We met last night at Sara's to admire her many cats, eat chocolate-covered pretzels and chocolate-coated shortbread and chocolate truffles (Oh. My. God.), and . . . something else . . . what was it? Oh yes, it was our book group!
We read The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant. One person liked the book very much, one person disliked it very much, and the rest of us were somewhere in the middle. It's more a series of scenes and vignettes than a true novel; that is, it doesn't have one major plotline or even one major theme. It mostly just provides a slice of life during the early nineteenth century in a desolate coastal area of northern Massachusetts. The community is dying, and we get to know its last few residents: freed slaves (presented and treated in an overly PC way), prostitutes, hard-working families, scoundrels, and so on. The characters are extremely two-dimensional; the bad people are irredeemably so (and they all die badly) and the good people nearly angelic (and they all survive or at least die in loving arms). So: not the most compelling reading around, but certainly not a waste of time. And those truffles! Heavens to Betsy.
Next up: Waiting by Ha Jin.
great new book choice
Posted by: dana | November 21, 2006 at 02:46 PM
I'm the only one I've ever talked to who thinks so, but I'm not much of an Anita Diamant fan....I think she writes like a man and doesn't have much of an original voice....but I've only read the Red Tent...maybe her other book(s?) are better.
Posted by: Karan | November 21, 2006 at 08:21 PM
she writes like a man
Such harsh criticism! :)
Posted by: scott | November 21, 2006 at 10:53 PM
I don't know what you mean "like a man," but her writing certainly didn't knock me out in this book by any means. I liked "The Red Tent," but again -- it wasn't her writing that made me like it! I enjoyed the story.
Posted by: Karen | November 22, 2006 at 08:11 AM
Fan or not of Anita Diamant's fiction, please consider reading her autobiographical essays (originally written as news columns) in Pitching Her Tent. I wasn't gaga over either Dogtown or Good Harbor, but truly loved hearing her voice on topics dear to her heart.
Posted by: Marcia Conner | January 22, 2007 at 03:50 PM
That's how I first knew of her -- many of those pieces appeared in the Boston Globe first! She's a local gal.
Posted by: Karen | January 22, 2007 at 03:54 PM