Book club tonight

I have been invited to speak at two book clubs this week about The Wild Swans. The first one is tonight. We here in Minnesota joke about Minnesota Nice, a cultural inability to say anything negative about anything. I am curious to see whether Minnesota Nice will operate tonight, since I have heard that the woman who suggested the book to the group and invited me has gotten some angry flak from some in the group about having The Wild Swans nominated as a book club choice. Apparently, more than one person got as far as Chapter 12, the bathhouse scene, and put aside the book in disgust, never finishing it. Nancy says that some members are conservative, believing, among other things, that gays can be turned into heterosexuals if they try hard enough.

So it should be interesting. I have been to six to eight book club meetings, and the reaction has always been extremely positive. It will be my first time facing an audience where at least some are upset by what I've written. Like I've said, I am interested to see whether they will accordingly remain silent during the meetings, which would be the typical Minnesota impulse.

The second book club, I've been told, will have no such problems. The friend/member who nominated the book to that group is a gay woman.