dominatrix

"I enjoyed the book, yes, but I thought it was just so EASY! I mean, the last book we read? Delta wedding, it took me the discussion and another two days to figure out what was going on, but this one? Too easy. I've noticed that about all of the Everybody Reads books."
"Yes, well, in the Everybody reads program, we try to make the books accessible for everyone."

I don't know why it didn't occur to me that a book group discussion at the library was going to be mostly old people, but I wasn't expecting it. It was actually refreshing to be around people who disagreed with one another, as opposed to the book club we have at my house where we are all 30 something and close friends. There was the blue polyester lady in the tight curls who argued that the self sacrifice in Midnight at the Dragon Cafe that kept the family so unhappy could be looked at as martrydom, which is a spiritual imperative, and therefore lifted them up to sainthood, while another visciously condemned the young Chinese wife for the affair she had behind her 70 year old husbands back (I had only felt sorry for her). Another sort of Dungeons and Dragons looking lady with long long brown hair argued that the affair was a "human imperative," as the young wife was severely isolated by labguage, culture, and age, and her step son, with whom she had the affair, was the only one she even had the option to connect with. Yet another woman complained that the book was not "uplifting," and said that the affair in the book tore at a personal would for her(With this the room got very uncomfortable as it was a rather large and mixed group for confessional revelations, but she did not continue and the banter resumed after a short awkward silence).The best was the man in the plaid shirt who said he doesn't read much, but makes sure he reads the "Everybody Reads" book every year. This year he had read another book, Ralph Nadar's memoir, and kept arguing that the memoir was so much more realistic than this book and not so frought with drama and strife, unitl someone pointed out that yes, one is a memoir, and the book we read, a fictional novel. Then there was the lady in the white turtle neck and green and red sweater who kept making sweeping generalizations about Asian American people. "Yes, well thay are good students, aren't they." Overall, it was truly entertaining.