Our ranks are back to almost normal numbers, 6 of us
gathered at Sarah's last night to talk about "What I loved".
Some of us loved it. Some of us did not love it. What
we loved, what we didn't loved....
Was the book about real life? Is this the stuff of
dreams, albeit twisted/self-indulgent/artsy-fartsy (or arty-farty) dreams that
only exist in a book? Opinions were in
the two camps.
To be fair, the book does come across as
the self-indulgent (quotes not included here in the name of
political-correctness)tale of a crowd only existing in New York concerned with
the world of ART and living only in that world, and its many, but limited,
expressions?experiences? But, hey, none
of us is a writer or painter or art critic or professor of art history or
social pathology expert (what was Violet?) living in New York - so we have to give
them the benefit of the doubt and recognize that their world is much different
from ours, even if we have lived in New York in the very same 'hood as those
folks from the book. Alas!
The book was NOT plot-driven, hmmm it was just lots of
descriptions, lots of 'signposts' along the page signaling the advent of a
significant event -- may we take that as? Commentary; some of us were expecting
a little bit more plot, please, plot.
Characters, not likeable, or mildly to say the least, they had something
that we could find fault with, except for Lazlo (albeit his weirdness and
hairdo...) but the winner of the dislikeable prize was Mark, the poor kid who
just keeps lying and stealing, and pretending in front of the adults in his
life all the good things that they want to see/hear.
What was really credible in the book, if not the life
of these people, was the ways in which they behaved. After all, they did what 'normal' human beings do; a very good
example, how parents take their kid back even if s/he's been a stinking
stealing cheat, over and over again.
Ah, the love of parents (Sarah, the mom-to-be extraordinaire, is surely
sighing here.)
We flowed into other topics: parents; life-changing
events; Wemmel and the extreme demand for contractors there; immigration - the
trials and tribulations and what can happen to you at the airport due to the
lack of understanding/training/plain humanity from some customs/immigration
officials; linguistics and the nuances of language (I shall drown vs I will
drown; they both cannot be right vs they cannot both be right); where the next
book club should be (Darshana? We missed ya) and what are we going to read.
So, without further ado....
The next book is "The Prime of Miss Jean
Brodie" by Muriel Spark