Tuesday Tipplers Book Club - newbies welcome

[katiemjeffery]

Hi guys,

I've got held up at work so won't be able to make it tonight :(

I know I voted for it but wasn't a fan of the book. Thought the 'secret' was a bit rubbish but maybe it'll get better (I didn't finish it!)

Looking forward to knowing what the next book is.

Kathryn

[sparklehorse]

Hello all, I'm running late but will see you at the Palmerston.

That's great news about your flat Kenneth, congratulations! : )

[susan_]

What an interesting discussion we had on Tuesday (:

Our next meeting will be held at the House of Tippler on Tuesday 10 February, 7:45 for an 8pm start. We voted to read The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer. Red_Cat volunteered to do the list for the next meeting.

Congratulations on your new flat Kenneth and welcome to Peckham (:

[N-unit]

Hello!

Myself and two friends will be coming for the first time if that's ok, see you next week.

Natalie

[susan_]

Hi Natalie, you're very welcome - see you next week!

Susan

[Red_Cat]

Hi all,

Well the theme I've come up with for our next book is inspired by my recent hols, as I couldn't think of anything better they're all books related to Italy. I'll post the details tomorrow or bring with me to the meeting as it's too late and I'm too tired to do it now, but this is the list, if you want to look any of them up you can also follow the amazon link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/3KCOZZVWZBAFL

1. Death in Venice and Other Stories by Thomas Mann

2. Bread and Wine by Barry Menikoff et al

3. A Room With a View by E M Forster

4. Miss Garnett's Angel by Salley Vickers

5. The Leopard by Guiseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa

6. the Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

For any new people coming we will vote for our favourite from the list at the meeting to choose our book for next month, hope that makes sense.

See you all tomorrow, Cat x

[Red_Cat]

Details of the list or next month:

The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith

One of the great crime novels of the 20th century, Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley is a blend of the narrative subtlety of Henry James and the self- reflexive irony of Vladimir Nabokov. Like the best modernist fiction, Ripley works on two levels. First, it is the story of a young man, Tom Ripley, whose nihilistic tendencies lead him through a deadly passage across Europe. On another level, the novel is a commentary on fiction making and techniques of narrative persuasion. Like Humbert Humbert, Tom Ripley seduces readers to empathise with him even as his actions defy all moral standards.

The novel begins with a play on James's The Ambassadors. Tom Ripley is chosen by the wealthy Herbert Greenleaf to retrieve Greenleaf's son, Dickie, from his overlong sojourn in Italy. Dickie, it seems, is held captive both by the Mediterranean climate and the attractions of his female companion, but Mr. Greenleaf needs him back in New York to help with the family business. With an allowance and a new purpose, Tom leaves behind his dismal city apartment to begin his career as a return escort. But Tom, too, is captivated by Italy. He is also taken with the life and looks of Dickie Greenleaf. He insinuates himself into Dickie's world and soon finds that his passion for a lifestyle of wealth and sophistication transcends all moral compunction. Tom will become Dickie Greenleaf--at all costs. Precisely plotted, stylishly written and kept alert by an icy wit: a cool little classic of its kind.

Death in Venice and Other Stories, Thomas Mann

Death in Venice is a story of obsession. Gustave von Aschenbach is a successful but ageing writer who travels to Venice for a holiday. One day, at dinner, Aschenbach notices an exceptionally beautiful young boy who is staying with his family in the same hotel. Soon his days begin to revolve around seeing this boy and he is too distracted to pay attention to the ominous rumours that have begun to circulate about disease spreading through the city. One of the great European writers of the twentieth century, Thomas Mann is one of those figures who still looms large over literature. 'Death in Venice' is regarded as one of his finest works, forming an appropriate ending to this collection, but many of the other stories in this volume are also excellent and worthy of any thoughtful reader's time.

Bread and Wine, by Barry Menikoff, Ignazio Silone, Eric Mosbacher

Bread and Wine is an anti-fascist and anti-Stalinist novel written by Ignazio Silone. It was finished while the author was in exile from Benito Mussolini's Italy and first published in 1936. The book chronicles the return of the main character, Pietro Spina, to Italy, disguised as a priest. Spina's hope is to restore the socialist revolution while in hiding, but learns the importance of other simpler ways of life. He is sent to a small, remote mountain village to recuperate from an illness and, while there, gains and understanding of the simple ways of the peasant folk. These people are not interested in "idealogical" revolution but know only about waking up and putting a long hard day in at the fields and returning home and going to bed...only to get up and do it all over again. Bread and wine is their sustenance. Religious symbolism is abundant in this novel which is basically about the rebirth of Pietro Spina into "true" Christianity/Religion /Manliness. The relationships that he develops are beautifully and simply written in the novel.

A Room With A View, E.M. Forster

A ROOM WITH A VIEW is one of the finest "novels of manners" ever written, a hilarious satire of the excessive propriety and mannerisms of the English in an age of repression. It is also the love story of a young woman stuck in this repressive English culture who is transformed by romantic Italy and awakened to love when she meets the true love of her life there without even knowing it... but will she realize this before it's too late?

Miss Garnet?s Angel, Salley Vickers

There is something very old-fashioned and reassuring about Sally Vickers' novel Miss Garnet's Angel. The themes, self-discovery and redemption have the air of a bygone age, despite the novel being set in contemporary Venice in a world of holiday apartment lets and Pizza Express-funded restoration works. Julia Garnet is a middle-aged woman who has been practising economies of the spirit for years. Hers is a closed-in world, dusty with Marx's theories and when her friend and flatmate of 30 years dies Julia decides to spend the six winter months in Venice to recuperate from her loss. Miss Garnet is a dignified, brusque heroine and Sally Vickers' prose is likewise unruffled and controlled. Miss Garnet's epiphanies are as quiet and subtle as the "oro pallido" (pale gold) light in early Italian Art because, of course, art plays a part in this Venetian tale of emotional reawakening. Julia is moved by the depiction of Raphael in Guardis Tobias and the Angel: "something rusty and hard shifted deep inside Julia Garnet as she stood absorbing the vivid dewy painting and the unmistakable compassion in the angel's bright glance." She falls in love with Carlo, an art historian with crinkly eyes, white hair and a moustache. There are trials and tribulations to be undergone, Julia must unlearn all her old regimented ways of life, and this brings about heart ache and hurt. However, Vickers handles this with delicate sympathy, giving Julia Garnet a new sensitive view of the world, and the reader a resonant story of transformation.

The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa

The Leopard (Italian: Il Gattopardo) chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the Risorgimento. Published posthumously in 1958 by Feltrinelli it became the top-selling novel in Italian history and is considered one of the most important novels in modern Italian literature. The novel is the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, a 19th-century Sicilian nobleman caught in the midst of civil war and revolution. As a result of political upheaval, the prince's position in the island's class system is eroded by newly moneyed peasants and "shabby minor gentry." As the novel progresses, the Prince is forced to choose between upholding the continuity of upper class values, and breaking tradition to secure continuity of his (nephew's) family's influence ("everything needs to change, so everything can stay the same"). A central theme of the story is the struggle between mortality and decay (death, fading of beauty, fading of memories, change of political system, false relics etc.), and abstraction and eternity (the prince's love for the stars and calculations, continuity and resilience to change of the Sicilian people). In a letter to a friend, the author notes: "Be careful: the dog Bendic?, is a very important character and is almost the key to the novel". This heraldic emblem is the key to destruction, in the sense that ruin comes even to the dog.

[Obi1]

So sorry guys...I've just realised (from my bed) that I completely forgot to pay for my glass of wine! I'll pay whoever I need to back at the next one. So so sorry! Lovely meeting you all x

[N-unit]

Oh my god we didnt either!!

So so sorry, will also pay back 😁 thanks.

[Alec John Moore]

No worries, they waived the coffees and a kind Scottish person paid for the wine. Looking forward to discussing A room with a view at the same time on 17th March.

[T-unit]

Thank you kind tipplers and Scottish person. We will reimburse next time. Lovely to meet you all, see you next month!

[N-unit]

Hello all, probably very predictable with it being St Patrick's Day tomorrow... but my theme is Irish based!

Choices are as follows:

1. The Ginger Man - J P Donleavy

Feckless, unwashed, charming, penurious Sebastian Balfe Dangerfield, Trinity College Law student, Irish American with an English Accent, maroon in the ould country and dreaming of dollars and ready women, stumbles from the public house to the pawnbrokers, murmuring delusive enticements in the ear of any girl who'll listen, in delirious search of freedom, wealth, and the recognition he feels is his due. Lyrical and ribald, illuminating, poignant and hugely entertaining, The Ginger Man is a work of authentic comic genius.

2. Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt

Stunning reissue of the phenomenal worldwide bestseller: Frank McCourt's sad, funny, bittersweet memoir of growing up in New York in the 30s and in Ireland in the 40s.

It is a story of extreme hardship and suffering, in Brooklyn tenements and Limerick slums ? too many children, too little money, his mother Angela barely coping as his father Malachy's drinking bouts constantly brings the family to the brink of disaster. It is a story of courage and survival against apparently overwhelming odds.

3. Eureka Street - Robert McLiam Wilson

Eureka Street is a story of Belfast in the six months just before and after the latest ceasefires. It is the story of Chuckie Lurgan, fat, Protestant and poor, who suddenly becomes wealthy by various legal but immoral means; and of Jake Jackson, Catholic reformed tough guy, who has been abandoned by his English girlfriend and is looking for love. Meanwhile the strange letters 'OTG' start appearing on walls and paving stones throughout the city.

4. Amongst Women - John McGahern

Moran is an old Republican whose life was forever transformed by his days of glory as a guerilla leader in the War of Independence. Now, in old age, living out in the country, Moran is still fighting - with his family, his friends, even himself - in a poignant struggle to come to terms with the past.

5. The Screwtape Letters - CS Lewis

A milestone in the history of popular theology, ?The Screwtape Letters? is an iconic classic on spiritual warfare and the power of the devil.

This profound and striking narrative takes the form of a series of letters from Screwtape, a devil high in the Infernal Civil Service, to his nephew Wormwood, a junior colleague engaged in his first mission on earth trying to secure the damnation of a young man who has just become a Christian. Although the young man initially looks to be a willing victim, he changes his ways and is ?lost? to the young devil.

6. A History of Loneliness - John Boyne

Odran Yates enters Clonliffe Seminary in 1972 after his mother informs him that he has a vocation to the priesthood. He goes in full of ambition and hope, dedicated to his studies and keen to make friends.

Forty years later, Odran?s devotion has been challenged by the revelations that have shattered the Irish people?s faith in the church. He has seen friends stand trial, colleagues jailed, the lives of young parishioners destroyed and has become nervous of venturing out in public for fear of disapproving stares and insulting remarks.

But when a family tragedy opens wounds from his past, he is forced to confront the demons that have raged within a once respected institution and recognise his own complicity in their propagation.

I can't make tomorrow unfortunately due to family commitments but hopefully next month, let me know which book you decide.

Thanks, enjoy!

[Alec John Moore]

Thanks N, see you next time.

[overcaffeinated]

Hi all - not certain that I'll make it tonight (busy week...) so getting my votes in just in case! The Ginger Man and Eureka Street. Interesting list - thanks!

Cheers, Tash

[susan_]

Hi everyone, I neglected to put book club in my diary and so am travelling for work today and won't make it back to London in time.

Good list! I put my votes in for Ginger man and Screwtape Letters.

I'm sorry to miss the discussion as I really enjoyed rereading Room with a View, laughed out loud at the Freddie George Beeb scene at the pond and particularly enjoyed the 'swimming in a salad' description :)

If you're short a volunteer for next month's list, I'll do it (but equally happy not to!)

[Red_Cat]

Sorry not sure if I'm going to make it or not either as stuck at work not sure when I'll get off. Enjoyed room with a view.

[Alec John Moore]

I'll be there. Not sure about Room with a view.

[T-unit]

So sorry I wasn't able to make tonight, last minute site meetings meant Id have only caught the tail end of it.

My vote would be either Angela's Ashes or a History of Loneliness. Both seem equally upbeat. Brilliant list there :)

[T-unit]

Hello all! Not sure if I've missed something .. Do we have a decision for next time?

[Alec John Moore]

Hi, we weren't quite quorate enough to cast a vote last week so I've created a doodle poll to help us decide: http://doodle.com/wrfrxeivq8f9x6yf

Alec

[overcaffeinated]

Looks like a tie between The Ginger Man and History of Loneliness; how do we decide which..?! Anyone not voted?

[Alec John Moore]

The Ginger Man it is according to the poll. Shall I do another poll to settle the date? Alec

[Red_Cat]

Yes please, I like these polls.

[susan_]

Here's the poll for the dates of the next meeting - https://doodle.com/zw877hza64gsr7st

Please would you state your availability in the poll by end of day Wednesday 8 April? The majority date wins and I'll post to the forum on Thursday, confirming.

[Julie82]

Hi there,

I am very interested in joining a bookclub in East Dulwich.

Is this one still going on and if so, when is the next meeting?

Thansk for getting back to me.

Best,

Julie