Book Club Activism

Sometimes book clubs can make a difference, as Debra Linn shows in this post. After reading Edwidge Danticat's Brother, I'm Dying, her group was inspired to take action.


Edwidge Danticat's family memoir Brother, I'm Dying riled us up. Outraged us, actually. We were incensed by the treatment her uncle received when he arrived in Miami from full-on upheaval in Haiti. Our book club had received the call to action, our chance to start living up to our name, Page Against the Machine, an opportunity for book club activism.

Book club activism sounds high-minded and formal, but really, just about any book can spur your club to action. It rises organically from your connection to the book. What Is the What by Dave Eggers leads to activism about Sudan. Water for Elephants to the Humane Society or PETA, perhaps. Even uber book clubby books like The Knitting Circle offer charitable avenues, what with the myriad illnesses and tragedies suffered by the characters. You can donate money --- or your time. You can collect books for a burgeoning neighborhood library or a juvenile justice center.

After reading Brother, I'm Dying, we wanted to act, to help, to do something other than just read. We had come to know Danticat's uncle, Joseph, a strong and thoughtful man, a minister who raised the children in his extended family, a man who preached despite having to use a voice box. Sent to the Krome Detention Center (wrongly so) pending the immigration process, Uncle Joseph became ill while in custody and died after negligent healthcare at the police ward of Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Sadly, this was not a shock to us. Krome Detention Center and the treatment of Haitian migrants --- both in the grand political scheme and hands-on physical conditions --- have long been hot-button topics in Miami.

But this was different now. This was personal. This is what the best books do (and Brother, I'm Dying certainly falls into this category). They take us inside people and worlds and situations that were just passing thoughts or images on TV.

At the suggestion of always enterprising and engaging club member Maria, we collected money to donate to the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, the organization that had been representing Uncle Joseph at the time of his death. With our group of 12, just a few dollars a woman added up quickly, and we donated a tidy little sum to an organization that gets lost amid other larger and equally worthy causes.

We didn't change the world or even get our hands dirty. We didn't utilize our skills and knowledge and outrage to their fullest. But it was a step, a first step toward acting on our widening perspective. And it made us feel good about ourselves, less paralyzed. Sure, it could be misplaced self-congratulation or just plain old guilt, but it's a place to start.

There isn't always an obvious match to that month's book selection, and you won't always feel inspired. Don't force it. But look at book club activism the same as choosing a themed restaurant or menu to match that book set in Italy --- just another way to make a book more than words on a page and a book club more than a bunch of readers.


---Debra Linn