One of THOSE Book Clubs

OK so technically it's not a Book Club; I've made it clear that we are a Literary Society.  Anyhoo, I get all up on my high horse because we are a real book club.  We talk about the book, in depth, not about the wine or the latest episode of Real Housewives of Orange County, or our hair, or the hippest new salon downtown or whatever.

We are literary people.

We are literary, people.

But then this happened:

Several key things to note about this fantastic picture.  The first is that Nat King Cole got us Prosecco to celebrate my grad school acceptance.  I told her to drink up because guess who is proofing all of my papers?  Right.  She's in this almost as deep as I am at this point.  She's not paying the tuition but man is she going to put in on this endeavor.  Little does she know.

The other key thing about this pic is Chef Campo slaving in the kitchen.  He was "in the mood" to make Pad Thai and asked if he could make it for our meeting.  Um, that's the stupidest question ever.

Look at this!

As he brought it to us, he made some comments about it not being the exact color he wanted, and that he thought the noodles were breaking too easily.  I don't know, I couldn't really hear him over the sound of my own smacking.  Dang, that guy can cook.  How is Nat King Cole so little?  I don't understand this.

All I know is that he has cooked for us twice now, and the man is setting a dangerous precedent.  I could easily get used to this and then expect it.  And then demand that his dishes follow an appropriate theme for the book we are discussing, etc.

So, see?  I spent this entire post so far talking about food instead of the book, so let's get right down to it, shall we?

We read Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

I had read this book before, back in Jr. High or something, and I remember that it was written very simply.  Turns out that Hemingway won a Pulitzer Prize for this book and his contribution to the transformation of American literature (writing style) post WWI and WWII.  American prose lost the embellishments of English literature - the long sentences full of fancy descriptions and semicolons - and became simple and descriptive, omitting the literary fluff of the past.

Therefore, Old Man and the Sea is a simple book to read, and a complex one to analyze and discuss.  The story is about an old fisherman in a small village who has gone over 80 days with no catch.  Consequently, he travels far out to sea and finds himself in a struggle with a marlin much larger than his skiff.  The story tells of this struggle and how it eventually (tragically) resolves.  The story is about courage, the value of a good fight, the struggle for survival, relationships, and the themes that surface when death is near.

Nat King Cole said, "I think this is the first piece of actual literature we've read so far..." and she's right.

Enjoy!