Friday, June 1, 2012

Discussable Book Group Book: Trespass

Trespass, a novel by Rose Tremain was the subject of this morning's book discussion at the library. How many kinds of trespassing exist? There is the legal concept of trespassing onto posted land; or in pop psychology the idea of violating personal boundaries; culturally, certain rules exist which enforce the separateness of one tribe from another, one set of local customs from another. In Ms. Tremain's novel, boundaries of all kinds are violently crossed and these trespasses against the characters are never forgiven or forgotten. Two sets of gravely damaged brother/sister siblings meet in southern France with disastrous consequences.

Book reviews of Trespass
Mann Booker Prize
New York Times Book Review
The Guardian
The Washington Post

The Geography:
The Cevennes

Tourism article in the Guardian:
 "For Parisians, the Cévennes is still the place described by the great 19th-century French historian Jules Michelet: "The Cévennes offer rock, nothing but rock, razor-sharp shale. You feel the struggle of man, his stubborn and prodigious labour in the face of nature."

No wonder the young Melodie missed her home in Paris!

Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson, full-text on Gutenberg.org

This book is recommended for book groups; it ranks high on the "discussible" scale. Also recommended read-alikes: The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

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