Half Broke Horses

I read this book last Friday in an afternoon and found it very easy to breeze through but wondered what there was to discuss. And today I learned that apparently there wasn't much to talk about.

Those of us who had read Glass Castle found this to be a prequel of sorts and we wandered in to discussions of that book, and for those of you who haven't read it, I hope you will.

None of us liked Lily very much and as Carolyn said, the older she got, the less likeable she because. We enjoyed her father's pithy quotes like "Most important thing in life is learning how to fall." And the places she took us were certainly interesting.

We did feel that the book would have been strengthened if Walls had used the third person for the narrator instead of the first. At time Lily's voice was inauthentic, especially when she was trying to sound tough. Her mothering and nurturing skills were lacking but we commented on how odd the women in her family were in the first place. She didn't have the best teacher in her own mother.

Mary said that her favorite character was Big Jim. We also liked Rooster, the deputy. Diana was fond of Lily's pony, Patches. We talked about the Mormon school where Lily was dismissed and then the discussion migrated away from the book entirely.

We decided we didn't have much left to say about the book, though we liked it and would recommend it. From there we went to the list of suggested titles for 2013 and spent more time on it than on the book.

So Big

I had a little trouble with his book as the copy I had ordered from Amazon didn't have the final pages and some of the pages appeared to have been photocopied with sticky notes attached. Ian said he wondered if this edition was one of those print on demand books. Anyway, the last page on my copy concluded "No," Roelf replied, abruptly. "The mouth is smaller than the......" I knew there was more, but I didn't realize that only the final double-sided page was missing and that the Ferber's end was no more conclusive than the end of my copy.

Nevertheless, I loved this book, thought the writing and character development were fantastic and was gratified to hear the rest of the group agree. When we were selecting books last year, I spent all my extra pennies on this and was so happy that it was worth every bit my six cents.

When it was so clearly Selina's story, I asked what the group thought of the title. We were inconclusive and Maureen said she had read that Ferber wanted to change the title, but the publisher was committed to this one. We batted around alternative titles and I liked Cabbages is Beautiful, but Diana said it wouldn't sell copies. Probably not. Kareen wondered if the title referred to Dirk's size which Ferber referred to on a number of occasions.

When we talked about Selina and the coincidences in her life, Connie asked if maybe the title referred to her, to how she traveled the world through the books she read and the people she met. So big. There were a number of coincidences that changed her life; the passing of her husband whom she loved but with whom her farm would never have thrived; that of meeting Julia when she was trying to sell her produce in the male-dominated marketplace; the support and financial help of August Hempel. We decided that they weren't just a construct of fiction. Life is like that.

We also wondered how Selina had failed to foster in Dirk all things that she sacrificed for. We noted that her gambling father had educated her by including her in everything, whereas Dirk was encouraged to not be a farmer, not participate in her life, but to study to become a better person. Mary said that she and her siblings learned that they could escape chores by reading. We all said we had experienced moments of Selina's style of parenting.

Someone thought Dirk's downfall was Paula's manipulative engineering, because while he despised her avowal to only marry for money, he became the same sort of person. He was completely seduced by wealth and the lifestyle that came with it. Who was successful? Selina or Dirk? Remember, this won the Pulitzer.

The ending was certainly curious. Kareen kept saying that just two more paragraphs would have been all we needed. We agreed that Dirk had experienced an eye opening through the visit with the artists on Selina's farm. Mary read from the portion where he went home to his correct console with a correct pile of letters and his correct evening cloths laid correctly on his bed. She was optinistic that he got it. Inside him something said, 'You're nothing but a rubber stamp." I'm with Kareen - just two more paragraphs.

We concluded with the knowledge that everyone was clueless of what was to come in the next five years. Dirk's bond sales would be worth no more than the paper they were printed on. Mary left shaking the book in her hand; top ten she said. This goes in my top ten.

The Postmistress

We really liked this book. There were several themes, but we felt the key theme was randomness - the randomness of everything. Mary read the passage where Frankie ranked all the random occurrences using the word if, and then made the word if into a single paragraph.

Cathy and I both felt bad for Harry's ending. A review for Entertainment Weekly said, "The ending is a bit of miss. One final tragedy seems unnecessarily cruel. But in a novel about war, perhaps that is the point."

The title would lead you to believe that the book was about Iris James, but it was really Frankie Bard's story. Both Cathy and I didn't realize the introduction was Frankie speaking - we thought it was Iris, and that led to a false start. The two did share a transgression however. They both had a letter they withheld. Iris's entire life was about structure, order and following rules so this was uncharacteristic for her, as uncharacteristic as chopping down the flagpole.

Frankie also withheld a letter but with the intention of delivering it personally. It was never delivered and that was uncharacteristic for her as she had espoused telling the truth as it appears. Her experience and helplessness in trying to record the voices of Jews being round up produced what Cathy called shell shock. Her desire was to get people to pay attention. She says to Will, "Whatever is coming does not just come, as you say. It's helped by people willfully looking away. People who develop the habit of swallowing lies rather than the truth. The minute you start thinking something else, then you've stopped paying attention - and paying attention is all we've got."

She wanted people to see the story and everything and every assignment was to produce a result. The train ride left her desperate - all that record of death of people she had just met. Recording their voices went no further than her until Otto in Franklin. She wanted people to respond and when it didn't happen, came home to recover, get her bearings and deliver the letter. Cathy thought she should have steamed it open to realize that it was a loving message, but Wilma wasn't so sure. That would require her to reveal that Will felt fulfilled in London and wasn't sure he would go home. And then he stepped into the street, looking the wrong way. If.

From the beginning of our discussion today, Cathy was flummoxed by the title. Why did Blake choose to keep this one after she learned that there is no such thing as a postmistress and especially since this wasn't a story about Iris James, the postmaster of Franklin. Carolyn wondered if perhaps Blake left her working title in place to cover both Frankie and Iris as carriers of withheld letters, both postmistresses.

We talked a lot about hows news was delivered and received during this emerging technology of radio and compared it to the instantaneous and ubiquitous news of today. We asked if more information causes people to be any more engaged then when they relied on a single broadcast. Mary told us how frustrated her son is in Afghanistan where American troops are being fired on by the very army they're tasked with training. This conversation continued for at least a half hour, but because it wasn't far from the points that Blake had raised, there were several call-backs to the book.

I thought about the book on my way home and realized that the strong characters were so strong that they dominated our conversation. I think we missed something by not evaluating well-educated Emma and Will, both weak and lacking confidence, in contract to Jim and Maggie, of the fateful baby, who lived simply yet purposely.

I always say I don't like historical fiction but this is one of my favorite books in a long time. A reviewer from Library Journal said, "Verdict: Even readers who don't think they like historical novels will love this one and talk it up to their friends. Highly recommended for all fans of beautifully wrought fiction." I agree!

Crazy in Alabama

I believe this was the shortest discussion we've ever had on a book before. We enjoyed it but the consensus was that it was two books woven together and that they would have enjoyed reading them as two separate stories. I was the only one who felt that the antics of crazy Lucille helped make the harshness of the racism easier to read.

With the exception of Joanne, we wanted her to get away. Kathy said, after all - she had paid the judge, which made us laugh. Kareen pointed out the ending, which I had missed, and I thought was a fitting conclusion. She essentially threatened PeeJoe, reminding of what happened to the last man who said no to her.

Joanne was appalled that Lucille went scot free when Dove paid such a heavy price for the stand he took and the responsibility he carried. His wife left him, his daughter developed schizophrenic, he lost his house and business - everything. Kareen said she assumed when he sent the postcard saying he had gone fishing that it meant he intended to off himself.

The rest of our discussion had nothing at all to do with the book and I enjoyed it very much.

Falling Leaves

When I was reading this, I wondered how it would be possible to have a discussion on a nonfiction book, but we did and it lasted an hour. We enjoyed the Chinese history but Kareen said that was the only part she liked. She and Maureen were both griped that Adeline continued to allow herself to be used by her family. Kareen thought that if they came to her for assistance even today that she would give it.

We realized that the Chinese culture dictated the families behaviors and relationships somewhat, but there were those like Susan and Aunt Baba who were able to break away. We didn't understand why Father treated Yee Yee like he did, which is so counter to their custom of deference to elders. Joanne had the sense that writing this book was a form of catharsis for the author.

Niang was cruel and as Dianna said - evil. Joanne called her pathological. The power she held was mind-bending and at the heart of this autobiography, power she wielded ever after her death. She wanted to break Adeline and was never able to do it, so she cut her out of her will as her final blow. Carolyn joked that this was a fine Mother's Day book.

Maureen thought that medicine was one of the few fields in higher education that a woman at that time had open - be a doctor or be a teacher. Kathy noted that as obedient as Adeline was to Father, the only thing he wanted was for her to return as a gynecologist and practice in Shanghai, which she never did. She also marveled at how difficult it was to be a minority woman doctor at that time in London, yet she did it.

When Adeline had experienced so many awful things, I asked what one thing was the worst and they all agreed it was the duck. The one thing that she loved was brutally taken away. I wondered if they sent Adeline to school behind the Red Army lines, hoping that she would disappear.

We talked quite a bit about Catholicism and the family's conversion to it, what it contributed to them or didn't. Wilma didn't have the feeling that they were religious, but they did want to send their children to the upper class private parochial schools. We wondered if they hadn't converted, would the story have played out the same, and then we chatted a bit about Buddhism. We concluded with mothers and nuns in the schools.

Honk and Holler Opening Soon

We universally liked this book.  Joanne said that her favorite part was the characters, they just jumped out of the pages at her.  We must have agreed because our discussion centered around the characters, what we liked, things they did and said and what we enjoyed.  Mary said that she has family from Oklahoma and she felt like this could have been from them.

We liked how no one owned much of anything, yet they made such a difference for each other, creating a family of sorts with the cafe at the hub.  Joanne laughed, saying that the title didn't just apply to the cafe, but also to the people it attracted.  They seemed to bloom, were opening up, when they came into the cafe community.

I struggled with Sam Neely because I felt his demise was just a little too tidy, eliminating him and his treat from the circle of friends.  Kathy thought it would be poetic justice were he to become a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair like Caney. 

The one area we all had a problem with was Helen.  Mary didn't get the whole Helen thing, and Maureen agreed, saying she hadn't furthered the story for her.  We saw the need for a Helen-like element, to motivate Vena and keep her striving for something outside herself, but the elements of their story were disjointed and confusing.  The ending was as bewildering as the story and the timeline was unclear.  Carolyn thought it was mighty coincidental that Helen had been to their old house a year earlier and Vena just happened to stumble upon it the following year and also find the note that her sister had left her.  Kathy was incredulous that given their history and how hard Vena had struggled that she didn't keep the note.

That said, it was a delightful book, and as Kathy said, it reminded her of Fried Green Tomatoes.  We agreed that the hard work we invested in this list has paid off for the fourth month running and we have started jotting down titles to consider for next year.

Stones from the River

It was nice to finally have a book to talk about that we had all enjoyed and felt strongly about.  Both Carolyn and Diana came with notes and the rest of us marked up our books - sorry library - I'll get those marks erased and the book returned this week.  I think I had marked at least ten pages and many of the things we talked about were noted by all of us.

Even though published 25 years ago, we felt the book had a lot of social relevance to America's current political climate.  Leo observed on a couple occasions that the Germans were looking for a one strong leader who could make you obey...Who tells you:  This is the right thing to do." Hegi uses Leo's observations as balance to all the people who think the Fuhrer will bring Germany back from it's humiliation from WWI.  Carolyn had noted Leo's observation that "they lived in a country where believing had taken the place of knowing." 

Hegi took the narrator's license at times:  "They didn't know that they were giving their power away, didn't know that - by the time the Nazi regime would become bloated and monstrous with that power - it would be too dangerous for the people to reclaim that power."  She allowed Herr Abramowitz to tell his wife that her ability to adapt" is far more dangerous to you than any of them will ever be.  You'll keep adapting and adapting until nothing is left," and many of her characters weighed in on what their silence and acceptance had cost them.

Kareen said this was the first time she could remember reading about the Holocaust from the German perspective and felt it provided a new perspective to the genre.  That was the setting for what Mary, Kareen and Joann all agreed on was a book about differences, acceptance and community.  Diana had marked "it was amazing to discover how many reasons other than size could turn you into an outsider - your religion, your race, your opinions."  We wondered if in reality Trudi would have escaped the camps and Joann said that when she was arrested at the concert, she was certain that was where Trudi was headed.  It's impossible to synthesize such a complex book but we did think that Hegi chose a Zwerg as her protagonist as a parallel to the Jewish otherness.  Frau Abramowitz told Trudi that it's important to never lose your dignity because it meant a loss of dignity if she rebelled against authority, while to Trudi just rage carried its own dignity.  We saw rage as her armor as well as her dignity.

Trudi's strength of character came from her ability to step over the loneliness and hurt she experienced.  Max told her that what she was is what made her who is was.  He saw the pain that she had locked away and when Trudi tried to compare Max's pain he stopped her to say, "Ah, but we can't do that - compare our pain.  It minimizes what happens to us, distorts it.  We need to say, yes, this is what happened to me, and this is what I'll do with it."  I thought he was referencing what he knew to be the hurt she had locked away.  Mary said she had taken it a completely different way.  When she had experienced a medical crisis, she downplayed the event and minimized it, reducing her family's ability to engage in what had to be a fearful time for them as well.  I'm always fascinated by what a book speaks to different readers and it's why I love literature.

Mary also wondered if Hegi gave us Max, even though he was the least authentic character to us so that it would soften Trudi's load and make the book not as heavy.  As Kareen noted, he wasn't around long enough to really be much of anything, though he did live on in the story of the naked man by the river.  We liked the title name for the stones, the river and the freedom that Trudi was able to experience when she was released from gravity while swimming.

Mary started the discussion by saying that she loved the entire book but the last four pages confused her  - she wondered what the author was saying.  Kareen had marked a selection at the end that had spoken to her - about raking - and said it's what she had taken away.  Trudi's father had raked the earth behind the library every week and she had learned from him that raking had to do with patience. not every bit of earth would be untangled at once.  She decided her life and the people who loved her stories would be like pulling a rake through the earth.  "The final design wouldn't happen all at one: there would be rearrangement of it all, a fine combing through: there would be perseverance and a reverence for the task.....indeed, a design would emerge."

Several of us said that this would probably go in our top ten, along with Shipping News.  And a good time was had by all~