Entre Nous.

Blogger's Book Club - Book Four, Behind the Scenes at the Museum

I recently completed book four of the Blogger's Book Club, Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson.  "This is the story of Ruby Lennox told in her own voice from the moment of her conception.  Ruby and her family live above their pet shop in the shadow of York Minster. Theirs is a story of humdrum family life in the 1950s - endless housework, minor peccadilloes on the part of Ruby's father, homework, weddings and funerals. Interwoven with Ruby's story is that of her great-grandmother, her grandmother, uncles, aunts and cousins as they struggle through two World Wars. But there are small gaps in the narrative, hints of something amiss. Family secrets, long hidden, begin to surface - one so devastating that it overwhelms Ruby even as it explains so much that has been puzzling in her life."  The novels complicated structure requires one to read with close attention.  Ruby's narrative is accompanied by a series of what the author refers to as "footnotes" (chapters) that delve into the history of previous generations of the family.  At times I found the jumping back and forth between generations and family members quite tiresome.  If you haven't yet read this book and decide to pick up a copy might I suggest sketching a pedigree chart to keep track of who's who and their relationships to everyone else.  Although BTSATM is touted as a darkly comic novel, I must admit I found it more dark than comic.  This is not the novel to turn to when you are in search of a story to lift your spirits.  In fact, much of the story was downright depressing.  On a positive note I will admit that the book is amazingly well written in parts and I just adored Ruby's asides where insider information is shared with the reader.  And perhaps it was just the mood I was in while reading the novel that made me focus on the darkness rather than the humor.

On pins and needles

Theresa and I went ahead and selected book number four for the Blogger's Book Club.  We decided to go with Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson since quite a few of you expressed interest in it last month.

 

Here's a description of the novel:  "I exist!" exclaims Ruby Lennox upon her conception in 1951, setting the tone for this humorous and poignant first novel in which Ruby at once celebrates and mercilessly skewers her middle-class English family. Peppered with tales of flawed family traits passed on from previous generations, Ruby's narrative examines the lives in her disjointed clan, which revolve around the family pet shop. But beneath the antics of her philandering father, her intensely irritable mother, her overly emotional sisters, and a gaggle of eccentric relatives are darker secrets--including an odd "feeling of something long forgotten"--that will haunt Ruby for the rest of her life."

 

By now you probably know the routine but I'll go through it again anyway.  You have until mid October to read the book.  Then post your thoughts on your blog or if you're sans blog then leave a comment on mine. 

Blogger's Book Club - Book Three, Tête-à-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre

I just completed book three of the Blogger's Book Club, Tete-a-Tete: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre by Hazel Rowley. 

They are one of the world's legendary couples. We can't think of one without thinking of the other. Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre -- those passionate, freethinking existentialist philosopher-writers -- had a committed but notoriously open union that generated no end of controversy. With Tête-à-Tête, distinguished biographer Hazel Rowley offers the first dual portrait of these two colossal figures and their intense, often embattled relationship. Through original interviews and access to new primary sources, Rowley portrays them up close, in their most intimate moments.

The impact of their writings on modern thought cannot be overestimated, but Beauvoir and Sartre are remembered just as much for the lives they led. They were brilliant, courageous, experimental, and Tête-à-Tête makes us feel the passion, energy, daring, humor, and contradictions of this remarkable relationship.

In this joint biography of one of the world's legendary couples, Rowley begins with their meeting in 1929 and traces their relationship through World War II, occupied Paris, the fame that came to the both as writers, and their final years together.

 

Simone de Beauvoir (referred to as the Beaver by Sartre) and Jean-Paul Sartre met during 1929 while preparing for university exams in Paris.  The two young intellectuals became inseparable, their relationship ending only with Sartre's death in 1980 (Beauvoir lived until 1986).  By then they had both achieved fame separately and together.

 

More than just a chronicle of Beauvoir and Sartre's relationship, Tête-à-Tête is in fact the story of many relationships.  Although Beauvoir and Sartre were a committed couple from 1929 until Sartre's death neither were monogamous.  Sartre especially was known for his numerous affairs.  Rowley delves into the extent to which he juggled and supported his many mistresses and the compulsive need he had to seduce women far more beautiful than himself.  Beauvoir did manage to have some passionate affairs of her own and several lovers were even shared between them.

 

Beauvoir and Sartre were without a doubt two of the most brilliant and scandalous intellectuals of the 20th Century.  Theirs was one of the most unconventional love stories.  I found myself mesmerized by the book yet appalled by many things I read.  Their sexual high jinks make the stuff of tabloids seem tame and conventional by comparison.  I found Sartre to be a 20th century cad much of the time and the lies he told infuriating.  His appeal is beyond my comprehension.  Also, due to the fact that there are so many seductions taking place throughout the book it is easy to become confused.  Overall though I found the book to be thoroughly researched and well written.  It's definitely one of the more captivating biographies that I've read in recent years. 

 

So, what did you think?

On the rocks

We've finally settled on book three for Blogger's Book Club.  We decided to go with Tete-a-Tete: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre by Hazel Rowley. 

They are one of the world's legendary couples. We can't think of one without thinking of the other. Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre -- those passionate, freethinking existentialist philosopher-writers -- had a committed but notoriously open union that generated no end of controversy. With Tête-à-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, distinguished biographer Hazel Rowley offers the first dual portrait of these two colossal figures and their intense, often embattled relationship. Through original interviews and access to new primary sources, Rowley portrays them up close, in their most intimate moments.

We see Beauvoir and Sartre with their circle, holding court in Paris cafés. We learn the sizzling details of their romantic entanglements. We listen in on their conversations, including the anguished discussions that led Sartre to refuse the Nobel Prize. We witness them as the twentieth century's most controversial public intellectuals.

The impact of their writings on modern thought cannot be overestimated, but Beauvoir and Sartre are remembered just as much for the lives they led. They were brilliant, courageous, experimental, and Tête-à-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre makes us feel the passion, energy, daring, humor, and contradictions of this remarkable relationship.

If you care to participate in the book club then pick up a copy of Tete-a-Tete within the next few days and take the month of August to complete the book.  Then at the end of August post your thoughts on your blog or if you're sans blog then leave a comment. 

It's that time again...

...time to select our next book for Blogger's Book Club.  We'll be voting from the same list we have been using since book one, but if you feel a deep need to suggest a book not on our list then go for it.  We will start reading the selected book around mid July if you care to participate. 

 

1.  Tete-a-Tete : Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre by Hazel Rowley
"Though Rowley identifies her engaging and accessible chronicle as the "story of a relationship," it is in fact the story of the many relationships forged by two of the most brilliant, unorthodox and scandalous intellectuals of the 20th century: Beauvoir and Sartre, who from 1929 until Sartre's death in 1980 remained "essential" to each other but never monogamous." 

2.  Little, Big by John Crowley

"Little, Big tells the epic story of Smoky Barnable - an anonymous young man who meets and falls in love with Daily Alice Drinkwater, and goes to live with her in Edgewood, a place not found on any map. In an impossible mansion full of her relatives, who all seem to have ties to another world not far away, Smoky fathers a family and tries to learn what tale he has found himself in - and how it is to end."

 

3.  Possession by A.S. Byatt

"Literary critics make natural detectives," says Maud Bailey, heroine of a mystery where the clues lurk in university libraries, old letters, and dusty journals. Together with Roland Michell, a fellow academic and accidental sleuth, Maud discovers a love affair between the two Victorian writers the pair has dedicated their lives to studying: Randolph Ash, a literary great long assumed to be a devoted and faithful husband, and Christabel La Motte, a lesser-known "fairy poetess" and chaste spinster. At first, Roland and Maud's discovery threatens only to alter the direction of their research, but as they unearth the truth about the long-forgotten romance, their involvement becomes increasingly urgent and personal. Desperately concealing their purpose from competing researchers, they embark on a journey that pulls each of them from solitude and loneliness, challenges the most basic assumptions they hold about themselves, and uncovers their unique entitlement to the secret of Ash and La Motte's passion." 

 
4.  Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

"I exist!" exclaims Ruby Lennox upon her conception in 1951, setting the tone for this humorous and poignant first novel in which Ruby at once celebrates and mercilessly skewers her middle-class English family. Peppered with tales of flawed family traits passed on from previous generations, Ruby's narrative examines the lives in her disjointed clan, which revolve around the family pet shop. But beneath the antics of her philandering father, her intensely irritable mother, her overly emotional sisters, and a gaggle of eccentric relatives are darker secrets--including an odd "feeling of something long forgotten"--that will haunt Ruby for the rest of her life."

 
5.  Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros

"Caramelo weaves a large yet intricate pattern, much like the decorative fringe on a rebozo, the traditional Mexican shawl. Through the eyes of young Celaya, or Lala, the Reyes family saga twists and turns over three generations of truths, half-truths, and outright lies. And, like Celaya's grandmother's prized caramelo (striped) rebozo, so is "the universe a cloth, and all humanity interwoven.... Pull one string and the whole thing comes undone."

Blogger's Book Club - Book Two, Bone

Book number two in our Blogger's Book Club (BBC) was Fae Myenne Ng's (pronounced Ing) Bone.  This first novel by Ng "explores the aspirations, struggles and emotional scars of a family living in San Francisco's Chinatown." 

Here's the premise of Bone:  "In sharp contrast to the overdramatized lives of Chinese Americans in Amy Tan's work, Ng's simply written first novel is totally without sensationalism. Yet because her characters are depicted so realistically, the reader cannot but be moved by the hopes, grief, and quarrels of two generations of Chinese Americans in San Francisco's Chinatown. Mah, who has worked hard all her life in garment sweatshops, finally is able to own her baby-clothing store. Her husband, Leon, who used to be a merchant seaman, worked two shifts in ships' laundry rooms to provide for his family. Nevertheless, the family is torn apart after Ona, the middle daughter, jumps from the tallest building in Chinatown. The bones of contention and bones of inheritance come together in great turmoil as Nina, the youngest daughter, leaves Chinatown for New York City and then Leila, the oldest, marries and moves out to the suburbs. Leon, the paper son to old Leung, fails to keep his promise to take Leung's bones back to China. Thus, a family's tragedy is cast in greater historical context, and the reader is rewarded with a rich reading experience."

 

Bone spent a bit of time on the best sellers list in 1993.  Although I personally had never heard of the novel until it was recommended for the BBC.  I was looking forward to beginning the book for several reasons, the first being I'm a big fan of contemporary Asian literature and the second being it's set in the bay area (where I resided for two years and keenly miss at the moment). 

 

Ng's novel skillfully describes life in Chinatown without resorting to Western judgments on Chinese culture.  Bone is largely centered around the suicide of the protagonist's younger sister, focusing on how the tragic death affects different family members.  Ng's novel is aimed at celebrating rather than judging the immigrant community.  It is also saturated with Chinese American history.

 

As much as I was prepared to like this book I did have some issues with it.  I had a difficult time really connecting with the characters and wish some would have been better developed, mainly Nina.  Plus several times I felt the story became flat and confusing.  I suppose that it was the authors intention for the chapters to skip around like the scattered memories in a journal but I didn't feel this technique was executed that well.

 

One thing I really enjoyed about the novel was the cultural aspects, the descriptions of what it's like to experience America as a Chinese American.  I can see why it's required reading for many students.

 

So although I was not completely taken with the novel I did think it a worthwhile read and would recommend it.

 

[I do want to apologize for taking such a long time to post this review.  Work is always my excuse for not blogging as often as I'd like and once again I do have to blame my job for keeping me away.  I'd like to especially apologize to Theresa as I know this should have been written almost two weeks ago!] 

 

Lisa left this comment about Bone and since she doesn't have her own blog I will post her thoughts here. 

I liked "Bone" even though it wasn't always easy to read. The predictability of Mah and Leon's fighting was becoming as tiresome as having those arguments when, toward the end, it started to have its own rhythm. The fights were the backbeat for the lyric of the rest of the personal and family lives. The book definitely immerses the reader in the daily life of Chinatown, especially in the garment industry and food to the extent that it leaves a sensory mark, like an actual visit. A real trip would show you the way in and out and this Chinatown seemed hemmed, insular and inescapable. The novel was a rich read that rewarded the reader's patience, at times, by the end of the trip.

[If anyone else read book two and wants me to include their thoughts on the book on my blog please Email me and I'll post them right away.]

BBC - Book Two

For those of you partipating in month two of Blogger's Book Club, the deadline to complete the book Bone is June 26th.  Once you've completed the book please post your review on your blog or if you don't have a blog you can Email me your review and I'll post it on my blog for you.  We'll be voting on book three the last week in June.  So start thinking of suggestions!

Catfights and Caviar

Alright, the results are in.  There was a three way tie between Bone, Possession and Behind the Scenes at the Museum.  I've selected Bone for purely selfish reasons.  This month is an extremely busy one for me and Bone is the shortest of the three books.  So if you're interested in participating in month two of Blogger's Book Club please pick up a copy of Bone sometime in the next few days.  And I promise we'll eventually get to all the books on the list.

Voting Day

If you're participating in book two of Blogger's Book Club then please vote for what you'd like to read next. 

 

1.  Tete-a-Tete : Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre by Hazel Rowley
"Though Rowley identifies her engaging and accessible chronicle as the "story of a relationship," it is in fact the story of the many relationships forged by two of the most brilliant, unorthodox and scandalous intellectuals of the 20th century: Beauvoir and Sartre, who from 1929 until Sartre's death in 1980 remained "essential" to each other but never monogamous."

2.  Bone by Fae Myenne Ng

"In this profoundly moving novel, Fae Myenne Ng takes readers into the hidden heart of San Francisco's Chinatown, to a world of family secrets, hidden shames, and the lost bones of a "paper father." It is a world in which two generations of the Leong family live in an uneasy tension as they try to fathom the source of the middle daughter Ona's sorrow."

   

3.  Little, Big by John Crowley

"Little, Big tells the epic story of Smoky Barnable - an anonymous young man who meets and falls in love with Daily Alice Drinkwater, and goes to live with her in Edgewood, a place not found on any map. In an impossible mansion full of her relatives, who all seem to have ties to another world not far away, Smoky fathers a family and tries to learn what tale he has found himself in - and how it is to end."

 
4.  Possession by A.S. Byatt

"Literary critics make natural detectives," says Maud Bailey, heroine of a mystery where the clues lurk in university libraries, old letters, and dusty journals. Together with Roland Michell, a fellow academic and accidental sleuth, Maud discovers a love affair between the two Victorian writers the pair has dedicated their lives to studying: Randolph Ash, a literary great long assumed to be a devoted and faithful husband, and Christabel La Motte, a lesser-known "fairy poetess" and chaste spinster. At first, Roland and Maud's discovery threatens only to alter the direction of their research, but as they unearth the truth about the long-forgotten romance, their involvement becomes increasingly urgent and personal. Desperately concealing their purpose from competing researchers, they embark on a journey that pulls each of them from solitude and loneliness, challenges the most basic assumptions they hold about themselves, and uncovers their unique entitlement to the secret of Ash and La Motte's passion."

 
5.  Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

"I exist!" exclaims Ruby Lennox upon her conception in 1951, setting the tone for this humorous and poignant first novel in which Ruby at once celebrates and mercilessly skewers her middle-class English family. Peppered with tales of flawed family traits passed on from previous generations, Ruby's narrative examines the lives in her disjointed clan, which revolve around the family pet shop. But beneath the antics of her philandering father, her intensely irritable mother, her overly emotional sisters, and a gaggle of eccentric relatives are darker secrets--including an odd "feeling of something long forgotten"--that will haunt Ruby for the rest of her life."

   
6.  Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros

"Caramelo weaves a large yet intricate pattern, much like the decorative fringe on a rebozo, the traditional Mexican shawl. Through the eyes of young Celaya, or Lala, the Reyes family saga twists and turns over three generations of truths, half-truths, and outright lies. And, like Celaya's grandmother's prized caramelo (striped) rebozo, so is "the universe a cloth, and all humanity interwoven.... Pull one string and the whole thing comes undone."

Blogger's Book Club - Book Two

It's that time again, time to select our next book for Blogger's Book Club.  Does anyone have any suggestions for our next read?  If you do, please leave a comment.  Then in a few days we'll vote.  If I don't get any suggestions then I'll post the list Theresa and I came up with last month and we'll vote from that.  If you're unfamiliar with Blogger's Book Club, this is how it works: we select a book a month to read, then at the end of the month we post our thoughts about the book.  So simple.

Blogger's Book Club - Book One, Vile Bodies

Vile Bodies was written in 1930 when the author, Evelyn Waugh, was but 26 years old.  The book is an epic satire of English high society after the Great War "written with the brittle wit, insinuating intimacy, and the skittering attention span of a gossip column."  Waugh himself described the book as "a welter of sex and snobbery". 

 

In my opinion Waugh does a superb job of bringing the Jazz Age to life for readers.  And upon completion of the book I found it easy to see why it has been so enduringly popular. 

 

Now I've heard it said that some believe the character of Nina Blout is based on Diana Mosley (one of the Mitford sisters, who Waugh was once smitten with).  The book is dedicated to Diana and her husband Bryan Guinness.  "As a young woman Diana, third of the Mitford girls, was attended by a court of young men, including Evelyn Waugh who declared "her beauty ran through the room like a peal of bells".

 

Where to begin, the beginning of course.  The sea voyage was a bit drawn out and tedious and I was happy once they hit land and the story could really begin.  I found interesting Adam's lack of complete outrage at the confiscation of his book at customs.  He seemed a bit irked but didn't throw the fit I expected.  This of course set the tone for the rest of the book.  The characters show disinterested nonchalance when faced with even the most horrible of circumstances.

 

Although Vile Bodies focuses around the on again off again engagement of Adam and Nina, they as a couple lack the passion expected of two people in love.  The book may be a love story of sorts but it is definitely one of the less passionate variety.  A perfect example of this being when Adam asks Nina if she really does want to be his wife and she replies with something along the lines of, "Oh, yes. It's so boring not being married."

 

The books overall tone may be mainly light but there are several bleak moments; Mr. Chatterbox gassing himself and the prostitute dying at Lottie's.

 

I quite enjoyed the humorous relationship between the Colonel, who plays the eccentric aristocrat superbly, and the Rector.  The scenes in which the Colonel treats the Rector's car as his own, and later when he causes the loss of the Rector's electricity, were very amusing.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the bogus Mr. Chatterbox columns.  The promotion of suede shoes, green bowler hats, the so called fashionable hangouts like the temperance hotel and the station kiosk, and even fictional people, were all very funny.

 

Overall I found our first selection for the Blogger's Book Club to be a success, a quite captivating read.  Although now I'm tempted to go rent Bright Young Things to see the characters brought to life.  Do be warned though that Bright Young Things has a much more uplifting ending than the novel. 

 

Do tell me what you thought of our first pick for the Blogger's Book Club.

Blogger's Book Club - Month One

"It was clearly going to be a bad crossing..."

Vile Bodies it is (the title comes from Philippians 3:21).  A whole lot of you (5 to be exact) voted for Evelyn Waugh's second novel.  Those of you who care to participate in month one of Blogger's Book Club, go out sometime this week and pick of a copy of the book.  We're giving you a WHOLE month to complete this novel.  Then about mid April we'll discuss.  The movie Bright Young Things was based on Vile Bodies so perhaps after reading the book you'd like to view the movie and compare.

Blogger's Book Club

A month or so ago Theresa, of My Muse, came up with the idea of starting a "Blogger's Book Club" and I of course embraced the idea wholeheartedly.  The idea being that we select a book a month to read, then at the end of the month we post our thoughts about the book.  We each came up with a list of books that we had been intending to eventually read.  Then edited the list down to six choices.  So if you are at all interested in our "BBC" leave a comment voting for which book you would most like to read.  We'll post the final selection on March 13th.  Then everyone will have a month to complete the book.  [This is not meant to take away from Beth's Books and Booze, this is simply something those of us living across the country and beyond can participate in together].

 

1.  Tete-a-Tete : Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre by Hazel Rowley
"Though Rowley identifies her engaging and accessible chronicle as the "story of a relationship," it is in fact the story of the many relationships forged by two of the most brilliant, unorthodox and scandalous intellectuals of the 20th century: Beauvoir and Sartre, who from 1929 until Sartre's death in 1980 remained "essential" to each other but never monogamous."

2.  Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

"Evelyn Waugh's second novel, written in 1930, is his tribute to London's smart set. It introduces us to society as it used to be but that now is gone forever, and probably for good. Improbably, this is a love story in which Adam Fenwick-Symes, a destitute young writer, hungers for Nina Blount, daughter of an eccentric aristocrat.  Adam Fenwick-Symes and Nina Blount are continually becoming engaged and unengaged in the most polite and indifferent manner as his financial fortunes rise and fall. Mrs. Ape, the American evangelist, adds to the strange mix by coming to England with a group of chorines whom she calls her "angels." This satire of the London smart set relies on rich conversational rhythms and repartee."

3.  Little, Big by John Crowley

"Little, Big tells the epic story of Smoky Barnable - an anonymous young man who meets and falls in love with Daily Alice Drinkwater, and goes to live with her in Edgewood, a place not found on any map. In an impossible mansion full of her relatives, who all seem to have ties to another world not far away, Smoky fathers a family and tries to learn what tale he has found himself in - and how it is to end."

 
4.  Possession by A.S. Byatt

"Literary critics make natural detectives," says Maud Bailey, heroine of a mystery where the clues lurk in university libraries, old letters, and dusty journals. Together with Roland Michell, a fellow academic and accidental sleuth, Maud discovers a love affair between the two Victorian writers the pair has dedicated their lives to studying: Randolph Ash, a literary great long assumed to be a devoted and faithful husband, and Christabel La Motte, a lesser-known "fairy poetess" and chaste spinster. At first, Roland and Maud's discovery threatens only to alter the direction of their research, but as they unearth the truth about the long-forgotten romance, their involvement becomes increasingly urgent and personal. Desperately concealing their purpose from competing researchers, they embark on a journey that pulls each of them from solitude and loneliness, challenges the most basic assumptions they hold about themselves, and uncovers their unique entitlement to the secret of Ash and La Motte's passion."

 
5.  Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

"I exist!" exclaims Ruby Lennox upon her conception in 1951, setting the tone for this humorous and poignant first novel in which Ruby at once celebrates and mercilessly skewers her middle-class English family. Peppered with tales of flawed family traits passed on from previous generations, Ruby's narrative examines the lives in her disjointed clan, which revolve around the family pet shop. But beneath the antics of her philandering father, her intensely irritable mother, her overly emotional sisters, and a gaggle of eccentric relatives are darker secrets--including an odd "feeling of something long forgotten"--that will haunt Ruby for the rest of her life."

   
6.  Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros

"Caramelo weaves a large yet intricate pattern, much like the decorative fringe on a rebozo, the traditional Mexican shawl. Through the eyes of young Celaya, or Lala, the Reyes family saga twists and turns over three generations of truths, half-truths, and outright lies. And, like Celaya's grandmother's prized caramelo (striped) rebozo, so is "the universe a cloth, and all humanity interwoven.... Pull one string and the whole thing comes undone."

Also, if you don't have a blog you can still participate.  I will happily post your comments on my blog for you.