“A book is more than the sum of its materials. It is an artifact of the human mind and hand.”
17 met at the home of Jane Shaw for this month’s selection color coded Pink but proved to be a deep Red in hindsight. My apologies. This was a difficult read for some as the author linked past and present in a fictional account of a historical fact. The Sarajevo Haggadah exists and is still on display in the museum, but most of the plot and all characters are imaginary. Without a show of hands, most had mixed reactions to the story with little wiggle room between couldn’t get into it, was confused by the back-and-forth narratives, or didn’t want to get into it. However, on the positive side, it provided a look at life from 1480 in Spain, through Austria to Bosnia in1940 and to Jerusalem in 2002 and a contemporary Australia. A few reviewers posted it felt like a homework assignment, a ladies’ book club member commented that by the second chapter she knew the “less than desirable content” would not fly with her group, while another labeled it as quick fiction, fun and easy to read – what??
The Australian-born author of People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks, won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for March, a story told from the viewpoint of the father in Little Women. Her first novel, Year of Wonders, is an international bestseller, translated into more than twenty-five languages and currently optioned for a major motion picture. Caleb’s Crossing, which Bookers selected in October 2011, is also a bestseller, a historical fiction accounting of real-life Caleb documenting his crossing from pagan life to Christian culture and how he accomplished being the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College in 1665. Brooks and her husband live by an old mill pond on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. In the author’s words, she is drawn to stories from the past where we can know something, but not everything – a factual scaffolding with room for the imagination to work. The Sarajevo Haggadah was created in Spain when diversity was tolerated and it found its way centuries later to a similar place, Sarajevo. Brooks dedicated People of the Book to librarians, “There, where one burns books, one in the end burns men.” German poet, Heinrich Heine.
Last month’s “lucky prize winner” and therefore first-time reviewer, Debbie Yarger, did an outstanding job creating a visual storyline unrolling a picture scroll in reverse chronological order following the story from salvation back to creation as in the book. That is only half of Brooks’ intricate undertaking, adding thirty-year-old Australian, Hanna Heath, an expert in rare books who is lured over eight-thousand miles for the opportunity to conserve and analyze the ancient manuscript, the Sarajevo Haggadah one of the first illuminated Jewish texts telling the story of their exodus from Egypt customarily read during Passover. Debbie and I alternated between Hanna’s story as it unravels her personal life among the relics while examining the priceless artifact that has appeared, disappeared, and reappeared numerous times, the final occasion discovered in war-torn Sarajevo as a result of a Muslim librarian saving the Jewish holy book. As she carefully inspects the binding, she discovered a tiny fragment of an insect wing taking us back to Sarajevo at the dawn of World War II as the Nazis were stealing Jewish treasures and Hanna noticing the oddity of grooved boards which should have been fitted with clasps, but none were there; the wine stains lead us to Venice in 1609 where a tormented priest executes a papal order to burn most books written by Jews; the salt residue takes the story to 1492 and the Hebrew scribe who writes the text on the eve of the Jews’ expulsion from Spain; and finally, the fine white hair harks back to Seville, 1480 and the unmasking of the artist. By following the journey of these items, readers uncover the miles the Haggadah traveled, and the stories associated with it reaching its final resting place. Debbie’s visual was a big hit as it put the story into an understandable format…there wasn’t a peep in the group as she walked us through this. She has been hired as a permanent discussion leader…she just doesn’t know it yet. It truly was a wonderful presentation, and our hats are off for her ability to tackle this complicated project with knowledge and grace!
Hanna’s personal story involved a caustic relationship with her high-profile mother, the discovery of a father she never knew and a family she could finally claim, her attitude toward casual sex with an unlikely partner turned cold, then blissful, her professional credentials questioned led to a loss of confidence in her skills, and all in all Hanna landed on her feet.
This epic novel of sweeping historical grandeur was compared to Dan Brown’s, The Da Vinci Code, but with “less flash and more substance.” We’ve got a murder in a museum, a baffling riddle left with the body leading to a trail of clues hidden in the works of da Vinci, visible for all to see but disguised by the painter.
Bookers’ Sunshine Report
Daryl Daniels reported she has been dismissed from the hospital and is at the apartment to sleep but back daily at MDA. She’s still experiencing a severe rash fighting to get the graft versus host under control. She reports feeling good and it’s wonderful being in the apartment instead of a hospital room. As always, many thanks to everyone for love and support.
Rosemary Farmer’s trial residency at the Belmont in Dallas is over. She has decided to stay and we all will miss her, but she is under the capable wings of our own Melba Holt.
Cherry and Ray Fugitt are settling into their new residence close to family in Flower Mound. She has taken another tumble and is bruised but nothing is broken. Her therapist says she must learn how to slow down a bit…good luck with that! She misses everyone but is enjoying her new “life.”
On the business side:
COLOR CODING SYSTEM
WHITE: LIGHT READ
PINK: MODERATELY CHALLENGING
RED: CHALLENGING
June 8: 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: Jane Shaw
Evening Wine & Cheese Meeting at the home of Melanie Prebis 6:00 pm
Bonnie Magee, our food czar extraordinaire, will again coordinate the menu for our farewell to Bookers’ 17th year and to Melanie’s lake house and a welcome to her new golf course home.
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.
September 14: Welcome to Bookers 18th year!
Clementine, The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill, Sonia Purnell
Discussion Leader: Patty Evans
Home of Beverly Dossett
Happy Reading,
JoDee
