New Book Group

LemmyCaution@evpl — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:19:00 GMT

Page Turners is a new book group focusing on thoughtful works of fiction from different time periods, countries, and genres. Each season the list of books will revolve around a theme which will stay consistent and then change with each new season. The first four books listed focus on exemplary works of literary American fiction from the second half of the twentieth century. So if you enjoy engaging works of fiction please feel free to stop in. Also at times the library may not have enough copies, but additional copies can be made available by contacting the North Park Branch Library at (812) 428-8237. The book group meets on the third Monday of each month at the North Park Branch Library around 6:30 p.m.

October 17: The second book we will be discussing is Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49. In the novel Oedipa Maas has just received word that she has inherited a fortunate from a former boyfriend, which will lead her on a mysterious quest to find out whether or not an alternative postal system exists in the United States. This satirical and eccentric work examines the rising counter-culture movements in 1960's southern California and the search for meaning in an increasingly fragmented America.

November 21: The third book will be discussing is the National Book Award winner, White Noise by Don DeLillo. White Noise is the story of a professor at a small college in the Midwest who has pioneered the field of Hitler Studies. After a rail car releases a toxic chemical spill, a black cloud covers the small town and forces the professor to evacuate his family. DeLillo's novel touches on a variety of themes from consumerism to death, all with a satirical and shrewd eye towards the excesses of the eighties.

December 19: The last novel we will be discussing for the season is Philip Roth's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, American Pastoral. American Pastoral tells the story of Seymour Levov a star high school athlete who goes on to marry Dawn Dwyer, the 1949 winner of the Miss New Jersey pageant, and form a seemingly perfect life. However, his idyllic American life becomes interrupted when his daughter commits an act of terrorism in protest of the war in Vietnam and sends his life spiraling out of control.

Books Blog : Thomas Pynchon

New Book Group