The book club met on January 8 at 7:00 pm at the library. Several members found the book (The Outside World by Tova Mirvis) hard to get into, but they were glad they stuck with it. Some almost didn't go past the first chapter. We talked about the many interesting characters and issues: Ztippy who wants to escape from her mother, her mother who has been planning her wedding since before she was born, and Bryan who came back from Israel a very religious person, when he had gone over as a modern baseball-playing, college-bound young man.
How do the parents and sister relate to the new Bryan while they miss the old Bryan? What role is there for Shayna in Tzippy's life after the wedding?
Freed from having to think about getting married, Tzippy felt free to imagine more for her life. How did that affect her relationship with Baruch/Bryan? The marriage house is bigger than they thought ... there's always new rooms to discover.
Mirvis shows us an insular world, when the old and new collide. Things she asks the reader to consider include: isolation and assimilation; the fervor of the zealot, the doubt of the truly faithful; the hunger for freedom, the hunger for God; and the retreat in traditionalism that has become a worldwide phenomenon. http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/outside_world1.asp).
Tovis grew up in the Othodox Jewish community in Memphis, TN. She received her M.F.A. from Columbia University and now lives outside of Boston with her husband and two children.
Suggested reading:
Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Kaaterskill Falls by Allegra Goodman
Future Book Club Selections:
February 12 - Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks
March 11 - The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar
April 8 - Strange as this Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake
May 13 - Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
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