book club | The white woman on the green bicycle
Partnerships Built of Compromise The White Woman on the Green Bicycle
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Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig
The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison
The Way Things Look to Me
B y K e ija P arssin e n Photo courtesy of amazon
List from Good Reads:
by Roopa Farooki
I
n her powerful second novel, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle, which was short-listed for the Orange Prize, Trinidad-born Monique Roffey explores the complicated racial and political dynamics of the country through the eyes of expatriates George and Sabine Harwood. The Harwoods’ marriage suffers because of Sabine’s uneasy relationship with Trinidad, where she feels acutely conscious of her outsider status, and George’s insatiable love for, and resultant refusal to leave, the island. The novel spans from 1956 to 2006, and during the course of that time, we see Sabine and George, once passionately in love, grow apart. The book opens in 2006, when the marriage has already soured. After initially fighting it, Sabine resigns herself to life on the island and develops a dependence on Valium to get her through the hot days. George, unable to find satisfaction with his wilting wife, seduces half the women on the island and, discovering no reprieve there, drowns his sorrows in rum. While the Harwood marriage crumbles, we see the natives of Trinidad, galvanized by the electric orator Eric Williams, push for freedom from their British colonizers and establish independence. But just as moving back to England would not solve the Harwoods’ problems, so independence under a conflicted Williams does not fully emancipate the citizens of Trinidad. Partnerships, both political and marital, Roffey seems to say, are built of compromises. The novel shows that the blind devotion with which we most often approach love or political ideals is both foolish but inevitable, the product of being human and having hope. The trick is how to survive disappointment when it arrives, which it most certainly will. Roffey’s prose is lucid and lush, and much like her characters, she doesn’t hold anything back. Each sentence is a pleasure — sometimes a hard pleasure — and evokes the island as it is, not as a reader might want it to be. The novel doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects such as racism, colonialism and infidelity. Rather, it attacks them head on and in unexpected ways and forces the reader to confront, and perhaps question, his or her own views. Roffey tells the truth beautifully, her characters flawed but compelling, her island world brutal but redeemed by hope.
Keija Parssinen received an M.F.A. in fiction from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote fellow. Her debut novel, Against the Kings of Salt, will be published by Harper Perennial in January 2012. Keija directs the Quarry Heights Writers' Workshop, a community for Columbia's creative writers. To find out more about the workshop, please visit the QHWW website, quarryheightsworkshop.blogspot.com.
The Man Who Disappeared by Clare Morrall
Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson
Fe atur ed Boo k Club : The Li t erazzas On how the group was founded, Anne Weller says: “We were a group of single, divorced or widowed women who often gathered on Fridays after work for a glass of wine; it was strictly social. But then Wendy [Evans] approached me with the idea of having a forum that would allow a better opportunity for us to get to know one another and to share our thoughts on books. Wendy and I met for coffee in early January 2011 and decided to poll the Friday night group for interest. Happily, many of the women expressed an interest, and in March we held an organizational meeting to set meeting times, date, select a name and pick the first few reads. The first meeting was held in April, where we discussed Water for Elephants, followed by a discussion of The Help in May. Our book for July is Unbroken. We are only just beginning!”
Members From Left: Wendy Evans, M.S.N., R.N., Legal Nurse Consultant, Legal Medical Matters LLC; Anne Weller, Retired Development Officer, University of Missouri; Shelley Lyle, R.N., D.D.S., Private Practice Dentist; Cora Butler, J.D., R.N., Director of Commercial Operations, Primaris Healthcare Solutions; Judy Freeman, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Missouri; Lynne Pye, Senior Coordinator Continuing Education, University of Missouri Extension; Elinor Arendt, Owner, Action Realty; Kitty Dickerson, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus,University of Missouri; Jana Hawley, Ph.D., HDFS Department Chair, University of Missouri; STANDING UP: Caroline Gower, Owner, Caroline and Company; Janice Schuerman, Senior VP/Corporate Secretary, MFA Inc.; Wanda Northway, Founding Partner, House of Brokers; NOT PICTURED: Carolyn Paris, Business Development, Callaway Bank; Dee Corn, Retired, School Administrator; Gina Boone, J.D., Attorney, Columbia Insurance Group; Julie Caplow, Ph.D., Faculty, University of Missouri; Yvette Gonzales, VP of Information Services, Shelter Insurance; Alfredo Mubarah, Associate Publisher, Columbia Home Magazine
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