Santa Rosa writers form eclectic 'Book Gang' over 'Gravity's Rainbow'

About three years ago, poet and painter Ed Coletti started a book club with playwright David Beckman after both Santa Rosa writers confided their desire to read Thomas Pynchon’s lengthy and complex novel, “Gravity’s Rainbow.”

“When I expressed my belief that I would never make it through without a book group, David offered, ‘Why don’t we be a book club of two,’” Coletti recalled. “I agreed, and two others came aboard immediately.”

Over the past few years, the club they call “The Book Gang” grew to include five men and one woman, ages 68 to 79. The members come from a wide range of professions, including teaching, public relations and psychiatry.

“Our book choices and meetings are lively and diverse,” said Coletti, who also founded his own poetry press, Round Barn Press, and writes a blog, “No Money In Poetry” (edwardcolettispoetryblog.blogspot.com).

The Book Gang gives members two months to read each book, and members take turns hosting the meetings. To settle on a book, each host nominates three or four titles and members put them up for a vote.

Here is a list of a few of their favorite titles, submitted by Coletti:

- “Gravity’s Rainbow,” by Thomas Pynchon: This great American novel begins with the famous line, “A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now,” referring to the German V2 and V3 rockets raining terror upon London during World War II.

- “Tinkers,” by Paul Harding: Reviews called Harding’s debut novel a remarkable achievement. The novel is set in rural Maine over two generations and takes its title from itinerant clock-repairers.

- “The Imperfectionists,” by Tom Rachman: This debut novel concerns itself with the people who work at an English language newspaper based in Rome.

- "The Sense of an Ending,” by Julian Barnes: One of Britain’s great working master novelists kicks off this absorbing mystery with a divorced man in his 60s, who receives L500 from the mother of a girlfriend he met in college.

- “Scenes from a Village Life,” by Amos Oz: This is a wonderful series of brief chapters on how people in an Israeli village overlap in their lives.

- “All the King’s Men,” by William Penn Warren: It’s the fictionalized rise and fall of Louisiana’s legendary governor Huey Long.

Does your book club have an interesting reading list? Send it to Staff Writer Diane Peterson at diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com. Follow her on Twitter @dianepete56.