Mariana Pointe Book Club - Loveland, CO
One of the most enjoyable rewards for having written my novel A Thousand Veils comes in the form of book club presentations. What's surprising are the pointed, and at times even impassioned, comments that club members address to me at these meetings. As a writer, I'm obviously pleased by the positive comments. But, with the thickened carapace of a former lawyer and business-school professor, I'm reasonably nonplussed by the negative comments, though I take each one of them to heart. I do relish these exchanges, and I even try to provoke them. In my mind, that's what a book club meeting is all about.
For a writer like me, it’s exhilarating to spend an evening in the company of a dozen or more smart, well-read, and articulate women intent on finding out why I chose a particular plot twist or story line, especially if it concerns a central character, one whom they've grown to admire, trust, and truly care about. Why, they ask, didn’t the novel’s two main characters pursue a more intense physical relationship? How truly “representative” is Fatima of her own religion and culture? What are you really trying to say, they ask pertinently, about Islam and the West? I learn a great deal from these discussions--not the least of which is humility.
I normally begin club meetings by asking each member to express, in a few minutes, her reaction to the book, howsoever unformed, tentative or visceral. In this way, even the quieter members of the club (who often offer the most perceptive comments) get the chance to be heard, and, I, as the ersatz moderator, get the chance to hear these comments, to come back to them, to weave them into the fabric of the meeting, and, by all means, to give them their proper due. In almost every member's comments, there's at least the kernel of a fresh idea that bears teasing out. And so, as the meeting unfolds, we cover the essential elements of the book. It’s a most enjoyable process, for club members and for me.
A few book club meetings ago, an especially amusing moment occurred as I was responding to the perennial question of why, in a work of popular fiction in modern-day America, the two central characters in the novel, deep in a significant emotional relationship, didn't have sex. In fact, I told the club, in the early drafts of the novel (there were 21 in all) there had been no sex scene. A serious oversight, several sage reviewers of the manuscript advised me. An essential part of any piece of contemporary fiction, one informed me. Positively a given, practically formulaic, another added. So, after all that, I did write a few, what I considered, appropriately steamy pages. Rather quite good, I thought. On further reflection, though, and for what I considered very valid reasons, I ultimately decided not to include the scenes in the published version of the book. After I related all this to the attentive book club members (all women, by the way), a hand slowly went up from the back of the room, and the member asked, "Those pages with the sex scenes you didn't put in your book? Well, would you mind emailing them to me?"
As you can gather, women are fearless in these meetings. There is no predicting what they will say, and they will speak their minds. I love it, of course. But if any book club member should be lacking for material for a good question (I frankly can’t imagine it), I’ve developed a list of book club discussion points that I’d be happy to send to anyone emailing me at Veils1000@aol.com. I will also be happy to participate in your book club discussion - in person, if you are in north central Colorado, or by phone or Skype.
