Book Club Meeting on August 29, 2019
Charlie
introduced the meeting to Geraldine Brooks.
She was a war correspondent who met her husband, an American, overseas
and married and decided to settle down and raise a family at the age of 38.
She was Australian and went
to journalism school at Columbia, graduating in 1983.
Dick – It is a depressing
subject. There were lots of archaic
words I did not understand. I learned a
lot of words.
I did not think about the
book after I read it both times I read it. I enjoyed it but it did not leave
much of an impression.
I looked at an interview with
the author and she commented on the heroic efforts made by so many people in the situation.
Jack – the situation gets
worse and worse still, but that held my attention.
Tom – the last paragraph was
a slight bone The book should have ended when she and the Vicar waved goodbye.
Charlie – no plot, just a lot
of anecdotal events.
Keith – Depressing. I don’t which was more depressing. Caleb’s
Crossing or this book. In Caleb’s
Crossing the dying woman describes her life.
Bob – each of her books has a
connection to an historic document. In
this case it was the Dryden poem.
Tom – is this creative
non-fiction? The incidents described are
true with the insertion of a plot into those events.
Bob - she tries to relate
experiences from the viewpoint of the narrators in her stories. This is like the style of writing as Wilkie
Collins in the Moonstone who shifts the awareness and dialect of narrators as
the plot line shifts from place to place.
Dick – It is really a love
story. Her love interests shift through the story from medicine (and a model of
an independent woman, my thought) to the preacher and the preacher’s wife, and
finally to the love of a new culture and new profession.
Tom – But, it also shows lots
of evil in persons, such as her father and Colonel Bradford.
Bob – I would probably be
permanently maddened if I was keel hauled.
Dick – The book shows how a
desperate situation brings out the best and the worst in persons by contrasting
their responses to the situation. Also,
these were lead miners, not many lived to old age and lead may have had an
effect on their brains and bodies.
Jack – I had a German friend in
Stuttgart. After WWII, he made money by
salvaging lead from destroyed buildings, mainly the lead supports in leaded
glass windows.
I liked the length of
chapters and how the book was divided into three chapters. The first part was Leaf Fall, the second part
was Spring, although Spring seemed to last for over one year through most of
1665 and 16 chapters and finally another Leaf Fall. Apple picking time is the
sole chapter in the latter Leaf Fall part. Each chapter’s title appears
somewhere in the text of the chapter.
GRADES –
Dick – tough to grade. Parts I liked and parts depressed me. I enjoyed her other two books. B
Keith – She was telling a
story, it had no plot C
Tom – The title implies to me
God’s biblical words to Moses, “Thou shall do my wonders” when God was
referring to the among other terrible thing the plague on the first born of
each Egyptian family. B+
Rob – creative, she created a
plot around old times. I made me wonder
why bad things happen to good people.
The book turned out to be theological for me
It described real people in a
bad situation. B
Bob S. – It is a good book, I
enjoyed the period writing and the insight into the thinking of the people as
they were confronted by the events happening to them. I particularly enjoyed her education in
medicinal herbs, which seems to me interesting when compare to the butchery by
barbers, as a prelude to modern medicine.
A-
Karl – This was a nice read about an interesting topic. I particularly enjoyed the language, style, and period vocabulary. I can think of only one other book (that being a medical text) for which I had to look up more words than I did for this one. On the downside, Anna was a bit too much of a superwoman for believability. Saving the girl's mine in one day was the event that stretched my ability to believe beyond my capacity. And the fairy-tale ending, though nice, was a bit far-fetched. Still, a worthwhile read. B
Jack – A bit of a soap
opera. She is a good storyteller. I like her style of writing.
She created an interesting
story. B+
Charlie – I enjoy historic
fiction. I have read lots of plague
related material, but this was the first book that really described what plague
was like. The ending did not make
sense. A-
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