The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

 We began arriving early because none of us could remember if we had said we'd meet at 12:30 or our usual 1:00 time.  Everyone was early but some of us were so early that the subsequent arrivals looked startled and asked, Am I late?  It was nice to be early, have the food area set up and then just sit down together and shoot the breeze.

Today was a unique book club meeting.  For the first time we combined a book and a movie and what a book and movie we chose. Not everyone had seen the movie so that helped us evaluate the book relative to the film.  It did follow the book closely though the playwright had combined a couple of the girls for the sake of simplicity, so that there were only four instead of eight. Mary MacGregor isn't the student who died fighting for Franco.  She died in a hotel fire at the age of 23, too "stupid" to select an exit and thus ended up running up and down the hall until the fire consumed her.  The ending was the greatest deviation.  The movie ends with Miss Brodie's dismissal, whereas in the book she lived a few more years and died of cancer.  We know this from Sandy who had become a nun, visited yearly the other Brodie girls.

Joann asked an interesting question.  Were there other Brodie girls like this clique?  Did she form a clique with each class in subsequent years?  Our answer was conjecture - we didn't know.  It was mentioned that in the movie, during the emotional slide show scene, all the girls adoring eyes were turned to her. 

Carolyn asked if Hugh was a real love or a fabrication.  It appeared that she embellished the story with each retelling.  Carolyn read from the book where her first love appears she was 14 and in love with an older man.  This lead to the conjecture that she was replicating her own experience by denying her love for the art teacher and trying to substitute one of her students in his bed.  Kareen said that at this point she was done with Miss Brodie, a blot on the face of education.  Muriel Sparks brilliant writing seemed to be reeling us in, along with Sandy who also determined at this point that she was a danger to her students.

Unfortunately, due to an inner ear infection, I am denied the benefits of caffeine and wasn't feeling like the sharpest knife in the dish washer.  No matter, the discussion went on.  We were affixed by the strangeness of Jean Brodie and her complete selfishness, however she thought of herself as a teacher first. Joann called her a hypocrite and Peggy reminded us of her statement that traditional education was a form of putting in, but she believed that education was a form of letting out.  Joann said, you see what I mean?  She was stuffing their brains.

Maggie Smith's portrayal of Miss Brodie brought her walking right out of the pages and onto the Oscar stage.  Several of the ladies are rewatching Downton Abby, getting ready for season three in January.  They reminded us of how similar her performance of Miss Brodie is to the Dowager Countess of Grantham.  Maureen laughed and said - she IS Maggie Smith.  That was so much fun.  We talked about trying to find another book and movie combo in the future.  Put on your thinking caps. 

My Antonia

I'm not sure why we laughed so much during our discussion of this a stalwart body of classic literature, but apparently the sound of eleven women talking and laughing was disruptive enough that for the first time, one of the library staff had to come and close the meeting room door. 

I first asked what we thought of the title, which led to a discussion on our confusion of the pronunciation.  Carolyn said she had listened to it and the narrator said Antoni'a.  Peggy recalled in the book the pronunciation was likened to Anthony, hence An'tonia.  I notice on this book cover, it demonstrates the latter, which we never could get our eye teeth around.  Kathy said we'd just call her Tony.  Then they decided that it was the right title, even though she only appeared in three of the books five sections.  That's what she was called by those near to her. 

I was aware that Cather was considered to be a lesbian and felt that the character of Lena was a little autobiographical.  We talked about how Cather's lifestyle might have influenced the females.  The strongest male characters were in the first half of the book and largely absent in the second half.  Even Jim Burden was undeveloped, though his connection to Tony we felt was likely to resume, perhaps in the form of an uncle. We felt the strongest male character was Mr. Shimerda, though not strong enough to not marry the "hired woman" he impregnated and not strong enough to stand up to her demands they move to American for a better life for Ambrosch. 

We were all confused by Jim and Tony's relationship, wondering if it would become romantic, but as Carolyn pointed out, her being four years old was a big thing in the 19th century when people didn't live all that long.  Kareen noted that the class difference was a huge barrier and her her pregnancy ended any possibility of a romantic connection.  Joanne felt their friendship was sealed on the train and further when Jim taught her to read English.  I was very confused by his declaration "I'd have liked to have you for a sweetheart, or a wife, or my mother or my sister - anything that a woman can be to a man." 

We likened the conclusion of the book to that of So Big.  The protagonist stays in her circumstances but rises above them.  We felt that there would have been no more suitable and happy life for Tony than the one she had with Cuzak.  We all were surprised that she would return to the daily use of Bohemian., and that led to a conversation about the Midwest and the communities who still identify themselves with their nationalities.  I told of the TV show that Ian and I used to watch on RFDTV called the Polka Joe Show.  It was broadcast from various Midwest locations where Polka is still huge and where songs are still sung in their own language.  Jenny said they were visiting Hibbing, Minnesota where a huge polka festival was in full swing.  She said she was astonished that people would travel that far to play poker.  You have to realize that Jenny is a Brit and doesn't pronounce the 'er in poker.  When she says poker it sounds like polka.  That's the laughter that got our door closed.

We were of mixed opinions, but while many found the book a bit of a slog, I think we agreed that for a book published in 1918, it went against the conventional grain.  Cather wrote strong women who were clear in their intentions and some chose to remain unmarried and pursue careers.  A career then was for a woman to be a school teacher.  Carolyn said when a woman married, she was no longer allowed to teach.   We talked about possibly reading another one of Cather's books, but in the future.  We've just read three prairie books in one list:  So Big, Half Broke Horses and now My Antonia.  We seem to cluster our books by accident so Kathy offered to help me with our list next year with little descriptive paragraphs.  We were are talking about 2014 when we haven't started on 2013!

As always, this discussion is limited to my memory and we certainly covered a lot more ground than this.  We're fixing to get ready for our Christmas meeting and potluck.  The general consensus on our December book, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, is to watch the movie and appreciate Maggie Smith's Academy Award winning role as Best Actress.  And a good time was had by all.

The Paris Wife

I thought today's discussion of The Paris Wife was especially unique in that the book was closely biographical, only not quite.  Maureen noted that we had a similar book with Half Broke Horses, only the author took the liberty to write in the first person and we were critical of that decision.

We have all reading Hemmingway somewhere along our academic paths so I think our discussion today is the only time when we mixed equally what we know about the subject of the fiction along with the narrative of the author.  The book was written in Hadley's voice and yet we talked more about Hem than Hadley. 

Many questions cropped up.  How much did their age disparity matter?  How much authority did Hadley's thoughts carry in the literary debate?  How did the fact that they both had domineering mothers matter - and later fathers who dispatched themselves?  Was Hem ever happy?  And Joann's question - when was convinced of his genius?  How does an brilliant artist know they are brilliant?  Carolyn and I both thought of Picasso. We were flummoxed.

Maureen found an old copy of a book called Hemingway with pictures of all the star players which we passed around - truly beautiful people.  I think we only uncovered the ongoing fascination with the Left Bank artists and an epic writer known affectionately as Papa.  It's clear to me how a semester could be devoted to his life and work.  He was a difficult man but we did agree that he was brilliant.

And then we broke to vote on our reading selection for next year which I've updated in the left column of this blog.  Another wonderful year of reading awaits us.

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.