Evening Moderator: Tonica Duic

Date: November 07, 2014 – 7.30 pm
Place: U of T Faculty Club – 41 Willcocks Street, Toronto
BOOK: The Silent Wife, by A.S.A. Harrison (published in 2013)
Attendees: Nada Raffay, Tonica & Andrija Duic, Mika & Toni Vukas, Sanja Madunic, Lada Demarin, Perica Sever, Branka Komparic, Elizabeth Sakac, Dubravko Barac, Iva Berlekovic, Lila Lupo, Lada Majic, Vida Grosl
Recommeded by: Nada Raffay

Discussion Summary:

This was an easy book to read, which felt more like a well annotated case file than a novel. It could be called a psychological thriller, twist and turns in a woman and man relationship, with references to their childhood, cultural backgrounds and experiences. The narrative stayed on a surface. There were quotes from work of Jung and Adler, but they remained just quotes.

Discussion details:

This may have been our first – everybody read the book. As always, our discussion was engaging and lively, with very diverse opinions about every question that our skillful moderator presented to us. Some saw this book as comic, some as a snapshot of our today’s reality, some as not believable, some as not deep enough, and some as not being Dostoevsky. We were challenged to be a jury and judge the main character – we did not agree. How exciting to have such diverse opinions around a table on one cold November evening. We talked and talked, and laughed, enjoying everybody’s point of view and each other company.

Quote: “We live alone in our cluttered psyches, possessed by our entrenched beliefs, our fatuous desires, our endless contradictions – and like it or not we have to put up with this in one another.” A.S.A. Harrison

November 07, 2014

Perica Sever