BOOK CLUB - Galway

So is Frankenstein the book for the next meet instead of Factotum, or are we reading both?

Ok cool looking forward to it.

Sorry for the delay in getting this done - but better late than never and all that!

Factotum, Charles Bukowski, 11th November 2008

Most people finished the book, and everyone enjoyed it for being something a bit different. It’s well written, easy to read and very funny when describing the situations Chinaski finds himself in.

Factotum is an account of a drifter, drinking and working (occasionally) his way across America. Getting drunk, arrested, sacked and womanising throughout the book, it’s a life of few achievements or successes, but somehow the main character, Chinaski, seems resigned to his fate, and determined to enjoy it as much as possible.

It sounds depressing, but in a strange way it’s quite uplifting. To see a character drift through from one strange situation or dysfunctional relationship to another, without having learned any lessons, and seemingly content to carry on, perhaps makes us all feel a little better about ourselves.

The discussion mainly focused on Chinaski, and how he felt about his situation. He did have some motivation; his dream of becoming a writer, but otherwise seemed to quite enjoy his position as a drifter. Or perhaps he didn’t, but couldn’t quite be bothered to pick himself up and settle down to a ‘proper’ job.

But maybe the whole point is that the idea of the ‘proper job’ doesn’t exist, it is simply what society expects of us, and through Chinaski the author is showing there is as much point and fun in having a crappy life as living the good life and the ‘American dream’.

There’s no revelations at the end of the book, nothing has changed for Chinaski and there’s no great eureka moment where he is inspired to join society as a respectable functioning citizen. This is good, as an ending like that would have made the whole point of the book null and void.

The group couldn’t decide what was meant by the last few lines in the book. Either it was a reflection on his life of dissipation and lethargy, or it was simply that this was just one more thing he couldn’t be bothered doing.

TristianPeter: Brilliant book. Very funny at times but bleak also. I find it hard to know if Chinaski has a great life in the book, or a sh*t one. Perhaps both.

Erika: I really enjoyed the book and it was an easy read and funny. Interesting to realise that there are people who have little or no ambition who seem content to drift through life.

James: Best book of the two I’ve done so far for the club and it is the kind of book I’d read myself and really enjoy. The repetitive, cyclical nature of his alcoholism and wildness was refreshing because no big lesson was forced at the end. Great!

Anne: Different to what I would usually read but found it all the more enjoyable because of that.

Damien: Book sounds great. Definitely reading it!

Hi everyone!

This is Marie here, just want to say thanks for a great first meeting. Going to get my copy of 'On the Road' today and get started!

I am now officially nominating 'Oryx and Crake' by Margaret Atwood as my book choice. It's a really good one, and it gives plenty of scope for lengthy discussions.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing you in a fortnight, happy reading!

Hi guys
I know its bad form seeing as it my book choice but I wont make it this evening. Hope ye have fun.

Galway Book Club 09–12-2008

On the Road
by jack Kerouac


Hi everyone. Its great to have this opportunity to write the report for this weeks Galway Book Club meeting. Late as usual, but what do you expect? It was a great night, as usual. Not as mad as the week before I should mention. It was also Sarah’s birthday last Tuesday, so just like to say “Happy Birthday’ Sarah!

I’m afraid I’ll have to keep this short (very). It was over 10 years ago or more when I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac. It is book I have always loved and should have read again for the book club to refresh the auld grey matter, but unfortunately wasn't’ to be. On the Road is a great American novel written in the 1950’s that came to epitomise the ‘Beat’ generation in America. It was not wrote as an ‘anti-establishment’ novel which it is often viewed as, but came more out of the authors’ quest to invent a new ‘spontaneous prose’ that reflected more the real world that the author existed in. The bulk of the novel was wrote in just 30 days, but was the culmination of 7 years of anguish and torment for the writer. kerouac struggled mainly with style and trying to find his own ‘voice’, to free himself from the influences of writers he admired such as Thomas Wolfe and FS Fitzgerald.

Most if not all of the characters in the book are based on his real friends, with even passages of text quoted verbatim from their personal letters to him. He was to use such personal correspondence from friends as a model to base his new writing style on. The free and powerful prose style Kerouac uses gives the story an energy that thrusts the reader along the highways and by-ways crisscrossing the American continent. The language is colloquial and ‘of its’ time’, which probably makes it sound very dated now to the modern reader. It has an honesty and straight-forwardness. The narrator Sal has a strong reverence and respect for his mentors, companions and his family. This could be due to the Author’s own religious and cultural beliefs and upbringing, coming from a strong Catholic and French Canadian background.

Kerouac never really had trouble finding material to write about, as most of it was taken from his own life and the lives of friends around him. Hard travelling, heavy drug-taking and alcoholism which devastated the narrator Sal Paradise on numerous occasions, was a major contributing factor in the author’s own early demise at the age of 47. There is no moral message about drug-taking or the consequences of a person’s actions contained in the novel. If anything, the writer wants the reader to live life and experience as much as possible. Although, I do believe the author not so much as has a change of heart at the end of the book, but comes to a great and truly sad revelation.

On the Road has set thousands of young people on the road travelling and looking for adventure and self discovery. It is probably Keroauc’s best known novel.

Marie: Half way through. Not really my thing, but I can see why people like it.

Tristan-Peter: Didn't get to read it. Exams! Listened to two thirds of the audio book though. Its’ good, but also a bit annoying at times. Not finished, so cant’ really rate the book out of ten.

Damien: For once I have actually read the book. This book might have had more of an influence on my life than I would like to think. 8/10.

Miss Ka: Didn't’ finish the book, but seemed to be interesting enough.

Looking forward to the next book club on the 23rd. Should be very good. I hope the Christmas book ‘A Christmas Memory’ by Truman Capote (who had bad things to say about Keroauc's style of writing) is a short one, because I haven't’ started it yet. Hopefully see ye all there...
Damogood