The DCBC met on Sunday, September 18, 2022 to discuss September's book: Comfort Me with Apples, by Catherynne Valente (selected by Miriam).
Attendees were: Miriam, Ali, Ashley, Emily O., Jessy, Kristyn, Laurel, Lauren, Paige, Sarah, Taylor, and Val. This was a great turnout and we had a very lively discussion--welcome to everyone who joined us for the first time!
“Welcome to a new world of luxury living in Arcadia Gardens, an exclusive, upscale gated community! Every thought and care has been taken to provide the ultimate in amenities, privacy, serenity, and, most important, safety for you and yours.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Comfort Me With Apples
Comfort Me With Apples is a feminist reinterpretation of the Garden of Eden story, set in the context of an upscale suburban gated community (with the most bonkers HOA rules you've ever seen) that combined elements of the gothic and the surreal. At just over 100 pages, this novella has a lot of symbolism that we each brought some bits of to the discussion and with our combined analyses, we were able to piece a few more things together. The symbolism is densely-packed (some perhaps fairly criticized it as a bit heavy-handed) and gave us a lot to talk about, whether we liked the book or not. Regardless, it seemed like everyone came away from the discussion at least appreciating the book a bit more for what went into it.
Some insights from the discussion I managed to jot down:
The pieces Adam keeps from each of his wives were the pieces of himself used to make each of the women, highlighting Adam's ego and narcissism: the parts he loved the most were the parts of himself.
Adam says he wants a real marriage, but he is not willing to cede the power dynamics historically present in traditional hetero marriage to actually get it.
Sophia's arc, while not ultimately a happy one, leaves space for Eve to fill as the next iteration of Woman. We are left to surmise, from what we as readers know of the Adam and Eve story, that Eve is successful in getting Adam to eat the apple, and draw our conclusions from what this means from there.
The Verdict:
Taken from the average DCBC member ratings on Goodreads who had marked the book as read and rated at the time of this writing:
Comfort Me with Apples: 4.2 stars
Thank you to Miriam for hosting and to each of the attendees for bringing their insights, background, and experiences to this discussion. Speaking for myself, all of you are why I love book club so much and I am grateful to each and every one of you for these discussions!
Next Month: October 2022: All’s Well, by Mona Awad (selected by Melissa)
