Book Discussion Report: Boy, Snow, Bird

I just finished up the notes from the last Book Club Study meeting and am cross posting it here for my readers.

From the ARRT Book Club Study website:

On January 12, 2017 from 2-4pm at Schaumburg Township District Library, Emily Vinci led a discussion on Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi:

From the prizewinning author of Mr. Fox, the Snow White fairy tale brilliantly recast as a story of family secrets, race, beauty, and vanity.

In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty—the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman. 

A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she’d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy’s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white. Among them, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold.

Dazzlingly inventive and powerfully moving, Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishing and enchanting novel. With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi confirms her place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of our time. (From the publisher.)

Awards

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist: 2014

New York Times Notable Book: 2014

International Dublin Literary Award Nominee: 2016

CLICK HERE for the notes on the discussion of the book.

As always, discussion of the book includes a nuts-and-bolts session devoted to sharing practical solutions to the problems and concerns of book discussion leaders.

The Leadership Topic, led by Becky Spratford, was about managing the group dynamic during book discussions. 

CLICK HERE for the notes on the Leadership Topic Discussion.