Poland

How do you think the Polish (former Communist) setting affected the story?

Alcoholism

What did you think of Jerzy's musings about the life of a drunkard? Do you think his version was accurate? Romanticized? Self-absorbed?

"The Mighty Angel"

What did you think of "The Mighty Angel"? Did you like (or not) the postmodernist style? And general observations?

Next pick

"The Mighty Angel" by Jerzy Pilch, a Polish novel about "the alcoholic misadventures of a writer named Jerzy."

The soprano

I don't feel like I ever quite grasped the nature of the relationship between Sonechka and Maria Nikolaevna. Sometimes Sonechka seemed to admire the singer and sometimes to loathe her. Sometimes Maria treated Sonechka like a friend and sometimes like a servant. It was fairly bizarre, considering that they lived together and spent so much time in each other's company. Sonechka wanted to make Maria suffer, but at one point she also wanted to free her by shooting her husband. Any thoughts on this strange dynamic? Or on Sonechka's theory that some people are just imperturbably happy and that their happiness fundamentally sets them apart from others?

Sonechka

What are your thoughts on the first-person narrator in "The Accompanist"? Did you sympathize with her plight in life? Did her reactions to her circumstances seem normal and understandable, or perhaps somewhat pathological?

Miss Tita

What did you think of Miss Tita's character? I was struck when the narrator said it was "impossible to overestimate her simplicity." Were you surprised that she ultimately destroyed the papers she had been helping the narrator to secure?

Next pick: "The Accompanist"

This is a 1936 novella by Russian writer Nina Berberova, who lived in Paris between the two World Wars before moving to the States and a career teaching Russian literature at Yale and Princeton. I thought it looked intriguing (love! jealousy! desire! plotting!). First week of September?

Venice

Why do you think James set "The Aspern Papers" in Venice? What do you think the setting added to the story?

The papers

According to Wikipedia, Henry James "loathed publicity and zealously guarded his own privacy. A few years before his death he burned masses of old letters that he had received, and he often begged his correspondents not to publicize - or better yet, to destroy - the letters he sent to them."

What's your opinion of writers' private correspondence being dug up after their deaths to be analyzed publicly?

"The Aspern Papers"

What did you think of "The Aspern Papers"? Whom did you sympathize with: the narrator, seeking his literary holy grail? Miss Bordereau, guarding her cherished memories? Miss Tita, trying to find a life for herself?

Duck hunting

One of the parts that made me smile was the author's plan to "exterminate the duck" from one of his neighbors in the hospital (amplified because of his hearing disorder):

"I had a very young neighbor who was given a velveteen duck equipped with a sophisticated detection device. It emitted a reedy, piercing quack whenever anyone entered the room - in other words, twenty-five times a day. Luckily the little patient went home before I could carry out my plan to exterminate the duck."

Why in the world do parents give their children such obnoxious toys? Maybe it's just me, but toys seem to have become worse, not better, with technology. I especially loathe the contraptions that combine flashing lights with a rapid-fire dinging whenever the kid hits a button. Horrible!

Father's Day

What did you think of the author's family, especially that scene when they're coming to see him on Father's Day?

"Until my stroke, we had felt no need to fit this made-up holiday into our emotional calendar. But today we spend the whole of the symbolic day together, affirming that even a rough sketch, a shadow, a tiny fragment of a dad is still a dad."

I thought it was good that they decided not to sugarcoat reality, or even to keep him away from seeing his kids. Still, I can imagine how difficult it must be to see a loved one in that condition. I was very torn, I confess.

The art of simmering memories

I love that passage when Jean-Dominique describes his favorite food memories:

"Depending on my mood, I treat myself to a dozen snails, a plate of Alsatian sausage with sauerkraut, and a bottle of late-vintage golden Gewurztraminer; or else I savor a simple soft-boiled egg with fingers of toast and lightly salted butter. What a banquet! The yolk flows warmly over my palate and down my throat. And indigestion is never a problem."

(Ahh, now I'm getting hungry ... )

What's your favorite food memory(ies)? I'll go first, if you like:

Eating ice cream for the first time

I actually don't remember this, but my mom apparently does. She said I was a toddler at the time and went into a state of pure ecstasy, eyes closing and mouth opening for more. Hee hee...

Eugenie

What did you think of Eugenie? I liked her, especially from Jean-Dominique's description.

"...a strange euphoria came over me. Not only was I exiled, paralyzed, mute, half deaf, deprived of all pleasures, and reduced to the existence of a jellyfish, but I was also horrible to behold.

"There comes a time when the heaping up of calamities brings on uncontrollable nervous laughter - when, after a final blow from fate, we decide to treat it all as a joke. My jovial cackling at first disconcerted Eugenie, until she herself was infected by my mirth. We laughed until we cried."

Have you ever had a similar experience? I know at the end of a really bad day, I do indeed start laughing - though I've never had as bad a day as Jean-Dominique must have had.

'Locked in' The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

"My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas's court."

What were your overall thoughts and impressions of the book? Was it what you expected, or different? If different, in what ways? Or if the same, what exactly was it that you were expecting?

New pick

"The Aspern Papers" by Henry James

Set in a brilliantly described Venice, James's 1888 novella portrays an editor's obsession with acquiring the private papers of a dead poet from the man's lover.

Next pick

"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death" by Jean-Dominique Bauby

John Henry West

Not to be blunt, but why do you think the author killed off John Henry West?

The soldier

I had such a bad feeling about F. Jasmine's "date" with the soldier. It was such a creepy build-up, but so well done. I thought it perfectly captured that divide between the child's world and the adult's world, where a naive, trusting, romantic kid has no idea of what dangers are lurking for her. Were you surprised that the encounter ended like it did?

The trio

What did you think of the family dynamics in this novella? The mother died giving birth to Frankie, and the father is hardly present. The family unit is really Frankie, Berenice Sadie Brown and 6-year-old John Henry — a powerful trio!

I loved Berenice. I thought her character was really the soul of the novel, and part of her appeal for me was how she related to the children,taking care of them and telling them stories and giving advice as if they were all the same age. Do you think the author saw her as essentially childlike or as an especially wise adult?

Frankie

What did you think of this as a coming-of-age story? Did you find the turbulence in Frankie's (or F. Jasmine's) life compellingly realistic, and what did you think of the resolution (the Frankie after the storm)?

Next pick

For the end of April?

Physiognomy

Rugendas's landscape paintings are referred to throughout the book as "physiognomic." Physiognomy is (in general) the idea of discerning personal characteristics from physical features, especially the face. So how does this fit with our story? How does Rugendas's disfigurement relate?

The writing

What did you think of Aira's writing style? I must admit I found it hard to get through in some sections, especially the abstract riffing on the nature of art and life and nature. (I wonder if the translation played a role in that.) Did you enjoy it or find it a wee bit pretentious?

The artist

It took me a while, but I think I've determined that the "episode" described in Aira's book actually happened. Rugendas's Wikipedia page doesn't mention the riding accident or subsequent handicap, but this bio does, so I guess Aira didn't just make it up (which was my initial impression).

So what's the point of the story? What do we learn about this guy?

The art

In case you hadn't Googled this yet, here's a sampling of Rugendas's work. Any thoughts? Is it what you imagined?

allusions

Instead of posting an exhaustive (and for me, obscure) list of allusions tied to "Invention of Morel," I'll just link to the Wikipedia article the newfangled way. But, some of the allusions and connections it has includes:

The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells
XYZ by Clemente Palma
The video game Myst (I do not play video games)
An episode from "Lost" called "Dave"
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Film: Last Year in Marienbad
Film: Man Facing Southeast


If you are familiar with any of those above or in the link, or plan to see/read one (like kc. I'd like to read Dr. Moreau now), discuss!

On my part, I have seen the lovely and baffling "Last Year in Marienbad," which I remember thinking had a challenging plot (if there was one) but had this otherworldly romance at its center, much like "Morel."

One of the other comparisons was to the 1987 English horror film "Bloody New Year," but in my professional opinion, that's bollocks. BOLLOCKS!

The soul

I thought there were a lot of interesting ideas in "Morel" about what constitutes a soul. Here's what Morel says to his guests: "When all the senses are synchronized, the soul emerges. That was to be expected. When Madeleine existed for the senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, Madeleine herself was actually there."

I have bad news.

You will spend the rest of your life alone on a desert island with a marvelous mansion/museum, chapel and swimming pool. Assuming survival needs are plentiful, what else do you pack for your exile? (What's in your library?)

Alternate realities

"The habits of our lives make us presume that things will happen in a certain foreseeable way, that there will be a vague coherence in the world. Now, reality appears to be changed, unreal. When a man awakens, or dies, he is slow to free himself from the terrors of the dream, from the worries and manias of life. Now it will be hard for me to break the habit of being afraid of these people."

I also thought of this story as a bit of a mystery because of the time we spend with the narrator trying to decipher why his lonely but otherwise coherent life has been turned upside down. He names several theories for what might be happening to him (sick and hallucinating, alien beings, so on). Did you give credence to any particular idea before the mystery of Morel's invention was unveiled?

Next pick

"An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter" by Cesar Aira

Part travelogue, part meditation on art, this brief, increasingly riveting fictionalized history by Argentinean author Aira (How I Became a Nun) reinvents German painter Johann Moritz Rugendas's ill-fated 1837 South American journey. Rugendas, a genre painter influenced by naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, first recorded the "exotic" landscape of the New World in the early 1820s and had early success with the illustrated Picturesque Voyage Through Brazil (1827). Aira dwells on Rugendas's disastrous second journey to South America, when the artist had hoped to penetrate the immense plains of Argentina.

Impressions

Along those same lines, what did you make of our hero's eventual decision to "add" himself into Morel's invention? Is this love, obsession, loneliness? Declining mental state?

Ah, Faustine

What did you make of our narrator's preoccupation with Faustine?

Extra-extra

What did you make of the editor's notes throughout the tale? What did it add for you?

"The Invention of Morel"

The prologue in my copy of "Morel" described this as an attempt at an adventure story -- I thought it fit in other categories, too. What kind of story did you think it was? Also, what were your overall impressions? Did you like it?

Titles and backstories

The novel derives its name from the title of Bernard’s poem, which, as several have pointed out, we are never allowed to read.

But I also found “An Imagined Life” to be an interesting title of Roman’s book. Why did Chang choose these titles, do you think?

“For each of us, he understood, is born into our own time and eventually the things we held as the center of the world, dearly, unforgivingly, must fade.”

Writing without soul

Miranda says at the beginning of their relationship that Bernard writes as if he has no soul. Years later, Bernard says, “Roman, your self is never present in the poems. You seem to risk nothing.” Is this what makes great poetry, in your opinion? That someone has to be vulnerable, has to risk something, has to reveal – in some way – one’s soul?

Question

If some cocky schmoe breaks your heart, a schmoe you might legitimately think of as a rival because he competes for recognition in your profession, and you are put in the position of determining whether he should win a prestigious award, how tempted would you be to vote against him?

One Great Reader

Bernard says he came to the School to find his Own Great Reader – “the one person to whom I write, whom I will imagine as the ideal witness for my artistic life and work.” That intrigued me, because I hadn’t thought of it in that way before. Do you have a “Great Reader,” and if so, whom do we “write” for?

The Detweiler

Should Miranda not have supported Roman’s work as the chair of the jury? Was it really, as Roman put it, like she had given the prize and then taken it away?

Miranda and Roman

Theirs is, to say the least, a complex relationship. “But each time they made love, he felt a queer evanescence, as if her body were slipping from his grasp.”

Bernard’s love for Miranda goes unrequited, yet Roman envies him at the end. Why do you think Miranda’s presence is so powerful on these students?

Diminishing poetry

Miranda says, “There was a time, decades ago, when every schoolchild in this country memorized Shakespeare, Blake, Shelley. We were brought up on the poetry of human experience, and we turned to poets when we sought truth … Poets are still living. But there are fewer and fewer now, and it seems to many that the art has been diminished.”

What’s your take on this? Do you think, like Miranda, that poetry is diminishing partly because of poems that interest only the author and “the author’s illustration of prevailing ideas”?

For February

This short sci-fi novel by Adolfo Bioy Casares is similar to the better-known "The Island of Doctor Moreau" by H.G. Wells but has its own extensive cachet as a point of many different cultural allusions, including the TV show "Lost." The protagonist, a fugitive on a desert island, finds his lonely existence altered when a group of tourists arrives on the island, but then they disappear again. He's forced to consider various theories as to what's really happening.

How about Feb. 14? My social calendar is empty that day. Hehe.

What remains ... "All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost"

Hope everyone has finished the novel by now! What are your thoughts? I really liked it, but I'd also hope that I'm not the only one. :)