Book Club Blogs... How I Miss Them

On Sunday, I spent the entire day reading.  The. Entire. Day.  Can you hear the angels sing? 

It’s really not uncommon for me to spend a good portion of the day reading.  I read fairly constantly – articles on writing, web design, work-related such and such.  I peruse websites, check fb, and, yes, I do open up a few books during the course of the day – both reference and whatever novels I happen to be chewing on. 

But on Sunday, I opened up a new novel, fell into the first chapter, and didn’t come up for air for the entire day (except when I absolutely had to).  I’ll be writing a review of that novel to post on the blog sometime this week… I’m still savoring it.

Just that simple joy, of being able to read for the enjoyment of the story, got me to thinking about the old Book Club Blogs.  Back in my early blogging days, I hosted a few book club blogs, and they were a lot of fun.  I hosted one on the book, Lottery, by Patricia Wood – and the awesome author stopped in for the conversation.  Prior to that, I’d hosted ones for The Mists of Avalon and, on my first blog back on a community blogging site that’s now defunct, I hosted Willa Cather’s, My Antonia.

Blogging, as a medium, has changed considerably in the last few years.  I think that may be one of the reasons that seasoned bloggers have moved on to other platforms.  There just isn’t the same discussion that blogging once encouraged.  Now, people check in at blogs on their readers or through their email.  They page in but don’t participate in the same way.  The standard blogging principal five or six years ago was to encourage comments you should always end your post by posing a question or asking for feedback.  We looked at it as a way to start the conversation.  Today, the standard is to approach each post as an article.  Some bloggers even turn off the comments, so readers don’t see the glaring “0 Comments” attached to every post.

So, I’m going against today’s common rationale to pose this question.  Would there be any interest in resurrecting a book club blog?  I could easily just choose my own books and post reviews, but I’m wondering if any of the other bloggers still tooling around the blog-o-sphere might like the group discussion.

Thoughts?

Kick Off the New Year with the Book Club Blogs!!!

My friend, Shelly Bryant has graciously offered to host the next book club blog on her site. Some of you may have joined us for the book club discussion here on Patricia Wood’s Lottery in December. That was the kick off to, hopefully, starting up a regular book club on blogs around the internet. It’s open to anyone who likes to read and discuss literature with other readers and writers. You are more than welcome to jump into any discussion that interests you and host if you’d enjoy picking and discussing a book on your blog.

Shelly’s first post on the upcoming book club can be found here

She’s given four choices to her blog readers, and left the decision of what we will all be reading together up to a group consensus. The four choices are varied and look outstanding, so drop by her blog and put in your vote.

For those of you unfamiliar with Shelly’s discussions, I can say they are among the most intelligent and thought provoking literary discussions I have ever had the privilege to take part in, both online and in person. Shelly is a poet who is very well read and highly educated, and she teaches literature to third and fourth year university students in Singapore... as if all of that wasn’t enough, she’s also great fun and nice to boot.

I’ll be joining in and I hope to see all of you there!!!

Lottery - Last Discussion on the Book Club Blog

Today we are wrapping up the book club blog discussion on Lottery. If you missed the previous discussions, you can find the first one, discussing Lottery’s presentation of society’s view on mental and financial success, here, and the second one, on the presentation of love and loyalty, here. I want to thank Patricia Wood once more, for her wonderful participation in an excellent series of discussions... She took a lot of time out of her schedule and carefully answered readers’ questions while inputting her own thoughts on the themes and writing process.

I’d like to take the time now to close the discussion with a special emphasis on the writing process. I know some of the readers on this particular series are not writers by trade, though I hope they will find it interesting, none the less. I thought, for this particular blog, it would be a fitting way to close. If you scroll through my entries you’ll notice a vast majority of them have something to do with the writing process. We did, briefly touch on some of the writing devices used in this novel in the comments from the first post, Stephen Parrish so eloquently started us off by pointing out the brilliant way in which Patricia allowed the reader to hear exactly what Perry’s relatives were saying in front of him. This allowed the reader to know exactly what was going on while Perry, who could hear but not completely understand, remained unaware of their exact intentions.

The most prominent thing to me was the use of first person here. First person has been used before, of course, but it’s a difficult type of writing to master for a number of reasons. One key reason for the level of difficulty in writing first person being that the audience can only see things through the eyes of the main character, thereby limiting their own understanding of events. With a narrator like Perry, at the outside you would think this point of view would be a detriment, but Patricia skillfully makes it a poignant positive. As Stephen mentioned earlier, the ability to hear what people are saying around Perry without him really understanding is an amazing, yet realistic way to see the entire picture without detracting from Perry’s character. The fact that people will often speak openly around a person of Perry’s mental ability works as a plus here.

What I found most compelling was Patricia’s ability to maintain the character’s voice throughout. This has to be a far harder task than people automatically assume. Reading just a few blog posts or interviews by Patricia, one can see that her usual writing voice is far advanced in both language and flow, than that of her character’s. I wonder how many times during revisions she had to have picked through, thinking, ‘there’s no way Perry would say that...’ I also applaud her deference to the story because I think it’s a natural thing for most writers to want to impress with their poetic prose – Patricia let simplicity of language and power of story do the work... and I don’t think that’s any small task.

Here’s what I would love to discuss, and anyone who cares to participate can. (of course we’d all love to hear from Patricia on this as well) How do you make your choices during the writing process? Do you have the story in front of you and decide it works best in first or third person? Do you start writing and see where it goes? Are you a researcher? Do you have the idea and then spend a good amount of time researching before you put pen to paper? Do you outline first or do you write by the seat of your pants?

Okay, guys, I hope you’ll all take some time to enlighten us with your own process or tell us what literary devices in the novel really impressed you. This will be the last post on the book club blogs for Lottery, but I’ll be sure to post something soon to let you all know where and when the next book club blog will be... in other news, the holiday is sneaking right up on me, so I will try to make it over to everyone’s blog at least once, but likely won’t post until after Christmas... So Merry Christmas to everyone out there. May it be full of great food, good company, and lots of love.

Lottery - Second Discussion in our Book Club Blog

Over the last few days, we’ve been having a rousing discussion on the book, Lottery, concentrating especially on the themes of society’s views of monetary and mental success. Of course, like most book club blog discussions, the comments have taken different paths from the ones started in the blog post, but that’s just the way I like it – it’s been a joy to have so much participation and so many thoughts exchanged. It’s been especially fun to have Lottery author, Patricia Wood participating to both add her own insights into the story and its creation and to address questions and comments from her readers.

If you haven’t seen the original post yet, check the first link above to look around. I will repeat the same disclaimer here – this is a book discussion, which means there will be spoilers to the novel. If you haven’t read it yet, and reading the discussion might ruin your enjoyment of the novel, I really recommend picking up a copy – it is a great book and one you don’t want to miss.

Today I’d like to discuss the themes of love and loyalty and how they are addressed through the eyes of Perry Crandall. One of the aspects of the novel I so enjoyed was its treatment of these themes, and the way that Perry comes to ‘pick’ his family. What I mean to say here is, outside of his grandparents, Perry’s birth family does not have his best interest at heart. They have little to do with him at all throughout his life, unless it is to cheat him out of something. And, while Perry’s gullibility leads him to give these blood relations more than their due, the family he really cares for are the ones who are of his own choosing.

Keith is a great character because he is both flawed and noble. Perry picks Keith as his best friend, but really it is so much more than that. And perhaps this relationship has as much to do with Keith picking Perry. The thing I adore in their relationship is that Keith is so lost himself, so much of what he’s become, and let himself become, is lower than his potential. So we have this guy who drinks too much, swears too much, is a bit less than respectful about the female form, and has essentially given all of his dreams away because his heartache at losing his family and surviving the war makes him unwilling to try. Then you have Perry, whose mental ability is limited through no fault of his own and society is constantly telling him that he can’t - yet Perry does nothing but try. He tries his hardest no matter what job he’s working on and he takes pride in his accomplishment, but more than that, he takes pride in his contribution...

So these two characters, to me, balance each other out. Keith watches over and looks out for Perry in a way he wouldn’t even look out for himself, and Perry gives Keith a family; one he didn’t even know he still wanted...

Themes of family run heavy in this novel and I also love our small interactions with Gary’s family. They, too, become a family for Perry and, by extension Keith and Cherry.

Cherry is probably the character you’ve all been waiting for me to address because I think there are likely some differing views on Perry’s relationship with Cherry, before and after Keith’s passing... All I can do is offer my own sensibilities, though I’d love to hear everyone else’s too. I thought Perry’s crush on Cherry throughout made him a fuller and more concrete character. It was one more thing that smacked of reality and gave me something to both identify with and feel for him over. I loved Keith and Cherry together, I thought they brought something to each other that was sorely missing from each of their lives before... though, I have to admit, Cherry’s age and family situation made me wonder somewhat whether it was fair for Keith to get involved physically at that point in her life... I didn’t read it as Keith taking advantage or even thinking about taking advantage – I read his feelings as genuine. But my personal perception can’t help but come into play in a book that pulls me so far in, and at the point where they were obviously serious, my thoughts were that it was a bad idea. My thoughts were that when Cherry grew more mature and had some distance from her abusive father, and became more of her own person, she might realize that her love for Keith was more of that as a little girl looking for a protector, and not a true partner and equal... None of this discounts my love for the book. On the contrary, I think when you go that far into psychoanalyzing characters; the writing must have made them astoundingly real.

Cherry’s relationship with Perry after Keith’s passing. I have to say, it’s not the ending I would have chosen (mighty disclaimer – it’s the author’s right to choose, and I don’t like a lot of what real life dishes out, either... it didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the novel, obviously), not because I wanted Perry to live a celibate alone life, but because Cherry so obviously settled for Perry because Keith was not there. I wanted Perry to have a wife that adored him, first and foremost, and I almost felt like they wound up together because of an odd turn of events rather than a true romantic connection. I was happy that Perry was happy and I was happy to see him involved with both Cherry and Keith’s baby. I adored seeing Perry get his puppy and be a father and businessman. But that is, of course, my own sensibility. Now I’d love to hear yours....

Lottery - First Discussion in our Book Club Blog

Today, we kick off the first in our book club blogs on Lottery by Patricia Wood As this is a book discussion that, I hope, will delve intricately into the plot and themes, I want to warn you all ahead of time. If spoilers are the type of thing that will keep you from reading a book, please pick up a copy and read this one first, and then come back and visit if you like – this isn’t a book you want to miss and hearing what readers thought won’t replace the experience. If in depth discussion ahead of time doesn’t ruin the reading experience for you, grab your coffee and hang out a bit... oh, yeah, I think I’m serving cyber wine, cheese, and crackers... and away we go!!!

For me, narrowing down the discussion topic to one thing was harder than it looked back when I finished the book. The writing is simple and forthright, and deceptively full of insight. The first thing that I’d like to touch on is perception of success. I think the idea of both monetary success and mental acuity are both given poignant precedence through the eyes of Perry.

In Perry L. Crandall, we have a main character with an IQ of 76. This number has defined him for most of his life, both in his own thoughts and by the outside world. To Perry, that number is proof positive that his is not retarded. To his brother cousins, teachers growing up, and school mates it is an indication that Perry is not as smart as they are or not able to function in their world.

Perry and his Gram are simple people. It’s quite clear that they are not well off financially, but it’s just as clear that they are happy with what they have. There are a lot of characters to like in this book, and I do love Perry, but Gram is by far my favorite even though she dies early in the book, a death which is really the catalyst to Perry’s own independence, her presence is still felt throughout in Perry’s recollection and in his own mode of living his life. Through Gram we see a no nonsense voice that, for all of her gruff insight, is the marker by which Perry learns to distinguish moral character. Throughout his life, she’s built routines that are geared so that he will be able to function without her when she’s gone. She has also, we find, held a good deal of information to herself, such as the reason for their loss of Gramp’s business. I like to think she took these heartaches internally, so Perry wouldn’t be burdened with them. Still, she did not bury it like it didn’t happen; she helped Perry to make lists, so that he would be guarded in some way against the people who might take advantage:

“...There are people you listen to, and others you don’t. You have to be able to tell the difference.” Gram slaps the kitchen table hard with her hand and makes me jump.
“Like who?” I ask.
We make a list.”

We find a distinct difference between the way Perry is treated before his Lottery winnings and after. The possible exception to this being Keith and Cherry. Gary, his boss at Holsted’s, is distinguished early as a person of character and one Perry can trust (he made the list). But even Gary learns a bit more about Perry and starts to see him in a different way; as an asset to the business. However, in this case I view the change as more in line with Perry’s own growth as a person rather than society’s view of him once he has a fortune.

I love the way the time old moral lesson of worth being determined by more than your bank balance comes into play in this novel. We become familiar with relatives who would gladly take everything Perry has without a second thought.

The characters of John, David, their wives and Perry’s own mother, who he calls Louise, are a firm contrast to Perry’s moral fortitude. These characters have all of the financial trappings that society holds in esteem. They are professionals whose mental prowess far surpasses that of Perry, and they each hold these facts as evidence that they are superior to him... So superior, in fact, they do not even claim him as family unless they need to take something from him. While this is infuriating to the reader, it also serves to bolster our own sense of right and wrong.

Yes, these characters have the money and professional resume. Yet, they are constantly miserable, nasty creatures. And, we find as we examine their lives a little more intently, even with their vast earnings they are in debt. They look down on Perry, but Perry has a better life and it’s not because ‘ignorance is bliss’ it’s because Perry puts the priority on being a good friend and a good person and doing his best.

I’m going to turn the discussion over to you now. I’m not sure what the next theme will be that I cover, but there will be a second posting in the next few days, after the readers have had a chance to comment and move the discussion forward.

What did you think of the portrayal of these characters in deference to their perception of success? Who did you find the most fascinating? Who did you find the most despicable? What in this book resonated with your experiences in life?

Book Club Blogs Return!!! - Lottery is on the table

I’m so excited about this one!!! First, I’m resurrecting the book club blogs (more on that later for those of you who don’t know about them), second I get to host a discussion about Lottery by Patricia Wood

I first heard of the book a few months ago at Anti-Wife’s Blog. After reading the wonderful review there, I jotted down the title and author and thought I would pick it up the next time I stopped at Barnes and Noble or ordered from Amazon... A few weeks later I ran across a review and interview of the author at Ello’s Random Acts of Unkindness Blog, which I enjoyed so much that I bumped the book up to a must have and ordered in the same week.

For those of you who don’t know, Patricia Wood is an author living in Hawaii who goes by the blog name, Orion. As soon as I finished reading Lottery, I sent off an email to ask her permission to use the book in a book club blog. Obviously, and graciously, she said yes. Ms. Wood also offered to participate in the discussion!!!!

Okay, I’m doing a little happy dance. I really loved this book. It’s the story of Perry L. Crandall whose IQ is 76 and he is not retarded, he is slow. Perry’s voice is so simple, and yet profound in ways that Perry doesn’t even realize. He’s lived his entire life with his grandparents until his Gramps dies, then it’s just Perry and Gram and they make a great team, until Gram’s death when Perry has to take care of himself – with the help of some wonderful friends. Perry has a job and a best friend, Keith, and a crush on Cherry who works at the Handy Mart. Lottery asks the question, ‘What would happen if someone like Perry won a large amount in the lottery?’ The immediate answer is, great for him! But soon you’ll realize that a large amount of money comes with great responsibility and a person like Perry needs to be careful of those trying to take advantage... Now what if the people he needs the most protection from are his own family?

The first discussion will get underway on Thursday, December 13th - this will give everyone time to purchase and read Lottery, while avoiding the Christmas rushing that comes the week or so before the 25th. You can follow the link in the first paragraph of this post to find the book at Amazon, or you can call your local Barnes and Noble or favorite bookstore and make sure it’s in stock...

The Book Club Blog discussions started at the blogging community I was a member of before opening this blog – the site is gone now, otherwise I would link all the wonderful discussions there. To make a long story short, book club blogs are about the same as real world book clubs, without the wine and cheese, or coffee and cheesecake... though you’re perfectly welcome to bring your wine and cheese to the keyboard and commence to cyber toasting.

I did host one Book Club discussion on this blog, back in May, but it didn’t really take off and no other blogger took up the next discussion. If you’d like to read the discussions on the Mists of Avalon you can find them here: The First Discussion, The Second Discussion, and The Final Discussion

I’d love to see a lot of participation on this one, especially as it’s such a good book. If you’re interested in hosting a book club blog, let me know – they’re a lot of fun and I’d love to participate in others around the blog-o-sphere.

Okay, I seem to have fixed the link problem - for some reason you don't need to include the "quotation marks" before or after the html address on this field. I'm assuming that removing them will also work in the comments section, but I'll try it out to make sure

Final Discussion on The Mists of Avalon - Fated Love

This will be the third, and final, discussion on The Mists of Avalon. If you missed the first two, go check them out:

Second Discussion

First Discussion

If anyone else is thinking of holding a book club blog – let me know in the comments so I can follow along.

Treatment of Love

There are certainly other things to analyze when talking about this novel, but the treatment of love and ‘fated’ love never fails to capture my attention. Why is it, I wonder, that stories are more poignant when we are assured of true love, but in the end it never works out. Maybe it adds to the drama. Maybe it keeps us turning pages because, really, what’s more boring than ‘happily ever after’? Well, it’s not so boring if you get to live it, but maybe it’s more fun to watch the chase... or maybe, being faulty humans, we always want what we can’t have – but then, that would make these cases less about true love and more about pride and vanity, wouldn’t it?

Well, then, I suppose I’m digressing. In The Mists of Avalon we see fated love in many different facets. Of course there is the love triangle between King Arthur, Gwenhwyfar, and Lancelot. In this telling, Arthur seems to love his wife but there is always the underlying duty of it – it is his wife, though not by choice. Gwenhwyfar and Lancelot share a deeper love, one that can’t be denied, even though duty commands it.

Then we have Ingraine and Uther... and in one passage we find that this, apparent fated love was connived... while we believed that Uther and Ingraine shared a life before as King and Queen of Atlantis, in fact it was Viviane’s past life, her soul mate, “...And in a searing moment, Viviane knew why no man had ever been more to her than duty, or a path to power, or a night’s pleasure...”(p.194)

Maybe you all have a different sensibility here than I do. Does duty bear a higher responsibility than love? If not, why do we find it so fascinating when characters choose to forego happiness to retain honor? Maybe women see this differently, too. My sensibility tells me that true love is not replaceable. That foregoing the chance to be with a fated love is throwing away the greatest gift and one that will not come again. It also tells me that if you can walk away from this type of love, for any reason, it wasn’t really all that you imagined in your mind. I think the real thing would be worth any consequence... but maybe that’s naive.

It seems to me that the male sensibility is that all loves are replaceable. Maybe I’m wrong here, but that’s how it seems... So how about you? What was your take on the depiction of love, fated or otherwise in this telling?

Second Discussion on Mists of Avalon - Religious Duality

This is the second post on the book club discussion of the Mists of Avalon.

You can find the first discussion on the Sacred Feminine, here

For today’s discussion I’d like to start with the religious connotations inherent in the text. Duality seems to permeate the story in many ways, and my reading of it almost seems to take the pagan ideal of both male and female, god and goddess, and transplant that into the dueling philosophies discussed in the text. While the Priestesses of Avalon centered solely on the goddess, only making passive mention of the horned god and almost relegating him to a position of doing their bidding and then going away... the Christians and their one God became the Patriarchal symbol.

I found it interesting that the women, though possibly on purpose as the main idea was to focus on the female perspective... but the women were painted in the more accepting, less judgmental light. The character of Viviane said repeatedly that the God of Christianity wouldn’t allow for any other gods, while their view was that there was room for all belief... The thing I found interesting here is that their obvious contempt for all things Christian, marked their words as hypocrisy... at least for me.

We talked at length about the bending over backwards for the feminine perspective in this rewrite of Arthurian Legend in my last post. I do love the writing and I think the story itself was ingenious in bringing a new light to an old tale... But because the focus on the feminine permeates all aspects, I think that topic will come up here, and in any discussion about the text. Here’s what I’m wondering. Do you think it was intentional, to show these female characters hypocritically in relation to their behavior toward the male dominated religion? And what do you make of the negative inferences that Christianity bound its women to a life of powerless servitude? Do you find that to be an honest rendition of the time period or as another means to draw negativity toward Christianity while highlighting pagan virtues?