BLRB 2: The Employees by Olga Ravn
Posted by Saffron Morter-Laing
What a way to launch a book club.
On Monday 27 July, a full house gathered upstairs for the very first meeting of BLRB, our new monthly book club, to talk about William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. We had hoped for a warm response, but what we got was a sold-out room, extra chairs pulled in from the shop floor, and a conversation that ran well past the finishing time.
Faulkner's fractured, multi-voiced telling of the Bundren family's journey turned out to be the perfect provocation for a first meeting. There was, predictably, much to talk about. From the human and more-than-human relationships within the novel (Jewel and his horse, fish, mules with more emotional descriptions than their human counterparts) to character psychology and favourite sentences, we spanned many a topic.
Thank you to everyone who came, who RSVP'd early, and who queued up afterwards to ask when the next one would be. Given how quickly places went this time, we'd encourage anyone hoping to join future sessions to sign up to our newsletter here (scroll to the end of the page), where updates on future book clubs will be sent. In the meantime, go to this link to sign up for our next meeting which will be on … The Employees by Olga Ravn.
Described by the Guardian as ‘a workplace novel of the 22nd Century’, this is a story of human and android crew members aboard a futuristic spacecraft. Prosaic, poetical and deeply philosophical, this novel was shortlisted for the International Booker prize and will much discussion, I am sure. It was translated by the equally decorated Martin Aitken who has translated novels by Karl Ove Knausgaard, Helle Helle and Hanne Ørstavik.
If you want to read around the novel you can read the LA Review of Books piece, the New York Review piece and, of course, the London Review of Books piece.
How to attend
Please RSVP by following this link. Places are limited and we ask that if you can no longer attend you let us know so we can give your ticket to someone on the waitlist.
While tickets are free we do ask that you buy the book from us where you can to support the continuation of this book club.
It will take place Monday 31 August at 6.45 p.m.
Looking forward to seeing you then!
Saff
