verbatim: Book Group

We met last night to discuss The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht. I didn't know what to expect, because the book has been met with such fanfare in the press, particularly for a young author's debut, but then I had heard a lot of people who didn't like it at all. I ended up really enjoying it, although I would stop short of calling it one of the best books of the year.

The story takes place somewhere in the Balkans. It seems clear that it's the former Yugoslavia (where Obreht is from), but specifics aren't given. The main character, Natalia, is a doctor, and her grandfather was also a doctor. He shared with Natalia his stories about a tiger that had escaped from a zoo and terrorized his childhood village, and about the "deathless man" he met at several key points in his life. After his death, Natalia wants to find out more about her grandfather and about the characters in these stories, including the woman who became known as the tiger's wife.

And that's all I'll tell you. The writing was gorgeous. Nearly every page had a sentence that struck me with its elegance or interesting way of describing something.

The group was split—several people didn't like the book much or at all, but a few of us did. I initially attributed that to the fact that some people just don't like magical realism, but some of these people do like it—a lot—but just didn't like this one. So I don't know. I happen to love magical stories, and in any event you could read this book quite literally and just accept the magical parts as stories that aren't meant to be real, as tricks that people in all cultures have for comforting ourselves and explaining the world. Some call it religion, some call it myth, and some just allow it to be woven into their lives without calling it anything.

Next month we're doing Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I thought I was the last person on the planet to read it, but apparently not.