My Antonia and Everything is Illuminated

We had a great meeting last night starting with a light supper of chicken salad, croissants, eclairs and cream puffs, and France wasn't even a scheduled stop on our world tour. We began the discussion with Willa Cather's My Antonia. Members were generally appreciative of Cather's descriptions of place and with Antonia as a character. We talked a little about the immigrant experience in general and the courage it took to leave everything familiar for a land unseen and the language barrier. Next, we sort of discussed Everything is Illuminated, but most people either hadn't read the book, were totally confused if they had or felt negative toward it. I heard privately from others in the group who had a positive response to the book. The movie seemed better accepted but there wasn't really time to discuss some of the richer underlying issues. It's always a delicate balance between respecting individual opinions of the most outspoken members of the group while not allowing those opinions to speak for the group. Something for all of us as members to be aware of.