April and May 2009 Book Clubs "Lucia, Lucia" and "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle"

Hi Everyone,

Thank heaven the school year has ended! With the promise of a stress free summer ahead, I hope to devote a piece of my time to living vicariously through the characters in books. Like in our June read, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, the “50 something” intellectual Renee provides us with much to ponder on life. We will meet to study this character and her young friend Paloma at 6:30 P.M. on Wednesday, June 24, at Becky Ferguson’s house in Chicora.

In looking back to our May meeting, few of us finished the book The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Ginnie and Cheryl had to stay closed mouthed about much of the story since Barb, Becky, Lori, Tina, and I were not done reading it. A 562 page epic about a young mute’s mission to solve his father’s death, the book is a long drawn out saga that could have been condensed into 200 pages. The plot includes a family of dog breeders, which is my only motivation to keep reading considering my new found interest in dogs. Cheryl and Ginnie lured us to keep reading by sharing that the book is very spiritual, but already up to page 355, I have yet to find much spirituality.

I do appreciate, however, the Wroblewski’s talent with descriptive phrases such as “time thickened like wet cement” and “watching for the yellow caterpillar of a school bus.” Furthermore, Ican’t help but compare his descriptions of training dogs to training my students. Lines such as “You can’t train a dog to do something if you don’t know what you want him to do” and “training is almost never about words” also apply to teaching children. Although, when the author describes the scientific principles of breeding in order to make 90% of the litter perfect, after working with children, I can’t help but think it might not be a bad idea to do the same with people. Please, forgive me if I offended anyone.

As May was such a whirlwind month with my daughter Makenzie moving her college junk back into our house, my son Timmy ending his lacrosse season and graduating from high school, and closing up my classroom for the year, I neglected to post my comments on Lucia, Lucia. Certainly a book which earns an overall A on our grading scale, Adrianna Trigiani’s style and development of characters and plot compelled us to keep reading. With the element of nostalgia, the author cast her spell on us. Who wasn’t transported back to the days when department stores had lunch counters, when ladies wore white gloves, and when women had a sense of fashion. I would love to go back to when the Church was the center of family life and the bans of marriage were posted in the Sunday bulletin for all to see. In fact, I believe I saved mine!

Raised in a first generation Italian family in New York City’s Little Italy, I assume, Lucia learns that a woman has opportunities beyond those expected by her conservative parents. Although in choosing to trade a life of traditional family values for the American dream, Lucia learns a bittersweet lesson. One of the best lessons to learn from Lucia, Lucia comes from Lucia’s father. When Lucia becomes obsessed with the mysterious John Talbot, Papa warns her about him by comparing her feelings towards him to her talent for sewing.

“You make beautiful garments, and you have an eye for beauty. But you also have a way of covering flaws with your skill. You can drop the waist of a dress and pad the shoulders to give the illusion of a figure proportion. When it comes to John Talbot, you cannot see what he is because you admire him too much. And if he does have some defect of character, you are confident you can fix it… When you marry someone, you must understand the flaws in order to appreciate the strengths.”

Lucia’s friend Ruth also advises her to learn more about John Talbot. If a girl is going to consider marrying a guy, she needs to have the “money talk.” What a great piece of advice and one that no one gave me before I married, although, I don’t think it would have done much good. If we can learn anything from Lucia, it is through her mistakes. Although at the end of the book, she has no regrets for her actions, namely giving up a life with Dante, a man who worships her. In reflecting on her decisions, she confides,

“The one thing I wish is that I had reacted differently to some of the events. I let things get me down and keep me there, sometimes for too long. And I believed I could somehow control the bad things, and that was a mistake. Things turn around when they’re meant to. You can’t force it.”

After that thought, I have one last thing to mention, the October book has been changed to Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. If we intend to keep up with the latest in pop culture, this book is a “must” read and is also in keeping with our “vampire” theme we started last October when we read Sunshine.

Enjoy the summer,
Tammy