Amazon readers gave The Marriage Plot 3 stars
Barnes and Noble readers gave The Marriage Plot 3 1/2 stars
The Marriage Plot sounded good on paper. Afterall it was written by the author of Middlesex and it was a New York Times Notable Book of 2011. That said, it was definitely not a Friday Morning Bookclub favorite. Several members did not even finish the book and to be fair we had way fewer voters than the norm. Read it at your own risk!
” I love stories about killing Kat-nisses. I wonder if she is a calico?”
Thank you Ed! Email a picture of your 4- legged reader to Susan@Fridaymorningbookclub.com
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
-Lemony Snicket 1970-
You can trust me! I always have at least one book with me. You never know when you are going to be stuck somewhere with nothing to do! Stuck in traffic? Waiting for a doctors appointment? Early for a lunch date? Why waste time? Might as well read a book!
Liz Murray and her sister Lisa learn to fend for themselves from a very early age. They are born to parents, who are both alcoholics and drug addicted. Despite this, their parents love the girls deeply and want to do better by them, but are just incapable. They spend most of their monthly welfare check on feeding their habits and not their children. So, much of Liz’s childhood is spent skipping school, playing with friends and learning how to either steal, make a few pennies or scrounge in order to feed herself.
As Liz moves through her teen years, she spends more and more time skipping school and eventually lands up moving out of her mother’s house and becoming homeless. Breaking night, is the term used on making it through another night on the street, when night is broken and she has made it through to another day. A day where Liz, through the kindness of friends, will probably sneak into their house to take a shower, sleep or have a snack from their kitchen.
This book is an enlightening window into what day to day living is like for a homeless teen. A teen who found herself in this place, through no fault of her own, as many out there do. A teen who breaks many stereotypes of what we in the home having world may think. But beyond that, this is also a story of how someone with all the odds stacked against her and under incredibly difficult circumstances, decides to take control of that part of her life that she can control. She realizes that only with an education will she eventually be able to pay her own rent and not have to rely on others. So with amazing determination, she finds a way to go back to high school and eventually beyond, all while being homeless.
I listened to this book, which is read by Liz and found her story totally captivating. Just knowing that she overcame homelessness and has become so successful, is inspiring in and of itself. But really understanding and being immersed in the details of her life, gives one a true sense of her daily obstacles and the inner strength it took to move her life to such a different place.
Yesterday, while on vacation I had the pleasure of attending a local book club meeting. When I saw that they were reviewing the book Unbroken, I couldn’t resist. Why not go? I had read the book close to a year ago but it was one of those books that you don’t quickly forget. I was not sure what to expect and thought it would be interesting to see how another book club operates.
The BallenIsles Book club met in their club house and sat around a huge, formal conference table which had to fit at least 16 people as opposed to the relaxed living room atmosphere of the cafe where we meet. Unfortunately there were more people than spaces at the table so several of us sat along the wall on the outskirts of the table. As I was there for the first time and wasn’t sure how much I would actually have participated in the discussion this was fine with me.
After a brief discussion about future books and meetings and the announcement that they were no longer going to go around the table, asking each person what they thought of the book (the leader mentioned that he wanted to avoid hearing the “I didn’t read the book” comment) the discussion began.
The book was introduced by the member who had recommended it in the first place. A brief bio of Laura Hillenbrand was read as well as a few glowing reviews of the book and then the discussion took off. The group was much more diverse than our all ladies between the age of 50-65 group. There were actually men in this group! The discussion was very enlightening and in additional to a discussion of the book itself seemed to focus on war in general, Japanese/American relations, world power and yes even politics.
Thrown in were some personal stories, one woman whose brother piloted the same type plane as Zamperini and a grandmother who mentioned how her grandson was bullied, comparing it to how prisoners of war are beaten down. Another member talked about a psychological experiment conducted at Stanford University where students were assigned the position of prisoner or guard. This experiment which was supposed to last 2 weeks was ended after only 6 days because of the way it affected the participants. The “prisoners” became depressed, whereas the “guards” actually became sadistic. http://www.prisonexp.org/. What does this experiment say about human nature in general? Does this help explain why throughtout history people have been willing to do such horrific things to others?
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this group of articulate, thoughtful people. Amazingly, even with this size group, there were no cross conversations. Our book club tends to break down into little groups every once in a while! They didn’t hang around after discussing the book and talk about their kids, their vacations or where they were going for dinner. No talk about diets, movies or husbands and no food! This book club was all business. Next time I am going to arrive early and sit at the big table!
Tell us about your book club. Are you all business?
This month’s book was The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. Since we had read and enjoyed his earlier book, Middlesex, we were all looking forward to another good read. Unfortunately, despite its promise, this book ended up being disappointing on many levels.
The story centers on three Brown University students as they segue from the highly intellectual environment at a prestigious Ivy League school to the real world. It is a time of uncertainty and angst with which most of us can certainly identify. Love, guilt, mental illness, spiritual awareness, searching for an adult identity are pretty universal themes in “coming of age” stories. However, many of us felt that the characters in The Marriage Plot were generally unlikeable, making it difficult for us to care about their struggles. The love triangle never really seemed to fully develop and the book’s ending was somewhat abrupt and unsatisfying. Some of us were so put off by the overdone esoteric literary references at the beginning that we didn’t even finish the book. To be fair, this book probably is an accurate portrayal of a certain community, one with which Mr. Eugenides is familiar, but it failed to connect with us.
Let us know what you thought of The Marriage Plot!
Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so.
~Gore Vidal 1925-
I love this quote! Something to think about!
Falling Together is about three college friends, Pen, short for Penelope, Cat short for Catalina and Will. The trio met in the most unusual way. Pen just happened to walk into the bathroom only to find Cat in the midst of a seizure. As anyone would probably do in this circumstance, Pen opened the door and grabbed the first person she saw, Will! Pen, Cat and Will were the best of friends from then on. They had a special relationship and were inseparable through out their college years.
When Cat got married and moved away, the trio decided that it was an all or nothing relationship, and decided not to keep in touch after graduation. In fact they went so far as to make a pact not to keep tabs on one another and they each went their own way. When 6 years later Pen and Will both got the same urgent email from Cat, asking them to meet her at a reunion, insisting that she needed them, neither of them could say no. Unfortunately the reunion was not at all what they had hoped for and Pen and Will, left with more questions than answers, embark on a trip across the world to find the answers they so desperately needed.
Falling Together is a light, entertaining book with few surprises or aha moments. Yes, it is a nice story about friendship, but it could have been so much more. I tend to listen to Playaways at night, however every time I put the tiny ear buds in my ears and pushed the play button I fell asleep! The soothing, melodious voice of the reader was better than any sleeping pill I ever tried!
2 1/2 Omelets!
Yes ! My cat Chanel and I really enjoyed reading “Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden. I always add another book after my Book Club choice and this was a great novel of a young Japanese girl taken from her poor family after her mother’s death and raised in a Geisha House to be groomed as a Geisha Girl. I highly recommend this interesting slice of a different culture .Chanel gave this book high marks also !
Thank you Bonnie! Please send a pic of your 4-legged reader to Susan@Fridaymorningbookclub.com.
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