Saint Mary’s Book Group 2016 #1
Readings:
“No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest” by Dame Mary Gilmore.
“Accordion Crimes” by Annie Proulx.
Mr. Howard and Mrs. Norrish welcomed a mixture of hardened veterans and new recruits to the first Saint Mary’s Book Group of the year. It’s always interesting to see how the group dynamics change from year to year; the 2016 cadets so far could be described as “excitable”.
Following a prayer, it was time to attack the poetry which had been selected by Mrs. Norrish. The children were soon in the thick of a lively and well informed debate. Everyone had annotated their handout and had used the time leading up to the meeting to independently research unfamiliar terms such as “ANZAC” and “Tobruk”. This allowed the conversational flow to thrust and parry back and forth amongst a myriad of topics; it was almost impossible to get a word in edgeways-just how we like it at Book Group. One particularly interesting thread was the existence of native cultures in lands “claimed” by others; a sensitive and well-rounded debate on the poem’s Australian themes was then transferred to the Americas which led on to a discussion of travel and adventure upon the seas…brilliant stuff.
Annie Proulx’s “Accordion Crimes” (chosen by Mr. Howard) reads like a short story collection loosely linked by the titular instrument. Pupils were introduced to a man who “If he had any beauty in his life, did not show it”. Picking up on tiny clues and inferences in the text, we put together a life for the character who Proulx described in long, l o n g sentences. The children looked into a life of poverty and privation which was leavened only by the man’s gift for music and his observation of the rare miracles in nature. Complex rhythms, odd syntax and challenging vocabulary could not defeat the book group who will now soldier on to their next objective in two weeks.
Keep an ear to the radio for our next dispatches.