The Great Books Society is holding a Discussion on
SATURDAY OCTOBER 18
John Banville’s Winning novel,
The Sea
“This is a novel in which all Banville’s remarkable gifts come together to produce a real work of art, disquieting, disturbing, beautiful, intelligent, and in the end, surprisingly, offering consolation.”
The Sea is where Max Morden, a middle-aged art historian, retreats after his wife dies of cancer. Max goes to the Irish seaside village of Ballyless where he once spent a holiday as a boy. While there, he alternately remembers his life with his wife and that summer holiday where he became infatuated with the wealthy and sophisticated Grace family, first with the mother, and then with the daughter. These relationships with these three women were the uneasy mess of life that helped define who he has come to be. Even now in retrospect, Max must remember even the most difficult truths if he is to find solace in them……
Turns story of Adam and Eve upside down: the apples don’t do anything, Adam and Eve only thought they did.
Environmental Book
Regeneration, Pat Barker
Chronicles the WWI poetic minds of Britain, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilferd Owens.
Quick read.
Discusses the effects of war on the self.
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Movie.
Romance
Attempts to reconcile reality with fiction, the emotional, subjective mind with an objective reality.
Raise High the Roof Beams Carpenters, JD Salinger
About 50 pages.
One of his best short stories
All Men are Mortal, Simone de Beauvoir
The main character, a egocentric actress, attempts make herself immortal through a man who is.
About 350 pages.
Tomcat In Love, Tim O’Brien
First person narrative from a very unreliable narrator.
Brings up some interesting gender issues
Issues of bad-faith
The Constant Gardner, John Le Carre
Movie
Discusses ethical issues such as self sacrifice and the dignity of all human beings, including the “expendable” populations of third world countries.
The movie is excellent. The book is a bit long…
The Sea, John Banville
The story is told by Max Morden, a self-aware, retired art historian attempting to reconcile himself to the deaths of those whom he loved as a child and as an adult.
200 pages
Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Stephen Adley Guirgis
79 pages
Imagines lawyers battling Judas’ right to go to Heaven in Purgatory
Six Characters in Search of an Author, Luigi Pirandello
The play spends much time vividly demonstrating the limitations of the theatre as a medium of story-telling. Thus the play can be regarded as simply an exercise in the now much-explored realm of meta-theatre; however, it also delves into the larger questions of defining existence and hints at the responsibilities inherent in creativity.
A bit gruesome in the end…
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard
Movie.
The Crucible, Arthur Miller
American classic
Being performed by Abbey Players this fall
Beloved, Toni Morrison
My sister recommended this. It’s supposed to “blow you away:.
There is a film.
Depicts the tumultuous and disheartening life of a slave fighting for her and her children’s liberty from slavery and the ghosts of their past.
Selected Stories by Nikolai Gogol
Those Russians can write…
Selected Short Stories by Joseph Conrad (“Youth” and “The Lagoon”)
The Lagoon - The main theme of the story is that death is inescapable, humans often have the illusion that through ‘true love’ nothing can touch us, and that love makes one whole. In order to succeed in life, one must overcome these illusions.
Youth - A Narrative is a story within a story about the exuberance of youth and the romantic illusions that the young have about life.
He has other great stories. It’s amazing that he only finished learning English in his late youth.
Your are Invited to Join The Anselmian Great Books Society
On Sunday January 27th at 5 pm in Bradley House Lounge
for dinner and a discussion of the book
The Kite Runner
By Khaled Hosseini
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, and it is also about the power of fathers over sons-their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
Any familiarity with the text or it’s issues is welcome.
