It seems like a long time ago by now! It was wonderful to have Jean back with us, filling us all in on all she has read since the last time we saw her. Come back more often!
We had a good discussion about The River, by Peter Heller. It wasn't much of a hit but we all agreed that he wrote like a dream when describing the setting - the Canadian wilderness along the isolated river the two main characters had chosen to explore.
At its heart, The River is an age old story of people battling the forces of nature, including the worst side of human nature. This one read like a thriller, with many twists as the two friends Jack and Wynn fight to save a woman left for dead by her homicidal husband as well as outrun a raging fire and some very shady characters they met along the way.
It is inevitable that tragedy ensues, and only Jack survives the friends' trip. The parallels to the early loss of his mother makes this even sadder. Still, the characters were a bit wooden, especially the saved woman who is essentially a prop for much of the book. There were an awful lot of people up on this distant and dangerous river and it did seem a pretty unlikely story. I was willing to forgive all that for the poetic writing but not everyone agreed.
We also had a great discussion about the Hopper exhibit now at the VMFA, and how Hopper's work is so enigmatic that it asks the viewer to construct a story. There is a book out, called In Sunshine and in Shadow that does just that. Twelve different writers each chose a Hopper painting and wrote a short story interpreting the setting. It was great! We are trying that ourselves before our December meeting. The plan is to visit the exhibit beforehand, pick a piece and each of us will create a storyline about it. Fun!
So on to our next book which is A Giant Leap by Charles Fishman and we will be at Fiona's. The date is Nov. 19, see you all then!
No comments:
Post a Comment