May meeting - July book: Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

Dear Bookgroup People,
What a lovely meeting at Jane's place. Good turnout, missed Ros though. Split decision as to the merits of the book, The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead. More than half of us loved it, and embraced its innovative approach to history but others had no patience with it, and didn't read more than a couple of chapters. Making the underground railway metaphor into a clanking huffing reality was, for me, an audacious piece of writing, that sent me off to check the internet. Sending Cora on the journey through several states, several different slave experiences, that happened in reality across decades, made the political personal. I was gripped by her journey, her bravery and her optimism. We found the quote a few chapters from the end, from Lander's oratorary at the Valentine farm, that seemed to sum up the point of the book, in classic cadences of black American rhetoric. Is this it, Sue? Maybe I've cut too little...

“For we are Africans in America. Something new in the history of the world, without models for what we will become.
“Color must suffice. It has brought us to this night, this discussion, and it will take us into the future. All I truly know is that we rise and fall as one, one colored family living next door to one white family. We may not know the way through the forest, but we can pick each other up when we fall, and we will arrive together.”

Excerpt From: Whitehead, Colson. “The Underground Railroad.” Doubleday, 2016-09-13. iBooks.
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Anyway, food for thought, and yes I'd definitely recommend the book.

Lots of us had been to the writer's festival, so we got some reviews. Positives about a session on Helen Garner's writing, prompted by a new book. No one had seen Colson Whitehead though.

Finally, the next book came down to a vote. We were considering Liam Piper's The Toymaker, Noah Hawley's Before the Fall and Sebastian Barry's Days Without End. The last was the winner, by a show of hands, so we will be talking about it at my place in July. Next month at Stella's for the Heather Rose book.

April meeting- June book: Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose

I wasn't at the last meeting, so a short post.

Our June book will be Heather Rose's Museum of Modern Love - at Stella's.

See you on Sunday at Jane's for our May meeting, discussing Coulson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad.