Discussion ScheduleFeb 25-29 ~ read pages 1-44
Post comments as you read
March 1-7 ~ discuss pages 1-90 ~ insect wing
March 8-14 ~ discuss pages 91-189 ~ feathers, rose, wine
March 15-21 ~ discuss pages 191-272 ~ saltwater
March 22-28 ~ discuss pages 273-372 ~ white hair
March 28-31 ~ party with the characters
Hanna ~ Sarajevo, Spring 1996 ~ (pp. 1-44)
1. We've met two main characters: Dr. Hanna Heath and Dr. Ozren Karaman (Muslim). What do you think of Hanna? What do you think of Dr. Ozren Karaman, "a thin young man in faded blue jeans" (p. 13)?
Hanna is a meticulous professional. She is very devoted to her work. Her relationship with her mother is so difficult, and they both seem to be responsible for the anger between them. In other areas of her personal life she has problems with other relationships. She discards lovers without making committment. She jumps in bed with Ozren on the day of their first meeting. Ozren is suffering from loss in the war - his wife and now he is loosing his son. I admire his saving the book.
I ~ (pp. 3-13)
2. What do you think of those illustrations from the original Haggadah?
I ~ (pp. 3-13)
2. What do you think of those illustrations from the original Haggadah?
Oh my, aren't they beautiful! I think that these hand illustrated illuminations are remarkable. With the Jewish laws about creating graven images, I don't know how they were permitted??
II ~ (pp. 13-25)
3. Hanna believes, "Change. That's the enemy. Books do best when temperature, humidity, the whole environment, stay the same" (p. 13). See what change has done to the actual Haggadah by looking at the UN photo . Have you ever been dismayed at what's happened to an old book you have seen? Tell us about it.
II ~ (pp. 13-25)
3. Hanna believes, "Change. That's the enemy. Books do best when temperature, humidity, the whole environment, stay the same" (p. 13). See what change has done to the actual Haggadah by looking at the UN photo . Have you ever been dismayed at what's happened to an old book you have seen? Tell us about it.
Yes, I have an 1866 Algebra textbook, an 1912 Life of Jesus, and a 1946 Children of Dickens, plus my mother's 1920 college yearbook. The Life of Jesus is loosing the binding and the binding is gone from the Children of Dickens. The pages are starting to loosen. I guess they were read by my mother and aunt so much that they are falling apart.
4. I love my books for what they SAY, not for their physical properties. Book collectors value a book for itself, the THING, not the words inside. I can see value in both views. Tell us what you value about books. Hanna says: "To restore a book to the way it was when it was made is to lack respect for its history. I think you have to accept a book as you receive it from past generations, and to a certain extent damage and wear reflect that history. The way I see it, my job is to make it stable enough to allow safe handling and study, repairing only where absolutely necessary. This here," I said, pointing to a page where a russett stain bloomed over the fiery Hebrew calligraphy, "I can take a microscopic sample of those fibers, and we can analyze them, and maybe learn what made that stain -- wine would be my first guess. But a full analysis might provide clues as to where the book was at the time it happened" (p. 17).
4. I love my books for what they SAY, not for their physical properties. Book collectors value a book for itself, the THING, not the words inside. I can see value in both views. Tell us what you value about books. Hanna says: "To restore a book to the way it was when it was made is to lack respect for its history. I think you have to accept a book as you receive it from past generations, and to a certain extent damage and wear reflect that history. The way I see it, my job is to make it stable enough to allow safe handling and study, repairing only where absolutely necessary. This here," I said, pointing to a page where a russett stain bloomed over the fiery Hebrew calligraphy, "I can take a microscopic sample of those fibers, and we can analyze them, and maybe learn what made that stain -- wine would be my first guess. But a full analysis might provide clues as to where the book was at the time it happened" (p. 17).
I do value my books for their content, but I don't have a hand written, hand illuminated Haggadah! The value of 'The Book' in this case come from its age and methods of preparation, and the history of how the book has been saved all these years.
III ~ (pp. 25-33)
5. "Kunta Kinte" (p. 28) ... do you remember (or know about) Alex Haley's 1976 book Roots, which became a 12-hour TV mini-series in 1977? Could we say this novel is about the "roots" of a book?
III ~ (pp. 25-33)
5. "Kunta Kinte" (p. 28) ... do you remember (or know about) Alex Haley's 1976 book Roots, which became a 12-hour TV mini-series in 1977? Could we say this novel is about the "roots" of a book?
I do remember Kunta Kinte and Roots. All of America seemed to be watching this historical mini-series together. Yes, this novel traces the difficulties that 'The Book' went through from its beginning.
IV ~ (pp. 33-41)
6. Hanna believes that "if something can be known, I can't stand not knowing it" (p. 41). Can you understand that feeling? What were you thinking when Hanna implored Ozren to get a second opinion on Alia's condition and he becomes angry, saying, "Not every story has a happy ending" (p. 37)?
IV ~ (pp. 33-41)
6. Hanna believes that "if something can be known, I can't stand not knowing it" (p. 41). Can you understand that feeling? What were you thinking when Hanna implored Ozren to get a second opinion on Alia's condition and he becomes angry, saying, "Not every story has a happy ending" (p. 37)?
I agree with Hanna to some extent but I do think she was out of line when she took the information about Alia's condition for a second opinion. She had no right to take over this sensitive issue from Ozren. The parent's wishes should always be respected.
V ~ (pp. 41-44)7. "Bits of butterfly don't generally wind up in books. Moths do, because they come indoors, where books are kept. But butterflies are outdoor creatures" (p. 43). So how did bits of butterfly wing end up in the book?
We will journey back through time to see when and where 'The Book' picked up the butterfly wing.
V ~ (pp. 41-44)7. "Bits of butterfly don't generally wind up in books. Moths do, because they come indoors, where books are kept. But butterflies are outdoor creatures" (p. 43). So how did bits of butterfly wing end up in the book?
We will journey back through time to see when and where 'The Book' picked up the butterfly wing.
An Insect's Wing ~ Sarajevo, 1940 ~ (pp. 45-90)
8. What did you think of Lola's adventures? Did it make sense to you when the young man told Lola, "The only true home for Jews is Eretz Israel" (p. 50)?
Yes, the spiritual homeland of the Jews is and always will be Eretz Isreal, but this should not mean that all Jews should actually live in Isreal and take it away from the Arabs. It is the homeland of the Palesinians also.
9. What did you think about Stela and Serif Kamal, the Albanian Muslims Lola met?
9. What did you think about Stela and Serif Kamal, the Albanian Muslims Lola met?
Stela and Serif are traditional Muslims who are kind and concerned about others. Stela shows her kindness by inviting Lola in for coffee and engaging in conversation with her, the laundress. Serif is and intellectual with so many books in his personal library. It is interesting to find out that he is the chief librarian and speaks 10 languages. His marriage to young Stela was arranged and is a happy one.
10. Why do you think the Nazis were intent on destroying Jewish books? Could something like that happen today? Before you answer, take a look at Banned Books blog.
Yes, things like this are happening today. The Nazis wanted to 'plunder the cultural heritage of the Jews' to protect Aryan blood and wipe the Jews out.
Hanna ~ Vienna, Spring 1996 ~ (pp. 91-104)
11. What do you think of Herr Doktor Doktor Werner Maria Heinich, Hanna's colleague and teacher?
Herr Doktor
- knew more than anyone about the original crafts and materials of ancient manuscripts.
- taught by 'hands on' methods, expecting his students to master ancient crafts related to book making.
- avoided the square where Hitler announced the incorporation fo Austria into the Third Reich.
- particular about appearances.
12. What do you think of Frau Zweig, chief archivist at Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien?
Frau Zweig was very modern in her thinking and dressing and was dissatisfied with the old school way of doing things. She was impatient with the status quo.
13. What do you think of the assertion that "a charge of collaboration was a useful way for the Communists to get rid of anyone who was too intellectual, too religious, too outspoken" (p. 100)?
"A charge of collaboration" covered a broad swath of 'sins' that could be a basis for persecution and prosecution by the Communists. They did not want their ways of repression challenged by outspoken, intelligent citizens.
Feathers and a Rose ~ Vienna, 1894 ~ (pp. 105-127)
14. Herr Doktor Franz Hirschfeldt (Jewish) and his half brother Kapitan David Hirschfeldt (Christian, but with a Jewish name) are an interesting pair. Even though the Waidhofen manifesto was supposed to stop duels with Jews (p. 114), David comes to his brother to be stitched up because "it seems my Bavarian Mutti no longer provides enough pure blood to counteraact the taint of our father" (p. 115). What do you make of this strange situation?
15. Franz Hirschfeldt chooses not to visit his mistress on his way home, then becomes furious when he realizes his wife has been with a lover (pp. 117-120). What a double standard! Then, when his mistress Rosalind decides to go out for the evening after their "untender coupling" (p. 120): "He was chagrined. It was he who should decide when to end the affair, not she" (p. 121). What do you think of his thinking?
16. Herr Florien Mittl (Christian bookbinder, Franz's patient noticed a "beam of sunlight lay like a stripe of yellow ribbon across the workbench. It hit the sad, tattered, untouched cover of the book. And then it flared on the freshly polished silver of the clasps" (p. 124). Do you think he sold the silver to pay for a "cure" for the disease that's stealing his memory?
17. The silver clasps are destined to become earrings for the doctor's mistress and another pair for his wife, his "fallen Angel" (p. 127). What do you think about that?Hanna ~ Vienna, Spring 1996 ~ (pp. 129-144)Razmus Kanaha (Raz is chief conservation scientist at the Fogg)
18. Dana Faber (p. 135) is a hospital in Boston, an interesting thought in that Faber is the name of the German general who tried to get his hands on the haggadah. Do you think the author did that on purpose?
19. Hanna's mum paced as she made her presentation to the medical society, and she had her audience transfixed. "She loved the strut and swagger of being a top surgeon, a top woman surgeon" (p. 136). Does she deserve credit for having reached a position that was difficult for a woman to attain?
20. Hanna was impressed by the ethnicity of her postdoc friend Raz, "one of those vanguard human beings of indeterminate ethnicity" (p. 141): part African American, part native Hawaiian, part Japanese, part Swedish. Raz's wife was a mixture of Iranian-Kurdish-Pakistani-American. Hanna thought, "I couldn't wait to see their kids: they'd be walking Benetton ads" (p. 141). Do you think this is where we humans are headed?Wine Stains ~ Venice, 1609 ~ (pp. 145-189
)21. Judah Aryeh (a rabbi in the Geto) said to Giovanni Domenico Vistorini (Catholic inquisitor): "Your church did not want your holy scriptures in the hands of ordinary people. We felt differently. To us, printing was an avodat ha kodesh, a holy work" (p. 156). What do you think about burning (or banning or challenging) books?
22. What did you think about the reason Vistorini sometimes allowed Jews to keep some of their books (p. 157) and especially his reason for finally signed and saving the Savajevo Haggadah (p. 189)?
23. Why would a Venetian Christian like Dona Reyna de Serena have a Jewish prayer book?
26. Delilah Sharansky, the Jewish woman introduced on page 202, died in the accident that hospitalized Hanna's mother. Why do you think Sarah Heath never told Hanna about Delilah or her son, the artist Aaron Sharansky? Hanna is very hurt by this lack of knowledge: "It was going to take me more than one night to catch up with thirty years of missing information. Missing love. ... in the end, she'd made all the decisions, and I'd paid for them" (p. 213). And again, "Why hadn't she told me?" (p. 261).
Saltwater ~ Tarragona, 1492 ~ (pp. 215-258)
27. What did you think of the story of Ruti, daughter of David Ben Shoushan and his wife Miriam? Ruti was enthralled by the text, the words, the meaning of the words. Ruti understood the text, "They will build me a temple and I will dwell in them," to mean, "In them, not in it. [God] would dwell within her. She would be the house of God. The house of transcendence" (p. 234).
28. Look up Tomas de Torquemada, if you don't know much about the Grand Inquisitor. The chapter of Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov entitled "The Grand Inquisitor" is so important that it has been published as a small book, separate from the huge novel itself.
Hanna ~ London, Spring 1996 ~ (pp. 259-272)
29. Ostensibly, Hanna is the one we are reading about here: "I wanted to give a sense of the people of the book, the different hands that had made it, used it, protected it" (p. pp. 264-265). Since this sentence provides us with a good explanation for the book's title, how well do you think Geraldine Brooks has done in giving us a sense of these people?
30. Were you expecting the death of Alia (p. 270)? Or had you hoped for a happy ending, in spite of Ozren's words to Hanna, "Not every story has a happy ending" (p. 37)?
A White Hair ~ Seville, 1480 ~ (pp. 273-316)
31. Where did the white hair come from (pp. 285-286)? And how are cat hairs used in the book?
32. An iconoclast is a person who destroys a culture's religious symbols. What had the iconoclasts done in this section of the book (p. 287)?
33. "Too finely dressed to be a servant, and fully participating in the Jewish rite, the identity of that African woman in saffron has perplexed the book's scholars for a century" (p. 20) ... when I read that, I made a note: "Okay, I'm hooked; I want to know who this woman is." Now we know (p. 315). Who is she, and why is she in the picture?
Hanna ~ Sarajevo, Spring 1996 ~ (pp. 317-326)
34. When Hanna returns to Sarajevo for the grand opening of the exhibit of the Hagaddah, she immediately thinks something's wrong with the book in the display (p. 321). How could she make such a major mistake, as her teacher and Ozren both try to tell her?
Lola ~ Jerusalem, 2002 ~ pp. 327-336)
35. What a way to reconnect with Lola, having her discover something hidden in the museum in Israel. Was this discovery a miracle? Or was it beyond believable to you?
Hanna ~ Arnhem Land, Gunumeleng, 2002 ~ (pp. 337-368)
36. "What skills could you possibly have, darling?" (pp. 343). Could you imagine Hanna's mother saying such a thing, even though she's trying to keep Hanna off the board of the Sharansky Foundation? Hanna responded in exasperation, "How is it ... that a man like Aaron Sharansky could have loved someone like you?" (p. 344). Is their mother-daughter relationship believable? What did you think about Hanna's decision to "change my name to Sharansky" (p. 345). Do you think they can ever heal the rift?
37. How would you feel if you'd changed your whole professional life six years ago, and now discovered you had been right all along?
Hanna ~ Boston, Spring 1996 ~ (pp. 191-214)
24. Marg said, "I was surprised by how quickly Hanna and Ozren fell into bed with each other." Zorro said, "She jumps in bed with Ozren on the day of their first meeting." What do you think of Hanna's reasoning, here?
I suppose I am a bit of a prude, about some things, anyway. I like loyalty. I mean, do what you like when you're single. Live and let live. Lay and get laid. But why bother to be married at all, if you don't want the commitment? (p. 197)25. Will all humans someday be blended, like Raz (p. 141)? Is this the direction humanity is going? (See more in the post Benetton ad families?)
26. Delilah Sharansky, the Jewish woman introduced on page 202, died in the accident that hospitalized Hanna's mother. Why do you think Sarah Heath never told Hanna about Delilah or her son, the artist Aaron Sharansky? Hanna is very hurt by this lack of knowledge: "It was going to take me more than one night to catch up with thirty years of missing information. Missing love. ... in the end, she'd made all the decisions, and I'd paid for them" (p. 213). And again, "Why hadn't she told me?" (p. 261).
Saltwater ~ Tarragona, 1492 ~ (pp. 215-258)
27. What did you think of the story of Ruti, daughter of David Ben Shoushan and his wife Miriam? Ruti was enthralled by the text, the words, the meaning of the words. Ruti understood the text, "They will build me a temple and I will dwell in them," to mean, "In them, not in it. [God] would dwell within her. She would be the house of God. The house of transcendence" (p. 234).
28. Look up Tomas de Torquemada, if you don't know much about the Grand Inquisitor. The chapter of Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov entitled "The Grand Inquisitor" is so important that it has been published as a small book, separate from the huge novel itself.
Hanna ~ London, Spring 1996 ~ (pp. 259-272)
29. Ostensibly, Hanna is the one we are reading about here: "I wanted to give a sense of the people of the book, the different hands that had made it, used it, protected it" (p. pp. 264-265). Since this sentence provides us with a good explanation for the book's title, how well do you think Geraldine Brooks has done in giving us a sense of these people?
30. Were you expecting the death of Alia (p. 270)? Or had you hoped for a happy ending, in spite of Ozren's words to Hanna, "Not every story has a happy ending" (p. 37)?
A White Hair ~ Seville, 1480 ~ (pp. 273-316)
31. Where did the white hair come from (pp. 285-286)? And how are cat hairs used in the book?
32. An iconoclast is a person who destroys a culture's religious symbols. What had the iconoclasts done in this section of the book (p. 287)?
33. "Too finely dressed to be a servant, and fully participating in the Jewish rite, the identity of that African woman in saffron has perplexed the book's scholars for a century" (p. 20) ... when I read that, I made a note: "Okay, I'm hooked; I want to know who this woman is." Now we know (p. 315). Who is she, and why is she in the picture?
Hanna ~ Sarajevo, Spring 1996 ~ (pp. 317-326)
34. When Hanna returns to Sarajevo for the grand opening of the exhibit of the Hagaddah, she immediately thinks something's wrong with the book in the display (p. 321). How could she make such a major mistake, as her teacher and Ozren both try to tell her?
Lola ~ Jerusalem, 2002 ~ pp. 327-336)
35. What a way to reconnect with Lola, having her discover something hidden in the museum in Israel. Was this discovery a miracle? Or was it beyond believable to you?
Hanna ~ Arnhem Land, Gunumeleng, 2002 ~ (pp. 337-368)
36. "What skills could you possibly have, darling?" (pp. 343). Could you imagine Hanna's mother saying such a thing, even though she's trying to keep Hanna off the board of the Sharansky Foundation? Hanna responded in exasperation, "How is it ... that a man like Aaron Sharansky could have loved someone like you?" (p. 344). Is their mother-daughter relationship believable? What did you think about Hanna's decision to "change my name to Sharansky" (p. 345). Do you think they can ever heal the rift?
37. How would you feel if you'd changed your whole professional life six years ago, and now discovered you had been right all along?
