The Round Rock New Neighbors Book Group Discussions are always
a welcome addition to the great books we read. An author visit brings us more
of everything we like about our book club: more incentive to read the author's
book, more looking forward to the meeting, and more depth of understanding of
the author and the book. It was exciting to have a visit with Jennifer duBois,
author of A Partial History of Lost
Causes, published in 2011; and Cartwheel,
published in 2013 (and available in paperback the day after our visit with the
author)!
DuBois began the meeting by reading the beginning of Cartwheel aloud. We had a question and
answer session, with Marla first asking whether duBois found it difficult to
act as a neutral narrator when writing Cartwheel,
which is about a murder case somewhat similar to the current Amanda Knox case.
(I didn't read Cartwheel yet, so
please pardon any inaccuracies or confusion I might inadvertently create.) The
author answered that she had her own ideas about the case in the book but tried
to present the story from a neutral point of view. She accepted the challenge
of trying to imagine the characters as individuals who could think differently
from her. She suggested that the reader could probably decipher her personal
position by the end of the book. Dennis asked whether politics induced her to
change her position about the murder case, and duBois answered that she tried to
ignore them but that her original position didn't change. Comments are welcome
from those of you who read Cartwheel.
Although A Partial
History of Lost Causes also contains many examples of discrepant points of
view, I want to highlight the ways that our questions about this book uncovered
more influences from Jennifer duBois' personal life. Cindy asked whether it was
research or imagination that created the implications about Vladimir Putin's
political crimes in the book. DuBois majored in political science in college,
and she enjoyed researching the story. She said the events in the book were
mostly true, outside of the conspiracy, which she added to the novel. She said
she is still interested in political science and has been surprised by Putin's
recent behavior. In response to a question Pam presented as to whether duBois
is now persona non grata in Russia or perhaps worse, duBois answered that she
was interviewed about the book by the Voice of Russia state-run radio station
and that everyone was friendly. She did not indicate any upcoming travel plans,
though!
Along those lines, Ken asked her whether she had experienced
the kind of cold weather she describes in the book, because she captured the
aspects of cold so well. I think all of us felt the influences of the bitterly cold
weather and also the seasonal changes while reading the book. DuBois grew up in
Massachusetts, so she did have some background in winter. Later in the
discussion, duBois told us that her father had suffered from Alzheimer's
disease and that that this had influenced some of her choices in the story. The
strong theme of a mentally debilitating disease with uncertain genetic
implications and a long, slow decline certainly added a dynamic dimension to
the story. Of interest to us also was duBois noting that she noticed both
valiant efforts and small efforts in watching her father's decline. The valiant
efforts of a family coping with such a disease are known. What duBois also
noticed were subtle ways in which her mother helped her father and worked to
increase his comfort even though he was unable to notice or openly appreciate
them. The idea of small and uncelebrated but caring comforts added richness to
the ways Alexsandr treated both Irina and Elizabeta and even sometimes his wife.
I enjoyed reading A
Partial History of Lost Causes! The book was a well-crafted story involving
chess and Russian politics. As an omnivorous reader but with little interest in
either chess or Russian history, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the
story kept a pace of human interest without ever slowing down for a history
lesson. The timing of this read was particularly poignant for me because of the
recent Putin perpetrations, which ended up juxtaposed against the political indecencies
in the novel that were attributed to Putin's rise to power at the beginning of
the century.
Although I didn't think to take a poll of raised hands, I
know that several other book club members enjoyed Cartwheel, and at least 4 or 5 read both books. We were fortunate
to get such personal interaction with Jennifer duBois, and we look forward to
her next book.
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