Nineteenth Book Wrap Up & Not So New Book

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is stylistically interesting but not entertaining until the reader meets the object, those were Jessica’s wise words in describing this fictional story of girl discovering his true gender during his adolescent years. Middlesex, though fictional, gives the audience a great insight into what could be the psyche of a hermaphrodite individual. It is this great insight that helped Steph feel really connected from the beginning to the end.  Eugenides does a thorough job incorporating complex family history, medical terminology and world events into the book and for that we give him two thumbs up.

The Holistic Ladies would recommend Middlesex to the open minded reader willing to spend some time diving into the complex nature of this subject.  As customary, here are a couple of the quotes shared during the meeting:

• “It is said: San Francisco is where young people go to retire.”
• “Responding would only confirm the facts of what had happened, whereas I wanted to cast them in doubt.”

Not So New Book

Dust of the shelves or look around your house, I am sure you will find our next book hiding from your highschool years. We are reading “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller. I am sure you hear people say “oh that’s such a catch-22 situation” but what does it mean? We will tell you what it means next month after we talk about it. I am specially excited to revisit Yossarians story.

Here is the Amazon review:

“There was a time when reading Joseph Heller’s classic satire on the murderous insanity of war was nothing less than a rite of passage. Echoes of Yossarian, the wise-ass bombardier who was too smart to die but not smart enough to find a way out of his predicament, could be heard throughout the counterculture. As a result, it’s impossible not to consider Catch-22 to be something of a period piece. But 40 years on, the novel’s undiminished strength is its looking-glass logic. Again and again, Heller’s characters demonstrate that what is commonly held to be good, is bad; what is sensible, is nonsense.

Yossarian says, “You’re talking about winning the war, and I am talking about winning the war and keeping alive.”

“Exactly,” Clevinger snapped smugly. “And which do you think is more important?”

“To whom?” Yossarian shot back. “It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference who wins the war to someone who’s dead.”

“I can’t think of another attitude that could be depended upon to give greater comfort to the enemy.”

“The enemy,” retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, “is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on.”

Mirabile dictu, the book holds up post-Reagan, post-Gulf War. It’s a good thing, too. As long as there’s a military, that engine of lethal authority, Catch-22 will shine as a handbook for smart-alecky pacifists. It’s an utterly serious and sad, but damn funny book.”

Our next meeting will be on May 15^th @ 7pm. Location will be shared with members.