Our February book, The Things they Carried, generated a heated discussion on whether or not it was fiction or fact. Tim O'Brien's fictionalized story of his time in Vietman during the 1960's, caused some of us to discount it as just his fantasy of his experiences that didn't ring true. Others argued strongly that sometimes what is made up can provide more insight into the humanity of the men and their situation than any factual account of feelings and actions. O'Brien referenced the idea of the difference between real stories and true stories throughout the book, which helped us all come to some understanding of his goal in writing this book. We were in complete agreement as to the power of his language and his ability to evoke emotion in his characters.
Our next book will be The Third Coast: When Chicago Built the American Dream by Thomas Dyja. Here is a link to a review from The New York Times. We will meet Wednesday, April 3 in Room 115 of the Richardson Library. Remember that we now start our group at 11 am. We gather at 11, with discussion from 11:30 to 12:30, so please bring your brown bag lunch! For further information contact Kathryn DeGraff or Helen Marlborough.
We will continue to review the titles on our list for consideration for upcoming discussions. Please let Kathryn, Helen, or anyone else in the group, know if you have a favorite book you would like to share with your DES colleagues. As you can tell from the posts, we are interested in a wide range of fiction and non fiction. We enjoy our sessions thoroughly and always have room for more people and more insights.
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