Post Type Archives: VBC Events

I have been looking forward to our discussion of this one for a long time. I think that Beloved, along with Philip Roth’s American Pastoral, is one of the two most powerful and important recent American novels that I’ve read. Its subject matter, the legacy of slavery’s evils and the racial tensions and historical injustices […]

I’ve been looking forward to this book ever since I finished reading Ferrante’s ravishing “Neapolitan Novels,” a quartet centered on the tempestuous lives – and tormented friendship – of the unforgettable Lila and Elena and their love-hate relation to their magnificent and complicated hometown, Naples. I’m intrigued by The Lying Life of Adults for many reasons, especially […]

The perfect “back to school” back, with its lavish parties on West Egg, dancing flappers, images of the sea (especially that symphonic line, “So we beat on, boats against the current…”), and of course the green light on Daisy Buchanan’s dock that Jay Gatsby seeks out. The book can seem like a magical summer dream, […]