Westport Public Library BOOK blog

Published in 1937, Remembering Laughter launched Pulitzer Prize-winning Stegner's career as a novelist. The story is set in Iowa of the late 1800’s. only 150 pages, but full of thoughts about the differences among people, forgiveness, deception and the damage created by a long-held family secret. Stegner's wife Mary revealed in a short afterword to Penguin's 1996 republication that the story was based on two old aunts of hers, one a widow and one a spinster, who together had raised a son who could have been the child of either of them; Mrs. Stegner wasn't sure whose.

At yesterday's PageTurner discussion of Thrity Umrigar's The Space Between Us, we talked about exploitation and the way Umrigar used two women in India to bring attention to the universality of this problem. Many were inspired by the toughness of Bhima; others could not understand what made her go on. Others found Sera's life unfulfilled with little or no happiness. What is your opinion of these two women? Perhaps we can learn more when Thrity Umrigar speaks at the Library next Wednesday at noon.

In today's discussions of Father Joe by Tony Hendra, the consensus was that no one liked Tony Hendra and the book was a veiled autobiography and not at all about Father Joe. Some called Hendra a Hedonist, another said that he was someone who destroyed a lot of lives on his way up, and another said that he was "just not a likeable fellow." Sounds like Father Joe didn't make as much of an impact on Tony Hendra's life as he leads readers to believe. Was Father Joe a failure or did Tony Hendra fail Father Joe?

At yesterday's discussion of the book Triangle by Katharine Weber, one of the evening participants suggested that Esther changed identities with Pauline after the fire. Do you agree?

Also, many who attended the discussion thought that there was too much about George Botkin and his music and found it distracted from the story. Why was it in there?

We can ask Katharine Weber these and other questions when she speaks at the Library on Wednesday, November 15 at noon.

An aside: One of the evening participants works in the building where the fire occurred. She told us how every March 25th, flowers are placed on the sidewalk to commemorate the fire.

At yesterday's great discussion of Hetty: the Genius and Madness of America's First Female Tycoon, both the morning and evening discussions agreed that Hetty was indeed both a genius and mad, but with an amazing skill for investing.

Did her Quaker background really have that much of an influence on her behavior?

One participant in the evening mentioned that she had her MBA and worked in the world of finance, yet she never heard of Hetty Green. Perhaps someone should study Hetty Green's methods of investing and see if they would work today.

Her name is on a building at Wellsley. Anyone ever see it or know if students even know who she was?