December 21 @ 7:30pm

Modernist Book Club discusses Murphy by Samuel Beckett

About the book:

“The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.” Thus, Beckett’s Murphy begins, and the tone is set. A strange, bleak, humorous novel, published in 1938, Murphy’s dilemma is that of achieving his desire to simply desire nothing, and naturally, this search goes nowhere. Perhaps not as powerful as some of Beckett’s later and more famous works, Murphy nonetheless offers hints of Beckett’s themes and concerns to come.  — Powells.com review

About the book club:

The Modernist Book Club is a lively group of people who delight in a “modern” book and await the opportunity to discuss it in an informal setting at the back of the store, near the garden. Sometimes 8, other times 18, hardy readers gather to discuss the latest selection. Newcomers and drop-ins are always welcome! No reservations necessary.

*note that the meeting will be on Monday, due to the holiday

Monday November 23 @ 7:30pm

The Modernist Book Club discusses The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares with a special guest: the editor of the NYRB Classics series, Edwin Frank

About the book:

“Jorge Luis Borges declared The Invention of Morel a masterpiece of plotting, comparable to The Turn of the Screw.  This fantastic exploration of virtual realities also bears comparison with the sharpest work of Philip K. Dick.  It is both a story of suspense and a bizarre romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious.” –Publisher review

About the book club:

The Modernist Book Club is a lively group of people who delight in a “modern” book and await the opportunity to discuss it in an informal setting at the back of the store, near the garden. Sometimes 8, other times 18, hardy readers gather to discuss the latest selection. Newcomers and drop-ins are always welcome! No reservations necessary.

About the celebrity guest lecturer:

Edwin Frank was born in Boulder, Colorado and studied at Harvard College and Columbia University. He is the author of two small books of poetry, The Further Adventures of Pinocchio andStack, and has been the editor of the NYRB Classics series since its beginning ten years ago.

*Note: The Modernist Book Club ordinarily meets on Wednesday evenings, but rescheduled to Monday Nov. 23^rd due to Thanksgiving.

Please join us as we read and discuss this quietly beautiful novel.

From the publisher’s website:

A Dream in Polar Fog is at once a cross-cultural journey, an ethnographic chronicle of the Chukchi people, and a politically and emotionally charged Arctic adventure story. It is the story of John MacLennan, a Canadian sailor who is left behind by his ship, stranded on the northeastern tip of Siberia. It is the story of one native Siberian community that adopts a wounded stranger and teaches him to live as a true human being. Over time, John comes to know his new companions as real people who share the best and worst of human traits with his own kind. Tragedy strikes, and wounds are healed with compassion and honesty as tensions rise and fall. Rytkheu’s empathy, humor, and provocative voice guide us across the magnificent landscape of the North and reveal all the complexity and beauty of a vanishing world.

For more information, go to www.archipelagobooks.org.

Please join us as we read and discuss this quietly beautiful novel.

From the publisher’s website:

A Dream in Polar Fog is at once a cross-cultural journey, an ethnographic chronicle of the Chukchi people, and a politically and emotionally charged Arctic adventure story. It is the story of John MacLennan, a Canadian sailor who is left behind by his ship, stranded on the northeastern tip of Siberia. It is the story of one native Siberian community that adopts a wounded stranger and teaches him to live as a true human being. Over time, John comes to know his new companions as real people who share the best and worst of human traits with his own kind. Tragedy strikes, and wounds are healed with compassion and honesty as tensions rise and fall. Rytkheu’s empathy, humor, and provocative voice guide us across the magnificent landscape of the North and reveal all the complexity and beauty of a vanishing world.

For more information, go to www.archipelagobooks.org.

Come and talk with us as we dive into this stream of consciousness classic.

(Click image for more information)

Please join us for another illuminating evening as we read and discuss The Lover by Marguerite Duras. From the back cover:

Set in the prewar Indochina of Marguerite Duras’s childhood, this is the haunting tale of a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover. In spare yet luminous prose, Duras evokes life on the margins of Saigon in the waning days of France’s colonial empire, and its representation in the passionate relationship between two unforgettable outcasts.

We hope to see you here!

Come along for another evening of translated fun. This month, we’re reading The Hakawati, by Rabih Alameddine.

From the back cover:

In 2003, Osama al Kharrat returns to Beirut after many years in America to stand vigil at his father’s deathbed. As the family gathers, stories begin to unfold: Osama’s grandfather was a hakawati, or storyteller, and his bewitching tales are interwoven with classic stories of the Middle East. Here are Abraham and Isaac; Ishmael, father of the Arab tribes; the beautiful Fatima; Baybars, the slave prince who vanquished the Crusaders; and a host of mischievous imps. Through Osama, we also enter the world of the contemporary Lebanese men and women whose stories tell a larger tale, both heartbreaking and hilarious, of war, conflicted identity, and survival. With The Hakawati, Rabih Alameddine has given us an Arabian Nights for this century.

Read the New York Times review here.