On Monday, 4/9/18 The Neary Book Club members were treated to a lively and fascinating discussion at my home by the Author, Steven Jay Griffel, about his historical fiction novel, The Ishi Affair. The book tells the story of Ishi, who was recognized by historians as being the last Stone Age Indian of the Yahi tribe in Northern California in the early 1900’s. In his book, Steven recounts how Ishi (which means man in Yahi) wandered out of his Stone Age cave in the foothills of northern California near the town of Oroville, and was found by local authorities. Anthropologist, Thomas Waterman came to see Ishi and took him back to San Francisco, almost starving, and then to the Berkeley Museum where he was taken care of, and studied extensively by other anthropologists like Alfred Kroeber. In 1916 Ishi was put on display as a living Indian exhibit for the remainder of his life. Steven shared how he wove this true story of Ishi into a fictional account of whether Ishi was truly the last Stone Age Indian, and if in fact there were any of his tribe members still alive today. He captivated us with details of how he intertwined his own life’s fascination with Ishi's story, how his brain was preserved after his death, and the search for his modern day tribal family. By intertwining those parts of his story, Steven recounted how The Ishi Affair came to be a suspenseful filled novel set at the turn of the 20th century and in modern day.
What a wonderful and interesting experience, having Steven share how he came to be an author, how his career took a markedly different path for some 40 years, but ultimately how he found his way back to writing, and back to the story of Ishi he started a very long time ago. It made for quite the interesting and exciting evening, with great questions and discussion from everyone who attended.
We thank you, Steven, for coming to our book club sharing your love of writing and of books, your incredible story and your candor in describing your journey to today.
----Robin A.
Thank you Robin L for putting together the images, video and moving music that shares this evening in a very special light. It was my pleasure to host out guest author Steven Jay Griffel and the lively conversation about his book and his life's story. Hope you all enjoyed!
ReplyDeleteGreat job Robin L.!!!
ReplyDeleteThe hostess with the mostest sorry I missed it Robin A.
See you all soon.
Hi lovely Book Worms!
ReplyDeleteTo say the least what a fascinating book club meeting we had. First thank you Robin Libow for doing this video, it's awesome to be able to see these pics and video and bring us back to this lovely evening. Your videos are very much appreciated!! Robin, wow, wow, wow! Thank you for being such a gracious host! The conversations were great, the stories were so intriguing and the food was absolutely delicious. Your clear effort putting this together was a huge success. I had a great time!! Be blessed ladies!!
Mary
I really enjoyed meeting the author and being wined and dined by Robin A., who really and truly went overboard spoiling us! However, I did not care for the book. Although I enjoyed learning the historical portion of the novel concerning Ishi, and the Yahi Indians, I did not think the fictional characters were well developed enough. Therefore, I cared little about what happened, (or didn't happen), to the fictional people in the novel. But, as always, I had a great time at our meeting. XXOO-Robin L.
ReplyDeleteWow! I would have loved to have been there! Love historical fiction and this seems fascinating.
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