C’est la vie means that’s life.
C’est la guerre is the novel in a nutshell – this is war…
We will not give up the chase.
16 Bookers fictionally “marched” in formation to the home of Bonnie Magee to be entertained by Jane Shaw who masterfully dissected this month’s read focusing on the historical value of the novel rather than “becoming” one of the characters. In her words, “a plump breast” is the only thing I have in common with a pigeon.” Although in her opinion the social commentary opined by Cher Ami seemed a bit lecture-heavy with his/her view of the world in general, it drew us in offering a different way of looking at pigeons – they mate for life, have two eggs in the nest, are very loyal, and talk to other animals. Who knew?
A little history of Bookers’ books that have relied on our imaginations and fostered our belief in those things that seem improbable if not impossible. Life of Pi, a magical tale about a boy named after a Paris swimming pool, a 450-pound Bengal tiger, and an orangutan co-existing in a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. In The Shack we begin with a “broken believer” in the depths of “the great sadness” when he received a note in the mailbox from Papa – his wife’s pet name for God – saying he has been missed and invites him to come to the shack if he wants to get together. In Water For Elephants a journey of discovery is led by an elephant whose first and only language is Polish. The Art of Racing in the Rain is written through the eyes of a dog (Enzo) ready to leave the canine world teaching all who would listen about moving forward through tragedy. The Book Thief, narrated by “death” recounts the horrors of WWII set in Nazi, Germany. And these examples are just the first seven years of Bookers.
Now, in Year 18, we are enthralled with a story narrated by a “taxidermed” British homing pigeon named Cher Ami, currently proudly perched, and prominently displayed in the WW1 section of the third-floor Price of Freedom exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Although misidentified as a male, this hen’s claim to fame was delivering a dire message from newly commissioned, Major Charles Whittlesey, a Harvard-educated Wall Street lawyer who had enlisted after getting a dose of the red, white, and blue. It seems his unit, while advancing at Argonne, France, was surrounded by the Germans and later dubbed by the press as “the Lost Battalion” but was neither lost or a battalion…the soldiers were right where they were ordered to be but unfortunately the American artillery directed a sustained barrage directly on the Major’s troops thinking they were the enemy. Cher Ami was severely wounded during her last rescue flight, was rewarded with a wooden prosthetic leg, and received medals from General Pershing and the French government unfortunately dying of her injuries a year later. Major Whittlesey became one of the most celebrated soldiers of the war, receiving the Medal of Honor with his story gracing the front pages of newspapers and magazines throughout the world, this fame affecting every aspect of his once unassuming life. It was this celebrity and survivor’s guilt that tormented and ultimately doomed him.
Kathleen Rooney took a risk by interjecting a smart, affectionate, heroic winged messenger narrator whose commentary took up half of the book, but this imaginative leap of faith worked as it avoided telling yet another story of bravery and brotherhood in the trenches. By telling the story in this way the pigeon and the Major shared the same depth of character proving this novel was only incidentally a war story. Another clever ploy to draw attention to the equivalence between the alternating narrators was by beginning their paired chapters the same way. Chapters 11 and 12 begin with “Take the thing that bothers you and place it in parentheses.” With Cher Ami saying, “I’ve told myself that a thousand times since we got stuck in the Pocket. Bracket the death that spatters against you. But not a day has slipped by these past hundred years that I haven’t recollected my final flight.” Charles echoed the same sentiment adding, “But hardly an hour has slipped by these past three years without my recollecting those five days under fire without food or water, when we, the 308th, bled out, only to rise again like revenants as the Lost Battalion.” Typically, animals are treated as accessories to human stories disregarding that they might possess meaningful lives and perspectives. Much like in E.B. White’s classic, Charlotte’s Web, who also used personification to give a spider and a pig a voice, Rooney forced us to explore that possibility by giving Cher Ami a soul and empathy to feel the losses of others outside the animal kingdom. Black Beauty, Watership Down, Animal Farm and Jonathan Livingston Seagull also utilized the voice of an animal to narrate their stories.
The human and avian protagonists alternated their stories, each providing brutally honest and sometimes graphic observations of their wartime experiences and the irrationality of war in general subtly telegraphing an antiwar theme through the narrative in the tradition of All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque published in 1928 and is arguably the most famous of the anti-war novels as it paints a picture of the inhuman reality of war reflected in the experiences of millions of soldiers and how murderous warfare affects the human psyche. And The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane set during the American Civil War follows the story of a young private of the Union Army who flees from the field of battle and is overcome by shame. The novel’s purpose was to oppose the romantic and patriotic notions which many, especially young men, have about war by showing how the horrors of war affected one soldier who enlisted believing that war was honorable, patriotic, and romantic. The effectiveness of the novel in making the anti-war argument was this author picked a war that most would agree was fought for a noble cause – ending slavery and the continuity of the nation of the United States – and by doing so he showed there was no difference in a “just” war and an “unjust” war.
Jane led our discussion of this unique novel researching the “Lost Battalion” and Charles Whittlesey who was raised in a large family of six children, his father was a logger and an avid outdoorsman with a passion for hunting and fishing. Charles never bought into the sport of killing something…he was a scholar, never really fitting in, preferring to spend time with men but unashamed of who he was, he was a misfit by nature and never saw the point of waging war until the Germans sunk the Lusitania, the world’s largest passenger ship eleven miles off the southern coast of Ireland killing 1,198 passengers and crew. Charles Whittlesey answered the call to duty emerging as a Major and the leader of the 77th Division comprised of a group of mainly untrained draftees who back in the States were immigrants living in poverty.
A Western Union telegram from the German Foreign Secretary to the German ambassador to Mexico was intercepted which proposed an alliance between Germany and Mexico in case the United States entered the war promising funding to help Mexico recapture Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona if they became a German ally. President Woodrow Wilson who initially sought a peaceful resolution to WWI urged immediate U.S. entrance into the war and four days later Congress formally declared war against Germany. His vision was a community of nations to ensure a war to end all wars. In a village in Great Britain a pigeon was born who would spend his/her life as a carrier pigeon, one of 100,000 used during WWI touting a 95% success rate in delivering their messages. The American handler, Bill Cavenaugh, was a fictional character, most likely a composite of the characteristics of all trainers, was created as a counterpart to the Major’s preferences although their relationship was only one of friendship and respect and not a return of affections. Jane tells us there is an Animals in War Memorial sculpture in Hyde Park, London commemorating the countless animals that have served and died under British military command throughout history. The plaque reads, “They had no choice.”
The author speaks of WWI as a “a past beyond our living memory” – no one is alive today that served in that war. There are no happy endings. 554 soldiers “resided” in this French valley and only 194 walked out. When Charles Whittlesey returned home, he and Cher Ami were the public relations campaign for the Army…a lost war hero who was clueless as how to navigate being the face of WWI wanting desperately to just fade into the background and a broken pigeon who together made a movie and participated in every celebration befitting the “legends of war.” In the end, Cher Ami succumbed to her injuries taking on a postmortem life as a stuffed pigeon in the Smithsonian while Charles crafted his exit plan, jumping overboard…lost at sea just like he was lost in life.
From two Amazon one-star reviews, they both voiced disappointment that the author chose to spread “false” statements about Charles’ sexual preference as there was “no evidence” that was the case. They were very upset that she took liberties to taint the life of a war hero to which no one can dispute in the name of “historical fiction.” We shared personal stories of our veterans, how most regarded their service as a job with most reluctantly talking about their time in the military. The book was well received with a couple of Bookers stating too much “war stuff” and the alternating chapters took some concentration. But overall, each of us garnered a deep appreciation for the dedication and sacrifice of our veterans as the realization is prevalent that freedom is indeed not free. Kudos to Jane and our special Bookers who always embrace our journey to walk in others’ shoes!
On the business side:
Bonnie Magee, in her food and beverage czar role, will be sending out the menu selections early as she will be traveling and not returning until the day of Bookers’ May meeting. Please respond to her prior to her departure so we’ll be all set to toast another successful year of our special group.
Malakoff’s own bookstore, Bookish, will be celebrating their second anniversary and Indie Bookstore Day on Saturday, April 30th with lots of activities for all ages. 11:00 is children’s story time and crafts; 2:00-4:00 p.m. is the author fair with 9 local authors (with yours truly) participating in a meet and greet and book signings; a $100.00 store credit will be given away and a 20% discount is offered on all purchases; free lattes including a special birthday cake latte and cappuccinos all day. Drop by and thank Jen White Sherman for bringing her dream and this jewel to our little neck of the woods!
I’ll send out more information on Books in Bloom shortly, but we did assemble our table décor after the meeting, and we should have plenty to work with for both tables thanks to Rokhshie Malone’s contributions.
BookTrib is considering offering monthly Ebooks instead of the physical copies. No details as to how this will work but the consensus of Bookers is that we prefer seeing the titles in print.
In honor of the tenth anniversary of the release of E.L. James” Fifty Shades of Grey they will be releasing a special edition hardback with a new cover and never before seen content. This might be of interest to the Alabama division of Bookers and their leader if she needs another major “replacement” type operation.
We “noodled” the possibility of a June meeting….we’ll re-noodle next month.
COLOR CODING SYSTEM
WHITE: LIGHT READ
PINK: MODERATELY CHALLENGING
RED: CHALLENGING
May 10: Be Frank With Me, Julia Cleburne Johnson Debut
A reclusive literary legend who wrote a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning novel at nineteen has barely been seen or heard from since though, ironically, she still lives in a glass mansion in Bel Air even after having lost all her money in a Ponzi scheme. She needs to write another novel, so her publisher sends her a highly competent editorial assistant whose job is to be a companion to the author’s nine-year-old son – a boy with the intellect of Albert Einstein and the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star.
PINK
Discussion Leader: Debbie Yarger
Home of Debbie Yarger, Bookers Evening Meeting
Bonnie Magee, Food & Beverage czar will coordinate our fare.
Summer Read: The Wives of Henry Oades, Johanna Moran
When Henry Oades accepts an accountancy post in New Zealand, his wife, Margaret, and their children follow him to exotic Wellington. But while Henry is an adventurer, Margaret is not. Their new home is rougher and more rustic than they expected—and a single night of tragedy shatters the family when the native Maori stage an uprising, kidnapping Margaret, and her children. The story is based on a real-life legal case.
PINK
Discussion Leader: Jane Shaw
Happy reading,
JoDee
