Literary Classics Book Club

Join us for a discussion of The Visit, a 1956 play by Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt. When billionaire Claire Zachanassian returns to the impoverished village of her childhood she brings promises of enormous wealth. But her gift has a condition: the village must kill her former lover, a respected man of the village. Why this play? A kind of MeToo vengeance, billionaire privilege, predatory capitalism, moral complicity, cancel culture. Sound familiar? Speaking of moral complicity with a predatory billionaire, The Visit is avaliable on Amazon.

We'll meet again at the Mission Valley Library in Seminar Room B.
The library sets a limit of 12 persons for the room so please be sure to RSVP. Please change your RSVP to not attending if you can no longer make it.
Feel free to bring your own refreshments

-dave rankin

Join us for a discussion of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, An Artist of the Floating World. Narrator Masuji Ono is a widowed and retired artist living in post-war Japan during the American occupation. His early artistic career was spent portraying the physical beauty of the so-called "floating world" of urban pleasure districts. Later he chose to use his artistic talents for a "higher national purpose" as a propagandist for Imperial Japan's militarism. In a personal betrayal, he reported a friend, who opposed the war, to the Imperial government. Now living in a defeated Japan he must reckon with the legacy of his past on his own life and his daughter's.

We'll be meeting at Lounge 72, the hotel bar at the Doubletree by Hilton in Hazard Center. Please plan to order a drink or appetizer.
Ample parking and a trolley stop are nearby. Attendance is limited, so please change your RSVP if you become unable to attend.

Join us for a discussion of Blood Meridian: or, The Evening Redness of the West, Cormac McCarthy's classic Western novel. Widely considered his masterpiece, the novel subverts the mythology of the American West as its plot follows a gang of ruthlessly violent scalphunters in Texas of the 1850s. Drawn from historical events, the novel portrays memorable, larger than life characters and challenges the reader with vivid prose describing brutal acts of violence.

We'll meet again at the Mission Valley Library, this time in Seminar Room A.
The library sets a limit of 12 persons for the room so please be sure to RSVP. Please change your RSVP to not attending if you can no longer make it.
Feel free to bring your own refreshments

-dave rankin