Jewish Federation Book Club Report for May & June

May 2024

A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins

Our original pick for this month was Happiness Falls, by Angie Kim which I had to give up on since it felt too much like “how to” videos that waste time never getting to the point. The group agreed to change our book to A Slow Fire Burning, by Paula Hawkins—the well-known author of The Girl on the Train. Two of our members had already read Happiness Falls, one who said the depiction of a character’s therapy was true to treating autism and trauma, while the other said it was not a favorite book and still never solved the mystery by the end.

A Slow Fire Burning is a mystery that “kept us guessing all along.” Full of unlikeable characters such as a successful male writer who plagiarized a woman’s memoir. Miriam, the plagiarized victim, was described by one reader as “despicable,” and someone said these characters were “all a bunch of whiners” with “no redeeming qualities.”

However, we all appreciated Laura who, due to a brain injury, had no social filters. This made her fun and funny, with surprising dialogue that kept getting her into more trouble with police. We compared this novel to The Girl on the Train—readers liked A Slow Fire Burning better for having “more character development,” being “easy to follow,” “a good beach read,” “a good dog-walking read,” and, “a good thriller.” Our reader who liked Happiness Falls preferred The Girl on the Train to this one, and suggested another thriller which is now on our list: First Lie Wins, by Ashley Elston.

June 2024

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

An astute comment on Life After Life was made by the member who recommended this semi-historical reincarnation novel. “Maybe,” she said, “with the current fad of jumping back and forth between eras, this author wanted to find a different take on it.” Quite common lately is the 1800s/1920s/1940s jumping ahead and back again to characters in the 2000s discovering their ancestral pasts. Life After Life’s different take was not only a change in time for the readers but for the main character, Ursula, as she experienced multiple opportunities to redo her life. It’s a form of reincarnation that allows a redo of her life at all the crucial junctures. These include birth, childhood, adolescence, and various abusers. The rise of Hitler and a husband swept up in Nazi propaganda are an important piece of the mix.

For audiobook listeners, the whiplash of date changes made it a difficult read. With a physical or an eBook, one could refer back and get a grip on what was happening. Even so, it takes a great deal of patience and stamina to follow a story that continually changes—this makes it hard to believe which is the “true” version of events. When reaching the end, our readers wondered what the author’s point was. Does Ursula ever get it all completely right?

Many moments of the book were rich with detailed imagery of life during the London Blitz. Descriptions of the food made it feel so authentic. The bombing scenes were “poetically horrifying,” and the author did a great job of showing “the best and worst in people.”

As readers, experiencing the rise of fascism and Hitler’s popularity felt all too real and all too possible at any point in any of our lives; and the novel, published in 2013, raises the chilling

questions we all must ask ourselves of whether that could ever be stopped, and what our individual parts in that might be.

Some final comments from our readers were: “Different, original.” “Accurate research on the depiction of childhood during the London Blitz.” “We don’t usually read about substitutes for medical personnel.” “Fascinating detail.” “Groundhog Day over multiple lives of an English woman, segments from influenza, navigating life in the twenties and forties, abuses from men, learning to survive in society, and getting along with other people.”

One last suggestion was we ought to read the author’s afterward in the updated edition of the book for intriguing and relevant information.

Upcoming Books:

July 11:                      The Light Pirate, by Lily Brooks-Dalton
August 8:                   First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

The Federation Book Club meets via Zoom at 4:00 PM on the second Thursday of the month.