Book Club Pick: The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal, by Sean Dixon

My book club isn’t one that pre-reads the books that we choose.  Some members might pick books that they have enjoyed in the past and wish to discuss, and there have been books I was reading with the thought that they might make enjoyable  book club selections, but then chose not to use when I disliked the book.  I always expect that some people will like the book we choose and some won’t.

In fact I think that the most fun and passionate discussions tend to be around books that elicit polarized views from the members.  As long as you have a mature membership, those discussions are fascinating and informative.  I’m always a little bored when everyone is in perfect agreement on the book.

I picked this for my first book club meeting of 2010 because I thought it would be fun to read a book about a book club.  The book that I chose is The Last Days of The Lacuna Cabal, by Sean Dixon.  It starts off with a bang.  A girl is chatting with her boyfriend and then falls through the ceiling and into another apartment.  It is so strange!  I am hoping that- love it  or hate- my group will be able to read the whole thing so that we can discuss it.

I saw lots of one liners on this book on how it made made the reader feel, but I am guessing that it was hard to summarize because I saw very little in the way of a true description/summary of the book from other reviewers and bloggers. Here is an intriguing description found via Goodreads.

The girls of the Lacuna Cabal Montreal Young Womens’ Book Club are at a crossroads. One of their founding members is dead, they’ve made a few unfortunate compromises to their membership, some of them aren’t getting any younger, and they’ve been stuck on a single weepy tome for six long months. Resident maverick Runner Coghill decides to shake things up by introducing a cherished family heirloom to the group – ten pristine stone tablets, carved in cuneiform, telling the oldest story in the world: The Epic of Gilgamesh. Because their new book is written in an ancient language, the group must take the unprecedented step of allowing Runner to translate the whole story for them.

A few bloggers whose opinion I have come to trust also chimed in on this book.  Jen from Devourer of Books had this to say in her review of The last Days of the Lacuna Cabal:

I’m not sure whether the plot or the characters are odder.  In fact, as I was reading it I kept saying to my mom and my husband, “this book is so weird!”  However, each time I followed that up with “but I really like it!”  My description of this book makes it sound ridiculous, I know, but it worked.  At least for me.  It might not work for everyone, you have to be open to the oddity.  I was totally enthralled, though.  There is some foul language and sexual content, but – to me at least – it didn’t seem gratuitous in context of the story.

Jenclair at A Garden Carried in the Pocket summed up her review of The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal by saying:

I liked it. There are flaws that brought me up short at times, but…I liked it. I can’t categorize it and find it impossible to explain. This book is not for everyone, but I hope to hear more from this author.

After reading so little of it I’m not sure what I will think of the novel.  I hope that I will like it and manage to get through it, otherwise it might be a little awkward to participate in a discussion on it!  I definitely think it’s a book that will require my full attention. I will probably see if I can set aside several hours in a day before January 14th so that it will have my undivided attention.

Has anyone else read this one or heard anything about it one way or another?  What questions would you pose to a group about this book?

FTC Disclosure – I am an Amazon Associate (Do I have to keep saying that when I have only made .60, which they won’t pay out by the way since it is such a small amount?). Oh…and I had to buy this book for book club as did the other members.  Do I get brownie points for that?