The Dinner

Just when you thought El Jefe had abandoned her post.  Take yourselves back in time, way back, to early December.  Fake snow on the front porch, the aroma of rich winter cooking in the air, Christmas trees alight, and avid readers drunk on champagne.  It could be none other than the twelfth annual holiday Book Club! Even better because Blondie was all up in the hizzy!  Once in BC, always… 

Thanks to The Highlander and Mr. Matty once again for hosting.  Seems like just yesterday there were a million calories worth of artichoke dip and cured meats set forth before us, to be followed by beef bourguignon (new recipe—a winner!) ladled over truffled mashed potatoes (it’s always early January before El Jefe recovers from potato mashing carpal tunnel syndrome), roasted brussel sprouts, non-under-saladed salad (a bounty in fact!), crusty baguettes and Heath Bar cookies galore.  Deee lishy! All El Jefe wants for Christmas is to never stray from that menu.  And the other thing El Jefe wants is for Carmen not to take ALL the leftovers home. Ever. Again.

Our December book, The Dinner, by Herman Koch, is an international best-seller but did not fly off the shelves among our group.  It came in at a lackluster 6.7. To refresh our collective memories, this was the story of two families living in Amsterdam:  Paul, an ex-schoolteacher (dishonorably discharged as we later discover), his wife Claire, and their son; and Paul’s brother Serge, Dutch presidential hopeful, his wife Babette, and their two sons, one adopted from Africa.  The children of these two families commit a heinous crime when they set a homeless person on fire inside an ATM booth, and the story deals with the parents’ discovery of this incident and the ensuing consequences—all recounted during the course of a dinner at one of Amsterdam’s hottest restaurants. Despite the violence and psychological twists in this book, several people commented that it was a slow read:  long stretches between inflection points, disjointed chapters flipping back and forth in time, and a pace that just generally dragged.  As a counterpoint, it was noted that the pace of the book was deliberately measured in order to match the theme and setting, that is, it took place over multiple courses of an elegant meal rather than being served up in one shot like fast food.  The Dinner also was criticized for not having a single likeable character and for the fact that Paul, the protagonist, did not wrestle with the moral issues in the story at all. On the other hand, the author clearly intended the readers to grapple with the significant moral questions presented, and we went around the room and talked about what we each would have done if our own child had committed the crime but had not been apprehended.  Would we keep silent and hope the authorities never figured it out?  Or would we turn our kids’ asses in? In addition, the book was highly successful in its stunning 180 degree flip of the reader’s expectations as to which family was “normal” and “happy.”  The book is narrated by Paul, and at the outset he depicts himself and Claire as the upstanding couple and casts doubt over Serge and Babette.  Most of us really enjoyed the way Paul’s utter depravity was developed little by little—his uncontrolled episodes of remorseless violence brought on by some unidentified (and, according to The Doctor, fictional) genetic flaw—and then of all things Claire turned out to be a total psychopath, instructing her own son to kill his cousin and slashing Serge’s face to pieces with the stem of a broken wine glass so the truth wouldn’t come out. Dang! Finally, because of the fact that Paul turns out to be so cray-cray, he is an unreliable narrator and the reader is left questioning whether there are parts of the story that never even happened at all.  In sum, better than last year’s book on magic tricks but a far cry from Zeitoun. 

Who needs dinner in Amsterdam?  Just snacks when you get the munchies.

 Deceptively peaceful.

Cate Blanchett will make her directorial debut adapting The Dinner-- easy, Claire.

The January recap is right on the heels, stay tuned. xoej

Zeitoun

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the Highlander for hosting our 8th annual Holiday BC!  What a gorgeous, elegant, and festive evening.  The house and the tables looked divine.  As someone remarked, "Wow, this is really a grown up's home!"  That's right:  who needs Mandy when we've got Moraga?  In El Jefe's humble opinion, it was our best holiday event yet.  Why not start every meeting sipping champagne, tucking into spinach artichoke dip (the low fat kind, right?), and munching on prosciutto-wrapped marinated artichoke hearts, all in--well, what could only be called a sitting room.  And sit we did, enjoying cocktails and company until the index cards got passed out.  Apparently, The 10th Member of TCOB decided it was high time to impose some rules and regulations aimed at ensuring a neutral and fair outcome on the vote.  Like a United Nations electoral observer, The 10th Member made sure that each person had a standard issue ballot, a private opportunity to mark their number, and that each ballot was deposited securely into... his hands.

   The presidential elections in Honduras were free and fair.  Just like TCOB.

The next step in the process was to have each vote announced, going around the room one and a half times to make sure that each person's vote was counted, either once or twice.  But El Jefe is confident of the results, which gave the book an average score of 8.5 and a 95% rate of completion (you know who you are!).  The secret ballot process caused the Doctor much consternation:  like a dangling chad, she typically likes to throw a little uncertainty into the mix by changing her vote depending on which way the wind is blowing.  Knowing that a last-minute switch-up would be impossible under the keen eye of The 10th Member, she and Diggity-D both went for broke with an unusual couples' vote of matching 10s.  There might have been some other 10s, but it was shortly after that point that El Jefe began to slide into a narcotics-induced fog, and the details get a bit hazy.

There is no question, however, that Dave Egger's Zeitoun garnered the most enthusiasm and genuine discussion of any holiday BC book to date.  El Jefe vaguely recalls more than one person saying that this book was life changing.  Like the Glass Castle, it was one of those stories that opens your eyes--and wide-- to the crazy shit that goes on right here at home, things you imagine happen only in third world countries.  There were so many sad and despicable scenes in this book:  elderly people trapped on rooftops, dogs shot to death on a highway overpass, a mentally retarded person hosed down with pepper spray in a makeshift jail, a FEMA trailer lying locked and useless in the yard for over a year.  The scenes from "Camp Greyhound" were some of the most painful to read, not to mention the utter trampling on the due process rights of American citizens.  It was terrifying and depressing to see how easily both legal and ethical standards went out the window, and with no apology or restitution.

"Prisoners" being led into Camp Greyhound.

Please help.

In the 9th Ward.

Not everyone in the group was entirely sympathetic to the main character, Abdulrahman Zeitoun.  Certainly there were some that partly blamed him for choosing to stay behind in the face of a mandatory evacuation (not to mention common sense), and having such an inflated opinion of himself as the saviour around his neighborhood.  Others remembered well the heightened sense of suspicion and paranoia that still lingered after 9/11, and almost took a "what do you expect?" attitude, given that FEMA had been placed under the umbrella of Homeland Security.  Still others critiqued either the author or Zeitoun himself for what seemed like obvious oversights:  for example, once Zeitoun got out of jail, how come he didn't help his friends?  What took Zeitoun's wife so long to call a lawyer?  But despite these differences of opinion, there is no doubt that this book was provocative and profound, and generated an empassioned discussion that followed us all the way to the dinner table.

It's always a relief to segue from dwelling over the misfortunes of others to a filet mignon roast with creamy gorgonzola sauce.  And rosemary-Parmesan mashed potatoes.  And a leafy green salad garnished with slivered red onion and mandarin oranges.  And cheesy garlic bread.  And paper party crowns.  Thank goodness for a delicious dinner and for our many blessings.  At this point, El Jefe did make her exit, longingly eyeing the annual bounty of Heath Bar cookies and the divine-smelling fruit cobbler.  Unfortunately, there were no leftovers the next day.

Please let this book be a reminder to all of us during the holidays how lucky we are to have friends, family, and a roof over our head, and to be generous to those in need.  Merry Christmas, and see you in the New Year!  xoEJ

Bel Canto

Thanks to Ms. K for hosting last night! The delish menu started off with crudités and creamy sun-dried tomato dip, followed by a tomato basil soup topped with homemade parmesan crostini (yum!) and Logan's Run's decadent specialty, Heath Bar crunch cookies. People who want the recipe can e-mail Logan's Run!  El Jefe's little kitty Bella would have liked them too.

As for the book, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, on the whole the group did not seem to like it as much as our last book The Hours. Complaints ranged from "too flowery" to "too dramatic" to "first 150 pages put me to sleep" to "I pictured Roxanne as a big fatty." Yet there really were no standout characters that truly turned people off from the book. Mr. Hosokawa, who drew the most criticism for his self-centeredness, certainly didn't raise the type of heartfelt annoyance that, say, Laura Brown did for some people. Perhaps this book simply didn't have as much to discuss, as Ms. K suggested. But even so, we did raise some interesting points about the Stockholm Syndrome, whether Roxanne and Gen married for love or merely an homage to their shared experience, and the correct pronunciation of Gen's name (4 for "Jen," 3 for "Gen").


A couple of points of business were decided: TCOB will regularly be the first Wednesday of each month; our first BC field trip will be the movie The Hours, starring Nicole Kidman, Merryl Streep, and Julianne Moore, on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 22. El Jefe will reconfirm attendance and buy tickets the day before.

Next meeting is Wednesday, Feb. 5 at C____ Pearson's house, directions to follow. As per the vote, we'll be reading The Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

P.S. Please e-mail El Jefe if you're willing to bring an app or dessert.