Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky

The March of 2016 Timely and Timeless Book Club meeting enjoyed the company of 8 members for our discussion of the book Family Tree.   While the issues presented in Barbara Delinsky’s plot are challenging, the heart of the story was about love, acceptance and forgiveness.  At the beginning of the book the central plot point emerges with the dramatic realization that a white couple’s newborn infant is of quite obviously mixed race.

 

This situation tests the strength of the couple’s core bonds of trust.  Sorting out the infant’s racial heritage opens other doors in surrounding relationships as well.  The central characters are the parents of the infant.  Hugh – the infant’s father, is an attorney, who is presented as a fair minded man whose practice includes a racial spectrum of clients performing a lot of pro bono work for needy clients.  His wife, Dana, who is successful in her work and smart with a kind spirit, seems to possess a deeper emotional strength than her husband.  While Hugh comes from a well-documented family tree of high standing, Dana has much uncertainty about her heritage including who her father is and why he was not part of her life. 

 

The next door neighbor is a divorced black doctor who is the father of a mixed race child.  He and Hugh face tests of trust as well in their long standing and close friendship.  There are secrets that unravel on both sides of Hugh’s and Dana’s families as the story develops. 

 

With newer DNA testing, many old beliefs about family heritage are being rewritten.  Drawing on that idea, this book is a thoughtful examination of attitudes and understanding of who the characters are.  Unraveling the real stories in this book doesn’t always reveal all of the truths that are sought.  But the process allows for growth and appreciation about the struggles the characters’ families faced on their journeys.  

 

Our book club rated Family Tree 3.7/5.  It was clear that as we delved into the themes of the book during our discussion, we developed a deeper appreciation for the thoughtful way Ms. Delinsky explored the ideas it covered.  Barbara Delinsky’ background includes a B.A in Psychology and an M.A in Sociology.  A list of discussion questions can be found at http://www.litlovers.com/.

 

 

For April, we are reading Dead Sleep by Greg Iles.  We will meet at Big G’s at noon on April 26th. 

 

…  "Ingenious." —New York Times

…  "Hair-raising...Iles continues to scare the living daylights out of readers." —New Orleans Times-Picayune

…  "As fast as any techno-thriller and as well thought out as an Agatha Christie mystery...Grade A." —Rocky Mountain News

…  "Perfect mystery mind candy." —Fort Worth Star Telegram

 

From Barnes and Noble review of Dead Sleep:

         

They are called "The Sleeping Women." A series of unsettling paintings in which the nude female subjects appear to be not asleep, but dead. Photojournalist Jordan Glass has another reason to find the paintings disturbing...The face on one of the nudes is her own-or perhaps the face of her twin sister, who disappeared and is still missing. At the urging of the FBI, Jordan becomes both hunter and hunted in a search for the anonymous artist-an obsessed killer who seems to know more about Jordan and her family than she is prepared to face....

Away, by Amy Bloom

Our February 23^rd Timely and Timeless Book Club meeting was another fun discussion.  We welcome to two new members, Marci and Leslie who will (have) enrich(ed) our discussions. 

 

Our book for February was Away by Amy Bloom.  Ms. Bloom is a Creative Writing professor at Yale University.  She has written three novels and several short stories.  She has also worked as a Psychotherapist.  Her background plays into the themes in this book.  The central character is Lillian Leyb, a recent Jewish immigrant to the US from Russia.  The novel is initially set in the mid 1920’s, in the lower east side of New York where Lillian lands a job in a Yiddish theater as a seamstress. 

 

A pivotal plot line revolves around the murder of her family during the persecution of Jews in Russia and the ensuing consequences for Lillian.  She loses her husband, and in-laws and most importantly, she believes that her 2 year old daughter, Sophie, has died as well.  She decides to escape to America.  When word comes via a recently arrived cousin that Sophie was saved and taken in by a neighbor family, Lillian embarks on a mission to travel back to Russia to find her.

 

The novel investigates the realities of the time for poor immigrant women.  Lillian has too much imagination to be satisfied with survival living.  The uses of sex as a barter are a central theme.  Ms. Bloom investigates various incarnations of the topic and yet allows Lillian to be a character for whom we can feel compassion.  She suffers PTSD in the form of nightmares.  Along the way the other main characters provide color and texture to the story as Lillian embarks on a solo journey to recover her daughter. 

 

While the use of sex in the story is off-putting to a good many readers, its inclusion reflects on circumstances written into the plot.   The average rating of the seven members at the meeting was 2.7/5. 

 

 

For March, we are reading Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky.  We will meet at the library at noon on March 22^nd. 

 

This book deals with a topic often discussed on the PBS series “Finding Your Roots.”  Frequently, unbeknownst to the subjects, their families are found to have mixed racial heritage.  The vehicle for these discoveries is newer DNA testing. 

 

From Barnes and Noble review of Family Tree:

         

For as long as she can remember, Dana Clarke has longed for the stability of home and family. Now she has married a man she adores, whose heritage can be traced back to the Mayflower, and she is about to give birth to their first child. But what should be the happiest day of her life becomes the day her world falls apart. Her daughter is born beautiful and healthy, and in addition, unmistakably African-American in appearance. Dana’s determination to discover the truth about her baby’s heritage becomes a shocking, poignant journey. A superbly crafted novel, Family Tree asks penetrating questions about family and the choices people make in times of crisis.

 

 

Andrew's Brain by E.L. Doctorow

Timely & Timeless

JANUARY 2016 Meeting Review

January has started out with a bang for the Timely & Timeless book club.  (Or a fizzle…)  Our book was Andrew’s Brain by E.L. Doctorow.  Six brave members met at the library on Tuesday to discuss this selection.  It did not score well among those of us who got to the end, but it gave us some good conversation for the meeting.  Those who did finish the book teetered on the brink of abandoning it early on.  One comment was that the book reminded her of “when your brain can’t be still when you are trying to get to sleep…” (Arlene.)

 

Andrew’s story is one of many inadvertent mishaps that result in two deaths for which he feels responsible and other astonishing events that affect his mental state.  One premise in the narrative deals with understanding the mind vs the brain.  Just as answers to this question are fairly elusive, understanding Andrew’s journey and brain/mind are also confusing.  Questions arise about whether his memories as related are fact or fiction to the story.  Sorting out the first part of the book, where the reader looks for diacritical marks to guide understanding, one eventually begins to understand the omissions.

 

This work was Doctorow’s final novel.  His critically acclaimed works of 13 novels include Ragtime, Billy Bathgate and Loon Lake, essays, short stories and one play.

 

The novel Away by Amy Bloom is scheduled for our February 23rd meeting.  We will meet at El Dorado (formerly Maria’s.) 

 

“Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia.”  …From Barnes & Noble