“The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff” and “The Philosopher and the Checkout Girl” by Joseph Epstein
7:00 – 9:00 pm Monday, November 26, 2018

Our contemporary, Joseph Epstein, creates droll stories that remind me of biblical Joseph’s “many-colored coat.” Epstein can look at one circumstance and paint it this color or that. He’ll take a few basic facts and show how they can lead to many different outcomes. The example in this month’s readings: a man and a woman, neither currently married for one reason or another, meet. Maybe their lives are dissimilar but their hearts seek a common rhythm. An attraction, or maybe loneliness, drives them to engage. Does that first warmth grow or fade? What comes between them in proximity… an ever stronger pull of their different personalities or a dread they will lose themselves in union?

Epstein fills his stories with telling details… the contents of a drawer, the items in a supermarket basket, the disjoint thoughts bobbling in a mind. But instead of cluttering his narrative, these tabulations reveal truths. Is Epstein saying we are the sum of our clutter and our soup-can decisions?

Extra credit: wrestle with T.S. Eliot’s 1915 poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in the Poetry magazine archive HERE. Don’t be dismayed when you get lost; the poem is opaque. Perhaps you will detect some idea hovering beyond the words.

  • Discussion Leader: Alan Liebman
  • Hosts: Iris and Mark Frank welcome Club members to their Somerset home in northwest Reno this month.
  • RSVP Required: To reserve your seat(s), receive a PDF copy of this month’s story and travel directions, please e-mail your name(s) to RenoJewishStory@AmericanSuperior.ORG before sundown, Friday, November 23rd.

For this meeting the Club can accommodate 20 attendees, please remember your reservation is a symbol of keeping the Reno Jewish community together. You wouldn’t rip the community apart, would you? Social time after the discussion. Refreshments served.

NEXT Club Meeting [mark your calendar!]: 7:00 – 9:00 pm Monday, January 28, 2019 [The Club meets January through November each year. NO December meeting!]