A Marriage of Opposites, by Alice Hoffman

Thank you to Ashley for hosting the book club meeting in your lovely home! We had a lively discussion of this book (and of a couple of wines - more on that later) that took many looping turns but kept coming back to the central themes of the book.

A Marriage of Opposites, by Alice Hoffman tells the story of Rachel Pomié's life and experiences in St. Thomas in the early 1800's. Rachel was the mother of the painter Camille Pisarro and this book explores the development of his artistic voice, but the persistent influences of his mother's childhood, her family, and the community's traditions regarding religion, race and class echo throughout both Rachel and Camille's lives, as does the tropical lushness and fertility of the island of St. Thomas.

Our discussion ranged from the life of women in the St. Thomas, then under Danish rule, and the religious tolerance that her Jewish family found there.  We discussed women's rights to property, to vote, and had to do a quick Google for the date of suffrage in England (1928) and in the US (1920).  Some notable women we were interested in learning more about are Madame Clicqot, The Grande Dame of Champagne, Marjorie Merriweather Post, and Beryl Markham.

 We agreed that we enjoyed the book, and the discussion that proved that the social confines experienced by Rachel, her friends and family were still pertinent and in need of examination and re-examination to see where gains have been made, what we are taking for granted and what we still need to achieve.

Wine Notes:  We enjoyed two wines, one called Two Vines, a Columbia Valley 2012 Merlot/Cabernet blend, and a Nero d'Avola by Archeo, 2013.

We were very sad to hear of the passing of Celia and Rick's beautiful dog Jessica, and send her our love, sympathies and condolences.  We will all miss Jessica, as she was an honorary member of the book club, and we spent many happy book club meetings petting her and getting to give her treats from her special drawer.  She was a great dog.