Book lovers, unite.
To honor the late Dean of Faculty Christina E. Sorum's love of reading, Sorum House will hold a campus-wide book club each term. The first pick: Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, a political novel set in an alternative universe.
“Christie had a passionate love of recreational reading, and we thought this was a great way to celebrate that,” said Suzanne Benack, professor of psychology and Minerva Council faculty rep, who is organizing the discussion group. To date, 24 faculty and staff and 23 students have taken the literary leap.
“We're giving free book copies before winter break. If people can pick them up on campus, I can take orders until Dec. 1,” Benack notes. Participants will discuss the book at a lunch meeting the second week of next term.
In The Plot Against America, Pulitzer Prize-winner Roth – the author of such classics as Goodbye Columbus, Portnoy's Complaint and The Human Stain – explores what the United States would have been like had Charles A. Lindbergh been elected president, allied with Hitler and undergone a fascist change. The book has been called a page-turner, preposterous yet “creepily plausible.” Paul Berman of The New York Times describes it as “…vivid, unnerving, touching – and wonderfully traditional.”
To join the Sorum Book Club, contact Benack at benacks@union.edu.