Terry Hosts the In Crowd With Aplomb!

Dinner and Acknowledgments

As we’re accustomed to from Terry, dinner last night was a fulsome affair, featuring tidbits from all strata of English society.  Greeted with a Pimms cocktail, we were then directed to appetizer plates of crustless cucumber sandwiches.  Both reflected the novel’s opening: an engagement party hosted by and for London’s elite. 

The meal that followed was good old-fashioned England:  roast sirloin, crispy roast potatoes with fried onions, mushy peas, and a green salad. Dessert was Terry's hat tip to the Metropolitan Police.  He made a lavender shortbread favored by DI Caius Beauchamp and his colleagues.  All in all, an excellent repast!

Our Discussion and Review of Vassell’s The In Crowd

The In Crowd earned the 2025 Edgar Award for Best Novel.  That was enough to make our reading list, but not enough to win even lukewarm applause from most of us.

Set in modern-day London, The In Crowd begins as a police procedural, but devolves into a sometimes clever and often tedious exploration of class manners, social climbing, diverse workplaces, and interracial romance (and breeding!). The plot consists of two different inquiries that predictably merge into one climactic outcome: who embezzled a pension fund 30 years ago and then, more recently, killed the one witness who might know the answer? And who killed or kidnapped a boarding school girl 20 years ago?

While Jack and I felt the story was—for its genre—reasonably well-told (Jack found it entertaining; I enjoyed the London references), others were less enthusiastic.  Glenn deemed it predictable, Stan found it banal, Tom thought it was merely OK, and Doug called it contrived.  Messaging us from Vienna, Larry asked the perfectly rational question: “Why again are we reading this book?”  Forced to defend his choice, Terry harkened back to his Pearson days, when he worked for an English lord and developed an affinity for English manners.

The award for Back-Handed Compliment of the Evening goes to Paul, who likened our novel to an episode of Charlie’s Angels, where the detective work was always secondary to the eye candy on screen.  But expecting Callie to stand in for Farrah Fawcett? That was a bridge too far, even for Paul.

Rating The In Crowd

Edgar Award notwithstanding, The In Crowd simply didn’t meet our lofty standards (irony intended). No surprise then that it notched a mere 5.4, placing it firmly in the bottom quintile of our books rated.

Next Up:  The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

Thanks to Stan, we read Proulx’s Close Range: Wyoming Stories years ago and were duly impressed.  So it’s about time we turned our attention to her critically acclaimed The Shipping News. Roy’s other choices (Lord Jim, Memoirs of Stockholm Sven, and The Sisters Brothers) didn’t make the cut, but Stan has promised to read Lord Jim and tell us what we missed. Right, Stan?

Two Novellas, Two Men: A Hardscrabble Dinner at Dean's

Books: Train Dreams by Denis Johnson & Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

On Monday, the Man Book Club accepted Dean’s challenge to double up and read two novellas: Train Dreams and Ethan Frome. Both center on men living hard, isolated lives in rural America around the turn of the 20th century. Train Dreams traces the life of Robert Grainier in the wilds of northern Idaho, while Ethan Frome gradually reveals—through flashbacks—the bleak circumstances surrounding Ethan, his wife Zeena, and her cousin Mattie in rural Massachusetts. Although both books depict stark, unforgiving landscapes and lives, members’ reactions varied widely.

Highlights from the Discussion

• Dean (host): Reminded us that Wharton wrote from her early 1900s vantage point as a New York City aristocrat. He found Ethan overly melancholy and “whiney,” whereas Grainier in Train Dreams showed more resilience. Both books, he noted, were so vividly written they put you “right there.”
• Paul: Liked both books but especially Ethan Frome, which struck him as Shakespearean with its annoying yet tragic characters. He admired how both novellas managed to cover such broad spans of time.
• Tom: Appreciated Train Dreams for being short, well-written, and covering many years. He also liked Ethan Frome but found it cold, pathetic, and surprisingly loveless, though still well-crafted.
• Doug: Loved Johnson’s energetic writing in Train Dreams—especially how animals are almost human characters and how nature’s beauty shines through. Found Ethan Frome cold and its characters flat.
• Andrew: Focused on Train Dreams. Thought the third-person narration kept readers out of Grainier’s head but admired how 60 years of life fit into so few pages. Noted that both protagonists live at a subsistence level.
• Larry: Enjoyed Train Dreams’ historical sweep and was struck by Grainier’s lifelong guilt after joining an unjust mob attack. Disliked Ethan Frome—he never sympathized with Ethan and felt the climactic sledding accident was over-foreshadowed.
• Stan: Praised Ethan Frome as well written but found Train Dreams “absolutely incredible,” with much more substance.
• Jack: Came for Dean’s excellent dinner (meat pie and pickle dish from Ethan Frome). Listening to both books as audiobooks shaped his impressions: Ethan seemed “milquetoast,” while Grainier came across as tough and admirable.
• Roy: Valued Train Dreams for its vivid portrayal of nature and Grainier’s hermit-like life. Reflected on his own family’s recent past with horses and no electricity. In Ethan Frome, he focused on the simple domestic tasks and saw the ending as a pact among the three characters.
• Glen: Liked both books. Described Train Dreams as dreamlike, with Grainier’s visions of his dead wife and a wolf-girl he believes to be his daughter. Enjoyed Wharton’s descriptive writing and compared Grainier and Mattie’s sledding pact to Thelma & Louise.
• Terry: Called Train Dreams one of the most impressive books MBC has read, likening the perspective to looking down on Grainier’s life from above. Found Ethan Frome more “ground level,” even giving readers a peek into Ethan’s brain at the sled crash—yet still saw Ethan as a “lumox.”

The Vote

• Train Dreams: 8.2 average (scores 7–10)
• Ethan Frome: 6.9 average (scores 5–9)

MBC recommends reading the two together. At just over 100 pages each, they’re compact but powerful portraits of lonely men grappling with hardship. The group noted how much has changed since the early 1900s—and how much hasn’t, especially the sense of isolation felt by some young men today in the age of social media.

Last Night at Doug's, or Percival's Picaresque Parody

Last Tuesday, we met at Doug’s to discuss James by Percival Everett. The novel is a bold retelling of Mark Twain’s classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, this time from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved Black man who, in Twain’s original, serves primarily as a foil to Huck. Everett reimagines Jim as a thoughtful, educated protagonist—a literal father figure to Huck—who has secretly taught himself to read by accessing books in the local judge’s library. He hides his intellect and command of proper English from the white world of pre–Civil War Missouri, revealing his true self only to other enslaved people. This premise allows Jim to steer the decisions he and Huck make on their journey down the Mississippi, while also delving into racial themes Twain avoided, such as blackface minstrelsy, racial “passing,” and the hanging of a slave for stealing a pencil.

Doug hosted and served a delicious dinner of salmon, potatoes, and vegetables. He recommended James both for its literary merit and its fast-paced, adventure-filled narrative. Doug especially appreciated Everett’s sharp ear for the absurd, and like several others, reread Huckleberry Finn as a companion piece. He noted that Everett moved the timeline roughly 20 years closer to the Civil War, intensifying the racial tensions that shape Jim’s experience. Doug preferred James over Everett’s Erasure, which MBC read last year.

Jack was glad the group read James. He felt Everett cleverly turned the Twain narrative on its head by having Jim use proper English. He enjoyed the straightforward storytelling but found the Voltaire references a bit over the top.

Dan powered through the book, finishing it just in time. He drew several movie parallels, questioning the realism of the boiler room explosion and Jim’s flawless English. The reveal that Huck is Jim’s son reminded Dan of the iconic Star Wars moment between Luke and Darth Vader. He also compared the twist about Jim’s hidden eloquence to the surprise in Planet of the Apes when the apes speak.

Tom had recently returned from a 600-mile cruise down the Mississippi, where he read both James and Huckleberry Finn. He tried to envision Jim and Huck on the river, but noted that modern channeling near New Orleans limits the river’s wildness. He enjoyed James as a thoughtful counterpoint to Twain’s novel, praising its writing, length, and Everett’s imaginative take on Jim’s journey.

Terry enjoyed the adventure and valued the reminder of America’s history of slavery. However, he questioned Everett’s decision to portray Jim as “culturally advanced” only through his embrace of Western ideals. Terry wondered why Jim's sophistication and intellect had to be demonstrated though a mastery of white language and philosophy, and whether Everett was simply submitting Jim to the dominant culture rather than distinguishing him from it.

Dean felt the novel started slowly but gained traction once the river journey began. He found the depiction of slavery’s brutality powerful and drew comparisons between Jim and Walter White from Breaking Bad—both men who reach a breaking point and transform. Dean was grateful to Doug for choosing the book.

Glenn also loved the book. Having grown up Jewish, he saw parallels between Oney (the light-skinned minstrel character) and Huck (who learns he is biracial) in their need to “pass” as white—similar to how some Jews passed as Aryan in Nazi Germany to survive.

Andrew appreciated the book and was particularly interested in Jim’s “code-switching” and how Everett flips the expected model: Jim speaks proper English only to other slaves and adopts a slave dialect when addressing whites. Focusing on the boiler room scene, Andrew raised questions about free will and Everett's portrayal of the slave so devoid of agency he's willing to go down with the ship—an impulse conditioned by generations of servitude. 

Larry liked the book, especially the shift in focus from Huck to Jim. However, he ranked Erasure higher due to its self-aware protagonist. Larry drew a poignant connection between Jim’s fear as a fugitive slave and the experiences of undocumented immigrants today—living with the constant anxiety of being detained and separated from family.

Paul found James compelling and centered his thoughts on the power of language. He emphasized how speech shapes identity and perception, and how reading transformed Jim into someone wiser than those around him. After rereading Huckleberry Finn, Paul concluded that while Everett wraps up James effectively, Twain (née Clemens) delivered a stronger ending in his original work.

Overall, MBC rated James in a solid 7–8 range. The book sparked a lively and honest discussion about America’s ongoing reckoning with its history of oppression—whether based on race, origin, or class. James reminds us that behind every face is a deeply human story, and that our first impressions are often misleading when filtered through ingrained categories or biases. 

We'll miss Doug's gracious presence and the rare privilege of meeting in the house that helped inspire singer/songwriter Al Stewart, memorable for his iconic Year of the Cat.

Glenn Goes So Big in the Barn!

On Sunday we met to review Edna Ferber’s novel So Big.  The novel begins in the late 1800s in what was then a small Dutch farming community south of Chicago.  Appropriately, Glenn hosted us (along with Gamin) in their century old barn where you could almost see the horses and smell hay bales from bygone days.

So Big was Ferber’s breakout success both by its sales and its being awarded the 1925 Pulitzer Prize for literature.  So Big focuses on Selina De Jung and her son Dirk (aka So Big) as they make a life for themselves on a small truck farm south of Chicago at the beginning of the 20^th century.

After a peripatetic urban upbringing with a professional gambler father, Selina comes to the farming village of South Holland some 30 miles south of Chicago to teach school.  She marries one of local farmers, but after his death must scrape together a life for her and her young son Dirk.  The book focuses on how Selina uses her artistic instincts to develop a fruit and vegetable brand that eventually brings her top dollar from upscale Chicago grocers and restaurants.  She attempts to instill her artistic and aesthetic qualities into both Dirk and a local boy, Roelf Pool.  In the end Selina is disappointed that Dirk abandons his passion for architecture for the more lucrative career as a bond salesman but is pleased that Roelf is able to find artistic success first in France and then in his return to the States.   In a final ironic twist, the financially successful Dirk is smitten by a young female artist, Dallas O’Mara, only to realize his new wealth does not impress Dallas, who instead is attracted both to the artist Roelf and to Selina.

It was our host’s setting, a rustic refurbished barn and the surprisingly strong literary merit of So Big that won strong praise from the MBC members.  Indeed, the men of MBC all awarded the book scores of 8 or more.  There was general praise for the book’s plot and writing style despite the fact the book was written by a woman and has a female protagonist – a clear violation of our founding credo! 😉

Host Glenn led off praising Ferber’s expressive language in describing the boom or bust life that Selina experiences growing up with an itinerant gambler father.  Glenn hadn’t read the book before proposing it and was genuinely surprised by how good it was.

Dean also enjoyed the book although he is just more than half way through.   Dean  found the premise that a small subsistence farmer could become as successful as Ferber describes seems a bit of a stretch.  But he did appreciate  the book being written in the era of suffrage struggle.

Jack continued the “surprisingly good” theme and praised Ferber for being ahead of her time by portraying strong woman characters succeeding but staying true to their aesthetic principals. Jack saw Ferber promoting a central thesis that beauty is everywhere.

Terry liked the book, but thought he had heard the storyline before.  He enjoyed Ferber’s use of language, particularly when she describes a spring day on the farm.

Andrew enjoyed that Ferber’s style was not too formulaic.  He  focused on the vapidness of the Julie character and how Julie tried to be both a mother figure and a love interest to Dirk.  Andrew also commented on how the success of Roelf, the neighbor boy, as an artist affirms Selina’s belief in artistic beauty above material wealth.

Larry noted the parallels between So Big and The Great Gatsby published just one year apart (1924 & 1925) particularly Gatsby’s Nick Carraway character and So Big’s Dirk De Jong character.  Both have financial and social ambitions in major US cities during the Jazz age.  Both have married girl friends that fuel those ambitions.  But the books had different initial public receptions – So Big being an instant commercial success and winning the Pulitzer, while The Great Gatsby was an initial commercial flop.  Larry too was surprised by how much he enjoyed the book and thanked Glenn for recommending a book he would not otherwise have read.

In the end the members of the Man Book Club are fortunate to have read a well written novel by a woman from over 100 years ago and to have in their own lives supportive female spouses or significant others such that none of us has chased a life of wealth without soul.

Today's All-Too-Real Plot Against America

Our Book

In April, the MBC held an uneasy book discussion at Stan’s. The book was Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, written in 2004. It imagines an alternate history in which famed aviator and German sympathizer Charles Lindbergh runs for—and wins—the 1940 U.S. presidential election. Roth envisions Lindbergh’s campaign built around the now all-too-familiar “America First” mantra and a promise to keep the U.S. out of World War II. Once in office, however, Lindbergh subtly pushes to integrate American Jews into the white Protestant mainstream. His administration breaks up Jewish enclaves in Eastern cities by relocating workers to rural towns and sending Jewish children to Southern farm work programs.

The story follows a young Jewish boy—named Philip Roth—and his family living in the Jewish section of Newark, New Jersey. The author’s choice to use his own name as the protagonist hints strongly at autobiographical elements drawn from his own early life in that same neighborhood.

Roth’s central theme—the danger of national isolationism—resonates powerfully in today’s political climate, offering a chilling preview of what many see reflected in Trump-era America.

Dinner at Stan's

Stan set the tone for the evening with a round of Manhattans at the bar, followed by a full Jewish deli spread: bagels with all the fixings, rye bread, challah, brisket, and an array of rugelach.

Our Discussion

Each member began discussing the book, but conversation always circled back to today’s reality. As host, Stan opened by admitting the story hit too close to home. He struggled to enjoy the book, finding it difficult to separate fiction from the disturbing possibility of an authoritarian America.

Jack appreciated the character development but criticized the plot’s flow, finding it disjointed. He drew parallels between the novel’s use of “The Big Lie” and the same tactic seen during the Trump administration. Paul felt the narrative dragged in the middle and lost direction toward the end. He observed how, like in real life, the ends often justify the means. Andrew enjoyed most of the book, but found the ending too convenient, relying on the artifice of Lindberg's sudden disappearance and a snap national election to return the story to the actual events of 1944.

Several members shared personal reflections. Dean described how his daughter, living in Alaska, witnessed firsthand the balancing act Senator Lisa Murkowski performs—caught between Alaska’s dependence on federal aid and the state’s strong support for Trump. Glen shared the most powerful story of the night: his Jewish Russian grandfather deserted the Russian army in World War II, knowing Jews were being used as cannon fodder. His escape from Russia was harrowing and deeply moving.

We all agreed on the strength of the novel’s female characters—especially Philip’s mother, who calmly steers her family through chaos. Clearly, she was inspired by Roth’s own mother.

Our Book Rating

Ratings ranged from 6 to 9, with most in the 7–8 range. Several noted they would have scored the book lower on literary merit alone, but Roth’s eerily accurate depiction of a demagogue rising to power warranted a bonus point.

And as a final, lighthearted note, members recalled that MBC’s very first book back in 2008 was also by Philip Roth—The Human Stain. What a long, strange trip it’s been.