Nina in Jamaica
Nina likes beer so she has to be okay
Nina and her springer spaniel RussellLast night we gathered at my home to discuss
"Wingshooters" by Nina Revoyr. We had 10 people.
The members who attended were Madeleleine, Julie, Donna R,
Kathy, Betsy, Sue, Sarah, Janet and Nancy. After the social
hour with Madeleine's cheese plate and some wine we
shared a chicken wild rice casserole , a pomegrante salad and
some artisan bread which Julie got from Panera's.
We finished off with a great cheesecake which Kathy brought
and some beautiful Swedish butterfly shaped pastry
made by Sarah.
We had all read the book and had a great discussion.
The book is about a half Japanese 9 year old tom-boy
Michele who is foisted on her grandparents in
rural Wisconnsin by her father and whose Japanese
mother had abandoned her.
At first the book seemed like a simple story but is so
well written and crafted that it develops into a story
about love, evil, prejudice, and redemption. The
relationship of the grandfather and the girl is so
well developed that I think she must have had one just
like him to be able to portray that.
The thing we mostly concentrated on was the fact that in 1974
rural Wisconnsin still had such little exposure
to people of different races which led to Mikey's
and the negro couples non acceptance in that tight knit,
closed community. We all hoped that
the end of the book was fiction as it was a very
sad story. We discussed the relationship of the men
in the story who were all "men's men" who loved,
hunting , fishing, baseball, worked proudly at
blue collar jobs and supported each other even
in a wrong doing. We felt that the role of
women was very weak in that town. We touched
on the significance of the dog Brett and what a big
role he had as the only true companion to Mikey.
We can tell that Nina is a big dog lover and has a springer
spaniel today.
I like the first quote she put at the beginning of the
book by Rick Bass
"How we fall into Grace. You can't work
or earn your way into it.
You just fall. It lies below, it lies beyond.
It comes to you, unbidden."
Some people just have it and they are all
around you.
We chose February 8, for the next meeting when
we will discuss Madeleine's choice
"Caleb's Crossing" by Geraldine Brooks who also
wrote "The People of the Book". It will be
nice to hear about everyone's superbowl experiences
then and catch up on what we have done over
the holidays.
I wish you all the best holiday season and hope
you are with the ones you love.
