This is our book club, yes. The Monday afternoon book club, to be exact. You know, the one that’s been running the longest for CFUW Brantford, and still has two of the original members? It was Marion’s birthday today. We did talk books, but every member also surprised Marion with something special.
Such glorious weather, scenery, walking and conversation.
The Thursday Book Club discussed the book CASTE – by Isabel Wilkerson. It was a “heavy” read in terms of subject matter, researched detail, and shocking truths. Wilkerson compares the centuries old caste system in India, the time bound ‘caste’ system the Nazis imposed on Jews in the 30’s and 40’s, to the caste system beginning with slavery in the US before the US was a country and continuing today.
Her liberal inclusion of horrific stories and historical facts is shocking and disturbing. For example, blacks were still being lynched in the American South up to 1972! She differentiates between caste, race, and class. There is potential for movement with race and class – but within caste – you will never be able to change your position as seen by society.
In spite of the deeply disturbing content, every member at the discussion group agreed that this is a book that needs to be read to help understand the continuing systemic caste system at play in the US today. One observation was it offered a better understanding of why there was such a backlash against Obama compared to the seemingly blind loyalty to Trump.
Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize winner journalist, was the first woman of African American descent to receive the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Her thesis in Caste is that American culture and economics even today is still built on slavery and its impact. Whereas Germany, shamed by the holocaust, has taken extreme steps to acknowledge, apologize, and honour the victims of the holocaust, many Americans still applaud and honour the Confederate flag and generals who fought to keep millions of blacks enslaved and treated as less than human.
The book opened for our readers insight into this dark side of American history. Though disturbing, they were grateful to have this more fulsome understanding. Conversations included questions about our own treatment of indigenous peoples, the internment of the Japanese, and questions of racial profiling by the police here. As a final question we looked at where we – white privileged women – saw ourselves in the caste system. We all agreed we were pretty much at the top of the heap – the only ones above us were white men…
This is not a book for light reading – but it is a book to help us understand, think about, and respond to current and disturbing issues around systemic racism in American society and politics– and sadly in many other societies around the world.
PS – the book has been made into a movie – ORIGIN by Ava Duverny. Hopefully it will be here soon.
Janet K and Linda T
It’s not often that a book club member gets to talk about their own book whose author copies just arrived the same day. And especially when that book is a new foreign language edition of a classic favourite. This is Monday lunch book group member Marsha Skrypuch and her most popular novel, Making Bombs for Hitler, but in the Ukrainian language edition — beautiful!
This was our last ZOOM mtg for the winter and we are all looking forward to “pressing the flesh” in April. But we enjoyed discussing Snow Road Station by Elizabeth Hay. In the winter of 2008, Lulu, a 62 year old actor, lands a dream role in a Samuel Beckett play.
She has a limited time to learn it but she manages the first few performances and then starts to flub her lines. From there her career and life begin to unravel. Acting has been central to
Lulu’s life. In her sixties now, a sexy, unfooled woman well-versed in taking risks, out of work, humiliated, she escapes to a family wedding and an old friend at Stone Road Station. She decides she is through with drama. She thinks she wants peace. She finds anything but…At the centre of it all is the friendship between Lulu and Nan. As the two women contemplate growing old, they surrender certain long-held dreams and confront the limits of the choices they’ve made and the messy feelings that kept them apart for decades. Snow Road Station is not so much a story with a plot. Rather it is a series of life relationships and changes – some harsh and imposed, others slowly emerging and evolving.
Several other characters, mostly men, share in these tangled relationships and we watch them as they emerge and evolve and settle. The difficult work of making maple syrup is a central theme. The work itself is often where the intersection of characters and their conversations occur. Stone Road Station opens with a marriage and the promise of social cohesion. However, things quickly begin to fall apart: the nuptials are threatened, Lulu loses her place in the world. But the story closes with the establishment of new romantic relationships and the birth of a much-loved child — a child who, in many ways, restores Lulu to herself. Everyone gave this book a thumbs up – it is tender and insightful. Losses often open the way
for new and wonderful opportunities at any age.
Linda Tripp
The Monday afternoon book group has wide and varied interests. We still have two of the original members, and their perspective and insight is very much appreciated by newer members. Marion brought this flyer about the birthday celebration of one of the book club members from decades ago. So neat!
Jeanie reviewed two books:
Title: At Home: A Short History of Private Life
Author: Bill Bryson
Bryson uses a walk through the rooms in his 1851 Church of England rectory in Norfolk, to share his extensive research into the fascinating history of the furnishings and structure of homes. Bryson chooses a topic, such as his refrigerator, and then explains in detail the who, what, where, when and why of its evolution. After reading this book, I have a much greater appreciation for the innovation needed to produce common household items.
Title: Five Little Indians
Author: Michelle Good
This book alternates its narrative between the childhood of the characters Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie who were forcibly moved from their families to a Church-run Residential School and then their young adulthood when paths again cross in downtown Eastside Vancouver. I found the way that each character dealt with their traumas to be highly engaging and thought provoking.
Here’s a sampling of the other books we read:
One of our walkers thought we should call ourselves the Tuesday Trotters! I see very little trotting going on but I do see a lot of great conversation, birdwatching, recipes exchanged, and general support. The Tuesday whats? I don’t know!
Thursday Night Book Club met on Zoom. This month, we deviated from our traditional exploration of one book. Our challenge was to each choose an iconic or classic book that had remained personally significant over the decades. We reread our chosen book over the past month, reflecting on whether the story was still memorable. We presented the books we had chosen by genres: Fantasy/Fable, Historic Fiction/Fiction, and Philosophy, sharing the impact the book had ‘back then’ versus ‘now’. The discussion was lively as we recalled memories that the books invoked, the importance – and joy – of being read to as a child, and how we came of age by reading books that included stories about war, depression, revolution, and ‘the very meaning of life’.
Longtime club member Janet K was very interested to recognize a logo that she had designed being included in one of the paintings on the plywood patch bridge. She had designed the logo for Ecole Dufferin when a new logo was needed to celebrate the school’s 100th anniversary. Janet designed it at the request of her daughter who was on the PTA at the time, and they are still using it. At the time of the anniversary it was printed on t-shirts and other paraphernalia… Janet had forgotten all about it, so fun to see it today on the bridge.
