The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel
It’s time for discussion about our book club book! I can’t wait! At book club we have varying opinions, lifestyles, life experiences, beliefs and ages. This makes for good discussion. We rarely all agree about any book. So I am excited to hear my fellow bibliophile’s take on this book by Lily Koppel. We did one of her books before, The Astronaut Wives Club, and I thoroughly LOVED it!!! I didn’t want it to end. I wanted it to keep going, I fell in love with the ladies and their plight. The history was so good. Just amazingly well written and researched. Which brings me back to the current book. I was disappointed. I really did just want to read the diary that was found. The history and the research was very well done, and the story intriguing. Imagine reading a four-year snippet of your life, especially the years during teenage-hood. YIKES. Having forgotten all about the diary, the owner Florence, now 90 years, was happy to be reunited with her writings and musings. Amazed by her own voice I believe she did in fact rediscover her true self and desires, be that as they are/were, it gave her a new lease on life. Keeping in mind the age of Florence while writing the diary, I still had trouble liking her at all. I found her shallow, and superficial. There was no meaning or spirit to her life. She was an artist and clearly wanted to write and be artistic, but I found her soul less, devoid of any moral fiber or spirituality. This of course is just my take. Life is just so much more than she penned out, but when you’re aged 14-19 you don’t have it figured out quite yet. I just found her way too selfish and self involved. Both of which I have trouble with in people, I don’t understand it. Aside from my opinion of the actual writer of the diary, the writing of the book and the story was good and I would definitely read another book of Lily Koppel and do hope she writes another one soon. For fun I looked up articles Lily, the author, has written for the Times and other publications, and am just enamored with her writing. Very talented. I enjoy her ‘voice’ immensely.
On a side note, one of the readings Florence read over and over and over, like ten plus times, was Hedda Gabler. Curious about this I looked it up to order so I could read it. To my luck it was on Amazon for 1.80!!! Win! It arrived yesterday and I can’t wait to read it!
Now to get my fruit salad plan ready for my dish to pass and the books to bring so we can pick our read for next month! We vote on our next read by bringing several choices along to pick from.
Hope your Sunday tomorrow is wonderful.
I’m sure mine will be.
Peace.
A masterpiece of modern theater, Hedda is a dark psychological drama whose powerful and reckless heroine has tested the mettle of leading actresses of every generation since its first production in Norway in 1890.
Ibsen’s Hedda is an aristocratic and spiritually hollow woman, nearly devoid of redeeming virtues. George Bernard Shaw described her as having “no conscience, no conviction … she remains mean, envious, insolent, cruel, in protest against others’ happiness.” Her feeling of anger and jealousy toward a former schoolmate and her ruthless manipulation of her husband and an earlier admirer lead her down a destructive path that ends abruptly with her own tragic demise.
