The Book Club

I've joined a book club in Chicago that meets once a month.

I've so far missed two meetings. Or in other words, I've yet to make a physical appearance at my book club.

The first book was 'White Teeth' by Zadie Smith. Amazon.com delivered my books late so that it came a few hours after the meeting took place. I didn't go because I would have had nothing to say.

The second book was 'Testimony' by Anita Shreve. I missed this gathering because I had to go to IMAN's fundraiser. Oh, well.
So here are a few things I would have said at the book club meet had I gone:
1) The book was a little sad.
2) By the end I was exhausted by being sad, so I was no longer sad.
3) Until the boy died, you imagined the scandal to be the worst thing that could have ever happened. But when he died, you realized that being dead is probably worse.
4) Which brings to the interesting dilemma. We teach our kids the world will end - will specifically end if you are caught doing major sins/wrongs - like failing out of school, or being expelled, cheating, or being caught having sex, stealing etc. But if they tell kill themselves after such an such 'major' sin/wrong - well then that's another problem.
5) It seemed a little impractical to see the mother lose her mind after her son dying. I mean it seemed artistically just but did she have to? I don't know.
6) The girl in the scandal was really one-dimensional.

As you can see, 'Testimony' wasn't really a masterpiece.