Okay, the Neanderthals have spoken, and our book for January will be Robert Penn Warren's All The King's Men. No meeting date set as yet, but that should be soon in coming (EDIT: January 7th--be there!). There are also a couple of film versions available, including last year's Sean Penn vehicle, which received mixed reviews. Oh, and an unabridged audio recording, as well.
Next on the agenda, the rave reviews for No Country for Old Men don't lie: it is an astonishingly good film . . . very faithful to McCarthy's book, with a couple of notable omissions from the later chapters. I'd love to see it again and discuss afterwards if anyone's interested.
So I revisited Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors last month following our Dostoevsky discussion, and it was just as provocative and fun as I had remembered. Then, Googling around to see what others had to say about it, I came across this terrific blog/analysis about the film . . . the YouTube clips are well worth your time! Anyway, I left a brief comment and later heard back from the blog author, who himself is a member of an all-male book club, the Gentlemen's Literary Society. Interestingly, while they don't have a "No Oprah" policy, they have passed a "No books by Margaret Atwood" injunction. You'll notice that their name and logo aren't nearly as cool as ours, but then again, they are Canadian (I'm pretty sure) and they're working on it, so I won't give them any grief.
Anyway, I take it from the ClustrMap below that they've been snooping around in here (a giant Vancouver dot just appeared), so let me extend a warm welcome to our Northern brothers.
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3 comments:
For ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, let's shoot for January 7th. We might seek out a different meeting spot due to cold weather. We'll keep everyone posted.
I will put together some ATKM materials, but here are a few interesting points:
The book is about a real guy....former Louisiana Governor, Huey Long. The aspects that make the book great are many but most notable is certainly the language, the character transformation of "The Boss", the love story between two central characters (called "some of the greatest words ever written about falling in love" by our own Neanderthal, Father Brian Sullivan), and the seeming non-transformation of Jack Burden. Do not read too much about the book online. There are spoilers everywhere and the suspense contributes to the book's enjoyment. Pay close attention to what makes the characters seem so real. You feel like you know them.
Hey, Neanderthals, 'Hello' (with a funny accent) from up North.
Yes, we're Canadians, and yes, our name and our logo is whimpier than yours but...what can I say?... in this neck of the woods we've been know to thank ATMs out-loud.
Thanks for the mention Clark, we've all enjoyed your blog, but decided to stick with our prissy Canadiana name. Voted 8 to 0, with no abstentions.
We had a good end-of-year-dinner and decided on our 2008 books, as is our annual habit. Looks like it'll be a good year. I'll post the list when I get a chance.
http://glsvancouver.blogspot.com/
FYI:
We were once propositioned for a joint meeting by a 'Ladies' bookclub. We had a good time speculating about the effects of them arriving to find us all sitting around in dirty underwear drinking beer and watching tv. Then we rejected their offer. They wanted to discuss something by Alice Munro or Toni Morrison or whatever..
Our first read of 2008: 'On The Road'.
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