Becky hosted us at her lovely house in Fairlee for our discussion of Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. We were joined by new member Tracy. Welcome! Also present: Darla, Leann, Lisa, and me. Becky served us two wonderful soups -- Jarlsberg bisque and tortilla soup -- and a scrumptious King Arthur Flour chocolate cake. Can you tell we were happy campers? We also did a Yankee swap, which was extremely civilized and featured mainly book-related gifts.
We all loved Lahiri's collection of short stories, even Darla, who prefers long stories she can really get into. Seemed like some stories were clear favorites, like the first one about the impact of a power outage on a struggling young couple. One searching question Becky asked was, "Would we have loved it as much if the collection had started with a different story?" I don't believe anyone had an answer for that! For myself, I can imagine being drawn in by many of the other stories just as easily. We agreed that the author really captures the Indian immigrant experience, and some of us plan to read the author's novel, The Namesake.
For our next book, we plan to "go political" and read Sam Harris' The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. Please, everyone take a look at it and confirm that we should actually read it. I tried to describe it at the meeting, but since I didn't remember the author or the title, I wasn't very informative. And I'd like the choice to informed.
Next meeting will be at my house in late January, and I will make something from the beautiful soup cook book I swiped from Leann during the Yankee Swap.
