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The Red and the Black by Stendhal

For our discussion on Wednesday, August 9, 2017, the Classics Book Club selected The Red and the Black by Stendhal.  The book was first published in French in the first half of the 19^th Century.  It takes place at an interesting time politically and historically in France.  The country is no longer an absolute monarchy but the nobles and royalist sympathizers still abound.  Society consists of dichotomies: peasants and upper class/nobles, rural and urban, clerical and secular, even man and woman in some instances.  For possibly the first time in the history of France, the dichotomies are being challenged.  Peasants can become entrepreneurs (a French word) and, if they’re lucky, join the bourgeois class.  Stendhal lets us readers experience these conflicts through the protagonist Julien Sorel, a young man born a peasant, educated by clergy, but with ambitions to make his name in society.  Proud and ambitious, I found Julien to be quite unlikeable.  But I still enjoyed his story, getting immersed in different facets of French life, and Stendhal’s satirical take on established institutions.

Stendhal almost naturally delves into French politics that in some cases don’t sound too different from modern day politics.  The provincial mayor M. de Rênal is put in “the happy position of being compelled to immortalize his administration by building a wall 20 feet high and 30 to 40 yards long.” (p. 12)  Later a character laments that “public opinion is terrible in a country that has a charter of liberty.” (p. 131)  They also lament that “The tyranny of public opinion is as stupid in the little towns of France as in the United States of America.”  Speaking of the USA, one character comments that “You will never get beyond military bravery.  You will have Murats, never Washingtons.” (p. 25)  Another character astonishingly seems “to have lost his impassive coldness that was so natural to him; he no longer looked English.”

Julien’s aim is a prominent place in French society that the book describes in not the kindest terms.  A little after meeting someone, “The early morning platitudes about their health and the fineness of the day dried up.” (p. 66)  For another character, “Nothing, however, would have embarrassed him more than success.” (p. 78)  When Julien leaves the clergy, the abbé comments severely, “Perhaps you are going to become a fop.” (p. 207)  A minor character with “the waistcoat and the paternal expression … often smiled and then his eyes which were surrounded with a floating forest of eyebrows, assumed a singular brilliance and unusually decided expression.”

The book expresses attitudes towards woman and love.  Madame de Rênal seems “a woman of thirty years of age but still fairly pretty.” (p. 14)  Her husband remarks, “That’s what woman are, … there is always something out of order in those complicated machines.” (p. 67)  But Stendhal sounds more sensible when he writes, “It is impossible to love without equality.” (p. 77)  The upper class woman Mathilde loves Julien despite lamenting, “I shall lose … the pleasure of seeing the Marquise de Croisenois, the son of a duke, who will be one day a duke himself, sacrificed to me.” (p. 282)  When she is “confident that she was loved, Mathilde despised him utterly.” (p. 298)

Stendhal makes some interesting comments about reading and writing both through the narrative and his own digressions.  We first meet Julien when “Instead of watching attentively to the action of the (farm) machinery, Julien was reading.  Nothing was more anti-pathetic to old Sorel (Julien’s father) … he hated this reading mania.  He could not read himself.”( p. 21)  The Church of France “seems to have realized that books are its real enemies.” (p. 35)  When Julien comes out “of Madame de Rênal’s room some hours later, one could have said, adopting the conventional language of the novel, that there was nothing left to be desired.” (p. 79)  In an interesting digression Stendhal describes “a novel is a mirror which goes out on a highway.  Sometimes it reflects the azure of the heavens, sometimes the mire of the pools of mud on the way.”  The introduction states that, “We doubt there has been any modern book whether by Stendhal or anyone else, which has actually been learned by heart by its devotees.”

Despite being a translation from French, the book contained several words that were new to me.  The introduction contains the word “anacoluthic” that can mean either a syntactical inconsistency or incoherence within a sentence or a shift in an unfinished sentence from one syntactical construction to another (as in you really ought—well, do it your own way.)  On page 150 appears the word calumniate that means to utter maliciously false statements, charges, or imputations about.  Mathilde is “preferred among those young people who are the cynosure of a salon.” (p. 294)  A cynosure is a center of attraction or attention.  Stendhal writes, “There is only a step from this epithet to that of the wrong-headed, the greatest terms of opprobrium known in the provinces.” (p. 393)  An opprobrium is something that brings disgrace, public disgrace or ill fame that follows from conduct considered grossly wrong or vicious or contempt or reproach.

There were a few relatable references.  Regarding Julien, “Great deeds would have disappeared from his ken together with hope of achieving them and have been succeeded by the platitude.” (p. 68)  I later learned from reading Trainspotting that ken can mean know or knowledge though it may mean something different in this case.  Also about Julien, “Our hero was at a loss to answer so nattering a question.” (p. 75)  I prefer Mr. Verdant Green as our hero.  Stendhal foreshadows a future French novel by describing someone as “the master of the house.” (p. 316)

The main theme of the novel is how to advance in French society from low birth.  After I finished the book I read that the title could represent the competing forces in Julien’s life and the two choices for advancement.  Red represents the secular forces or the military.  Black represents the clergy or the church.  The colors also remind me of a song from the musical “Les Miserables.”  Early on Julien is given the choice to go into business with his friend Fouqué: “He found himself, not between vice and virtue like Hercules, but between mediocrity coupled with an assumed prosperity and all the heroic dreams of youth.” (p. 70)  Julien wonders “How many crosses and how many sinecures would that celebrated man who he is now defaming have accumulated if he had sold himself.” (p. 274)  Stendhal remarks as an aside that “It is, no doubt, at such moments of humiliation which have made Robespierres.”  At his trial, Julien tells the jury, “I see among you men … who would like to use me as a means for punishing and discouraging forever that class of young men who, though born in an inferior class and to seem extent oppressed by poverty, have none the less been fortunate enough to obtain a good education, and bold enough to mix with what the pride of the rich calls society.”  He goes on to say, “That is my crime, gentlemen, and it will be punished with even more severity, insomuch as, in fact, I am very far from begin judged by my peers.  I do not see on the jury benches any peasant who has made money but only indignant bourgeois.”

The book takes a rather brash view of death.  Mathilde thinks that “being condemned to death is the only real distinction.  It is the only thing that cannot be bought.” (p. 244)  Comte Altamira describes how “My King, who is burning to have me hanged today, and who called me by my Christian name before the rebellion.” (p. 250)  On France’s death row, Julien tells how “in three days’ time, at this very hour, I shall know what view to take about the great perhaps.” (p. 404)  He quotes Danton in that “it is singular but you cannot conjugate the verb guillotine in all its tenses.  Of course you shalt be guillotined but you don’t say, ‘I have been guillotined.’” (p. 404)  After Julien’s trial, M. de Frilair asks Mathilde, “Why did your friend take it into his head to attack the petty vanity of that bourgeois aristocracy.  Why talk about caste?  He pointed out to them what they ought to do in their political interest; the fools had not been giving it a thought and quite ready to weep.  That caste intervened and blinded their eyes to the horror of condemning a man to death.”

At the discussion on August 9, we had (Christ) party of ten.  A few didn’t like the book because they didn’t like the characters.  A couple of people got into an argument and one of them later asked to be removed from the email list.  One person tended to dominate.  After this discussion I took a four-month break from Classics Book Club.  But I’m still glad I got to read The Red and the Black.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

(Spoilers)

For our discussion on Tuesday, May 16, 2017, the Banned Book Club selected The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. It's about two generations of an Indian family who immigrate from India to the United States right after the older of the two generations gets married. The copyright pages mentions that "A portion of this book appeared in slightly different form in The New Yorker." Most of the book takes place in either the Boston area or in New York City. It consists of three parts: 1: 1968, 2: 1994, and 3:2000. Lahiri wrote much of the book in the present tense, especially what occurs during the years indicated by each part of the book. But other time periods of the characters' lives are covered by flashbacks. The book is about cultural differences, growing up, and looking back at your origins.

I feel that the book reveals much about Indian culture. After Ashoke is injured in a train crash in India, his mother works "in the kitchen, checking on him periodically, her lap stained with turmeric." (p. 19) I can relate because I know that turmeric stains easily. When Gogol is a baby, his parents and their friends hold a ceremony to predict his future path in life. Gogol "is offered a plate holding a clump of cold Cambridge soil dug up from the backyard, a ballpoint pen, and a dollar bill, to see if he'll be a landowner, scholar, or a businessman … but Gogol touches nothing." (p. 40) When they visit India, Gogol laments that "Apart from visiting relatives there is nothing to do in Calcutta." (p. 84) "At Benares station, Sonia asks her father to buy her a piece of jack-fruit, which makes her lips itch unbearably, then swell to three times their size." (p. 89) Back in the U.S., Gogol knows "that deshi, a generic word for 'countryman' means 'Indian.'" He also knows that "his parents and all their friends always referred to India simply as desh." (p. 122)

Gogol's parents have some difficulties with American culture. They wait for their grandmother to send her choice for the name of their first born but learn that "in America, a baby cannot be released from the hospital without a birth certificate." (p. 27) Later, a young woman calls Ashima and tells her that, "the patient, Ashoke Ganguli, her husband, has expired … Expired. A word used for library cards, for magazine subscriptions. A word which for several seconds, has no effect whatsoever on Ashima." (p. 168)

The book contains a few relatable references. When she is in school in India, Ashima is asked "to recite a few stanzas from 'The Daffodils.'" (p. 9) That poem by Laker William Wordsworth is one of my favorites. When Gogol and Maxine go to her parents' lake house, "At first, there is no house visible, nothing but large lime-colored ferns covering the ground." (p. 154) Moushimi has an "old Modern Library edition of The Red and the Black." (p. 259) We discussed that book for Classics Book Club in August 2017.

I enjoyed the references to Russian literature that are central to the book's title and theme. Gogol gets his nickname and later what he goes by as a child from Nicholai Gogol who wrote the famous Russian short story "The Overcoat." I read the story to supplement reading The Namesake and found it very sad with some humor. T.C. Boyle wrote an updated version "The Overcoat II" that appeared in T.C. Boyle Stories. Gogol's father, Ashoke, enjoys Russian Literature as a young person in India. "It was while walking on some of the world's noisiest, busiest streets, on Chowringhee and Gariahat, that he read pages of The Brothers Karamazov, and Anna Karinina, and Fathers and Sons." (p. 12-13) From what little Gogol knows about Russian writers, "it dismays him that his parent chose the weirdest namesake." (p. 79) Gogol doesn't read "The Overcoat" because he believes that reading it "would pay tribute to his namesake, accepting it somehow." (p. 96)

While visiting an old cemetery as a student, Gogol notices the names on the headstones: "Peregrine Wotton, D. 1699. Ezekiel and Uriah Lockwood, Brothers, R.I.P. He likes the names, likes their oddness, their flamboyance … until now it has not occurred to Gogol that names die over time, that they perish just people do." (p. 73) I noticed that the author still referred to him as Gogol even after he changed his name to Nikhil as an adult. He later falls asleep on a train, "using his overcoat as a blanket pulled up to his chin." (p. 279) His father was reading "The Overcoat" when the trainwreck occurred. Gogol asks him, "Is that what you think of when you think of me? Do I remind you of that night?" "'Not at all,' his father says eventually, one hand on his ribs, a habitual gesture that has baffled Gogol until now. 'You remind me of everything that followed.'" (p. 124)

In 2016, The Namesake was recommended for removal from the curriculum by the ad-hoc literature committee of the Coeur d'Alene (ID) School District because it contained "descriptions of sexual conduct that are too explicit for high school seniors." I think we had a decent "Christ party" of 8-10 on Tuesday, May 16. Most people liked the book and one person was hoping that Gogol and Moushimi's relationship would work out. I was less surprised because Moushimi had concealed her desire to move to France. We liked how the book picked a few moments in time and filled the gaps between them with flashbacks. Some talked about Indian immigrants they knew in the Bay Area. Someone suggested the book White Teeth by Zadie Smith. For the "next next" discussion in July we chose A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe

For our discussion on Wednesday, May 10, 2018, the Classics Book Club selected A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe. I think Defoe wrote the book in the early 19^th Century. He wrote it as an account of the plague that spread through London in the late 18^th Century. Defoe was just a child at that time and the book is written from the point of view of an adult. I think he makes like he's writing from the point of view of his uncle or another older relative. Late in the book he writes, "There is a piece of ground in Moorfields, … the author of this journal lies buried in that very ground." (p. 181) But I don't think that's true. I think most of the book is fiction if not all of it. The dates and some of the major events may be true along with some of the death counts per week he gives. But the first person narrator seems like a fictional character to me. Defoe just does a good job making the story seem like a true account.

Defoe gives a detailed account of how the spread of the plague affects the people of London. When the plague first emerges, "we began to hope that, as it was briefly among the people at that end of town, it might go no further." (p. 4) He refers to the plague as "the distemper" and describes how every house visited by it is "marked with a red cross." (p. 33) A principal cause of the spread is the "necessity of going out of our houses to buy provisions was in a great measure the ruin of the whole city." (p. 59) Self-preservation obliges "the people to these severities which they would otherwise be concerned in." (p. 110) Some commit "a great many petty thieveries in the houses where they were employed." (p. 106) Hearing that the plague had abated in St. Giles-in-the-Fields makes "the people of Redriff and Wrapping, Ratcliff, and Limehouse, so secure, and flatter themselves so much with the plague's going off without reaching them, that they took no care to either fly into the country or shut themselves up." (p. 88) Fraud is also committed by "parish officers, searchers, and persons appointed to give account of the dead, and what diseases they died of; and as people were very loth at first to have the neighbors believe their houses were infected, so they gave money to procure, or otherwise procure, the dead persons to be returned as dying of other distempers." (p. 159)

Some people have interesting responses to the distemper and the displacement caused by it. One woman's remedy is "washing her head in vinegar and sprinkling her head-clothes so with vinegar as to keep them always moist, and if the smell of any of those she waited on was more than ordinary offensive, she snuffed vinegar up her nose and sprinkled vinegar upon her clothes, and held a handkerchief to her mouth." (p. 68) One infected person escapes quarantine, strips down, swims across the Thames and back, and returns home. The "terrible experiment cured him of the plague, that is to say, that the violent motion of his arms and legs stretched the parts where the swellings he had upon him were, that is to say, under his arms and his groin, and caused them to open and break; and that the cold of the water abated the fever in his blood." (p. 126) Grief causes to happen to one person "by degrees his head sank into his body, so between his shoulders that the crown of his head was very little seen." (p. 94) Another person has "a wound in his leg, and whenever he came among any people that were not sound, and the infection began to affect him, he said he could know it by the signal, viz., that his leg would smart." (p. 149)

People must also consider their reputations caused by whether they catch the distemper or how they treat others. A character John argues with people in the country how "they would be loth to have it remembered, hereafter, and have it told how barbarous, how inhospitable, and how unkind they were to the people of London when they fled from the face of the most terrible enemy in the world." (p. 183) The narrator describes how "we had no such thing as a printed newspaper in those days to spread rumors and reports of things … so that things did not spread instantly over the whole nation, as they do now." (p. 1) I'm a little surprised they didn't have newspapers back then. If newspapers could spread things instantly, how fast do they spread now? One danger is that "all that conceal their distemper did it, to prevent their neighbors shunning and refusing to converse with them." (p. 5) The narrator later reflects that "on the other side of the grave we shall see each other again." (p. 137)

Not surprisingly, such an old book contained some words that were new to me. The distemper is "brought down among them chiefly by the higlers, and such people as went to London with provisions (p. 188) Higlers are traveling peddlers. In one family, one falls sick "of one distemper, one of another, chiefly scorbutic ailments." (p. 205) Scorbutic means related to scurvy. The book uses the word Hackney for a carriage for hire. It mentions citizens of the highest probity or those who adhere to the highest principles and ideas, uprightness. The book also mentions some funny and familiar place names. The latter include "the parishes of St. Giles and St. Martin-in-the-Fields alone there died 421." (p. 11) Also "about Brentwood, or that way, several perished in the fields." (p. 105) Funny place names include Spitafields, Bunhill Fields, and a street "which is now called Blowbladder Street." (p. 188)

The author's statements about himself made me doubt that this was a true account. He resolves "that I would stay in town, and casting myself entirely upon the goodness and protections of the Almighty, would not seek any other shelter whatever." (p. 10 ) Though he confines his family, "I could not prevail upon my unsatisfied curiosity to stay entirely within myself." (p. 61) He even gets "admittance into the churchyard … I told (the sexton) I had pressed in my mind to go and that perhaps it might be an instructive sight." He mentions how, "I had in family only an ancient woman who managed the house, a maid-servant, two apprentices, and myself." He comments that he is "too impatient of being so long within doors." (p. 86) With all that's going on and the dangers, I just don't think someone could really have experience as much as the narrator did without catching the distemper. Though his account seems legitimate, I doubt he actually saw as much as he wrote about. Later he ponders, "I should be counted censorious, and perhaps unjust, if I should enter into the unpleasing work of reflecting." (p. 194)

The narrator makes some interesting observations of what happens after the plague. During the plague, merchants were not able to sell merchandise. But not long after, the Great Fire of London "even terrible too of its kind, enriched the country and made (the merchants) amends … there never was known such trade all over England for the time as was in the first seven years after the plague, and after the fire of London." (p. 174) Later the "houses in the same row with that house northward are built on the same ground where the poor people were buried." (p. 181) The narrator reveals some class bias when he writes, "As to inferior people, I think there died six and forty constables and head-boroughs in the two parishes of Stepney and Whitechaple." (p. 184)

The book contained several relatable references. The frost "which began in December, still continuing very severe even till near the end of February." (p. 3) As Black Box Recorder would say, "Yes, I know it's February, but you lot could use a bit of toughening up." Another music-related reference appears in "the jack-puddings, merry-andrews, puppet shows, rope-dames, and such-like doings, which bewitched the poor common people, shut up their shops." (p. 23) Pulp have a song "Common People." The narrator describes someone actually pushing a cart and calling out, "Bring out your dead." (p. 62) I wonder if Monty Python got the idea for their scene in The Holy Grail movie from this book. In the book a piper is described, "The poor fellow … was laid all alone upon the top or stall, and fast asleep … the people … thinking that this poor fellow had been a dead body … threw him into the cart …" They later realized their error and exclaimed, "Lord, bless us! There's somebody in the cart not quite dead!" (p. 69) A similar thing occurs in the Monty Python scene. Someone brings an old man to the cart who protests, "I'm not dead!" One of the songs from the musical Spamalot is "Not Dead Yet."

I did not attend the discussion of A Journal of the Plague Year because my spouse and I went to an the open mic at Stonegate Pizza. Though the book was quite long and sometimes hard to follow I still learned much from it and found some if it relatable.

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

For our discussion on February 8, 2017, the Classics Book Club selected Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was the second book by Fitzgerald that I had read after reading The Great Gatsby for Banned Book Club in 2013. I like Tender is the Night better. The characters aren't very likeable but they seem more developed. The plot seems more complex with flashbacks and vivid descriptions. There are a few similarities such as a car accident and tension between those who inherited money and those who try to make their own. But Tender in the Night also features Americans living in Europe in the 1920's. They host parties, go out, drink a lot, keep up appearances but ultimately cannot escape their flaws. The time period is similar to the book we read for January 2017, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. The Introduction to Tender is the Night mentions that the criticism that really hurt Fitzgerald "was that of Hemingway, who charged his fellow writer with self-pity ('Forget your personal tragedy …') and with creating false composite characters in merging Sara and Gerald Murphy with Zelda and Scott instead of inventing (the characters) Nicole and Dick Diver from imagination alone." (p. 15)

The Introduction also gives the origin of the title. The title page quotes from the poem "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats: "Away! Away! For I will fly to thee … on viewless wings of Poesy perplexes and retards: Already with thee! Tender is the night … But here there is no light, Save from heaven is with the breezes blown through Verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways." I'm not quite sure how this relates to the story. I think I read somewhere about the characters being tender or vulnerable. In the story, they "walk toward the American Express past the odorous confectionaries of the Via National, through the foul tunnel up to the Spanish Steps, where his spirit soured before the flower stalls and the house where Keats had died." (p. 230)

The book actually contains many relatable references. In the flashback section, Dick hurries through the old red buildings of Johns Hopkins "unstayed by the irony of the gigantic Christ in the entrance hall." (p. 110) I haven't been to Hopkins but I've been to Baltimore many times. I remember reading about the statue of Christ in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Nicole wears a Burberry at one point. Later Dick loiters "among the fallow-rose bushes and the beds of deep sweet indistinguishable fern." (p. 179) Earlier Nicole looks up from "along the path edge with shadowy myrtle and fern." (p. 47) Dr. Dolimler nods his head "as if, like Sherlock Holmes, he had expected a valet and only a valet to be introduced at this point." (p. 136) A passage in Italian mentions "una novella di Sinclair Lewis 'Wall Street' nella quale autore analizza la vita sociale de una piccolo citta Americana." (p. 217) I think they're actually talking about the book Main Street. I enjoyed the few references to music in the book. A minor character, Hannan, plays chords at the piano in an adjoining room. An orchestra obliging launches into "Yes, We Have No Bananas." (p. 70) At the piano Dick plays "some Schubert songs and some new jazz from America." (p. 259)

The book contained several words that were new to me. Early on Rosemary drinks some citronade on the beach. I think that's just like lemonade only made with citrons. As for Dick's party, "once their umbrellas, bamboo rugs, dogs, and children were set out in place the part of the plage was literally fenced in." (p. 27) A plage is the beach of a seaside resort. Later Abe is invited to lunch but declines: "It was almost Briglith, he explained, and there was something he had to do at Briglith." (p. 98) Briglith sounds kind of like Brillig but I could not find a definition of Briglith anywhere. Fitzgerald uses a rather pretentious word in the sentence "Before (Rosemary's) tiny fist the forces of lust and corruption rolled away; nay the very march of destiny stopped; inevitable became evitable, syllogism, dialectic, all rationality fell away." (p. 79) As a psychiatrist, Dick recognizes Cheyne-Stokes tendencies in a patients respiration. Cheyne-Stokes respiration is an abnormal pattern of breathing characterized by progressively deeper and sometimes faster breathing followed by a gradual decrease that results in a temporarily stop in breathing called an apnea.

Fitzgerald makes some interesting distinctions between Europeans and Americans. At the end of a phone call, "Dick rung off." (p. 95) A waiter describes a group of tourists as "the gold star muzzers." In Austria Dick has "erbsen suppe with wurstchen cut up in it." (p. 178) Dick claims that "no American men had any repose, except himself, and (the others) were seeking an example to confront him with. Things looked black for them—not a man had come into the restaurant for ten minutes without raising his hand to his face." (p. 56) About Rosemary, Nicole, and Mary North: "Their point of resemblance to each other and their difference from so many American women, lay in the fact that they were happy to exist in a man's world—they preserved their individuality through men and not by opposition to them." (p. 57) "Like most women, (Rosemary) liked to be told how she should feel." (p. 62) That says a lot about Fitzgerald's attitude towards women. On the other hand, at the U.S. Consulate, "the American Woman, aroused, stood over (the Consul); the clean-sweeping irrational temper that had broken the back of a race and made a nursery out of a continent, was too much for him." (p. 204) Rosemary's mother tells her, "whatever happens it cannot spoil you because economically you're a boy, not a girl." (p. 51)

The book contains some interesting descriptions of the characters. "Dick went over Paris to his bank—writing a check, he looked along the row of men at the desks, deciding which one he would present it to for an OK." (p. 87) When Cassius stands up "his mustache spreading with his smile." (p. 88) Jules Peterson is describe as "a small, respectable N_____, on the suave model that heels the Republican party in the border states …" (p. 101) I liked the descriptions of McKisko whose "conversation that he had interrupted would go on without him. He tried breaking into other dialogues, but it was like continually shaking hands with a glove from which the hand had been withdrawn." (p. 41-42) Dick becomes "excessively ignorant and inquisitive about literature with McKisko—thus giving the latter the moment of superiority which he required." (p. 58) Later, "McKisko was having his vogue. His novels were pastiches of the work of the best people of this time, a feat not to be disparaged, and in addition possessed a gift for softening and debasing what he borrowed, so that many readers were charmed by the ease with which they could follow him." (p. 215)

I enjoyed Fitzgerald's writing. I like how the time between the flashback and the present is bridged with dialogue. I like how Dick and Nicole's relationship begins with "she turned and looked at him he knew her problem was one they had together for good now." (p. 142) The sisters are "poster-like, formidable in their snow-costumes, Nicole's of cerulean blue, Baby's of brick red." (p. 154) Dick explains that "if you spend your life sparing people's feelings and feeding their vanity, you get so you can't distinguish what should be respected in them." (p. 159) Dick's discovering that he is not in love with Rosemary "nor she with him, had added rather than diminished his passion for her." (p. 226)

Fitzgerald includes a lot of sarcasm in the book such as Dick reflecting that "There was no use worrying about Nicole when (her family) were in a position to be able to buy her a nice young doctor, the paint scarcely dry on him." (p. 138) Dick remembers "the statement of the elder Miss Warren as to the young doctors that could be purchase in the intellectual stockyards of the South Side of Chicago." (p. 139) Early on a gathering consists of "seven people, the limit of a good party." (p. 64) Later Fitzgerald describes England as "like a rich man after a disastrous orgy who makes up to the household by chatting with them individually, when it is obvious to them that he is only trying to get back his self-respect in order to usurp his former power." (p. 205)

We had a decent discussion on Wednesday, February 8. Most seemed to like the book but not the characters. One especially disliked Dick even before his life was denigrated by alcoholism. Others did not like that part of the story was told in flashback. We compared it to the book we read the month before, The Sun Also Rises. Dick, Nicole, Rosemary, Abe, and other characters do seem like part of Hemingway's lost generation. But I still prefer Fitzgerald's writing to Hemingway's. Tender is the Night just captures the scenes more vividly. The following month we read Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck that takes place at the same time as The Sun Also Rises and Tender is the Night but in a very different setting. It also has characters who drink large quantities of alcohol but they don't seem to suffer much for it unlike Dick in Tender is the Night. I like that we spent the first three months of the year discussing three great American authors of the early 20^th Century.

Educating Esmé by Esmé Raji Codell

I read Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year by Esmé Raji Codell in December 2016. I first heard about the book many years earlier when I saw it suggested by Nancy Pearl in her book Book Lust as a book recommended for teachers. I checked out Educating Esmé as an epub from Overdrive either from the Tacoma Public Library or the Pierce County Public Library. The book consists of a diary of Esmé's first year of teaching in 1992 right after she obtained her teaching credential. She taught fifth grade at an urban public elementary school in Chicago. She describes her struggles with difficult students, uncooperative administrators, and other teachers such as when she met opposition when she tried to organize a fairy tale festival. I learned much from the book about teaching techniques and resources. I also enjoyed Esmé's humor.

Esmé mentions teaching techniques in the diary and many more in a separate section at the end of the book. She describes how before her students can enter the classroom, "they must give me a word … We go over the words when we do our private reading conferences. I learned this from reading Teacher by Sylvia Ashton-Warner, who taught underprivileged Maori children in New Zealand." (p. 29) After a student runs up to her and punchers her in the jaw, "I automatically put him in a body lock, like I learned in Classroom Management in college …" (p. 134) In the section at the end, Esmé says to "Remember that questions, not directives, inspire critical thinking. Try 'Can you make a different choice?' instead of 'Stop that.' Try 'How will I know this is yours?' instead of 'Put your name on your paper.' Try 'How can we help kids who are trying to work?' instead of 'Be quiet in the hallway.'" (p. 170) She describes how "Taking dated samples and comparing them in later work is genuinely exciting for you (the teacher), the child, and the child's family to see; like pedagogical notches on a door frame." (p. 173) She asserts that "Consistency is the holy grail of classroom management. It means you do what you say and say what you mean, you mean the same thing on Tuesday as you do on Thursday, and you mean the same thing for Johnny as you do for Janey." (p. 181) She reinforces that "new concepts should never be introduced in the context of homework." (p. 185)

I like how Esmé includes some musical references. She has her class learn "an alphabet song by Carole King, 'Alligators All Around …'" (p. 27) I hadn't heard of that Carole King song before. She uses music and dance to teach double-digit multiplication: "we got out huge pieces of butcher paper and wrote problems on them and I masking-taped them to the floor. I put on 'Mu-Cha-Cha' from Bells are Ringing .. I started dancing on the butcher paper, making my feet do the math. Forward, multiply the ones. Back, bring it down. Side, the ones column by the tens. Back, down and over. Side, multiply the tens by the ones. Back, extra step, and over. On and on. Soon, all the kids were dancing on problems. Then we did some multiplication at our desks. 'Pretend your pencils are your feet,' I instructed as the music played." (p. 87) Esmé describes how "I have to listen to the line 'putting it my way but nicely' from 'Getting to Know You' sung by Gertrude Lawrence in The King and I at least eight times before I walked out the door in the morning." (p. 107) We have the notes and chords to that song in one of our music books.

A few other relatable references have to do with King George who we have come to enjoy from the musical Hamilton. Esmé takes her students to the historical society with her friend Lucy who helps chaperone. Her student Valerie remarks, "These bullets from the American Revolution are made of lead," and asks, "Doesn't it stand to reason, then, that King George would choose to tax lead?" (p. 94) Lucy gets a hankering for the children's potato chips and declares, "I'm Queen George, and I'm giving you a potato chip tax, five per table." (p. 94) She then collects. In an earlier passage, Esmé humorously writes, "It does not make sense to say something does not make sense to someone who does not make sense, but sometimes, what else can you say?" (p. 50) In the acknowledgments section she thanks "the following people who have been so instrumental in my teaching and writing … Ann Miller; Conrack; Garrison Keillor." (p. 147) I'm sure that Conrack in this case is Pat Conroy who wrote The Water is Wide about his time teaching on Yamacraw (actually Daufuskie) Island. His students called him Conrack.

Esmé includes some profound observations in the book. She describes how "certain people just think it's their job to freak out. As long as they're freaking out, they feel busy, like they must be doing work. Getting upset is force but no motion." (p. 43) She believes that you "can't test what sort of teacher someone will be, because testing what someone knows isn't the same as what someone is able to share." (p. 104) In the Epilogue she quotes from the Bhagavad Gita: "You have the right to work, but for work's sake only. You have no rights to the fruits of work. Desire for the fruits of work must never be your motive in working … Work done with anxiety about results is far inferior to work done without such anxiety as in the calm of self-surrender … Those who work selfishly for results are miserable." (p. 137)

Esmé comes to recognize "that children's literature is our best hope for equalizing education because a great book in the hands of a rich child is the same as a great book in the hands of a poor child." (p. 150) She believes that "In a world of educational theories, reading-aloud is proven way to guarantee a forward academic trajectory. The benefits of the practice, well-documented in Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook suggest that we don't have time not to do it." (p. 160) She feels that her own book How to Get Your Child to Love Reading "will make you an expert in children's literature." (p. 164)

Esmé recommends lots of further reading. She mentions magazines such as Instructor, Learning, Mailbox, and Teacher. In the section on teaching techniques at the end of the book she mentions "The First-Year Teacher's Survival Kit by Julie G. Thompson, The First Days of School by Henry K. Wong and Rosemary Wong, Discipline without Stress, Punishment, or Rewards by Marvin L. Marshall, The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, What Do You Do with a Child Like This? by L. Tobin, and Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students by Their Brains by LouAnne Johnson…" (p. 164) The publisher of Educating Esmé recommends Work Hard. Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America by Jay Matthews, In Code: A Young Woman's Mathematical Journey by Sarah Flannery and David Flannery, and The Story of Mathematics by Richard Mankiewitz.

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

(Possible spoilers)

For our discussion on Wednesday, December 14, 2016, the Classics Book Club selected Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith. I had heard of Highsmith as the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley and I had seen the movie version of that book many years ago. It starred Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Cate Blanchett. It's a story in which the main character is not a good person at all. The same can be said about Strangers on a Train, though it involves one character, Guy, who is manipulated and twisted by a worse character, Bruno. They first meet on a train at the beginning of the book. The writing is humorous at times but the characters are a bit too disturbing or too easy to manipulate for my tastes. The book seems fairly long and the situation just seems to get worse for the characters. I think Highsmith is trying to make Guy seem like the everyman character and assert that what happens to him could happen to anyone. But I'm not sure other people would react the same way as Guy.

The character Bruno is by far the most sick and twisted. Highsmith gives us readers the chance to see what's going on inside his mind. Early on Bruno remembers, "one brilliant and powerful thought that had come to him last night watching a televised shuffleboard game: the way to see the world was to see it drunk." (p. 56) Much later Bruno tells another character, "Some people are too dumb to have consciences, others people are too evil." (p. 238)

Though it's written in the third person, Highsmith tells much of the story from Guy's point of view especially his responses to Bruno. I can't tell if Guy loathes, fears, or admires Bruno at different points in the story. Bruno's silences bring "more relief than the silence from the police. In fact, he was not anxious at all lest the police find him, had never been. The anxiety had always been within himself against himself, so tortuous he might have welcomed the law's intervention. Society's law was lax compared to the law of conscience." (p. 163) Guy reflects that "love and hate … good and evil, lived side by side in the human heart, and not merely in differing proportions in one man and the next, but all good and all evil … Nothing could be without its opposite." (p. 165) Guy finds solace that as an architect "however they demolished him …, they would not demolish his buildings. And he felt again the strange and lonely isolation of his spirit from his flesh, even from his mind." (p. 228) Guy eventually rationalizes that "I was broken down. Bruno broke me down with letters, drove me insane, too. And listen, I believe any man can be broken down. I could break you down. Given the same circumstances, I could break you down and make you kill someone." (p. 260-261)

We had a rather heated discussion on Wednesday, December 14. Some felt that Guy reacted like a normal person to Bruno while others felt Guy was flawed and perhaps a bit twisted himself. A few cited the move version of Strangers on a Train that was made in the 1950's by Alfred Hitchcock a few years after the book was first published. I think Hitchcock changed the plot and made Guy a more sympathetic character. The discussion was held at the home of the coordinator and also served as a Christmas party. I didn't stay very late and I still don't feel that discussing Strangers on a Train should coincide with Christmastide.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

In October 2016, I read Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. I had proposed it for the Banned Book Club to read a couple of times but they rejected it in favor of other books. It's a teen romance about a couple of high school misfits in the mid-1980's in Omaha, Nebraska. I think the author was a teenager around that time and I was a teenager not long after that. I can relate to much of the music they reference and a few other aspects as of the time period. I also thought it was a good story. The title characters Eleanor and Park are not good-looking. Eleanor is a new student in the school and Park is an introverted Goth into comic books and alternative rock. At one point Eleanor tells him, "You look like Robert Smith." (p. 222) I think that's when Park starts wearing makeup. Eleanor has a very dysfunctional home life that plays a major role in the story. I like that the book has several surprises.

One relatable reference is not due to the time period. Park's parents tell him he can have his mom's Impala after he gets his driver's license. I bet it's one of those Impalas that's built like a tank. There are a couple references to other books that I've read recently. Among Eleanor's books are Garp and Watership Down that the Banned Book Club read for December. Eleanor starts "copying a poem called 'Caged Bird' into her notebook …" (p. 36) I wonder if it's the same poem that inspired the title of Maya Angelou's first memoir. Park watches a Young Ones marathon on MTV. I actually didn't learn of The Young Ones until much later, after I met my wife.

I enjoyed the references to the music of the time. Park makes for Eleanor "a tape with all his favorite Smiths songs, plus a few songs by Echo and the Bunnymen, and Joy Division." (p. 50) I've seen Echo and the Bunnymen and New Order in concert. Eleanor thinks some of the song titles are embarrassing such as "This Charming Man" and "How Soon is Now?" Park also plays "Elvis Costello for her—and Joe Jackson, and Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers." (p. 241) I hadn't heard of the latter two but my wife had.

I think the Banned Book Club really missed out by not choosing Eleanor and Park. It was challenged by a parent action group in Anoka County, Minnesota in 2017. They cited 227 instances of profanity in the book as well as crude and sexually charged material that they felt was inappropriate for students. An appearance by the author in Anoka County was canceled. But the school board did not ban the book. I wish the book was around for me to read when I was a teenager but I'm glad I still read it as an adult.

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

For our discussion on Wednesday, September 14, 2016, the Classics Book Club selected Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. I had already read three books by Conrad. For 12^th grade English we had to pick a classic author on which to focus. I chose Conrad, though I don't remember why. Maybe because his books were fairly short and I figured no one else would pick him. I read the novellas Heart of Darkness and Typhoon and the novel The (N-word) of the Narcissus. I remember watching a Masterpiece Theatre production of Nostromo in the 1990's. With more than 300 pages, Lord Jim is probably the longest book by Conrad that I've read. It doesn't read very quickly. Conrad combines the story with much reflection on fairly deep topics such as human nature. Much of the story is told by a character, Marlow, who also appears in Heart of Darkness. I found some bits of humor in an otherwise very serious book. Reading it wasn't easy and sometimes wasn't fun, but it was an adventure.

The main character is the titular Jim, a young British mariner. Very early in the book, Conrad writes, "They called him Tuan Jim—as one might say—Lord Jim." (p. 15) However, he doesn't receive this title until much later in the book. Marlow tells us the readers much of the story. Jim exists "for me, and after all it is only through me that he exists for you." (p. 163) Marlow says at least one line that reminds me of the book in which he is the central character. I couldn't help but think of Heart of Darkness when he says, "I was very quiet." (p. 81) In the other book he describes the titular heart of the deep dark African jungle as "It was very quiet there."

Lord Jim contains several relatable references. Early on Marlow narrates, "Just then eight bells was struck" (p. 53) and I couldn't help think of Jonesy's Jukebox. He describes one character, possibly Jim, as "He ought to have had a thread-bare black soutane buttoned smoothly up to his frockcoat with shoulder straps and brass buttons." (p. 106) A soutane is a type of cassock worn by Roman Catholic priests and sounds a little bit like suntans, though not anywhere near the same thing. I wonder if the frockcoat is like the one worn by Shezza. Either Marlow or Jim describes how "The branches of casuarina trees behind me swayed lightly, incessantly, reminding me of the soughing of fir-trees at home." (p. 256) The description reminded me of the Westin Casuarina where we once stayed in Las Vegas. Malow describes how immigrants from Celebes can "muster some 200 men wearing a Kriss." (p. 186) That reminds me of the Kriss knives in Dune. A Kriss is actually a Malay or Indonesian dagger with a ridged serpentine blade.

The book contained several words that I did not know. Some may be nautical or island terms such as Campong that sounds Filipino. I think that's a type of tropical shelter. There were also some complex words. Marlow says of Jim, "It was distressing to see him at it, though he tackled it with stubborn serenity for which I must give him full credit. I kept my eye on his shabby plodding with a sort of notion that it was punishment for the heroics of his fancy—an expiation for his craving after more glamour than he could carry." (p. 109) Expiation is an act of atonement or means by which atonement is made. Marlow later describes how an astronomer "would strongly object to being transported to a distant heavenly body, where, parted from his earthly emoluments, he would be bewildered by the view of the unfamiliar heavens." (p. 158) An emolument is an advantage or the returns arising from office or employment, usually in the form of compensation. Jim is also described, "There is in his espousal of memory and affection belonging to another human being something characteristic of his seriousness." (p. 200) An espousal is either a bethrothal, a wedding, or a marriage, though the sentence doesn't seem to use it that way.

Another possibly regional word that I learned from the book is costermonger, a hawker of fruit or vegetables. Marlow narrates, "I saw it vividly, as though in our progress through the lofty silent rooms amongst fleeting gleams of light and sudden revelations of human figures stealing with flickering flames within unfathomable and pellucid depths, we had approached nearer the absolute truth which, like beauty itself, floats elusive, obscure, half-submerged in silent still waters of mystery." (p. 156) That's deep. Pellucid means reflecting light evenly from all surfaces. Marlow later thinks Jim should "jump into the first gharry he could see and drive on to Stein's house." (p. 168) A gharry is a horse-drawn cab used especially in India or Egypt. A character holds a "drammar torch at arm's length." (p. 214) Drammar is any of various resins used in varnishes and inks and obtained chiefly in Malaysia or Indonesia from several timber trees.

Conrad incorporates some humor in the book, or maybe some passages just remind me of funny things. For example he writes, "The tugs smoking like the pit of perdition, get hold of and churn the old river into fury; the gentleman ashore is dusting his knees—the benevolent steward has shied his umbrella after them." (p. 34) The tugs remind me of Tugger from the South Park skit of Russell Crowe "Fighting 'round the world.'" About travelers Conrad writes, "Henceforth they would be labeled as having passed through this and that place, and so would be their distinctions of their persons, and preserved the gummed tickets as documentary evidence, as the only permanent trace of their enterprise." (p. 58) Now we call stickers "gummed tickets." Another humorous description is: "He was good tempered, had not much to say for himself, was not clever by any means, thank goodness …" (p. 135) Marlow describes an interaction with Jim: "I saw three books in the tumble; two small, in dark covers and one thick green and gold volume—a half-crown completed Shakespeare. 'You read this?' I asked. 'Yes. Best thing to cheer up a fellow,' he answered hastily." (p. 172) About the character Cornelius, "It was the element of his nature which permeated all his acts and passions and emotions; he raged abjectly, smiled abjectly, was abjectly sad; his civilities and indignation were alike abject." (p. 207)

Conrad includes many profound reflections, often through the character Marlow. He describes how "The commonest sort of fortitude prevents us from sense; It is from weakness unknown, but perhaps suspected as in some parts of the world you suspect a deadly snake in every bush—from weakness that may be hidden, watched or unwatched, prayed against or manfully scorned, repressed or maybe ignored more than half a lifetime, not one of us is safe." (p. 33) He describes the character Egstrom as "a raw-boned, heavy Scandanavian, with a busy manner and immense brown whiskers, went on directing his people, checking parcels, making out bills, or writing letters at a stand-up desk in the shop, and comported himself in that clatter exactly as though he had been stone deaf." (p. 138) Another character's father "had been a white; a high official; one of those brilliantly endowed men who are not dull enough to nurse a success and whose careers so often end under a cloud." (p. 200) I thought the strangest sentence was "Thus a poor mortal seduced by the charm of an apparition might have tried to wing from another ghost the tremendous secret of the claim the other world holds over a disembodied soul astray amongst the passions of earth." (p. 228)

We were a fairly large group who got together to discuss Lord Jim on Wednesday, September 14. We were (Christ) party of ten including a couple of new people. A few did not like the book. They found Conrad's digressing descriptions and deep reflections annoying and distracting from the story. Others thought the book had multiple layers of understanding and was worth reading more than once. I thought the book was more like how we hear stories in real life: usually in seemingly disconnected pieces, often in the context of other things such as the digressions, and we try to looked for meaning in them such as the profound reflections. Some preferred Conrad's other books such as The Secret Agent. For the next month we planned to discuss Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson

For our discussion on Wednesday, June 8, 2016, the Classics Book Club selected Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson. I recommended it at our Christmas party in December 2015. I first heard about it from a book we bought at a church jumble sale of plot outlines of the greatest novels several years ago. For my recommendation I was looking for classics written by women from before the 20^th century. The premise of Ramona sounded interesting: a love story that takes place in 19^th century Southern California. The purpose of the book was to bring attention to the injustices against Native Americans in California. I purchased the book and read it on my Kobo reader along with the Kobo app on my smartphone. I enjoyed the book very much. It is a pretty good love story and it mentions many places in Socal that I've heard of. Before learning of this book, the only character named Ramona that I knew of was Ramona Quimby from the children's books by Beverly Cleary. We saw the movie of one of those books, Ramona and Beezus several years ago. It turns out that there is a connection between Hunt Jackson's Ramona and Cleary's Ramona.

Ramona was Helen Hunt Jackson's only novel and was published in the same year as when she died. Before writing the novel she had spent much time in California studying how the Native Americans were treated. Her fiery treatise A Century of Dishonor, "on U.S. Indian Policies, won a federal commission to report on the Mission Indians of Southern California. That study formed the basis of her most famous work, Ramona." (About the Author section) The Introduction notes that she was "less intolerant of the institution of slavery" after leasing a slave for $5 per month and having the "opportunity to see its bright aspects." She made Ramona half-Indian because "Nineteenth Century readers were unlikely to have accepted an interracial love story, no matter how noble (Ramona's lover) Alessandro's spirit. By the early 1880's Helen Hunt Jackson "was growing heavier (slightly over 150 pounds, and under 5'3" tall) but seemed indefatigable. She must have made an impressive appearance since she always wore a hat composed of the entire head of a large gray owl." (Introduction)

Ramona does emphasize the prejudices and injustices against Native Americans. The Señora reinforces her son Felipe's prejudices by asking him, "Would you be willing that your own sister (Ramona) should marry (an Indian) Alessandro?" (Chapter XII) Alessandro tells Ramona how the Americans turned a whole village full of (Native American) men, women and children out of their homes. (Chapter XIV) Even about his own people Alessandro remarks and asks, "It was stupid of them to stay and be like beasts and not know anything; but how do they not think they had the right?" (Chapter XVIII) Later the author states that "there would never have been found a San Diego County jury that would convict of murder for killing an Indian, if there were no witnesses to the occurrence except the Indian's wife." (Chapter XXIV) That sounds a bit like the conditions in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Much of the conflict plays out between Ramona and the Señora. Ramona says of the Señora, "I used to think she hated me; but now I think she does not care." (Chapter X) After finding out that Ramona and Alessandro are lovers and not approving, the Señora tells Felipe, "she has carried out the instincts of her (half-native) nature." The Señora does not hold Alessandro "in the least responsible for all that has happened. It is all Ramona's fault." (Chapter XIV) The Señora has this "diabolical art" in which she can "by a single phrase or question, plant in a person's mind the precise idea she wished him to think he originated himself." (Chapter XIV) She tells Felipe that she would like it better if Ramona were pure Indian rather than half Indian because "I like not these crosses. It is the worst and not the best of each, that remains."

Hunt Jackson tries to convey some philosophical and emotional truths with the book. About the Señora she writes, "There is nothing so skillful in its own defence as imperious pride." (Chapter XIII) She also observes that "Tyranny can make liars and cheats out of the honestest of souls." (Chapter XIV) After Ramona suffers a tragic loss she seems calm about it. Hunt Jackson observes that "Nature sends merciful anesthetics in the shocks that almost kill us. In the very sharpness of the blow sometimes lies our first healing. It would be long before Ramona realized (the true tragic loss) that had occurred. Her worst anguish was yet to come." (Chapter XXVI)

The book contains a few words that I did not know previously. "While Felipe continued ill, and was so soothed to rest by (Alessandro's) music, there was not room for cavil." (Chapter XIII) Cavil is to raise timid or frivolous objections. Juan Can remarks about Alessandro, "The lad's chary enough of his (violin) bow on this side of the house." (Chapter XIII) Chary can mean 1) dear or treasured, 2) discreetly cautious, or 3) hesitant and vigilant about changes and risks. I think the first definition applies in this case. As he gets older, Father Salvierderra can "write only by amanuensis." (Chapter XXI) Amanuensis is where one is employed to write from dictation or to copy manuscript. It is destined "that strange hands should bring succor to Ramona." (Chapter XXIV) Succor can mean 1) relief, 2) aid or help or 3) something that furnishes relief.

The book contained many relatable references. A few had to do with religion, mostly St. Francis. One of the missions mentioned is Mission San Luis Rey. I didn't know that a mission was named after that saint and I'm more familiar with the Bridge of that same name. I think it is Father Salvierderra who reflects that St. Francis classes the flowers "with his brothers and sisters, the sun, moon, and stars." (Chapter IV) Of course that reminds me of Brother Son, Sister Moon. Not much later music comes to Father Salvierderra's ear, "the beautiful words of the second stanza of St. Francis's intimitable lyric 'The Canticle of the Sun.'" (Chapter IV) In a village in front of the chapel is "an old bronze bell which had belong to the San Diego (Mission)." (Chapter XIX) The book also mentions the missions San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, and Santa Barbara.

Since I used to live in Socal, many of the place names in Ramona were familiar. When he was younger, Alessandro "was a distant, cold boy, his own people of the Temecula village said. It had come, they believed, of learning to read, which was always bad." (Chapter V) The villagers later have to move to Pachanga. Ramona asks Alessandro, "Where is Pachanga?" and he answers, "About three miles from Temecula, a little sort of cañon." (Chapter XIV) One minor character is "a Gabrieleno." (p. 235) The Afterword of the book states that beginning in 1882, (Helen Hunt) Jackson visited, among other places, Camulos, the de Valle family Rancho near Piru, some 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles. With its old California rancho charm, Camulos provided Jackson with background she later used for the Moreno home in Ramona." (p. 22 of the Afterword) I've heard of Piru but never been there. I think it's near Simi Valley and Moorpark.

The book mentions ferns that always provide a relatable reference since Gruff Rhys said, "Rolling in ferns" over five years earlier. On the Moreno ranch, Ramona brings a silver urn filled with ferns to the chapel. Not long after, Alessandro brings Ramona to a canyon from which he "had brought the ferns which so delighted Ramona to arrange the decoration in the chapel." (Chapter XVI) Within the canyon, Alessandro prepares for Ramona "a bed of finely broken twigs of the manzanita and ceanothus, both of which grew in abundance all through the canyon. Above these he spread a layer of glossy ferns." (p. 207) Ramona literally rolls in ferns.

When my wife was younger she used to watch the TV show Ramona starring Sarah Polly as the title character. The program was based on the books by Beverly Cleary. In one episode Uncle Howie sang to Ramona, "Ramona, I hear the mission bells above. Ramona, they're ringing out our song of love . . ." I did some research and learned that the song is from the 1927 movie Ramona that's based on the book by Helen Hunt Jackson. That's the connection between the Ramonas. I found several versions of the song such as by the Dutch Indonesian duo The Blue Diamonds. I found the original version sung by Dolores Del Rio for the 1927 movie. But the version we liked the best was the one I had to buy from Amazon.com. It was record by Bing Crosby and paired with another song, "Anapola" in a kind-of medley on the Latin-themed album "El Señor Bing." We also found a version on Freegal by Louis Armstrong that was pretty good. In one of our Jingle books we found the chords to Ramona. The third line goes, "I hold you, caress you, and bless the day you taught me to care." The first part of that line and the mission bells are the only parts of the song that I can directly find in the book. In chapter XIV, Ramona is "caressing (Alessandro) as if he had been hers for years." What's interesting is that Alessandro does not like the name Ramona. In chapter XIV "He could not have told why it seemed to him difficult to say Ramona."

We had a decent discussion on June 8. I think there were six or seven of us in attendance. Everyone liked the book. The coordinator said he first heard of the story from a Donald Duck comic. He asked why the book did not change American attitudes towards Indians the way Uncle Tom's Cabin changed attitudes towards slavery and African-Americans. Someone in the group said this was because it was already too late for Indians when the Ramona came out. I'm not sure I agree with this reason. I think people latched more onto the love story in the book than the plight of the Indians. But I still thought Helen Hunt Jackson did a good job portraying that plight. We liked the character Aunt Ri who goes from being prejudiced to accepting of Ramona and Alessandro. Some had difficulty with her accent that was written phonetically. They compared it to some of the unintelligible accents written by Mark Twain.

I'm glad I chose Ramona. I learned about the early days of the "old country" and the song "Ramona."

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

(Possible spoilers)

For the Tacoma Reads program in March 2016, Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland chose the book Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It's a pre- and post-apocalyptic story that follows five or six characters all connected to each other, mostly by chance. It takes place all over the world from Toronto to New York City, Los Angeles, Michigan after the apocalypse, even Singapore and London. It also jumps back and forth through time covering pivotal points in the characters' lives. Through all the different characters the book covers many profound topics such as dependence on technology, the importance of art, how much we depend on other people, how society would change if 99+% of the population was eliminated, and the importance of pop culture. St. John Mandel has a knack for delving into characters and ideas. At the same time she maintains multiple levels of suspense in the different storylines. Will Kirsten and the traveling symphony survive the harsh post-apocalyptic landscape? How will the other characters fare? What happened in the past that shaped the characters many years later? Questions such as these kept me reading and guessing until the end.

The book contains several relatable references. The character Arthur describes how on the island he comes from, "The ferns were up to my head." (p. 78) I guess that would make it hard to roll in them. Miranda's boss Leon calls "the long periods when her position was staffed by an incompetent temp … the winter of our discontent." (p. 85) That reminds me of the play "Richard III" that we saw back in 2009. The book mentions several Shakespearian plays such as "King Lear," and "A Midsummer Night's Dream." After the apocalypse hits, a character develops his own private shorthand. Not many people know shorthand today but my wife does. In a letter to an old friend, Arthur reminisces about "Comet Hyakutake that really cold night in March with frost on the glass, I remember we whispered the name over and over again, Hyakutake, Hyakutake." (p. 161) I also remember seeing Comet Hyakutake in March in the mid 1990's.

Station Eleven portrays the apocalypse as resulting from a deadly flu epidemic. Once the character Jeevan realizes what is happening he is "suddenly crushed by the certainty that this was it, that this illness Hua was describing was going to be the divide between a before and an after, a line down through his life." (p. 25) After the flu wipes out most of the population, the survivors restart the years as Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, and so on. Much of the book takes place in Year 20. When Kirsten thinks of the ways the world has changed in her lifetime, she thinks that the world is softening and one of the younger characters will "live out her life without killing anyone. She was a younger fifteen-year-old than Kirsten had ever been." (p. 127) The passage got me thinking whether the elimination of 99+% of humanity would necessitate learning to kill. Would the destruction of the law enforcement infrastructure really cause some people to become killers, and therefore all others must learn to kill to defend themselves?

Much of the interaction seems to occur by chance, but the extended series could probably be called kismet. A couple of characters in different timelines refer to the idea of a divine plan. Characters meet either directly or indirectly before the apocalypse and meet again many years after it. Elizabeth likes to hear the stories of how couples meet because "it's like a piece of the plan being revealed." (p. 102) As omniscient narrator, the author St. John Mandel describes how "a woman giving birth to a child who will someday pull the trigger on a weapon or its precursor, a dictator making a decision that will spark into a conflagration that (Jeevan's brother) Frank will go overseas to cover for Reuters, the pieces of a pattern drifting closer together." (p. 181)

The book makes many profound observations of society, mostly though characters looking back to life before the apocalypse, how things used to be. The traveling symphony has the "same problem suffered by every group of people everywhere since before the collapse." (p. 51) That problem is that each person in the group can't stand at least one other person. As the epidemic first starts to spread, Jeevan finds himself "thinking about how human the city is, how human everything is … it had never been impersonal at all. There had always been a massive delicate infrastructure of people, all working unnoticed around us, and when people stop going to work, the entire operation grinds to a halt." (p. 185) The past was "an era when people were being charged for checked bags, for boarding early enough to cram baggage into overhead bins before the bins fill up." (p. 253)

The book briefly explores the idea of sleepwalking through life. A minor character Dahlia tells Clark, "adulthood's full of ghosts … I'm talking about these people who've ended up in one life instead of another and they are just disappointed … They've done what's expected of them. They want to do something different but it's impossible now, there's a mortgage, kids, whatever, they're trapped … high-functioning sleepwalkers, essentially." (p. 154) Soon after hearing this, Clark realizes that he has been sleepwalking, "moving half-asleep through the motions of his life for a while now, years; not specifically unhappy, but when had he last felt real joy in his work? When was the last time he had been truly moved by anything? When had he last felt awe or inspiration?"

The idea of sleepwalking relates to one of the main themes of the book: the importance of art in life. The lead caravan of the Traveling Symphony has an actual quote from Star Trek Voyager painted on it: "Because survival is insufficient." The Symphony is "trying to cast a spell, and costuming helped; the lives they brushed up against were work-worn and difficult." (p. 157) The character Miranda understands the importance of art. She considers "the poverty of the (hotel) room. Poverty not in the economic sense, but in the sense of not being enough for the gravity of the moment, an insufficient setting—for what?" (p. 236)

Miranda is also an artist who creates the source of the books title: the (fictional) graphic novels Dr. Eleven, Vol 1, No. 1: Station Eleven, and Dr. Eleven, Vol 1, No. 2: The Pursuit. When I was reading Station Eleven, I wasn't sure what role these books-within-a-book played in the story. Miranda focuses on the characters "living out their lives in underwater fallout shelters clinging to the hope that the world they remembered would be restored. The Undersea was Limbo." (p. 221) I later figured out that these fictional graphic novels represent artistically what is going on the book with the characters reacting to the apocalypse in different ways. At her book talk on March 24 that I missed, Emily St. John Mandel hinted that some actual Dr. Eleven graphic novels might be created in the future. The book does reference some actual books and stories such as "King Lear," and The Passage by Justin Cronin. At the end of the book are some suggestions for further reading that include The Stand by Stephen King, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, and A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley.

The Tacoma Public Library sponsored many events for Tacoma Reads 2016. There were sessions to make plague masks, play the game Pandemic, and learn how to grow food in your home garden. The Bushwick Book Club put on a concert of songs inspired by Station Eleven and other books such as 1984, The Time Traveler's Wife, and The Sparrow. Since that last book was in there I decided not to attend the concert. The biggest event was Emily St. John Mandel giving a book talk and signing at Urban Grace Church on March 24. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend. I heard that over 200 people attended including Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist. Mayor Marilyn Strickland also wasn't able to attend. However, she, Lindquist, and I attended the Station Eleven Book Talk with the Mayor on Monday, March 28 and King's Bookstore.

I arrived early at King's Bookstore on Monday, March 28 to get the next banned book for May, I, Claudius by Robert Graves. Chairs were set up in the open space towards the back of the store in three or four rows facing two chairs on either side of a small round table. On the table was a copy of Station Eleven. Mayor Strickland sat on the right and sweet pea, the owner of King's Books, sat on the left. In all there were 15 or 16 of us including Mark Lindquist, his very young daughter, the coordinator of the Classics Book Club, the director of Tacoma Public Library, the director of Tacoma Reads, and Mayor Strickland's husband who is the principal of Lincoln High School. Several of the people there had also gone to the book signing four days earlier. Three people had not read the book yet and one had just started it.

We talked for over an hour. Mayor Strickland read passages that struck her as profound and asked for our opinions. She read the passage about sleepwalking that I also flagged. Mark Lindquist said that St. John Mandel said she takes notes using a pen and paper, but had to use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of all the plotlines in Station Eleven. The library director said that the Tacoma Library had 140 copies of Station Eleven in circulation and most of them were checked out. She also mentioned that homeless people who visit the library often carry pieces of art that mean something to them. We talked about the importance of art in our own lives, how "survival is insufficient." Mayor Strickland also mentioned Miranda's quote "I repent nothing." She asked us what things we would take if we had to evacuate our homes. I would probably take a notebook and pen. sweet pea mentioned that Emma Goldman always brought a book wherever she went. Mayor Strickland's husband said he would bring a survival book. He and Mayor Strickland had just gone to South by Southwest. We talked about our dependence on technology. Mayor Strickland and her husband gave up social media on their most recent anniversary.

Mark Lindquist and his daughter left early. Other books mentioned during our discussion included The Invention of Hugo Cabret and The Boy who Harnessed the Wind, a book previously chosen for Tacoma Reads. sweet pea announced some upcoming events at King's Books such as a poetry workshop and the Wayzgoose Letter Press and Book Arts Extravaganza on April 30-May 1. During our discussion someone said that St. John Mandel's editors asked her to rewrite one scene in the book over 12 times. After we finished I asked which scene that was. It didn't surprise me. The book discussion with the Mayor ended at around 8:15 pm.