"Small Great Things" by Jodi Picoult

     There were seven of us at the beginning of book group today at Linda's; Sheri, Annie, Maddie, Saran, Marylib, Libby plus Linda.  Mary came later after a visit to Boulder and her grandchild.  Jodi Picoult writes books to start social conversations, and "Small Great Things" certainly did that for our group.  We all had various criticisms of the characters and the writing, but agreed it was a worthwhile book to read, if not for the engaging good story, but also for the self exploration we did upon reading it.  Jodi Picoult wants her books to teach readers something they didn't know either about the world or about themselves, and she admits that in writing her books, she also learns a tremendous amount herself.
     The author said this was a book about family, relationships, and love.  There were three family units and each family unit learned something from the situation portrayed in the book.  Each main character had to confront his own beliefs, come to terms with those beliefs, and decide what they wanted to change about those beliefs to move forward.  Jodi Picoult writes about socially conscious themes to challenge the reader's beliefs. 
     Some of us had thought this author was a fluffy best seller-type of writer, but this book certainly proved us wrong about her and we may read others of her many books. 
     Maddie and Marylib told about experiences in their lives with African Americans (or colored or blacks, as the author pointed out).  Libby mentioned the ideal world of the military where everyone is employed and provided for and all races live together and mingle socially.  Several of us thought Turk was way over the top, and Annie mentioned that he was too well spoken and eloquent for what she though a person of his ilk would be. And he was complicated emotionally.  Ruth was too perfect but then we couldn't see her really deep anger until the trial.  Kennedy changed as the book progressed as her client pressed her on certain issues. 
      Annie mentioned that Picoult said "ignorance is a privilege."  A powerful statement that made us all sit up.  The rest of the conversation ranged from the fact the book seems ready to be a screen play for a movie, the ending was contrived and a surprise, did Ruth live a dishonest life, and we all thought Edison was terrific.  The consensus was that despite flaws, it was a very successful book.  Whites who think they have no prejudices don't realize they do.
     Thank you, Linda for a great choice, and good luck on your move.  Please add your own comments as I am sure I left out a lot!

Commonwealth

Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth is a semi-autobiographical novel that she describes as “the book that all her other books are based on.” She explains that the common thread among all her books is throwing two different groups of people together to create a community. One of the reasons Ann Patchett wrote this story is because there “was no book as big and messy as my family or my friend’s families.”  Being a child in a divorced family, whose father was a cop, whose family was a Catholic-blended one, who moved from one side of the country to another you certainly realize the parallels in her own life with this book. However, as Ann Patchett’s mother says, “None of it happened and all of it is true.” The truth in the novel is the emotional content.  As Ann, herself explained, the story is not what happened in her life. It’s between what she was afraid would happen and what never happened.

 

Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth was met with mixed reviews by the 6 of us who had read and discussed the novel. The overwhelming consensus was that the book was confusing and hard to follow at times – it seemed disjointed from one chapter to the next since the chapters (which were like short stories in and of themselves) were not in chronological order and there were large gaps in time. That being said, Margie and Libby were pretty positive about their reactions to the book. They both felt that reading reviews of the book helped to give them a different perspective which then led them to more favorable impressions. Libby captured it well when she talked of the book being “like a brilliant puzzle.”

 

On the other hand Sheri had the opposite reaction. She felt “manipulated” while reading it because as one chapter ended there was no closure on what happened. Additionally, she did not think the book was realistic. Mary Lib, Libby and Margie felt that it was realistic of the era of the 60’s when Moms were ‘stuck’ and kids pretty much were out running wild all day doing whatever  they did without their parents having much awareness.

 

There was lots of conversation regarding the characters (Saran thought Leo was ”creepy”); specific chapters (Sheri and Libby loved the swimming chapter; Saran thought the Amagansett chapter was “fascinating” and Libby thought it was “painful”);  the  purpose of specific plot elements (Sheri was “puzzled by the gun part”); and themes within the story (aging, how one incident can have such a wide ranging effect; family; bonding, loyalty and love).

 

Mary Lib suggested that your age and what stage of your life you were in would make a difference to the reader as they progressed through the book. She related an interesting experience she had recently had when she and Denny were traveling and they returned to a place and time from their past to visit the ‘path not taken.’  Certainly there were numerous points in the novel where one could ponder on different outcomes had certain events not taken place or had they happened differently.

 

Margie wondered about the numerous rave reviews and wide-spread acclaim that this book had received based on the mixed reviews of our small group. That led to an intriguing question from Libby: “Is this book valuable as a piece of literature?”

 

Shortly after the book group gathering Linda, Margie, Libby and Annie went to hear Ann Patchett speak. She was delightfully entertaining regardless of your take on her latest novel.

ON TYRANNY

      There were six of us at my house for Timothy Snyder's book "On Tyranny";  Maddy, Linda, Margie, Mary, Sheri, and me.  We did have an interesting discussion.  We primarily discussed what are the key principles of democracy, the parallels the US now has with Europe in the early and mid 20th century, and how we might combat those trends and take personal action.  We were all pretty much in agreement that this situation is not about our current president, Donald Trump, per se but about our society and how it has evolved.  We talked about the discrepancy in the distribution of wealth and how the current Republican tax plan would make the discrepancy worse.  It is rather difficult to sum up the conversation because it was about issues we talk about all the time now.  No easy answers present themselves except to support institutions we believe in, look everyone in the eye, come to your own conclusions and use your own words, make sure what you say is based on the truth, and read long researched news rather than listen to the news or look on TV.  Also get out in the street and protest rather than sign petitions!

                                    by Paige Noon

When Women Were Birds, Fifty-Four Variations on Voice

There were seven of us at Joan's home the last Tuesday of August: Marylib, Paige, Sheri, Libby, Maddy, Mary, and Joan.  Joan read an end passage about a strong tie to the earth, the land, putting one's ears to the ground to hear it.  And we all agreed that this was Terry's tie to her true self, that at one with nature.
This was a kind of mystery book, a detective story, where there were no real answers why Terry's mother had so many journals and left them blank.  There was only a living in the present for her daughter, to then make sense of why her mother left the journals blank.  Joan likened her mother to a caged bird, but then Paige and Sheri mentioned that leaving them blank was a kind of rebellion.  Right from the start the book was provocative and interesting.  Page by page it became a raw, honest portrait of the author herself as a woman trying to find her voice in a changing world.  Sheri mentioned that writers do have an ego for others to hear what they say, and Terry Tempest Williams certainly has a writer's voice, but that her mother didn't.  Perhaps this was a book about knowing our own truth.  Joan mentioned that she has written journals but that she would not want others to read them.  Libby mentioned that she buys journals and fills them half way and then rips pages out years later, and then buys more.  So there is a fear of wanting to reveal one's private world.  But a desire to express oneself.  Blank journals did express something.
There were so many different vignettes, 54 to be exact, of trying to solve the mystery of these journals.  Paige brought up the one where she is a teacher in a school where the principal tears down what she is trying to teach.  This was persistence by Terry to keep on for 5 years while someone was trying to blot out her voice.  Sheri brought up the incident in the woods, where a young blond man asked Terry to hike and then created a frightening situation by his bizarre behavior.  And we all asked what it meant that she didn't report it, that she was afraid her voice would not be believed.  That she had such fear of this guy that she was silenced.  And she regretted that she didn't speak up to keep it from happening to others. 
Maddy told us an interesting story about Phil working for a camp outside of Salt Lake and eventually the people there listened to a member of the church rather than Phil who was an expert.  Which led us to talk about the Mormon religion for a while.
Sheri loved the part about the opera and the story of the shadow, and that Terry went on and on for a few pages, which was unlike other sections of the book.  Perhaps, Paige mentioned, that this was the crux of the book, that there is a shadow that we are all chasing and trying to find out what it means.
Libby mentioned that she thought everyone finds something different in the book and that is its value, that all women are wanting to have their own voice in their own way.  Paige felt the book spoke to her.  Libby loved the part about the Chinese secret language, that women through time have had their own language, written like bird's feet, that no one but women can understand.  We all decided that it is very OK to have secrets as a woman.  Terry even mentions that marriage can never be all for a woman, and that secrets can propel a woman to find her own voice.
This book has lots of surprises but that is what life is all about, and in those surprises written by Terry there is truth and wisdom.  Ultimately we must all know our own truth.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

      The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane is set initially in Yunnan province of southern China among the Akha tribe.  We began with some discussion of the Akha people and their unusual beliefs and customs, such as the women wearing ornate 11 pound headdresses and the villagers building a spirit gate each year to keep people and animals inside and spirits and demons outside of the village.

      The Akha people in this book are tea farmers or harvesters.  We talked about how the tea plant is a tree and not naturally a bush.  The low growing tea plants are the result of pruning and convenience for harvesting.  Puerh tea, the specialty of this village, is a fermented tea which comes from that area of China and is produced from a wild species of tea plant which has broad leaves.  During our discussion we sipped two types of raw puerh, one just aged one year and another that had aged 12 years.  So called ripened puerh has undergone accelerated fermentation and is thought to be inferior to the raw, naturally aged, variety.  As we were sipping, Annie mentioned her being more aware of the flavor of the tea by taking small slow sips than by our typical practice of drinking a big mug of tea.  The tea master in the book pointed out that sipping tea is one of four ways to concentrate the mind, along with sitting quietly, walking, and feeding fish.  Annie also pointed out that the author began her story with detailed descriptions of life in the village and then moved into a much faster timetable as the novel progressed.

      There was discussion about whether it was realistic that Li Yan as a young girl began questioning her Akha traditions.  Most agreed that her assisting with the birth of twins and then witnessing their being killed according to tradition was enough to stimulate such questioning.

      There were many coincidences in the book that seemed to add to the interest of the story, such as Haley or Yan Yeh, who was born in the Akha village, meeting Sean or Xia Rong in America and then falling in love with him while visiting her native village.  The author included some fun tips about Haley's growing up in California such as that she "inherited" her dad's love of trees and that she wrote a school report about the Boston Tea Party and the history of tea.  It was moving for many in the group that Haley finally encounters her mother as she is climbing down from picking tea leaves in her ancient tea tree.

      The group agreed that the author effectively portrayed Haley's anguish about how her birth mother must have felt to have relinquished her baby.  The interactions among the adolescent adoptees in the therapy group, expressing both gratitude and anger, seemed quite realistic.  Paige, Maddy, and Sheri shared stories from their families about how family members from China and Korea have adapted to living in the USA.  Annie mentioned appreciating when books take people down their personal paths and their stories get shared with the group.

(Written by Sheri)

     Members of the book group engage in a tea ceremony of Puerh tea at Ku Cha House of Tea

THE BOOK OF JOY BY Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams

     Book group was held at Mary Sanz home and there a total of 5 of us there, Marylib, Saran, Libby, Maddy, and Mary.  It was a thorough and delightful discussion ranging from how admirable the spiritual leaders are to diversity in Fort Collins to altruism to our freedom to respond not react.  We all felt the book was well organized and we all did have our own interpretations and favorite parts, and yet it had the potential to change each one of us.  Maddy felt the book was practical, that it was helpful for everyday life.  Saran and Libby mentioned that in the beginning they were thinking it was "just another one of those books" but were pleasantly surprised to find the richness of knowledge and intelligent discussion throughout the book.  Someone mentioned that the book brought up that we are all one humanity, Libby saying that UBUNTU was her favorite concept, that all humanity was connected as one, that "a person is a person through other persons". Everyone has something to grapple with. We talked about the ability to "fake it until you make it."
     Marylib felt the book had a lot of good lessons that were presented simply and were reaffirming of life.  She was particularly taken by those in the book who came out so positive and full of compassion after horrible prison terms.  Maddy felt that meditation is not necessarily the answer.  It is how we respond to our world, and we do have control over that.  Maddy said what you put out is what you get.  Marlib particularly was taken by the anger chapter and we discussed that anger has such historical significance, but that these men have some answers in how to control that anger.
Saran liked the parts talking about controlling real fear, frustration, and suspicion of others and fear of rejection.  Others brought up that changing perspective is so important in getting along in the world. The Dali Lama says, for every event in life there are many different angles.  Emotions are there, emotions are real, but changing our perspective is relatively easy.  We need to step back.
     Libby put out some thoughts that she had while reading the book, that the reason we read stories of difficult situations in this book group, about Cambodia, Pakistan, World War 2, and others we have read, is that the struggles are universal.  These are stories of how others face adversity, of how these people survived, how did they come out of a loathsome situation, and what did it do to their spirit.  Difficult stories are often uplifting, even joyful, because we read about the triumph of the human spirit in horrible situations. Libby loves the quote from Abrams' father about a painful health situation, "It's all part of my curriculum." !
   

Strangers in Their Own Land

Strangers in Their Own Land, Arlie Russell Hochschild

Strangers in Their Own Land documents a journey that we quickly realized we could not have made ourselves. Hochschild, a highly accomplished sociologist from U California Berkeley, uses her professional skills to penetrate small and culturally closed communities in southwestern Louisiana. Sheri, Joan, Margie, Annie, Mary Lib, Libby, and Mary (just back from 5 months in Mexico) gathered at Saran’s house on 25 April for an active and wide-ranging discussion of Hochschild’s accomplishments and the people she describes. The author weaves together a ‘great paradox,’ the keyhole issue of environmental pollution, the construction and dissolution of empathy walls, and the powerful metaphor of waiting in line to assemble – over countless cups of coffee, pieces of cake, and tours through small towns – the deep stories that define the local residents and their loyalty to the Tea Party.  Her understanding ultimately rests on the loss of honor and status among members of communities as the basis for their deep disrespect for our federal government, their reliance on religion, and their hatred of taxes. Hochschild is able to ask neutral questions, to listen, and to engage these closed communities in conversation. We all found her results both surprising and provocative.

The following highlights of our discussion are not arranged in any logical order, in large part because our comments and thoughts weren’t either. We all agreed with Libby on the power of history as a revealing way to view a region and its culture. The forgotten white residents of southwestern Louisiana today descended from poor sharecroppers in the 1860s. They were products of the Civil War who saw themselves as potential planters and mill barons. They looked up, aspiring to wealthier lifestyles, and they still do – aspiring to better jobs and renewed respect, and envious of businessmen like Donald Trump.

At least a third of the book focuses on Hochschild’s keyhole issue, environmental pollution. Our deep concerns about the environment made this section painful – the wanton pollution, rejection of any sort of regulation, and the disregard for the legacy these communities leave to their children clash so severely with our own webs of belief that the divide Hochschild tries to tackle turned into an ever-widening gulf. Many of us found it hard to scale empathy walls or understand the deep stories presented following the horrible stories of pollution presented.

We all shared the hope that we would, by the end of the book, understand what motivates Tea Party enthusiasts. Not one of us thought that we got to that point for as clearly as the deep stories were presented or as much as Hochschild counted her interviewees as friends. The deep stories are helpful; both Margie and Annie noted that it always helps to understand a difficult issue if it has a human face. That said, these stories didn’t convince us that the federal government is the cause of all evil – poverty, pollution, loss of honor, moral laxity, and cultural disintegration. Tea Party members describe the entire American culture as polluted, unclean, harmful.

We all have our own deep stories or webs of belief that, in reference to TS Eliot, consist of a chain of events that elicit a particular emotion when confronted by facts. Each of us develops a web of beliefs and we accept or reject a fact or a belief based on how well it fits into this web. Philosophers have long known this; psychologists recognize it as confirmation bias. It is painfully clear from Hochschild’s stories that if individuals gave up their webs of belief or narratives, their lives would come apart. They clearly reject some facts, accept others, listen to Fox News and not CNN- all to maintain their own deep story or web of belief. But we do the same, protecting our own deep stories, living privileged lives in like-minded communities. Annie asked: if we could all understand our own deep stories, would we be more accepting of others?

Hochschild develops her deep stories, as Sheri noted, using the powerful metaphor of standing or waiting in line. As the rural south waits patiently in line for better status or recognition, newly-important groups cut ahead of them. They are moving backward instead of forward, and they begrudge new groups the achievements they have been denied. Here is surprising insight into wild Tea Party enthusiasm over Trump’s rejection of political correctness. The people Hochschild interviewed don’t want to feel responsibility or empathy for blacks, immigrants, or homosexuals. As they praise Trump for ‘telling it like it is,’ however, they make clear a complete absence of a national or community-based vision of the common good and social responsibility.

Annie raised the important point that education and its importance are not mentioned in any interviews, conversations, or the author’s conclusions. The local community, the church, and a common rejection of government (except when it is needed) bind Tea Party members together. The church, the Bible, and God explain their hardships and assure their ultimate release from them. Joan posed the most provocative question of the day: are members of the Tea Party, who base their decisions and principles on religion, any different from the Taliban or other fundamentalist groups trying to overtake the world? We found the importance of the church to people who don’t practice the basic Christian concern for those who are less fortunate or downtrodden to be one of several surprising paradoxes in the book.

Our own deep stories would be different had we never left the small towns in which we were raised. If Joan had remained in Eads, or Mary Lib in Terre Haute, or I in Saranac Lake, we probably would not be struggling as much to understand the rural south. Our own escape through travel and education facilitated an evolution of our deep stories to appreciate and incorporate diversity. We talked about the broader experiences, particularly in college, that provide opportunities to evaluate and alter our webs of belief; this becomes harder as we get older. From this perspective, the cultural isolation and demise in southwestern Louisiana seems destined to continue: few people leave, they don’t seek education, and broader opportunities will not arise.

Hochschild claims, by the end of the book, that pre-existing empathy walls have dissolved; the teasing and good-hearted acceptance of her by the people she met crumbled those walls. Perhaps there is hope for bipartisanship after all. Yet we didn’t agree that the population of southwestern Louisiana had knocked down any of their walls or that they understood the morally depraved North or Democrats any better than ever. Sheri described a very conservative friend of Tom’s who calls, and talks, and rants, but also never seems to broaden his views.

So has the US become too large, too diverse, and too disconnected to avoid collapsing into isolated local communities that reject any common goals or values? Annie posed this question, and we found no answer. Increased polarization seems to be common throughout the world, and not just in the US. We are all strangers in our own land, and we are all in this collective mess together. If we were each dedicated enough, and as skilled as Arlie Russell Hochschild, could we engage our radical opposites in conversation, break down some walls, become more empathic, and solve some of today’s problems? We ended the afternoon worried that we wouldn’t make much progress for as much as we felt re-educated by the book.

LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME

The following summary was helped with scribbled notes that were all over the place, and all in the group had so much input I could not keep up with writing them.  This to me is indicative that the book had so much in it, with her family, her past, her present, her history with Africa and the US. In some ways it was hard to take it all in and the book certainly needs further reflection.
But here goes:

Alexandra Fuller draws you in to her memoirs saying neither too much nor too little.  Her books hit right to the core and have something for everyone.  As an attest to the enjoyment of this book and people's love for this author, we had nine women in attendance (with one in absentia, Sheri, who forgot to come), Marylib, Maddy, Paige, Joan, Margie, Saran, Linda, Annie, all at Libby's home on Shilo Drive.
Linda started right off saying how much she has liked all of Fuller's books.  She mentioned that her titles are always amazing.  Libby said that the titles make you know she is a good author with great language skills.  Linda said that the titles never give you a hint about what the book is about, and it was fun hearing Linda process the book while she was talking.  Later she says she wished Fuller had elaborated more on the madness in the book of her mother and her family.
Margie said she was angered by Charlie's comment "bummer" early on in their marriage, and then she said it could be indicative about the drama that Fuller made in her life, similar to the heightened drama of her parent's lives, and that this was Charlie's way to just say "enough".  Perhaps this was an incredible insight into Fuller's psyche in her sharing of what effect she has on anyone, as the effect her parents had on her.
Maddy thought that Charlie's reaction may be indicative of his inability to really communicate.
Libby asked the question: at one point Fuller says "it's where we are that really counts".  Do you think she believes this?  In the book she says she knew as a teenager that if she ever left Africa, "an essential part of my connection with this earth would become forever detached, like a soulless body or a heartless lover." and later, "Africa had been my primary relationship for most of my life, defining, sustaining, and unequivocal in a way that no human relationship had ever been, with the exception of my parents, whom in any case, I could never separate from this soil."  It seemed her sense of place was so entrenched.
But Maddy points out later in the book, as she becomes uprooted from Africa and her marriage, "the truth is, I wasn't only not a good daughter of Africa, I was not a good daughter of anywhere...."  Her sense of place and self are so intertwined.  "I was a woman on the brink of free fall, and it was hard to be a good, acceptable woman in any language or in any place when simultaneously contemplating becoming undone.  For the first time, I was beginning to see that for a woman to speak her mind in any clear, unassailable, unapologetic way, she must first possess it."  For her, her final frontier is the mind.  It is knowing that you possess it.  In the US she has been give the freedom of her mind. "Freedom of speech". Do you have what it takes to be yourself?  She has a voice now and knows her own mind.
The whole book is about loss, loss of marriage, loss of identity, loss of land, but it is also a journey of Fuller's towards the freedom of her own mind.  This journey she took from her parents' trials. "And yet they incorporated these losses into their marriage along with what they had gained, assigning very little in the way of either blame or praise almost anywhere."  Fuller lays no blame in her book, rather, as Annie was wondering, she protects her children and her former husband with revealing very little about them, because ultimately it was a book about herself, a scary one for her to write.
Time is an important theme throughout the book as many in the group pointed out, including Annie.  As a child in Africa with her African cook, "tomorrow would always come around in more or less the same shape as yesterday, and time was meaningless, and we had nowhere else to go." Later she says, "until I came to the states, I believed I knew without any doubt that time could be linear only if you counted it not by the moon, or by a sundial, or even by a watch, but by the loneliness of your own relentless trudge toward death, as if yours was the only life to live and time was something to be endured until you had worn it out." Her dad told her, "time is only as heavy as the thoughts you have to push through it."  And he said, "the less you have to think about, the less time matters."
There were so many differences Fuller intuited between Africa and America.  The concept of time is so different, as well as how people think of land and wilderness.  In Africa there is no need to seek excitement out, it comes to you.  In the US there is a subculture of adventure seekers, perhaps because life is so much easier comfort wise.  Fuller felt she was a trespasser in the African bush, while Charlie felt he was supposed to be there on his own terms, that Africa was "recreationally pristine and friendly."  As for land for Africans, "there was no separation of soil and soul."  The way we treat the land is the way we treat everything, including ourselves.
Joan pointed out the telling passage said by her Dad, "Although it's worth remembering it isn't supposed to be easy.  Easy is just another way of knowing you aren't doing much in the way of your life.  But you're doing it, Bobo."
This is a book about the emotional challenges of forging any kind of relationship, with the land, family, spouses, friends, and especially yourself.  Fuller grew up in a disfunctional land and anxiety was a way of life.  but whether anxiety is from without or within, it can always have it affects.  Charlie Ross promised calm, security, and trust, yet ultimately she finds that lif itself has no certainty, that chaos and loss can happen at any time, anywhere.
Joan mentioned that her parents had no idea and didn't react in the way we thought they should have, with the rape of the two sisters by soldiers. Something like that must have had life long consequences and intense desire to find a safe haven in life. She had to learn to roll with the punches, so to speak, because of Africa and her parent's parenting style, and that never leaves someone.
We listened to a CD of her talk at the Sun Valley Writer's Conference and her voice came in loud and clear.  The CD reinforced our own perspective of Fuller.  She talks about the fact that we are all just little bits of energy flying about, much the way she constructs a book, making all of us grab those bits of energy and take them to heart.
Ultimately she says there is no self there.  "No me, just us."  Life is unavoidable and we are all in this together.  And the most important thing is that you need to laugh about it.

PLEASE, YOUR COMMENTS ARE MOST WELCOME!

Discussion of "Under the Wide and Starry Sky" by Nancy Horan

February 27, 2017, at Mary Lib's house

Our discussion of Nancy Horan’s book, Under the Wide and Starry Sky,” touched upon themes of the unlikely match of Fanny and Louis, of complicated love, of friendship, of the roles of women, and of RLS’s astounding creativity and productivity. Annie, Libby, Saran, Paige, Joan, Maddy, Margie, and I (Mary Lib) met at my house on February 27. Since we were ¾ of the way through our discussion before I remembered to take notes, forgive me for missing insightful individual contributions.

The group basically applauded Fanny for her gutsy move to Europe, after the demise of her marriage, so she and her daughter could study drawing and painting. However, the logistics of such a move did seem daunting, most likely imposing hardship on her children.

We explored the attraction between Louis and Fanny and the important role she played in enabling Louis to pursue his creative talents, while minimizing her own opportunities for creative pursuits and recognition.

We talked a lot about the theme of friendship woven throughout the book. This included Fanny and Louis’s friendship, the complicated and perhaps shallow friendships with some of their literary friends, and the substantive friendships they enjoyed with their Samoan friends. Libby read a section where Henley criticized Louis’s “Child’s Story of Verses.” She actually brought a copy of the book to our meeting, and remembered what a good book it actually was.

Discussions about the roles of women repeatedly cropped up. We looked at the picture of Fanny & Louis drawn by John Singer Sargent, contemplating if Fanny was portrayed as mysterious or minimalized. Louis probably could not have achieved the degree of success he enjoyed without Fanny’s support and sacrifices, yet he was slow to acknowledge the value of her contributions.

Annie said she liked Louis. Libby appreciated his joyfulness. We all marveled at his ability to write brilliantly and extensively while suffering ill health. Joan observed that with today’s medical norms, someone like Louis would probably be more heavily medicated and wondered if his creativity would have been stifled. Maddy compared his poor health to Wilbur Wright’s illness; both men seemed to thrive creatively while ill.

Saran said she had to remind herself this was a novel, not a biography, speaking to the confusion that sometimes arises with historical fiction.

The gathering ended with all of us being enriched by Horan’s writing and by what we learned from the various observations of our fellow members.

LAB GIRL Hope Jahren

                                                             


All B&B's were present today (except Mary; Hi Z!), as we discussed Hope Jahren's memoir. There were many positive comments about the book; such as her ability to write, even poetically, in a style very different from the technical papers of which she is accustomed. She skillfully intertwined "scientific" chapters, which were sometimes metaphoric in nature (and aimed at the lay person), with a "spirited" telling of a not-so-ordianary life.
One of the scientists in our group had concerns about how Ms. Jahren used this forum to present herself as a woman in a male-dominated field. She found it questionable as to whether or not her story helped or "hurt" the field. And, the fact that the author did not fully flesh out how her personal history affected her work, and therefore, her actions.
From there, opinions diversified. Some agreed that the author was a little (or a lot) "crazy", especially her descriptions of hastily planned field trips, obsessive attention to a project in her lab, and her unique relationship with Bill. And, there were even questions about whether or not she embellished some of the wilder episodes of her life, for the sake of enhancing the reading experience (and selling books??).
Others thought that this was a true account of someone who, in spite of many barriers; showed grit, humor, and honesty in telling her story. After all, aren't we all a little weird...?
I will leave it at that; I really did not want to over-interpret, especially since my note-taking was so sketchy. Please feel free to add your two cents!!