Book club books

Over the last few months I've been participating in a book club at work. I've never done a book club before, and wasn't quite sure if I'd like it. I have been enjoying myself, but it does lend a certain homework-y vibe to my reading that I don't really like. Since I tend to read several books at once, and switch around depending on my mood, it's difficile to settle on reading one book at a certain time every month, especially if it's a book that I'm not really enjoying!

So far we have read Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, Julie and Julia by Julie Powell, and The Pesthouse by Jim Crace.

I really liked The Yiddish Policeman's Union--a detective novel set in an alternate history where Sitka, Alaska is a city of two million Jews. As a mystery it wasn't the best plot ever, the ending was vague, which is always annoying, and Detective Meyer Landsman is very stereotypical: a divorced, alchoholic, bitter man, who solves his crimes based mostly on hunches, and of course, continues to stay on cases even after being ordered to shelve them by his commanding officer/ex-wife. But it's the minor characters and the yiddish-sprinkled language, and the whole intriguing idea of Jewish Sitka that made this book for me.

Julie and Julia was pretty much awful. There were a few moments where I was hoping for more, but it just kept disappointing me. The main character/author, Julie Powell, undertakes the task of trying to cook through The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child in one year. The premise was interesting, but Julie is a whiny, self-preoccupied person, who tries to hard to be funny and frankly by halfway through the book I just wanted her to stop. I did really like the chapter on lobster recipes though; her descriptions of trying to kill the lobsters made me laugh out loud.

The Pesthouse is harder to define. I didn't really like it, and I didn't really dislike it. I just read it. It tells the story of two people, Franklin Lopez, and a girl named Margaret, who are both separated from their families in post-apocalyptic America. Franklin left his family willingly, heading for the east coast and a ship to Europe in hopes of a better life. Margaret was ostracized by her family, and sent to a pesthouse because of her illness. Franklin and Margaret end up traveling along a ruined former highway together, and their experiences include marauders, attempted rapists, religious fanatics known as Finger Baptists, and a small child called Bella. Somehow the book never really grabbed my interest though. My description of their experiences makes them sound much more exciting than they really were; the story itself plodded along, and nothing much seemed to happen.

So the book club picks have been mixed so far, but I have high hopes for the next few months. This month we're reading assorted short stories, next month is Revolutionary Road, the month after that is In the Woods, and then we're finishing out the year with Lavinia. Should be good!

Books, books, books!

It's official: Barbara Nadel is too creepy for me. I finished Harem, and in spite of the appeal of Inspector Ikmen, the weird sexual predilections of the minor characters disturbs me. Plus I feel bad for poor Inspector Ikmen, overwhelmed by the combination of his nine children and his duties on the Istanbul police force. While it's nice to have a detective with a family for once (as opposed to the usual divorced, moody, alchoholic types) I think I'll stick with Donna Leon and Commisario Guido Brunetti when I want a contented detective.

Speaking of divorced, moody, alchoholic detectives, I finished Ian Rankin's The Naming of The Dead. While I think the end was a bit obvious, and the whole G8 Summit setting dragged a bit, I enjoyed the character of DI John Rebus, and his interaction with DS Siobhan Clarke. I appreciated the fact that not all of the loose ends were tied up at the end, and that although Rebus is rather stereotypical in a lot of ways, he's still funnier than most other alchoholic detectives.

In The Naming of The Dead Rebus and Clarke are working to try and simultaneously solve the murder of a bouncer-turned-rapist that appears to have been killed by a serial killer, a possible suicide of an MP, and an attack on an innocent woman in a protest of the G8 in downtown Edinburgh. The city is in chaos, with thousands of extra cops and special service guys called in to help with the G8 and the ensuing protests. Rebus and Siobhan (pronounced Sha-vonne) have to deal with traffic snarls, secretive special forces, a Chief who wants them to lay low on the murder(s) till the G8 is over, and complications in their own personal lives. It felt a bit like I'd read parts of it before in some other mystery, but parts of it were really funny, and I liked the character of Rebus. I'll definitely give Rankin another shot--but try an earlier book in the hope that it will be a little more original, I'll keep you posted on the results!

On a non-mystery note, the first book club pick was Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. I think perhaps the reviews I read of this book were a bit inflated. I was certainly expecting more than what it was after reading other reviews. By and large I thought it was pretty good, but it definitely had some strange "schmaltzy" moments, and a few odd plot holes. Since I knew that Nemirovsky died at Auschwitz, and thus was unable to edit or finish the novel, I think I kept reading more into it than was really there, ie "Well this part is a bit far-fetched, but she probably would've fixed it if she'd had a chance."

Nemirovsky did an excellent job of showing how the German invasion affected many different people, and gave brief evocative glimpses into their lives. The term "Suite Francaise" is, however, misleading--really the book is two short novellas that were published together. The first novella, Storm in June, gives rapid looks at about twenty different characters who are all fleeing Paris into the countryside, trying to stay one step ahead of the Germans. Some of the characters, such as Maurice and Jeanne Michaud are very likeable, some such as Charles Langelet are eminently non-likeable. The confusion brings out the best in some people, and the worst in others.

The second novella, Dolce, gives a more in depth look at the lives of villagers in a German occupied town. Lucile Angellier, a young French wife whose husband is a POW in Germany, finds herself with conflicted feelings for the German officer stationed in the Angellier home. Some other villlagers have much more confrontational reactions with the Germans, while some are content to collaborate. The two books are very different, and in our book club some people preferred the second, but I preferred the first. I liked the short chapters, and the quick glimpses at people that suggested the whole history condensed into just a few paragraphs. The second book was good, but seemed to drag in some spots. All in all I'd give it a B+, I can forgive the weak spots due to Nemirovsky's beautiful prose, and the amazing history behind the book and the survival of the manuscript.