Friday, August 19, 2016

Book Club Faking

One of my book clubs assigned Richard Russo's Bridge of Sighs, a 528 page journey. I was 50 pages in when I realized I had already read it years before. A decision had to be made. I wasn't going to reread this thing, but I wanted to contribute to the discussion. So I will read only 100 pages and comment on those as though I read the whole thing.
I wonder how many others in the group will do the same. There's always one person who reads every page and I'm sure she'll ask the group how they liked the ending. There will be an awkward silence. We will look at each other, knowing we're all phonies. I'll shrug and make a bland comment. Or, better, I'll excuse myself early before they get that far.
Book groups can be dangerous territory.

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