Humanities >> Literature, Film, Television and Theater
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“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."  One of the most famous lines in Western literature, this sets the tone of the entire novel.  Delve inside Jane Austen's brilliant, witty, wise, and subtly radical book for far more than tea and elegant dances.  

Each SAS semester, BookTalk introduces readers to a carefully chosen, provocative selection of novels for reading and informal discussion.  In this installment, we will consider the authors’ writing techniques and their characters’ personal journeys.  For the first meeting, please read The Golden Age by Joan London.  Later classes will be devoted to Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, and The Gardens of Consolation by Parisa Reza.      

This class will read and discuss a dozen (two each week) varied, quality short stories that originally appeared in The New Yorker, a dependable source of talented writers.  Whether familiar or new, all selections will offer the pleasure of lively discussion.  Readings will be taken from the anthology Wonderful Town: New York Stories from The New Yorker, edited by David Remnick with Susan Choi (Random House, 2000, available in paperback).  For the first class, please read twice David Remnick’s Introduction plus “The Five-Forty-Eight” by John Cheever and “Distant Music” by Ann Beattie.  

This class explores contemporary memoirs by writers from diverse social backgrounds.  How do authors translate lived experiences of family life, travel, immigration, work, artistic expression, and politics into compelling literary works?  How do they chronicle the creation of complex identities shaped by race, class, gender identity, geography, and religion?  Analyzing both the achievements and the limitations of the memoir genre, we will discuss how authors map the emotional landscape of private life while addressing broader themes in history, politics, and culture.  Come share your ideas with other passionate readers in a stimulating yet relaxed environment.  Please read Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah before our first class meeting.  Other assigned books include: The Skin Above My Knee by Marcia Butler, Rebel Mother: My Childhood Chasing the Revolution by Peter Andreas, and In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi.      

Each SAS semester, BookTalk introduces readers to a carefully chosen, provocative selection of novels for reading and informal discussion.  In this installment, we will consider the authors’ writing techniques and their characters’ personal journeys.  For the first meeting, please read The Golden Age by Joan London.  Later classes will be devoted to Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, and The Gardens of Consolation by Parisa Reza.    

As many Americans question the future of democracy in our country during and after the Trump presidency, this course will look at some of the darker visions of the future that have become increasingly popular in the past year.  The class begins with an introduction to utopian and dystopian literature and then covers the mid-20th century classics Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley, 1984 (1948) by George Orwell, and The Handmaid’s Tale (1986) by Margaret Atwood, and concludes with contemporary works The Circle (2013) by Dave Eggers and Homo Deus (2017) by Yuval Noah Harari, emphasizing modern tech’s ability to completely disrupt our traditional sense of individuality and humanity.    

Read aloud and discuss portions of this great 17th century epic poem and discover (or remember) why the poet Samuel Johnson said of it that "[h]is work is not the greatest of heroic poems, only because it is not the first."  First-time readers of the work are welcome.  We will use some secondary sources, but our focus will be on Milton's text itself.  Please use the Penguin edition or, if you prefer to listen, the free, online, unabridged, live recording of the Trinity College Dublin read-a-thon from 2012 (https://paradiselostreading.wordpress.com/the-recordings/).    

We will read and discuss novels about art and artists.  Students may register individually or for all classes within the October series.   Every author reserves the right to taken some “artistic license” and we forgive each author for doing so!  But we will make a point to separate the facts from the fictions in this program.  Attendees are asked to finish reading each novel, prior to the class session.    Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland   This fiction depicts the story from the perspective of Renoir and his friends as illustrated in his masterpiece, Luncheon of the Boating Party.  The famous painting depicts a gathering of Renoir’s real friends enjoying a summer Sunday on a café terrace along the Seine near Paris.  But there’s much more to the story than what we see.  Susan Vreeland “paints” the lives, loves, losses and triumphs of a captivating cast of characters.  Tuesday, October 3 • 10am – Noon • Westchester Reform Temple   The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt   This Pulitzer Prize winning bestseller has, at its heart, Carel Fabritius’s small painting of a chained goldfinch.  In the midst of a terrorist bombing that kills his mother, 13-year old protagonist Theo Decker recovers the artwork from debris at the museum and clings to it as the artifact reminding him of the only parent he knew.  The story that unfolds takes readers into the elite settings and dark underbelly of the world of stolen art.   We will explore the deepest mysteries of love, identity, art and fate.   Tuesday, October 10 • 10am – Noon • Westchester Reform Temple   Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell   This is a “vividly rendered portrait” of both the rise of Impressionism and the artist at its center, Claude Monet.  The novel’s focus is on his relationship with his first wife, Camille Doncieux, a beautiful, upper-class Parisian girl who threw away her privileged life to be by the side of the defiant painter.  Camille believed in Monet, and stood by him despite poverty, emotional torments, and even his abandonment of her.  It is a story about love on many levels.   Tuesday, October 17 • 10am – Noon • Westchester Reform Temple   Portraits of an Artist: A Novel about John Singer Sargent by Mary F. Burns   Enigmatic artist John Singer Sargent never married, but was intimate with many of the fin de siècle celebrities in Paris, London, and Venice.  Told from multiple points of view of his friends, lovers, and family, this work of historical fiction explores his rapid rise to fame and fortune in Paris through the disgrace and grieving that led him to settle in London, exploring the personal travails that inspired him to paint haunting portraits such as The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and Madame X.   Tuesday, October 24 • 10am – Noon • Westchester Reform Temple   Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo by Stephanie Storey   This entertaining tale revolves around the rivalry between the distinguished and universally revered Leonardo da Vinci and the unsophisticated, temperamental and as yet unknown Michelangelo, when both artists were living and working in Florence.  The author brings 16th century Florence to life while exploring some of the triumphs and torments of the two great masters.  Students taking this class may also be interested in the two Museum Preview classes concerning the major exhibition of Michelangelo’s work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, scheduled to open in November.   Tuesday, October 31 • 10am – Noon • Westchester Reform Temple  

  This fiction depicts the story from the perspective of Renoir and his friends as illustrated in his masterpiece, Luncheon of the Boating Party.  The famous painting depicts a gathering of Renoir’s real friends enjoying a summer Sunday on a café terrace along the Seine near Paris.  But there’s much more to the story than what we see.  Susan Vreeland “paints” the lives, loves, losses and triumphs of a captivating cast of characters.    

For about a century, moviegoers have favored films about food: charming, comic, historical, character-developed, romantic even murderous.  Each class will include an introduction to the history, directors, actors, and special techniques of the movie before screening and discussion.  Screenings may include some of the following: Like Water for Chocolate, Big Night, Ratatouille, Bagdad Café, Sideways, Chocolate, Babette’s Feast, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Under the Tuscan Sun, and Sweeney Todd.    

      This Pulitzer Prize winning bestseller has, at its heart, Carel Fabritius’s small painting of a chained goldfinch.  In the midst of a terrorist bombing that kills his mother, 13-year old protagonist Theo Decker recovers the artwork from debris at the museum and clings to it as the artifact reminding him of the only parent he knew.  The story that unfolds takes readers into the elite settings and dark underbelly of the world of stolen art.   We will explore the deepest mysteries of love, identity, art and fate.  

    This is a “vividly rendered portrait” of both the rise of Impressionism and the artist at its center, Claude Monet.  The novel’s focus is on his relationship with his first wife, Camille Doncieux, a beautiful, upper-class Parisian girl who threw away her privileged life to be by the side of the defiant painter.  Camille believed in Monet, and stood by him despite poverty, emotional torments, and even his abandonment of her.  It is a story about love on many levels.