“The Red Tent” is the story of Dinah from the old testament. She is the only daughter of Jacob (son of Isaac, son of Abraham). It starts off with the story of her mothers- Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah. The four are sisters, which makes for an interesting dynamic in the story… probably a lot less interesting than what it was in real life, but there you go. It progresses into her story- the climax of which we already know about from the Bible- if you don’t know yet, don’t go find it until you’ve read this book. It would have been much nicer not to be dreading what is about to happen while reading!

There are some fantastic love scenes, some horrifying birthing scenes (many of the women including Dinah are midwives), and a really gut-wrenching tragedy. And by gut-wrenching I mean absolutely horrible to imagine.

Diamant is an excellent story-teller. It was a joy to read her writing- not only was it a great story, but her phrasing and vocabulary were very attractive.

I cannot recommend this one enough. Kari and Kathleen, I vote you guys go read this whilst I get to work on “Her Fearful Symmetry”.

-Meredith

This one was a lot better than I expected. Really, I figured it would  be a little bit too creepy for my taste.

The first bit was too creepy. I started it off right before I needed to go to bed, and only made it past Suzie’s rape and murder. I really didn’t want to pick it back up after that. Really, not a good way to hook an audience. That was a really disturbing scene!

So this may sound a little bit silly, but my favorite part was that Suzie’s heaven was full of dogs. Ummm, yes please.  The little tiny part where Holiday came to join her was a fantastic detail. I’m really glad that the author decided to include it. It made me feel SO sad for the father- his whole life is falling apart and that little dog was his only link to the past. And his only friend… it made me really happy for Suzie, though!

I also liked that George Harvy gets killed by an icicle. It made me wonder if Sebold was trying to “get at” Suzie taking her revenge. At an earlier point when her sister and friends are trying to concoct the perfect murder, Suzie makes the comment that she would use an ice pick- well, maybe she did? What do you guys think?

Just wanted to say a quick work to keep the club alive!

Kari

Hope you are all enjoying the book and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Kathleen

Not the greatest book. It moves terribly slow, and although it deals with some extremely heavy subject matter, the characters are never fully developed. But the plot is an extremely good one, and I loved the trick-ending (NOT giving this one away).

I know there was a movie made about it this year, and I have a feeling that it is much better than the book.

Never mind. Rottentomatoes.com says the movie was crummy, too.

How disappointing!  Cameron Diaz is in it… I think I might rent it this weekend, anyway. The trailer still looks great.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10010662-my_sisters_keeper/

~Meredith

Starting off with everything I loved about this book:

Liz’s journey made me think about my personal feelings about all the topics she discussed. When she went to find pleasure, I found myself looking for more pleasure. When she went to find devotion, I  found myself reflecting on my own spirituality. When she went to find balance… It made me aware of how completely UNbalanced I am.  I haven’t been challenged to think in these terms in quite a while. Generally, I just GO. Work hard, sleep hard, work hard again the next day. I’m genuinely sick and tired of it being this way, but I don’t think I would have noticed without having read this novel.  Not that I’m terribly unhappy, mind you… just kind of floating in limbo at the moment. It’s hard to get excited about things at work, knowing that I won’t be there much longer. It’s hard to do much besides homework in the evenings, because there is so much to do. But. Now I’m awake enough to appreciate the little things (puppies that are happy to see me when I get home, sunrise peeking into my office while I check emails, nice text messages from Tim, etc).

I really liked the India portion. That was my favorite, and most challenging section to read. Kathleen, I also appreciated the part about God being in the present (not the future or past).  It struck a chord with me, because of the many times I have very seriously encountered God… well, they all happened a long time ago now. I find myself comparing my faith life now to what it once was… I look back at times like our week in Notre Dame (for everyone else, Kathleen and I went on an AWESOME church retreat on Notre Dame’s campus the summer before our Junior year of high school) and think about how much more distant God feels NOW. That bit in India gave me the kick in the butt to realize that there is no reason for me to be comparing the times I experience God. So what if I’m sitting on my couch right now praying, instead of in that BEAUTIFUL Basilica? Doesn’t matter, God’s here and now, not then and there.  It was a good reminder.

Things I didn’t like:

Liz seems like a drama queen to end all drama queens, and I have a feeling if I met her in real life I wouldn’t like her. Is that horrible to say? I feel like she put WAAAAY too much pressure on herself over the baby-thing… why on earth didn’t she just sit down and talk to her husband about it? If he knew how much she dreaded the thought of Motherhood, I have a hard time believing that he would have made this big of a deal about it. Houses can be sold and lifestyles can be changed- but not without communication. As well as she writes, it seems like she has some SERIOUS communication issues with respect to her significant others. Good luck, Felipe.

I have a few suggestions for our next reading selections.  I would love to read some of the classics we had discussed.  My votes for upcoming classics are Wuthering Heights, The Bell Jar, or maybe Pride and Prejudice or Persuasion.  Also, the movie The Lovely Bones is coming out in December, and I would love to read the book before it does.  It supposed to be great.

Love you all!

Kathleen

Spoiler alert for those who have not started.

Sometimes I feel that the title of a book gives nothing to its content and then other times I feel that it gives too much away.  However, I love how the title relates to this book.  The idea of symmetry runs through this book beautifully and at the same time it is contradictory.  There is the closeness of the twin daughters as opposed to the distance of the aunts. There is one couple that is broken because there is no way to save her from her sickness, Robert and Elspeth, and then one couple that is broken because it’s the only way to save her from his sickness, Marijke and Martin.  It is subtle and fantastically written in my opinion. 

Robert and Elspeth.  What a great love.  From the moment we meet them my heart goes out to Robert.  I love how he lies next to her in the hospital bed and he describes how the heat is escaping her body and warming his.  Also how he says is so different for her to be laying still at that moment when she would thrash around the bed and hog the covers (a perfect description of how I sleep).  Is so beautiful  all the while having the voice of Elspeth ghost describe the scene. He says that he wishes he could write everything down that he can remember about her but is afraid that it will never give her the justice that she deserves.  I completely understand this.  I have taken to keeping a journal lately and what I write is never as good as the situation was or never really captures the emotion of it.

On the flip side of that you have Martin and Marijke.  How she lived with him for 25 years is crazy.  It was almost painful at times to read about Martin’s daily routine.  And to imagine watching the person that you love end up in that state would be draining and completely exhausting.  I find it ironic though that while like Robert he is trying to hold onto the memory of Marijke through pictures, he is washing and bleaching her out of his life because of the very thing she left him for.

I both love and hate it when authors tell you something but don’t give away all the information. Of course I realize that this is what drives me to continue reading but sometimes the truth finally comes out and it’s just like really that was it.  However, is so interesting that Robert is the one who gives away the secret and in such simple terms.  You are going along of course wondering what happened between Edie and Elspeth to cause them to not speak for so long and then 60 pages into Robert simply says that she ran off with Elspeth’s fiance.  You have to wondering what Jack saw in Edie that Elspeth didn’t have.  Obviously it was beyond looks and he felt that she was the better twin for him. And really she does seem to be.  How interesting though that Elspeth’s friends and lover completely  loved her and understood her but not Edie as much and vice versa. You have to wonder how different things would have been if Jack had stayed with Edie.  If they had kids, they probably would have still looked the same but their lives would have been entirely different.  Maybe that is the real reason behind Elspeth wanting J and V to travel to London.  To give them a taste of the life they could have had with her as their mother.

Moving on to the twins, they are just lovely I think.  It’s crazy the Mirror Twins chapter.  How strange that most be for V, and then later she mentions looking in the mirror and the girl staring back always looks more like J and than herself.  I do wish that V would stand up to J a little more but I am sure that she will have her moment to shine.  What an adventure they are on together and I do hope that they will continue to want to stay as close as they are.  The delicate thing chapter is both hilarious and beautiful.  There are things that twins think about or experience that someone without a twin will never have to go through.

To finish up with this post I love that Elspeth still has a voice and that Robert and V have at this point in the book realized that she is still there in some form.  I find it refreshing to find myself having many things in common with her.  From the description of how she slept to not being shy to wanting to do something completely compulsive and unexplainable.  She was never married but was loved by a man so completely and (I know there is still time) but I find it so hard to picture myself married.  I have, however, imagined myself living in a flat in Lond and how grand that would be as a reality. 

One last thing I love how she is able to watch over the twins from inside the flat while at the times Robert is watching over them from outside the flat.  It’s lovely once again to have a parallel.

Ok sorry one other thing.  I find it eerie to be reading this book in October when so much of it takes place in or next to a cemetary but instead of it being only a place of death, it has a life about it too.

Anyway, I am sure you can all tell that I am loving this book and I cannot wait to see what else happens in the lives of all of these characters.

Kari

• As you can probably tell, I had more of a reaction to the concept of balance than I did to the plot of the last section of the book.  I enjoyed it, but it felt like a very nice, long denouement.  It was leisurly.  Also, I think I had more trouble connecting with this location than the others.  I do not have an image in my mind of Indonesia in the same way that I have an image of Italy and India.  I also know far less about the culture, which is already so different.  How people communicate and approach situations is so very different from the way we do things.  Not even Americans; it is very anti-Western European.
• Of course, Liz’s affair with Felipe is beautiful.  It felt almost magical is was so romantic.  I love how she describes them staying in his room for a month: “never have I been so unpeeled, revealed, unfurled and hurled through the event of lovemaking.”  Fantastic.  There’s almost nothing to say because the whole thing was so simple.  They met, he adored her, she adored him back, they stayed together.  Just how it should be.  I’m sure splitting your life between three countries is difficult, but it felt like the right ending for Liz and Felipe.  It wouldn’t be the right ending for me, but I suppose that’s why we all have to find our own endings.

Well, I loved this book.  Thank you Kari.  I’m getting more and more interested in memoirs and creative non-fiction.  It feels like fiction, but it’s so personal, so intimate.

My copy of Her Fearful Symmetry arrived in mail yesterday, and I’m about thirty pages in.  So far it’s very enticing.  I don’t think it’s going to center around a love story, but there are already love stories and triangles taking place.  Let’s just hope that Audrey Niffenegger has done it again.

Love you girls!

Kathleen

• First of all, I learned a lot about yoga from this part of the book.  It’s amazing how American’s have whittled it down to just another form of exercise, when it is meant to be so spiritual.  I’ve tried yoga a few time and have never gotten much out of it, probably because I was coming at it from a “why am I not sweating more?” perspective.  Also my impatience got in the way (imagine that).
• Reading about Liz’s journey with meditation was so inspiring.  She talks about the difficulty of listening instead of talking to God, and usually falling into boredom and anxiousness when she tries to quiet her mind.  I have always found this difficult as well; my mind wanders and I usually start thinking about things that I don’t consider “prayerful.”  She makes me want to try meditating, not in the eastern religion sense, but in the quiet your mind so God can talk instead of you sense.  Of course I’ve been putting it off like everything else, but I do want to try.  The thought of sitting alone for an hour, in silence, trying not to ramble in my mind seems daunting.  But, after reading this book, it made me realize that often I don’t like to be alone with my thoughts.  I do try to keep my mind as occupied as possible at all times, and perhaps that is the reason for some of my anxiousness and worry.  I might really benefit from a quieter mind.  I was also very inspired by the mantra she uses, “Ham-sa, ‘I am That.’”  There is a lot of teaching in the New Testament that I was interested in last spring about our connection to God right now, his presence in us, our identity in Christ.  These two things really connect for me, and make me want to explore them further.  Also, for those of us with babbling minds, a mantra like this (or repeated prayers) certain does help to take your conscious mind off the silence and let the rest of your mind listen.  So, I’ll let you know if I make any progress.
• Speaking of putting things off, I love what Liz says about presence: “There is a reason they call God a presence – because god is right here right now. In the present is the only place to find Him, and now is the only time.”  Now is the only time.  The past is gone, the future – even one minute in the future – does not yet exist.  Now is the only time.  I’m always planning ahead, always putting things off, and always lamenting about the past.  And, I hate to admit it, always putting of God for a future date.  This idea of His present being present right now floors me.  Instead of planning to do something about it in the future, or feeling guilty for not following through with my spiritual plans, I could instead, in this very moment, realize God’s presence.  And why not?  I usually let my future plans prevent me from doing things now, as if doing something now will ruin those future plans.  Take my exercise schedule.  I intend to work out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, but I sleep in on Monday.  So, instead of using the present moment and going on Tuesday, I say to myself, “well, I can’t go on Tuesday because then I wouldn’t be able to go on Wednesday.”  Yes I do this!  And I do the same thing with my spiritual life.  I think it is time for me to starting living in the present, in the only time that really exists.
• Okay, who didn’t love Richard from Texas?? His explanation of the ego was great, much more understandable than actually reading Freud (which unfortunately I’ve had to do in the last week).  He had so many words of wisdom.  I especially liked his advice on learning to select your thoughts, not brooding over unhealthy things.  Well, like Liz, I’ve never been able to do this.  Ethan is always telling me to not let my emotions control me.  It’s a great challenge, but something I do need to work on.  I’m used to letting them take over, to succumbing to whatever emotional roller coaster I’m in for that day.  It’s an excuse to lose control.  My argument has always been that I if I do not express my emotions, I’ll just repress them and pay for it later.  But is repressing my emotions and not letting them hurt me the same thing?  Probably not, despite my protests.  So thank you Richard from Texas.  And another big thank you for: “Don’t touch anything in India except yourself.”  Sound advice.
• A few final things.  Liz found her word: Antevasin, “one who lives at the border.”  Sorry to say I haven’t found mine yet.  Right now it feels like TRY.  We’ll see what happens.  I also really appreciated how Liz found that she could be herself and also have the spiritual life she wanted; she didn’t have to be the quiet girl in the corner.  I think I (perhaps we?) get intimdated because we feel that to be a spriritual person we have to take on a whole new personality.  Well, that would be faking it, and spirituality is one thing you can’t fake.  It’s reassuring to see someone find that connection within who they already are.  I think that’s something to hope for.  And finally, the idea that it is okay to choose your religion.  There is an inherint guilt we often feel for straying from our original religion, our orginal beliefs about God.  But there shouldn’t be.  If we never change, or at least question those beliefs, how will we ever grow?  And I absolutely agree with her that God is bigger than our religions can concieve; we will never fully understand Him and His creation because we are only human.  And that’s okay.  I think there is an important difference between a search for answers and a search for God.  You do not need to know all the answers to be present with Him because, “the ways of Providence are infinite.”