Recollections of the Meeting of the Bryn Mawr Book Group on
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
for My Life in France, by Julia Child
Sandra hosted the group:
“April 16 book group was small but fun…Dorianne, Sydney, Dodie and myself. We all enjoyed Julia…we shared reports of encounters with her, at Mt. Auburn sports with her Provencal sports bag and signing books with warmth and generosity .
“It was noted how much Paul helped her career and organized her wonderful zest and devil-may-care attitude and how close their relationship was.
“Left with two thoughts. Was Julia prescient in detesting pressure cookers, the item of news that night? And maybe all that butter was not such a bad thing as she lived at Casa Dorinda in Santa Barbara to a ripe old age: three days short of her 92nd birthday.”
Next meeting, back at Roo Dane’s at 7 p.m., will be on Tuesday May 21 for You’ll Know When the Men are Gone by Siobhan Fallon, a look at the wives left behind at Army posts while their soldier husbands are fighting overseas. “In Fort Hood housing, like all army housing, you get used to hearing through the walls… You learn too much. And you learn to move quietly through your own small domain. You also know when the men are gone. No more boots stomping above, no more football games turned up too high, and, best of all, no more front doors slamming before dawn as they trudge out for their early formation, sneakers on metal stairs, cars starting, shouts to the windows above to throw them down their gloves on cold desert mornings. Babies still cry, telephones ring, Saturday morning cartoons screech, but without the men, there is a sense of muted silence, a sense of muted life.
“There is an army of women waiting for their men to return in Fort Hood, Texas. Through a series of loosely interconnected stories, Siobhan Fallon takes readers onto the base, inside the homes, into the marriages and families-intimate places not seen in newspaper articles or politicians’ speeches.
“When you leave Fort Hood, the sign above the gate warns, You’ve Survived the War, Now Survive the Homecoming. It is eerily prescient.”
We’re also looking forward to the paperback publication of Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo: a remarkable tapestry of lives of poverty behind the airport in Mumbai by a journalist who befriended her investigative subjects; her affection for them transcends the beautifully written pages about lives we could not imagine anyone living – except by people who had little or no choice.
April 28 2013 | Book group | Comments Off
Recollections of the Meeting of the Bryn Mawr Book Group on
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
for House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East, by Anthony Shadid with Roo Dane (host), Linda Holiner, her daughter Sharon, Sandra Lovell, Dorianne Low, Sydney Owens, Dodie Rees, Cornelia Robart
As usual, Roo’s coffee table was laden with assorted drinks and snacks to be enjoyed in a festive atmosphere.
Anthony Shadid used to live on Richdale Avenue in Cambridge. Some of us had met him and/or heard him speak. They agreed that he seemed like a nice guy and were very sorry to learn of his recent death, possibly due to a severe asthma attack brought on by nearby horses.
The Lebanese descended from the Phoenicians, great Mediterranean traders. Beirut had been part of the golden age of the Ottoman Empire, and until the 1960s was the center of French cosmopolitanism – shows and fashions from Paris, French-speaking upper and middle classes, a gentle, intelligent and business-like people.
Seeking refuge from political unrest, much of Shadid’s family settled in Oklahoma. He depicts them as richly energetic, noisy, quarrelsome squabblers who could keep a criticism or grudge for decades but were still passionately involved with each other – until it came to approving Anthony’s idea of restoring the family homestead in Beirut. (U-tube has photos of the magnificent tiles Shadid spent weeks bargaining for and obtaining.) The process of restoration reminded us of Mortenson trying to build a school in Pakistan – passing through the slalom of negotiating for the materials, then getting them to the worksite, inspecting, replacing, bargaining with/against contractors more proficient than he, then work stoppage by absenteeism, misunderstandings, other priorities…. Most readers enjoyed the book, although the writing was considered diffuse, with too many building details that did not add to the narrative.
The descriptions of the old, cultivated Middle East, the nascent garden, the connection with the old man who encouraged him, were touchingly described. “It is so moving, that a man should want to restore his grandmother’s home.”
For next time, Tuesday, April 16, 7 p.m., we’ve selected My Life in France, by Julia Child. Exceptionally, the meeting will be held at Sandra Lovell’s.
Also, please reserve Tuesday, May 21, for You Know When the Men Are Gone, by Siobhan Fallon. This appears to be a page-turner about the life of military wives at Forth Worth, Texas, whose husbands are on active duty in the Middle East. As a bonus, Sandra will screen the documentary that her daughter Lexy and son-in-law Michael Uys produced entitled The Good Soldier, consisting of interviews with soldiers.
April 02 2013 | Book group | Comments Off