The Butler Women of Wisdom met Wednesday, February 29 for a very special “Leap Year” book club. Including myself were Barb K., Cheryl, Ginnie, Jody, Lori, and Mary Beth in attendance. Our title, The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer, we all agreed from the start of our discussion was a unanimous disappointment.
A mishmash of realistic and humorous fiction/fantasy, The Uncoupling contains a slapped together plot. Set in a small town school community, the lives of the characters become affected by an ancient spell that is cast by the new drama teacher. In choosing the Ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophenes as the school’s annual production, Fran Heller is able to conjure up the curse that goes along with it. Based on an organized movement of women lead by Lysistrata, the female characters boycott sex as a way to protest against their men going to war. When performing the play, Fran can control the sexual appetites of the town’s women; the females become frigid and their male counterparts become very dissatisfied. Wolitzer fails to deliver in this book especially where it counts. The resolution and conclusion is unconvincing. Who knew that Fran Heller would turn out to be a “drama witch” traveling around the country casting spells on school districts? Come on! The whole story is contrived and leaves the reader feeling cheated.
Our discussion of the book did lead to the discovery of a few redeeming qualities. The first was pointed out by the member who disliked the book the most, Lori. Yes, that bad ass member Lori read the book! In rare form, Lori grabbed the discussion leader position with style. The tabbed pages of her overdue library book (reminding us that she was paying a quarter a day for the damn thing) showed her readiness to lead. She started by sharing one of her favorite quotes, “All that parents ever wanted, really, was for you to love their child the way they did,” is indeed worth noting especially for the teacher in the group, AKA, me.
Many of us had also marked another of Lori’s carefully tabbed passages, admitting that we all have experienced our share of “carrying the cross” for our children:
“They lived in a time which it was tremendously difficult, as parents, to let children endure any pain. If you sensed their despair, you took it on as if it were your own. You let it ruin you, imagining that they, somehow, would be spared. They would live, and thrive, while you would die of their transferred misery.”
After conceding that The Uncoupling did contain a fair share of thoughtful passages, we then recognized that the book was not without an abundance of challenging vocabulary words. Jody pointed out this feature identifying one especially notable word “xenophobic,” a fear of foreigners. We had a serious discussion discerning if we were or were not “xenophobic” after Cheryl presented us with this scenario: When in an air terminal and you are boarding a plane with two men resembling Saddam Hussein, heavily bearded with dark menacing eyes, dressed in camouflage and smelling much like a mix of heavily spiced curry and hookah pipe, are you frightened? Most of us affirmed that we would be quite unwilling to board the plane! We’re a bunch of xenophobes!
With insightful quotes and rich vocabulary, we were inclined to credit Wolitzer with packing at least a few prime cuts of meat into her weak plot. Hopefully, our March pick Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie should make up for The Uncoupling’s pitfalls. I’ve started it already and am reminded of several of my all time favorite books which share the same geographical setting of China, The Chinese Cinderella, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, and The Good Earth. All of the books reveal aspects of the Chinese culture from different periods in history that are simultaneously fascinating and horrifying.
I’ll say no more, only that I hope everyone enjoys March’s title Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (those of you that still need a copy, I have the Library’s “book bag” with multiple copies, plenty for everyone).We will meet at 6:30 P.M. on Wednesday, March 28, at Panera Bread for our discussion. Cheryl reserved the “private” room for us as noise was such a factor during our last meeting; we had to move our seats!
I’ll say no more, only that I hope everyone enjoys March’s title Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (those of you that still need a copy, I have the Library’s “book bag” with multiple copies, plenty for everyone).We will meet at 6:30 P.M. on Wednesday, March 28, at Panera Bread for our discussion. Cheryl reserved the “private” room for us as noise was such a factor during our last meeting; we had to move our seats!
I have one last important item to mention. At our Book Club Christmas party we made a group decision to begin collecting a few dollars at each meeting to donate to a charity at the end of the year for books. We forgot to collect in January (Tim is laughing hysterically here as I am reading this to him), but Lori reminded the two of us who were still lingering after the February meeting. Throwing in for both January and February, we now have $12 more for our undetermined charity. It is a great idea and if each of us contributes only $2 each time we attend a book club, we can have a generous donation collected by next Christmas. Cheryl, our Book Club secretary, should have the new total tabulated for us at the March meeting.
No homework assignment other than what I give to my English and Reading students, READ YOUR BOOK! (Yes, I often write it all in caps!)
Yours in reading,
Tammy
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