The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

A hardy group of Free People Reading Freely, Blaine County Library’s Book Club, met on March 4 at the library. Their next meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 8 at 7:00 p.m. at the Blaine County Library.

The book club’s March conversation began with the January release of Montana Public Broadcasting Service’s “The Great Montana Read” and their list of Montana’s “best-loved novels.” One of the books that made the Top Five was Fools Crow by James Welch, a novel that has received challenges in high schools in both Helena and Bozeman because of “disturbing descriptions of rape, mutilation, and murder.” Supporters of the book say its insights into American Indian society and Montana history outweigh the controversial passages.

Number three on the runners-up list was Winter in the Blood, another novel by James Welch, one which was challenged at Chinook High School in 1994. Because the book features a nameless protagonist who feels a sense of alienation and emptiness and who struggles to find a comfortable position in life and employment, it appeals to many adolescent readers who make a connection to that sense of aimlessness and who often experience similar identity questions.

Set in north central Montana and featuring scenes that take place on Fort Belknap Reservation and in Chinook, Havre, and Malta, the novel feels familiar to Hi-Line readers. Despite its relevant setting and themes, some parents of Chinook High School students took exception to the drunkenness and sexual exploration of the main character, who uses sex and alcohol to fill his emptiness. However, after a long road to self-acceptance and after he reconnects with his family, faith, and culture, the narrator finds a sense of belonging and understanding; the numbness that he has felt begins to thaw.

This challenged book has potential to grow the reader’s brain because it exposes the intercultural warfare that was waging in the early 70s and the resistance to oppression that many American Indians displayed when confronted with pressures for assimilation and acculturation. Through the narrator’s late discovery of long suppressed facts about his own heritage—the names and history of his grandparents—the novel also shares a key theme about preserving one’s connection to the past. Amidst the poverty, alcoholism, and despair, the narrator further finds there is also humor and the capacity to endure and to move forward.

That we need humor to survive is no real surprise; humor is as essential as oxygen. Medical doctors extol the many physical benefits of humor, which include the reduction of blood pressure and heart rate and a decrease in muscle tension to help alleviate pain.

Another book that asks questions about families and imparts the truth of laughter as a balm for pain is Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. In this memoir, Burroughs writes about inheriting a vast dysfunctional family and about being forced to perform oral sex. The novel leaves the reader wondering: Amid the lunacy, sexual activity, and tattered morality—when reality is stranger than fiction—what is a person to do? Burroughs’ answer is, you laugh about it. With everything around him perverted and generally weird, he manages to wrestle a fairly funny book from the obviously sad mess of his childhood.

“Books that present different perspectives of life have potential to open our eyes to difference,” book member Ellen Savage said. “Our individual perceptions aren’t always true. A memoir can reveal an alternate way of being in the world.”

Patty Hall found a similar thread in the memoir that she had read, Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. “Even though a person has a gritty back story doesn’t mean that individual can’t contribute to the group,” Hall added.

Books—especially those that disrupt the status quo or that feature individuals who redefine “standards” of behavior—have power to humanize a cultural group that is often the focus of fear or criticism. That was the effect of Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner for several book club members who commented on the depth of knowledge developed from Hosseini’s perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both the United States and the Middle East. One book member noted the brutal honesty of this book and Hosseini’s success in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of contemporary times. Another found the vivid descriptions of the landscape and of various cultural practices enriching, while a third described Hosseini’s depiction of pre-revolutionary Afghanistan as rich in warmth and humor but also tense with the friction between the nation’s different ethnic groups.

An additional book with power to broaden one’s historical, cultural, and social knowledge is Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene. This novel was banned in many schools for “profanity, offensive racial stereotypes, and subject matter that sets a bad example and gives students negative views of life.”

Set during World War II in a small Arkansas town called Jenkinsville, the story features Patty Bergen, a tomboyish twelve-year-old, as its central character. Because her parents are unaffectionate and critical of her appearance and behavior, Patty experiences loneliness and marginalization. Furthermore, as a member of the town’s only Jewish family, she often feels disconnected from her Christian friends who enjoy church-related activities such as Bible camp.

“As the novel progresses, readers observe people—Jewish and Christian alike—whose religious, racial, and ethnic prejudice is almost reminiscent of Hitler’s intolerance. On the flip side, the book also teaches us that Germans are people, too,” Barb Ranstrom said.

See Page B7: Book Club

Almost an Anne Frank story in reverse, Patty conceals Anton Reiker, a kind and charming German soldier who escapes from a prisoner-of-war camp nearby. When Patty’s betrayal is discovered, her family is humiliated, and the court sends Patty to reform school.

All of the books discussed reveal that exposure to another culture, to another perspective, to another way of being are all methods for growing the brain. They also reveal how humor allows us to detach ourselves so that we can take a fresh look at something and be more realistic about it.

Any member of the community who wishes to join the reading group for its next discussion is invited to meet at the library on Monday, April 8 at 7:00 p.m.