The Immediate Past and the Distant Future

Gentlemen—

With apologies to those who simply couldn’t make it, I really, really enjoyed our last meeting; I’m still kinda buzzing from it, actually. They’re all good, of course, but to have such a good one while discussing a novel? Well, let’s just say I, personally, left feeling especially good. And not only that, but in terms of the health of the group, something I’m always monitoring like an always-running EKG, the idea that we could, for one reason or another (all legitimate) have four (4) regular, committed members of the group unable to make it, and STILL have such a terrific, fulfilling discussion was like, was like… sprinkles on top of what was already a couple of delicious scoops of ice cream.

And then to have—surprise!—a guy who was originally invited a couple of years ago just show up, just materialize, like magic (I’m looking at you d.l. hopkins) and contribute so terrifically? Just great stuff. Doesn’t get any better than that.

Our next meeting is the third week of November, as usual: November 20, usual place (Ryland Hall, University of Richmond), usual time (5 p.m.). Our next book to be discussed is The Two Wes Moores: One Name, Two Fates, by Wes Moore. Our January selection, for which we’ll be voting the week before our November meeting, is “topics or issues non-fiction.” For March, we’ll be choosing memoirs, and May is wide-open, genre-free. Keep that in mind as you’re going about your regular reading lives.

Now, speaking of your regular reading lives, I find it really interesting that we have, through no particular intentional strategy, read several books having to do with racial indeterminacy: Charles Johnson, Oxherding Tale; Bliss Broyard, One-Drop; James McBride, The Color of Water; Philip Roth, The Human Stain; even the film for our summer screening, I’m Through with White Girls had, as the female lead, a “Canadian half-rican,” a character who was genetically biracial.

Well, let me suggest to you a terrific book called Caucasia, by Danzy Senna, that treads that familiar terrain, but in a slightly different way. And the author is coming to UR to give a talk in the spring. Note:

Danzy Senna, American novelist & memoirist
Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 7 p.m.
Brown-Alley Room, Weinstein Hall, University of Richmond

Danzy Senna is the author of two novels and a memoir that focus on issues of race, gender and cultural identity. Her debut novel, “Caucasia,” the story of two biracial sisters growing up in racially charged Boston during the 1970s, became an instant national bestseller. It won the Book-of-the-Month Club Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and an Alex Award from the American Library Association, was named Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and was a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Of mixed-race heritage, Senna writes extensively on the experience of being mistaken for white. Her latest work is a collection of short stories.

It’d be great if you guys could read Caucasia in anticipation of her visit, and then attend her talk. It’d also be great for us to meet up and chat with her—I might (might) be able to wrangle a special meeting or dinner with her, like we did with her good buddy Trey Ellis, if there’s sufficient interest. Just a suggestion, a possibility.

In any case, happy reading, of whatever you’re reading, and we’ll all hook up in almost two months.