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Best Books
Club Selection for June: E.M. Forster's A Room with a View
by
Marilyn Green Faulkner
Edward Morgan
Forster lived nearly a century, from 1879 to 1970. He experienced
the decline of the great British empire, lived through two world
wars, and saw the rise of American culture until it dominated the
world as England once had. Raised by his mother and maiden aunts
after his father's death, Forster's novels are peopled with the
prim, proper people among whom he lived, yet carry deeper themes
beneath the surface. This book was written when he was only twenty-eight
years old. It is a delightful little story about one young woman's
attempt to rise above the stuffy, repressed atmosphere of her society
and make contact with real emotion.
Lucy Honeychurch
travels to Italy with her spinster cousin Charlotte, and there comes
into contact with an Englishman, George Emerson, whose behavior
is totally inappropriate. His father may even be a Socialist! With
wonderful humor and a perfect grasp of human frailty, Forster introduces
us to a delightful set of English abroad and at home. Though Forster
has fun with these characters, he doesn't make fun of them, and
we feel even the stuffy suitor Cecil's pain at rejection. Everyone
loves Lucy, and we see long before she does that there is only one
course for her to follow if she will be happy. We have the view
that she is seeking, and enjoy the pleasure of seeing it through
her eyes at last.
A Room with
a View is June's selection for the Best Books Club. Our summer
reading schedule is as follows:
June: A
Room with a View, E.M. Forster
July: The
Keys of the Kingdom, A.J. Cronin
August: Huckleberry
Finn, Mark Twain
September:
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
Read along with
us and send your comments via email to me at bestbooks@meridianmagazine.com.
Reader
Comments on The Chosen, and on Silas Marner
I remember my
high school daughter and I going to hear Chaim Potok speak in a
downtown Portland Oregon synagogue a number of years ago--around
1976--after having read The Chosen. What I remember most from his
remarks was how he was extremely interested in exploring what happens
when a person is confronted with two different cultures. Although
it has been many years since I read this book, I gained a much greater
appreciation for the Jewish people, their beliefs and differences
from this book, I enjoyed the friendship between the two boys, and
the sensitivity of the author.
Portland,
Oregon
Who is The Chosen?
At First glance it would seem that Danny is The Chosen, chosen to
follow in the footsteps of his father who followed in the footsteps
of his father, etc. to be the leader of their peculiar Hassidic
congregation. This is only superficially true; essentially God is
The Chosen. The Hebrew word for 'chosen' is neevkh. The gematria
of the Hebrew letters for neevkh, nun, beit, chet, reish produces
a sum of 260 which reduces, by adding the digits of the sum, to
8 and 8 corresponds to the Hebrew letter chet. This reduction produces
the central meaning of the word chosen. Two levels of understanding
are revealed, "essential life" and "life to enliven." In both of
these levels God is manifest, he is the source of life (essential
life) and our relationship with Him is what enlivens our life. True
living comes when one finds, recognizes and exemplifies God. Therefore,
God is The Chosen, chosen because it is through him that man's understanding
of who he is and his purpose in life is realized.
Reb Saunders
explains his understanding of God; "A man is born into this world
with only a tiny spark of goodness in him. The spark is God, it
is the soul; the rest is ugliness and evil, a shell. The spark must
be guarded like a treasure, it must be nurtured, it must be fanned
into flame. It must learn to seek out other sparks, it must dominate
the shell." (p. 263). It is this understanding that he attempts
to teach Danny through silence. At the center or core all mankind
is the same, seeking the same sense of self and well-being. Regardless
of our culture, all mankind seeks inner peace through the divine
relationship. The universal in The Chosen is the quest
for a covenant and peace with God. Reb Saunders has found his path,
Reb Malter has found his path, Reuven is on his path and it is Danny's
struggles to find his path that bring the novel home to the reader.
Kim
I was very pleased
to see this book featured by Meridian as a "best book." Long a Potok
fan, I think this is his best novel. He is the only author to whom
I've ever been tempted to write a personal letter. And I was fortunate
to hear him speak at our local university a few years ago. Two things
of interest to me: Potok features a Mormon chaplain in another novel
of his (Book of Lights)-- in fact, he makes the LDS character a
very positive one. (I think I read that when he was himself a chaplain
in Korea, he had an LDS friend.)
In the concluding
pages of "The Chosen," I was very moved to read Reb Saunders reasons
for raising Danny in silence. I could identify somewhat from my
own experiences of being lonely in childhood, and I was old enough
to understand the benefit of "knowing of pain"--to destroy self-pride
and indifference to others. Later, after a few more years of experience,
when I re-read "The Chosen," I saw Reb Saunders' method as an analogy
for the separation we experience in this life from our Heavenly
Father. We pray and plead for answers, but we learn line upon line.
Marcia
I read The Chosen
almost a year ago but I still remember the impact of the father's
decision to let his son live his own life, to be happy. It made
me weep deeply thinking that if a father so set in his ways loves
his son enough to let him go against the core of religious traditions,
how much more does our Heavenly Father love us. Kirsten
This is my first
time in a book club of any kind, but I was so excited about joining
that I went right out and bought the book, The Chosen. I started
reading it in line at the bookstore and kept reading it all the
way home (as my husband drove) and finished it the next day (only
took so long because I had to keep rereading parts of it over).
I don't understand all the Jewish words they used, but many of them
were explained quite well. I went to the library today and they
are "interbranch"ing me The Promise, Silas Marner and A Room With
a View. It was enlightning reading this book as I knew nothing about
the Jewish people. I laughed, I cried, I prayed...I was sad when
the book was finished...I wanted more. I really enjoyed reading
it and look forward to reading the other books. Thank you, Carole
I hope you will
accept one more comment about "Silas Marner". When I saw this title
on the list and read your praise for the book I was a bit taken
aback. I remembered having to read Silas Marner in high school and
I had hated it! I had personally decided that I was not going to
read "Silas Marner" and catch up in April on some other books that
I had been wanting to read. As I read your comments and others about
the book and how much they enjoyed it I thought I must have missed
something all those years ago and I decided I would check a copy
of "Silas Marner" out of our library, and see what I had been missing.
I was still skeptical, and I started reading very slowly. I am happy
to report that time and experience has completely changed my perception
of Silas Marner. I loved this story of having personal faith challenged,
finding peace and happiness in unexpected places and ways, and the
miracle of pure love (real charity) healing a broken and lonely
heart. As I read the book this time, I realized that when I read
Silas Marner the first time I must not have been able to appreciate
what he went through because I had not yet experienced anything
that he went through. I had never experienced a trial of faith or
the loss of something treasured, my world at that time was very
small and untainted. My world and life did not remain innocent.
Like Silas I have now experienced periods of times when I questioned
my faith, my relationship with my Heavenly Father, and my belief
in teachings that I had just accepted all my life. I have experienced
loss and heartache, but like Silas through that loss I grew and
changed, and found peace and love through small miracles in my life.
Thank you for the opportunity to realize that I have grown and changed,
and helping me to remember that sometimes that the greatest trials
bring the greatest blessings.
I also finished
reading "The Chosen". I could not put this book down! I enjoyed
it so much. I am planning on reading "The Promise" next. I have
been a member of the church all my life. My father was in the Air
Force and, as an adult, I have also moved quite a bit. I have had
the opportunity to attend many different wards and branches throughout
the United States. My husband and I have commented many times that
all though the church is true no matter where you go, and that basic
doctrine never changes, every ward is different and has it's own
"personality". It is nothing as vast as the difference between Rueben
and Danny, but it reminded me of that. I also appreciated a warm
and sincere friendship between too people as different as Danny
and Rueven. My best friend through high school and I were very much
the same. We were very different, but it was a respect for and an
understanding of those differences that helped expand our understanding
and tolerance for differences in others. Gaelynn
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