NOTE: The author will be joining us for this book club meeting; the meeting will be held on Saturday, February 21, 2014.
References:
News cast produced Aug. 2014, CBS19
Zinn Education Project
Friday, February 6, 2015
The1910 Slocum Massacre by E.R. Bills
NOTE: The author will be joining us for this book club meeting; the meeting will be held on Saturday, February 21, 2014.
References:
News cast produced Aug. 2014, CBS19
Zinn Education Project
Girls, by Frederick Busch (1998)
"Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health."~Carl Jung
"Lonely people talking to each other can make each other lonelier."~Lillian Hellman
"Life begins on the other side of despair."Jean Paul Sartre
Hello Book Mavens,
Next Tuesday evening marks the beginning of a new year of reading and conversing about literature in this most excellent of book clubs. I'm excited to kick things off with a work by a writer I came to admire after reading his novel "Closing Arguments." The anti-hero protagonist in that book has much in common with the central character in this month's "Girls." Busch seems to excel in limning the strange shadow world of characters who gleefully defy our conventional notions of what a protagonist should look like and how he or she should behave.
To my mind, it is the characters who inhabit the shadier environs of the psyche who often have the most profound things to say about the human condition. Such protagonists are the type I habitually seek out in the writings of Pynchon, Gass, Homes, Coover, Charlie Smith and others, and more often than not, they deliver.
And so once again I ask for your good company, indulgence and forbearance as I peer into the bleakness of a cold time and place as well as the frailty and brittleness of human beings under duress.
I hope all will brave the chill of a winter night (which can only add to the effect of this particular novel). Of course as always good food and drink will be appreciated as a means of providing some warmth amidst all the frostiness. The discussion questions that follow have been chosen from among those which appear in the trade paperback edition of "Girls" published by Ballantine Books 2006. See you all at 7:00 on Tuesday!
Discussion Questions
1. The weather in Girls is severe and relentless. What role does this weather play in the novel, and why?
2. Do you think this book fits into the typical detective novel genre? Why or why not? Why do you think readers like to categorize types of novels? Do you think Girls belongs to any distinct category or genre?
3. In recent years there unfortunately have been many high publicized cases of missing girls like Janice Tanner. Do you think these cases have always occurred and are just being played up by the media today? Or do you think something has shifted in our society that is causing an interest in such tragedies?
4. Jack lives in a world of extreme coldness, bleakness, and silence. It seems that the only lightness in his world is his nameless dog. Why do you think this is so? What function does the dog serve in the novel as a whole? In Jack's life? What do you think the author had in mind when he chose to include the dog in this story?
5. When did you as a reader think you knew who was responsible for Janice Tanner's disappearance? Who did you think did it, and why? Were you right?
6. Jack and Fanny's marriage is a paradox: two people who love and are bound to each other, and yet cannot seem to live together. Discuss this paradox and why it exists.
And so once again I ask for your good company, indulgence and forbearance as I peer into the bleakness of a cold time and place as well as the frailty and brittleness of human beings under duress.
I hope all will brave the chill of a winter night (which can only add to the effect of this particular novel). Of course as always good food and drink will be appreciated as a means of providing some warmth amidst all the frostiness. The discussion questions that follow have been chosen from among those which appear in the trade paperback edition of "Girls" published by Ballantine Books 2006. See you all at 7:00 on Tuesday!
Discussion Questions
1. The weather in Girls is severe and relentless. What role does this weather play in the novel, and why?
2. Do you think this book fits into the typical detective novel genre? Why or why not? Why do you think readers like to categorize types of novels? Do you think Girls belongs to any distinct category or genre?
3. In recent years there unfortunately have been many high publicized cases of missing girls like Janice Tanner. Do you think these cases have always occurred and are just being played up by the media today? Or do you think something has shifted in our society that is causing an interest in such tragedies?
4. Jack lives in a world of extreme coldness, bleakness, and silence. It seems that the only lightness in his world is his nameless dog. Why do you think this is so? What function does the dog serve in the novel as a whole? In Jack's life? What do you think the author had in mind when he chose to include the dog in this story?
5. When did you as a reader think you knew who was responsible for Janice Tanner's disappearance? Who did you think did it, and why? Were you right?
6. Jack and Fanny's marriage is a paradox: two people who love and are bound to each other, and yet cannot seem to live together. Discuss this paradox and why it exists.
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