Blue Angel

Blue Angel, by Francine Prose
January 8, 2008
Zaftig's in Brookline, Mass.
6:30 pm

In attendance: Anne, Cynthia, Paula, Donna, Manda, Beth, and Rachel (note taker)
Absent: Wendy

Beth took the wrong train and ending up in Brookline Village instead of Coolidge Corner. She must have walked pretty fast because she arrived before we even ordered food. Good thing it wasn't snowing!

Anne commented on the prevalence of the norovirus and then got up to wash her hands.

Cynthia asked us what blue cheese tastes like and we tried to come up with our best analogies. It is not easy to describe a taste. Anne compared the strength of blue cheese to the strength of horseradish. This caused some consternation. Cynthia, always thinking, asked the waiter if she could try some blue cheese before ordering her dish. He obliged and her response was "it tastes woodsy."

Everyone finished the book except Paula who is excused because, you know, she is a little bit busy these days. Wendy presented her opinion of the book through Beth. She "HATED IT." In contrast, Anne "REALLY LIKED IT." Our opinion of the book seemed to be split and in a scientific manner we rated it on a scale of 1-10.

Anne=8
Rachel=8
Manda=6
Donna=6
Cynthia=5
Beth=3
Wendy=1 (I assume)

Donna thought that she had read the book before but once she started reading she realized she hadn't. She thought that it was a stereotypical college book and she has read similar books before (hence the reason she thought she had read this one). She was interested in reading the book but felt that she knew what was going to happen. She also hated the characters in the book and since that was the case she needed more to carry her through.

Anne like the scenes of the writing classes the best. She also enjoyed the irony of the professor explaining what entails good writing in class and then the main story of the book following these examples. She found this very "meta" (go Anne with the fancy deconstruction!). She pointed out that the professor stressed that good satire does not require a political point.

Beth responded that she thought that the point of the book is that colleges are to politically correct. She also thought that Angela's writing in the book was better than the writing in the actual book. She also did not like the clean ending. She thought it was unbelievable that a manuscript left on a chair would end up getting published.

Anne did not think that the professor would sleep with Angela and was surprised when this happened. This caused Donna to exclaim, "She is a bitch." (I don't think those words have ever been uttered at book group before). Donna did not think that Angela was a victim at all. Anne felt sorry for Angela and did not hate her. Neither did Manda.

Donna pointed out that this book has the most sex we have ever read so far in book group. The Last Picture Show had a lot of sex, but it was not as explicit as this book. Always glad to pick a winner!

-Rachel