Group Discussion #3

This month, we're switching things up a bit and reading two graphic novels: Watchmen and The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes. Both are quick reads and come highly recommended. Since we have two short books this month, please talk amongst yourselves and share copies.

Date & Location:
Tuesday, 8/21. 8pm. Lo's House.

BTW, for anybody who's still interested in discussing You Don't Love Me Yet: A Novel, you may get your chance at this meeting. Or, just post your comments on the blog.

Book #1:
Watchmen

Written by Alan Moore; Art by Dave Gibbons

It all begins with the paranoid delusions of a half-insane hero called Rorschach. But is Rorschach really insane or has he in fact uncovered a plot to murder super-heroes and, even worse, millions of innocent civilians? On the run from the law, Rorschach reunites with his former teammates in a desperate attempt to save the world and their lives, but what they uncover will shock them to their very core and change the face of the planet! Following two generations of masked superheroes from the close of World War II to the icy shadow of the Cold War comes this groundbreaking comic story — the story of The Watchmen.


Book #2:
The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes

Written by Neil Gaiman; Art by Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, and Malcolm Jones, III Gibbons

The Sandman Vol. 1: A wizard attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. Fearful for his safety, the wizard kept him imprisoned in a glass bottle for decades. After his escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On the way, Morpheus encounters Lucifer and demons from Hell, the Justice League, and John Constantine, the Hellblazer. This book also includes the story "The Sound of Her Wings" which introduces us to the pragmatic and perky goth girl, Death.


Additional Info:
Watchmen at Wikipedia
The Sandman at Wikipedia

Group Discussion #2

Book:
You Don't Love Me Yet: A Novel, by Jonathan Lethem.

Date & Location:
TBD (first to second week of June).

Author's web site

Book Description:

From the incomparable Jonathan Lethem, a raucous romantic farce that explores the paradoxes of love and art.

Lucinda Hoekke spends eight hours a day at the Complaint Line, listening to anonymous callers air their random grievances. Most of the time, the work is excruciatingly tedious. But one frequent caller, who insists on speaking only to Lucinda, captivates her with his off-color ruminations and opaque self-reflections. In blatant defiance of the rules, Lucinda and the Complainer arrange a face-to-face meeting—and fall desperately in love.

Consumed by passion, Lucinda manages only to tear herself away from the Complainer to practice with the alternative band in which she plays bass. The lead singer of the band is Matthew, a confused young man who works at the zoo and has kidnapped a kangaroo to save it from ennui. Denise, the drummer, works at No Shame, a masturbation boutique. The band’s talented lyricist, Bedwin, conflicted about the group’s as-yet-nonexistent fame, is suffering from writer’s block. Hoping to recharge the band’s creative energy, Lucinda “suggests” some of the Complainer’s philosophical musings to Bedwin. When Bedwin transforms them into brilliant songs, the band gets its big break, including an invitation to appear on L.A.’s premiere alternative radio show. The only problem is the Complainer. He insists on joining the band, with disastrous consequences for all.

Brimming with satire and sex, You Don’t Love Me Yet is a funny and affectionate send-up of the alternative band scene, the city of Los Angeles, and the entire genre of romantic comedy, but remains unmistakably the work of the inimitable Jonathan Lethem.

About the Author:

JONATHAN LETHEM is the author of six novels, including the bestsellers The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is also the author of two short story collections, Men and Cartoons and The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye, and a collection of essays, The Disappointment Artist. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and Maine.

Where is the access road?

So on the ride home I was thinking more about an access road INTO the book "A Long Way Gone." Now, granted, if this memoir was written when he was 50 it would be a very different book than it is today - probably started when he was 25... or younger considering the loft he moved into was that of a professional storyteller.

The thing I'm missing most is accessibility to his situation. While I have never done the things he has done I have used many of the same psychological triggers he has used. I only have my own experience to draw on to relate to him and the place that where it could happen are these moments that aren't given time. (Either by his own narrative or the editing.) I've used storytelling as a safety device, I've been triggered in times of stress to employ survival techniques and skills and I understand the pleasure I get from those devices. We never see implicitly that he uses his skills to further himself. He is a good looking, friendly faced and intelligent young man. This is a marketable skill for both Ishmael to use to get out and for the people looking to use him as a poster boy. He *knows* this... he's a performer and he's intelligent. He knows how to work a crowd, how to manipulate a crowd ... yet we aren't shown this side of him in the story. At the end of the day he GOT something for what he did. Not brown brown here people... pleasure, enjoyment and revenge. He continued the killing not only because he "had to" (brianwashing?) because he also got a psychological "gimmie" from the deal. And the thing is - THAT'S OK. It's part of understanding why you do the things you do. If we've already forgiven him for the atrocities of war - why can't we give him pardon for being human?

I get that this is something that is sort of "well if the book was this" instead of what the book IS... but I put my finger on why this book rang hollow for me. The person isn't real even though this is a real person. The book suffers from being too much too soon. For Ishmael's story to have full and lasting effect outside of this tragedy I feel like he needs to re-visit it in another 25 years.

group discussion #1

book:
a long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier, by ishmael beah.

date & location:
monday, april 30th @ 8pm. location: lo's house.

• reading guide
• excerpt
• web site

from the book flap:

In A LONG WAY GONE: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a powerfully gripping story: At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. At sixteen, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and, finally, to heal.

This is an extraordinary and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.

about the author:

Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone in 1980. He moved to the United States in 1998 and finished his last two years of high school at the United Nations International School in New York. In 2004 he graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in political science. He is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee and has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, and many other NGO panels on children affected by the war. His work has appeared in VespertinePress and LIT magazine. He lives in New York City.