The Next Chapter: A 55+ Book Discussion Group: So Big, by Edna Ferber
Wednesday, August 21 at 11 AMJoin us for our monthly 55+ book discussion group, The Next Chapter, in collaboration with Northville Senior Services. We will meet at the Community Center the third Wednesday of each month at 11 AM. We plan to alternate fiction and non-fiction titles.
This month’s selection is So Big, by Edna Ferber.
Left an orphan at 19 years old in the late 1880s, Selina Peake needs to support herself. She leaves the city life she has known to become a teacher in the farming community of High Prairie, IL. Her father had told her that life is an adventure, and one should make the most of it.
Selina sees beauty everywhere, including in the fields of cabbages. She has a natural curiosity about farming and oversteps the woman’s traditional role by having the audacity to ask the men questions. Though she suffers many hardships, Selina always remembers the importance of beauty, and she admires those who exercise their creative talents. She tries to instill these views in her son Dirk and fights with her husband over the need for their child to get a full education. Once Dirk finishes college and starts work, will he retain Selina’s values?
Published 100 years ago in 1924, So Big was the first book to have the rare distinction of being the best-selling book of the year and win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Author Edna Ferber was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan.