Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The Book Club at the Women's Shelter

I did not think The Bluest Eye was a good choice as the first book for the book club at the women's homeless shelter.  Most of the women at the shelter are black.  The book, by Toni Morrison, is about a black girl who wants blue eyes.  I have blue eyes.  Sensible AmeriCorps volunteer though I was, I felt like the elephant in the room.

A staff member at the shelter had thought the book would be a good pick for the club.  It's a classic; it provides for good discussion; it's written by a venerable black female author who could be a role model to anyone in the universe.  So I agreed to it, found several used copies, and went to the first meeting brimming with books and gift bags.

As it turns out, race has nothing to do with why The Bluest Eye was not a good choice for the book club at the women's shelter.  As far as I could tell, the women didn't care that Pecola is black, that Toni Morrison is black, that I have blue eyes.  What they did care about was that when you crack open the first pages of The Bluest Eye, you are hit with a story that you have to paw your way through.  It is beautiful, and it is difficult.

But this wasn't a literacy issue either.  No: the women in the club were perfectly literate.  All had graduated high school and one was enrolled in college classes.  When I handed The Bluest Eye to an older woman who was hiding behind her hair, she said she'd read it before.

Instead of all the possible reasons why The Bluest Eye wasn't a good choice for the book club, there is the most obvious reason, one that has nothing to do with race or literacy.

We closed the book and my next few sentences probably began with Or.  "Or whatever you want.  Or are there books you've been wanting to read?  Or what about James Patterson?"

At "James Patterson" the room came alive.  They had read all his books and wanted to read them again.  Titles flew back and forth so fast that I had to scribble to get them down, one after another after another -- and now we were on to authors I had never heard of, authors of fast-moving books of over-the-top drama, girls beating a staffer at their foster home nearly to death before running on to be thieves---

These were women who had just aged out of foster care, women who had been living in the shelter for years, women fighting for custody of their children, for solid futures, for solid footing.  They read to get out of their situations and into worlds that were more dramatic and often more horrible than theirs were.  They wanted to cross the boundary of reality, to leave it behind much like the romance-novel enthusiast with her wildflower fields and her muscled beau.

So I found the books they asked for and took them to the shelter.  The women read so fast that I didn't even try to run a formal discussion group, but I made sure always to have something new for them to read.  And as I watched them speed through the books week after week and bubble with delight at new titles, I realized that reading was each woman's road out while she plotted her next step forward.

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30 comments:

  1. You hit the nail on the head as to why that book didn't go over so well. I read it in college, and, proof of exactly how weird my family is, I suggested it to my Dad and we discussed the whole thing urbanely. I can't imagine what that book would have done to someone who had been an incest victim. It's very much a title designed to resonate with those who have been there, but who are there no longer, or to educate those of us who will never go.

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    1. You're right -- it is a book of trauma as well, and that adds more gravity. The last sentence you wrtoe says it perfectly.

      But I don't think many women read the book -- I was probably back the next week with Patterson given their tepid reception of The Bluest Eye. So really it was just the first few pages that turned them away. Admittedly, there is no spicy dramatic hook, or not like there is in books meant purely to entertain, "TV for the brain."

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  2. You really captured the love of reading.Great story. Oh, how I love getting caught up in a good book, and I certainly don't have it as hard as these women in the shelter do. Confession: I've never read a single James Patterson book. My husband's grandmother thinks I'm an idiot, but I'm well-read, I promise.

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    1. Thanks Susannah. I've read two James Patterson books and I did not become a fan. I didn't even find them fun -- too much gore! But I did see why people enjoy reading them. They are the same kind of melodrama that keeps a lot of TV shows going year after year.

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    2. You guys have to read the early ones - like Along came a spider and Kiss the Girls - you won't sleep at night - but the later ones are very trade paperbackish...

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    3. Along Came a Spider is one of the ones I've read -- and yes, it was a spooky one. The other one I read was a sequel to it -- Cat and Mouse, maybe? Also made me double-check my doors and windows!

      I hear he doesn't even write the first draft of his novels anymore. Maybe hearsay. But seems likely for such a prolific writer. Okay, I just looked up his bibliography... prolific is an understatement! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Patterson_bibliography

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  3. Oh, I don't know, Esther. You're probably reading too much into their reactions. The Bluest Eye is old as dirt and the themes , by contemporary standards, have been exhausted. After you've read all the James Patterson books and those cool alphabet mysteries by Sue Grafton, try Zadie Smith.

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    1. I would agree except that I don't think many women read the book! I'm sure I told them what it was about, though, and you're right that the themes are exhausted.

      I think they just wanted something fun. I love Toni Morrison. LOVE her. She's my favorite author. But I get why the women did not find The Bluest Eye fun. It is introspective. James Patterson is not.

      The two Patterson books I've read (both for book clubs) made me seasick, so I don't plan to read any more. Thanks for the recommendation, though! I don't think I've read Zadie Smith.

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  4. I notice that the harder my life is to stomach, the more I just want an easy escape, too, and reading is the best way. After every semester of college I would immediately read a "trash" novel, just to ease up a bit.

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    1. Yeah! Some books that I don't think are very good are otherwise relaxing and entertaining to read. I give them mediocre reviews on Goodreads, but I'm not sure that's fair!

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  5. My high school students loved it. Twice in the 12 years I taught it, I had students who said "It happened to me" - and they wanted to talk about it, just not in a public forum. It's one of my favorite books because of the way it enabled girls and boys to talk about race, gender, beauty, and bullying as it related to Pecola - not themselves. Everything is new to every person ONCE. It all depends when you catch them - or yourself.

    I think that it's not an escapist book, as you say. And that was probably what did it. I'm dropping out of my own book club - after searching for one for years - because they keep choosing HEAVY books. And I don't have time for all that. Life is heavy enough as it is right now.

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    1. That is wonderful that the book allowed your students a forum to talk about issues they wouldn't otherwise. I love how you say, "Everything is new to every person ONCE" -- an important thing to remember.

      Sad that you are dropping out of your book club! I've done the same -- they were choosing these dense non-fiction books that I just didn't care about at all. That was it for me.

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  6. I'm the opposite -- if it isn't fantastic, I don't have time to read it. But I'm also living a mainly sheltered life. I've never read Patterson, either.

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    1. I agree that it's not worth reading if it's not fantastic, but what I consider "fantastic" changes a lot depending on my mood. Sometimes "fantastic" doesn't need to mean a literary classic with beautiful prose. It can mean silly, hysterical, sad, or terrifying.

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    2. Jen, I agree. For example, sometimes a classic is NOT fantastic! Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein is perhaps the worst book I've ever read. The worst classic, anyway. Recently I read a children's book that is not a classic that I thought was fantastic (The Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher). It's a gamble. I have trouble not finishing a classic even if I hate it, though, and I'm still mad at Heinlein about it.

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  7. It's so much easier to explore dark places in books when they are not part of your own reality. I love Toni Morrison too, and I've never read James Patterson. But then, I've never experienced anything close to what the women at the shelter have. It's wonderful that you helped them find the pleasure and escape only a good read of one's own choosing can offer.

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    1. Good point about exploring dark places -- if you've lived something, you may not want to revisit it no matter how well an author has treated it.

      It was rewarding to help the women (and men at the men's shelter) through the book clubs. Reading is truly one's own little world.

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  8. As in school, and college, sometimes it's just that you don't want to read the things people tell you you should read, but will dive into the things you *want* to read. In some ways, I wonder if it's primarily that choosing - or having a hand in the choice - gave a sense of agency and investment that bringing a book suggested By The Shelter didn't do.

    Either way: Awesome on the book club, and best of luck!

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    1. Thanks Saalon! That's another good point. Choosing their own books probably made the book club feel more like their own. Of course, a recent bestseller might've gone over better as a suggestion too -- they gobbled up The Secret Life of Bees, for example (also much lighter than The Bluest Eye).

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  9. Very insightful and a great post. I've never actually read a Patterson book. Maybe I'll try one. Daniel Preston & Lincoln Child books are fast reads and have a lot of over the top drama. My favorites of theirs are called The Diogenese Trilogy

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    1. Thanks Chrystal! Patterson is worth a try if you like CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds, etc. Very much that genre. The writing is dizzying at times (inconsistent main character in Alex Cross) but they read fast.

      Thanks for the suggestions!

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  10. Oh I love James Patterson. I also like Dean Koontz and some cheesy romance stuff... It is fun to escape. It's the exact reason I avoid the biographies.

    Good luck with the Book Club!!

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    1. I've never read Dean Koontz. I feel like I should give all blockbuster bestselling authors a try. It's like cheesy TV -- it still serves a purpose.

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  11. I like that last bit- reading as the road out. Great post and sounds like a really interesting life experience, this book club. :)

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    1. Thanks Kiki! It was very interesting. I really admire the women (and men) I worked with.

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  12. After grad school, I was so sick of literary fiction and contemporary poetry that all I read were Star Wars books. Now I try to mix it up. lol

    Esther, this is a beautifully written post. The last line is especially poignant.

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    1. Thank you, Bee! LOL about the Star Wars books. I have never been that into Star Wars, more of a Trekkie, but I can see how that would be a great way to relax after reading lots of serious and "meaningful" stuff :)

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  13. I like to read light things that provide an escape a lot of the time, so that makes a lot of sense. I haven't read Patterson. It's fantastic what you do for the ladies there.

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  14. I tried to read The Bluest Eyes about 15 years ago and couldn't get through it. Heck I couldn't even get interested in it. I've volunteered at a domestic violence shelter and much of my work has been with at risk families trying to support and address their "challenges". What an interesting perspective you have doing it through something they enjoy.

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  15. What I appreciated most about this piece is the idea that everyone has his or her own perspective, and that perspective comes from experience, and what one person may find interesting, another has no interest in it at all. Me? I'm about as likely to read a James Patterson novel (or anything else I can find readily at Target or the supermarket checkout line) as I am to move back to my hometown. But that's just me, and the women in the shelter are just the women in the shelter. . . :)

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