Dave & Mary
Jack and Shelia
Darryl and Barbara
Alice
Katherine
Kwame
Darryl kicked off the meeting with a reading from the novel, a passage exemplifying the author's descriptive writing of a scene.
Most folks seemed to feel the novel reads quickly, and didnt find the writing style difficult. Several expressed difficulty with the pacing of the novel, finding it slow and uninteresting.
Most in attendance did finish the novel. Some discussion centered on the several plot twists that occur throughout the book.
Most felt the characters of the two daughters were not well developed, particularly the younger sister. Marlow was seen as either a dark hero and moral, or as a pragmatist.
I used the mppl site for questions when necessary to advance the discussion, those questions can be found here: http://mppl.org/check-it-out/book-discussion-questions-the-big-sleep/
Our next read, selected in December, is Anthony Doerr "All the Light We Cannot See". At 550 pages, that novel is a 6-week read, so the date for that meeting is set for 5 March. For March we selected a short read, Jack Keroack "On The Road", taking us somewhat back into American canonical works. Keroack is one of the best known of the beat authors.
Our newest member Kwame agreed to select a poem for reading for the next meeting, and Alice said she would look for one as well.
Regarding future choices, a preference was indicated to move in the direction of more "punishing" works, and away from the lighter and shorter works of the last several months. An active side-discussion of David McCullough "John Adams" led to a suggestion we try either history or biography as a selection soon. I'll check the lists and suggestions sent previously (you can see those on the notes page of the blog) to see if anything previously suggested but not already on the list qualifies. The McCullough "John Adams" was on our choices list already.
