sametimenextmonth: May 2017

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

May Book Club 2017

Welcome to May 2017 Book Club at Diana's. We are coming up on the end of the first half of 2017 already! Feels like we are time traveling forward at a breakneck pace. We missed Pam, Lou, Darby, Leslie, Carla G and Janie. The rest of us dined on Diana's quiche accompanied by Carla A's Caprese salad and bacon. Tammy brought a scrumptious Reuben dip, Denise brought a beautiful fruit salad, I brought croissants, Champagne and Peach Nectar for Bellini's Laura finished us off with a Lemon Pound Cake for dessert and Arnora brought the beautiful spring bouquet.

Our book this month comes From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Art Forger and is a thrilling new novel of art, history, love, and politics that traces the life and mysterious disappearance of a brilliant young artist on the eve of World War II. Alizée Benoit, an American painter working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), vanishes in New York City in 1940 amid personal and political turmoil. No one knows what happened to her. Not her Jewish family living in German-occupied France. Not her artistic patron and political compatriot, Eleanor Roosevelt. Not her close-knit group of friends, including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner. And, some seventy years later, not her great-niece, Danielle Abrams, who while working at Christie’s auction house uncovers enigmatic paintings hidden behind recently found works by those now famous Abstract Expressionist artists. Do they hold answers to the questions surrounding her missing aunt?

Tammy recommended the book and we all heartily agreed as we had enjoyed the Art Forger. But, Tammy ended up not caring for the book at all. On the other hand, Carla Anderson "liked it a whole lot!" And, the rest of us fell somewhere in between. Most of us liked the story and what we learned about the art world at the time of WWII. While Hitler was plundering Europe of some of the world's finest art, the US Government set up a program called the Works Projects Administration to carry out public works projects such as roads and bridges. In a much smaller project, Federal Project Number One, the WPA employed musicians, artists, writers, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. Some of America's greatest Modern Artists (as named above) were part of this project.

The story goes back in forth in time as Danielle tries to authenticate, what she believes, are portions of a mural that her great aunt created for the WPA that disappeared when she did. We see that Danielle is still receiving the same kind of resistance and dismissal in the current day art world as her great aunt did 70 years earlier. Her efforts take back in time to 1940's New York City but also to Paris where Alizee's family is desperately trying to receive Visa's to the US to avoid the German concentration camps across Europe.

Though this book was published in 2015, before the current administration took office, the new immigration policies and deportation laws mirror quite closely what was happening leading up to WWII with the Jews. Today, it is the Muslims but it seems someone is always the "immigrant nation" who is not in favor. "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

We all agreed that we would have liked to have had Danielle's character a bit more fleshed out. It was harder to connect emotionally with her character. But, we enjoyed learning about some of the artists of the day that were on the brink of discovery. The book had us discussing the mental health of artists in general. It also brought us to the subject of art as propaganda or rebellion. It is both. During the time of the WPA there were artists who "toed the party line" and those who tried to convey a message through their art as Alizee did with her mural and Picasso did, for example, with his mural, Guernica. This paining is considered one of the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history.

As one point of local interest I pointed out paintings that are hanging in the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art at The University of Oklahoma. Many of the paintings that were created under the WPA were collected for a travel exhibit that went oversees. Somewhere along the path of the exhibit, about 60 of the paintings were suddenly deemed inappropriate. They did not convey the image of a prosperous and exuberant America. They pointed more to the truth of a country that had been deeply affected by the war, an eight year drought and a great depression. These 60 paintings were removed from the exhibit and stored in a warehouse where they were discovered some 60 years later. The paintings went up for auction and the "Fred" purchased a dozen or so for a song. For example, the one by Georgia O'Keefe was purchased for $50.

The book rated a 3 and an "I really, really liked it a lot!" Laura recommended our next book, "Eleanor and Hick" about the love story of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her secretary. Eleanor figured promptly in The Muralist and we her story has peaked our interest.

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2015 Hosts and Books

Jan 9 - Pam Boeck - All the Light We Cannot See
Feb 6 - Lou Christian - Alif the Unseen
March 6 - Terry Cummings - Kind of Kin
April 3 - Janie Tisdale - The Girl on the Train
May 1 - Arnora Parish - The Stolen Child
Jun 5 - Barb Barrow - The Elephant Whisperer
July 10 - Diana Beal - Lone Wolf
Aug 7 - Denise McGough - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Sept 11 - Sherrie Phillips - H is for Hawk
Oct 2 - Arnora Parish - The Boy Who Drew Monsters
Nov 6 - Sherrie Phillips
Dec - Laura Madden - A Child's Christmas in Wales & Christmas Day in the Morning

The Honey Tree - Mary Oliver

And so at last I climbed

the honey tree, ate

chunks of pure light, ate

the bodies of bees that could not

get out of my way, ate

the dark hair of the leaves,

the rippling bark,

the heartwood. Such

frenzy! But joy does that,

I'm told, in the beginning.

Later, maybe,

I'll come here only

sometimes and with a

middling hunger. But now

I climb like a snake

I clamber like a bear to

the nuzzling place, to the light

salvaged by the thighs

of bees and racked up

in the body of the tree.

Oh, anyone can see

how I love myself at last!

how I love the world! climbing

by day or night

in the wind, in the leaves, kneeling

at the secret rip, the cords

of my body stretching

and singing in the

heaven of appetite.

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Lis and Diana's Review of Isaac's Storm

Lis said: This book centers around the devastating hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas, in 1901 and is blamed for the death of over 4500 people. Although the story wasn't a page-turner for most, it was full of interesting historical and scientific data while building up to describing accounts of the devastation and aftermath that the storm created. In my opinion, it is debatable whether the book should be considered a true fiction or a non-fiction. Hand in hand with the storm description, the book tells about the creation of the National Weather Service and the struggle that the organization went through to earn the people's trust. When looking back over the disaster, the author identifies areas of misuse and false pride - in the bureaucratic sector as well as the people's personal lives - that, if it had been overcome, might have averted some of the lost lives. Building up to the storm, the author touches on many historical facts surrounding the era, such as the state of Arkansas passing legislation a few decades earlier to legalize the proper pronunciation of its name to be "Arkansaw." Into this background, the author creates the characters that he was able to find in his research that made up the early Weather Service and some of the residence of Galveston, their spouses and children, making us shiver with dread over successful and unsuccessful rescue efforts. After bringing to life the unimaginable aftermath, with whole neighborhoods destroyed and bodies at every step, the book concludes with Galveston's recovery and a large chapter of Acknowledgements for the extensive support and research that the author relied on. I for one enjoyed the book immensely and, after the first third, found it difficult to put down till the end. Elisabeth Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine. I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

Diana said: The old saying, "hind sight is 20/20" comes to mind while reading the hurricane account of Galveston, Texas in 1901. Author Eric Larson's story reminded me of his first book we read, Devil in the White City, as he combined historical facts and real people while piecing together a plausible tale of personalities and lives. I have huge respect for writing historical fiction, as the writer not only has to devise an interesting story but also works as an investigator and researcher in the process. The first third of the story was slow and at times I found myself skimming the pages waiting for action. I think this may have been purposeful by Larson. As a reader I was going about my daily business and uninvolved like the townspeople of Galveston noting the changing winds and heading off to work. I took occasional notice of Isaac's trip to the American west by stage and his appearance as a "dandy", the use of telegraph as the primary form of communication from on location to another and it was surprising to find out the American and Cuban weather men held so little regard for each other. Americans found the Cuban forecasters primitive, romantic and unreliable. But once the hurricane was upon Galveston, I was spellbound for the remainder of the book. With the exception of once when I had to put the story down due to the brutal descriptions of decaying bodies which I found overwhelming. For me the story telling mimicked the event itself. Galveston and the rest of the U.S. were going along with business as usual, and then wham! A hurricane the magnitude no one expected or had experienced before bursts forth with action and drama and left no one untouched including me.

Lis' review of A Thousand Splendid Suns

The story playing in Afghanistan made it another compelling read and a walk through a different culture, very foreign to most of us. I had the fortune to have also read the book The Kite Runner by the same author and found that the two stories make great companion books, almost a must-read duo. Our month's selection takes us into the Arabic culture through the life of two women, one of them a servant girl's bastard child - and yes, I used the old fashioned term for illegitimate child on purpose to stay with the tone of the novel. The other woman is depicted as a well-educated, emancipated young woman from a progressive, westernized family. Through the turmoils surrounding Afghanistan's recent 30-year history, their lives intertwine with the same abusive husband and their attempt to deal with the changes brought on by the Russian occupation, the takeover of the Mujahedin and, eventually, the Taliban. The companion book, The Kite Runner, deals with the same political and social upheavals in Afghanistan but is told through the life of a man and his very devoted male servant. A Thousand Splendid Suns evoked a lot of emotion for most of us, feeling comfortable as well educated American women that have rights and can expect a certain social standing that greatly exceeds the animal-like treatment of our female Afghan counterparts under Taliban rule. Needless to say, we had a lively discussion about Afghanistan's troubles, the interactions of both women's parents' influences, their different upbringing, and how it made them relate to each other. We found similarities to the book Shanturam in this author's use of the cinema, especially Bollywood movies. One thing we did not discuss though that I found enticing, was the advantages of being able to skip hair and make-up treatments through the use of a Burka! Blue was, after all, the favored color of my youth, although I always preferred much darker shades. What do you think, ladies, Burkas in our future?