Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

The first BBC in 2012 will be on Friday Feb 10th at 8pm at Tanya's place. Happy Summer reading.

Blueback by Tim Winton

SPECIAL EVENT - KIDS BBC

I thought this such a beautiful book for kids and thought it would be wonderful to have a kids book club each year, so as part of Marvin's birthday celebrations I thought I could run an interactive BBC club on Wednesday the 14th of December at Bonnievale. If you could either encourage your child to read the book, or read it with them before then it would be great. Activities around the book and some questions will be organised and of course a bbq and swim to celebrate the end of the year. All kids welecome.

The Secret River by Kate Grenville

Next BBC - December 2nd at Tracy's place.

Babel Tower to be discussed July 29th

 

 

 

 

Babel Tower by A.S.Byatt 

  

 

Discussion Questions 

 

1.Frederica's sister, Stephanie, died in a freak accident not long before the beginning of the novel's action. What effect has Stephanie's death had upon Frederica and the life decisions she makes? Why is Daniel's reaction to his wife's death so extreme? How have Stephanie's parents, and her children, been changed by her death?  

 

2.In the first chapter, Daniel, a clergyman, speaks on the church hotline with a woman who has abandoned her children. What other images of abandoned children can you find in the novel? If Leo had not followed Frederica away from Bran House, do you think she would have left him behind for good, and if so, would it have counted as abandonment? What about the mothers at La Tour Bruyarde: in allowing their children's welfare to be decided by Culvert, did they fail in their duty as parents?  

 

3.Do you find that Frederica places too much blame for the state of her marriage upon herself? In your opinion, does she behave passively when dealing with Nigel? If so, do you think that such behavior is a product of her time and generation? Might a modern, more "liberated" woman behave differently?  

 

4.Do you feel any sympathy at all for Nigel, or is he presented as an absolute villain? What attractive characteristics drew Frederica to him in the first place? Do you see Nigel as a comment on the "type" of the Romantic hero--Heathcliff or Byron? If you do, what point do you think Byatt is making about such heroes?  

 

5.Why has Byatt chosen the 1960s as the setting for this novel? Rupert Parrott describes the climate of that time as "a period of moral ferment, moral realignment, fruitful chaos" [p. 149]. What particular events of the 1960s contributed to this sense of moral ferment? In what ways do the times described in the novel resemble, or differ from, the 1990s?  

 

6.Babel Tower makes extensive comments upon Romanticism and the romantic outlook on life. Can you infer Byatt's own views? What flaws does she find in the romantic ethos? Why are there so many references, both overt and obscure, to William Blake? Do you feel that Byatt deals with Blake in a positive, hostile, or satiric manner?  

 

7.In what ways do the attitudes prevalent at the Tour Bruyarde parallel those of London in the sixties? "The social structures of the Society [the French utopians] had fled...were structures of authority, of persecution, of narrow loyalties, of hierarchy, of exclusive and narrow affections and privileges, all of which led to oppression, irrationality and the sense of private property and personal greed" [p. 204]. Is this point of view comparable to "progressive" thinking in the 1960s?  

 

8.While living and teaching in London, Frederica becomes deeply wrapped up in the novels of E. M. Forster and D. H. Lawrence. If you are familiar with these authors' work, particularly Lawrence's Women in Love and Forster's Howards End, can you explain why Frederica found these authors' concerns so germane to her own life? If you are familiar with Thomas Hardy, can you understand why Jude Mason has named himself after the hero of Hardy's Jude the Obscure?  

 

9.One of the questions posed by Babel Tower concerns the nature of freedom and of captivity. When are Frederica and the Lady Roseacre the most "free"? What qualities must they possess, and exercise, in order to achieve freedom? In this novel, does freedom seem harder for women to achieve than for men, and if so, why?  

 

10.The Romantic period, like the 1960s, was a time when "natural" behavior, and life, was assumed to be good. The Babbletower narrative takes a dissenting view; Jude demonstrates "that if we are free to follow our passions, who can prevent us from following our desire to hurt others, to kill, to rape, to torture? These areƒhuman passions; they are natural" [p. 545]. How is this theme played out in the modern portion of Babel Tower? What conclusions, if any, are drawn?  

 

11.Frederica is fearful and suspicious of groups and group life: "I was no good at group life," she says to Agatha. "I hated school." What is it in her nature, or her experience, that has formed this dislike? Does Byatt imply that such feelings are characteristic of intellectuals and artists in general? What points do the two narratives--the 1960s story and Jude Mason's Babbletower--make about the nature of group versus individual life?  

 

12.A number of the characters in Babbletower, from Bill Potter to Culvert, and especially the members of the royal commission, have strong feelings about education and the nature of learning. Whose ideas do you find the most convincing? Whose the least so? What type of person might the William Blake Primary School produce? What about the Swineburn School?  

 

 

13.What relevance do the four reader's reports Frederica writes for Rupert Parrott's firm [pp. 151-56] have to Frederica's own life, and to the themes addressed in the novel itself?  

 

14.The latter portion of Babel Tower contains large verbatim quotations from the two trials, Frederica's and Jude's. Reflecting on the way the legal experts distorted the truths of their lives, Frederica "sees herself as a caged or netted beast.... The net is made by words which do not describe what she feels is happening" [p. 326]. Is language by its very nature inadequate, or is its inadequacy the fault of people who manipulate it to achieve their own ends? What is the myth of the Tower of Babel, and why has Byatt chosen it as a metaphor--and a title--for her novel?  

 

15."I feel I'm on trial for reading books," Frederica says [p. 502]. Why are so many people in Frederica's world--Nigel, his family, even the lawyers and jury members during her trial--apparently threatened by intellectuals, particularly intellectual women? What separate aspects of British culture and society do the two principal families, the Reivers and the Potters, represent?  

 

16.Frederica finds herself questioning "the Romantic desire for everything to be One--lovers, body and mind, life and work" [p. 361]. Does she conclude that the ideal of oneness is realizable or even desirable? How do the identical twins, John and Paul Ottokar, illustrate the ideas of oneness and separateness? What other images of oneness does Byatt invoke?  

 

17."The Church has always been about sex," says Canon Holly [p. 26], and later, "The Christian religion is an expression of the perception that what we now call sado-masochism is a central truth of our existence" [p. 555]. What does he mean by these statements? Do you find them credible? 

 

 

Author Biography 

 

A S. Byatt is a native of Yorkshire, England, born Antonia Susan Drabble in 1936. She has had a distinguished career as a literary critic and an academic, teaching English and American literature at University College, London, and she has published a book on the nineteenth century, Unruly Times: Wordsworth and Coleridge in Their Time; a collection of essays and book reviews, Passions of the Mind; and two books on the novelist Iris Murdoch. Although her interests are manifold, she has made Romantic and Victorian poetry her specialty. Babel Tower is the third 

of a planned tetralogy about the Potter family; the two earlier volumes were The Virgin in the Garden and Still Life. Byatt is the author of two collections of stories, Sugar and Other Stories and The Matisse Stories, two other novels, Shadow of a Sun and Possession, a spectacularly successful work that won the 1990 Booker Prize and the Irish Times/Aer Lingus International Fiction Prize and reached a large international readership. The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, two novellas, will be published in November 1997.  

 

 

Super Sad True Love Story to be discussed June 24th

1. In what ways did you think this love story was super sad?
2. Did you have a favorite character? A least favorite?
3. Who do you think was teening Lenny from Nettie Fine's account?
4. Which aspects of this satire were particularly spot-on to you? Which were the most frightening?
5. Does the idea of dechronification treatments and immortality appeal to you? If you had the money and lived in the "Super Sad" world, would you apply to be a client of Post-Human Services?
6. In a July 2010 article for The New York Times, Gary Shteyngart tells us he actually has to escape to a place without cell phone service to read and write, that even he, an author and reader of "long-form texts," is not immune to the tyranny of instant and constant connectivity. Does this concern you? How likely is it that we are truly heading into a post-literate age where books are seen as ridiculous and smelly artifacts?

ROOM by Emma Donaghue

1. Why do you think the author chose to tell the story of Room through Jack and not through an omniscient, third-person narrator?
2. Which elements of Jack's developmental delays and/or his integration issues surprised you most?
3. When Ma is interviewed, the interviewer implies that perhaps not everyone would agree with Ma's decisions regarding Jack - first, her decision to keep him in Room when she could have tried to have Old Nick abandon him at a hospital, and second, to teach him that Room was all there is, that things in TV aren't real, etc. What are your thoughts regarding these decisions?
4. Have you ever gotten into a car with someone you don't know, as Ma did? Did you find this to be a believable way for a 19-year-old to be kidnapped?
5. Did you find yourself wanting to know more about Old Nick? If so, why do you think this is? Describe the dynamic between Old Nick and Ma. Why does the author choose not to tell us Old Nick’s story? 
   
6. Jack often wishes he were back in Room. Is there any way in which he would be better off back in isolation with only his mother? Why or why not?
7. What sort of problems do you think Ma will face now that she and Jack are out on their own?
8.  What would you do differently if you were Jack’s parent? Would you tell Jack about the outside world from the start? 
   
   9. If Ma had never given birth to Jack, what would her situation in Room be like? 
   
   
   10.. What does joining the outside world do to Jack? To Ma?
   
   11. In a similar situation, how would you teach a child the difference between the real world and what they watch on television? 
   
   12. Why are we so fascinated by stories of long-term confinement? 
9. 13. What were you most affected by in the novel? 

RANSOM by David Malouf

1. Malouf is one of Australia's leading poets - in what way can you see the mark of the poet in Ransom? How does this pay heed to Ransom's ancient sources?

2. Malouf in his Afterword connects the ancient war of Troy to the war in Australia in 1943 and he started writing it just after 9/11. In what ways is Ransom an anti-war novel? Why is it that war stories seem to historically be the things that are lyrically chronicled and passed down?

3. How is Malouf's take on the battle of Troy different from Homer's?

4. Ransom is very much a book about storytelling. Why are stories told? Why do we need to hear them?

5. In what way is the title significant?

6. Ransom does still glorify elements of war, Achilles talks about the "Warrior spirit" that needs action. Do you think this is a biological part of us? What other elements of the code of war does Ransom chronicle in a positive way?

7. How does the structure mirror classical storytelling? In what ways does the violation of Hector's body lead the way the events unfold in Ransom? How does the classical Aristotilean tradition of tragedy play out?

8. Many characters in RANSOM take on other identities, names, costumes yet Malouf manages to uncover the wonder of simple relationships. What do you think he is saying about titles, costume, class, identity?

9. Women, children and men are clearly separated in the book. They all have their place. What sort of world is it for women? Men? In what way do the women have the power?

10. Loss of a loved one is something common to nearly all the leading characters. How does this loss unite them, divide them? How do they each try to assuage their grief? Do they succeed? Can they succeed?

11. Hecuba cries "I carries him...here, here...it is my flesh that is being tumbled on the stones out there. Seven times now I've grieved for a son lost in the war. And what I remember of each one is how they kicked and their little heels under my heart...here, just here." I think this is one of the most powerful speeches in the book. How does this and Somax's loss affect Priam? Why is he uncomfortable by this talk? Are women more connected with the loss of a child?

12. Priam starts to enjoy his adventure to collect his son's body, to appreciate the "human occassions" to take part in the "unneccesary and particular". What do you take away from this book about the importance of staying alive to the small pleasures? How is it that Priam has been sheltered from this? There is a tradition in literature of experiencing being poor - Down and Out in london and Paris, Prince and the Pauper, Henry IVth - can we ever really appreciate poverty without living it? How in our wealthy western world can we understand and learn from other cultures with so much less than us but often so much more?

13. Like in most classical texts, Gods can appear at random moments and walk among humans, they are inconsistent and can play games? Why does Hermes appear? How else do the Gods make themselves known in RANSOM?

14. There is an acceptance of fate and the timing of death in RANSOM, the God's often speak to them about it. That death is the bargain we have in living.  Malouf writes "it is the coldness of that distant star that is the body's isolation in death." and Achilles sees his death, his son's death and death upon death - what does this image create for you?

15. I was struck by the quiet beauty, the contemplation of this book, the peace within war. I am unsure we can ever go back to that quiet contemplation of the stars, the innocence of space and time with all our new communication tools. Have we lost the ability to sit with nature with these new inventions of television, phones, internet - can we have a journey such as Priam's?

16. In what ways is Priam changed? Achilles? Saxon? How is this story one about male friendship? Does it differ from female friendship?

17. I found the novel difficult to get into, nearly gave up countless times? Did you find the book challenging? What doesn't work for you? How do you rate it?

18. The book talks a lot about soul connections - between friends, spirits being unrested, souls unsettled. Are we always going to be a  world full of unsettled souls? How does this small details of nature outlined in the book ground us in a bigger world?

19. Malouf has chosen to put a mule on the cover. Why? Saxon seeks not to revenge himself by killing Beauty. What does the book say about revenge? What is the symbolism in the mules names? How is RANSOM a modern parable for our times? 

20. To me the most profound part of the book was the realisation that Priam has that he had been saved by not loving in the way Saxon had, but saved in a way that had meant he did not feel or know what it was to feel - "violent intimacy" or the "pain and pleasure mixed." Is this the beauty of life itself and our need to accept it and play it out our challenge like Priam's?

 21. “In a lot of my fiction, people are haunted by an alternate life they might have lived. Life has a shadow as well as a substance." - David Malouf. What does Malouf mean by “life has a shadow as well as a substance”? How are the characters respond to this revelation?

22. The critics were largely in rapture over this novel. See below. Do you agree with these reviews? Is it one of the best novels of the last 50 years of Australian writing?

“Lyrical, immediate and heartbreaking Malouf's fable engraves the epic themes of the Trojan war onto a perfect miniature - themes of war and heroics, hubris and humanity, chance and fate, the bonds between soldiers, fathers and sons, all newly burnished and brilliantly recast for our times.”

 'I thought I'd just dip back into Ransom and read a couple of pages. I didn't get out of there again. The way he caresses you, he just he caresses you and surprises you. It's still one of the great moments in writing in this country in the last 50 years. There's a moment in Ransom, where you just sit up and go, 'God! I can't.' I love surprise. I love surprise. And it has one of the great surprises in it.' - David Marr, First Tuesday Book Club

The themes of this apparently simple, yet immensely moving, modern novel are still vast: loss, forgiveness, love and redemption. Lyrical, witty, gentle, this is above all a story of transformation.' Elisabeth Speller, The Independent

'... lithe, graceful and deeply moving tale ... These pages of Ransom are nothing short of magical. Malouf’s prose is delicate, marvellously alert to the natural world and endowed with a quality that has one name only: wisdom. There is something Shakespearean about this section: not the Shakespeare of the great speeches but those quiet moments …when time stands still and the nature of life is mysteriously disclosed.' 
Andrew Riemer, The Sydney Morning Herald

RANSOM by David Malouf

Hi BBCers next meeting will be on the foolish day itself - April 1 at Rohan's place and we will be discussing Ransom. Questions to come later...Enjoy, sounds gory!

The Kite Runner Questions Fri 18th

1. The novel begins “I became what I am today at the age of twelve.” To what is Amir referring? Is his assertion entirely true? What other factors have helped form his character? How would you describe Amir?
2. Amir had never thought of Hassan as his friend, despite the evident bond between them, just as Baba did not think of Ali as his friend (page 22). What parallels can be drawn between Amir and Hassan’s relationship, and Baba and Ali’s? How would you describe the relationship between the two boys? What makes them so different in the way they behave with each other? What is it that makes Amir inflict small cruelties on Hassan? Had you already guessed at the true relationship between them? If so, at what point and why?
3. It is Amir’s dearest wish to please his father. What fuels this wish? To what extent does he succeed in doing so and at what cost? What kind of man is Baba? How would you describe his relationship with Amir and with Hassan? How does that relationship change, and what prompts those changes?
4. Khaled Hosseini vividly describes Afghanistan, both the privileged world of Amir’s childhood and the stricken country under the Taliban. How did his descriptions differ from ideas that you may already have had about Afghanistan? What cultural differences become evident in the American passages of the novel? How easy do the Afghans find it to settle in the U.S.? Compare the social structures of Amir’s life in Afghanistan vs. those he encounters in America.
5. After Soraya tells Amir about her past, she says, “I’m so lucky to have found you. You’re so different from every Afghan guy I’ve met.” (page 157) How do Afghan women fare in America? Are they any better off than they were in Afghanistan before the Taliban seized power? There is a noticeable absence of women in the novel. How is this significant?
6. On the drive to Kabul Farid says to Amir “You’ve always been a tourist here, you just didn’t know it.” (page 204) What is Farid implying? What do you think of his implication? What gives a person worth in a society? Does this vary between societies?
7. The strong underlying force of this novel is the relationship between Amir and Hassan. Discuss their friendship. Why is Amir afraid to be Hassan’s true friend? Why does Amir constantly test Hassan’s loyalty? Why does he resent Hassan? After the kite fighting tournament, why does Amir no longer want to be Hassan’s friend?
8. What is the significance of the novel’s title? What might the kite fighting tournament symbolize? Does the competition’s combination of physical brutality and aesthetic beauty parallel any other aspects of the book?
9. What is Amir’s relationship with Baba in the beginning of the book? How does it change after he wins the kite fighting tournament?
10. America acts as a place for Amir to rehash his memories and as a place for Baba to mourn his. In America, there are “homes that made Baba’s house in Wazir Akbar Khan look like a servant’s hut.” (page 135) What is ironic about this statement? What is the function of irony in this novel?
11. During their argument about his career path, Amir thinks to himself: “I would stand my ground, I decided. I didn’t want to sacrifice for Baba anymore. The last time I had done that, I had damned myself.” Why is Baba disappointed by Amir’s decision to become a writer? What has Amir sacrificed for Baba? How has Amir “damned himself”?
12. Amir’s confrontation with Assef in Wazir Akar Khan marks an important turning point in the novel. Why does the author have Amir, Assef, and Sohrab all come together in this way? What is the significance of the scar that Amir develops as a result of the confrontation? Why is it important in Amir’s journey toward forgiveness and acceptance?
13. Baba and Amir know that they are very different people. Often it disappoints both of them that Amir is not the son that Baba has hoped for. When Amir finds out that Baba has lied to him about Hassan, he realizes that “as it turned out, Baba and I were more alike than I’d ever known.” (page 226) How does this make Amir feel about his father? How is this both a negative and positive realization?
14. When Amir and Baba move to the States their relationship changes, and Amir begins to view his father as a more complex man. Discuss the changes in their relationship. Do you see the changes in Baba as tragic or positive?

What did The Kite Runner teach you about Afghanistan? About friendship? About forgiveness, redemption and love?

Who suffers the most in The Kite Runner?

Were you surprised to learn about the racial tension between the Pashtuns and Hazaras in Afghanistan? Can you think of any culture in the world without a history of oppression? Why do you think minority groups are oppressed so often?

What did you like about Baba? Dislike about him? How was he different in the U.S. than in Afghanistan? Did he love Amir?

Did Amir ever redeem himself?

What do you think happened to Sohrab?

Rate The Kite Runner on a scale of one to five.