February & March 2008 Fiction Book Suggestions

bklvr · Newbie Joined: 04 Jan 2008 Posts: 4 Gender:

Ophelia - yes, I have read A Thousand Splendid Suns and it is one of my favorites. I will find that thread on here for sure.

Can't wait to hear what you think of Fire Bell!

irishrosem · Doctorate Joined: 19 Oct 2006 Posts: 536 Gender:

Just to clarify I didn’t list those titles as actual suggestions, just to demonstrate the types of books I was thinking we might want to consider.

MadArchitect · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:53 pm Post subject:

Too late! You named them, and now I'm holding you to them!

Mr. Pessimistic · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 2:56 pm Post subject:

Niall001 · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:09 pm Post subject:

Chris OConnor · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:17 pm Post subject:

How about this....

You guys pick the next fiction book and tell me what you decided. I suggest doing so rather quickly though, as we want to give people enough time to get a copy long before the reading period starts.

Mad, would you like to handle the selection process?

Ophelia · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:56 pm Post subject:

Chris OConnor · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 4:08 pm Post subject:

Exactly! I thought you were up to no good. LOL

It is just that I need some help once in a while. Mad is a pretty organized and thorough person. He can handle this very well if he has the time and desire.

Oh, and you're doing a really good job of greeting new people in the Intro forum and I do appreciate it. Thank you, Ophelia. Smile

Chris OConnor · Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 5:05 pm Post subject:

Persepolis is non-fiction.

Ophelia

I suggest:

We need to talk about Kevin, by Lionel Shriver.

This novel is nothing like what you usually read about violence, about teenagers, about violent children or boys.
I found it touching, puzzling, shocking --in an unusual way (graphic violence is kept to the bare minimum).

The narrator is the mother of a teenage murderer. What feels very weird at first is that her view seems to be so much AGAINST her son, in a way which is not caricatural-- hence disturbing.

There is no easy explanation, as opposed to movies in which children are clearly born without feelings, and we are told, as in the film "Rosemary's Baby" that the child was fathered by the Devil himself.

What is it about fiction that makes it so memorable when it works?
Art. Sometimes genius. The ability to somehow condense experience in a way that no book written by, say, a journalist or an academic, can equal.
[ As opposed to the novel, I have recently read awork by an academic: " Lost boys: why our sons turn violent and how we can save them."
I have nothing negative to say about this book, but I realize that now, after a few days, I remember nothing].

My first impression was that this was somehow breaking a taboo-- one does not, even in fiction, write a book about a child, least of all one's child, in a negative way. I am not a parent, but I wondered how parents could react to such unusual material -- I was bothered enough to check on the internet what readers and critics had written -- everything was positive.
Here is the link to amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/We-Need-Talk-About-Kevin/dp/B0002TX4QQ/ref=sr_1_ 1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199487332&sr=1-1


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