April-June 2012 Theme Read: Closed and Selective Societies

Welcome to the second theme read of 2012! From April until June we’ll be dealing with closed and selective societies.


Maroon community

Throughout history and in the present day there have always been groups that were separate from society – either by choice or circumstances. Often these groups were seen as bizarre, secretive, and different. A lot of times the closed or selective nature of such a group had to do with religion – the Amish, for instance, are a good example of this. Other times it was more cultural – like harems or life in the Forbidden City. And then there’s that group of closed/selective societies that are set apart because they function under their own rules and customs, like cults or the military. One could ask the question why these groups are so fascinating and what they tell us about ourselves?

This is a rather broad theme, and if you’d like some ideas and book suggestion on this, the post below is full of them – although it is by no means a complete list. PolarisBeacon and I have tried to give examples of closed and selective societies in both Western and non-Western cultures, as well as some other closed societies, but I’m sure there are many more out there. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what everyone will be reading the coming months!

Western

Orthodox Jews



Kaaterskill Falls by Allegra Goodman
Who by Fire by Diana Spechler
Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
Beware Of God: Stories by Shalom Auslander
Women's Minyan by Naomi Ragen

Amish



The Redemption of Sarah Cain by Beverly Lewis
The Caregiver by Shelley Shepard Gray (The first book in the Families of Honor series)
The Wounded Heart by Adina Senft (The first book in the Amish Quilt series)
The Amish Midwife by Mindy Starns Clark and Leslie Gould (The first book in the Women of Lancaster County series)
Fall from Pride by Karen Harper (The first book in the Amish Home Valley Trilogy series)

The Templar Knights



Knights of the Black and White by Jack Whyte (The first book in the Templar trilogy)
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Brethren by Robyn Young (The first book in the Brethren trilogy)
Last of the Templars by William Watson
The Temple and the Stone by Katherine Kurtz

Monasteries/Nunneries and Catholic clergy



The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Pope Joan by Donna Cross
A Morbid Taste For Bones by Ellis Peters (First in the Brother Cadfael Mysteries)
The Monk by Matthew Lewis
All We Know Of Heaven: A Novel by Remy Rougeau
In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
Lying Awake by Mark Salzman
Five For Sorrow, Ten For Joy by Rumer Godden

Non-Western

Geishas



Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Blonde Geisha by Jina Bacarr
The Barbarian Geisha by Charlotte Royal
Geisha in Rivalry by Nagai Kafu

Harems



The Aviary Gate: A Novel by Katie Hickman
The Sultan's Harem by Colin Falconer
The Twentieth Wife: A Novel by Indu Sundaresan

Forbidden City



Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
Imperial woman by Pearl S. Buck
Empress: A Novel by Shan Sa

Santeria Houses



The Accidental Santera by Irete Lazo

Other non-Western closed/selective societies suggestions

Lautoro Lodge (Argentina and Chile)

Maroon communities (West Indies, Central America, South America, and North America)

The secret order of the Saltigue (Senegambia Region)

Secret Societies of African Religion: Egbo, Nsibidi, Ngbe, Mau Mau, Ogboni

Other closed/selective societies

Cults



The Good Brother by Chris Offutt
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
S. by John Updike
Kalki by Gore Vidal

Military



In The Blue Light Of African Dreams by Paul Watkins
You Know When The Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon
The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzatis
Soldier In The Rain by William Goldman
The Barracks Thief by Tobias Wolff'
The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy
The Great Santini by Pat Conroy
The Way The Crow Flies by Ann-Marie Macdonald
The Yokota Officer's Club by Sarah Bird
From Here To Eternity by James Jones
Beaufort by Ron Leshem

Organised crime syndicates/Mafia/Shining Path



The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Gangster by Lorenzo Carcaterra
Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman (young adult, first in the Son of the Mob series)

Planned Reads (possible shared reads)

For this theme read, I am planning to read:

Pope Joan by Donna Cross
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Aviary Gate: A Novel by Katie Hickman

If anyone’s up for a shared read for one of these, let me know. I’d love to discuss one (or all) of these books. I’m also in for discussing The Redemption of Sarah Cain by Beverly Lewis, which I read a few years ago but left a very lasting impression on me.

PolarisBeacon (Paul) has three ‘maybe’ books for this theme, but if any of you want a shared read with him, I’m sure you can convince him to pick up the book you’re interested in. On his list are:

The Monk by Matthew Lewis
From Here To Eternity by James Jones
The Way the Crow Flies: A Novel by Ann-Marie MacDonald.

Paul and I hope you will have a lot of fun with this theme. Good reading everyone!

Interesting examples of closed and selective societies Thanks for the work.

Russell Banks wrote a novel about Maroons: The Book of Jamaica. I didn't know about them till I read this, but now I would like to know more.

The Monk was already on my list for this year, so that is an easy choice for me.

I have several of the above on Mt. TBR and have read a couple. I also have A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul, which I think might fit this theme. The Eskimo/Inuit both fit this theme. There are some books about them, I'm sure, including The Seal Wife which I've read. Also, perhaps there are fiction books about the Aborigines or the Yanamamo, both of which fit this theme.

Very interesting theme and fantastic setup, thank you! Although I doubt I will be actively participating in the theme read, it is one that I will definitely keep my eye on in the future. So many great possibilities!

Interesting theme! All This Belongs to Me by Petra Hulova comes to mind. It is a novel set in the harsh, dusty Mongolian steppe and deals with the life of a nomadic family. This is a small, closed community and interestingly, the book brings to light the differences between the older traditional and the younger modern society. It's a good read that introduces Western readers to a small and completely foreign set of social norms.

Wow, so many great suggestions done by you all already! And it's not even April yet.

Although I know that this theme read isn't yet officially under way, I wanted to add The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham to the list of books covering the life within an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Thought I should post this before I forgot about this one...

Thank you for the great set-up. I have read several of your suggested titles and think they are very good choices. I plan on reading Kalki by Gore Vidal because it has been sitting in my TBR pile for a long time.......

I'm thinking about starting off with The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff and The Art of Hearing Heartbeats and Shantaram. I look forward to exploring other possibilities in this category.

Now that April is here, I wanted to add my welcome to Samantha_kathy's. We hope that you find this an enjoyable theme read and have fun with it.

I myself often partake in such reads from afar -enjoying others' recommendations and extending my to be read list - and usually hope to have at least one read during the quarter that is with the theme in mind. I rarely plan ahead sufficiently to know exactly which book that will be until the day comes that I've just finished one and am thinking what my next pick will be. Rather, I tend to have a swirl of titles near the front of my mind from which I'll choose, but sometimes it can be totally on a whim and I might go for whichever just caught my eye on the shelf!

I still haven't decided yet, what my first read will be, and if it will be any of the excellent above suggestions. Having just recently moved to a smaller home, much of my library remains unpacked. Thankfully I have a shiny and brand new public library just a five minute walk from home so I know I'll be making several requests there in the coming months.

I want to thank Samantha_kathy for preparing such an enticing array of subjects and titles. I can't help thinking though that there must be many topic areas and good titles that we've so far inevitably overlooked. I hope that others will feel encouraged to make whatever suggestions they wish to and that the thread will be one that Reading Globally members will enjoy returning to.

I have several books on this theme which I definitely want to get to this quarter, and have Empress by Shan Sa pulled to start with, but that's no guarantee I'll actually read it soon. I also have pulled the two volume memoir, From Emperor to Citizen the Autobiography of Aisin-Gio Pu Yi, who was the last Emperor of China. These are the books from which the movie The Last Emperor was made. I'm always skeptical of memoirs, but especially this one. I believe he was commanded to write it by the Chinese government. It remains to be seen how honest I'll think it is.

I think I'm going to use this theme read as a good reason to try and read something pretty different to what I've been reading over the last year or so.... so I've decided to get The Way The Crow Flies out from the library in the next week or so.

Anybody up for doing a shared read?

I've made a tentative start in Pope Joan by Donna Woodfolk Cross, and from the very beginning there's a religious fanatic as a character. And it made me wonder, how many of these closed and secretive societies are just that because of fanaticism? That 'my way or no way at all' reasoning that fanatics have?

How big a role does fanatacism (of any kind, not just religious) play in the society you're reading about?

Not just your plain everyday end of the world tale! This novel, written in the 1970s, is more of a sociopolitical statement than a novel. Using the Hindu concepts of Vishnu come again as avatar Kalki, to end the current era of human life on earth, the protagonist manages to manipulate the masses in order to achieve his own ends. Not only does he manipulate the common person on the street, but he is able to successfully manipulate Congress, the Chinese Mafia, and the CIA to his own ends. Charisma and intellect combined create a dangerous entity! Yet, without spoiling the book for anyone, I would have to say that if the reader is not enjoying the author's sociopolitical commentary in the first two thirds of the book, the final third is just a great ending to the entire novel, satisfying in many ways!

I am not sure sure this is the best pick for this theme read. It was more a "close of society" story than a "closed society" story. Oh well!

I just read a great review of Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant, which is about convent life in sixteenth century Italy. Of course, it's about so much more, but the setting makes it very suitable as a read for this theme. The full review, by calm, can be read here

The first book I read for this theme is Empress by Shan Sa. I'd previously read The Girl Who Played Go, which I'd loved, and bought this book as a result. I didn't find it nearly as fascinating, nor did I much like the protagonist.

Empress is about a Heavenlight Wu, who, in the 7th century as the daughter of a minor official and his more highly placed wife, would normally look forward to a life of marriage and drudgery. However, as a child she is noticed by a passing great General, Li Ji, who takes her under his wing and when he ascends to the Imperial Forbidden City he sends for her to join him there. She enters this very restrictive society as a mid-level lady, but she has much greater ambitions. Through some luck and lots of maneuvering she more than attains her wishes.

Believe me, the Borgias must have patterned much of their behavior on the Chinese Imperial court. They were a very blood thirsty lot.

I learned a lot about the life of a woman in the Forbidden City, which was much, much larger than I had realized. It was well named as a "city" because it was truely immense. Women's lives were restricted and choreographed. There was a great deal of infighting among the women in currying for favor of the current Emperor. Heavenlight, once she gains some power, is instrumental in helping the women in minor ways, but is so much a product of her time and the culture, that she does nothing major to help the position of women.

As a character, Heavenlight was very intelligent, but manipulative, petty, and prone to jealousy. Her wants and needs were primary over even those of her children.

This was an interesting historical novel, and I learned much about that period in Chinese history, but I was not a fan of Heavenlight and her machinations.

Oh, I feel guilty that I haven't started on this theme read yet. Not enough reading time . . .

Starting on The Way The Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald this weekend.

>20 Polaris-: I just finished The Way the Crow Flies in October and will be interested in seeing how you find it. I won't add anything else here, as you haven't read it yet.

I just realized that I read a book back in April that fit the theme. The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles is largely about a pair of sisters in 1920's - 1930's Brazil, one of whom joins the cangaceiros, a gang of bandits that terrorizes the Brazilian interior. The other sister marries into a family of elite social standing and has trouble being accepted into their ranks.

18> Fascinating review of Empress, maggie -- I'd like to read this one.

This will give me a good excuse to move Memoirs of a Geisha out of my TBR pile...

I've given up (for the moment) on Pope Joan. The main character, Joan, is reading much too 'modern' for me. As well as sometimes being incredibly stupid. Perhaps the book improves when Joan is more mature and starting to dress like a man, so I will give it another shot later on. Just not right now.

In the meantime, I've started Memoirs of a Geisha and I'm liking it. Although I did read about the controversy surrounding it - what with the court case and also the true memoirs of Golding's source being published and them being quite different. But as long as it's a good story, I can't really seem to care.

I am accidentally reading another selection which fits this group read. The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney involves Gypsies, including history, myths, misnomers, and insight into gypsy life in England in the 1970s. The plot centers around the search for a young woman who has been missing for 6 years, and evolves into the intertwined lives of gypsies, gorgios (term for non-gypsies used by gypsies in England0, and children of mixed unions. It involves all the issues of any closed society.....boundaries, efforts to hold onto an cultural identity, how to withstand the demands of outside influences, how to adapt. So far, a good story, with fascinating info along the way!

I'm now reading Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin. Burma/ Myanmar is certainly a closed society in modern times.

Finished a book called Seasons, a Real Story of an Amish Girl. The writing is nothing wonderful, and it didn't give me nearly the in-depth view of the Amish I was hoping for. What it did have was a slice of life view of Delaware and one Amish family in the Depression and WWII. Somewhat interesting, but not at all what I was hoping for.

I'm looking forward to July and the beginning of our new quarterly read.

The last few months have been hectic, and I'm reading very slowly this year. Still only in the middle of the (possibly overly?) long The Way The Crow Flies.

About a week ago I almost gave it up - I like very much the writing and the plot is engrossing, but it is maybe just a little bit too slow in developing - but decided on giving it another 100 pages, and I'm very glad I have. Really in to it now. It is certainly an extremely authentic feeling experience of what life might have been like on a sleepy Air Force station in Ontario.

Monasteries/ Nunneries and Catholic Clergy: I finished The Monk earlier this month and was somewhat amazed that this was actually published in the eighteenth century. I can certainly see why it caused controversy. I will post a review on Club Read later this week.

I'm afraid I've been very remiss about this theme read, and it doesn't look like I'll read anything appropriate by the end of the month. I've enjoyed reading about everyone else's reads, and if I read anything that fits after the quarter is over, I'll post it here so we can keep this thread going.

I started Memoirs of a Geisha late Sunday night and I can hardly put it down. So far it's the best book I've read this year.

I'm still reading Memoirs of a Geisha as well, but it's slow going for me. The book's too large to fit into my bag and virtually the only reading time I have currently is during my commute. But so far, it's pretty good.

16 hemlokgang

Which book are you discussing? Is it Kalki by Gore Vidal?

The Way The Crow Flies -

I finished this earlier today and wanted to include the following extract from my review, as it relates to this theme read:

In the end, the plot of the novel was more related to a 'closed society' than I bargained for - the transient nature of the families' lives, the secrets and duties that Madeleine's father Jack is burdened with, the false atmosphere of safety and security in a seemingly close-knit community. Ann-Marie Macdonald's writing is excellent. She wrote a book that was so cinematic and in its style, full of poignancy, tragedy, and a fair bit of humour too. Full of everyday cultural references that give the 1960s (and later 1980s) settings a particular vividness, I was totally transplanted to the places in the book.

My only complaint is that it is so very long. At 700+ pages I think it could have been edited down by perhaps a 100 pages or so, maybe the author was guilty on occasion of just a little over-indulgence in her beautiful prose - but maybe the accumulative effect on the whole book wouldn't have been quite as good? I nearly put it down at about 100 pages as it was taking me a while to get going with it, (really down to my own distractions though and not the book itself) but in the end I'm so glad I didn't and that I pushed on. I found the rest of the book flew by pretty quickly. By the end I was sad to see the story over, and the ending did come as a surprise to this reader.

All in all a book that is well worth the effort and one that will reward the patient reader.

This was the first time I read a book specifically because it matched the theme of an LT group read (I've read others of course, but they were books I had planned on reading in any case. I knew nothing of this author's work before finding it for this theme read.). So I am very glad to be a member of this group and to have spent most of this quarter's alloted time reading this book and immersing myself in another place and in another time.

My full review of this moving and well written novel is here for those interested:
http://www.librarything.com/work/57134/reviews/81752236

>35 Polaris-: Excellent review and I am so glad you liked it. It certainly captured the feeling of claustrophobia of living on a base. Did you know that this book is based on an actual case, that of Steven Truscott? You're right about the cinematic aspects of the book. As just one small instance, I know the road she is describing (from Clinton to London Ontario) and every time I travel it I think of her descriptions of the drive.

She wrote a book that was so cinematic and in its style, full of poignancy, tragedy, and a fair bit of humour too. You might also enjoy her first book, Fall on Your Knees which fits this description too.

>36 SassyLassy: - Thank you for your comments, much appreciated. Yes, as soon as I finished the book I started looking at other reviews again and discovered the tragic Truscott case. Your mention of the road is interesting to me - I'm a map nut anyway, and I often get online to look up the lay of the land if a book I'm reading has veyr specific location settings - so I was all over Ontario for a while! I didn't have the patience to go back through the book and find the precise roads mentioned in several key passages in the book, but the author's writing certainly put me right there in my mind.

I will keep an eye out for Fall On Your Knees. Not soon though - 'cos I've put myself on a 300 page per book limit for a few weeks at least!

Getting in a little late here, but I'm surprised to find that the book I'm reading is definitely about a closed and selective society. It's The Age of Innocence, and it's about the super-rich of 1870s New York City. They have an elaborate set of rules and customs, and the book makes it clear that they are different from the super-rich in other places.