Dear
Everything, thanks for introducing ‘that which is beyond understanding, but
‘not beyond loving.’
24 Bookers honored this classic novel by
donning 50 shades of purple, sipping grape juice, popping purple grapes, and
getting our antioxidant fix with dark chocolate Hershey kisses wrapped in…you
guessed it, purple foil. Our guest reviewer, Penny Barshop, even placed a
purple plant on the coffee table in hopes we all would take notice and prevent
a lightning strike. Many thanks to Donna Walter for offering her home when we
needed to move the meeting from Rebecca’s. Bookers member, Rosemary Farmer, was
in our thoughts and prayers as she manages life without her husband, Giles. In
addition, we sent well wishes for a speedy recovery to Mary Jacob as she heals from
a recent surgery.
We welcomed two new members, Joylene Miller
and Rebecca Robinson, and we hope they enjoyed their first taste of Bookers and
will join us again… and we were delighted to see some returnees to the
meeting…you know who you are…you’ve been missed!
The overview and discussion of The
Color Purple landed in the passionate hands of Penny Barshop, and we
are grateful for her insights in bringing the novel to life for us. I think we
all would have benefitted from sitting in her English literature classroom if
her dissection of this difficult read were any indication of her thoroughness. “There’s
no beginning or end to teaching or learning,” a quote from the book, would
apply to this exercise. To summarize the novel, at fourteen Celie had borne and
lost two children by a man she thought was her father. She was sold into a
marriage to “Mister” who reminded her she is poor, black, and ugly, but the
story is the road she travels evolving from a battered invisible wife to a
determined self-reliant businesswoman, with a lot of help from her friends.
Most either read the book or had seen the
movie, but when asked how many liked it, only a few raised their hands agreeing
with some critics calling it disjointed, difficult to establish a time frame,
and the epistolary format often rambled and was confusing. The focus of the
novel primarily was how the blacks treated each other and lacked the
exploration of the white/black issues that still plague our society today. Some
felt the Africa section was too long…enough of the leaking roofs… but the
author’s intent – to show the similarity between the treatment of African women
and their American counterparts; and the characters conversed in their
“natural” language, but often causing you to cringe with its brutality. Alice
Walker drew from her own background, as did Harper Lee in To Kill A Mockingbird,
writing what she knew encompassing forty characters, each jumping off the page
with uniqueness and style showing us how they not only survived, but also grew.
Within the setting, Georgia to Memphis, to England, Africa and back, we saw
hints of the timeline of the novel, (said to be 1910-1940); transportation
moved from wagons to cars; named singers performing at the juke joints were
popular in the 20’s-40’s; and William Tubman was the President of Liberia in
1944 when the missionaries visited Africa. One puzzle we addressed was why
Celie’s husband was referred to as Mister or Mr._____instead of by his first
name. We think the answer might be if you give something a name, it becomes
real, it belongs to you, and it’s of some value to you as a person. Only at the
end of the book does Celie’s Mr.___become Albert…after he begins to respect her
as a woman and a person of worth.
This novel mixed Celie, who wrote to God
because she was afraid, ashamed and not worthy of a conversation with him, with
the flamboyant Shug Avery adding Sophia’s strong personality against her
spineless husband, Harpo. Couple that with “mindless racism” within the white
community with revenge and perpetual love for an absent sister, and lastly and
perhaps most importantly, douse the novel with a spiritual awakening of God
versus the God image, encouraging all to see the color purple in everything.
On the business side:
Please note
below the March meeting has been moved from the 8th to the 15th
due to an unavoidable conflict for both me and MN. We apologize for the change
as we try not to rock the boat, but sometimes it’s necessary. We hope you
understand. Also, with regard to The Secret Chord by Geraldine
Brooks, we have concluded it is not a Bookers’ book due to a number of
controversial issues, but merits reading because of the mastery of the author’s
prose in the context of a historical fiction. In its place, we’ve chosen If
You Find Me, a debut novel by Emily Murdoch, which could be set in
Henderson County and taken from the CPS cases files. Two sisters live in an
abandoned camper in the woods. Their come-and-go mother suffers from mental
illness and is a drug addict, leaving them alone to fend for themselves for two
months. The father and social services intervene beginning a new life for both
girls.
I’m reading
The
Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster, a debut novel by Scott Wilbanks. On the
quirky scale its right up there with Harold Fry and Major Pettigrew, not to
mention Ove with all the major characters loners discovering life is better
when surrounded by great friends. It’s a charming combination of time travel,
mystery, magic, murder, and romance…so different and out of my wheelhouse, that
I can’t put it down….MN on the other hand had no trouble leaving it on the why
am I wasting my time reading this nonsense pile. Let me know if you take the
plunge!
COLOR CODING SYSTEM
WHITE: LIGHT READ
PINK: MODERATELY
CHALLENGING
RED: CHALLENGING
February
9th:
The
Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
PINK
Home
of: Daryl Daniels
Reviewer:
Kay Robinson
March
15th: If You Find Me, by Emily Murdoch
PINK,
but a deeper shade due to subject
Home of Rebecca
Brisendine, Tentative
Note later date
Reviewer: TBD
April
12th:
Winter
Garden by Kristin Hannah
PINK
Home of Kay
Robinson
Reviewer: Jean
Alexander
May
17th: Wine & Cheese
evening meeting
Note later date
A Man
Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
PINK
Home
of: Beverly Dossett
Reviewer:
Jean McSpadden
Summer
Break: June, July, & August
Summer
Read, TBD
September
13th: Beginning of Bookers’ 12th
year
Remember,
love transforms and cruelty disfigures the human spirit.
Happy Reading,
JoDee
