Have you been wanting to join a book club, but it's too much of a commitment? Welcome to Low-Stakes Book Club, where we only read short stories, essays, and poetry! Miss a
meeting? That's ok, we'll see you next time. Don't like the reading? Don't worry, it's not that many pages, and next meeting we're discussing something different. I'm making an effort to select readings that are available online unless otherwise elected by the group. If we decide to purchase a book, I will make an order via Brickbat Books so that we can support a local small business.
Fill out this google form to answer a few quick questions about your schedule preferences and reading interests, and join the mailing list via the form at the bottom of this page to receive updates about future meetings.
UPCOMING MEETINGS:
Friday, February 21st at 5 pm
FUTURE READINGS:
We will be alternating reading essays, short stories, and poetry. Feel free to comment below with suggestions!
Reading for February 21st:
"When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine"by Jhumpa Lahiri
from the short story collection Interpreter of Maladies
Told from the point of view of 10-year-old Lilia, whose parents immigrated from India to Boston, this story explores complex historical and social dynamics amongst South Asian immigrants in 1971. Seeking community with people from the university with last names common to their region, her family befriends Mr. Pirzada, a botanist on fellowship who shares her family's language, culinary traditions, and sense of humor.
As they have dinner and watch the news together, Lilia learns that Mr. Pirzada is not an Indian, and that his wife and seven daughters are in Dacca, an area of East Pakistan torn apart during the Bangladesh War of Independence. Lilia navigates learning about the history of where she's from, contrasted with learning about American history and seeing how her classmates' homes differ from her own.
There's a very good audiobook version of this book read by Matilda Novak, which I borrowed from the library via Libby. There are also a couple of free amateur versions on YouTube. I highly recommend checking out the other stories in this book as well. It was difficult to pick just one.
For context, here are two maps of how Southeast Asian national boundaries changed after Partition at the end of British colonial rule. The narrator's Hindu family is from Calcutta, and and Mr. Pirzada's Muslim family is from Dacca, in the center of the region that became the country of Bangladesh. As is reflected in the story, this was an area of world history largely lacking from my American K-12 education, so perhaps it will be informative for others as well.
PREVIOUS READINGS and MEMBER SUGGESTIONS: To see what we've read before and check out what other members suggest, visit this page.
Have you read They Were Horrible Cooks?