Literary Classics Book Club

Join us for a discussion of Akutagawa's short stories, including Rashōmon and In a Bamboo Grove, the inspirations for Kurosawa's movie. The discussion will use the Penguin Classics collection of 18 of his stories. (Pictured above.) We'll discuss the entire collection so read as many of the stories as you can.
According to the book jacket, "Akutagawa is one of Japan's foremost stylists—a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. Rashömon and In a Bamboo Grove inspired Kurosawa's magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as The Nose, O-Gin and Loyalty paint a rich and imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants. And in later works such as Death Register, The Life of a Stupid Man, and Spinning Gears, Akutagawa drew from his own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories."

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 Virginia Woolf's 1927 novel To The Lighthouse. Considered a classic of modernist literature the novel tells a seemingly small but deeply philosophical story of the Ramsay family and their visits to a summer home on the Isle of Skye off the coast of Scotland before and after World War I and the long postponement of a trip to a lighthouse nearby. To The Lighthouse appears on multiple lists of the greatest novels in the English language.
We'll meet again at the Mission Valley Library this time 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 Silence by Shūsaku Endō, a Japanese Christian author celebrated as one of the great authors of 20th Century Japanese fiction. Silence, widely considered his masterpiece, tells the story of the persecution of Christians in Japan during the 17th Century. The novel, published in 1966, received the Tanizaki Prize for literature in Japan. Martin Scorsese adapted the book into a critically acclaimed movie in 2016, the third film adaptation of the book. Bonus cred for watching any of the three films before we meet.

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.