Help me find a book for family bookclub

May 22, 2007 8:55 AM

FictionFilter: Family bookclub. We're convening in Woodstock at the end of August to discuss 3 books. Help me choose one of them.

I'm looking for a book that's preferably shorter than 300 pages and covers several of the topics below:

Travel
Nature
Music and Art
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Western appropriations of Eastern Philosophy
Rationalist critiques of mysticism
Kitsch
Pastiche and bricolage
Defenders of the faith
Entrepreneurialism
Istanbul, Turkey
Capitalism and its discontents
Bohemians and the bourgeoisie, and criticisms of both
Postcolonialism and globalization
Goddess feminism and cyberfeminism
Poststructuralism
Baseball
Aliens
Intellectual property
Psychoanalysis
Food
The public sphere and gated communities

I can't wait to see what the metafilterblob recommends. It has great taste in books.

posted by billtron to writing & language (17 comments total)

White Noise, DeLillo. Essential reading.

"There's a theory about déja vu."

"I don't want to hear it."

"Why do we think these things happened before? Simple. They did happen before, in our minds, as visions of the future. Because these are precognitions, we can't fit the material into our system of consciousness as it is now structured. This is basically supernatural stuff. We're seeing into the future but haven't learned how to process the experience. So it stays hidden until the precognition comes true, until we come face to face with the event. Now we are free to remember it, to experience it as familiar material."

"Why are so many people having these episodes now?"

"Because death is in the air," he said gently. "It is liberating suppressed material. It is getting us closer to things we haven't learned about ourselves. Most of us have probably seen our own death but haven't known how to make the material surface. Maybe when we die, the first thing we'll say is, 'I know this feeling. I was here before.'"
posted by four panels at 9:19 AM on May 22, 2007

Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle (with some measure of nature, Capitalism and its discontents, Bohemians and the bourgeoisie, Postcolonialism and globalization, the public sphere and gated communities)

I'm scratching my head for an alien/baseball/rationalist critiques of mysticism book.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 9:20 AM on May 22, 2007

What about John Nichols' Milagro Beanfield War?

It's not about IP disputes, but it is about real property disputes, disputes that arise under a traditional legal doctrine upon which IP is (wrongfully, at times) based.

It's also about New Mexico, but not necessarily Santa Fe.

It's also about the public sphere, and you should be able to find Western appropriations of Eastern Philosophy, Rationalist critiques of mysticism, Defenders of the faith, Entrepreneurialism, Capitalism and its discontents, Bohemians and the bourgeoisie, and criticisms of both Postcolonialism and globalization in its pages . . . but you may have to look harder for some elements than others. There may also be some aliens, too. I know there's food involved.

Oh, and it's a little longer than you want. But a great book. One many folks in my family read and loved for years and years.
posted by deejay jaydee at 9:21 AM on May 22, 2007

The work of Octavia Butler falls into several of these categories, most importantly Aliens! I really like the short story collection Bloodchild, but her stand-alone novel Kindred is also terrific.
posted by lalex at 9:26 AM on May 22, 2007

The Mystery of Capital.
posted by ewkpates at 9:27 AM on May 22, 2007

I'm not sure why, but the first author who came to mind with these particular topics was Chaim Potok. In "The Chosen" he writes about faith, baseball, and to some extent rationalist critiques of mysticism. I would also say that gated communities, not meaning physical structures but rather closed communities, play into his writing a lot. In "Davita's Harp," a lesser known book about a young girl whose parents are socialist activists, he writes about capitalism, the bourgeosie, mysticism, defenders of faith, the art of Picasso, etc.

Potok's best works are "The Chosen" and "My Name is Asher Lev," which is about a young Hasidic artist. Most people have probably already read the former, but it's still worth revisiting.

His novels are short and deceptively easy to read. Potok might not be the very first author I'd normally recommend, but he does seem to fit quite a few of your interests. And, you know, he's good.
posted by brina at 9:29 AM on May 22, 2007

Great suggestions so far! Keep them coming!

I should have been clearer in asking for fiction. We're already reading one non-fiction book, Banker to the Poor, so we'd like something in a different form.
posted by billtron at 9:31 AM on May 22, 2007

Running After Antelope by Scott Carrier
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
posted by mattbucher at 9:32 AM on May 22, 2007

Your list immediately made me think of Edward Abbey. He's written a lot of nonfiction, but his novel The Monkey Wrench Gang is also fantastic.
posted by vytae at 9:37 AM on May 22, 2007

Oh, and Orson Scott Card's classic Ender's Game covers aliens, postcolonialism and globalization, and (I'd say) bits of "defenders of the faith" and psychoanalysis.
posted by vytae at 9:42 AM on May 22, 2007

I know zombies are all played out and stuff, but Max Brooks' World War Z covers a lot of your topics via its variety of narrators. From your list (and off the top of my head), it covers:

Travel
Nature
Western appropriations of Eastern Philosophy
Kitsch
Defenders of the faith
Entrepreneurialism
Capitalism and its discontents
Bohemians and the bourgeoisie, and criticisms of both
Postcolonialism and globalization
Aliens
Psychoanalysis
Food
The public sphere and gated communities

Also, it was a big hit at my wife's bookclub recently.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:42 AM on May 22, 2007

Re: Bohemians and the bourgeoisie

I'm in the middle of Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939, which is fascinating. It's by a non-academic, an amateur of the type only England produces anymore, so the writing is clear and relatively jargon-free. In the same vein, I recently read The Banquet Years by Roger Shattuck, which is about French bohemianism and the birth of the avant-garde. Excellent introduction to the period and four of its most exemplary characters: Henri Rousseau, Satie, Jarry, and Appolinaire.

For the love of God, don't pick BoBos in Paradise.
posted by otio at 9:45 AM on May 22, 2007

Oh Christ, missed the fiction part. Well, Gilbert Sorrentino's Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things is a brutal portrait of the New York bohemian scene in the 50s and 60s and I can't recommend it highly enough.
posted by otio at 9:51 AM on May 22, 2007

Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia.

Covers, at the very least, the following (especially the ones in boldface):

Western appropriations of Eastern Philosophy
Rationalist critiques of mysticism
Kitsch
Pastiche and bricolage
Defenders of the faith
Entrepreneurialism
Capitalism and its discontents
Bohemians and the bourgeoisie, and criticisms of both
Postcolonialism and globalization
Psychoanalysis
Food

Ca. 288 pages, a very quick and fun read. Set in South London, which maybe also makes it "travel"?
posted by gompa at 11:02 AM on May 22, 2007

_half asleep in frog pajamas_ touches on several of these themes, if you can stand tom robbins.
posted by lgyre at 1:08 PM on May 22, 2007

Oryx and Crake by Atwood is a dystopian novel with several of your themes, her books are really good fodder for book groups actually, very meaty. The audiobook of World War z sounds awesome, I'll have to grab it.

Can I join your family? That sounds like an awesome book club.
posted by saucysault at 7:37 PM on May 23, 2007

After discussing the question with a friend she recommended Snow which covers a lot of the themes but I also thought of My Name is Red, both by Nobel prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk (he's from Turkey, in case you didn't know, but both books have been translated into English). Themes in both books are:

Western appropriations of Eastern Philosophy
Rationalist critiques of mysticism
Istanbul, Turkey
Music and Art
Defenders of the faith
Entrepreneurialism
Capitalism and its discontents
Postcolonialism and globalization
posted by saucysault at 10:57 AM on May 25, 2007