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?