Online Modern Novel Study Group

Please join us for Year Seven of the Modern Novel Group. This is an informal discussion group of committed readers who want to better understand each book’s history, context, assumptions, and resonance. Free and open to the public. Meets on Zoom.

This group will meet on the third Thursday of each month, from September to June, 10:30am-12pm. Group members can expect to read one novel each month, and members of the group will share responsibility for introducing books and leading discussions. Books can be requested from the library.

Philip Weinstein, a well-known and highly respected literature teacher on our Island and Professor Emeritus at Swarthmore College, is the co-organizer of this discussion group. Phil will not lecture or formally teach the group, but he will be an active member.

Space is limited. If you are interested in becoming a member in this group, please contact co-organizer Jeff Nason. You can reach Jeff at 617-285-3160 or jnasonmd@gmail.com.

Modern Novel Study Group 2024-25 Schedule:

September 19, 2024: Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water.

October 17, 2024. Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths (available as New Directions paperback):
Tlon.
Garden of Forking Paths.
The Lottery in Babylon.
The Library of Babel.
Funes the Memorious.
Death and the Compass.
The Secret Miracle.
Emma Zunz.
The Zahir.
Borges and I.
Everything and Nothing.

November 21, 2024. Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus. 

December 19, 2024. Iris Murdoch, The Bell. 

January 16, 2025. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49. 

February 20, 2025. Clarice Lispector, The Hour of the Star. 

March 20, 2025. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping. 

April 17, 2025. Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood.

May 15, 2025. Olga Tokarczug, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. 

June 19, 2025. George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo.