" A book club gives the opportunity to meet up with friends and wake the brain up a bit with lively and often quite aggressive discussion " Dawn French
How do you keep your reading groups discussions lively and focussed? If you want to gain new insight into literature and share your passion with friends this book offers readers guides for 75 of the very best reads - guaranteed to provoke spirited debate!
Each of the readers guides includes a summary of the book, a brief author biography, discussion points to spark debate, and a set of titles for further reading that deal with similar themes. A `background' section provides pointers to more material about the book online and as well as further thought-provoking material: Where did the author come from? What made them write the book? How did the context in which they wrote influence them?
If you'd like further insight, debate, discussion and analysis to underpin your understanding and enjoyment of reading - then look no further than this guide.
New titles in this edition include: The Long Firm, Leper's Companions, By the Sea, The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, Buddha of Suburbia, The Icarus Girl, Black and Blue, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, The Cutting Room, Shadow of the Wind, Giving up the Ghost...and many more!
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As the eldest daughter of a rebbe struggling to establish his first synagogue, Rachel is expected to observe and exemplify the many exacting standards of the Hasidic community to which she belongs. As she enters adolescence, she finds herself chafing at these strictures. She loves to swim but is forbidden to wear a bathing suit in public; she wants to dress attractively but must conform to a strict dress code designed to hide her body; most of all, she loves the trashy romantic novels which give her a fascinating, if misleading, glimpse of a world which is forbidden to her. She would dearly love to escape but does not know how. As she faces the prospect of an arranged marriage she realizes that, perverse as it might seem, marriage may be the only way to attain the freedom she craves.
Background
The Romance Reader is rich in cultural references, offering an insight into a way of life far removed from the Western mainstream, for the Benjamins are members of the minority Jewish sect known as Hasids (or Chassids in Yiddish). The central theme of the novel is Rachel’s struggle for independence in a community depicted by Pearl Abraham as insular, inward looking and regulated by strict rules. Abraham draws deeply upon her own experience of growing up in Hasidic communities, vividly evoking a claustrophobic atmosphere in which a young intelligent girl longs to reach out to the world but is faced with the agonizing choice of either losing her family or forgoing the chance of independence and a life of her own choosing.
When The Romance Reader was first published many reviewers drew parallels between Abraham’s novel and Chaim Potok’s similarly autobiographical first novel, The Chosen, now considered to be a classic. Set in 1940s Brooklyn Potok’s novel portrays the Hasidic world from the point of view of Danny, the young son of a rebbi, as he struggles with the demands of his community to follow in his father’s footsteps, his religious doubts and his secular ambitions to become a psychologist. In contrast his less Orthodox friend Reuven, a gifted mathematician and the son of a Jewish scholar, wants to become a rabbi. The Chosen explores the tensions between these disparate fathers and sons.
Both The Romance Reader and The Chosen offer the outsider a glimpse of a world far removed from their own, yet which share universalities with tightly knit communities of many cultures and religions. So successful is The Romance Reader at depicting the struggle between the deeply Orthodox and the secular in ways to which all can relate that it is now studied in American schools and universities.
About the author
For the first twelve years of her life Pearl Abraham’s family moved between Hasidic communities in New York and Jerusalem. She now teaches creative writing at New York University and lives in New York City. The Romance Reader is her first novel.
For discussion
Why do you think Pearl Abraham chose The Romance Reader as the title for the novel? Why is reading so important to Rachel? Why does she not read so much in Williamsburg? Rachel reads a very particular sort of book. How do you think this shapes her view of the world outside her community? She says: ‘Novels are lies, lies upon lies’. What has brought her to this conclusion?
What do you notice about the ways that men and women behave in the community? What are the differences? Do you think men or women have the harder life? Can you find examples to back up your ideas?
What is your view of Rachel’s mother? What made you come to these conclusions? What do you make of the relationship between Rachel’s mother and her father? Why do you think their relationship is like this?
Both Rachel and Leah have to be constantly on their guard against being found out – about reading books in English, about their lifeguard training. How do you think this affects them?
Why is it so hard for Rachel to gain her independence? Do you think she should just turn her back on her family and leave? If not, why not? If so, why do you think she doesn’t? She says: ‘I won’t be here, on their hands, for long’. Do you think she will leave? The last sentence reads: ‘I wonder how high I will get before I fall.’ What do you think she means by this?
When Rachel and Elke talk about marriage, Elke has no qualms about her arranged marriage. What do you think of the position she takes? Rachel says: ‘I think it’s easier for Elke because she doesn’t think about love in novels.’ What questions do you think might be raised about the Western idea of romantic love as opposed to arranged marriages? Why do you think Rachel decides to marry Israel?
Has anyone in the group any experience as part of a minority group? If so, how do you feel about Pearl Abraham’s descriptions of the response of the outside world to the Hasids? Do Rachel’s struggles ring any bells?
Resources
www.bombsite.com/issues/91/articles/2728 – article by Aryeh Lev Stollman in Bomb ezine
www.pearlabraham.com – Pearl Abraham’s website
Suggested further reading
FICTION
Disobedience by Naomi Alderman (2006); Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey (1998); The Ladies Auxilliary by Tova Mirvis (2000); The Chosen by Chaim Potok (1967); Anita and Me by Meera Syal (1996); A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews (2004); Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson (1985)
NON-FICTION
Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman (1989); Boychiks in the Hood by Robert Eisenberg (1995); The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten (1970)
OTHER BOOKS BY PEARL ABRAHAM
Giving up on America (1998); The Seventh Beggar (2005)
THE LONG FIRM (1999)
Jake Arnott
About the book
Narrated by five very different characters, The Long Firm follows the career of Harry Starks, a gangland boss with a weakness for stardom and a yearning for respectability. Each narrator tells the story of their dealings with Harry: Terry is Harry’s pretty suburban kept boy; Teddy is the corrupt peer who finds himself out of his league; Jack the Hat is a freelancer who flits dangerously between Harry and the Kray twins; Ruby is a fading Rank starlet and Lenny is a criminologist whose relationship with Harry leads him into the dark realities of the criminal underworld. Set in mid-sixties London amidst enormous social change and written with a wit as sharp as the cut of a gangster’s suit, The Long Firm explores the dark underbelly of a period often recalled as vibrant and exciting, expertly blending fact and fiction in a vivid evocation of the times.
Background
The Long Firm is the first part of a trilogy which explores the sinister underworld of gangland London. The second part, He Kills Coppers, examines the fallout from a brutal murder while truecrime sees the return of Harry Starks, still on the run, bringing his story into the 1990s and taking a swipe at those who jumped on the ‘geezer chic’ bandwagon with a Guy Ritchie-like film director. Jake Arnott has expressed his annoyance at ‘feelgood gangster movies’ whose ‘slapstick violence’ often result in audiences finding gangsters ‘cool’ rather than e...
