"Paul Di Filippo - Book Clubbed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Di Filippo Paul)

Then we started discussing the book.

The conversation quickly grew hot and heavy as we argued about
whether Frank and Cora were right to follow their hearts and passion and kill
CoraтАЩs dreary husband Nick.

тАЬWell, let me tell you something,тАЭ said Alice Sanders, her face all
flushed, тАЬif someone like Frank ever came into my life, I wouldnтАЩt think twice
about doing the same thing to my Harry!тАЭ

The room fell silent. Then Sarah said, тАЬAlice, donтАЩt you think thatтАЩs
going a little too far...?тАЭ

тАЬNo, I donтАЩt! This discussion has made me see my whole life
differently. ItтАЩs justтАФitтАЩs just so intense to act books out this way! I never
knew fiction could be so powerful and meaningful! God bless that Diana
Loevy!тАЭ

The conversation quickly shifted to less personal interpretations of
the book, and we eventually broke up, although thanks to the bathtub gin I
donтАЩt really remember too much about the final hours of the meeting. In
fact, the next day I had to call up Irma to learn what the next book was. It
turned out to be another classic, Madame Bovary.

What a turnout everyone made for that book! How the sewing
machines hummed! Old mothballed bridesmaid gowns were exhumed and
fancied up. Horse-drawn carriages were rented from farmers. Sally laid on
Champagne (actually, sparkling California wine), and we made the
Frenchiest recipes that Rachael Ray offered.
 The one sad thing was that Alice Sanders was nowhere to be seen.
We were all abuzz about her absence, but it was not until a few days later
that we learned from the local television news about the tragedy at her
house and how Alice and some young man named Jimmy Wayne
тАЬKnucklesтАЭ Burgess were now wanted criminals on the lam, last seen
heading for the Mexican border.

But to get back to Flaubert. So many of us empathized with poor
Emma and her affairs and her spendthrift, self-indulgent ways that barely
compensated for her boring marriage. I guess it was only natural that a few
of us would go on afterwards to a little extramarital hankypanky and some
running up of the old credit cards.

You can see where things were heading with our book club. The
Diana Loevy method of getting deeply into these novels was just so
powerful that the books took hold of our lives.

Perhaps our choices of which titles to read werenтАЩt too wise either. If
only we had picked something like Little Women or Little House on the
Prairie.