From Rebecca Solnit's 2015 essay, "80 Books No Woman Should Read,"
"There are good and great books on the Esquire list, though even Moby-Dick, which I love, reminds me that a book without women is often said to be about humanity, but a book with women in the foreground is a woman's book. And that list would have you learn about women from James M. Cain and Philip Roth, who just aren't the experts you should go to, not when the great oeuvres of Doris Lessing and Louise Erdrich and Elena Ferrante exist."
which gave me the courage, together with my own reading of Erdrich in 2006, to suggest "The Master Butcher's Singing Club," by Louise Erdrich for our founding meeting.
It's an imperfect or inconsistent novel, which makes it easy to dismiss in frustration and also easy to forgive and enter into its magical moments--Eva's kitchen, in flight with Franz and Eva, beneath the earth with Marcus, standing on a street selling all your sausages with Fidelis. All of the characters revolve around Delphine. She is a fine woman from whom to learn about women. She creates herself and her story, never compromising what she sees as truth and also bearing the knowledge that at the heart of every person lives a secret, either one they hold or one that is withheld from them.
This first of book club meetings I hosted and prepared a feast. In fine form, I did not inform the guests that dinner would be served. Having eaten with their families at home, or eaten on the fly commuting to my home, they persisted to dine, nevertheless. Duck fat spread on thick, white bread with salt and red onion, and sausages (nod to the butcher, Fidelis), and ratatouille and salad (nod to Eva's garden, where I want to live forever). Chocolates and red wine, nod to our own desires.
"There are good and great books on the Esquire list, though even Moby-Dick, which I love, reminds me that a book without women is often said to be about humanity, but a book with women in the foreground is a woman's book. And that list would have you learn about women from James M. Cain and Philip Roth, who just aren't the experts you should go to, not when the great oeuvres of Doris Lessing and Louise Erdrich and Elena Ferrante exist."
which gave me the courage, together with my own reading of Erdrich in 2006, to suggest "The Master Butcher's Singing Club," by Louise Erdrich for our founding meeting.
It's an imperfect or inconsistent novel, which makes it easy to dismiss in frustration and also easy to forgive and enter into its magical moments--Eva's kitchen, in flight with Franz and Eva, beneath the earth with Marcus, standing on a street selling all your sausages with Fidelis. All of the characters revolve around Delphine. She is a fine woman from whom to learn about women. She creates herself and her story, never compromising what she sees as truth and also bearing the knowledge that at the heart of every person lives a secret, either one they hold or one that is withheld from them.
This first of book club meetings I hosted and prepared a feast. In fine form, I did not inform the guests that dinner would be served. Having eaten with their families at home, or eaten on the fly commuting to my home, they persisted to dine, nevertheless. Duck fat spread on thick, white bread with salt and red onion, and sausages (nod to the butcher, Fidelis), and ratatouille and salad (nod to Eva's garden, where I want to live forever). Chocolates and red wine, nod to our own desires.
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