My Book Club
My book club meets this week. I've been a member of this group almost from the beginning in 1998. Although at present we have over ten members, rather a large number for a book club, six or so of us are original members, so there is a lot of continuity. In all, we've probably read and discussed 60 or 70 books in that time. I think we have been meeting since before Oprah started her book club and the whole rage for reading started. I'm actually not knocking Oprah; I think she has done wonders for literacy, not to mention the publishing industry, a sector of the economy that was sorely in need of a boost! I don't always agree with her "picks" as being particularly interesting or remarkable, but, the same thing happens in my book discussion group. Only rarely do we find a book where agreement is unanimous, where we all agree that the book rates "five stars" or, alternatively, that it's an absolute dud. Our choice for this month should make for a lively discussion.
This week we will be discussing Adultery by Richard B. Wright. I thought this was an interesting book as I love books that give me questions to explore even if there are no easy answers. Anyone picking up Adultery thinking it will be a sensationalist, steamy novel with lurid details of sexual encounters will find it to be rather the opposite! The novel begins with
an affair, more of a brief weekend fling, which results in a murder, the murder being a chance happening which nonetheless would not have happened had the main character Dan not been cheating on his wife with a much younger colleague while being away from home attending a publishing convention in Frankfurt and, after the convention, had the two of them not decided to take a little side trip, so to speak, to Exeter, west of London, where Denise, the girlfriend, is murdered. So begins Dan's week from hell as he meets with - in order - the Exeter police, his wife, his daughter, his colleagues, her mother, and her brother. As details of the characters are revealed gradually in small increments and flashbacks, we are faced with many questions: is Dan a despicable person? can he be forgiven? does he deserve our sympathy? how does the adultery come to overshadow the tragedy of the murder? or does it?
More - after we discuss the book!
This week we will be discussing Adultery by Richard B. Wright. I thought this was an interesting book as I love books that give me questions to explore even if there are no easy answers. Anyone picking up Adultery thinking it will be a sensationalist, steamy novel with lurid details of sexual encounters will find it to be rather the opposite! The novel begins with
an affair, more of a brief weekend fling, which results in a murder, the murder being a chance happening which nonetheless would not have happened had the main character Dan not been cheating on his wife with a much younger colleague while being away from home attending a publishing convention in Frankfurt and, after the convention, had the two of them not decided to take a little side trip, so to speak, to Exeter, west of London, where Denise, the girlfriend, is murdered. So begins Dan's week from hell as he meets with - in order - the Exeter police, his wife, his daughter, his colleagues, her mother, and her brother. As details of the characters are revealed gradually in small increments and flashbacks, we are faced with many questions: is Dan a despicable person? can he be forgiven? does he deserve our sympathy? how does the adultery come to overshadow the tragedy of the murder? or does it?
More - after we discuss the book!
posted by mamie @ 1:48 PM
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