FEBRUARY 2021 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS, Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again, Elizabeth Strout

 

A book that never finishes saying what it has to say is a classic.

15 Bookers met at the home of Bonnie Magee on a day that was reminiscent of the setting of the novel and its main character. Many thanks to Ann Ireland for leading the discussion of Olive, Again. When Olive Kitteridge told Elizabeth Strout she was not through with Olive yet…the author did as she was told and wrote the sequel…the continuation of the evolution of Mrs. Kitteridge. We’d like to welcome new Bookers’ member, Judy Koslo, who joined us today and brought books to share…we can tell she’s going to be a fit! Also, Jean McSpadden graced us today saying “Olive is mask-worthy.” Many thanks to Jane Shaw for volunteering to be on the selection committee!

Embedded in our hearts and tapping into the power of prayer, today in particular we are all riding that jet stream to Houston where our own “energizer bunny,” Daryl Daniels is undergoing a grueling day of pre-transplant inpatient treatment. If all goes as planned, she will celebrate her new birthday on February 16, 2021 with the SUCCESSFUL stem cell transplant. Barry has reminded us that there are no firm dates past today, however, the following is the information he just shared with us: From today until the first week of March (no mailing after February 28^th) cards can be sent to Daryl Daniels, 1515 Holcomb Dr. Room G1876, Houston, Tx. 77030. After March 1, 2021 they should be addressed to her at 7205 Almeda Rd. #300004, Houston, Tx. 77230. They will be leasing a corporate apartment in the Houston Medical Center area March-May and do not expect to have mail service at this residence. They hope to return to Pinnacle in early June.

Bonnie Magee is spearheading the blood drive in honor of Daryl and it is scheduled for March 16, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the Pinnacle Clubhouse. More details to follow.

Please continue to keep Janet Farhat, Cherry Fugitt and Rosemary Farmer in your healing prayers and condolences to Patsty Dehn on the loss of her brother and Beverly Dossett whose brother is critically ill.

We are all saddened to learn Janet and Bob Noblitt are leaving the area at the end of this month, moving closer to family in the Rockwall area. To say golf will miss her…Bookers will miss her… is an understatement. She’ll always be a part of us and for those who have known her for a long time, she may be out of sight, but never forgotten.

Tanya Holstead announced she is taking charge (imagine that…HA) of the Pinnacle library located on the ground floor of the club. She’ll be adding puzzles to the display case, weeding out some old books and replacing them with some of the BookTrib books. What she doesn’t use, we’ll donate to Bookish…a win, win for readers and authors!

Speaking of books, how many of you know published authors ages 6 and 4? MN Stanky’s grandsons, Stock and Spafford Martinez have written a series of 3 books. The Scientist Brothers, Birds of a Feather, book 1, The Scientist Brothers and the A B Seas, book 2, and the latest one published yesterday, The Scientist Brothers, Hugs and Kisses. Check out these budding wordsmiths on Amazon.com…we knew them when! So very special.

Great literature makes us uncomfortable because it makes us fully human. And, in the words of Virginia Woolf, “fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.” Olive Kitteridge, and Olive, Again exemplifies this in every word of every sentence. We shook our heads, laughed at ourselves, rolled our eyes, and clapped along with the absurdity of life – all in the name of an iconic character created by this Pulitzer Prize winning author.

Most read the books, many loved, some liked…no one dared raised their-I hated it hand…thanks! This book has special meaning to me personally and as an author. I shared a photo of little ole’ me and Elizabeth Strout taken at the Dallas Museum of Art, Arts and Letters Live series in 2013. My novel, Life in a Box is a culmination of this book club encouraging, prodding, and cheerleading and some inspiration and/or validation from Elizabeth Strout…both lighting the fire to put myself out on a limb and follow my dream. Bookers chose Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout as our November 2009 selection. I wrote a review of the book in the voice of Olive herself and our co-chair chose to forward it to Elizabeth who responded:

“This is one of the most wonderful things I have seen! I laughed out loud reading it, and I will keep it and cherish it forever. What a piece of writing it is; I swear Olive was writing it. I am so appreciative of the 28 women who took her into their hearts, responded so vividly and deeply  and I am especially appreciative to you for sending it along. It just warms my heart. Please give my very best wishes and heartfelt thanks to all – Sincerely, Elizabeth.”

She followed up by sending an autographed copy to me with the inscription, “With gratitude, affection, and admiration – for being such a good reader, and writer.” I came down from cloud nine, took a deep breath, and began fulfilling a dream.

So, to continue in Olive’s voice, here’s a recap of Olive Kitteridge…you’ve all heard about my dear Henry…a man whose view of life consisted of everyone standing around smiling just like the pictures in the Sears catalogue. My more realistic theory follows the seven stages described by Shakespeare…you’re born, and your livelihood is dependent on others…and at the end of life you end up right back where you started from. What happens in the middle is you figure out how to stay afloat…no rose-colored glasses for this old lady! You probably thought Henry was a saint for putting up with me…he was, but you learned, he had his own faults. The strength of our bond was tested but we both resisted those temptations that would have turned our lives upside down. You met our son, Christopher, his two wives, his stepchildren, and finally his son. I’m sorry you had to witness him unleashing a lifetime of anger at me…as he said he was not going to take responsibility for the “extreme capriciousness of my moods.” Well, I guess if you follow your therapist from one coast to the other you learn to express yourself. You explored the minds of lost souls and hoped they would be given the strength to move forward, all the while seeing how difficult it was to release the past. You heard stories of redemption, reclamation of dignity, vindictiveness, tales of confession…you celebrated those with courage enough to take a chance and were reminded of the frailty of life. You saw me melt in the face of a starving child, try to reconcile my life with Henry and take a step into the future with another man.

The final chapter in my story was entitled River. Sadly, Henry died before our grandson was born and I was feeling like a “package of vacuum-packed coffee” but determined to stick to a plan – to have a reason to get up in the morning when lying in bed would suit me dandy. Following the same routine every day was interrupted when I came across a body slumped on the path by the river…it was Jack Kennison, the same one I nearly ran over in the library parking lot. He was rich, arrogant, and surly with an openly gay daughter and a Republican to make matters worse, but we had heartache in common, both needing to hear another person’s voice which ended up with my “big, sagging body” lying next to a guy with a stomach bulging like a sack of sunflower seeds. On the surface it didn’t appear we had any mutual interests, but we were happy in our own skins, happy to be alive, and both looked forward to the dawn of each day in the sunset of our ordinary lives. Would I have chosen him under other circumstances – no and the same would go for Jack. I like to picture us as “two slices of Swiss cheese pressed together, amazed at the holes we brought to the union and what pieces life takes out of you. I was baffled by the world, but I didn’t want to leave it yet. I wasn’t through pondering, questioning, rationalizing, opinionating, enjoying, learning, and trying desperately to understand. I hope you take something from my story. I hope you look at people differently. I hope you understand life is more complicated than you know. I hope you realize everyone is human and we’re all trying to do the best we can. And, above all, I hope you will try to understand people, even if you can’t stand them. If you’re ever in Crosby, come by…the baked beans and ketchup will be on the table. Everyone is welcome, even if you’re wearing an elephant pin in your lapel…you and Jack will have a grand time reminiscing about the good ole’ days. ‘Goodnight, Irene’ I have a garden to weed, and donuts to eat That’s all I have to say, the rest is none of your business.”

Olive is not gone…she’s just in the voice of Ann Ireland who picked up the ball with the sequel, Olive, Again. Ann offered bullet-point summaries of each of the 13 chapters. Jack driving an hour away to Portland to purchase a gallon of whiskey as not to run into “that woman” – Olive, the widow, and was almost arrested; the laugh-out-loud baby shower with Olive delivering the baby in the backseat of her car; 14-year old Kaylee’s hormones kick in while cleaning a neighbor’s house much to the delight of the “man of the house” who generously overpaid her and not for her cleaning expertise – like a live peep show in the comfort of his own home; a visit from Olive’s podiatrist son and his family shows the fragility of their relationship with her realizing he married his mother – one who berated his father in public just like his wife; a platonic bond forms between a daughter whose father died in a fire and his lawyer; one of Olive’s former students, Cindy, is critically ill and Olive begins to visit her. Olive is sad as she is now a better person than she used to be but Henry is not there to see it; a nostalgic walk turns a man into a hero when he saves another man’s life but he realizes he needs to quit looking back at his life but look forward to the rest of it; Olive has her first pedicure while Jack realizes he doesn’t understand himself as a person; re-enter the Burgess boys whose wives have no use for each other; Olive runs into a former student, Andrea, who is now the U.S. Poet Laureate at a coffee shop. After Olive bares her soul she invites Andrea to use the information any way she wants…and she does; the MacPhersons are truly a house divided, the couple not speaking to each other in 35 years were brought together by their daughter, a successful dominatrix – much to the shock of her parents at how she pays the rent; Olive suffers a heart attack, falls in “love” with her doctor, cares for her home-health care nurses  and is “shuffled” into an assisted living facility where she finds an unlikely companion who she worried about. The final chapter, “Friend” is poignant. Olive has always struggled to understand things – relationships, people, and why they do what they do, but in the end, she finally understands the thing that has puzzled her the most – herself. When she began typing her memories, it came down to her final entry. “I do not have a clue who I have been. Truthfully, I do not understand a thing.” Good night Olive!

Thanks to everyone for their insights into the novels and for your respect for the author, a master of animating the ordinary. Her novels are the gold standard for literary fiction offering a view of the world that she sees.    

On the business side:

COLOR CODING SYSTEM

WHITE:         LIGHT READ

PINK:             MODERATELY CHALLENGING

RED:              CHALLENGING

 March 23:                 Note change of date from March 9^th

The Dutch House, Ann Patchett

                                    PINK

A story about the interminable bond between siblings – a brother and a sister who grow up in a fairy tale – huge house, loving father, and caring staff. The only thing missing is their mother who fled the pressure of managing the household when they were young.

Discussion Leader: Melanie Prebis

Home of: Debbie Yarger

 April 13:                    The Book of Lost Friends, Lisa Wingate

Historical novel set in the tumultuous era of Reconstruction, 1875, Louisiana. Three young women search for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South and a modern-day teacher learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives. Based on actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War as newly freed slaves searched for loved ones who had been sold away.

PINK

Discussion Leader?

Home of?

May 11:                      People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks

                                    PINK

An Australia rare-book expert is offered a job of a lifetime – analysis and conservation of a priceless book, one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. As she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries, the reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation.

                                    Discussion Leader?

                                    Home of?

June 8(bonus month)The Second Mother, Jenny Milchman (BookTrib book)

A young woman loses her baby and after months of mourning her child and drowning her pain in alcohol, her husband wants to separate and go their own ways. She decides to start anew and takes a teaching position in a small school on a remote island in Maine.

Discussion Leader?

Home of Pat Faherty

Summer Read:          Clementine, The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill, Sonia Purnell

                                    PINK

A long overdue tribute to the extraordinary woman who was Winston Churchill’s closest confidante, fiercest critic, and shrewdest advisor. Later in life he claimed that victory in World War II would have been impossible without the woman who stood by his side for fifty-seven turbulent years.

Discussion Leader: Beverly Dossett

                                    Home of Beverly Dossett

Happy Reading,

JoDee

JANUARY 2021 BOOKERS MINUTES & MUSINGS, AMERICAN DIRT BY JEANINE CUMMINS

 

“BOOKS, CHEAPER THAN AIRLINE TICKETS”

A dozen masked Bookers met at the home of Debbie Yarger with Rebecca Brisendine leading the discussion of this month’s selection. Many kudos and thanks to her for sharing her insights with thought-provoking questions fostering a lively conversation. 10-1/2 liked the book (one not finished) with Rebecca admitting she almost put it down after the violent first chapter but gave it a chance and was glad she did.

American Dirt, a combination of tender, terrifying, brutal, poignant, current, suspenseful, deeply human, revengeful, loyalty, with rich characterizations that opens with a mass slaughter of sixteen people at a family barbeque in a pleasant neighborhood of Acapulco, Mexico. It started with this massacre and 400 pages later ended in Maryland, a refuge. Cummins used strong character development, exquisite writing with words setting scenes that made you gasp and hold your breath in the same sentence. “Books open a previously undiscovered window in (the) mind and forever alter the perception of the world.”

Out of 34,000 reviews, 9% were negative most citing the author’s misstatements as to her heritage, the plight of Mexican writers who lived this book every day but are seldom recognized while Cummins received a seven-figure advance and the film rights optioned…it’s been called a brown story told through a white lens” Lydia and Luca, feel like a White mother and her White son with nominally Mexican names slapped on and sprinkled with a little lime and salt…an airport novel for the migrating elite”…laced with stereotypical characters, misuse of the Spanish/English – English/Spanish languages, a “trauma-porn melodrama.” Writers are told to write what you know…but you don’t have to be a murderer to write about one (I hope!)

Our discussion:

We talked about our own stories having visited Acapulco and if the experience left us wanting to return or not. After my family trip in the late 1980s with armed men lining the downtown streets and being warned if we left the property for the beach, the “police” could not guarantee our safety, we’ve not given it another thought…find a friendlier place to vacation!

We discussed the relationship between Lydia, a wife of a journalist, mother of an eight-year-old boy, and owner of a bookstore and Javier, the suave, powerful, bibliophile, who also held the title of head of a Mexican drug cartel and whether or not their meeting was by chance or calculated deciding there was a true chemistry between the two of them and on a platonic level, a love affair. My image of him was of the Dos Equis man…dubbed the most interesting man in the world – but add to that the most dangerous as well. We analyzed Lydia’s responsibility for the slaying of her family as she approved 100% of the article her husband would publish on La Lechuza, “The Owl,” emphatically insisting there was no reason to fear retaliation from him. Did she feel guilty about her role in the massacre? Her husband, Sebastian, was a journalist – it was his calling to report the news and stand up for the truth. We spoke of his responsibility not only to his job, but he had a family who he put in constant danger with his published words. The core of her “relationship” with Javier drove her optimism that even as the head of a cartel he would be pleased with his portrayal. We talked about how faced with survival totally alone and with responsibility for her son, how bravery and perseverance replaced fear in Lydia’s character… “she would staple (Luca) to her, sew him into her skin, affix her body permanently to his now…she would become his conjoined twin-mother…” After fleeing Acapulco, she was a hunted animal after being spared from the massacre of her family riding in a van with girls from an Indiana missionary to jumping from overpasses to the top of a moving train. Did Javier want the person he called “queen of my soul” alive to mourn the loss of her family and question whether she was to blame…did he want her to grieve as much after the suicide of his daughter, Marta, after she read the article about her beloved Daddy’s real job. He was her “es mi cielo mi luna y todas mis estrellas” (my sky, my moon, and all my stars.)

Luca’s character, endearing and believable, showed his intelligence, perception, vulnerability, and loyalty especially in his special relationship with a “fellow migrant” Rebeca. Our Rebecca the reviewer wants a sequel – starting with a relationship between these two in America. We discussed Lorenzo, “the scum” whose job was to keep track of Lydia and Luca for “The Owl” with no one shedding tears at his demise.  Left to the reader’s interpretation was whether Lydia and Luca’s lives were deliberately saved by Javier so she would feel pain every waking minute of every day. We talked about the “coyote” who led them on the journey to realize their dream out of oppression and into a refuge of hope on American dirt. We shared personal stories of the fate of undocumented workers and the complexity of gaining citizenship. 

 

On the business side:

We had some news from Daryl Daniels that would make a grown person jump up and down and holler hi-de-ho! She and Barry are in Houston renting an apartment while she’s in treatment at MDA. She received news yesterday that testing for her stem cell transplant will begin January 19^th and although all previous tests will have to be repeated and updated, it’s a step in the right direction. She thanks everyone for “pulling her through all this with our thoughts and prayers.” I’m sure she’d love to hear from you. Email is daryl.daniels@hotmail.com.

The January BookTrib books have arrived, and I’ll post the titles and descriptions on Facebook and encourage you to select one or two to read if possible.

Since Bookers has endured the pandemic limitations, we’re considering extending another month into June. Stay tuned and let me know your thoughts.

COLOR CODING SYSTEM

WHITE:         LIGHT READ

PINK:             MODERATELY CHALLENGING

RED:              CHALLENGING

February 9:               Olive Kitteridge & Olive Again, Elizabeth Strout

The author, described as a master at animating the ordinary, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Olive Kitteridge featuring an indomitable, compassionate, unpredictable retired schoolteacher in a small coastal town in Maine. Strout weaves a tale in thirteen linked stories, a vibrant exploration of the human soul that will make you laugh, nod in recognition, wince in pain, and shed a tear or two. This is a revisit for Bookers as thirteen reviewers offered their opinions of each story in November 2009. Ms. Strout thought she had put Olive to bed, but the eternal cantankerous character kept begging for more press so Olive, Again was born.

PINK

Home of Bonnie Magee

Discussion Leaders: JoDee Neathery, Olive Kitteridge & Ann Ireland, Olive, Again.

March 9:                    The Dutch House, Ann Patchett

                                    PINK

A story about the interminable bond between siblings – a brother and a sister who grow up in a fairy tale – huge house, loving father, and caring staff. The only thing missing is their mother who fled the pressure of managing the household when they were young.

 April 13:                    The Book of Lost Friends, Lisa Wingate

Historical novel set in the tumultuous era of Reconstruction, 1875, Louisiana. Three young women search for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South and a modern-day teacher learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives. Based on actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War as newly freed slaves searched for loved ones who had been sold away.

PINK

May 11:                      People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks

                                    PINK

An Australia rare-book expert is offered a job of a lifetime – analysis and conservation of a priceless book, one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. As she begins to unlock the book’s mysteries, the reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past tracing the book’s journey from its salvation back to its creation.

Summer Read:          Clementine, The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill, Sonia Purnell

                                    PINK

A long overdue tribute to the extraordinary woman who was Winston Churchill’s closest confidante, fiercest critic, and shrewdest advisor. Later in life he claimed that victory in World War II would have been impossible without the woman who stood by his side for fifty-seven turbulent years.

Discussion Leader: Beverly Dossett

                                    Home of Beverly Dossett – fingers and toes crossed!

Happy Reading,

JoDee