The October meeting at Dode's house was a great success - lots of lively discussion, insight, unusual interpretations, and absolutely great refreshments. Thanks to Dode for hosting such a wonderful event. Also, thanks to Kathy who kept the discussion going with her excellent facilitation of the book discussion. Some of my observations regarding the discussion follow . . .
Most readers found the book, Bad Monkeys, interesting and intriguing but were more and more unsettled as they got closer to the end of the book. All agreed that it was a real "page turner" but that the ending was somewhat disappointing after the great set up and manipulation of the reader to believe that there was going to be some resolution of the puzzle and mystery that was described by the lead character Jane Charlotte. Of course, there never was a resolution of anything - only more questions as the narrative ended.
Some readers did not particularly like this genre of book but still felt that the writer did a great job with the narrative storytelling and that the movement, tempo, and description in the book kept the reader engaged and interested in the story. Several readers felt that the book became too fantastical and full of improbable and unbelievable action sequences near the end when the story moved to Las Vegas and the casino scene - especially with the entrance of the "Scary Clowns" and the "good" and "bad" Jane. At least one reader felt that there were strong religious references and that the book was very derivative of spiritual and theological themes. Another that the end became a "bad LSD trip" and another that the whole adventure was in the mind of the psychiatric patient, Jane Charlotte.
What do you think? What other things were mentioned and debated? Any final thoughts about this book? Let us know what you think by posting additional comments to this subject.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
#2 Meeting
Our second meeting of "The Girls Next Door" was a great success. The conversation was very enthusiastic . As we sat around the huge table at Dode's, it dawned on me how truly lucky I am to know so many great women. So many different ages, so many different nationalities, so many different hair colors(alot of us who would certainly be grey or white in years gone by).
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Bad Monkey Book Reviews
From The New York Times Book Review, August 26, 2007:
Bad Monkeys is something of a science-fiction Catcher in the Rye. The protagonist, Jane Charlotte, tells her life story to a psychiatrist. She cracks wise and doesn’t quite fit into society, and the heart of her story is, seemingly, about a tragic younger brother. She’s a female Holden Caulfield, except she kills criminals with the equivalent of a ray gun.
Along with the Salingeresque details, Ruff has animated Bad Monkeys with the spirit of Philip K. Dick, and he’s borrowed a little seasoning from Jim Thompson and Thomas Pynchon. The ray gun is, naturally, pure Dick, and the fact that you root for Jane even though it becomes clear she’s a sociopath is a classic Thompson touch. (See The Killer Inside Me and Savage Night.) And I felt Pynchon-like flourishes out of The Crying of Lot 49 in Ruff’s elaborately conceived secret societies. The real debt is to Dick, though, in the way Ruff expertly plays with notions of what is real and what is illusion.
Bad Monkeys, allusions aside, is highly entertaining. It moves fast and keeps surprising you. There are also some exciting and hallucinatory action sequences that are so skillfully written I felt as if I was watching the first “Matrix” movie, which I unabashedly loved. Then I snobbishly thought: “Am I reading a screenplay?” But I probably only had that thought knowing I was going to write a review and might have to produce clever, negative things to say. And why shouldn’t movies influence books? The reverse has certainly been true.
Along with making Bad Monkeys a page turner, Ruff dabbles with going deeper, exploring good and evil to a certain degree, and there are characters named Wise, True and Love. But he doesn’t go too deep, which is a good thing (not an evil thing), as it would take away from his delightful and swift storytelling. Throughout the book, you feel as if you’re trying to solve a mystery before the writer gives away his final clue, although Bad Monkeys isn’t so much a “who-dun-it?” as a “who-is-it?” Who is Jane Charlotte? I wasn’t able to solve this book’s riddles before the end, but I had a lot of fun guessing, trying to unravel it all, racing against the clock.
Now here’s a real quibble. I was completely absorbed in the book and felt it ended quite satisfactorily, which is a hard thing to pull off with a science-fiction mystery thriller (a trifecta of genres!). Then I turned the last page, hoping there might be some kind of mad epilogue. But instead I stumbled upon Ruff’s elaborate acknowledgments. He mentions some celebrities and also thanks Philip K. Dick, which seems unnecessary: the novel itself is a generous thank you, a nod to the beyond.
I can see nonfiction writers who have done a lot of research thanking numerous people, but novelists should put brief acknowledgments at the front of a book. I was savoring my last moments with Bad Monkeys, the reading equivalent of post-coital happiness, and then was yanked out of the book’s spell, which I would have liked to stay under for a little while longer, like a dream—or an illusion—I didn’t want to be woken from.
— Jonathan Ames
Copyright 2007 The New York Times
Bad Monkeys is something of a science-fiction Catcher in the Rye. The protagonist, Jane Charlotte, tells her life story to a psychiatrist. She cracks wise and doesn’t quite fit into society, and the heart of her story is, seemingly, about a tragic younger brother. She’s a female Holden Caulfield, except she kills criminals with the equivalent of a ray gun.
Along with the Salingeresque details, Ruff has animated Bad Monkeys with the spirit of Philip K. Dick, and he’s borrowed a little seasoning from Jim Thompson and Thomas Pynchon. The ray gun is, naturally, pure Dick, and the fact that you root for Jane even though it becomes clear she’s a sociopath is a classic Thompson touch. (See The Killer Inside Me and Savage Night.) And I felt Pynchon-like flourishes out of The Crying of Lot 49 in Ruff’s elaborately conceived secret societies. The real debt is to Dick, though, in the way Ruff expertly plays with notions of what is real and what is illusion.
Bad Monkeys, allusions aside, is highly entertaining. It moves fast and keeps surprising you. There are also some exciting and hallucinatory action sequences that are so skillfully written I felt as if I was watching the first “Matrix” movie, which I unabashedly loved. Then I snobbishly thought: “Am I reading a screenplay?” But I probably only had that thought knowing I was going to write a review and might have to produce clever, negative things to say. And why shouldn’t movies influence books? The reverse has certainly been true.
Along with making Bad Monkeys a page turner, Ruff dabbles with going deeper, exploring good and evil to a certain degree, and there are characters named Wise, True and Love. But he doesn’t go too deep, which is a good thing (not an evil thing), as it would take away from his delightful and swift storytelling. Throughout the book, you feel as if you’re trying to solve a mystery before the writer gives away his final clue, although Bad Monkeys isn’t so much a “who-dun-it?” as a “who-is-it?” Who is Jane Charlotte? I wasn’t able to solve this book’s riddles before the end, but I had a lot of fun guessing, trying to unravel it all, racing against the clock.
Now here’s a real quibble. I was completely absorbed in the book and felt it ended quite satisfactorily, which is a hard thing to pull off with a science-fiction mystery thriller (a trifecta of genres!). Then I turned the last page, hoping there might be some kind of mad epilogue. But instead I stumbled upon Ruff’s elaborate acknowledgments. He mentions some celebrities and also thanks Philip K. Dick, which seems unnecessary: the novel itself is a generous thank you, a nod to the beyond.
I can see nonfiction writers who have done a lot of research thanking numerous people, but novelists should put brief acknowledgments at the front of a book. I was savoring my last moments with Bad Monkeys, the reading equivalent of post-coital happiness, and then was yanked out of the book’s spell, which I would have liked to stay under for a little while longer, like a dream—or an illusion—I didn’t want to be woken from.
— Jonathan Ames
Copyright 2007 The New York Times
Saturday, October 20, 2007
October Meeting
We will be meeting October 23 at 7 p.m. at Dode's to discuss "Bad Monkeys". Even if you're unable to finish the book please come to the meeting.
Some discussion topics may include "good vs evil", the significance of the names Love, Good and Wise and "bad monkeys". Bring your questions and opinions to the meeting and remember BYOB!
Some discussion topics may include "good vs evil", the significance of the names Love, Good and Wise and "bad monkeys". Bring your questions and opinions to the meeting and remember BYOB!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Road Trip Suggestions
We have a new poll with the suggestions for future road trips. You may vote more than once. After we get an idea where people are interested in going we will get costs and dates at our next meeting. If you have any other ideas hit comment at the end of this post and add your suggestion. To see the other comments just hit the heading of the blog.
Hope everyone is enjoying the books! Sue sd she tried to get "Love in the Time of Cholera" from the library and there are already 18 holds.
Hope everyone is enjoying the books! Sue sd she tried to get "Love in the Time of Cholera" from the library and there are already 18 holds.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
We Picked It First!!!
Oprah Announces Next Book Club Pick
Oct. 5, 2007, 12:41 PM EST
Oprah Winfrey has picked "Love in the Time of Cholera," the epic love story by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as her next book club selection.
"If you love love, this book is the best love story ever," Winfrey said Friday on her daytime talk show.
The novel by the Colombian-born Garcia Marquez was published in 1985. Set on the Caribbean coast of South America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it tells the tale of a woman and two men, and an unrequited love that spans 50 years.
"It is so beautifully written that it really takes you to another place in time and will make you ask yourself how long could you or would you wait for love," Winfrey said.
Garcia Marquez, 80, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982. His most famous work, "One Hundred Years of Solitude," was a selection in 2004 for Winfrey's book club.
"He's truly one of our greatest living literary giants," she said.
Winfrey noted that a film adaptation of "Love in the Time of Cholera" is scheduled for November release. The movie starring Javier Bardem and Benjamin Bratt was directed by Mike Newell ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire").
"If you're like me, you'll want to read the book before you see the movie," Winfrey said, but suggested book clubs could hold their next meeting at the movie theater.
Vintage Books, a paperback imprint of Random House Inc., announced a new printing of 750,000 copies for the novel, and an additional 30,000 for the original Spanish-language text.
If you plan to order from the library do it soon. It's going to become very popular, very quickly.
Oct. 5, 2007, 12:41 PM EST
Oprah Winfrey has picked "Love in the Time of Cholera," the epic love story by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as her next book club selection.
"If you love love, this book is the best love story ever," Winfrey said Friday on her daytime talk show.
The novel by the Colombian-born Garcia Marquez was published in 1985. Set on the Caribbean coast of South America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it tells the tale of a woman and two men, and an unrequited love that spans 50 years.
"It is so beautifully written that it really takes you to another place in time and will make you ask yourself how long could you or would you wait for love," Winfrey said.
Garcia Marquez, 80, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982. His most famous work, "One Hundred Years of Solitude," was a selection in 2004 for Winfrey's book club.
"He's truly one of our greatest living literary giants," she said.
Winfrey noted that a film adaptation of "Love in the Time of Cholera" is scheduled for November release. The movie starring Javier Bardem and Benjamin Bratt was directed by Mike Newell ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire").
"If you're like me, you'll want to read the book before you see the movie," Winfrey said, but suggested book clubs could hold their next meeting at the movie theater.
Vintage Books, a paperback imprint of Random House Inc., announced a new printing of 750,000 copies for the novel, and an additional 30,000 for the original Spanish-language text.
If you plan to order from the library do it soon. It's going to become very popular, very quickly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)