University City BookClub booklist:  1990-2004
Karen S.Baker, San Diego, California

Mamma Day - Gloria Naylor (Mar90)
The Joyluck Club - Amy Tan (Apr90)
Breathing Lessons (May90)
The House of Spirits-Alliende (June90)
Bingo-Rita Mae Brown (Jul90)
The Lyre of Orpheus - Robertson Davies (Aug90)
Look Homeward Angel-Thomas Wolfe (Sep90)
The Unbearable Likeness of Being (Oct90)
A Fan's Notes-Exley (Nov90)
Cat's Eye-Mary Atwood (Dec90)

Tracks-Louise Erdrich (Jan91)
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes-Maya Angelou (Feb91)
Gaia-Lovelock (Mar91)
White Fang-Jack London (Apr91)
A River Runs Through-Norman MacClean (May91) US
Mists of Avalon-Bradley (Jun91)
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love-Hijuelos (Jul91)
The Education of Little Tree - Forrest Carter (Aug91)
Annie John-Jamaica Kincaid (Sep91)
Sons and Lovers-D.H.Lawerence (Oct91) 
Their Eyes were Watching God-Zora Hurston (Nov91)
Mrs. Dalloway-Virginia Wolfe (Dec91)

Final Payments-Mary Gordon (Jan92) 
Angle of Repose-Stegner (Feb92)
Herzog-Saul Bellow (Feb92)
The Transit of Venus-Shirley Hazzard (Mar92) 
The Big Money-John Dos Passos (Apr92) 
The Road from Coraine-Jill Conway (May92)
Excellent Women-B.Pym (Jun92) 
Howard's End-E.M.Forester (Jul92)
Couples-Updike (Aug92)
Enemies, a love story-Isaac Singer (Sep92)
Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte (Oct92)
1000Acres-Jane Smiley (Nov92)
King Lear-Shakespeare (Dec92)

The Bean Trees-Barbara Kingsolver (Jan93) 
The Moons of Jupiter-Alice Munro (Feb93)
Midnight's Child-Salomon Rushdee (Mar93)
Palace Walk-Naguib Mahfouz (Apr93)
Because it is bitter& because it it my heart-Oates (May93)
Love in the time of Cholera-Marquez (Jun93)
Fortunate Lives-Robb Dew (Jul93)
Waiting to Exhale-Terry McMillan (Aug93)
He,She,It-Marge Piercy (Aug93)
Barn Blind-Jane Smiley (Sep93)
Animal Dreams-Barbara Kingsolver (Oct93)
All the King's Men-Bernstein&Woodward (Nov93)
The Remains of the Day-Kazuo Ishiguro (Dec93)

Eva Luna-Isabelle Allende (Jan94) 
Listening to Prozac (Feb94)
Flannery O'Connor-Three (Mar94)
 
Cowboy's are My Weakness-Pam Houston (Apr94)
Clear writing, good tone and phrases, good insight into adult world.
Written with single voice throughout all the stories. Female generation X
escape to the outdoors while struggling with traditional nonverbal male
relationships in addition to dog companionships.

A Case of Curiosities-Allen Kurzweil (May94)
A timeless 18th century historical novel. A grant to write a first
novel produced a well crafted piece of art. An enjoyable read at many levels.
A picturesque bawdy salon of characters including an engineering bent
watchmaker, an herbalist mother, an ex-abbey patron, a surgical collector of
medical curiosities, a coach driver, a pornographer, a taxidermist and a wet
nurse.

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places- Le Ly Hayslip (Jun94)
Worth reading for the content. Biography of a Vietnamese peasant woman
during the Vietnam War. Intertwined is a description of a civil bridging of
two cultures. The book fulfills our vow to learn from history and not to
forget this War. We see through a Vietnamese peasant's eyes that there were no
good guys or bad guys. Presents the belief that we are here to learn rather
than to pursue happiness. Her personal growth toward independence balances
with her family and cultural dependence.
   
Misalliance-Anita Brookner (Jul94)
Misalliance. Miss alliance. Missed alliance. Ms.Alliance. The spirits
of this English writing are captured by the Beatles Eleneor Rigby "all the
lonely people". Relationships explored; observations detailed; Greek
allegories crafted. What's beneath the cold, remote, proper exterior? Focusing
on plot one shouts, "Move on. Get a life. Isn't there any responsible joy for
these cerebral explorers?" Yet it is more than a vicarious viewing of the
life, specifically of the enduring qualities, of the quiet people.
 
Woman of the Inner Sea -Thomas Keneally (Aug94)
Exploration of a woman's self-discovery after release from an abusive
marriage by the death of her children. An absorbing escape into the Australian
outback was complete with kangaroo making the outside exploration totally
different from Misalliance yet the inner exploration was amazingly similar.
The metaphoric and actual thickening of her body layered on till overdone
whereas the rising and sinking of waters mirrored her depression effectively.

Bastard out of Carolina -Dorothy Allison (Sep94)
YET another lesbian Southern writer confronting it all: poverty,
divorce, incest and betrayal. BUT engrossing presentations through language
and memorable scenes of family dynamics and realism. Lack of justice clearly
portrayed. AND it elicited good discussion as to whether Bone could really
escape her origins. This author is definitely OUT of Carolina.

Shipping News-Annie Proulx (Oct94)
Good read;excellent discussion. Had to work to get through the first
chapters. The range of language is impressive, expanding and contracting like
the sea. The well thought out structure was enticing, bordering on contrived,
KNOT! An interesting main character whose self perception changed as his life
evolved the way life does in small steps mixed with an unplanned randomness. A
book full of Newfoundland, nature, crudeness, and small town simplicity. Vivid
images: dirty overpriced hotel room, wind blown house on the ice, floundering
boat, fresh baked bread, insurance as they live on the edge of chaos. Ends
with an optimism. Timeless yet quietly presenting 1994 politics, economics and
social scene.  Although one could say, "YET another non nuclear family with
single father and lesbian aunt", one doesn't. 

The River Why -David Duncan (Nov94)
A folksy storyteller describes the passage through late adolescence.
No new conclusions but a consistently poetic, irreverent and intellectual
voice of colorful language covering the breadth of subjects that are examined
during these years. As Catcher in the Rye is to puberty, The River Why is for
late adolescence. A versatility of focus from zooming in on the philosophical
significance of the ant to the zooming out on the meaning of the river-ocean
expanse. For part of the group it struck a funny bone throughout and for some
it just struck out as they choked on the too clever. The noisy, studied
flippancy of youth rather than peaceful, beauty of an adult memory. 

The English Patient-Michael Ondaatje (Dec94)
A story woven such that the discussion started with "So what really
happened?" Told in the first person then the third from Hanna's viewpoint then
Kip's. A 15th century villa with crumbling walls in post-war Italy held the
multi-national group in temporary isolation from traditional national
divisions. People tiptoeing around the edges of life during this time of
recuperation and assimilation before moving on. More than a love story with an
unfortunate accident; more than an opportunity for Hanna to nurse a burn
patient as no one had nursed her father. For all characters it is a period of
detachment from and overview of past, family, passion, country and war. A
historical novel with such variety of styles, themes and directions as to make
reading difficult and another insight just beyond the next page. 

Call It Sleep-Henry Roth (Jan95)
Story of David, a young Jewish immigrant at the turn of the century in
lower East side New York.  His youthful observations are rich and specific yet
global. The child's view of the adult world with it's unspoken survival
strategies and traditions is described as David struggles to piece together a
coherent view from fragments of conversation and limited experience. A
warm/giving/passive mother with an unhappy/non communicative/violent father
provides the home focus around which a series of other personalities are
developed. Roth, a well trained writer and autobiographical observer, captures
a period and its cultures, bringing them to life with well-written dialects in
a valuable historical piece. 

Christ Stopped at Eboli-Carlo Levi (Feb95)
Carlos Levi captures in frieze an isolated Southern Italian village
with it's timeless tableau of emotions when the inept, inbred ruling class
rules over a tradition-bound peasantry.  This autobiographical tale of his
year long banishment during WWI fascist rule was written while in hiding
during WWII.  Although trained as a physician, Levi's life-long profession was
painting interrupted by a few books usually politically inspired by his anti
fascist beliefs.  Discussion considered inner-city analogies with the
isolation, poverty and lack of opportunities. 
     
Robber Bride-Margaret Atwood (Mar95)
Excellent women's read.  Good discussion. Delightfully well-crafted
story.  The three main characters portrayed as the intellectual, the material
and the spiritual are bound together by their history of involvement with
Zenia, an embodiment of evil with a manipulative technique and haunting power.
The female figures strike chords and have breadth.  The male figures pale in
comparison so that the saying "A good man is hard to find and even harder to
find in women's literature" holds true.  Further,  the male-female
relationships are downright painful to observe because of the female
assumption of and acceptance of  male non-understanding. 

Refuge-Terry Williams (Apr95)
A woman involving, resolving, dissolving rage while working through
the cycles of death in nature (a Utah Salt Lake lost to natural causes) and in
family (her mother lost to unnatural causes).  A Female Morman Scientist whose
spirituality is centered by nature in spite of her sex, her religion or her
profession.  The book's focus on conflicts of women's limitations, religious
tenets and nature's systems left portions of the literary landscape bare
(including the men...see above).  The evaluation of technical skill improved
with the suggestion to consider the development as a poem with some artificial
bridges rather than as a novel.  Led to spirited women's issues discussions so
interesting book although not a great read.
 
Bailey's Cafe-Gloria Naylor (May95)
More like a play than a book with the collection of miserable misfits
that wanders into Bailey's cafe.  Although she gave it a wrap at the close,
we gave it more of a knock.  Knock, knock.  Who's there?  Evil. Evil who?
Evil you do and evil you don't.  It missed the mystical being rather a forced
collection of strange lives drawn together in a Twilight Zone-like gimmick of
a potboiler.  
  
How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents-Julia Alvarez (Jun95)
A close knit upper class family of the Dominican Republic with its
protecting compound, Catholic schools, sexual awakenings and Haitian maid with
voodoo becomes a middle class US immigrant family.  Contrasting cultures shown
through a series of stories about four sisters island childhood and immigrant
college years.  The political dictatorship is sketchy but powerfully felt
through the children's filter.   The female relationships transcend cultures
depicting well the fighting and the support as well as the sexual awakenings
and the father-daughter relationships that do not progress beyond
father-child.  OK book but not particularly well written with respect to
style.

Quartet in Autumn-Barbara Pym (Jul95)
Of old-age English life doing what's suitable each day with an
unwillingness to accept randomness or give up control much like Excellent
Woman.  Written by a cardigan clothed English observer chilled by the cold.
The simple presentation is judgment enough of the loneliness due to carefully
respected personal space.  The quartet is shrinking, withdrawing into old age
and death having already perfected the skill of choosing paths that permit
lives of no risk and no messy relationships.  So they are people with nothing
large in their lives consumed and dominated by the minutia of how to deal with
a mismatched milk bottle.  The imposing and involved old gossip was a
character relief to so many doing so much good of so little significance.  Led
to wide ranging discussions including consideration of quality of life and the
age of old age.

Stone Diaries-Carol Shields (Aug95)
Generation view of ordinary lives showing the filtered memories that
give a selected history cast in stone as we watch the first generation of
rich, deep characters give way to the multitudes of fast moving lives that
follow.  All demonstrate process as important and yet all have an equal lack
of understanding.  Recommended for a good read although discussion meandered.

Reviving Ophelia-Mary Pipher (Sep95)
An excellent overview of adolescent views and problems.  Written by a
psychologist alarmed at the increased deviant behavior among her young female
patients.  Covering some parent vocabulary and considerations needed including
the stealing of self by peers, the need for private space and the recognition
of individuality.  Concrete examples of the forces in today's society against
healthy self-esteem are given.  Threads of effective tools are presented
including unconditional love coupled with discipline as well as the finding of
something to reaffirm each child.  A must read for parents of 11 year old in
the perhaps false hope that preparatory reading and discussion may ease
weathering the storm.

The Fifth Child-Doris Lessing (Oct95)
Quick and spare but sinister and disturbing parable/story about a
goblin-child Ben in a philosophically communal family.  Led to good discussion
on how to deal with the seed of pure evil in society and the disintegration of
the social fabric due to lack of acceptance of responsibility at an individual
level.  The destruction wrought by the mother's love for a damaged child
brought to mind Clockwork Orange and our inability to deal with internal
rather than external problems.  No happy ending here...still working on our
local schools.

The Spectator Bird-Wallace Stegner (Nov95)
Fictional autobiography where the philosophical questions are
captured.  Stoic philosopher surprised by nothing re-examining as he enters
old age the surprises of a past Midsummer night's relationship having chosen a
career as well as a marriage of safety and comfort.
...Having never given up the dangerous illusion of infinite possibility.
...an old man...he feels like a young man with something the matter with him
...peace, perturb'd spirit
....passing through a banquet room and ending up hungry on the other side
Stegner's just a very good writer who can turn a phrase and phrase a scene.
 
Ellen Foster-Gibbons (Dec95)
A solid first novel about an eleven year old girl that you find
yourself rooting for because she's a symbol of the good in human spirit
surfacing from an abusive family.  The child dialect captures vividly the
visual details of daily life and presents the rage kept within bounds by a
flattened language.  There is an optimistic strategy of waiting in the
channeling of emotions for survival in this book filled with rural
Southernisms. (Gibbons "Charms for an Easy Life" excellent)

An Angel at my Table-Janet Frame (Jan96)
Autobiography of a literary woman, a contemporary master of metaphor
judged sane/creative within inner world of imagination and insane/inept from
outer world in reality. She writes from her misdiagnosed years in a mental
hospital in New Zealand "a trap is also a refuge".  Janet Frame saw her job or
her doom to forever watch and listen and to pursue poetry.  Extremely shy, she
is obsessed with writing and does it well.  Stimulated discussions.
  
Vladimir Nabokov-Lolita (Feb96)
A story of obsession by a driven man focused on nymphets.  A parable
for the male-female relationship?  A how-to for pedophiles?   A story of a man
deceiving himself even more than he deceives the rest of the world.  A world
so unrealistic that he believes his victim would choose to return once she
escapes his web.  The writing is as careful and quiet as the observations of
the young girl by a man who has retreated to live in a one-dimensional world
of unhealthy love/lust/greed/control. Amazingly written in English by a
Russian.   

David Guterson-Snow Falling on Cedars (Mar96)
An enjoyable read that quietly explores a surprising number of major
themes: love, innocence, war, friendship, chance, isolation, Japanese American
culture, bigotry. The sense of place gave an immediate presence to the
strawberry fields and the fishing village of the Northwest.  With the guilt of
war deaths folded into his life, Kabu accepts silently any judgment, as he
becomes a part of this island's parade of history.  The mystery is not so much
what the largely bigoted jury will decide, but rather whether Ishmael,
burdened by both war chaos and lost love, will do what is morally right and
thereby regain his wholeness.  There was a beauty to the Japanese mother's
advice on preparing her children to get through the war without loosing their
self as well as to a husband high on the scale of human excellence wearily
declaring to his bigoted wife that they just weren't right for each other.

Whitney Otto-How to Make an American Quilt (Apr96)
A quilt is two-dimensional as the story with each element planned into
a women's group of stories.  Spanning generations, there were individual
insights but the literary structure patched artificially or maybe we've just
had too many games (Joy Luck Club), knots (shipping news) and curiosity cases
(a case of curiosities).  A pleasant American read with small town strength. 

Tibor Fisher-Under the Frog (May96)
Life from 1940 to 1956 in Czechoslovakia as seen by an adolescent
aware of his powerlessness while living in a country where life is unreliable.
A book of contrasts that is difficult to read because of its
discontinuities.... discontinuities in language and time.  Like the black
humor of Catch22 or Mash but about the oppressive coping through adolescent
humor with ones own culture, not a war outside the native home.  Best viewed
as a series of short stories, the masterful use of language adds to the
difficulty and the joy of reading.    

Hulme-The Bone People (Jun96)
Three sensitive but culturally adrift people with dark undercurrents
are drawn together.  Violence ultimately sends them each off on separate
retreats ending with an individual saving experience from the Maori spirit.
In her first novel, perhaps an autobiographical catharsis,  Hulme gives a word
portrait of a New Zealand quite different from that of Janet Frame.  It is a
New Zealand dominated by "any-minority" difficulties in becoming part of
another developed civilization.  The book demonstrates the poverty of soul
when the native spirit is missing.  The main character with a most symbolic
artist's block retreats within a British cultural insularity separating her
from her community Maori heritage.  The physical abuse cycle, impacting the
odd yet wonderful child Simon, is well explained and unusual with some voice
of sympathy. Slow development at times and use of Maori terms too extensive
for easy reading.   

Of Water and Spirit-Malidoma Some (Aug96)
An African Dagare man able to derive the good from larger experiences
leaving the negative aside.  As he strives to meld diverse elements within
himself, he brings the West a message concerning the need for personal and
cultural spirit in order to live contentedly and fully.   He embraced God
(well, with some skepticism... p103) despite missionary hypocrisy and abuse
and yet melded with his society's mystical and ancestral tradition.  Of
course, the need for a yearly cleaning in his home community is revealing.
The book deals with the male, community culture and the superiority of silence
without addressing (next book?) female or sexual relationships.  Illustrates
the acceptance of the intangible spiritual experiences for their impact and
value.  More satisfying than the Bone People because we learn from his
culture.  Excellent discussion.       

Sophie's World-Jostein Gaarder (Sep96)
The story of Western Philosophy presented as mysterious chapters sent
to a 15yr old Norwegian girl.  The fiction, less developed than the polished
overview of philosophy,  glues the essays together and makes it readable.
Prompted a multitude of discussions about cultural viability, definition of
philosophical projects and relationship of religion to philosophy.  Evident
are belief's in intellectual progress, cultural impact and feminism. 
 
Yellow Raft, Blue Water-Michael Dorris (Oct96)
Three generations of a Native American family unfold into Rayona,
Christina and Ida's intertwined lives.   Many women's moments remarkably
captured by this male author.  Nominally about escaping but enlarges to
understanding and encompassing.  No natural beauty or Indian spiritualism
relieves the clan poverty rift with unfulfilled potentials.   Skillfully
written and a pleasant read. 

House Keeping-Marilyn Robinson (Nov96)
A cold but lyrical written book about tidiness and detachment.
Drifting through life, the frailty of the human relationship is evident.  This
exploration of the disintegration of a family envelops the reader in a
disturbingly unanchored reality.

A Prayer for Owen Meanie-John Irving (Dec96)
The devoted narrator details well the heroic scale of  'Omen Weanie'.
Irving tells a powerful story laced equally with vision and humor bringing to
mind the tone of his past work 'The World According to GARP'. The reader's
attention is held although with pauses to consider the elements of faith,
courage and friendship that are a part of what causes Owen to affect all those
around him.  Owen is a dwarfish boy with memorable voice whose story moves
from a little league foul ball death through the rough tumble English prep
school with headmasters and pageants and on to mysticism and martyrdom.
Exploration of religion and politics are a part of the essence.  The book
captures well our recent US history.  A good, not too light read although LOUD
WITH OWEN SHOUTING HIS EVERY LINE. 

Beach Music-Pat Conroy (Jan97)
Interesting coverage of almost too many contemporary themes including
family, childhood, the South, suicide, Vietnam War draft, and the Holocaust.
The main character's development beyond his initial views begins with a
quiescent period transplanted to an Italian piazza with his young daughter
after his wife's suicide.  Upon his return to the South he discovers his roots
and the significance of past war issues.  With maturity comes the realization
that communication difficulties are not just due to externally imposed
situations.  Although lacking the polish of a well-written work, it's a good
story that covers even more topics than the Prince of Tides. 

Another You-Ann Beattie (Feb97)
A book that doesn't quite make an interesting read until you've
finished it and look back.  There are well-written scenarios and interesting
relationships, but the whole story does not hold together solidly.  The main
character is a college professor whose float through life is annoying since he
functions as a child-man in an adult world.  He reacts rather than setting
course.  The contrast with his wife who works through some fantasies and moves
on is cut short as the plot develops in a more bizarre direction of contrived
connections.   
 
Shes Come Undone-Wally Lam (Mar97)
A coming of age period piece from the 60's.  Using a layer of fat to
insulate from failures, repression and sexuality, Dolores' goodness and spunk
eventually surface leaving the reader with an awareness of how circumstances
can set one off a traditional path, result in wide ranging variances and
subsequently recover a meaningful life.  With tattoo saloon matron Roberta,
with Ruth and Larry dropping in then out and with Dante's descent through
circles followed by Thayer's rise, it's a good read with images that linger. 

Corelli's Mandolin-Louis De Bernieres (Apr97)
A rich novel that is a pleasure to read.  The initial descriptive pace
gives no hint of the grand sweep of ideas to be covered.  The Greek island
doctor tries to write an objective history of the Greek Island of Cephallonia
when in fact his own life and that of his daughter serve as the vehicle to
address life's issues wrapped up in island life, family, love, World War II,
poverty and prosperity.  A natural disaster, an earthquake, unexpectedly takes
us to an even loftier vision of survivors.

Tortilla Curtain-Boyle (May97)
The book's characters are stereotyped with all the problems associated
with illegal Mexican immigrants stuffed within this slim volume, but the
pieces provide good discussion.  There are no answers so the satire often
leaves one angry rather than amused as the negative impacts for both cultures
gather to a cliched finale.  The writing of individual scenes was subtle and
the vision lasting so it's quick, unsettling but important read.

One True Thing-Ann Quinlin (Jun97) 
Women's roles unfold as a career woman comes home to take care of her
dying mother.  There ensues a much delayed passing of mother skills to
daughter bringing comfort to both amid the pain of examining family dynamics.
The 50's defined the father hiding behind an academic image, which inhibits
any subsequent growth for him or his facilitating wife.  Often written in a
journalist style, the book captures the struggles of the last months of
terminal illness bringing thoughts of past reads like Final Payments and
Refuge.  This story broadens to our society's ability to deal with death as a
court examines the question of whether the father, the daughter or the mother
herself administered a lethal dose of drugs. 

Independence Day-Richard Ford (Jul97)
After the death of a son and the breakup of his marriage, we float
with Frank Bascombe through his Period of Existence where he thinks widely but
does not act or move beyond unsettled. Becomes frustrating to watch his
failure to make wise choices.  Although Frank does not have the drinking
problem of A Fan's Notes main character, he brought to mind Updike's
exploration of ineffective behavior.  Excellent craftsmanship in painting
well-detailed vignettes on dreaming of reading Thoreau with your son to real
estate deals gone bad. 

Longings of Women-Marge Piercy (Sep97)
Made for a good discussion of what it is Lilea (the professor/wife),
Becky (the climber/murderer) and Mary (the homeless cleaning lady) were
seeking as women.  Interesting read despite artificial bridges and contrived
situations.  It's 'long on women' with visits to minor themes  such as the
'belongings of women'.  There were numerous illustrations of the
inadvisability of reliance on outside support without independent structure of
one's own, leaving rather weak roles for the men.  The striving for security
was constant, but the view of what constitutes security changed.  All
characters had difficulty stepping back to recognize decision points.      

Stones from the River-Ursala Hagi (Oct97)
A small-town dwarf is an insider as well as an outsider by birth.  Her
desire to collect stories begins as a need for participation, develops to a
desire for power and matures to an acceptance of human weakness as she casts
out her stones of anger for the river to flow around.  We coined "Trudiesque"
for that strength of character that drives Trudi to probe past the web of
silence moving from observer to controller to friend as we watch her develop
emotionally if not physically.  One of the most well written books we've read
in some time.  Subtle in capturing nuances including how WWII incidences built
making it also a call not to let our rights erode.  
 

Rain of Gold-Victor Villasenor (Nov97)
A generation saga that can be compared with past reads: Mists of
Avalon, House of Spirits, Palace Walk or Yellow Raft Blue Water except this
one is non-fiction.  Derived from oral histories, the family tale spans the
Mexican Revolution in a small canyon town in Mexico through to the Hispanic
American cultural mix focused by matriarchal efforts ending in purchase of a
rancho in Oceanside.  The author, intersperses Spanish terms to evoke the
interfaces, but truly has success with vignette descriptions such as hungry,
cold days in a border camp or the depth of connections in a series of
mother-son conversations.  Some inconsistent writing and threads but still a
good, solid, page-turning read.

Atticus-Ron Hansen (Dec97)
A Colorado rancher investigates his son's death where mystery and
murder are wrapped in the world of bohemian philosophy and artistic natures.
The solid self-constained father's focus on trying to understand his son
launches bookclub discussions considering the not-so-uncommon prodigal child,
whether they are male or female.

The Sparrow-Mary Russell (Jan98)
Searching to understand today's culture, Mary Russell has turned out a
very readable science fiction story set in the near future which considers
interface with an extraterrestrial culture. The classic considerations of
religion including "how can a God take all of the credit but none of the
blame".  Not so coincidental that the recent movie Contact, produced in
tribute to Carl Sagan, also opened with astrophysics, telescopes and
cybertools culminating in receipt of a signal from space of
math/engineering/spaceship plans (for Sparrow: music). Wrapped within the
story are explorations of family relationships, male/female roles and cultural
drivers.  The main character, a Jesuit priest, has a way of summing up his
wonderment through understatement: "but we meant no harm'' when his landing
party destroys the balance of a two species planet through introduction of a
small personal garden. The garden contents did not spread, but the concept of
gardening did.  On the theme of cultural survival, Daniel Quinn (author of
Ishmael) would be quick to place the book in perspective: although it
represents the10,000 years of our culture begun by development of agricultural
control (gardening!), there are many other cultures on earth and 50,000 years
of cultures prior to our current one that appears on a track of self
destruction.     

Angela's Ashes-Frank McCourt (Feb98)
  Brutal Irish poverty. Day after day of cold, tired, hunger. Tea and
bread and plodding. The book captures visually the sense of Ireland from a
child's view. With an alcoholic father and an ineffective mother and siblings
who die one by one, we witness the disillusionments of youth in an
autobiography chronicling a child's support of family before his escape to
America.  

House of Curl-Lorna Landvik (Mar98)
Small-town characters plot stays at a slow pace unless one accepts the
superficial cast as caricatures and comedy.  Patti Jane and Harriet turn in
the most meaningful relationship as sisters united around which the outrageous
events occur from Ione's half-baked misunderstandings to Anvel's endless
optimism to Chuckee's native American sensitivity to Thor's architectural
birdhouse wonders.  The writing was in the stand-up comic vein so discussions
turned to plans for casting for a movie version. 

Alias Grace-Margaret Atwood (Apr98)
Another high quality Atwood novel quite distinct in material covered
and writing methods employed.  Letters arrived from Mother and doctor, which
provided humor to what might have been some otherwise dreary dialogue.  This
pre-civil war book about a female servant making her way portrays the times
laced in with the rustle of corsets reminding us of why and where feminist
issues sprung.  We witness a spirited young woman cross from brave to
pragmatic to psychotic in this work of fiction based upon a the true story of
a Canadian woman accused of murder in 1840.  The title implying that Grace is
not what she appears was the only determining factor all agreed upon in the
discussions of guilt versus innocence. 
 
Brief Lives-Anita Brookner (May98)
Writing about an age of inactivity brings an examination of interior
thoughts and human interactions.  The lack of development or decision in these
gray carpet lives lulls the reader until small plot movements develop
concerned with a woman accepting the wisdom of meeting her own needs.  Fay
gets to know herself as the years pass having married her first love only to
have it develop into a lifetime relationship without love.  In this story of
aging and friendship, Fay never does share her thoughts, her disappointments,
her anger, or her minor accomplishments.  In the end she exerts herself to
escape her friend Julia's dominance.  Fay quietly makes us somewhat
uncomfortably reflective about our own aging.

Einstein's Dreams-Alan Lightman  (Jul98)  [Good Benito-Alan Lightman]
An unusual series of thought experiments presented as brief tales with
lofty consideration of the alternative ways time might develop.  Combines a
creative history of Einstein's ideas on relativity with their implications for
time illustrated with delightfully mundane examples of the everyday world of
Bern. Presents the beauty and nonlinear development of scientific theory as
does Good Benito where we meet another independent physicist who is elegant in
his exploration of the beauty of the physics behind life but inept in his
dealings with everyday reality.

Two Girls, Fat and Thin-Mary Gaitskill (Aug98)  [The Secrets of the Ya Ya
Sisterhood-Rebecca Wells]
The two girls, fat and thin, were as unhealthy as the title suggests.
Although reference to the Ayn Rand type philosophy 'Definitivism' was
interesting, the main characters were not likeable as you waded through the
life upsets from which they never recovered.  Such an interesting irony to
have their behavior justified on the basis of the Any Rand analogies with
their Anna Granite character.  A sordid contrast to the Southern gaggle of
female friends described in the Ya Ya Sisterhood that in a burst of warm
friendship spirited the reader's enthusiasm and spontaneously ignited some
glad-to-be-alive sensations. 

Last Orders-Graham Swift (Sep98)
Hard to get into and then hard to leave. A book of unremarkable men
isolated with their own insightful but unspoken thoughts. Because men don't
talk.  Technically and smoothly constructed. A book of 'what ifs' focused on
the things that do and the things that don't get told.  Four English small
town war buddies whose journey to spread the ashes of one of their own is a
quiet, humorous, poignant parable with Jack the butcher who thought of being a
doctor, Ray/Lucky the insurance man who thought of being a jockey, Lenny the
fruit/vegetable man who thought of being a boxer, Jack's son Vince the garage
man who thought of not being a butcher and Vic the undertaker who accepted
life with dignity.  So Jack's last orders are discussed at the Coaches' Last
Orders in an English turn-up that gives all their lives some last order.

Atlas Shrugged -Ayn Rand (Oct98)
When one view's life in black and white, Ayn Rand's objectivism
philosophy based upon reason, integrity, the work ethic and creative thinking,
is the basis for a very readable (although long-winded) story.  One slips into
a world where there are caricatures of good and evil that can be cheered and
boo'ed. As the development veers toward comic stereotypes, one can marvel at
the successful attempt to put a philosophy into words.  The simple statements
of the value of work, money and self are mixed with the reminders that there
are truly evil people deriving power from good people and that evil is
powerless without the sanction of the victim.

The God of Small Things-Arundhati Roy (Nov98)
Difficult to get into the rhythm, but once you do you can see and feel
the South Indian village in Kerala in the 1960's.  With the lyrical approach
of Morrison or Rushdi, the command of language is used to highlight the
powerlessness of the characters.  They focus on the small things because the
big events like cast systems, loss of innocence or professional opportunities
are too hopeless to consider.  The story is told from the point of view of the
twins, Rahel and Estha, as they try along with their half cousin Sopie Mol
with her half-English go-go bag spunk to understand their uncle Chacko,
protect their mother Amma and learn from the untouchable Velutha.  
 
As We Are Now-May Sarton (Dec98)
A quiet observer of both interior and exterior landscapes, May Sarton
captures the details of the closing chapter of an every-woman's life.  A quick
but poignant read.

Big Rock Candy Mountain-William Stegner (Jan99)
A good solid read by a good solid writer.  Insight into personality
types served up with lively tales firmly planted in the Gold Rush times.  A
wife examines her own role as enabler to a family of
the-next-scheme-we'll-make-it-big husband and two working-for-stability
children. The communication chasm widens for fathers and sons.  Mom is able to
appreciate their different motivations but not able to bring them all
together.  Her strength is flexible as she continues to grow and discover
herself along the way.   

Memoirs of a Geisha-Arthur Golden (Feb99)
A slow start in this autobiography builds with consistency to a solid
finish as it wraps up stories of one of the more fortunate life paths that a
poor female is dealt in prewar Japan. One sees what participation brings, both
passive and active as a geisha's life quietly unfolds.  Appreciation is
heightened for the limited opportunities in Japan as well as the impact of
even one or two proactive moments.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down-Anne Fadiman (Mar99)
The difficult interface between a Hmong child and her American doctors
is explored with a thoughtful presentation of the Hmong culture and history
giving insight into the actions and reactions of one relocated family.  Over a
period of years, the family mixes the standard operating procedures of
American medicine with the traditional medicine of a Hmong  shaman. The former
treatments are available free to refugees in Merced, California while the
shaman's services are available only at high cost.  Given the very real
cultural and linguistic barriers, the refugees find American medicine
ineffective in the treatment of their sick child.  There is no blame assigned
but rather a demonstration of the failures, which will inevitably happen at a
cultural interface like this one.

The Poisonwood Bible-Barbara Kingsolver (Apr99)
Powerful read about an American white family's missionary work in an
African village and the consequent impact on the family itself.  Each family
member develops a distinctly different relationship with Africa.  Father
blindly follows his passion abandoning first his family and subsequently
reality itself as he passes from the state of fanatic zealot to one of
psychotic/obsessive dilution.  We witness the father's descent from four quite
different perspectives as Kingsolver clearly captures the diverse development
stages of his three daughters and his wife.   One is faced with the failures
at cultural interfaces as demonstrated in last month's book "The Spirit
Catches You" as well as with the Western missionary attitude regarding the
superiority of their religion in particular and their culture in general. 

Children of God-Mary Russell (May99)
Mary Russell writes comfortably in this continuation of 'The Sparrow"
storyline.  We have a chance to revisit the otherworld Ruin culture with its
two-class system, the elite meat eaters and the bovine grazers.  Took
discussion awhile to realize the alien civilization was a balance of
ecological and political factors without any religious elements so cultural
moral values differed significantly.  This simplified and highlighted the
earth's missionary party beliefs.  

I Know This Much is True-Wally Lamb (Jul99)
A long story detailing trials and tribulations of a cast of sleazy
characters with an antihero searching, denying, and accepting himself.  The
evolution of Ray is somewhat reminiscent of another male looking to order his
life in Independence Day.  Written by the author who wrote with good insight
from a woman's point of view in She Comes Undone. Knowing the whole of his
dark heritage liberates Ray from his worry of genetic weaknesses as he faces
Life Questions including abuse, sibling rivalry, twin issues, SIDS, HIV,
alcohol, sexual dysfunction, racism, mental illness, eastern philosophy,
psychology, cultural interfaces, family conflict, government agencies.  A
mosaic of detail on life, love, forgiveness and humbleness using a variety of
literary techniques to build to a too-tidy triumph of human spirit.

Ms Dalloway -MOVIE planned (Aug99)

The Hours- Michael Cunningham (Sep99)
Intertwined stories of women creating lives for themselves and
balancing contemporary demands.  Developments are anchored in the first
chapter to Virginia Woolf's last days before her 1941 suicide.  The stories do
converge, but the stories real beauty is in the strength and clarity of
individual lines.  The power and ease of selected sentences is worthy of a
read. 

Open Heart-A.B.Yehoshua (Oct99)
Memorable scenes of driving through Israel's desert and of the teaming
rivers life and death in India. We witness an emotionally detached physician's
attempt to reach beyond his hospital world of understanding.  Rich in interior
life, he unfolds as a shortsighted opportunist.  A book about death because he
didn't know how to deal with life.  With a variety of themes including
husband-wife dependencies, personal relationships of Israel, and oedipal
developments with his boss' wife Dori. 

Native Speaker-Chung Rae Lee (Nov99)
A good read; an excellent write.  A glimpse into the mind of a
second-language Korean immigrant as he remains an observer of American culture
because of his undercover intelligence gathering (i.e. spy) job.
Surprisingly, it's a thoughtful unfolding of a husband-wife relationship.

Dessa Rose - Shirly Ann Williams (Dec99)
A scholarly chronicle of the paths crossing for two women caught in
the preCivil War United States.  A female black slave and an abused white
wife: they rise above their poverty and struggle beyond their ignorance to a
realization of the bigger picture.  Despite the inelegant prose and the
contrived episodes, these Southern roles have been captured and intertwined.

Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier (Jan00)
A good, steady read. A story of the Civil War, of the South, of
journeys and of strong characters:  Innman walks from the battlefield to his
mountain home so we observe the natural history of the land through his eyes;
Ada transitions from the artist observer to the self-sufficient participant
homesteader so we witness the transition of a woman to self confidence.  The
easy female relationship between Ada and Ruby is comforting; the development
of Ruby's father is uplifting; and the vision of war's brutality is
horrifyingly in its randomness. 

Confessions of Nat Turner  - William Styron (Feb00)
Interesting to reexamine the objections to the book regarding a white
voice for a black story and a community's rejection of the black man/white
woman sexual stereotypes.  As Ruth says, "a book that was written at the wrong
time for acceptance". Psychotic or not, Nat Turner is a valuable reminder of a
human response that wells up when you cross repression with loneliness.

A Moor's Last Sigh-Saloman Rushdee (Mar00)
Several had trouble fighting their way through the book finding  "God
of All Small Things" had more appeal with its similar time frame, physical
place, English usage, and generations of relatives.  The dense writing was
like the layered paintings discussed where life is seen through the influence
of what lies beneath.  With the parallels between the Moor and Rushdee, is the
book a result of a haunted, hunted man or a comment on Indian and/or human
kind with all its dysfunction.  The summary last chapter has the insightful
and timeless line "Couldn't you all have just...calmed down".

Girl in Hyaccinth Blue - Susan Vreeland (Apr00)
Each chapter is a vignette illustrating a different period of time
associated with a Vermeer painting.  The concept is similar to the movie 'The
Red Violin'.  The writing, though uneven, flows well backward in time to the
painting's origin.  It demonstrates well how an art piece represents something
meaningful but something different to each individual.  Knowing Vreeland as
our local University City High School English teacher who battles cancer, the
book is a poignant reminder of the passing of individuals and the endurance of
a work of art.

The Love of a Good Woman-Alice Munro (May00)
Eight short stories, each with a good woman making choices that bring
about turns and twists in ordinary lives.  The well-written sentences present
the subtleties and complexities of human interactions.

To Say Nothing of the Dog-Connie Willis (Jun00)
A science fiction and a historical novel spiced with British humor
presents a well-constructed overview of the Victorian era.  The characters are
stereotyped with insight, the events are described with unexpected references,
and the pace is maintained with at a hop, skip and a bumbling chuckle.  

The History of the Siege of Lisbon-Jose Saramago (Jul00)
The reader can ponder whether the author's style is an artistic
artifact or part of a message. At any rate the lack of punctuation, paragraphs
and quotation marks makes for a difficult read.  An artful love story is woven
together with the story about a proofreader's compulsion to change one word in
a historical text resulting in an entirely different presentation of past and
present events.  Elicits discussions on written history accounts versus
historical fiction and the recognition that all histories must be flawed if
only because an event is unique to the individual participant as well as to
the record keeper. 

Of Love and Other Demons-Gabriel Marquez (Aug00)
Simple but beautiful language for a read: the setting is tangible, the
church power all pervasive; and the human condition weak.  Set in the time of
the Spanish inquisition, one is left wondering whether the book presents magic
and miracles or the bizarre and unusual.  Polar issues (e.g. black & white;
earth & God, loneliness & love) are explored as dysfunctional families, hidden
desires and spiritual quests are revealed (e.g. unraveling).

The Red Tent - Anita Diamant (Sep00)
Taking the Biblical story of Joseph and his many wives, the author
gives us a multi-generation view of intragroup nomadic Jewish tribes. The
tradition of menstruating females retiring to the red tent as a group provides
an opportunity for a secluded community of support.   The marriage of Joseph's
daughter to an Egyptian plunges the reader into intragroup dynamics and widens
the visual passages to include another culture and style of living.

Wild Swans - Jung Chang (Oct00)
A coherent overview of China from the Boxer Rebellion to Tieniaman
Square is provided through this three generation picture.  There are details
enough to anchor the broader picture.  The realization that so many people's
lives were impacted so significantly in a restrictive manner through the
politics of Seng Fang, a style of control through upheavel.  The peasant's
life may have improved but at the expense of intellectual creativity and
freedom. Causes a pause to consider the basics of  human nature to have 
communist's using neighbors to report neighbors just as did the Nazis.

Ahab's Wife-Sena Naslund (Nov00)
The book provides another dimension, the broader context and the
social history to Melville's manly world of the sea, where Ahab's battle with
nature focuses on hatred and leads to self- with brief mention of the balance
of family. There's an epic sweep with an ongoing focus on community from
Kentucky cabin or seashore lighthouse isolation to township community.
Naslund sets the stage early with Una experiencing a whale attack and sinking
ship long prior to that of Ahab.  Unlike Ahab, her second husband, she
survives. Her choice given interwoven cirumstances with relationships and
balances is one of survival.  Multiple issues arise for Una (cannabilism,
feminism, sexuality, slavery, single parenting, work) which impact her
trajectory through the fabric of 19 century New England, but unlike Ahab she
seeks neither mastery of the physical world nor revenge.  Of her children,
Liberty dies two deaths, but Justice survives. Toward the end, the fascinating
characters become good role models (from Margaret's Boston salon to Marie's
astronomic observatory) but seem more icons of contemporary feminism.  

The Toughest Indian in the World-Sherman Alexie (Dec00)
Series of short stories highlighting contemporary issues of the North
American Indian.  Brash illustrations of the many rough aspects for a minority
population laced within the culture of America today.  Successful in
portraying just how unresolved these issues are. 

The Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahire (Jan01)
Although the author deals with characters of Indian heritage, the
insights are generically true for any traveler through life, especially as a
minority or a cultural voyager: "There are times I am bewildered by each mile
I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room
in which I have slept." 

Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond (Feb01)
A scientist's treatise on how a population achieves its particular
cultural state as compared with that of another community taking into
account geographical factors such as continent alignment, native plant
and animal species as well as human interfaces. One of the important
new type of integrative overview books taking into account the whole
earth as a system.  A more comprehensive title would read: Guns,
Germs, Steel, Information and Interface.  The details are what make it
credible and what make it tedious. Each chapter is fairly independent
and summative of previous chapters so one may delve into selected
chapters, including the final one of course.  

Ship Fever - Andrea Barrett (Mar01)
These tales of isolation, capturing whole lives in short stories,
provide insights both into the historical development of  selected
biological issues and into the human impacts of how science is done.
All the stories (including the final novella Ship Fever) have
characters whose development is changed by their gender, position or
order. Serves well to stimulate thought on the balances in life that
are established through choices.  The author does indeed like to see
and describe and appreciate rather than synthesize scientifically.
The serenity and exactness of the natural world is captured in the
writing style.

Babel Tower - A.S. Byatt (Apr01)
Set in 1968 London, we consider the female role in marriage, parenting,
academia, religion and education as Frederica separates from an abusive
husband to continue growing with relationships and contributing within the
world of words. The layers and details leave the reader with a diverse range
of  mental images from the church basement hotline phone bank to the education
committee visiting primary schools to the epitome of slovenly hippidom
synthesized in Jude.  Full of material for a bookclub discussion; full of
analytic detail for an English major.


Plainsong - Kent Haruf (May01)
A quality read that captures the flow of time, gently reminding us of the
story of community.  This midWest town is a chapter collection of individuals:
emergent adolescent Victoria (12 chapters), twins Ike and Bobby (12 chapters),
teacher Guthrie (8 chapters), farming McPherson bothers (8 chapters), divorced
wife Ella (1 chapter) and co teacher Maggie (1 chapter).  In the off-hand
manner reflecting real life, it is Maggie who initiates the connections that
weave the individuals into what constitutes the town of Holt (final chapter).



City of God - E.L.Doctorow (Jun01)
Doctorow presents a grand synthesis of philosophical themes layered, threaded
sometimes knotted into a detective story. Father Thomas Pemberton of St.
Timothy's is the Divine Detective in search of a stolen altar cross found on
the roof of a Synagogue for Evolutionary Judaism.  This book requires a
concerted effort to read given the big picture ruminations ranging from
relationships with God to romance to Holocaust.  Each section digested does
provide interesting, powerful views.


MidSummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare (Jul01)
Classic. Real world or fantasy, the many aspects to love are complex and
enduring. 

Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove - Christopher Moore (Aug01)
In our own UC Slug Salon, we chuckled over the vivid scenes Moore creates,
from a trailer-shaped-lizard mating with a silver fuel-truck to a Xena-like
warrior babe with drawn sword to the doctor's receptionist with oven mits.  We
liked the alternate views of everything from jazz to drugs to food (given the
dog's 'Food Man' perspective). Seems a book 'potted' in the flower-child 70's
era except we weren't mature enough to write it.  So like the sleeping lizard,
a decade or two later after some quiet Northern California nurturing, there
comes forth this unique author. Note he has his own web page
(http://www.chrismoore.com/cmoore/main.html) with reader group questions and
interesting interviews.

English Passengers - Matthew Kneale (Sep01)
The irony begins with the title: the journey aboard the vessel Serenity 
was everything except serene.  The book follows what seems to be dissociated 
developments through narrative of a half dozen individuals who ultimately 
meet.  These are English characters in the latter half of the 18th century, 
besotted and clouded by the breadth and meaning of the British empire 
as well as Tasmanian natives coping unsuccessfully with the inevitable 
dysfuctional cultural interfaces introduced by the invasion of both white 
men and religion.  A spread of opinions in terms of readability and 
compelling storyline. 

Motherless Brooklyn - Jonathan Lethem (Oct01)
A Brooklyn orphan with turret's in a Chandler-like detective story that serves
as a vehicle for a smoothly crafted literary investigation of the mind,
ultimately manifested in the spoken word. Lionnel Essrog as one of Frank
Minna's Men develops from boyhood to manhood within an Italian community of
illegal activity. A noire humor pervades this surprisingly readable,
innovative and thought provoking novel. 

Persian Pickle Club - Sandra Dallas (Nov01)
Another gathering of ladies "like a coop full of old biddies" brought together
by quilting with its diversity of patterns (including the paisley pattern
known as persian pickle) appropriate for a diversity of people and events..
Like Otto's How to Make an American Quilt, the gathering is a communication
hub for community.  Set in the hard times of 1930's Kansas, where crops were
failing and jobs non-existent, the book captures the small-town enduring flow
of life and the importance of community much like Haruf's Plainsong. Queenie
Bean grows through her relationship with city-education Rita but is the
virtual anchor showing us why the town mystery remains resolved.

Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver (Dec01)
The story of  relationships set in Appalachia organized by chapter:
predator-wildlife biologist Deanna Wolfe and her mountain hunter; moth
love-city entomologist Lusa Landowski and her farmer husband Cole Widener; old
chestnuts-orchardist Nannie Rawley and her crusty-old dynasty-end neighbor
Garnett Walker. The human development resulting from traditional
thesis-antithesis to synthesis combined with such an evident political agenda
lacked the subtleties of earlier works.  For those willing to suspend
expectations from previous work, built upon perhaps more personally
assimilated materials by the author, the text was both a good read as well as
an important read given the scarcity of novels taking on a significant mindset
reflected throughout as an ecological subtext.

The Ladies Auxilary - Tova Marvis (Jan02)
Batsheva is a converted Jew whose husband has died. With long gauze skirts and
free spirits she moves to Memphis seeking community for herself and her
daughter. She finds both the strengths and the weaknesses of an Orthodox
Jewish community. The community experiences the energy and the disruption of
one who thinks outside the narrowing filter of long-standing tradition.  We
get an excellent introduction to details of the Jewish traditions.  We witness
the struggle of parents to parent and their children to mature. The female
group 'voice' is so strong that it becomes, sometimes awkwardly, the
narrator.. The disillusioned youths find a lightening rod. Although not the
most compelling in terms of reading style, it elicted a good discussion.

The Blind Assassin-Margaret Atwood  (Feb02)
The story of sisters, Laura and Iris, develops with finesse through memoirs,
journals, science fiction and even newspapers articles. The richness of
narrative types combined with the diversity of authentic voices achieved
produces a good read.  The Depression era days of Canada filled with union
activity and the Red scare set the political stage for classic
individual-as-victim-of-context stories.

White Teeth - Zadie Smith  (Mar02)
Family, life, love, gender, history, religion and humor addresses the pathos
of small joys with a big-hearted despair found among immigrant cultures mixing
it up in the US. The story takes place toward the end of the 20th century in
London with Archie Jones and his best friend, Samad Iqbal, a Bengali Muslim.
In this case, a talented hand has crafted a light, witty book with a big,
complex voice and small, human stories.

Post Commander - Patrick O'Brian (Apr02)
Jack Aubrey is a typical Englishman (white man's burden, Church of England,
bankrupt upper-middle class) of the 1803 which is to say a bigot, a racist, a
sexist and an intolerant man. His best friend,  Stephen Maturin, is ironically
an Irish, Catholic .  Sometimes compared with Jane Austin and sometimes with
Hemmingway , O'Brian brings the cultural context while taking straightforward
writing to a new height.  While spinning tales of adventures through the
Napoleonic wars, the reader is treated to accurate insights into details of
the period's science, medicine, and the sea.

John Adams -  David McCullough (May02)
It's George Washington or Thomas Jefferson who jump colorfully to mind when
considering the Declaration of Independence or the early US Presidents.
Perhaps this is why it is so important that McCullough has captured the
amazing story of John Adams, a forthright and learned man of unique virtue
who is the soul mate so needed by the United States city during its current
unanchored times. Adams' admirable articulateness, intellect and devotion both
to country and to family reveal the lifelong strivings of a man aware of
himself but in search of a practical higher good. Given the book's thickness
and early history dreariness, this is an unexpected excellent, quickly moving,
thought-provoking read.

The Evidence Against Her - Rob Forman Dew (Jun02)
Dew captures poetically and psychologically 'an American family': its
evolution, impact, secrets and comforts.  Her quiet insight reveals what is
evident and what is not evident in terms of what an individual understands as
his/her role in life as it evolves nested within a family within a small Ohio
town.  The children Robert Butler, Lily Scofield and Warren Scofield are
joined later through marriage by the independent Agnes Claytor who does and
does not escape her family to join the trajectory of this trio in the elusive
quest for happiness.

The House Gun-Nadine Gordimer (Jul02)
One of those tacit assumptions, a house gun, which graces South African end
tables as a security precaution, has ramifications which cannot be appreciated
until events take an unsurprising but unconsidered path, ie spur of the moment
shooting of a home occupant.  We are dragged through the story by the thoughts
of  Mr and Dr Lindgard.  The he/she businessman/doctor couple are doing their
part in 'post apartheid" South Africa only to be jolted into unexpected
trajectories by their son, an upper-middle class architect, being defended
ably by a black lawyer.  Alternate views of values and their own relationship
result. Slow read sections in this novel from the dark continent.

Ecological Vignettes-Eugene Odum (Aug02).
Odum's Ecological Vignettes does on a macrolevel what Carson's book does on a
microlevel using a nontraditional format for sharing scientific results:
summaries in vignettes followed by more detailed scientific information in
essays which have references to more in-depth scientific literature
references.  An optimism is evident in this presentation of the integrated
learnings of a lifetime of field work as he bridges from ecology to the built
communities to human sciences.  The attempt to reach outside the ecological
arena makes the level of presentation seem  too simple on occasion as he keeps
the ecosphere view in mind while focusing alternatively on individual issues.
Perhaps it's the extrapolations that bring forward a somewhat familiar tone or
arrogance associated with an academic domain specialist.
The main topic is stated as a dilemma (not a double-bind) of how we decide to
deal with having reached the carry capacity of the earth so not having
unlimited resources: choose either to limit population and raise standards of
living or to not limit population and drop stands of living. Articulating and
focusing on the dilemma is the most important activity of this century.

Bel Canto-Ann Patchett (Sep02)
A single setting with a band of peasants using
caricaturized-terrorist-techniques living with the international diplomat
party gathered for a South American diplomatic celebration.  Characters
include Japanese industrialist Mr. Hosokawa, American soprano star Roxane
Coss, the countries vice president Reuben Iglesias, Swiss Red Cross negotiator
Joachim Messner not to diminish the roles for the church with Father Arguedas
or of  translation by Gen or terrorist leadership by General Alfredo and
Benjamin and peasant participants Beatriz and Carmen.  Not quite superficial
stereotype yet not quite farce, it's an easy read but with paths prompting
exploration, points for reflection, and higher planes for consideration.  Laid
out explicitly for the reader is how the peasant-terrorists are really like
family, and given the opportunity rise to the occasion of learning opera or
learning to write; less explicitly we ponder the final chapter wondering how
the personal learnings and revelation present themselves over time.  Once
leaving the isolating compound that filters out the routine practices,
rearranges ones priorities and roles as well as presents a diverse new set of
human interfaces, how much of their new insights is recalled?

The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd  (Oct02)
An easy read where Lily, a young white girl in the 1960's, abandons her
abusive, bigoted Southern home early.  She finds her way to another town and
the home of three black sisters who have found and made their own community.
Kidd brings in the communities of bees with the title and sticks to it as the
household's economic independence.  Beyond this self-sufficiency, they
understand the need for commitment and flexibility. They make up their own
rich rituals and celebrations to support 'be' structure.  The annoyance at
character and issue stereotypes is simply outweighed by the comfort brought by
the literary existance of August and the Mothers of Mary.  The wisdom revealed
is captured in a conversation between August and Lily: "The problem is they
know what matters, but they don't choose it….The hardest thing on earth is
choosing what matters." (p147)

Peace like a River - Lief Enger  (Nov02) 
The art of storytelling shines through this tale laced with high joy and
human tragedy, good humor and unlikely romance. Led by their father, Reuben
and his sister Swede embark on a quest departing their small town bullying in
an airstream trailer.  It's an unlikely story from midwest janitor closet to
the saddle of Sunny Sundown, but it's a good read by a newspaper writer father
of an asthmatic son who captures the core of the family unit  as well as the
brother-sister bond.

Life of Pi -Yan  Martel (Dec02)
A special fable/parable/quest tale, strong enough to serve both as an
end-of-the-year and a start-of-the-new-year story.  It's graphicness with
respect to who eats whom and how (think 450lb bengal tiger) provides an
effective grounding from which to launch such a readable story.

Corrections - Jonathan Franzen (Jan03)
A feeling of impatience 'what family is THAT entangled?' except there's a
familiar scene here and then a turn-of-phrase there that brings pause again
and again.  Alfred and Enid and their children; you dislike each individually
but in the end, you somehow accept them Alfred the father with little escape
before his descent into Parkinson's; Enid the mother and her one last family
Christmas; Gary a banker father of three children with narrow focus; Denise an
executive chef in Philadelphia; and Chip Lambert New York writer with
wandering purpose;   We're presented the writings of an American artist who
shoulder's the burden of painful insight with respect to functional and
dysfunctional relationships and responsibilities, personal and professional.
Serious but readable fiction.  Franzen's book of essays complements and
explains the tale of being dropped by the Oprah Winfrey Bookclub.

Mendel's Dward  - Simon Mawer (Feb03)
In the genetic crap-shoot, the generations removed dwarf lost out on both
height and happiness. He becomes a successful genetic researcher who life
unfolds in parallel with that of Mendel's so many decades earlier.  Not
unexpected that this outside the normal  individual prompts us to see the
normal and to think. A good read (twice through to clarify the two intertwined
stories) sandwiched between an odd but compelling story and a humorous but
philosophic tale. The author is a scientist able to provide the reader
thoughts on the uncertainty of scientific knowledge and how scientific
knowledge is shared.  Provides insight into the importance of emergence yet
even knowing about the importance of randomness, the Dwarf interferes to
select for the 'nondwarf' genes, a recognition that a human is not able to
remain passive when given the opportunity to eliminate known pain for unknown
strengths.
 
House of Sand and Fog  - Andre Dubus (Mar03)
We watch the lives of a mobile lower-middle class American (Kathy) and a
migrant Iranian military official (Bahroni) collide over ownership of a home
on the coast South of San Francisco.    Though one has short-sited simple
visions and the other an cross-cultural long-term strategy, the complexity of
cultures gives neither a hope of success.  Added to the mix is also  Lester,
the dishonest policeman. As yet another cast member unable to control his
impulses, he fuels  the dysfunction of both Kathy and Bahroni as well as our
bookclub speculation about the 'R' factor. Born , bred or created by an
overly-complex society, the characters have  resilience factors hovering near
zero. 

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry (Apr03)
The scene is 1975 India with Indira Gandhi's political administration,
emergency regulations and foced sterilizations.  The characters: Maneck
Kohlah, a college student whose parents' village general store is failing,
Dina Dalal, a middle age widow who takes up sewing to support herself;
seamstress; Ishvar Darji, her ever hopeful boarder and tailor; and his nephew
Omprakash, Ishvar's nephew whose father is ultimately murdered for crossing
caste boundaries and ultimately is murdered for crossing caste boundaries.
The book captures the heroic in the everyday life of these four dealing with
comedies and trajedies of a corrupt society. As in Dicken's London, the
themes suitably large for the population of India. Two metaphors: life as a
game of chance that Maneck learns to play but ultimately in only a win/loose
mode; life as a quilt constructed from seemingly unconnected fragments to
which their life stories add coherence. His vast, wonderfully precise canvas
poses, but cannot answer, the riddle of how to transform a corrupt, ailing
society into a healthy one. The fine balance? To participate without taking
it too seriously? To focus on the possible and to accept the improbable.  The
tension between the comedy and the tragedy.

The Passion of Artemisia - Susan Vreeland (May03)
Fairly quick read about a 17th century female painter in Rome. An unusual
time to be a woman participating in the religious or court arts, 
she meets the world on her own terms.  Having to choose between art and
family, she chooses art

Domestic Pleasures - Beth Guteheon (Jun03)
A bit like a soap opera that is well enough written to warrant a fairly quick
read. Its not as well written or as complex as 'The Corrections' which has
its own share of unsolved family matters.  Though presenting nice characters
with interesting relationships, there is a disappointment with the lack of
insight or learning on the part of the adults. Martha, the good parent, is
alost too much as her special communications skills unfolds with a rich
portrayal of teens and their peer groups. We are left to ponder whether
'domestic pleasures' is indeed a paradox, outside reality, though everyone
yearns for that domestic kind of arrangement.

American Pastoral - Philip Roth (Jul03)
American high school gentle giant sport hero Swede Levov is unmasked in this
emigrant-boy makes-good story. Most interesting to find our book group
discussion raise the thought that his daughter Merry's rebellion against her
black-white unable-to-compromise all-American father Swede could be similar
to our upset with our current president George Bush's reflection of another
superficial call to an American pastoral view.  Nathan Zuckerman, the
narrator, brings to mind author Fransen with its writer sensitivity but Roth
admits that he actually missed the story that he is now sharing after
Swede's death.  This story about striving for success and for making
coherence in a complex world illustrates how contending with the grand
superficial successes in America leaves one 'comfortably numb' but sometimes
prompts reflection. The stream of consciousness sentences are hard to wade
into but one is left feeling livelier for the effort. The author captures why
'simple is never simple' and is full of choices even by those who 'simply'
ascede to the American dream. 

Atonement-Ian McEwan (Aug03)
We watch a young girl intent on learning and observing the upper middle class
social world of England soas to understand and be able to describe 'life' as
an inspired, insightful, and recognized author. Giving voice to what she sees
in the garden gives momentum to developments she only later understands.
Briony Tallis seeks escape through numbing nursing work. In time she realizes
that no matter how much you experience, there's more to see and learn.  No
matter how much you hope to mentally or physically escape, your actions
indeed have consequences. The time is 1935 but brought to mind scenes from
the books Cold Mountain with its war images and American Pastoral with
notions of  how the author is a participant.  A bit slow to get into but
most were compelled to finish reading it.

East of Eden - John Steinbeck (Sep03)
A compelling American read with powerful landscapes and complex characters,
covering three generations during the 20th century as California Salinas
Valley was populated by the Hamilton's from  Ireland and the Trasks from
Connecticut. From biblical themes to colorful individuals who blend heritage
and circumstances, Steinbeck explains with story the critical distinctions in
the translation of the word  'Timsbel'' as 'thou shalt'  (command) or 'thou
shall' (promise)  or thou mayest (choose), bringing into focus the philosophy
of American individuals who 'may' triumph in the balancing of good and  sin.
Good and Greed are presented via the individual unbalanced (Cathy Ames), the
two ministries to individual loneliness (the church and the brothel) and even
the servant's role (Lee). Brings to mind other books presenting a sense of 
place, ie Snow Falling on Cedars and Rain of Gold.

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides (Oct03)
A Greek-American hybrid mixing a coming-of-age story with the confusions
brought by gender ambiguity. Cal Stephanides, raised as Calliope, provides
memorable moments as we hear this multi-generational tale recounted. Great
themes; good read.

Galileo's Daughter - Dava Sobel (Nov/Dec03)
Ice floats because it doesn't break the surface of the liquid?
It is for Galileo, one of the fathers of experimental science, to present 
the alternative, the notion of differing densities.  As a philosopher, he 
demonstrates the ability to provide a coherent, long-term support for 
family, religion, and science community in his own unique way.  His 
first wife and family is as amicably cared for as could be arranged in this
unemancipated, plague ridden era.  His work grows to dominate his
life as he both understands and balances the ultimate mind-body tensions
as philosopher-experimentalist.  One could try to imagine such a mind 
during a time when religion was not so placed to dictate from the 
top-down its role in the great scheme of things by controlling 
everything from book censorship to individual punishment to explicit 
behavior modification (the three acts of penitence with the third 
being three acts of good works).  Despite all and with the stability 
of his daughter's multi-faceted support (detailed in letters included in 
the text) as well as his own communications and social networking, 
his ideas emerged. It was a time of turning away from the artificial 
Aristotilian convergence on unity by logic (math by being immaterial is 
not useful to describe a materialistic Nature) and Catholic control 
(the earth seen as the center of the universe) with its accounting mentality. 
Rather, Galileo anchored science to the reality of observations and 
measurement. Without stop watches or design studios, he first
made the tools (telescope, prototypes, models, timing devices) and then could
perform the experiments.  Biodiversity, Datadiversity, Sociodiversity. There 
are a variety of subplots from the Duke's librarian (Roninelli) to his
Paris lawyer friend (Diodoti) that add breadth and depth to this historical
novel. The book seems dry and is hard to begin; but if you're sensitive to
the revolutionary period being presented in a scholarly manner, it is 
a unique read book. A strong line-up this year with Frantzen, Mawer, Mistri, 
Roth and Steinbeck, but Sobel's book measures up well, pertinent to 
contemporary questions such as how to reconcile our earth and our social 
systems. The book seems dry and hard to begin until youre aware of the
revolutionary period being presented in a scholarly manner making use of
original materials to complement Galileos profession and politics of science
with an ethnographically rich presentation of his daughters views on everyday
life. Hard to warm to but an outstanding scholarly read.

The Piano Tuner - Daniel Mason (Jan04)
Edgar Drake, a quiet, middle-aged, happily married piano turner, accepts a
British War Office commission to travel to the jungles of northeast Burma to
repair a piano. Does music have a part to play in the political realm of a
country as well as in the life-story of an individual. A quietly colorful read
presenting everymans need for adventure, in this case during the English
empire era. Though cast as a minor character by a society that traditionally
celbrates the musician rather than the support work, he lives a warm,
appreciated life at home where he is understood by a wife who hears the piano
tuner's 'invisible' work at a concert. A reminder that a comfortable life is
not enough to preclude responding to a call to extrapolate one's core beliefs:
in this case, that music can facilitate human understanding.

Unless - Carol Shields (Feb04)
Reta Winters is a novelist and translator. She's in the middle years of 
adulthood past 40 with three girls beyond middleschool and a husband content 
with their life and the study of the withdrawn trilobite. The book presents the 
year of her life when the traditional balances are disrupted. We witness a new 
mental filter under construction dealing with the hole left in her whole life 
by an event not understood. The reality of the event appears in each chapter, 
re-examined in this new context, while each traditional context is re-examined 
in a context of this event. The event is her oldest daughter's withdrawal from 
college to embark on a personal learning negotiation after literally running 
into the impossibility of reconciling personal life with the injustices of 
societies. while sitting on a streetcorner with a sign around her neck that 
says 'goodness' as a way of expressing perhaps what is missing and where to 
focus. The structure of the plot is its strength and its weakness, perhaps 
inevitable for a novel that takes understanding down to the elements of 
semantics, from the plannable nouns of 'happiness' and 'goodness' to the 
unplannable conjunctions of 'unless' and 'nearly'. Despite the capture of 
familiar moments from a shopping quest metaphor for the perfect scarf for 
her daughter to the manipulating Ôso lois, tell me about your lifeÕ editor, 
the group was unable to reconcile the superficial formula-like too tidy 
conclusion representative of an ending able to be incorporated more 
comfortably, more humanly into an individualÕs view of a coherent life story. 
The group gave it a mixed review. It was a quick read leading to good 
discussion. (see above entry for Stone Diaries with Shield's character 
Daisy Goodwill also finding happiness to be elusive.)

The Death of Vishnu - Manil Suri (Mar04)
The Bombay apartment building presents a microcosm of India; Vishunu, the 
apartment buildingls step-dwelling houseboy, dies on its staircase. India's 
caste system, cyclic nature, raising of local heros to become legendary 
figures, and reincarnation beliefs along with Hinduism, mythic trinity of 
Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver) and Shiva (destroyer) prompted discussion 
of different views; sharing kitchens, community actions, and card games that 
revealed superficiality of community affairs; the buildingÕ' cross-generational, 
inter-national composition explores depth and ramification of tensions.  

Blindness - Jose Saramago (Apr04)
A powerful parable about basic human values made possible by creating a 
filter on many of lifeÕs tasks by writing about an epidemic of blindness 
that spreads across the country. As witness of the effects of a quarantine 
effort housed in an insane asylum, the reader re-enters society with the 
inmates to find people have become nomadic since returning to the same shelter 
where you can't read the books or see the artifacts has less priority than 
being together as a group and finding food and water. The scenes of the blind 
masses foreground fear, stampedes, and lost artifacts. Note, #78 on the 
National Public Radio list of best fictional characters is the book's 
character 'dog of tears'.

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (May04)
A readable book that stimulated good discussion. Published by Shelley in 1918 
at the age of 19, the scope goes far beyond notions of Boris Karloff monsters. 
The tale stands out as a metaphorical myth, or is it a scientific allegory, 
or is it an epistolary tale of speculative fiction. Setting upon a substrate of 
the period's gothic horror genre and mixing with Shelley's autobiographical 
experience as well as faustian themes on the ramifications of scientific 
knowledge, the dilemmas that science brings at the start of industrialism 
unfold as relevant and of concern today.  The film (R.DeNiro) captures the 
visual and intellectual sweep of the novel. Shelley occupied a unique niche 
in a period where she acted as a Renaissance woman integrating across science, 
politics and writing. Despite the animation of a monster through the work of 
the mad (?) scientists (that is, of single minded passion), the book ends 
with two notes of optimism: upon reflection, the explorer Walton turns back 
from his knowledge quest and the monster in removing himself integrates beyond 
isolated personal or scientific passions and reason.

Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (Jun04)
Another carefully crafted nudge to her readers to be awake, vigilant, and 
mindful regarding self awareness, relationships, and society. Pay attention 
to the difference between advertisement and communication, the distinction 
between 'can' and 'choose', between those in safe areas and those in the 
he-she-it-like slums. We are presented with a future determined largely by 
the ramifications of biotech companies, living compounds, and global 
connectivity. Atwood's social constructionist vision remind the reader that 
the inevitable human tensions (homogeneous vs heterogeneous, product vs 
process, established vs innovated) are indeed important to balance, not just 
profit from, legislate about, or escape from.. Evolved in human timeframes 
are the near extinct oryx and the scuttling crake juxtaposed with those 
produced in fooling-around-individual-time, the rakunks and the crakers. 
Summarized in fridge magnet space: Take Your Time, Leave Mine Alone; I wander 
from space to space; The proper study of mankind is everything; 
siliconsciousness; Where God is, Man is Not; We understand more than we know. 
Although another dark science fiction that mixes white blindness dysfunction  
with Frankenstein style dilemmas, glad to have read the bleak 
fragment-collection as it prompted excellent discussion. KEYWORDS: bogus, 
scoundrel, corknut, elegant mind, factoids, neurotypical/NT, uncontrolled 
experiment w/unintended consequences.

Carson McCuller - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Jul04)
A book with rich characters that make it a simply good, a timeless read. 
Characters like the patient listener Timeless though 1940 when McCuller rose 
above her environment to embrace humanity, to draw a picture not only of a 
prom party, a day by the creek or crowds at the flying jenny but also of a 
globe spanning freedom and equality, not to judge but to focus on rights of 
every individual. She writes creatively in a time bad language was unacceptable. 
John Singer and quiet musician Mick Kelly in the Southern tradition of troubled 
folk who fail to fit, of poverty and tempers, unfairness and loneliness, 
whiteness and blackness. So many rooms of solace for those who in end have no 
solace. Two characters who have so much to say no one will listen; they 
can't even listen to each other. A half dozen small town characters befriend 
a deaf mute thinking they have found understanding friend, when in fact he not 
only does not understand them, he himself lacks a confidant once his own deaf 
mute friend goes insane. And if Singer symbolizes god, god is silent, 
powerless to do for you.  A good, solid read.

Khaled Hosseini - Kite Runner (Aug04)
A first book for this Afghani author writing in English that brings Afghanistani 
a little closer to the edge of awareness.  A fairly quick but solid read still 
leaving questions about the Taliban occupation but presenting the nuances of 
another culture. Sometimes a bit too much caricature along with something 
that left you uneasy. One member suggested it might be the main character: 'you 
didn't like him!'. 

Jane Austin-Mansfield Park (Sep04)
Set in England some 200 years ago, it was found to be a slow read. Telling the 
story of a poor niece come to live in the country home of relatives, the family 
appears to focus on economic value and connections  So why wasn't it called Mary 
and Fanny, born-withs and born-withouts, cultural norm and quiet outsider, 
active and passive, the intellectual and the economic. Between the structure 
of English society and country-house living, this story captures the theatre 
within the theatre. 

Audrey Niffenegger - Time Traveler's Wife (Oct04)
Set in Chicago around 2000, a story of love between an artist Clare and a 
librarian Henry where Hentry intermittently time travels. So Henry, whose 
profession is keeping memories in order, is thrust into the disorderly 
world of revisiting an event with a different-age perspective. And Clare, 
whose field is built upon representing in order to liberate and prompt 
reflection, accepts a life dominated by the linearity of Henry's timeline. 
A genetic disorder introduces these uncontrolled time shuffling where Henry 
appears naked in the library cage, meets Clare in the meadow for an 18th 
birthday picnic, and revisits the car ride ending in his mother's death.  
The disjointed meetings means time-lagged trusted friends intermingle 
permitting a rare gift of insightful guidance that things do work out. 
That you canÕt change the working out whether due to time travel in fiction 
or due to culture's and nature's complexity is left to the reader to ponder. 
An interesting read sometimes like a series of short-stories due to the 
fragmentation of time but with some well-drawn character's narrating a story 
of continuing love, longing, and waiting.

Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man (Nov/Dec04)
The world of mind, not minding: Ellison effectively reaches beyond the world 
of blackness to show sense making embedded within its social order. Though 
specific to the black race struggle, in presenting a meta-view, it's equally 
valid for any group seeking identity and any individual seeking to synthesize. 
He gives voice to the invisible individual as part of the crowd, rediscovering 
at each stage of understanding that misalignments of internal and external 
result in lies to further action while movements effectively integrate over 
the very diversity they represent. The book captures the dilemma of multiple 
perspectives growing from successive experiences with multiple contexts or 
levels of learning. While conceptually striving to observe patterns in the 
chaos and to synthesize events into a coherent story, Ellison has created 
images of disciplined clarity: the white stag party boxing ring fight, Negro 
College president, Liberty Paint factory, Mary's boardinghouse, the Brotherhood,
the riot, the underground retreat. Periodically mulling over his grandfather's 
words, the un-named hero ends up with ambivalence and humor, with a call for 
continued engagement and struggle against the human tendency to inflict 
invisibility on others. An important read across all times.