Joanna Presents Alan Bennett

Jacquie's Emails 

Dec 29 ,2020 Hello Ladies! A funny thing happened on the way to scheduling Joanna's presentation for this Lit Club season - it was set for January 20th, which is, as we all have tattooed on our hearts, Inauguration Day. So, to spread out the special events during this long pandemic season, we will be changing Joanna's presentation on Alan Bennett to January 27th. We hope this will work with everyone's schedules. Wishing you all a New Year full of laughter (and maybe a little schadenfreude??!!!) Jacquie

Jan 24, 2021 Greeting Literary Ladies! What a collection of Wednesdays we have had this January - starting with January 6th, as Barbara was delighting us with Shakespeare while the mob was attacking the capital and our democratic institutions, to last Wednesday, with the ecstatic release of grown-ups and competents taking back our capital and democratic institutions, with poetry and music and big words used correctly and with thought and feeling, and the best fireworks display I have ever seen! I for one am so glad Joanna was willing to move her presentation to this Wednesday, as I was unable to tear myself away from my television set, wearing pearls and my stars and stripes scarf, rejoicing in all that is now seemingly possible once again.

To stick with the literary, my sister Robin posted this image on her Facebook page entitled, "This small Fancy Nancy seeing what she can be." For those who are unfamiliar with the book series, this little girl is wearing a costume from Disney's Fancy Nancy collection, sold at Target.

And now we have Joanna's presentation to look forward to this Wednesday, January 27th at 1pm, when she will be delighting us with Uncommon Writer: Alan Bennett. Joanna has requested that I include the following video Maggie Smith in Alan Bennett's Bed Among the Lentils to whet your appetite for her presentation. Enjoy! Until Wednesday! Jacquie

Barbara's Minutes

Last night I should have been writing the minutes for our January 27 Literature Club meeting, but instead I could not stop watching on YouTube a performance of Beyond the Fringe at a theater in London’s West End in the 1960s. Beyond the Fringe was the creation of four young and brilliant performers from Oxford, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller, and Alan Bennett, the subject of Joanna Riesman’s presentation. I first became aware of Alan Bennett in 1965, when I was in London and saw the show. Last night I reveled in Dudley Moore accompanying himself on the piano as he sang Die Flabbergast, Peter Cook, as a Scotland yard inspector, who assures his interviewer that a train robbery does not mean a train has been stolen, Jonathan Miller as a breezy Vicar who asks to be called Dick as he tries to bring young people back to the church, and Alan Bennett, in his plumiest BBC voice, talking about T.E. Lawrence, the Man and the Myth.

But to get on with the writing of the minutes. We had a lively chat period, in which we learned that Fran Lebowitz is Jacquie Weitzman’s first cousin and spiced up family parties by bringing jazz greats. Christine Lehner's life now revolves around an adorable puppy, while Louisa Stephens delights in StoryWorth, an online program which helps users collect family stories and put them in book form. Linda Tucker is about to read American literature with her grandson at Yale. Sharon DeLevie is leaving soon for a trip to Florida with a stack of books, among them The Mothers and Deacon King Kong.  At our business meeting the minutes were accepted as read and the treasury remained at $181.52. Jacquie will continue her talk with Hastings Librarian Debbie Quinn about the Literature Club donation of $125 for books—or ebooks—of literary merit. Fran showed her floral Literature Club bookplate design, but a decision was deferred, since some members would like a design that identifies Hastings.

Joanna offered a wide-ranging view of Alan Bennett’s life and work, drawing from his memoirs, plays, and books, and referencing films, TV monologues, BBC radio plays, and more. We read passages from his memoir Untold Stories, which, as Joanna noted, revealed his talent for observing the small acts that describe a character. Bennett’s ability to describe the unhappiness or regret of women was informed by his experience of his mother’s depression. We read the funny and heartbreaking play A Woman of Letters, then turned to a lighter work, The Uncommon Reader, to conclude our exploration, under Joanna’s guidance, of this inimitable writer.

Respectfully submitted, Barbara Morrow, Recording Secretary

Barbara Presents Shakespeare's Fools

Jacquie's Email 

Hello Literary Ladies!!! As we head into the promise of 2021, this is a reminder that we will be meeting this Wednesday, January 6th at 1pm on Zoom for Barbara's Presentation on Shakespeare's Fools. Barbara will be sharing her texts on the screen during her presentation and assigning parts at that time, but if you would prefer to receive a copy of her (lengthy) texts ahead of time to print out, please let her know and she will send them to you. I hope you were all able to ring in the New Year with a little laughter! Jacquie

P.S. And since we all have Georgia on our minds, here's a little musical interlude to get us through Tuesday. 

P.P.S. And as Barbara reminded me, if you want to brush up on your Shakespeare with the help of another Brit with a way with words, Cole Porter, here you go!

Barbara's Minutes 

All the members of the Literature Club, including our newest member, Sharon DeLevie, were in their Zoom boxes for the first meeting of the new year. Joanna Riesman told us her sister took umbrage at receiving a book called Diary of a Provincial Lady as a gift, but was soon delighting in Delafield’s tale. How the holidays were different formed one theme of many of our stories during our chat time. Since we were not entertaining, there were few meals to prepare, which meant there was more time to relax, even take naps. Fortunately, most of us were able to see our families. There was also time to read. Among the books recommended were novels such as Lydia Millet’s A Children’s Bible and Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, George Saunders’s story Fox 8,,the nonfiction works Bill Buford’s Dirt and Kerri Arsenault’s Mill Town, and Obama’s memoir, A Promised Land.

At the business meeting led by President Fran Greenberg, the minutes were accepted as read and the treasury remained at $181.52. Jacquie Weitzman and Connie Stewart said they will continue their talks with Hastings Librarian Debbie Quinn about Literature Club donations. Fran will design an book plate to be used in all books given to the library from the Literature Club.

For her talk on Shakespeare’s fools, Barbara Morrow chose the paradoxical punster Touchstone, master of court manners and morals, from Shakespeare’s romantic comedy As You Like It. She also chose Sir John Falstaff, with his fierce, subversive intelligence and carnivalesque exuberance, from the history play, King Henry IV Part 1.

Although we are not quite ready to tread the boards of the Globe Theater, Literature Club members did a very creditable job of reading three scenes from each of the plays.

Just as it was approaching 3 o’clock, a member announced that something terrible was happening at the US Capitol. We all clicked out of the meeting to learn of insurrection in Washington, DC.

Respectfully submitted, Barbara Morrow, Recording Secretary