Hello fall! For our October meeting, we met back at the library in the meeting room. It was kind of nice to be back, and we will plan to meet there for certainly the duration of this year's book club meetings. Up next
for November is The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride.
As always, if you are able to obtain a copy of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store elsewhere, we would encourage you to do so, as our copies are limited. Also, we'd like to remind our members to please be intentional about reading through the book club books and returning them to library in as timely a fashion as possible to help us be as efficient as we can in distributing the copies we are able to secure~ we appreciate your help! If you don't need a copy of The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, and you haven't already let us know, would you please leave us a note down below? Thanks!
One other thing while I have you, as we are now moving into the colder Minnesota months, we'd like to see if there is interest in the library setting up another recurring Zoom meeting for our monthly book club meetings. If you happen to know that you will be traveling, or will be out of town, or cozy in your house and would rather join the discussion via Zoom, please let us know fairly soon and we will work to make the necessary arrangements. Otherwise, we'll be seeing you in the meeting room from now until the weather warms back up again next Spring/Summer!
Without further ado!
Shattered by grief, the unstable Victor Frankenstein conducts a bizarre experiment, using electricity to shock inanimate matter and create an enormous man-like monster. Terrified by his own actions, Victor abandons his creation to the wilderness. Years later, the intelligent and hideous Creature finds his creator and demands his right to happiness. A tragedy of murderous rage and the fatal consequences of revenge quickly ensue.
Yet again, it would seem like we were all on mostly the same page with this book. No one loved it, or was inspired to read any more of Shelley's work, but no one passionately hated it either. We found it entirely too wordy and monotonous, a noticeable effort needed to be made in order to get through it. We thought the ending was disappointing and absurd.
On a more positive note, we were impressed that Shelley was just 18-years-old when she started writing Frankenstein, and 20 when it was published. A couple of us were glad to have read it in the end, regardless of our lack of enthusiasm for the read, as it seems like one of those classic novels that feels good to know you've read. Most of us thought Victor Frankenstein had a good soul (though it was mentioned we always thought the monster was named Frankenstein, not the scientist who created him), but found him wildly irresponsible and negligent, lacking all common sense, to create this fierce creature (though he wasn't altogether fierce at the onset) and then run away to let someone else deal with him. To additionally then also not arrange for protection of his family and new bride, especially after clearly seeing the monster's vengeance, and threats, against him firsthand.
A small few could also empathize with the monster's longing for companionship and his subsequent insistence on having a female fashioned. We tossed around the idea of Frankenstein making him a female, without reproductive capabilities, and letting them live out their days in some far off, uninhabited place (like the monster promised to do). We wondered why Frankenstein didn't kill the monster himself, or hire a mob to do the job, if he couldn't bring himself to slay his own creation.
Overall, this was a miss for us. What did you think of Frankenstein? Please let us know in the comments below! 👇
Did you love Frankenstein? Fans of the book also enjoyed, Dracula, by Bram Stoker, The Picture of Dorian Grey, by Oscar Wilde, and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. All of these titles are available within the Viking Library System~ reserve your copy today!
Would we
recommend this to a friend to read?
"NO"
Would we
recommend this to another book club for discussion?
"MAYBE"
