Would we like a fiction Book Club?

Okay, I am going to try to join in despite my feeble performances so far. The mind is willing but the flesh is easily distracted. Or something :o

Anyway, I'm going to get Villette today and crack on with it. Good timing as I finished a book last night so need something else to start :)

Oh, pleasepleaseplease can we read The Waiting Years by Fumiko Enchi at some point. It is an absolute masterpiece

I found this review online

"At the age of 15 the protagonist Tomo is married to a government official. When he becomes an influential man, he begins to have affairs, and persuades the childless Tomo to let him have a young mistress living in their house. Many of Enchi's most memorable characters are mature women who have either lost their reproductive function, or their beuaty, or both and as a result seethe with anger, passion and even erotic desire. With the qualities that society values most in a woman, her sexuality and her capacity to reproduce, absent, she has little on which to base claims of authority or legitimacy. Tomo's husband does not stop the humilation of his wife by placing just one mistress in his household, he adds another. He even stoops to seducing his own daughter-in-law, his brutish son's wife, much to the horror of Tomo and the other two concubines. However, Tomo maintains her position as the mistress of the household, even showing these defenceless young women compassion. On her deathbed, Tomo insists that she does not want her body to be buried; it should simply be dumped into the water. Her husband shudders as he listens to her, realizing at last the torments she has suffered for forty years. The text ends with these two sentences:
His body had suffered the full force of the emotions that his wife had struggled to repress for forty years. The shock was enough to split his arrogant ego in two.
With these words, powerful blow was delivered against the patriarchy and its abuses. Anger and resentment long suppressed surfaces with such force that it can shatter a husband's ego. "

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OTOH, re-reading the review of The Chrysanthemums, I'm not sure whether or not Steinbeck should go into the group of Men Who Don't Quite Get It. Can't tell whether he's feminist or not. Here's a review of the ending:

"Elisa is devastated. She can no longer blame her place on anyone but herself. The Salinas Valley is a man's world; indeed, we are told at the beginning of the story that it is "Henry Allen's foothill ranch." A man in the world of this story can wander around at will "following the nice weather." And even Elisa in her garden looks man-like in her man's hat and man's gloves. But she has taken pride in showing her strength as a woman. IN sending her chrysanthemums out into the world, she has seen the "brightening" of possibility for herself. Proud of showing her strength, seemingly confident, she is here all but destroyed. Her resolve, her idea of herself, her dream of escape, her belief in her strength have all been dashed. ANd by what? A vagabond tinker tossing out her flowers? NO, Elisa has been laid bare as "the black earth [shining] like metal where the shares had cut." Elisa can no longer kid herself. She has seen herself clearly for who she is, a woman shaped by her place. She has the desire to escape herself , the motive, but not the will. It simply isn't in her. She will remain behind the safety of the fence on her husband's farm."
[Review by Tom Bailey]

"The Chrysanthemums" by John Steinbeck sounds absolutely fascinating. It's a short story, but perhaps we could read a book of short stories with it in?

I'm halfway through Vilette . I had to read it after reading Kate Millet's analysis of it in Sexual Politics. She refers to one scene as "the most subversive scene in nineteenth century literature"
Well I had to read it after that didn't I! Haven't reached "that" scene yet.

This fiction book club sounds like a great idea! I am keen to join in.

Just another one to add to the list - Doris Lessing 'The Marriages between Zones 3, 4 and 5'. (must go and re-read myself...)

Oh God Villette

Charlotte Bronte is so awful. But I ought to read her so am glad to find that site, thanks for posting that Claig.

Oh I loved the Shipping News and haven't read it for ages

Wasn't Moll Flanders supposed to be a morality tale but she has been revisited by feminists who see her as a bit of a hero? I seem to dimly recall that from my degree but that was a very long time ago. Would be interesting to read again.

Yes Clarissa is good. Also Becky Sharp is a very famous character. Diane Abbott says that it is the fictional character that she would choose to be. I don't know anything about Moll Flanders, but she is also famous.

I would definitely prefer to focus on women writers.

I can't have the occasional male these days, just the one for me.

(Sorry got banging headache and it's distorting my humour)

can't we concentrate on women's lit but have the occasional male?
I think the two would interplay nicely.
Doing hatchet jobs on Great Classics By Great Men would be huge fun IMO but I could see it getting old quickly.
It would also be really interesting to see if and how we end up talking about the two differently.
And if someone has no interest at all in doing a male writer, I'm sure they would not object to skipping the occasional group; presumably there wouldn't be people who are only interested in doing men?