Book Club Covers Big Questions With A Low-Key Atmoshere

Death, loss, truth -- when it comes to discussion topics, Montville Library's "First Tuesday" book club does not shy away from the harrowing.

The women, all Montville residents, asked not to be named, citing this month's sampling as unrepresentative of typical attendance figures. The meeting had four participants.

Library staffer Karen Matta said the turnout was unusually light.

"Usually, about seven or eight are here," she said. "It's a lovely bunch of ladies."

On August 2, the four women in attendance consumed Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a 2006 philosophical rumination on class consciousness and intellectual preciosity that became a best-seller in France.

"Why is it sometimes difficult to show people who we truly are?" a woman questioned, reading from a list of printed discussion questions. The utility of this kind of literary camaraderie, another woman noted, lies in the retroactive enhancement of the reading experience.

"We all love to read," she said. "And other people see things that you didn't really recognize in the book. When you discuss it, everybody sees something different."

It's one thing to read by yourself, they agreed, and another to synthesize what you have digested, repackage it vocally, and have your interpretation checked by others.

Though the club, which meets on the first Tuesday of every month, tends to be homogeneously female, the women emphasized that men are welcome. "We had one man who was going to Florida for the winter, and then he never came back," one woman recalled,

The group is decidedly informal. "We like it because it's not directed by anybody," one woman said. "It's democratic; we don't have a teacher or a leader. There's no pressure. If you want to sit back and be quiet, you sit back and be quiet. If you want to talk, you talk. It's low-key."

The women choose books that span a number of genres and themes; they have read biographies (Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller), memoirs, and historical fiction. Last month's selection, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, served to humanize the German populace during World War II.

Though admittedly gloomy, the women noted, Zusak's 2005 novel was poignant. "They weren't all enemies," one woman said of the war-era Germans. "They had families; they had problems."

Another perk of belonging to the club is becoming exposed to new sorts of material.

"It brings new books to your awareness -- a lot I would probably not have read," one woman said.

With this new material comes new concepts and theories, sometimes that of joy and triumph, but just as often of pain and alienation. "Life is reflected in literature," one said.

Thanks to New Jersey's inter-library loan system, Matta said, the women rarely encounter problems obtaining their books. And the system has not been jeopardized by any of Gov. Chris Christie's budget cuts, she continued, as had once been feared.

The club is currently looking for new members.

"It's only one book a month," one woman said. "So it's not like there's pressure for you to read a lot."