November Book Group

On November 2 at 2:30 we will discuss two classics: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
 
The story of Victor Frankenstein’s terrible creation and the havoc it caused has enthralled generations of readers and inspired countless writers of horror and suspense. Considering the gothic novel’s enduring success, it is remarkable that it began as a contest between Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and 18-year-old Mary to write a ghost story. The illustrious poets failed to complete their stories, but Mary rose supremely to the challenge to create a story that, in her own words, “would speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror—one to make the reader dread to look round, to curdle the blood, and quicken the beatings of the heart.” Widely considered to be the first science fiction novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was first published anonymously in 1818, and heavily revised in 1831.
 
Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is a modern American anti-war classic published in 1969. It combines science fiction, historical fiction, autobiography, satire and humor in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW during WWII. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.” Billy’s odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.
 
Save the Date: On December 7 we will discuss The Briar Club by Kate Quinn.