NYPL Blogs: Reader’s Den

May in the Reader's Den: "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" Week Four

Corinne Neary, Jefferson Market Library — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:12:54 -0400

Welcome back to the Reader's Den — this is our final week discussing David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Last week we covered part two of the novel, which focused on the midwife, Orito's abduction to the Mount Shiranui Shrine. This week we will finish up with the last three sections of the book, which include chapters twenty-seven through forty-one, in which Mitchell once again presents new narrators. The first is the slave called Weh, who narrates a short chapter exposing many of the hardships of his daily life. It is from his perspective that we learn Jacob has been working to translate the Japanese scroll containing the edicts of the shrine.

The other new voices in these last chapters are John Penhaligon, captain of a British warship that arrives in the Bay of Nagasaki intent on taking over the trading post for the English, and Magistrate Shiroyama, who finds his fate tied to the outcome of this conflict. Dejima residents Chief Van Cleef and first deputy Peter Fischer row out to the warship and are promptly taken hostage by the British crew. Fischer turns out to be amenable to working for the British and goes back to shore to persuade the Dutch and Japanese to allow Penhaligon to take over, with promises of wages and free transport. To his surprise he finds vehement opposition, led by Jacob de Zoet.

Captain Penhaligon is one of the most complex characters in the book. He comes to Japan worried about his worsening gout, and unable to forget the memories of his dead wife and son. Did you feel sympathetic towards him, or dislike him for his attack on Dejima, or both?
Why did Mitchell include the short chapter about Weh, when we never hear from again?
Why do Jacob and Dr. Marinus stay on the watchtower during the British attack, when they seem to face certain death?
After a meeting to discuss the demands of the British, Jacob gives Magistrate Shiroyama the Mount Shiranui Shrine, exposing the creeds of Enomoto's order. Shamed by his failing in military response to the attack, Shiroyama must commit an honorable suicide, but devises to take Enomoto with him. Were you surprised by this twist? Did you think that Enomoto could die?
Years later, at Dr. Marinus's funeral, Jacob finally sees Orito again. Did you hope that they might rekindle a romance, or are circumstances just too impossible?
Eighteen years after arriving at Dejima, Jacob must leave and return to Zeeland without his son, who he fathered with a Japanese woman. Being half Japanese, his son is unable to leave Japan. How did you like the montage of Jacob's life back in Zeeland? At the moment of his death, he has a vision of Orito, who is still in his thoughts all these years later. Why is she the last person he thinks of?
Now that you've finished the book, what did you think of it as a whole? Did all the different elements and storylines come together successfully?

Thank you for participating in the Reader's Den! Please leave your comments below. Come back in June, for a discussion of 11/22/63 by Stephen King.

May in the Reader's Den: "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" week three

Corinne Neary, Jefferson Market Library — Mon, 14 May 2012 06:29:48 -0400

Welcome to week three of May in the Reader's Den! This week, we continue our discussion of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, focusing on Part II — chapters fourteen through twenty-six.

The second section of The Thousand Autumns is a complete departure from the first. Gone is the narrative voice of Jacob de Zoet, and the chronicling of life on Dejima. In part two, Mitchell shifts from Jacob's point of view to the perspectives of three other characters: Otane the herbalist, midwife Orito Aibigawa, and interpreter Ogawa Uzaemon.

It is in chapter fourteen, told from Otane's perspective, that we learn what has happened to Orito; She has become a sister at the Mount Shiranui Shrine, a secretive order about which there are many strange rumors. When we hear from Orito, we learn that she was abducted and forced to join the shrine against her will after the death of her father. Her step-mother sold her to Lord Abbot Enomoto to cover the deaths of her late husband.

The disturbing edicts of the shrine begin to unfold: sisters are impregnated by the order's monks in "engifting" rituals, and the children are taken from the new mothers, who are told that they are starting lives with adopted families in the world below. Through a scroll containing the shrine's creeds that was smuggled out by an escaped acolyte, the interpreter Uzaemon learns that there are much more disturbing realities to the rituals than the sisters know. He begins to put into motion a plan to free Orito from the imprisonment of her service, even though he knows it will likely mean his life.

Why does Enomoto choose to take Orito to his shrine, when the rest of the sisters were taken from brothels and the street?
We learn in this section of the book that Uzaemon loves Orito, and had asked permission to marry her, which his father denied. What is it about her that both Jacob and Uzaemon are drawn to? Is she destined to be loved but alone?
Did you think that Uzaemon's plan to rescue Orito would be successful?
Just before Enomoto kills Uzaemon, he tells him that he is over six hundred years old, and that the consumption of the shrine's "gifts" is what has made him immortal. Were you surprised by this supernatural element of the book?
What was your reaction to discovering that the yearly letters received by the sisters from their "gifts" were all fabricated?
Why does Orito choose to return to the shrine when she is so close to freedom?

Please leave your comments below! Next week, we will cover the final sections of the book, chapters twenty-seven through forty-one, in which war comes to Dejima and Jacob uncovers the ugly truths of the Mount Shiranui Shrine!

May in the Reader's Den: "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" week two

Corinne Neary, Jefferson Market Library — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:24:43 -0400

Welcome back to the Reader's Den! This week, we will be talking about part one - the first thirteen chapters - of David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. With the exception of the opening chapter, the entirety of part one is told from the perspective of Jacob de Zoet during the first months of his residence on the island of Dejima, off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan.

With names like Artie Grote, Ponke Ouwehand, and Piet Baert, Jacob's Dutch colleagues can be as difficult to keep straight as the characters in a Russian novel. Assigned by his boss, Chief Resident Vorstenbosch to conduct an audit of past years' financial discrepancies, Jacob makes fast enemies of many of his co-workers. It is in this lonely environment, with these hostile companions, that Jacob begins to become fixated on Orito Aibigawa, the Japanese midwife with a burn covering one side of her face.

He begins a sort of courtship, using Dr. Marinus and the interpreter Ogawa Uzaemon, with whom he has developed a friendship, as middlemen. Things actually seem somewhat promising, until his efforts are stopped short by an unexpected series of events that take Orito away from Dejima and from Jacob.

Why does Mitchell open the book with a birth scene? Why is this scene important? How does it tie in to the rest of the book?
As de Zoet enters Dejima, his belongings are searched for any forbidden items - namely Christian artifacts or texts. He is smuggling in a psalter too precious to him to give up, although he is terrified of being discovered. The interpreter who inspects his trunks, Ogawa Uzaemon, allows the book into the country, and later warns Jacob to keep it very well hidden. Why does Ogawa help this strange Dutchman at his own risk?
In chapter seven, Jacob sells mercury to Lord Abbot Enomoto. Why does Enomoto say that he feels an affinity with Jacob? What is it about this man that seems powerful and intimidating?
Jacob and Orito are characters whose freedoms are restricted and who don't fit in. Jacob is trapped on Dejima for five years among Japanese interpreters and unpleasant Dutchmen. Orito is limited by the societal restrictions placed on her gender and by the burn on her face. Is this what draws them together? Or is it something more?
Does Jacob really want to return to Zeeland, and to Anna? Is his infatuation with Orito, in part, a device to free him of his attachments to home?
Why does Jacob delay in going to Orito when he sees her franticly trying to enter Dejima on the day she disappears? What forces cause him to wait until it is too late?

Please leave your comments below! Next week, we will be discussing part two of the book, through the end of chapter twenty-six, which chronicles the events that follow Orito's abduction from Dejima.

May in the Reader's Den: "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet"

Corinne Neary, Jefferson Market Library — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:04:18 -0400

Welcome to May in the Reader's Den! this month, we are discussing The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, the fifth novel from British author David Mitchell.

The Thousand Autumns, set in turn-of-the-19th Century Japan, is a shift for Mitchell, best known for the dazzling and difficult 2004 novel Cloud Atlas. Readers who might miss the puzzling and experimental quality of Cloud Atlas should be won over by this captivating and complex historical fiction. With scrupulous detail, Mitchell delivers a story that is historically fascinating, while full of suspense, comedy, romance, and tragedy.

In 1799, when the novel opens, the Dutch East India Company is in decline. When Jacob de Zoet, a parson's nephew from the Dutch province of Zeeland, accepts a position as clerk with the company, he is unaware of the shaky finances of the company, and of the corruption of those who will be his colleagues. Jacob has signed a five year contract with the trading company, on the insistence of his would be father-in-law, who will only agree to a marriage between Jacob and his daughter Anna if the younger man has more money to his name.

Living, working on, and unable to leave the tiny man-made island of Dejima, off the coast of Nagasaki, Japan, his world is limited to a few other Dutchmen, traders, servants and slaves, and a handful of Japanese interpreters. Dejima is Japan's only point of trade with the outside world during a long period of isolation imposed by the Japanese government. Incredibly protective of its cultural heritage and fearful of outsiders, the Japanese impose restrictions on the traders staying on Dejima; they are not allowed to visit mainland Japan or mix with its people.

Jacob seems destined for a lonely existence here: not fitting in with his colleagues, and unfortunately ethical in an atmosphere of corruption, he is a fish out of water even among these outsiders. The only Dutchman on Dejima that he is eager to meet, Dr. Marinus, seems to instantly dislike him. He thinks only of returning home to Anna, until he has a chance meeting with one of Dr. Marinus's students, a Japanese midwife, Miss Aibagawa, who instantly fascinates him. Interacting with her, however, is strictly forbidden.

As you begin reading the book, think about:

What is the significance of the first chapter, told from Miss Aibigawa's point of view? Why does Mitchell open with this sequence, when the rest of the book's first section is told from Jacob's perspective?
What does the extreme isolation of his situation do to the state of Jacob's mind? What does he see in Miss Aibagawa that so draws him to her?

In next weeks post, we will have discussion questions covering the first part of the book, through chapter thirteen. Please feel free to begin posting your comments and questions below!

April in the Reader's Den - "You Know Nothing of My Work!" by Douglas Coupland, Week 4

Sherri Liberman, Mulberry Branch — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:50:21 -0400

Primarlly I chose You Know Nothing of My Work! to highlight in the Reader's Den because I am a huge fan of its author, Douglas Coupland. He is famous for being associated with the phrase Generation X *, now a term nearly as well known as Marshall McLuhan's "global village." Coupland is the author of Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, among numerous other works of fiction and non-fiction.

Coupland's got chops as one of the great satirists of consumerism, social media, and pop culture for our times — a true disciple of Marshall McLuhan. Microserfs (1995) is a novel that paints a flourescent-lit portrait of the cubicle-driven lives of Microsoft employees. In fact most Coupland novels are set in seemingly mundane locations, such as the cast of characters that work at the store Staples in The Gum Thief (2007).

Moving furtively into the science fiction genre, Generation A (2009) takes place in the near future, in a world where bees no longer exist; except when five seemingly unconnected people from all over the world are stung, they are brought together, exploited in a media frenzy, then ferreted away to a remote Canadian island by a scientist with dubious motives.

It's just a theory, but I'd like to think Coupland's droll style of writing has profoundly impacted both film and television over the last two decades, with the success of shows such as The Office, The IT Crowd, and the proliferation of mumblecore filmmaking.

Thanks for following along in the Reader's Den! Stay tuned for next month's selection — The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell.

AND — please join us for some LIVE booktalking at the Mulberry Street Library Book Discussion group. We meet the last Wednesday of the month at 6pm. We will be discussing Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh on Wednesday April 25th, 2012 at 6pm.

*The actual credit for this phrase might go to Kurt Vonnegut, from a 1994 Commencement speech at Syracuse University. "Now you young twerps want a new name for your generation? Probably not, you just want jobs, right? Well, the media do us all such tremendous favors when they call you Generation X, right? Two clicks from the very end of the alphabet. I hereby declare you Generation A, as much at the beginning of a series of astonishing triumphs and failures as Adam and Eve were so long ago."

April Reader's Den: You Know Nothing of My Work! by Douglas Coupland - Week 3

Sherri Liberman, Mulberry Branch — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:30:00 -0400

It is worth noting that both Marshall McLuhan and his biographer Douglas Coupland, each keen observers of modern communication technologies, are both from Canada. It is also a place called home to Harold Adams Innis, a contemporary of McLuhan's, who was another early pioneer of media studies. Coupland says of Innis and McLuhan "This ability to contemplate wide distances with no overriding imperialist agenda gave both men a sense of intellectual freedom."

Sharing a border with the United States, nearly 90% of the Canadian population lives within 100 miles of the US border. McLuhan was quick to perceive the possibilities of cultural domination via the media, and espoused that American television would be a potential threat to Canadian identity. Except of course, for Québec, which has another influence of cultural identity than does the rest of Canada, due to being a French island in a sea of North Americans. The French language served as an effective barrier to the invasion of American culture, while on the other hand, television and other electronic media's impact helped modernize Québec, and integrate it from an isolating provincialism.

Which leads us to the concept of the global village. McLuhan exorts in Understanding Media that electronic technology has shrunk the world to the level of a village, having these visions nearly 30 years before the popularization of the Internet. He says, "A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organization, retrieve the individual's encyclopedic function and flip into a private line to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind."

Questions

Do you think computers will ever make the library obsolete?
Have you ever been to Canada? How does it differ from the United States?
In what ways has being on the Internet expanded your understanding of the "global village"?

April in the Reader's Den: "You Know Nothing of My Work!" by Douglas Coupland, Week 2

Sherri Liberman, Mulberry Branch — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:58:24 -0400

A meme, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is defined as "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." Memes these days spread like wildfire. Everything from celebrity gossip to socio-political movements jump from one mind to the next seemingly faster than the speed of light with the ease of electronic communications. This was Marshall McLuhan's modern vision, though his thought processes were extrapolated from historical roots.

The subject of McLuhan's doctoral dissertation at Cambridge University was English Elizabethan pamphleteer and playwright Thomas Nashe. Prior to the advent of journalism, writers used pamphlets as a short form of communicating religious, critical, and satirical ideas. A contemporary of Shakespeare, Nashe was known for his witty, incisive observations on English society. His anti-Puritan stance led him to many a pamphlet quarrel, the Elizabethan equivalent of a poetry slam.

The power of the meme shines most brightly through art and through protest. Some powerful examples that come to mind include the light projections of Jenny Holzer, and most recently, the Occupy Wall Street movement, spurred on by the efforts of Adbusters magazine. Holzer is a feminist artist, well known for her large-scale public displays. She utilizes billboards, projections on buildings, and LED signs similar to those used in Times Square to broadcast often uncomfortable messages about consumption and women's rights.

No matter where you stand along the Occupy Wall Street spectrum, the phrase "occupy" has now undeniably entered mainstream consciousness. On my way to work the other day, I noticed someone had scrawled in spray paint on a brick wall the words "Occupy Walls." This burgeoning political movement will likely be engaging our time and attention, especially as the presidential election heats up. Perhaps it will even spawn a new era of pamphleteering with paper, electronic or some other heretofore unknown medium.

Questions

What advertising slogans stick with you the most? Why do you think that is? Do you think that advertisements have much of an influence on your behavior (buying, lifestyle choices, etc.)?
What memes have entered your consciousness over the past year or so?

April in the Reader's Den: "You Know Nothing of My Work!" by Douglas Coupland - Week 1

Sherri Liberman, Mulberry Branch — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:31:10 -0400

In case you know nothing of his work, we shall open April's book discussion of Douglas Coupland's biography of Herbert Marshall McLuhan with a video clip of the famous scene from Woody Allen's Annie Hall. Coupland, author of Generation X, employs literary techniques that mimic the digital world in the unfolding of McLuhan's story. Footnotes lead to Wikipedia entries, and dialogue is pulled directly from online discussion groups. McLuhan's bibliography appears throughout the book in the form of Abebooks rare book sales, and a test for symptoms of autism (McLuhan is suspected of being on the spectrum) are included in the text as an example of the impact of the Internet's style on our ever evolving and/or shrinking attention spans.

McLuhan's range of study was vast — religion, education theory, philosophy, and poetics were all tentacles in his intellectual purview. But it was McLuhan's role in positing communications and media theory directly in the spotlight of 20th century scholarship that has garnered him such a revered role in the pantheon 20th century thinkers. The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects, first published in 1967, was his best-selling work. Also released as an audio recording, McLuhan espouses on the powerful role of advertising and media on our human senses and emotions.

Having coined the phrase "the global village" in the early 1960s, McLuhan predicted that electonic communications would soon shrink the world into the size of a village, clairvoyantly announcing the age of the Internet nearly 30 years before it existed. Physical distance has eliminated geographic factors as a hindrance to communication, and McLuhan envisioned this entity as an extension of human consciousness.

Questions for the Reader's Den:

In what ways has communication technology influenced or changed your behavior?
Would you rather watch TV or surf the Internet?
If you were deciding to vote in an election, what sources would you use to make up your mind about a candidate?

March Reader's Den: Wrap-Up and Reading List for "Love and Summer"

Jessica Cline, Mid-Manhattan Library, Art and Picture Collections — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:43:05 -0400

“The music ceased, the whine of the needle on the empty centre of the record so faint it was hardly anything. Still dwelling in his exile, Florian finished his cigarette and stubbed it out in the grass. The sun was slipping away, the evening light becoming dusky. Jessie clambered to her feet when he did, went back with him to the drawing-room, where he lifted the needle off. In the kitchen he put sausages on to fry.” (Love and Summer, p. 61)

Thank you all for joining The Reader’s Den in reading Love and Summer by William Trevor.

For further reading you may enjoy these titles mentioned in the novel:

The Beautiful and the Damned, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Razor's Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham
The Fashion in Shrouds, by Margery Allingham
The Crime at Black Dudley, by Margery Allingham

And, if you would really like to get into the spirit of the novel check out Old Moore's Almanac, which is mentioned in Love and Summer as where Dillahan stores money for the insurance man (p.19).

Other great titles from William Trevor include:

Felicia’s Journey
The Story of Lucy Gault
The Hill Bachelors
A Bit on the Side
Cheating at Canasta

Also, listen to author Jhumpa Lahiri read from William Trevor’s short story "A Day".

Finally, some more award-winning fiction from contemporary Irish authors:

John Banville, The Sea
Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture
Emma Donoghue, Room
Colm Toibin, The Master

We look forward to reading You Know Nothing of My Work! by Douglas Coupland with you in April.

March Reader's Den: Discussion Questions for "Love and Summer"

Jessica Cline, Mid-Manhattan Library, Art and Picture Collections — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:38:46 -0400

Welcome back to the Reader's Den. This week, I would like to post a few questions for you to consider while reading Love and Summer and developing relationships with its characters.

If you were to pass one of these characters on the street, would you recognize him/her?

"'It’s not a terrible place,' Ellie Said, as if she knew what he was thinking. 'It's only something happened there.'" (Love and Summer, p. 127)

There is often a sense of mystery and foreboding in Trevor’s writing. What characters or actions bring a sense of uneasiness and mystery to the novel?
Miss Connulty is eager to expose a scandal between Ellie and Florian. Do you think she is living vicariously through Ellie, transferring her own lost desires on the younger woman? Or is she trying to protect Ellie from the same heartbreak and loneliness that have plagued her life as the keeper of the lodging house?

"Arranging egg, bacon, and corner of fried bread on his fork…" (Love and Summer, p. 106)

How does food add to the authenticity of the novel?
Is there a color you would associate with this novel?
Are either Dillahan or Florian in love with Ellie?

Please leave your thoughts, comments, and questions at any time.

Mystery Summer

Thomas Knowlton, Mid-Manhattan Library, Language and Literature — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:19:19 -0400

Do you enjoy Film Noir, Swedish mysteries, Agatha Christie, espionage thrillers, potboilers, or Sherlock Holmes? Mystery Summer promises to fill your summer months with Film Noir screenings, mystery book discussions, and more, all at Mid-Manhattan Library!

Check out a sample of our upcoming mystery-themed events below and watch this space for even more announcements as we get closer to June.

"[Film noir] has a singular position in the brief history of American motion pictures: a body of films that not only presents a relatively cohesive vision of America but that does so in a manner transcending the influences of auteurism or genre..." — Alain Silver, Film Noir Reader

Join us Wednesdays at 7 p.m. (on the first floor) and Sundays at 2 p.m. (on the sixth floor) for Film Noir at Mid-Manhattan Library. All screenings are FREE and seating is first-come, first-served.

Download official flier: Wednesdays | Sundays

MAY Wed May 30, 2012 The Maltese Falcon (1941, 101 min) 7 p.m. JUN Sun Jun 3, 2012

Mildred Pierce (1945, 113 min)

2 p.m. Wed Jun 6, 2012 Double Indemnity (1944, 107 min) 7 p.m. Sun Jun 10, 2012 Scarlet Street (1945, 103 min) 2 p.m. Wed Jun 13, 2012 Murder, My Sweet (1944, 95 min) 7 p.m. Sun Jun 17, 2012 Notorious (1946, 101 min) 2 p.m. Wed Jun 20, 2012 Detour (1946, 67 min) 7 p.m. Sun Jun 24, 2012 The Big Sleep (1946, 114 min) 2 p.m. Wed Jun 27, 2012 Lady in the Lake (1946, 103 min) 7 p.m. JUL Sun Jul 1, 2012 Gilda (1946, 120 min) 2 p.m. Wed Jul 4, 2012 Library Closed for Independence Day N/A Sun Jul 8, 2012 The Big Clock (1948, 95 min) 2 p.m. Wed Jul 11, 2012 Out of the Past (1947, 97 min) 7 p.m. Sun Jul 15, 2012 Woman in the Window (1944, 99 min) 2 p.m. Wed Jul 18, 2012 Crossfire (1947, 86 min) 7 p.m. Sun Jul 22, 2012 Sunset Boulevard (1950, 110 min) 2 p.m. Wed Jul 25, 2012 The Lady From Shanghai (1948, 87 min) 7 p.m. Sun Jul 29, 2012 Asphalt Jungle (1950, 112 min) 2 p.m. AUG Wed Aug 1, 2012 Gun Crazy (1949, 87 min) 7 p.m. Sun Aug 5, 2012 Strangers on a Train (1951, 101 min) 2 p.m. Wed Aug 8, 2012 In a Lonely Place (1950, 93 min) 7 p.m. Sun Aug 12, 2012 The Big Heat (1953, 90 min) 2 p.m. Wed Aug 15, 2012 D.O.A. (1950, 83 min) 7 p.m. Sun Aug 19, 2012 Sweet Smell of Success (1957, 96 min) 2 p.m. Wed Aug 22, 2012 Ace in the Hole (1951, 111 min) 7 p.m. Sun Aug 26, 2012 Touch of Evil (1958, 108 min) 2 p.m. Wed Aug 29, 2012 Narrow Margin (1952, 71 min) 7 p.m.

Still from In a Lonely Place (1950, 94 min)

Reader's Den is a monthly, online book discussion led by NYPL's resident bibliophiles.

Check out the book (or ebook) from NYPL's catalog and join us once a week for a lively blog discussion of the current month's selection. To celebrate Mystery Summer, we have four great mystery titles coming up:

MONTH TITLE AUTHOR DISCUSSIONS Jun 11/22/63 Stephen King 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Jul The Man Who Was Thursday G.K. Chesterton 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Aug The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Sep The Eyre Affair Jasper Fforde 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Photo: Snowshot, CC BY-NC 2.0

Love a good story?

Sit back and relax during Mixed Bag as storyteller extraordinaire Lois Moore reads you a story or two at lunchtime.

Wednesday afternoons from 1 to 2 p.m. Brown bag lunches are welcome!

DATE TITLE DESCRIPTION Jun 13, 2012 New York, New York: It's a Mysterious Town Mysteries set in New York City Jun 27, 2012 New York, New York:
It's a Mysterious Town Mysteries set in New York City Jul 18, 2012 Mean Streets of the City Noir stories from NYC and elsewhere Jul 25, 2012 Mean Streets of the City Noir stories from NYC and elsewhere

Photo: gigi4791, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

March Reader's Den: About the Author of "Love and Summer"

Jessica Cline, Mid-Manhattan Library, Art and Picture Collections — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:11:19 -0400

"Closing the gate again when she left the crab-apple orchard, she slipped the loop of chain over the gatepost. He had a way of hesitating before he spoke, of looking away for a moment and then looking back. He had a way of holding a cigarette. When he'd offered her one he'd tapped one out of the packet for himself and hadn't lit it. The rest of the time he was with her he'd held it, unlit, between his fingers." — Love and Summer, page 54

As you’ve been daydreaming of bouquets of lavender and hens in the crab-apple orchard, you may also have wondered about the background of the author who focuses on the trivial details that set such a vivid sense of place in the novel Love and Summer. This article "Talking with William Trevor: 'It all Comes Naturally Now'" by Constanza del Rio Alvaro (available in Literature Resource Center) gives some insight into Trevor’s inspiration and writing process: "I don't do anything more than write about people. If by chance, if on the way, I illuminate human nature in some way, well that's perfect."

Trevor was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1928 to a Protestant family. He attended Trinity College, and his early careers included being a teacher and a sculptor. He married and moved to England in 1952, where he has lived ever since. He published his first novel, A Standard of Behavior, in 1958 and is considered to be one of the best living short-story writers, and a playwright as well.

To read reviews of the novel Love and Summer, try these sources:

"Love and Summer" Publishers Weekly, July 6, 2009.
"A Fondness for Concealment" by Thomas Mallon. New York Times: September 18, 2009.
"Love and Summer by William Trevor: Sebastian Barry Applauds the Timeless Integrity of William Trevor" by Sebastian Barry. The Guardian. Friday, August 21, 2009.

In ending the post for this week, I'd like to encourage you to examine the characters by asking one discussion question before posing more in next week's post:

"'There's not many as lucky,' he'd heard one of his sisters say in a telephone call that was made to Cloonhill, and hadn't known whether it was he or the girl who was referred to" (Love and Summer, page 22).

In this quote from the novel, who do you think Dillahan's sister is referring to as the lucky one — Dillahan or Ellie? Why?

March Reader's Den: "Love and Summer" by William Trevor

Jessica Cline, Mid-Manhattan Library, Art and Picture Collections — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:24:47 -0500

"On the streets of darkened towns, on roads that are often his alone, bright sudden moments pierce the dark: reality at second hand spreads in an emptiness." — Page 211

It's March and the end of winter is in sight! I’d like to set the mood for this month's Reader's Den and the warm light of the upcoming months with a novel set in a more golden season. Although it is, in fact, still March, so why not honor St. Patrick’s Day with an Irish author whose novel is set in Ireland? Enter Love and Summer by William Trevor.

If you are someone still pining for February valentines or are yearning for poetry in April, this novel has something to offer you as well. It is a delicate love story written with balanced prose that evokes the temperature, the light, and the emotion of the story through thoughtful, spare words.

Ellie, an orphan, has a routine-driven life married to the widower Dillahan. She rides her bicycle from their farmhouse to the fictitious Irish town of Rathmoye once a week to deliver eggs and pick up necessities, connecting with the town’s locals. When a young photographer, Florian Kilderry, makes her acquaintance, love arrives quietly, in the way he holds his cigarette. In this novel, Trevor guides us through familiar emotions — passion and disappointment — creating hyper-real portraits with photographic details of the tablecloth pattern and the latch of the farmhouse gate during one gracefully composed summer.

Please join me this month in reading Love and Summer, and leave your comments and questions at any time.

Reader's Den: Wrap-up of "The Servants" by M.M. Smith

Soma Mitra, New Amsterdam — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 06:38:39 -0500

Thank you for participating in our online discussion of The Servants. You put forward some excellent insights and raised challenging points. I hope you enjoyed the book as much I did. I first read it years ago, re-read it last year, and — for the purposes of this discussion — read it again last month. On each reading, I found myself unwrapping another revelation or wondering about another mystery.

The essential metaphors become gradually apparent. The co-relation between Mark's mother's health and the secrets of the basement; the hierarchical arrangements of the staff; the essential, simple chores that are extremely important — these tell us about ourselves, our bodies, our well-being, and place in the world. The period details and the natural details — the weather and the ocean play their parts — add to the reader's experience.

This book can be appreciated by anybody age 12 and older. As a coming-of-age novel, it is one of the best. I hope our discussion encourages people to try it, and to those who did read it — a second reading will reveal more insights, I promise!

Reader's Den: Week 3 of "The Servants" by M.M. Smith

Soma Mitra, New Amsterdam — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:17:27 -0500

This week I'd like to focus on the period details of The Servants. Mark has already journeyed into a bygone era of domestic workers who lived and worked in the basement of the homes of the wealthy. The smooth running of the house (and the lives of its owners) depended on their working in tandem. The life of the servants below stairs was strictly structured and hierarchical — the butler, the housekeeper, the cook, and the kitchen maids all observed the traditions and the rules.

If you find these details interesting, you may want to check out Margaret Powell's book Below Stairs. The movie Gosford Park is a great introduction to life in the huge estates seen through the eyes of those below the stairs. The television show Upstairs Downstairs focuses on the lives of servants in a London townhome before WWI. For more recommendations, see "Waiting for Downton Abbey."

Questions for Discussion

Do the period details in the book feel authentic? Are they interesting?
What do you think about Mark's encounters with the people from the past? How does the first encounter affect him? Why does he feel he has to go back?
Meanwhile, what is happening upstairs? What is Mark slowly and gradually realizing about his mother? His father? David?
Why does the old lady say that somebody must watch the starlings (146-47)? What does that mean?
As we keep reading the book, do we notice a correlation between the chaos in the kitchen and Mark's mother's health?

Reader's Den: Week 2 of "The Servants"

Soma Mitra, New Amsterdam — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:56:34 -0500

By now we are well into The Servants by M.M. Smith. Our protagonist, Mark, is 11 years old and unhappy. Having just relocated to Brighton from London, he has no friends and spends the rainy, chilly days skateboarding by himself. Full of resentment against his new stepfather, David, and confused by his mother's illness, he meets an old lady who unlocks for him a bygone era in her basement flat in the 200-year-old house David owns.

From the cover design by James L. Iacobelli, to the references in the book, keys are an important motif in the story. Mark usually lets himself into David's house, which does not feel like home to him, with his own set of keys. The old lady uses her keys to let herself into the tiny apartment which is her home. The large key opens the door to the secret rooms of the servant's quarters:

"She fitted the key into its lock and turned it with an apparent effort. It made a loud, hollow sound, like a single horse's hoof landing on the road. She turned the knob and pushed, and the door opened away from her, slowly receding, without any sound at all" (p. 37).

Why are keys important in the story? What might they symbolize? Please share any insights you may have.

Although Mark is the narrator, the story opens with the old lady. Why is that? What is significant about the old lady's thoughts on the body and on aging?

A last question (or two) until we meet again — do you like or dislike Mark? What is your perception of David so far?

February Reader's Den: "The Servants" by M.M. Smith

Soma Mitra, New Amsterdam — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:11:05 -0500

Welcome to the Reader's Den selection for the month of February 2012: The Servants by M.M. Smith. Michael Marshall Smith is generally known for his sci-fi and mystery novels. The Servants — a subtle little ghost story and coming-of-age novel — is a departure from this genre.

Mark, a troubled pre-teen, has had to relocate from his familiar London to the seaside town of Brighton, in bleak winter. Mark's mother is getting progressively sicker and Mark does not get along with his new stepfather, David. He misses his father and has very little contact with him. Then he meets, and is befriended by, an old woman who rents the basement apartment of the old house his stepfather owns.

His quiet little teatimes with her become something else when he discovers a warren of rooms leading into the heart of the basement, which used to be the servant's domain — the kitchen, the cellar, the pantry, the servants' hall, and their bedrooms — dusty and unused for ages. However, as Mark ventures into the servant's quarters on his own, time after time, he discovers another era, a time when the smooth running of the house depended on the staff in the basement. He travels back in time and learns to deal with his own problematic present from the servants. Atmospheric, eerie and poignant, I hope you will join me in reading and discussing The Servants.

January Reader's Den: "The House of Silk" by Anthony Horowitz and Read-a-Likes

Nilda Lopez, Belmont Library — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:55:45 -0500

Thank you to all the readers and followers of the Reader's Den!

I hope everyone enjoyed The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz and his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. I sure did! I hope all the avid readers will come back for next months Reader's Den and hopefully Anthony Horowitz will continue the Sherlock Holmes series.

Here are two lists of books available at NYPL: the first is a series written by Anthony Horowitz, and the second by Sir Conan Doyle.

Alex Rider Series:
Scorpia Rising
Crocodile Tears
Stormbreaker
Snakehead

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection

Similar historical mystery authors include Anne Perry and Agatha Christie. Similar detective fiction authors include J. D. Robb, Patricia Cornwell, David Baldacci, and Sue Grafton.

I hope some of these books and authors are of interest. Please join us for December's edition of the Reader's Den with The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith!

Reader's Den January: "The House of Silk" Discussion Questions

Nilda Lopez, Belmont Library — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:45:22 -0500

I hope everyone has read (or is reading) the newest Sherlock Holmes novel, The House of Silk, and has met (or are meeting) the wonderfully complex characters — including an encore performance from Sherlock's brother, Mycroft Holmes.

Many questions came to mind, especially relating to the House of Silk's subject matter. In the spirit of not giving away the secrets of the novel, for those who intend to read (or are reading) it, here are some questions that will help start the thought process while maintaining the surprises.

Discussion Questions

Anthony Horowitz's acknowledgements say, "Writing this book has been a joy and my hope is that I will have done some justice to the original."
If you are an avid reader of Arthur Conan Doyle's novels, how does Anthony Horowitz's version compare?
"Holmes, you insist upon seeing yourself as a machine." — John Watson.
Do you believe this to be so? Or do you think that Dr. Watson is oversimplifying Holmes character based on previously solved cases?
When following Holmes's logic, do you believe that he is drawing the right conclusions and assumptions based on the evidence provided in the novel? Would his conclusions be probable in the real world or in the historical narrative?
What were your reactions to the realization of what the House of Silk was and what it entailed?
Were you surprised by Horowitz's evolution of the novel?
Did John Watson and Sherlock Holmes reveal new sides of their characters in this novel?
Did the other characters — especially the various criminals — come to life and become human beings or merely ghastly versions of villainy?
Watson writes, "For all men are equal at the moment of death and who are we to judge them when a much greater judge awaits."
Do you agree, even if the person in question tried to harm you or your family?
What would your reaction be if you had been Holmes or Watson in this case of the House of Silk?
Would your actions or reactions be any different — regardless of sex, religion or creed?
There were two mysteries to be solved — the case of the Man in the Cap and the House of Silk. Detective Lestrade oversimplified one and had no clue of the other. Do you believe that Holmes is a better detective merely because he became so entrenched in the mystery, or is he like Dr. Gregory House and addicted to puzzles?

I hope you like these questions and have many more of your own to offer! Please leave comments and observations. Looking forward to next week for our wrap-up and read-a-likes.

January Reader's Den: "House of Silk" Author Information

Nilda Lopez, Belmont Library — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:05:51 -0500

"Holmes, you insist upon seeing yourself as a machine... Even a masterpiece of impressionalism is to you nothing more than a piece of evidence to be used in the pursuit of a crime." — Dr. John Watson.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are back on the case in this new adventure, and Anthony Horrowitz certainly brings them to life. This title introduces a new vision of how Holmes and Watson interact with their foes and allies. It also provides a new dimension to the vision that is Sherlock Holmes. This latest novel is titled House of Silk.

As a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fan, as many of you certainly are, I was intrigued that his estate allowed a new novel to be written after 125 years. They chose Anthony Horowitz, a renowned teen author, to continue the tradition and bring life to our favorite crime solving team. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Alex Rider series of novels, and the award-winning writer of PBS's Foyles War and Collision, as well as many other films and television projects. The Holmes franchise has hit a new high with Robert Downey Jr. playing Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as Dr. John Watson.

Many of Conan Doyle's previous works featuring Holmes and Watson are mentioned throughout House of Silk. Although it is not necessary to to read all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works to enjoy House of Silk fully, there are many compilations of his stories of their adventures at your neighborhood library.