Hot weather and summer vacations did not deter 13 stalwarts from attending the club’s discussion of Kurt Vonnegut’s ninth novel, “Jailbird”. Lorraine Price, Phil Watts, Chris Lafave, Celia Latz, Janet Penwell, Brett McLaughlin, Karen Lystra, Diane Richards, Janet Hodgkins, Dave Young, Bill Briscoe, John Sturman, and Jay Carr showed up and all had something to say. After the meeting, Phil took us all to lunch at a new restaurant (Lincoln Square Pancake House, 2330 N. Meridian) of which he is one of the landlords. Phil has smoothly lead the discussions of the monthly selections since the club’s inception and his ability to keep us all on track will be sadly missed as he is relinquishing the gavel to a rotating panel of discussion leaders.

KV threw us a curve with this novel as it was sequential and earth-bound with no science fiction element or graphics. Almost conventional. It did give him a platform to expound on his ideas about religion, capitalism, women, and the Nixon administration. The novel, although a little longer than most of his stuff, was funny and very readable.
My notes were unsatisfying in that our observations, although insightful, did not seem to get at the essence of the novel but were more directed toward KV’s contradictions and his eccentricities. At some point I just kind of gave up, but here is what I have.

Phil led off with a quotation from the beginning of the novel “Here’s to God Almighty, the laziest man in town”. This theme came up later as we discussed the old theodicy problem: If God is all powerful why does he permit evil and if he is not all powerful, is he really God? which was always a show-stopper for me in my religious days. Phil noted that the two most common phrases running through the novel were “Harvard Man” and “RAMJAC Corporation”. Phil also referenced the 16 page review of “Jailbird” by Matt Gannon in the “Vonnegut Review”. Maybe this article took all the wind out of our sails. Speaking of sails, Gannon’s comparison of Walter Starbuck to Starbuck, the First Mate of the Pequod, seemed a little overdrawn. Phil read Gannon’s opening paragraph.

Brett thought that KV was settling some scores. KV’s Ivy League education was cut short and he seemed to have little regard for Harvard Men noting that many of the inmates at his Federal Penitentiary laid claim to that title. KV also put down the New York Times where Starbuck’s alienated son was a book reviewer. This gave rise to the observation that KV rarely got a favorable mention in the reviews of the East Coast Literati. If anyone wishes to delve into KV negativity, the IUPUI library is creating an archive of all of the reviews of KV’s work.

Bill noted that there were no pictures in the novel although KV went to some pains to mention several landmark NYC buildings. Bill filled the gap by circulating a dozen or more postcards (from his vast collection) of the mentioned landmarks. The Arapahoe Hotel, if there ever was such a thing, did not make the cut. Maybe the Arapahoe was a placeholder for the Dakota. Why are so many hotels named for Indian tribes?

Karen took a shot at the big picture thing She liked the book and maintained that KV really believed in The Beatitudes. Love may or may not work, but courtesy, civility, and kindness will always be more important.

Janet Hodgkin and Jay Carr maintained that KV wanted to have religion “both ways”. KV was contemptuous of organized religion and skeptical about theology, but wanted the benefits found in a religious community. There was a “neediness” about KV and a desire to be loved. Phil recalled some of the extended late night phone calls he had with KV (who called Phil “Orphan”) and the sadness of his family life in that his mother was an alleged suicide and his father withdrew from life after his mother’s death. This is echoed in the novel in Starbuck’s dream in which Starbuck is the adult taking care of a child-like father. Janet recalled the old saying “You only become a man when your father dies”. KV wants a “liberated religion”. Perhaps our religion is what we pretend it to be. Someone said that KV’s treatment of Nixon was not as harsh as it might have been. Maybe KV took pity on a man he recognized as a lonely outsider.

John expressed that KV’s writings are perhaps a reflection on the complexity of life. Relations do not always work out. Although KV was against formalized religions he did not think it hypocritical to lecture in churches. Karen and Celia held forth on the difficulty of the artistic life. To be a professional writer you have to withdraw to some extent from the community. You can’t be a dedicated artist and give full attention to a marital relationship. KV was known to have had a lot of anger and an explosive temper.

Bill picked up on a few things. Starbuck’s alienated son’s ex-wife married a Puerto Rican. Could that have come about because KV’s daughter, Edith, was the second of Geraldo Rivera’s five wives? The character Heywood Braun who protested at the Sacco-Vanzetti trial was a Harvard drop out. His son, Heywood Hale Braun was a Delta Upsilon (Swarthmore ’40), just like Bill and KV. What’s going on here? Inquiring minds want to know.

Then the war between the sexes raised its ugly head. If KV was all about kindness, why did it appear that he was not always kind to women? His novelistic treatment of them was generally favorable. Men are capitalistic, aggressive bastards. Women are spiritual nourishers of the planet. Maybe men aren’t even necessary. Karen referred to a speech Sojurner Truth gave in 1848 in which she said something to the effect that for the world to go on all that was needed was God and a woman. I doubt that Sis was up on the latest trends in cloning, so she must have had immaculate conception in mind. At this point I dropped my pen and by the time I found it the meeting was over.

Twelve of us rated the book on the 10 point KV scale and came up with an “8”. Our next book will honor “Banned Book Week”. Bill will lead the discussion on George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” on Thursday, September 26, 2013, at 11:30AM. See you at the Library!

Dave Young