Once again the faithful members of the Barga Book Club on Wednesday were cosseted and pampered in the luxurious, warm and cozy ambience of a 17th C. palazzo in Barga Vecchia with the, as always, sumptuous and inventive repast, ostensibly to discuss Spring Sonata by Bernice Rubens. This book polarized the few who read it, in two distinct camps. You either loved it or hated it.
The story is a fantastical tale of absurdist black comedy of foetal passive rebellion and resistance against a seriously dysfunctional family and its destructive designs on his future, as related via a diary kept in the womb and discovered on the decease of the mother and child.
Helen and Margaret thoroughly enjoyed it and in its defense cited its tragic, inventive, comic, extraordinary plot with bizarre absurd story line and imaginative characters becoming stronger as the story unfolds. Conjuring Philip Larkin’s This Be the Verse, They fuck you up, your mum and dad… the bleak sinister elements were justified in flashes of honesty and truth, simultaneously absurd and insightful, surprising, astounding, fascinating and surreal.
“The acid test of a good piece of writing, even if it is of violence and cruelty,is that it must make one’s ears water.” – Bernice Rubens
Kerry and Krysia in the other camp found it a difficult read, at times revolting, even at times misogynistic, the writer seemly describing the female body in repulsive terms, as though she herself found it distasteful. It could be considered a cautionary tale, a fable like parable in the tradition of extreme exaggeration of absurdist theater but the means of conveyance belittled the poignantly poetic message.
Thank you to everyone who participated! Nothing like a good discussion to make the event memorable.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday February 27th at Selene’s to discuss The Gathering by Anne Enright
The Books chosen for subsequent months are:
March: Children of the Sun by Doris Lessing
April: Stoner by John Williams
May: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
June: Title to be announced, by Michael Ondaatje
Article by Kerry Bell – more can be found on the Barga Book Club site here
