Wednesday 17 November 2010

Book Clubs

I've been a member of a couple of book clubs, but I haven't liked them. Until I read a short story called “To the Measures Fall” in a recent issue of the New Yorker, I thought my failure to enjoy them was due to a flaw in my character. However, when I read the description by Richard Powers, the author of “To the Measures Fall”, of the book club his protagonist takes her favourite book to, I recognised the scene straight away:

Two club members report flinging the book across the room in a rage. Another demands her three days back. Accusations multiply: it's mawkish, it's cerebral, it's meandering, it's manipulative, it's cold and cunning and misanthropic, it's wrecked by redemption. How are we supposed to care about these characters? I just wanted them all to get a life.”

It's very disconcerting to be given a book, which you read and enjoy, or even don't much enjoy but have lots of thoughts about, all of which you save up for the big night, and then to join a number of people you think you know quite well and who in most circumstances seem reasonable and thoughtful and listen to them say things that are impossible to argue with and not worth articulating, like, 'I just wanted them all to get a life”. Although book clubs are probably meant to foster a sense of community, I came away from each meeting feeling peculiarly lonely.

9 comments:

  1. I met one of my best friends at a book club. the club didn't last but the friendship flourished.

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  2. Maybe, to paraphrase Lisa Minelli and Peter York in Cabaret, mine were just the wrong two book clubs.

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  3. I did try a book club too, and felt very similar. I like books, but maybe it's more enjoyable when you don't have to deconstruct them.

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  4. Oh dear. Does anybody remember that marvellous comedy series by Annie Griffin called the Book Club? I've discussed starting a book club here in Cluj/Kolozsvar with our local (American) Lutheran pastor. He can talk the hind legs of a donkey, which should at least prevent there being any awkward silences.

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  5. Oh dear, zmkc, I know exactly what you are saying. As in "I didn't like the book because I didn't like the characters" and so on ... really! However, I have been in a bookgroup for 22 years that, mostly, transcends this. Of course we are a mixed bunch and you get the odd non-rational thought but mostly our group discusses the book as a book and not as some sort of replica of life. BUT I know of many book groups that become dining groups because they don't really know how to discuss a book ... and really all they want to do is discuss their lives. And that's ok, but it's not what most of my bookgroup friends are looking for.

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  6. Dining/drinking groups, that's what mine were, and the more that was drunk, the more irritable the comments on the books became

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  7. I'd forgotten all about that programme, Gadjo - I've just looked it up and it was called The Book Group. It should have been a warning to me not to get involved with that sort of thing.

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  8. I sort of wanted a bit more deconstructing, Madame, and a bit less "Oh, I don't know why, can't be bothered to explain, but I just couldn't stand this book." I wanted one person to say, "Because of this, this and this, I thought the book was rubbish," and then another person to say, "Well, what about this, this and this - doesn't that make you change your mind?" and on and on, far into the night, earnest rubbish dribbling from our mouths, pointlessly but curiously entertainingly.

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  9. That's more or less my group zmkc - pointlessly but curiously entertaining. BUT we don't go far into the night. We do however try to explain why we did or didn't like the book and a few come with notes. post-it notes stuck in special spots, reviews we've read that raise an issue. We don't usually manage to change each other's minds but we do give it a good shot. It's a challenge though - being honest but aware of people's feelings, as some are more robust than others in their viewpoints and if you're not careful some will shut up altogether.

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