Saturday, January 12, 2008

Divine Comedy of Errors Book Club

Since several of you expressed interest, let's give this book club a try. I've come up with a list of contenders for our first selection. You can vote for your choice in the comments.

1. Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson.
"As a 67-year-old, Trond moves to an isolated part of Norway to live out the rest of his life quietly. After meeting his closest neighbor, he is forced to confront things from his youth that he'd spent years avoiding."

2. Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn.
"The story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater and paterfamilias set out — with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes — to breed their own exhibit of human oddities."

3. Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson.
"In 1956, toward the end of Rev. John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears." Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.

4. Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie.
"Born at the midnight of India's independence, Saleem is handcuffed to history by the coincidence. He is one of 1001 children born that midnight, each of them endowed with an extraordinary talent." Winner of the 1993 Booker of Bookers (best Booker prize novel of the past 25 years).

5. True History of the Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey.
"Indentured by his bootlegger mother to a famous horse thief (who was also her lover), Ned saw his first prison cell at 15 and by the age of 26 had become the most wanted man in the wild colony of Victoria, taking over whole towns and defying the law until he was finally captured and hanged." Winner of the 2001 Booker Prize.

The winner will be announced on Friday.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even though I normally avoid books with horses on the cover or in the title, I vote for number one Out Stealing Horses.

Kris said...

I vote for the True History of the Kelly Gang, only because it's sitting unread on my bookshelf right now. I bought it for the Snook a few years ago, and both of us have found it IMPENETRABLE. The entire thing is "written" by Ned himself, an illiterate Irish bushranger, and the effect of reading it is like the first time you watch "Trainspotting." You know it's English, but for the life of you, you can't work out what he's on about.

And besides that, it takes place in Australia! And I've got access to actual Australians who can explain what things mean if we get confused. :)

Kevin said...

Even though I can't do your book club, I vote for the Kelly Gang. Quite an interesting story. And who doesn't like guns and violence?

eileen said...

Kevin, why can't you do book club? You get that it's just through the blog, not actual meetings, right?

Anonymous said...

Geek Love or Midnight's Children.

Anonymous said...

Midnight's children
Caro

Patrick said...

Midnight's children

Anonymous said...

Midnight's Children

Anonymous said...

Darn, it looks like I'm losing, but Geek Love.