of inferiority, maybe secretly they knew that it is not the right way to treat people as they did.
And the longer you keep people uneducated the easier they are to be exploited.

Several of us lived in Zambia in different places and at different periods and we all had our experiences with the local people .
We started discussing racism really agitated and I was moved how much it is still a point to talk about in a time where the world is moving closer.
We, living in wealthy countries, are travelling all over the world enjoying the exoticness and the excitement of other places and those less fortunate are coming to us trying to make ends meet - we all somehow live together and are still thinking superior to each other - I think it is very sad.
Racism, - discrimination -  exists not only between whites and blacks, but between Germans and Turks, Italians and Poles, heterosexuals and homosexuals, men and women, rich and poor. In Germany it exists between different youth groups (being differently dressed might get you into trouble) or only because you being coloured ( Arabic, African, Indian ) you will have a lot of problems to find a room to rent, although you come from a well-off family and can afford the rent... - there are thousand examples -

Why can't we respect a single foreign person as we want to be respected ourselves - as an individual?
There are good and bad and criminal ones all over the world but it is not a question of different colour or different tradition or different way of life ! It is how human beings are made and when you remember the book "Stone Age Present" they are mainly the young males which tend to be more aggressive then woman or older men ( the book is giving explanations to that fact) - but not a word about colour or something like that.

Every single person has his own abilities, his own kindness, his own charism - everybody lives in his world which often is different from our own one, but everybody is a world in himself.

The discussion about racism went on all evening and as I said before, we did not much discuss other aspects of the book. But we were very much impressed how Doris Lessing did work very well on the different characters, all very refined presented and I admire how a young woman of 30 years has so much experience in life to deal with the differences of personalities. It took me much longer only to have a glimpse of the billions of   facets of life and people.. (E.)

This meeting resembled a lot more some of our past meetings where sparks would fly because diverse opinions were very passionately put foreward."The Grass is Singing" is a very thought-provoking novel, irrespective of  whether one likes Doris Lessing's way of telling her story or dislikes her and her work. It can't be denied that she has an uncanny knack of putting her finger exactly on the spot where it "hurts most" or where her characters are psychologically stripped "naked".

Mary Turner was a young woman who had created herself a world, in a small town in South Africa, that suited her and made her forget her  not so pleasant childhood out on a bush station  in some farming district. She didn't want to lead her mother's life who spent a lot of her time being bitter and angry at her husband's drinking habits and the ensueing economic hardships. Mary was happy when she left her home to go to boarding school, and after that trained to become a secretary which allowed her to lead an independant life that made her forget her unhappy childhood. She arranged her working and social life in a way that she was never alone except for when she went home at night to go to bed. We felt that she had this inner need to keep herself so busy, so that she would not have to think about herself and her "past". By not thinking about it she could pretend it had never happened.

But the past somehow caught up with her: Mary Turner's biggest problem was her inability to have a sexual relationship with a man, the reason for which was her own relationship with her father as well as her witnessing a very unfulfilled relationship between her own parents. Due to overhearing some friends' conversation, though, she  decided she must find a husband, even though she had a profound distate for sex. Fate wanted it that she got married to a farmer who lived in a little house in the veldt which Mary hated, together with the burning heat, the loneliness the relative poverty and the natives whom she had to deal with. Dick Turner was not a man that Mary could truely look up to: although kind and with an intense love for his land, he was not very successful in making a profitable living nor did he manage to create a family life with children, a dream that he wanted so badly to become reality. Someone said that Mary might have turned out quite differently in her married life had he forced himself on her and taken for himself what was rightfully his. That deep down she wanted to have the proof that she had a strong man who knew his mind and set out to get what he wanted.

Mary and Dick Turner's story is embedded in an atmosphere of racial conflicts and tensions, where the white supremacy had to be upheld at all costs. Even the murder inquiry was not conducted in a proper way, so that none of the happenings on the Turner's farm could  or would ever come to light.

The topic of black against white or vice-versa brought about the most passionate exchange of ideas during the evening. I felt very strongly that there was still a huge problem of colour prejudice at present, whereas others claimed that there was none. That the criteria   for choosing a person, for instance, for a particular job was only his or her efficiency and capability, which I simply do not see happening.

I also believe very deeply - and expressed that belief-  that years and years of injustice and total disregard of a people as human beings leave more than just a mark that will simply disappear after a number of generations. Even if one belongs to a generation which hasn't had a first-hand experience of such grave injustices, one is still a part of that people and carries their historical burden. To have been robbed of their identity through decades, it's no small task to  re-establish a new one, which Africans have to do, beyond just trying to be a copy of their white "masters".

Quite a few members of the bookgroup had either lived or/and worked in Zambia and other parts of Africa in the early seventies, and their individual experiences contributed to even more diverse comments. Everybody seemed to perceive the Africans in a different kind of  light, depending on whether they had to deal with a western-type educated person or a simple worker or farmer. We had images of the wise African, the violent African and the conceited white Rhodesian that had the idea that being raped by an African was a worse fate than being raped by a white man. The fact was also mentioned that there were enough halfcast children in the streets to know that someone had at some point ignored the colour bar and done the unmentionable.

The question of Mary's death occupied a good bit of our discussion. Some couldn't understand why she was murdered by Moses, her African houseboy, in the first place. And was the murder planned or did it just happen instinctively? And why did Mary know it was going to happen? How could she be so clairvoyant when for most of her last months she had been so out of touch and totally depressed. Dominique made the point that Mary's state of utter apathy was not only brought about because she was neurotic but it had physical reasons like malnutrition: lack of iron, potassium and vitamins, and probably dehydration through the hot season as well.

Moses "took charge" of this "sick" woman: through that her supremacy was destroyed and his power grew proportionately. Mary needed Moses and became afraid of him at the same time. She denied her fear to him and was furious with herself for denying something "whose possibility should never have been admitted".  When   Tony Marston came to the farm as farm manager, Mary wanted to use his presence to re-establish her own position of power when she asked him to send Moses away. With those words she had signed her own death warrant. Before Moses killed her, Mary was overcome by a feeling of guilt towards him whom she felt to have been disloyal to.Not only Tony Marston had become aware of the relationship between the African and Mary, but Charly Slatter, too, was struck by the power that Moses held when he and his wife dropped in at the Turner's farm one day. Charly Slatter was appalled at what he saw and persuaded Dick that he must sell his farm to him and take Mary away into town.

I wrote down "back-to-front" what I remembered of the evening!!!!! We really started off our get-together with catching up on all the personal news. And a real bombshell-effect had Chrisina's news that she would be moving to the UK at the beginning of next year!!! Most of us couldn't quite believe it, especially since it had been Tuscany that we were going to "lose" her to......or so we had been thinking ever since the summer when she put her house on the market to be able to purchase her Tuscan dream house for retirement and being near her daughter with family. So the pros and cons of a move to England  had to be debated at great length. We also were pleased to have had Froukje with us again whom we had missed at our previous bookclub get-together. She had returned from a visit to Holland, and thus escaped execution for having stayed away "unexcused" at our October meeting.

Eva had provided a birthday cake and a bottle of champagne for Helle and Dominique who had both just had a birthday. We all told Helle to be pleased to have even come a little bit closer to that magic number 50, whereas we pointed out that Dominique most probably doesn't even know how to write 50.

Our evening ended with the same subject that had occupied our minds at the beginning of the meeting : Christina's move,  family commitments, house prices, grandchildrens' problems ........so at some point when everybody else took a new breath,  Margie called out:" Could these grandmothers please come to an end with their discussion about their grandchildren because I am tired and want to go home!" We all love Margie for her apt and unceremonious way of telling us what's what......got up and thanked Eva for her delicious food, cake, tea,  coffee and wine  and went home with a new book for our next discussion on December 14th. (R.)

LONGITUDE - Dava Sobel

All the bookclub members, with the exception of a mysteriously missing Froujke, met last night to discuss this month’s book "Longitude". Although everyone was pleased to have read the book, one which they would not have easily picked up otherwise, we all agreed that the discussion could not have been as lively as last month’s discussion of "Seta" because of the nature of the book.

And so, we were back to or "usual", lots of discussion off track including plans for the start of the Millenium, stays in Uganda, sailing day trips , the new Palazzo Massimo museum, recycling and plastic container washing in Germany, etc etc.

We all agreed that we had certainly never considered the problem of Longitude and had simply taken those lines on the globe for granted not even wondering about them. The one exception to this was Rosemarie whose experience as a sailor’s wife had led her at least to know that such a concept was important. I had never really followed up on Lawrence’s offer to explain to us how in fact the whole thing works today as the logistics of his being at the book club meeting seemed unmanageable, and Rosemarie as his stand-in did a poor job of explaining present day methods to us (Let’s hope she isn’t ever in charge when out to sea!!!) Actually when Dominque asked if we would be able to say how longitude is calculated at least "our side of the room" was at a lost and in the end decided that the book hadn’t (and hadn’t intended to) provided a sufficient explanation (actually I’m not sure this is true)

We were all very interested in the factual part of the book which we agreed had been written in a clear and interesting manner and also in the intrigues behind the granting of the prize. Some of us felt that had Harrison not been such a perfectionist he could have taken his prize money and improved upon his discoveries afterwards but others liked the part of Harrison’s character that obliged him to continue until he was completely satisfied with his work. We all felt he was unfairly put upon by the astronomers who seemed to be jealous of his accomplishments particularly because of his uneducated background.

We were very pleased to have comments from Diane and Tine. (in order of arrival) and were helped by them to stick to the "matter at hand"! We also found them clear, concise and to the point but we decided that when you‘re writng, your thoughts are more organized and clearly expressed (this has probably just been disproven by me!) So you do understand that it is not because you are more clever , more perceptive and more intelligent than we are. Anyway we do hope that our "out of site" (out of sight) members will increasingly continue to participate. (M.)

Our discussion of the book "Longitude" by Dava Sobel was a lot tamer than other discussions we have had. We all found the book very interesting and were surprised at the importance of the subject matter as well as our lack of awareness  and knowledge how many people had lost their lives before the problem of longitude was finally solved.

We admired the perseverance of John Harrison at building the perfect timekeeper, and all the astronomers of his time who devoted their working lives to mapping the movements of the planets and stars in order to measure longitude. Their singlemindedness was perceived as both interesting and "boring". Many felt that Harrison was his own worst enemy in wanting to be more perfect than was actually required to have a claim on the £20.000 reward offered by the Board of Longitude, and therefore was ultimately to blame for not receiving the full sum, even though he should have had it. The fight for the reward money was also a professional one, with the astronomers feeling rather superior to a self-taught clockmaster. The earlier astronomers royal had a great admiration for Harrison's work and skill, but later on the climate changed and professional jealousy took the place of genuine interest in a common goal.

We felt that the book was written in a very clear language which allowed us all to understand the subject without any prior knowledge. We also said that other scientific topics could be of equal interest if only they were so well presented. Most books with a scientific theme are not very attractive to read for the average layman, because of incomprehensible language.

We were happy to have received two e-mails by two former bookclub members who let us know their thoughts on the book. Their comments will no doubt appear in the comment page, too. It's exciting to know that they can stay in touch with the bookclub via e-mail and that they have taken up the idea of our home page.

Margie's cakes were delicious, the wine plenty, and we were all sad that Froukje had not joined us. Everybody else was in good form and we are looking foreward to our next get-together at Eva's (R.)   

The evening's discussion was not very long because a book offering mainly facts is not much to discuss about.
We discussed only the competition, the rivalry, among Harrison and the " Longitude Committee "  - was it jealousy or greed for the prize or scientists not trusting a craftsman ?
Both sides got somehow stuck in their ideas, Harrison being too much a perfectionist to allow the first clock to go on travel and the committee obsessed by the idea the solution could only be found with means of stars and the sky... Sad about these "obsessions" is only that it took another 60 years to find a solution and most probably many  many lifes of sailors.
But it happens most probably all the time that the great inventions which serve mankind in the end are more the result of inventive brains than of sympathetic souls...
For me the book was especially interesting because I always thought of the longitude being as easy to calculate as the latitude. And knowing now about the tragedies which happened caused by that problem I got a new  impression of navigation and wonder how the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Vikings and so on managed to arrive were they wanted to. - Or was it all by chance ?? Imagine how the world might be if they intended to arrive somewhere else ??
The great advantage of our bookclub is, that you have to read the books presented and  knowing some books  I would never buy  for pleasure, I am very pleased to have to read them because it opens worlds for me which I never knew about

Talking again with Thomas and Frido about how to find your way on sea we remembered having seen a scientific report in TV about the vikings and that they used a sort of disc to orientate on sea. As far as I remember they have been 2 discs attached on top of each other and with little marks and carvings in them which had to be rotated in a certain way -it means that the vikings somehow had instruments.
Another thing : when I read your comments about the book and Rose's comments about your cake I thought we could talk about my "lapsus linguae"  as well: I asked you how you prepare your  "smashed peaches"- cake and eventually I learned that they are no "smashed " but "mashed" peaches... but in my brain "mashed" is always connected with "potatoes" ...that's why I asked for the recipie of the "mashed potatoes - cake"... (E)

SETA - Alessandro Baricco

All the members of the Castelli Bookclub came to the meeting and the general opinion and discussions were very positive.  We all thought it was written in a very poetical, mystical manner and like its name “Seta” or “Silk” implies it was hard to grasp hold of without slipping. But on the other hand it resembles Japanese art in so much as it is very carefully thought out and structured and simply portrayed – but a great deal could be read into it.

Some of us thought that Hervé Joncour’s repetitive description of his journeys to Japan represented the extent of his effort to break away from his ordinary monotonous life and the slight variation each time – i.e. “Lake Bajkal” given a different name p.22 “il mare” p.31 “il demonio”, p. 50 “l’ ultimo”, p. 67 “il santo” pointed to the very slow progress to achieve this goal.

Was the arrival in time for mass the first Sunday in April symbolic of his ties to his original world and its traditions? Or the fear of the eggs hatching before his return?

Some thought “Seta” was a fable of unrequited (undeclared?) love. The other woman is not clearly defined because, perhaps, she is just a projection of his desires.

Did the long erotic love letter Madame Blanche translated for him prove Hélène’s insight and her skilful manipulation to show her husband that had he behaved towards her in a different way she, too, could have given him exactly what his imagination had found in Japan?

We all thought Baricco’s technique of writing, i.e. unflowery, determined but yet very subtle in its simplicity was quite different from many other Italian writers. (G.)

The amazing thing about the book is that although written in Italian, even translated in French it did not affect the musicality and poetry of the tale. I enjoyed it and will be pleased to read it again. (D)

I don't know exactly how to write : should it be something intellectual or more personal ? I will write as telling  friends about  our evening , what, - I understood - is the aim of our home-page.

The first bookclub - meeting after the long summer-break normally is more marked by our chatting about our holiday activities, about our kids and what happened in 3 month time. But this time we started - even without the "formal opening" of the discussion talking about the book. - No holiday news ... We were all impressed by the book.

Refined, written as a Japanese painting, clear and told in short sentences - like a poem, in the end there was the idea that the love among Herve and Helene was delicate and slipping away like silk - but this point we did not have time anymore to discuss properly.

We all read different meanings into the book, each one according to her own life , view of life and experiences and for my part I felt sorry for the couple having similar dreams about love and a married relationship ( he seeing in the Japanese erotic girl his wife?? with no oriental eyes ??? and she writing the letter pretending , hoping, dreaming, longing to be the woman of his desires)  but never having the courage or what ever to reveal their desires to the partner. As one said, they were having a good marriage, being friends and good partners but they never met at a moment of ectasy. I think it is true what is written at the back of the book : he is a man who likes to assist in life but never really intended to live it. POVERINO !!! and she being captured in the way of life you had to live in about 1860  to be decent... POVERINA !!! (E)

We were unanimous on the book being very beautifully written: everybody thought it was poetic as well as erotic. The author's language is very precise and measured and it conveys the same simplicity as a Japanese brush painting: a few very exact strokes, not too much and not too little, but simply the perfect measure. Yet in spite of this linguistic precision (or is it because of it???)  our minds were thrown into a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions that we sometimes had difficulties to express adequately.

We compared the story to a fairy tale because someone said it could have begun "once upon a time". Others felt that it was full of symbolism : the birds in the bird cage were compared to locked-up  thoughts that could be freed in the same way as birds when the cage is opened up; the silk, as light and transparent and illusive as a dream.......There is so much left unsaid in the book, so much to read between the lines that it was in that area where we found many diverse interpretations.

Our discussion went a bit wild at times, but it was very animated and for once didn't leave any room for little "sidesteppings" into private chats!!! (hurrah !!!and well done ,Gillian, for choosing such a powerful story). Some thought, that Herve left for all these far-away places to buy the silkworms because he wanted to leave his boring every-day life behind for a bit. Others felt that he was basically lazy and hadn't gone on his travels because he particularly wanted to, but was asked to by Baldabiou. Nonetheless, on the first trip to Japan, Herve falls in love with a young concubine who is enticing him to lose himself in a world of dreams  and who is also the cause of him stepping out of his usual pattern of behavior.

The love-story is one of unattainable love, and yet every tiny movement of the eyes or the hands or the heads of the characters in the story is so powerful that one can truly feel the atmosphere that the writer has created with his very simple language.Some of us thought that Herve didn't really love his wife Helene, but others felt he did love her. His love for Helene was, however, quite different from the dream-love that his mind was occupied with which drew him strongly to the child-like concubine. The love to his wife he seemed to take for granted. It had a kind of solid feeling about it, whereas the other love was elusive and therefore held an unimaginable ecstasy in store. We felt it was the very essence of all dreams: more beautiful than could be imagined, but only as long as the dream remained a dream. Once attainable that dream would burst like a bubble and its magic would be broken.The letter that he thought had been written by the concubine but was in fact Helen's letter was proof that she had been well aware of the emotional upheaval that Herve was going through, that she was extremely sensitive to his state of mind, and yet  at the same time she wanted to show him, too, that she also wanted to be part of this kind of love. That she was in fact capable to evoke that  love in him. Herve had had a glimpse of "the other Helene" at a dinner given by an Italian baron where she flirted with an Englishman who in fact gave her a lot of his attention. Herve was very disturbed by that observation, however, it's not obvious whether or not he learnt anything from that situation.