|
Men's book club benched for the Canadiens series
© by Mike Keenan 
The men's book club is winding down for the summer after a year of mainly good reads, but I see trouble on the horizon. I admit that I am part of the problem. I missed a few of our monthly meetings. It's not easy to attend monthly meetings when you are retired. I find that I have less and less time to devote to frivolous meetings.
Not all of our books are frivolous. We started off with "Physics of the Impossible" by Michio Kahu, our non-fiction choice to begin the season. I cannot adequately explain how much I loathe physics. My recollection is that physics results were put on the Bell Curve when I wrote the grade thirteen exams a hundred years ago. That's because the average mark for Ontario students was 28. Can you imagine! All across the province even up to Sudbury where there isn't much else to do at night but study, the average mark was a mere 28! I was awarded a 52 so I can proudly state that I "passed" the exam which means that my real score was probably 29 or 30. Now, when students complain about exams or school in general, I exhibit my death stare, purposefully effect a tremor in my hands and voice and intone, "You would not believe what I endured in 1961. It was, to borrow a phrase from the Queen, an annus horribilis." I have to be careful how I spell annus when I use that term for readers because the other spelling is where I thought my exam truly belonged. Thus, you can readily understand why I would not be remotely interested in a discussion of Mr. Kahu's book. Next, we read "De Niro's Game" by Rawi Hage. The men's book club does not skirt major world issues. We pride ourselves on a good grasp of Middle East geo-political concerns. The nice part about Hage's book was that it reminded me of early Clint Eastwood movies, both the spaghetti westerns and the Dirty Harry series. Steve Martin's "Born Standing Up" was our next choice, and I rank it up there with the aforementioned book on physics; in fact, not one member of the men's book club found it funny or interesting. The title is the best part of the book. We like to joke around at our meetings; this book did not help at all. Next, we read "Fifth Business" by Robertson Davies and "Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut. It's unfortunate both are no longer alive because Davies was such a good writer and Vonnegut was bizarrely inventive. The men's book club like bizarre and solid writing. I skipped out of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" but remember reading it several times and enjoying it very much. Lee was a friend and ally of Truman Capote who is an author we have not yet tackled. At the men's book club, we devote a lot of time to politics. Nobody has any idea what's happening in Ottawa any more so we thought it wise to read Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince." We think Stephen Harper has it memorized. Basically, it consists of suggestions on how to grab and maintain power. We enjoyed a spirited discussion on this book. Next, we examined "The Book of Negroes" by Lawrence Hill and "The Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchman to satisfy our historical bent. From these two books, we discovered that old, white men in power are not to be trusted. Not much has changed. (See comments on Machiavelli). The next book scheduled for early spring is about Norman Bethune, a Canadian hero. Unfortunately, it's bad timing because I am far more interested in the exploits of other Canadian heroes, namely the Montreal Canadiens hockey team that I loved and followed as a kid. We should really omit spring in our reading series due to the Stanley Cup playoffs. I intend to Google Bethune instead of reading the book. I told you I was part of the problem. |
