Author Topic: Cellist of Sarajevo (The) - November Book Club Online (Read 42164 times)

BooksAdmin · « **on:** October 16, 2015, 12:43:20 AM »

The Book Club Online is the oldest book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone. We offer cordial discussions of one book a month, 24/7 and enjoy the company of readers from all over the world. Everyone is welcome.

November Book Club Online

The Cellist of Sarajevo
by Steven Galloway

Our selection for November is an award-winning novel that explores the dilemmas of ordinary people caught in the crises of war and examines the healing power of art.

"In this beautiful and unforgettable novel, Steven Galloway has taken an extraordinary, imaginative leap to create a story that speaks powerfully to the dignity and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.." - ~ Cellist of Sarajevo Website.

Discussion Schedule

November 1 - 2 The Cellist and Part One

November 3 - 9 Part Two through the section on Keenan ending with "he knows he has a long way to before he is home again." (p 106 in my copy)

November 10 - 15 Rest of Part Two

November 16 - 23 Part Three

November 24 - 27 Part Four

Questions for November 1-2: (The Cellist and Part One)

What do we learn about the city of Sarajevo in these sections?
What are your initial impressions of the characters that Steven Galloway has created: the Cellist? Arrow? Kenan? Dragan?
What is the main task/activity that is the focus for each of them in this story?
What are some ways that each of them, and other citizens, have been affected by the war?

Questions for November 3-9: (First half of Part Two - to p.106)

What are some more details we learn about Arrow, Dragan and Kenan? Who do they interact with and how?
What seems to be each of their approaches or ways of dealing with the situation they are in?
What are some of the things that they say or we're told that they are thinking that made a special impression on you?
What words, metaphors, descriptions, do you think the author uses to effectively make his points?
Can you personally relate to anything in any of the characters or their situations?

Questions for November 10 - 15: (Second half of Part Two - from p.107 to end of Part Two)

In the beginning of the chapter on Dragan, we learn what he thinks motivates the cellist. Do you agree?
A lot happens to and around Dragan, Arrow and Keenan in the latter pages of Part Two. What actions stand out for you?
What themes do you notice in Part Two?

Questions for November 16 -: (Part Three)

In part Three, Dragan, Arrow and Keenan seem to undergo changes in their outlook. What do you notice about them?
What sentences in this part of the book seem especially important?

Questions for Part Four

How do the stories of the main characters seem to resolve in this last part? Were you surprised by any of their actions?
What are some of your thoughts and feelings as you reflect on this novel?

LINKS

Background on the Adagio in G-Minor, including an audio file.

Image of Vedran, Smailovic, Cello player in the partially destroyed National Library in Sarajevo, 1992.

Sarajevo Survival Map 1992-96

Discussion Leader: Marcie

marcie · « **Reply #1 on:** October 16, 2015, 01:03:02 AM »

I look forward to reading and talking about this book with you in November. From what I've read about it, it's a very powerful novel. We'll start our conversation on November 1.

Frybabe · « **Reply #2 on:** October 16, 2015, 06:43:09 AM »

Count me in on this one. I finally got the book this past spring, but haven't read it yet.

marcie · « **Reply #3 on:** October 16, 2015, 10:46:28 AM »

That's great, Frybabe. I'm glad you'll be joining us.

The book seems to be available from many public libraries and inexpensively from Amazon also.

PatH · « **Reply #4 on:** October 16, 2015, 12:10:34 PM »

My library has lots of copies. I've put one on hold, and by the time I pick it up my allowed renewals will last almost until Christmas.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #5 on:** October 16, 2015, 02:54:04 PM »

Mine is on its way - found a used copy on Amazon.

Jonathan · « **Reply #6 on:** October 16, 2015, 05:44:41 PM »

Wonderful! I've got this book somewhere in the house. I'll find it.

marcie · « **Reply #7 on:** October 17, 2015, 11:58:23 AM »

Welcome, Pat, Barb and Jonathan! It's wonderful to have such a great group already signed up for our discussion.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #8 on:** October 17, 2015, 06:49:57 PM »

I'll be here, I have the book!

Steph · « **Reply #9 on:** October 18, 2015, 09:45:41 AM »

not I, said the little red hen.. Have we stopped doing fiction??

pedln · « **Reply #10 on:** October 18, 2015, 11:34:42 AM »

It is fiction, Steph.

I have the book from the library. I'm somewhat hesitant to add my name here because I haven't shown much stick-to-it-iveness in recent discussions. Will try again.

It seems short and is not a large volume. It won't weigh down my carryon when I fly to Albequerque mid-November. (My New York girls have just moved there.)

marcie · « **Reply #11 on:** October 18, 2015, 12:46:43 PM »

Great, Ella. I'm really glad you'll be with us.

Steph, we wanted to offer a fiction for November since, as you've noted, we had two non-fictions the last two months. While "the cellist" is based on the actions (playing the cello each day for 3 weeks to honor the 22 victims of a mortar attack) of an actual person, the author has re-imagined that action and added other characters and events in his novel.

Pedln, I'm glad you have the book and will attempt to join the group. How nice to visit your girls in their new location!

Steph · « **Reply #12 on:** October 19, 2015, 08:45:19 AM »

Thanks for the heads up, but I must confess that for a number of reasons, I am into funny or fantasy for a while.. Nothing ponderous.

marcie · « **Reply #13 on:** October 19, 2015, 10:58:22 AM »

ok, Steph.

bellamarie · « **Reply #14 on:** October 25, 2015, 09:16:54 AM »

I'm in, I just ordered my book from Amazon, total cost with shipping is $4.88. My library has a waiting list too long for me to attempt to get it from there.

marcie · « **Reply #15 on:** October 25, 2015, 10:19:14 PM »

Great, Bellamarie. I'm glad you were able to order the book.

Frybabe · « **Reply #16 on:** October 28, 2015, 01:25:07 PM »

I'm going to put this up now lest I forget it later. http://mperrottet.hubpages.com/hub/Who-Wrote-the-Adagio-in-G-Minor-A-Musical-Mystery
The book was inspired by Vedran Smailović, who regularly played in the streets during the Siege of Sarajevo. Here he is in 1992, taken at the National Library. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Evstafiev-bosnia-cello.jpg

And here is a clip from three years ago: https://vimeo.com/39846516 The piece he is playing was written in his honor.

PatH · « **Reply #17 on:** October 28, 2015, 05:24:45 PM »

I read a few pages to see what the book is like. It's really well written.

bellamarie · « **Reply #18 on:** October 29, 2015, 02:49:41 PM »

Thank you Frybabe, I could listen to that piece of music all day, it is so comforting. Loved seeing the pics of the cellist.

marcie · « **Reply #19 on:** October 29, 2015, 10:06:15 PM »

Thanks, Frybabe, for those helpful links. I'm glad to see the "real-life" cellist, especially the earlier photo in front of the bombed library, even though the author has said that he used the cellist for inspiration in his story and that the character in the novel is not based on him as it would be in a work of non-fiction.

Pat, I agree. I had read some reviews that said the book was well written. It might have taken me a few pages to get into it but with Chapter One on, I have been drawn into the story and think that the writing is very good.

marjifay · « **Reply #20 on:** October 30, 2015, 07:26:33 AM »

I'm almost finished with this book, and while I'm not a fan of fantasy, I'd recommend Steph stick with that genre instead of this one. It's only 235 pages, but seems like 400 to me.

Marj

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #21 on:** October 30, 2015, 07:40:47 AM »

Marj why did you decide to read the entire book before we start?

marjifay · « **Reply #22 on:** October 30, 2015, 08:35:48 AM »

Aren't we supposed to read the entire book? If the discussion is supposed to start Nov. 1, how can we discuss it if we haven't read the book?

Marj

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #23 on:** October 30, 2015, 09:21:08 AM »

Oh Marj - we usually discuss the book in sections so that what comes in the next section may even alter our opinions - I just find it difficult to read ahead because I am so afraid I will spill the beans on something so I was curious how you handle keeping what comes next a secret -

Usually a face to face group does exactly what you are comfortable doing - that is reading the entire book before they discuss it - from the beginning those 25 years ago when SeniorNet that became Senior Learn started, the books were broken up into sections - in the beginning years more time was often taken so that one book could be discussed for over 2 months - the idea was to research and share all the tidbits so we could get deeply into the themes rather than just the plot - A plot is what it is but the various themes take really understanding the place and characters, the differences in how folks lived and what they could know that may be different than today if the book was written about another time.

Hope you can share your questions and research about the small things in the section that is going to be read each week - it gives us all a window into a deeper experience - its fun... hope you share in the fun.

marjifay · « **Reply #24 on:** October 30, 2015, 09:35:20 AM »

I didn't know that was how it worked. I guess I just won't talk about anything ahead of what is currently being discussed. One thing reading about Sarajevo has done is make me want to read some history about the Bosnian War. I have put a couple of books about its history on my TBR list. I remember vaguely when it was going on, during the Clinton administration I think. But I don't remember the reasons for it, or why the U.S. got involved with it.

Marj

marcie · « **Reply #25 on:** October 30, 2015, 11:33:42 AM »

We'll put up a discussion schedule soon, to divide our discussion into "chunks." It's not necessarily a reading schedule. Anyone can read ahead if you wish but, as you say, Marj, we'll focus our discussion on what's covered in the chunk.

I think a good outcome from a book is if it makes you want to read more about the period or anything else included in the book. That's great that you're planning to read about the Bosnian War.

JoanK · « **Reply #26 on:** October 31, 2015, 04:39:07 PM »

I've gotten the book and read Part One. Haven't decided whether to join yet: I'm more for upbeat things right now.

have very strong memories of travelling through (then) Yugoslavia (on the Orient Express) in 1963. My geography isn't good enough to know whether we were in (now) Bosnia or Serbia. Traveling on a shoestring budget, we weren't in the chicy first class, but in second class with all the locals (and sometimes their poultry).

At first things were quiet. But the train stopped at a small station. We heard later that there were rumors of a traitor fleeing on the train. the officials made everyone get off so they could search the train: everyone but us, the only Americans. n our compartment it was boiling hot, but outside there was snow on the ground, and the people had been given no chance to get their coats.

So our carriage mates stood outside, freezing, for about an hour, looking through the window at us sitting in lonely splendor. Older women dressed in layers of coats were busy trying to deal with the snow. When they were let back in, we got a few looks, and everyone was quiet.

I was worried about a woman sitting opposite me. her face was white, and she was shivering uncontrollably. They had all been lightly dressed, since the carriage was so hot.

I had a fur-lined coat in the luggage rack (squirrel fur, but warm as toast). I got it down and insisted she wrap it around herself. She stopped shivering, and soon fell asleep.

JoanK · « **Reply #27 on:** October 31, 2015, 04:53:50 PM »

Well, that changed everything. now we were one of them. No one else spoke English, but it didn't matter. They told us all about their country. We passed a town where there had been an earthquake, and they were telling us all about it. I never felt so welcomed.

When the Bosnian war started, I was horrified. The people I had met were killing each other. How could that be? Will we ever understand war?

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #28 on:** October 31, 2015, 07:27:20 PM »

What a fascinating story, JOANK. Everybody, no matter where you go, knows you are an American, you can't hide it, can you? We had a similar time years ago when we went to Costa Rica, before it became a tourist attraction. We had been told not to go to the west coast, but, of course, that's an incentive to go, so we took a local bus, what a trip that was. Everybody brought everything with them, one woman had her little boy peeing in a bottle in the aisle, and we knew very little Spanish, but just enough to ask questions and I had my handy English/Spanish handbook with me.

Fun trip. We took a bus trip to a local swimming pool, it was way out by itself in a field and the water was in pipes above the water. The local market - and the local grocery store. I loved traveling, but then one ages and it is troubling to get from here to there at times. Mercy!

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #29 on:** October 31, 2015, 07:31:15 PM »

What I meant to say, JOAN, was read this book. I think you will like it; it's not all downbeat.

marcie · « **Reply #30 on:** November 01, 2015, 01:54:58 AM »

JoanK, what an interesting story. How uncomfortable for you to have those other passengers outside staring at you in the warm train. It sounds like you really turned things around with your good deed, letting that woman use your fur coat. As Ella says, this novel isn't all downbeat and their are actions (similar to yours) that show the common humanity in people.

I haven't traveled as you, Ella and JoanK, have but, for me, the writing and descriptions in this book has put me in the world of wartime Sarajevo.

marcie · « **Reply #31 on:** November 01, 2015, 01:58:36 AM »

I've put up an initial discussion schedule and some questions in the heading above to help start us off. If we want to go faster or slower through the book, we can decide that as a group as we go.

If it's okay with all of you I'm thinking that we can get started by just talking about the first 33 pages or so (through Part One) for the first couple of days. You can respond to any of the questions or talk about other aspects of the story that interest you in this "chunk" of the book.

PatH · « **Reply #32 on:** November 01, 2015, 12:26:16 PM »

JoanK, you may very well have saved that woman's life. she was surely in the early stages of hypothermia, and you can easily progress to the point where there's no getting back.

PatH · « **Reply #33 on:** November 01, 2015, 12:54:13 PM »

I have a very upbeat Orient Express story. Many years ago a friend and colleague of mine was traveling on the Orient Express, and was sitting next to a beautiful red-headed Yugoslavian. They started talking, and discovered common musical interests. After a while, they were sing Mozart duets together. It was a long ride; at the end they exchanged addresses, started writing to each other, and a year or so later were married.

Does a courtship like that lead to a good marriage? This one did. When I knew them their children were almost grown, and they seemed an ideal couple, with many common interests, and by the way they talked to each other you could see how good their life together was.

She was devastated when the fighting began. Much of what she had known was rubble, and many of the people she knew were gone.

marcie · « **Reply #34 on:** November 01, 2015, 02:02:47 PM »

Pat, you are right, JoanK likely did save that woman's life by her act of kindness. Thanks for your uplifting story too. What a wonderful way to meet a lifelong partner. It fits right in with the portrayal of the power of music in our novel.

If some of you haven't clicked the link that Frybabe gave us to hear the moving and haunting Adagio in G-Minor you might want to do so now at http://hubpages.com/entertainment/Who-Wrote-the-Adagio-in-G-Minor-A-Musical-Mystery. Just click the graphic of the sheet music a little way down the page. This is the music that we're told in the first pages of the book that the cellist plays to restore his hope, which is becoming more difficult to do as the brutal siege of his country continues.

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #35 on:** November 01, 2015, 02:54:39 PM »

The emotions start almost immediately in the book - pg. 3 - "he was loved, ....he had always been loved, and ... the world was a place where above all else the things that were good would find a way to burrow into you."

We all felt that at one time or another, the world a good place, and then tragedy happens - whatever it may be.

The cellist has "hope" - "one of the limited number of things remaining...."

Ella Gibbons · « **Reply #36 on:** November 01, 2015, 02:57:29 PM »

We learn what it is about:

"The geography of the siege is simple. Sarajevo is a long ribbon of flat land surrounded on all sides by hills. The men on the hills control all the high ground."

Frybabe · « **Reply #37 on:** November 01, 2015, 04:00:07 PM »

I found a map of the Siege of Sarajevo. http://www.mappery.com/sarajevo-survival-map-1992-1996
The city is completely surrounded by high ground.

PatH · « **Reply #38 on:** November 01, 2015, 04:07:07 PM »

Good grief. When you look at the map, you wonder that anyone survived more than a day or so.

Frybabe · « **Reply #39 on:** November 01, 2015, 04:18:40 PM »

I think a year or two ago I ran across photos of mortar shell hits that had been filled in with red resin. They call them Rose of Sarajevo. I don't know how many of them there are. In 2012, on the 20th anniversary of the siege, they held a memorial filling Marsal Tito Street with 11,541 empty chairs honoring those who died.
http://rogermrichards.photoshelter.com/image/I0000AX_S8AhPqTg
http://rogermrichards.photoshelter.com/image/I0000QNdAH_AH7w8

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Author Topic: Cellist of Sarajevo (The) - November Book Club Online (Read 42164 times)