Political Fiction and Christmas Party
Meeting summary: Nov. 30
We had a very good turnout for our Christmas party, graciously hosted by Frances. Great food, lively discussion and lots of laughs.
American Wife by Curtis Suttenfeld (Barb, Pat, Kerry and Frances)
All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (Kathryn and Ada)
Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon (Teresa)
The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian (Teresa)
The Attack by Yasmini Khadra (Rhian)
Snow by Ozhan Pamuk (Antoinette)
A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre (Ingrid)
Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston (Wendy)
The Ghost by Robert Harris (Linda)
The Broker by John Grisham (Goldie)
Executive Orders by Tom Clancy (Goldie)
Crown Shyness by Curtis Gillespie (Lisa)
The next meeting will be at Goldie's on Friday, Feb. 6. Topic is humour. Hang on to your map!
posted by Kathryn at 9:28 PM
4 Comments:
All the King's Men by Robert Warren
OK I give up!. I know I claimed this was a wonderful rich lush novel, similar to double chocolate cheesecake and readable only in small bites. But now I've had too many bites. I made it to page 171 and I watched the original movie. But I can't take it anymore. Ada - you win!
Just to remind everyone - King's Men is the story of Willy Stark, a humble and idealistic man of the people, who rises to be a powerful politician and eventually engages in the very graft and corruption he had originally fought against. It takes place in the southern United States in the 1930's and is told from the point of view of one of Stark's political staff, who has his own sad tale of love lost and family dysfunction.
Considered one of the finest novels on American politics ever written, it won a Pulitzer prize.
I am one of 3 or 4? (can't remember) who read American Wife which is the fictionalize story of Laura Bush. I was probably 1/4 of the way in before I made the connection that this was her story. School librarian who marries a good old boy from a political family. It is a surprisingly good read and leaves one wondering how much is truth and how much is fiction. Brutal portrayal of Barbara Bush that really intrigued me. I'll be interested to hear what others have to say.
I also read American Wife. Knowing it was supposed to be a fictionalized account of Laura Bush I was surprised how little dealt with their political life. Even through fiction is is hard to believe why"Alice would marry "Charlie". However, it did point a compelling picture of the internal conflicts when the wife of a politician has a completely different view of the world.
I also read American Wife and enjoyed it and couldn't help wondering as I read it, "is this part real or fictionalized?" It made me want to read a Laura Bush biography.
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