Castelli Book Club

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Book summaries - 2008-2009

 

EAT PRAY LOVE - Elizabeth Gilbert

THE CLEFT - Doris Lessing

INFIDEL - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

THE WHISPERERS - Orlando Figes

CONSIDER THE LOBSTER - David Foster Wallace

CITYBOY - Geraint Anderson

THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST - Mohsin Hamid

ONITSHA - J.M.G. LeClézio

THE GLASS CASTLE - Jeanette Walls

 

THE GLASS CASTLE - Jeanette Walls

On 20 November (and I do apologize for this late entry) we met at Francoise’s house, where we were greeted by an inviting fire in the fireplace and indulged in a wonderful meal while we talked about The Glass Castle. Francoise chose this book after an intense perusal in a huge book store, intrigued by its premise, and it was definitely conducive to our discussion since it aroused some very basic feelings in most of us, as we are almost all mothers.

This is not a book that reaches any great literary height but simply and straightforward the author takes us into her life stripped of hindsight or modern psychobabble – just as she lived it. The effect is that her childhood experiences, and those of her siblings, hit hard because there is no attempt to explain, make excuses for or even condemn, with the result that it is impossible not to feel deeply for her – almost to the point of feeling it ourselves. Thus it was not the author’s skill that we discussed, or whether or not she succeeded in  reaching her audience. There was no question that she did. The divergence came with the impact.

Some of us were moved to true anger by the neglect these children suffered. Hiding out in the bathroom at grade school during lunch in the hopes of scavenging edible throwaways from the wastebasket seemed to us complete dereliction of duty on the part of parents who were too self-centered to consider their children’s basic needs more important than their next painting or invention.  Given the occasion, we probably could have strangled them for such blatant, egotistical behavior. Others of us believed that despite going overboard at times, the true sense of adventure and excitement these parents gave their children enriched them in a way few children experience today, with all our focus on keeping them safe.

What a parent’s role ought to be, how greatly they should influence the people their children become and the lines to be drawn between overdoing it and not doing enough were huge elements of discussion since all of us have children and  know, to a greater or lesser extent, that our effectiveness as parents was influenced, positively and negatively, by the way our parents raised us, And sometimes it became clear that while this family was dysfunctional, to say the least, solutions (had we been able to provide them) were always less than ideal. Taking the children away from parents such as these would probably have been more damaging than leaving them, though this meant walking on the razor of chance. One tiny push, like the father not limiting the use of his daughter as ’bait’ in bars, or having one of the three end up dead (as could have happened a myriad of times), and there’d be no justification whatsoever.

In the end, we could only agree that real life is just like this – messy, risky and full of chance. Though most of us tend to believe more is better we had to see that marveling at the night sky instead of a ceiling, or relishing pure freedom, are equally important and the ideal, if such a thing exists, lies somewhere balanced between the two.  (T)

    

I really enjoyed The Glass Castle very much; it was a great aeroplane read, and I looked forward to every moment when I could get back to it.  The unorthodox childhood with little thought  given to risk assessment is refreshing in these days when health and safety seem to kill all sense of adventure and initiative. However the burn she got when she was three would seem to negate     all that.  Indeed I am horrified but have to keep my mouth firmly shut when I see my two year old grandson helping to chop the veggies with the sharpest of knives, and the five year old has easy access to the power drill.  Humph!   Just a pity that it all turned sour as they grew up and the parents’ attitudes to child rearing changed to downright neglect.  She manages to combine genuine affection and even admiration for her parents with a certain amount of bitterness which however she always keeps in check.  I guess the real victim was poor Maureen who never really coped with it all.

 I thought the author managed to convey the impressions of the various sad little dumps they lived in with skilful descriptive talent – Nevada, Arizona and California P.19, I felt like I was really there with them.  The short chapters made it easy to move from one vignette to another. 

 I have actually met one of Liz’ friends here who told me that her father has ended up as a homeless person (alcohol at the root of it)  and she just has to accept it.  I have now given her the book to read!  So it does really happen more than we perhaps think, and indeed possibly several of the homeless people we see around Rome may in fact have professional children.  It sure is true that many of them actually want to carry on living ‘free’ and reject all offers of a regular life.

Great choice, Francoise!  Thank you!(J)

 

ONITSHA - J.M.G. LeClézio

On 13 October we gathered at Dominique’s missing only Francoise and welcoming Lamia. Roberta prepared a heartily delicious meal and it was good to be back together after this extremely long summer hiatus. We could have gabbed the evening away but as we are all Dedicated book club members it wasn’t long before Dominique reined us in to focus on Onitsha.

Dominique had chosen the book as a response to a previous discussion we had had on the definition of literature as a result of having read a series of non-fiction books. This is, without doubt, Literature, though this did not ensure that it was liked by all. Agreement was had, certainly, on the author’s eloquent writing style – so graceful and sweeping at times as to resemble poetry – and on his ability to give words to those fleeting feelings that often defy description. We agreed that the translation into English was equally well done, allowing those of us who did not read it in its original French to appreciate the author’s skill in exactly the same way as the native French speakers.

However, not all of us enjoyed Onitsha. Where some were able to fully engage in one boy’s perception of colonial Africa, adult relationships and childhood friends others of us found the ‘been there, read that’ aspect too difficult to ignore. We felt that these elements have been written about many times before in various guises and better. We couldn’t help remembering comparisons that sprang into our minds with regards to certain characters or scenes – usually to the detriment of LeClézio’s. And while none of us feel that any one author should be considered to have the definitive  view of any subject, it was LeClézio’s view that seemed to be the copycat.

This may be a result of having read a great deal; it may be the inevitable, invisible cultural barriers that exist even within the most cosmopolitan among us or it may simply be a question of pure individual taste. Whichever, it was to our benefit that we were not unanimous in our reading since we have better discussions when diversity of opinion exists and it was interesting to learn which of us finds what kind of reading experience effective. A Russian proverb says that when it comes to taste and color there are no comrades. I realize this doesn’t translate well but basically it’s just that personal taste is an individual thing that can’t be defended or attacked. It simply is, and was, for Onitsha. (T)

 

CITYBOY - Geraint Anderson   and   THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST - Mohsin Hamid

On 9 June we gathered on Jill’s beautiful terrace to soak in the view, enjoy a lovely meal and discuss Cityboy, a book Jill had chosen because she’d seen the author talk and enjoyed his lively style and pertinent concerns. While it is true that there has been perhaps no other time that better coincides with an expose of the sort Anderson has written, his literary talents leave much to be desired and it is likely he is a better, more engaging speaker than he is a writer.

For one thing the book seems like an unedited stringing together of his articles, with enough repetition and word-for-word appraisals to bother even the most generous reader. It could be that his dirty, degraded language accurately conveys the ugly milieu he writes about but a heavier hand on the part of the editor would have improved the final result without damaging the book’s credibility. If, on the other hand, Anderson merely aims to shock, he did achieve some success with some of our members, who, while knowing about the general sleaziness both in the City and on Wall Street, had no idea how depraved these environments really are. Those of us who are more jaded were not surprised, however, thus taking away even that possibility.

Still, it’s not that we found the book impossible to finish and if any of us needed extra ammunition in our condemnation of the unethical practices of banks, insurance companies and investors, Cityboy provides it – and then some.

Since Jill’s book couldn’t generate an evening’s worth of discussion, we took the opportunity to talk some more about The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which had gotten short-shrift at the last meeting because many of us could not attend. Here, the majority opinion was very favorable. Members appreciated the writing style, the suspense and the point of view, though there was divergence over the “surprise” ending because not everybody agreed what exactly the surprise was. There were, however, those of us who not only found nothing surprising or suspenseful about the book but had to grit their teeth to read it through to the end. It would appear that a certain, could we call it Middle-Eastern, writing style appeals to some but not to others and made the difference between an enjoyable read and a grind.

Though the author’s viewpoint was predictable most members liked the understated way he went about laying it out and considered it to be a realistic and interesting look at the mindset of a would-be fundamentalist. It was that seemingly understated style that bothered some of us, though, who for various reasons found it condescending if not arrogant – enough so that neither the story line nor the viewpoint engaged us. In the end, surprise ending aside, neither book led to wide ranging discussion because both provided a complete and rather closed view of each author’s protagonist. Viewed together, however, one could almost argue that they represented the two extremes of our complicated times and I, for one, appreciated the irony of discussing these two books in the same evening.

 

CONSIDER THE LOBSTER - David Foster Wallace

On 17 April a much reduced book club met at Margie’s to enjoy our traditional dinner and experiment with modern technology for the added benefit of including RoseMarie in our midst via satellite connection. Despite our small number (and thanks to the disembodied participation of RoseMarie) we held an interesting discussion on the book Margie chose despite essays not being the most conducive to our appraisals. Wallace does not write books of easy reading. His syntax, vocabulary and iconoclastic style made the book daunting for the non-mother English speakers in our group and even for some English mother tongue speakers who prefer a more engaging, less difficult reading experience but what we were able to follow and comprehend we highly appreciated, either for the subject matter or for the author’s superb word choice. And then there were those of us who consider Wallace a literary giant, who delighted in the work his book entailed because the final result was an enriching experience literarily, intellectually and emotionally.

When it came to subject matter there was ample room for discussion because his essays focus on such diverse things. Some were news to us, like the porno industry Oscars; some forced us to consider our personal, ethical frameworks vis-à-vis what we eat and how we kill it, and some were windows into little known (outside the U.S.) aspects of American society. It was here that we were able to fully enjoy the author’s slightly ironic, unfailingly perfect-pitch prose and here, too, that we could branch off most easily into other, linking subjects regarding the philosophical choices we make (or don’t) to appease our conscience in this often glaringly unjust and ugly world. And it was here also that we most felt that the literary world had lost an immensely astute and critical voice with the author’s suicide, and forced us to wonder whether the brutally honest light the author shines without and within made his life unbearable.

Not all of us were able to finish the book as some of the essays look almost like puzzles and put off all but the most intrepid readers (and some of the footnotes are in such tiny print magnifying glasses are needed to discern them – or is this merely the result of the average age of the members of this club?) but those of us who braved this work to the end came away with an enormous appreciation for both Wallace’s talent and his person, and truly mourn the silencing of this thought-provoking, unflinchingly honest voice by his own hand. Though we will not be hearing from him again, Consider the Lobster has definitely spurned us to seek out everything he has written before in order to benefit from his offerings to the greatest extent possible, and no matter at what level and to which degree we read the book we all were glad that Margie introduced us to this wonderful author.(T)

 

EAT PRAY LOVE - Elizabeth Gilbert

On 28 February the book club met at La Selva for what could become a yearly pilgrimage to enjoy unfettered time, a beautiful place and scrumptious food. The chance to start discussing a book by early evening as we stoked the fire, and after having taken a lovely long walk in gorgeous weather, gave the discussion a leisurely pace which allowed us to delve deeply into the many aspects of the book and how they personally affected us. I had chosen it because the first part was so on-the-spot and hilarious that I thought it would merely be a fun diversion after the heavy book from our last meeting but Eat, Pray, Love turns out to be far more than this and it was the unexpected, deeply introspective and spiritual angles of the book that we responded to the most.

Not all of us consider ourselves a spiritual person and the religious facets of the book were not perceived by all in the same way, though we all found the book to be touching and in some way enriching. It is always hard, when discussing spiritual matters, to find the words that all can relate to and while some of us embraced the God she addresses others related better to the concept of reaching an inner strength through self knowledge and acceptance, but whatever way one wants to call it we all appreciated having joined Gilbert on her journey and many of us thought she gave new light on our own.

Not only was there much to discuss in terms of spirituality, the existence of God and how every human being seems to need belief of some sort, be it religious or simply belief in the power of human kind, there were also intriguing and ultimately self focusing aspects, such as finding that one word to define ourselves, and whether or not we agreed with her word choices for cities we know, particularly Rome. These discussions were revealing and great fun because we were forced to try to distill in a single word the myriad traits that comprise our selves and the city, and lent the evening an air of parlor game cum psychoanalytical session which I found extremely interesting and enjoyable.

While such attention to one’s spiritual self, the link between psyche and soul and the further reaches of religious belief could have become heavy it was Gilbert’s light and self-critical touch that kept things from being maudlin. Her perceptive and humorous take on both herself and her surroundings was made possible through a literary style that mixes outrageous exaggeration with deadpan humor and the result is often uproariously funny and always real. Perhaps for this reason – and doubtless the beautiful setting and extended time available – this was one time when despite us all having enjoyed the book there was still a great deal of discussion. It ended up being ideal for our yearly getaway.

 

"THE WHISPERERS - Orlando Figes

On 30 January we met at Eva’s and started off a new year of the Castelli Book Club with a fantastic evening discussing a very interesting book. Eva made a delicious and entirely genuine Russian dinner for us, which apart from being totally enjoyable did its part to immerse us in the culture of the book. Eva chose the book some time after a trip through Russia, particularly Siberia, where she was struck by a sort of infinite sadness she perceived in people’s eyes in the hopes of understanding better what the underlying causes of such hopeless could be and we all agreed that The Whisperers made it quite clear that current generations carry the psychological, emotional and cultural damage wrought by Stalin during that time.

It was, for all of us, an informative book that went far beyond the data, anecdotal and otherwise, compiled by the author because it made clear that Stalin’s aims were no other than a complete destruction of the social and cultural mores in order to replace them with his version of the ideal communist state. That this meant destroying all the cultural and sociological constructs that underpin human beings and their ability to interact with each other resonates far longer than the actual numbers of people murdered during his rule. His stated and unambiguous aim to destroy the family, destroy marriage, destroy the relationships of trust between husband and wife or parents and children has had consequences that no amount of current economic success or the backpedalling subsequent governments engaged in to try to rectify the utter breach in social codes can entirely cancel out for the damage is so deep that current generations, even those that have no connection to the past, still exhibit its consequences.

Others of us have also travelled either in Russia or countries in the Eastern bloc and many experienced the same “dead” eyes and a strange sort of spiritual void despite the comeback of religion and the general political freedom (compared to those times) people experience today but it wasn’t until we read this book that we could put a finger on the probable causes. Stalin’s actions and the consequences of what he did are, for most of us, more evil than those of any other despot because he sought to destroy not simply an ethnic group or religious affiliation but those very relationships that make us human and imbue us with the empathy and connectivity necessary for optimal survival. That this ultimate trauma should be accompanied by horrors like the gulags and forced labor, summary executions and State-determined starvation only makes the destruction of the human psyche that more complete and, as it turns out, permanent, stretching across time through generations to now.

Naturally our discussions touched upon the historical connections of Stalin’s time, the psychological implications of his madness and all the related political ideologies and repercussions so the book was an excellent font for myriad directions. While we all, but one, found The Whisperers to be longer than necessary – as though the author, having done such time-consuming, painstaking work hunting down and compiling all his data, couldn’t bear to leave even a morsel out of his book – we believed it worth the time it took to read it for it generated lots of interesting discussion and was a an indelible look into terrible times written by those who lived them.(T)

 

INFIDEL - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

 This book prompted a lively mixture of  indignation, incredulity, agreement and dispute.  There was general agreement that Ayaan Hirsi Ali was an admirably courageous and determined woman, who despite the many difficulties of her childhood and family life in Somalia and Kenya, reached heights of fame and education that most women can only dream of.  She writes about her youth with honesty and with an astonishing lack of bitterness.  She is remarkably generous spirited towards those who let her down, her parents, her brother and her teachers,  and even to those in the  Dutch parliament who tried to take away her citizenship.  Her tributes to the Dutch people who gave her the first insights into liberty of thought and expression, and her gratitude to the authorities who helped her to integrate and who saw her potential, are generous and touching.  She remains fiercely and rightly proud of her Dutch nationality.

We all felt we had learnt a great deal from this first hand account of a Muslim woman’s life.  One knew of female circumcision, of forced marriage and honor killings but somehow reading her straightforward account of her own and her sister’s experiences really brought it all to life.  Whist we all agreed that such practices should  be outlawed in western democracies, we differed in our attitudes to how far we as westerners should  impose our beliefs on other cultures.  Some of us felt strongly that women’s rights should be fought for all over the world wherever they are abused, while others felt that where Islam reigned supreme we as westerners should not interfere however much we might disagree with those regimes’ laws  -  memories of Vietnam and Iraq perhaps colouring our feelings.

We discussed Ayaan’s political ideologies and her move from a left wing movement towards a more right wing approach which believes in a positive, even forceful  integration of  immigrants.  Most of us agreed with Ayaan that the politically correct policies of the left which tolerate separate Muslim schools and turn a blind eye to the infringement of human rights within the family are mistaken, and that total integration both linguistically and culturally should be the ultimate goal.

Her conversion to atheism was also discussed.  We watched the film which she made with Theo van Gogh, some of us finding it inappropriately and unnecessarily provocative, others feeling it had to be so to make an impact.  We talked about fundamental religion of any sort and agreed that they are all inherently dangerous, while the vast majority of all religious believers are moderate peace loving people.  We agreed that despite reasonable levels of tolerance amongst all of us  (it turned out that all six of us were agnostics!), we all actively fear the future of Islamic Jihad, and the result of their eventual and inevitable acquisition of nuclear weapons.

We desperately missed both Eva’s and Tatiana’s input that evening; we thank Rosemarie for her thoughtful insight into the book and, as always, wished she had been there.  We also missed Froujke for contributions regarding the chapters on Holland.  However, even with only six of us, it was a good evening and we covered most of the important subjects arising from the book. (J)

 

THE CLEFT - Doris Lessing

On 7 November we met at Francoise’s and while it was, again, over a wonderful dinner, the book we discussed was completely uninteresting and a big delusion for nearly everyone. Francoise had chosen the book because of interesting things she’d heard and, after all, the author is a Nobel prize winner but there is nothing about this book that would lead one to believe either. We found, nearly to the one, the writing to be trite and boring. The leitmotif was either faulty or merely ho hum and we conceded, one after the other, that there was nearly nothing positive to say about the book.

We agreed that the background to the author’s concept was truly very interesting and it was such a disappointment that she did nothing with it.  The recent studies linking all of humankind to four or five “original” mothers and the documented “virgin birth” of a certain kind of shark would appear to be fodder for a mesmerizing tale concerning the origins of man and perhaps even the foundations of the New Testament; instead Lessing appears to have merely been indulging herself with no real aim of engaging her readers.

Although not everybody hated the book the points in its favor were pretty weak.  There were some lovely passages, usually the Roman historian musing about his own life and experience, and one could attempt to give substance to ideas it appears Lessing never wanted to give the proper attention to, such as the appearance of a motherly instinct only after the arrival of the males. In fact, it was due to our own consideration of issues Lessing gave short thrift to that the evening was so interesting.

We debated the  flaws in Lessing’s rendition of evolution, anchoring it better and more provocatively than the author did to Darwinian theory and its counterpart, Creationism. And while it is true that it is, in the end, a fantasy, good writers know that the most elaborate fantasy has got to feel real, must be anchored in some identifiable way to concepts that allow the reader to drop the need for reality and allow the authors their creative conceits. We considered the nature-versus-nurture debate with regards to motherly instinct not only form the point of view of our own lives but bringing in the mothers created by other authors, and how their stories, while not real, resonated and took shape far beyond the confines of their books.

As I have come to learn, a book our group dislikes generally stimulates far more discussion than one we all agree was great so while many of us forced ourselves to finish it we were all very pleased with another wonderful book club evening.  (T)