We had our monthly book club meeting last night. I started our "Tuesday Night Book Club" over two years ago and we are still going strong! I highly recommend finding the time in your life to sit down and read a good book. Having a book club forces you to (a) socialize (not easy in the world we occupy, especially in LA, where it feels like if you're not working, you're in your car driving to get to work), (b) actually finish a book, and (c) delve into issues, philosophies and characters that may actually influence your life....which brings me to our latest book, "The Razor's Edge" by W. Somerset Maugham.
I really enjoyed this thought-provoking book that follows the lives of a group of American expatriates as they mature over the course of 20-something years in Post WWI Europe. That all sounds very academic, so let me just say that it deals on the themes of materialism, spirirtuality, the quest for God, the meaning of love, and disillusionment - universal themes of the human condition that resonate today. If you're a fan of clever dialogue and the underbelly of eccentric, beautiful, and pathetic characters, this book is for you. I had a hard time putting it down.
Who hasn't known a lovably vacuous man like Elliott Templeton? The scene near the end where he cries in depair over not being invited to a party hits very close to home in MY family. What girl hasn't put financial security ahead of love (at some point in her life), only to end up regretting it? Isabel's genetic materialism is something she can never grow beyond, but she manages to carve out some self-defined version of happiness for herself, nevertheless. A true American trait. And the character at the center of it all - Larry (who serves as a pre-cursor to the 70's hippy generation in his quest for spiritual enlightenment) travels the world searching, and searching and searching....does he find his answers? We didn't really come to a uniform conclusion about that last night.
I appreciate books that hang with you, and this is one I may have to read again.
2 comments:
Glad you are back to posting! I missed you. I love reading but have too erratic of a schedule to have a club...sounds fun. I like reading historical fiction. Just finished reading Mary Queen of Scots and the murder of Lord Darnley.
Good words.
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