Master of Petersburg Reading Schedule

[Richard Ryan]

There definitely seems to be enough interested in and affection for Coetzee on this list to sustain a one month group read of what's widely viewed as one of his finest books, so unless there is long and vociferous dissent _en masse_ I'm going to go ahead and kick it off formally this weekend.  There are twenty (brief) chapters to the book in all, so dividing the volume into four chapter chunks with each host getting five days seems to make the most sense.  MoP is richly allusive, and although this is a short book I believe we'll fill the month pretty easily.  

It occurred to me that since a number of P-lister  had expressed interested in the even shorter (144pp) "Dusklands," we could throw it in at the end for "extra credit."  I agree with Bekah's suggestion that reading "The Possessed" in connection with a MoP reading makes some sense - but like most of the great Russian 19th Century novels, "The Possessed" is HUGE -  and I find that MoP stands on its own as a fine piece of literature even if you haven't read any Dostoevsky.  (If Hoi Polloi Pynchonoi start stomping their feet and demanding that we read the source material too - well, let's see.....)  

To keep to this schedule I proposed below I need three other hosts in addition to the three we already have.  Please let me know if you'd like to grab one of these slots.  
 

Richard (Me) - Sept 1 - Sept 6 (Chap 1-4)
Bekah  - Sept 6 - Sept 10 (Chap 5-8) 
Lawrence - Sept 11 - Sept 15 (Chap 9 - Chap 12)
Player to be named - Sept 16 - Sept 20 (Chap 13 - Chap 16)
Player to be named - Sept 21 - Sept 25 (Chap 17 - Chap 20)
Player to be named - Sept 26 - Sept 30 (Wrap up and "Dusklands")

Looking forward to a bleak but beautiful September in Mr. Coetzee's melancholy company....

Richard