A Book Club, For Movie Lovers
This summer in Austin, Texas I’m hosting the Paperback Picture Club, a book club for movie lovers. If you need to hear no more, sign-up here. For the reasonably minded, read on.
Starting June 1st, we're reading one book – or two novellas - each month through August. After we read each book we'll watch an exceptional film adaptation of each. Details on each watch party will be released month-of. Those outside the Austin region are not discouraged to join — but will be confined to virtually interacting with the group.
Inspired by summer vacations, the theme for each story is Wayward “Travels” – adventures that don't quite go as planned. The lineup looks like this:
JUNE
Read Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. In Highsmith's novel, Tom Ripley ventures to Italy to bring back the son of his new, wealthy friend, Dickie Greenleaf. But as new characters enter the scene, Tom becomes overshadowed, enraged, then obsessed with an unthinkable idea. We'll close the month by watching the 1960 French adaptation, Purple Noon.
JULY
Read Christ Stopped at Eboli, a memoir by Italian painter Carlo Levi about his time exiled by Italy's Fascist government to Lucania, southern Italy. It's a story whose characters are marked by peasantry, superstition, death, and a stark account of life beyond the boundaries of progress and time. We'll end the month by watching Francesco Rosi's 1979 film of the same name.
AUGUST
August always feel long. We're going to break that up with two novellas, and two equally spectacular film adaptations. For the first two weeks we'll read Thomas Mann's harrowing account of Gustav von Aschenbach's escapade to Italy (I'm seeing a theme, too) which spirals into a tale of ruinous inward desire. After which we'll watch Luchino Visconti's 1971 adaptation of Death in Venice.
Finally, we'll wrap up the season with Leo Tolstoy's novella The Forged Coupon. Here, we follow the travels not of a person, but a lie, and the the destructive aftershocks of its path. We'll close the season with a film many cinephiles acclaim as "perfect," Robert Bresson's Parisian themed, L’argent
Registration closes the last day of April.
If you want to join, sign-up here. To those who join, I’m excited our travels together through these books and films.