So, the book group met last night. Interestingly enough, the main comment was: “Can someone explain what’s going on in this book, please?” Many found it dense and unreadable. In fact, out of the 12 of us, only three had the endurance to read the book from start to finish. That said, there was some interesting discussion. One woman compared the book to Nabakov — maybe it’s not supposed to be “realistic”; maybe it’s all an exaggeration to prove a point. Several wondered if it wasn’t really written for the Turks, but rather as a pointed barb at the West. I made my point about not having the right background to enjoy this book, but a woman countered with “But I read to learn new things.” (I didn’t get to make my counter point: well, then, read non-fiction. I’m not sure you’re supposed to learn things from fiction. Or maybe I’m wrong here.) I did get into a heated, though short, argument with a woman where I found myself defending Islam (the requirement to wear head scarves in particular). I agree with some of what she said — that Muslim-dominated countries have a tendency to opress women — but the fact that she was putting it as “all relgion oppresses women, especially Islam” really made me uncomfortable. (I challenged her by saying that she was making broad generalizations about religion. She said, “Damn right I am.” Okay then.) When another woman chimed in with “I’m sure they’re intelligent, but they’re brainwashed” I backed down. I don’t like being told that you have to make a choice between being intelligent and being religious. I don’t feel I’ve been brainwashed, and I consider myself both intelligent and religious. Granted, I’m also American. Maybe things would be different if I wasn’t.
On top of that, we talked about immigrants, language retention, national health care, suicide bombers, and feminism (which led to abortion and what Democrats could do to win an election). Whew.
In the end, though, I still don’t like the book all that much.
The Book Nut 
Oh, I totally read fiction to learn new things. Most of what I know about the world, including history, politics, religion, I learned through fiction.I’m sorry book group didn’t go so well. What are you reading next?
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I don’t count on fiction to learn about anything substantial. I usually don’t have enough faith in the knowledge of the authors. And if you’re not already familiar with the topic, it’s hard to tell where the truth ends and fiction begins.The people in Kyrgyzstan might be brainwashed, but it wasn’t by Islam! I really dislike discussing religion with people who aren’t religious and are negative about it. We don’t get anywhere.It sounds like an interesting time. I’d like to have been there.
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My husband and I argued over learning things from fiction yesterday, and came to this conclusion: yes, you can learn from fiction, but it’s not exactly a scholarly-type learing. For instance, we both learned a lot about the Black Plague from Connie Willis’s Dooms Day Book, but we both admitted that if we had set out to learn about the Black Plague, we wouldn’t have picked up a fiction book.Am I making the difference clear??Julie — it’s not that the book group didn’t go well; I don’t mind getting into arguments (even ones I can’t win); that’s part of the reason I like going to a book group. It’s just that I didn’t like the book…Next month is the Time Traveler’s Wife, which, amazingly, our little library had and is now sitting on my nightstand waiting to be read. Sounds like it could be an interesting book.
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