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Join us on Thursday at 3PM to chat about the book!

The Garden Lodge

by Willa Cather

This week in the Book Club we will be reading 'The Garden Lodge' by Willa Cather, a poinent tale of nostalgia and loss. Loss of loved ones, loss of the past and a loss of passion and creativity. 

One day, Howard asks his wife if she would agree to tear down their garden lodge and build a new summer house there instead. She grows nostalgic as she remembers spending fond times there with tenor Raymond d'Esquerre when he was visiting who had helped her rekindle her passion for music during his stay...

In the story artists are presented as non-desirables that don’t take care of themselves or their responsibilities. The main emotional pull being the fear that art is a dangerous thing, leading to poverty, addiction, and death.

Although Willa Cather is best known for her novels and stories featuring prairie settings and pioneer living, much of her writing explores the relationship between audience and artists. Opera was Cather’s lifelong passion. She went to see performances at every opportunity—and particularly anything staged by the New York Metropolitan Opera Company. 

“Music had the highest evocative power, especially music combined with drama—that is, opera.” George N. Kates

Read the book: The Garden Lodge by Willa Cather

About the author

Willa Sibert Cather was born in 1873 on her maternal grandmother's farm in the Back Creek Valley near Winchester, Virginia. was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, a novel set during World War I.

Cather achieved recognition as a novelist of the frontier and pioneer experience. She wrote of the tenacity and spirit of settlers, many of them European immigrants, in the Great Plains in the early to mid-20th century. Common themes in her work include loss, exile, and social isolation. A sense of place is an important element in Cather's fiction; sometimes harsh, often beautiful, physical landscapes and domestic spaces are for Cather dynamic presences against which the characters both struggle and express love.

What is the book club?

Join us every week for a book club, each week we will read a new short story of part of a larger book, the books will be made available as an audio book and we will meet as a group via zoom to chat about the story. All are welcome, hope to see you there. 

How to join the club to chat

The zoom link to join will apear above on this page at 3PM on Thursday. To join you will need a phone/tablet or laptop with a built in camera and microphone (most modern devices come with this) you may need to download the zoom app onto your phone if you are using a phone to join.

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