Carole’s Comments (group member since May 09, 2017)

Carole’s comments from the Open Books West Loop Book Club group.

Nathan Hill’s The Nix was the topic of discussion for our August meeting. Hill’s 625 page debut novel had two main characters - mother Faye and her son Samuel. There are multiple story lines involving a plethora of other characters, most of them unlikeable, but all adding to the plot, including a reactionary Wyoming governor running for president, a head bashing cop, an on-line game addict plus cameo appearances from Allan Ginsburg, Walter Cronkite and Hubert H. Humphrey. The majority of the thirteen attendees plus those voting in absentia found the book hugely entertaining and smart. For the first time in a long time we had a “like” but not quite “love fest” when discussing The Nix.
Thanks to Nick for selecting The Nix and moderating the upbeat discussion. Nick compared Nathan Hill’s writing style to David Foster Wallace. He also compared the characters to those of John Irving, although Irving’s, on the whole, seem more likeable.
Carole “loved” the book so much she read it twice. Carole pointed out that most books are either plot driven or character driven but Hill managed to do both. Carole particularly liked the author’s ability to blend the characters and plot arc together.
First time attendee, Javier, loved the book and would recommend it to anyone. Sam would recommend The Nix. The great writing got him [Sam] through it.
Tricia loved the book. She felt this is the way satire should be used in 21st century literature.
Mary Lou and Mary did not finish the book. They both liked what they had read and plan to finish it. Mary Lou mentioned how the sometimes lengthy character dialogue wore you down but in a positive way.
Tammy would not recommend the book; certain elements were not enjoyable; however she is leaning toward liking it. Ela wrote [she] “liked it but didn't love it”. She also wrote “great writing, great character development, even if there wasn't one character I actually liked. (I don't think his characters were necessarily meant to be likable.)” Dom would “highly recommend The Nix”. Dom believes Hill’s writing to be similar to Joshua Ferris’, Then We Came to the End”.
Not everyone liked it. Craig had high hopes for the book but found it uneven. He believed the first half was better than the second; he “didn’t like the direction the second half was taking”. Megan wrote “big thumbs down, would not recommend unless you have any interest in the Chicago protest and a lot of time on your hands to waste.” Megan felt the quality of writing was good.
Maryanne felt she was being beaten over the head by the author. “It was painful to read”.
The discussion became almost exuberant when our attendees recalled a favorite passage from different characters. The most popular being Pwnage and Laura Potterdam. Pwnage’s trips to the health food store were hilarious. Probably speaking for most of the attendees, Ela felt the author's description and the scenes of the millennial student--oh my god, funny and right on. Great description of the stereotype.
Although we scorned both their behaviors, Tricia reminded us those two are in all of us. Tricia also related she had students like Laura! Megan found them both extraordinarily annoying.
Casey loved the book and the characters. His favorite character was Periwinkle, the stereotypical campaign consultant and/or book publisher. A line to remember from Periwinkle aka Sebastian, I think you’re confusing your role here with some kind of journalism. What you call conflict of interest, I call synergy.
The sexual violence of Charles Brown was abhorred by Carole and other attendees. Craig pointed that whether it was real, imaged or simulated rape there were scenes involving Henry (and Faye); Alice (and Charlie Brown); Bishop (and Samuel) that reinforced the image of sexual violence.
I admit my note taking lapsed as the discussion became more animated but I do not recall spending much time analyzing Faye. We did discuss her son but not in a positive way. We agreed Samuel was an indecisive and weak willed character. As a child [he] loved Choose your own Adventure books. Collectively we thought this might have been as close to as adventure he would come in his life. He really didn’t choose anything except a lifelong obsession with Bethany.
Early in the book, at age 11 Samuel has a sexual encounter with Bishop, Bethany’s brother. This factored into the plot much later in the book. Just as Samuel is finally about to connect with Bethany she presents him with a letter written by Bishop to be delivered to Samuel after Bishop’s death in Iraq. The letter effectively ends his relationship with the sister for another 200 pages. Javier felt the letter to be powerful but did not fulfill the character of Samuel. The letter is powerful because it is reminder that everyone hates themselves for one reason or another. Plus this letter gave Samuel an excuse to leave Bethany. His relationship with her is still not resolved by the end of the book.
The relationship between Faye and Samuel, the crux of the novel, does not seem to have the intended payoff. In fact, Nick felted cheated at the end. Javier did not like the ending either because he wanted more. Both Craig and Tricia believed the ending had a rom-com feel to it. Others believed the editors said “enough is enough”.
Megan felt “It strung you along and was so anticlimactic when you did find out what happened after the "cliffhangers".
We wrapped up the meeting and put away the chairs at 7:15.

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, provoked the seventeen book club attendees to a high level of frustration, disbelief and sadness when voicing their thoughts at our last meeting. Megan selected a book providing an overview of poverty and widespread hardship associated with homelessness in Milwaukee. Matthew Desmond’s thoroughly researched Doctoral dissertation morphed into a full-blown insight on public policy on urban poverty and unaffordable housing. Just about everyone at our meeting had a visceral response to the life and stories of renters and landlords in Milwaukee.
Megan asked the attendees: would recommend the book to others? Our collective responses was that everyone should read this “important” book but this sentiment was contradicted somewhat when we realized not everyone wants to read this type of book. The group was unanimous in their belief that the research was well done. Craig found the book valuable in his work for a non-profit in the field of low income housing; he has recommended the book to his co-workers. Craig also believed that everyone should also the read the book and take away whatever they wanted from Matthew Desmond’s reporting.
Tricia found the book difficult to read: “these are my kids”. She abandoned the book midway. Despite not finishing the book she believed the topics were well researched and would recommend it to non-teachers.
MaryAnn found the book very moving as she reflected on personal experiences her family went through when she was in high school. MaryAnn encouraged us to read more about this issue in the book South Side dealing with Chicago’s longstanding housing problems. Mary would also recommend the book but not just to anyone. For Mary, Evicted evoked childhood memories of 3 generations living together in a small home on Pulaski Avenue.
Tammy stated “this is the first book that she could recommend without any reservations”. Ela would recommend the book but she found [it] “challenging and uncomfortable to read”. It provided a better understanding on the “how’s and whys” of homelessness. Ela found Desmond’s literary non-fiction accessible. Sam thought the book to be sad and powerful. Evicted provides a message that everyone should hear although he would not recommend the book. Sam believed Desmond’s story was better suited as a long form article found on the internet. New member Amy would recommend the book: “it’s not just a house it’s your life.”
Nick would recommend Evicted to someone “who reads this type of book”. He felt the social issues were well done although he didn’t agree with all of Desmond’s findings. He enjoyed following the individual characters in depth.
Elora felt Evicted was an important book. She believed the author handled the issues humanely.
Carl felt the book was “ok”. He did like the broader, big picture insights on the housing issues. Mary Lou found it to be a good book; a thought provoking read. The book helped her better understand the people and the personal issues they faced in trying to find their families a place to live.
Victor would recommend the book. He liked reading the personal stories. He felt Desmond captured the dehumanizing factors that the impoverished individuals must go through to find and keep housing. In my reading of the book I found the complexities of the housing issue were overwhelming.
We discussed a few of the seemingly insurmountable problems facing tenants. In no particular order of insolvability: mental health (depression), domestic violence and the overwhelming damage to children forced to constantly move from one uninhabitable place to the next. A vast literature connects nonsupportive parenting to lower self-esteem, aggression and antisocial behavior in children. As Desmond reported (and substantiated) Milwaukee neighborhoods with more children had more evictions.
We also welcomed first timer Kate. Kate shared first-hand experience dealing with housing issues in San Francisco and Chicago. She would recommend the book to anyone.
To quote Matthew Desmond, The home is the center of life. The home is the wellspring of personhood. It is where our identity takes root and blossoms. When we try to understand ourselves, we often begin by considering the kind of home in which we were raised. In languages spoken all over the world, the word for “home” encompasses not just shelter but warmth, safety, family – the womb.
So in response to Megan’s question, should everyone be entitled to a home and in context perhaps of the above quotation, Victor responded “heck yes, everyone deserves housing”. . I agree with Victor.
We missed the insights provided by Carole and her delicious baked goods.

Greetings book clubbers, our last meeting set a record for attendance with eighteen attendees. We welcomed first timers: Sam, Ela, Elora and E. Plus the return of MaryAnn after a long hiatus. Our moderator Tammy did a great job preparing for the meeting and keeping the discussion on track throughout. Compliments to everyone for being respectful of each other during our spirited and free flowing discussion. We ended right on time although I suspect we could have kept going.
Unanimity does not typify our group’s position on books. George Saunder’s Lincoln in the Bardo was no exception. The story takes place in the “bardo”, a term Saunder’s borrowed from Buddhism for what might be called “justafterlife”. At the center is the ghost of Willie Lincoln, son of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, who died at age 11 of typhoid fever during the second year of the Civil War. The dead boy’s spirit wants to stay in the cemetery for the sake of his father’s visits. The entire novel takes place over a single night and does not leave the graveyard. The ghosts narrate most of the novel.
Tammy’s exit poll elicited a myriad of comments pro and con: Starting from the highpoints, “really excellent” per Elora. Also E, albeit not being a fan of contemporary literature, “loved it”. “The writing was beautiful” so Ela would recommend it. Rachel was “surprised” in a positive way.
We drifted down from these lofty comments to Craig’s “not disappointed”. Mary Lou “did not love it and would not recommend it”. Julie “liked” the story but could have done without the vulgarity of the ghosts. Nick would recommend the book but the “multi-voice format was annoying”. Sam concurred with Nick and others in disliking the multi-voice concept.
I felt the secondary sources cited throughout the novel added considerably to the backdrop of the civil war setting. I was disappointed to learn from Ela that the excerpts from historical accounts of the civil war were fabricated.
The slide in the polling headed lower with Mary’s [just] “ok”. I’ve arbitrarily parked Megan and Carole’s feelings of indifference in the middle of the spectrum but perhaps indifference is more scathing than disliking the book. However, Carole did love the writing. Although I’m paraphrasing perhaps Carl’s “stuck in the elevator [could be] the only thing worse than reading the book” put us in uncharted waters for negative polling.
MaryAnn did not like the book. This sentiment was seconded by Tricia. She cited several reasons throughout our discussions but the most salient point being, “how can you write a civil war book but not discuss race?”
Tammy, a devotee of Saunder’s short stories, would not recommend her book selection.
Listening, participating and taking notes is challenging. We covered so much literary ground in our conversations my notes do not do justice to the ongoing commentary. The following paragraphs although semi-accurate sadly do not adequately reflect the breath and scope of our lively discussion.
Tammy kicked off the discussion with a quote on cemeteries. Is the cemetery the focal point of the book or is it the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and his son Willie. Tricia felt the cemetery setting was almost too much in your face. Seemingly a cemetery would be historically focused but the setting of the hospital yard (cemetery) is filled with ghosts who live in the present. Loitering long after death reliving and retelling the same stories of regret of failing to live out their desires while alive. E found the setting comfortable for the ghosts. It saved them from judgment. Doomed to a Ground Hogs Day existence they still formed a community of their own. Mary Lou also felt the hospital yard was a comfortable setting.
Elora disagreed and found the cemetery negative. “There was a denial of mourning”. Tricia felt it was “not a positive community…not a happy place when reliving regrets every day”.
The ghosts rush about a great deal, detonating “matterlightblooming” explosions whenever one accepts death and shoots off to wherever. Craig felt this end is a release for them.
The humanizing of Lincoln was another topic of discussion. One hundred fifty two years after his death we still revere Lincoln both as a man and the President. Biographies, memorials, movies, statutes continue to remind us of his greatness. Compared to other presidents he is in the pantheon of great leaders. As a counter-point to this present day sentiment Saunder’s novel humanized Lincoln, first as a grieving father who mourns the loss of his young son. He rides alone to the graveyard to caress the head of his lifeless boy. As the ghosts of Bevins and Vollman pass through the president’s body we hear Lincoln wrestling with his faith, struggling to maintain his composure against the grief and the torrent of criticism from a nation shocked by the carnage of war.
In February of 1862 the Union army captured Fort Donelson although the victory came at a high price of 15,000 casualties which shocked both the north and the south. This battle foreshadows massive casualties for the rest of the war. While in the cemetery the president realizes that his own grief has already been endured by thousands of fathers and mothers across the country. Lincoln comes to realize late in the novel that “the swiftest halt to the war (therefore the greatest mercy) might be the bloodiest”. It’s moral reckoning that in waging the war he must kill more efficiently. This epiphany also serves to humanize him.
We talked extensively about the novel’s ending. We did reach a consensus – although for different reasons – Lincoln in the Bardo had a disappointing ending. E provided our group a synopsis of several chapters that would have sufficed as a logical end point. Several attendees felt as a short story writer Saunder’s was uncertain how to close out his first full length novel. Craig and others felt Saunders “shoe-horned” the ending but it did not work.
Another point about the ending was Saunder’s changing the rules regarding the ghosts at the very end of his novel. It seemed ok for the ghosts to enter the living and sense the person’s thoughts but not transmit ideas. This transgression occurred when the ghost of the slave Havens entered Lincoln attempting to induce the President “to do something for us” for the cause for the emancipation. This is not consistent with the earlier chapters. Is Havens escaping inside Lincoln? Is it a symbolic gesture of the living and dead moving together or was it just a final throw in?

Greetings book clubbers, the simplest way to describe Wolf in White Van, John Darnielle’s novel, is to say that it’s about a teenage boy who tries to commit suicide with a rifle, but fails. He blows off his face instead. After this gruesome accident that leaves him with a disfigured face, the teenage Sean finds himself in excruciating pain and resigned to a long hospital stay, “faced with the choice of either inventing internal worlds or having no world at all to inhabit.” Sean constructs a fantasy role-playing game, Trace Italian, a game of strategy and survival that becomes a source of income to Sean. No surprise, it’s set in a grim, post-­apocalyptic America of ghost towns, radiation exposure and endless dungeons.
Per our book club protocol, our moderator Craig got the meeting going with a brief introduction and then polled the ten attendees on their initial thoughts and whether they would recommend it to others. The following are their comments:
Tammy gives it a “lite thumbs up”. “There was no pay off for the reader at the end of an arduous 200 pages”.
Carole listened to the audio book read by the author. “The author had a terrible speech pattern” which detracted from the book. Carole still gave it a 3 out of 5 rating.
Nick found the book “captivating”…it was not an arduous read.”
The book was not Carl's "cup of tea”. However, he found the “plot points interesting”.
Megan felt it was an original story but she had mixed emotions about the plot. I'm not sure if she liked the Live Action Role Playing.
Rachel liked but did not love the book. “Not a typical fictional story” in fact, Rachel found the structure of the story more interesting than the actual story. Additional info: Rachel is a fan of the Mountain Goats which is the name of John Darnielle’s band.
Mary did not finish the book. The book club discussion will determine if she will finish it.
Trish “loved it”. Although the “fragmentation of the narrative is a style that seems unnecessary.” Is that the point; there is no reason for it? Trish and Amanda spent an hour discussing the book before the meeting. For the record but in absentia Amanda loved the book as well. Julie was not able to attend but she found the book interesting.
This may be an Open Book club milestone with the attendees unanimous in their opinion, albeit on a sliding scale, in loving it; liking the originality; or giving it a modest thumbs up. Thanks Craig for your selection.
Discussion
There were many threads to the story. Our discussion first focused on Sean’s facial deformity. Although he was a loner as a child after the shooting Sean rarely leaves his house. Tammy believes the deformity justifies his isolation. This may be evidenced in his mail order game. Trace Italian becomes the private realm Sean shares with strangers. His customers are the closest things he has to friends. The anonymous players become a stand-in for the housebound, reclusive game-master’s own desires: “The unnamed every-­player who lies in the weeds at the moment of Trace Italian’s opening move — that’s me.”
As an adolescent, Sean was especially receptive to dark dreams of the pulpy, Conan the Barbarian, blood-oath and death-wish variety. As a devout reader of Conan was it inevitable that Sean’s rite of passage to manhood would be bloody? Trish believes the self- inflicted gunshot was positive event in his life. It was a coming of age event. Although it created who he is the deformity is also a crutch.
We discussed Sean’s parents and whether they contributed to the shooting. Did Sean’s brief sexual encounter with Kimmy influence his destructive decision? The parents blame Kimmy for the shooting but Sean does not enlighten the readers if this was the situation. We agreed that Sean is an unreliable narrator.
Craig concludes there is a darkness in Sean. Italian Trace is Sean’s opportunity to become the Master of his Universe. Lance and Carrie are two teenagers whose interest in the game leads to the death of Carrie. After a brief discussion we agreed there was no legal repercussion to Sean arising from the death of Carrie. Craig and Carl questioned whether there was a moral obligation to the young woman who died. By manipulating the game and the consequences to its players doesn’t that create a moral connection to Sean? A scalpel was provided to Chris so we wondered was a shovel provided Lance and Carrie.
Does Sean realize the danger in this game of escapism? Wolf in White Van is a jarring story on the power of escape, and the game Sean plays to deflect its own guilt. Our group did not believe that Sean was remorseful but Craig believes “Sean was considering remorse”.
Going in a different direction to explain this story one must consider the world to be senseless, without logic. Or, per Trish, there is no explanation to the randomness of life.
In two cameo appearances Dom drew the comparison between the Sean’s mail order business with that of early days of Dungeon and Dragons which also started as a mail order operation. Dom also enlightened us with his experience in LARPing.

I wanted to send around a brief recap of our April gathering to discuss Geek Love, hosted by Tricia. The 10 readers who were present, including one new reader (Hi Sarah!), were split pretty evenly on if they would recommend the book. The overarching theme that most of us got out of the book was the idea that what you grow up with is what you consider normal. Tricia lead us in a pretty intense conversation of what we found redeemable & likable about the characters. Speaking personally, throughout the book and coming to the meeting, I could not find many redeemable qualities about these characters, but by the end of our discussion, I had come around on many points, including the fact that Oly in the present time caring about her daughter's future is heartwarming (if not bizarre).

A particularly poignant part of the discussion centered around the different types of murder featured in the book and our different feelings toward them. Most readers were ok with Oly's murder plot for Ms. Lick, but we were not ok with Arty's nor Ms. Lick's murderous tendencies. Additionally, a particularly intense discussion was had about the morality of the reproductive choices Oly's parents made in creating their family. Among the mothers and non-parents in the group, there was much disagreement, and a much longer, deeper conversation could be had about this book, reproductive rights, and women's rights could be had.

The universally liked aspects of this book were the characters themselves - the fact that they were like prisms - and the lessons that were learned about people and life in general. Thank you to Tricia for picking a challenging, though provoking read!

Hello! Thanks to all who came to our February book club meeting! As someone who loves books, it was lovely to spend a short part of Valentine's Day with other book lovers (and multiple sweet treats). We welcomed Nick, a longtime OB volunteer, to his first meeting.

For our February meeting, the OBWL book clubbers read Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy. Of the 9 readers in attendance, all but one would not recommend this book to a friend. The remaining reader was ambivalent on his/her recommendation. All in attendance agreed that it was nice to read some South Asian literature, although at the end of the meeting, we came up with a list of better picks for South Asian lit (see end of report). The rest of the meeting consisted of some lighthearted critique of the book, the recitation of a few quotes relating to the book, and making a list of aspects of the book that we liked despite our dislike of the book. The remaining thoughts set forth below were generally shared by the group.

There was an overall feeling that Roy attempted to weave together too many stories that didn't quite connect; the narrative was disjointed throughout with too many loose ties that didn't make sense. We agreed that there were various interwoven themes of casual violence & everyday violence in Indian culture, particularly against women, but that still there were too many threads that could not all be explored in depth. Due to this disjointed nature, we found that it was hard to care about what happened to the characters. One book clubber noted that "If Ruth Reichl had written this, Ghouri would have been Nomi's mom." We agreed that the mission Roy set out to complete was well intended, but her execution was terrible. It would have been nice for someone to have been held accountable for their horrendous actions, and we generally agreed that Nomi and Badal were the only characters who were slightly redemptive. One particularly frustrating dropped thread was "what happened to the movie Nomi was working on?"

In addition to the intensely explored theme of violence, Jupiter also had themes of religion, water & rebirth, and definitely something with the trees (but what?). Everyone seemed to have something that tied them to the past.

After a long, in depth critique of the book, we spent a few minutes listing the aspects of Jupiter that we liked (presented here in no particular order): Piku, descriptive writing (colors, scenes set), the conversation Nomi will have with her producer, Nomi (her strength to believe in humanity, wondering if she'd try to find her mom), Johnny Troppo.

We ended the meeting recommending other South Asian literature to each other that we felt hit the mark a little better than Roy did with Jupiter. A few of our recommendations are listed below.
-Behind the Beautiful forevers
-Lowlands
-The Namesake
-The Tusk that Did the Damage
-The Hundred Foot Journey
-The Fishing Fleet

Thanks for a great meeting tonight! Here's the NPR write up of this book from 2014. If you have any more thoughts & comments on the book, leave them here! I'll post the meeting recap here once it goes out.

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/16/3431495...