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

But we didnтАЩt. In fact, for next week we decided to do Jackie
SusannтАЩs Valley of the Dolls.

When Sally opened the door to her house for me that Wednesday,
she was wearing a fringed leather vest over her bare chest, a headband,
and a pair of polka-dotted short shorts.

тАЬGroovy Carnaby Street gear!тАЭ she exclaimed, admiring my vinyl
miniskirt and go-go boots. тАЬCome right in!тАЭ

The refreshments that night were bowls of pills. Sally had gotten her
nephew, Harold, who went to college in Omaha, to provide her with
something called тАЬecstasy.тАЭ

тАЬAre you sure these pills are safe?тАЭ I asked.

тАЬOh, hang loose, babe! Is Loevy your guru or not?тАЭ

Embarrassed and not wanting to be a party-pooper, I indulged.

It was right after that night that the PTA had to disband, in light of a
highly radioactive public freakout by several strung-out moms. Things were
said that just made it impossible ever to work together on bake sales again.
 Of course the whole town of Farblondjet was in a dither by now. But
no one outside of our book club really knew the cause of all the recent
scandals. The men especially were clueless. And we Loevy-ites were in
too deep now to stop, recruiting new members to replace the ones we lost
to jail and other distractions.

Over the next few weeks, we tackled Grace MetaliousтАЩs Peyton Place
, Gore VidalтАЩs Myra Breckenridge, George HigginsтАЩs The Friends of Eddie
Coyle, Nicholson BakerтАЩs Vox, and William VollmanтАЩs The Royal Family,
among others. That last one was particularly trying. Not only was it a
dreadfully long book to read, but I picked up a really nasty infection working
for a week in a certain exclusive establishment in Nevada....

I suppose we would have gone on in this fashion much longer, if not
for our choice to tackle John le Carr├йтАЩs The Little Drummer Girl. Those
Middle-Easterners are so darn touchy! The headlines from the arrests of
Sally, Beth, and a half dozen other Farblondjet natives found meddling in
the Gaza Strip broke the secrets of our little club, and we were forced to
temporarily suspend our literary activities, especially since SallyтАЩs home
was now the legal property of Hamas.

But the survivors of the local program dedicated to the methods of
The Book Club Companion are determined to reunite soon.

If anyone shows up next week, weтАЩre going to tackle Pauline R├йageтАЩs
The Story of O.