When Novels Associate With Associations

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From ‘The Joy Luck Club’ movie.

Many humans like to be part of a group — whether it’s called a group, a club, an organization, an association, a society, a union, a gang, etc. Sometimes official, sometimes casual, often positive, occasionally negative, these groups offer camaraderie, a place for shared interests, strength in numbers, networking, etc. — with possible internal tensions in certain cases due to jealousy, different views, and so on.

I thought of groups last week when my application for membership in the Cat Writers’ Association was accepted after I submitted to the CWA a copy of my comedic new book Misty the Cat…Unleashed. It’s the second major organization I’m a member of, along with my longtime history as part of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, where I was a board member from 2009 to 2023 and still copy-edit the NSNC newsletter. There’s also the wonderful blogosphere here, where I’m very happy to associate with other bloggers and commenters — including the people reading this post now.

And — you knew this was coming — groups can be a big part of some novels. Including, of course, Mary McCarthy’s The Group, about the life of eight friends after college. Another book with a gathering of people literally in its title is the World War II novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

Also a group-focused novel with a WWII theme is Fannie Flagg’s The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion, about a cadre of women pilots.

Moving backward in time to World War I, we have the spy ring of women in Kate Quinn’s The Alice Network.

We also have the secret society in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and the group of immigrant Chinese-American women who form The Joy Luck Club that gives Amy Tan’s novel its title.

Unions? We see them — or more ad hoc labor groupings — in such novels as Emile Zola’s Germinal, Jack London’s Martin Eden, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion, and Kristin Hannah’s The Four Winds.

Of course, groupings can be sinister, as with the Mafia guys in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather and the vicious 19th-century western gang of white guys in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.

Any examples of, or comments about, this theme you’d like to offer?

My comedic new 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about yet another lawsuit against a township official, incompetence that led to the hacking of the municipal computer system, and other topics — is here.

106 thoughts on “When Novels Associate With Associations”

  2. Lord of the Flies, Miss Brodie’s ‘set’ -Innocent fun on the fells and in the lakes for the imperialist* Swallows and Amazons, including the seven year old who couldn’t swim ? Better drowned than duffers ? Hint of eugeniucs in there ? Arrest their parents at once, charge them with child neglect

    • For calling the Lakes locals ‘ natives’

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  4. Hi Dave,

    Despite being a big Stephen King fan, I only recently-ish read “It” for the first time. I wasn’t a big fan of the book, but I loved the idea of a group of misfit teenagers who called themselves The Losers.

    And that got me thinking of other Stephen King groups. In “The Dark Tower” ka is the force that drives the world that Roland the last gunslinger is from. Tet is a group of people, so Ka-Tet is a group of people brought together by fate or destiny.

    “The Stand” is about a virus that nearly ends mankind because people won’t just bloody wear a mask when they go out! Well, no, I might have made up that last part. But not a lot of people survive, and the ones who are immune (who don’t go to the dark side) call themselves The Free Zone. I’m pretty sure it’s because you can get vaccines there free of charge, but it has been a while since I read it so may be misremembering.

    Sue

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    • Hi, Sue! Thank you for your great, interesting take on various groups in Stephen King novels! I particularly enjoyed your masking/vaccine/Covid references/humor. 🙂 King was even more prescient in “The Stand” than we thought. 🙂

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  5. They called themselves “The Grand Dames”.

    They were four women, and they all lived on Grand Avenue.

    Of course I’m talking about Joy Fielding’s NYT best seller “Grand Avenue”.

    I figured this would count, as there were 4 women in The Joy Luck Club”.

    This is my contribution to this weeks topic.

    Congratulations on getting into a Cat Writers Club! Way 2 go! Misty must be proud!

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  6. Hi Dave, a great discussion this week. Congratulations on your club acceptance. It’s always nice to belong to like minded groups. I have been bursting to add The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens and I am very glad that no-one else (I saw) mentioned it. There is also Little Women which featured clubs. You may recall that The Mammoth Hunters (one of the Earth’s Children books – I think three) had clubs (two kinds actually – one for bashing people and one for groups). It was through a club that Ayla learned how to make white leather using human urine. So interesting.

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  7. There are certainly unnumerous books, which concentrate on groups of people or animals, Dave! Ages ago I read “Group portrait with lady” by Heinricht Böll. The main character is Leni Pfeiffer, who fights together with her neighbours against the demolition of her apartment and together with her son she becomes the center of a counter-revolutionary group, which fights against Germany’s dehumanizing past under the Nazis. The writer won the Nobel Price. Thank you very much for your challenging idea!

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      • I’m touched by your question, Roberta, and can confirm you that I’m quite ok but getting older every day. Unfortunately the weather here in the South of Switzerland hasn’t been good at all in these last months and a few days ago the heavy rain in the Maggia valley and surrounding provoked a real disaster, whole villages were completely distroyed!

        Heinrich Böll pubblished the book I mentioned in 1971 and it concerns the period around the second world war. The writer speaks about the individuals in that society, and the consequences it had on them in their everyday lives.

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        • I understand. My elderly aunt aged 89, collapsed last week Saturday. Fortunately, she called me before it happened. I had to take her to the emergency room and she was in UCI in the hospital for 6 days and then on the ward for a few days. I discharged her yesterday and she is now at my house. Mom and I will look after her between us. It’s not easy getting old and family support is very necessary for good health and happiness. I am really sorry to hear about the disasters in Switzerland, that is very bad. Those poor people. The weather has been very wet in the UK too. In South Africa, we are having a drought and that is also horrible. Thanks for the author’s name. I appreciate it. Hugs and keep well.

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          • It’s really great to still have such a niece like you and your mother in the surrounding to help, Roberta! There are certainly also interesting books speaking about the pro/negative sides of having the family nearby!!
            And yes, the drought in South Africa is as much a problem as the rain and moorland in our part. Does man understand that changes in our way of living are necessary?
            Hope you will enjoy it and wish you all the best in the meantime!

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  8. stly congrats to you two on joining the CWA. Secondly what a great topic. Groups of any sort offer so many personalities, scenarios,, possibilities. In reading terms it can even go back to our childhoods. Certainly when I was growing there were authors like Blyton–who i didn’t especially like–but who would churn out endless series on groups of children who never seemed to age, going on holiday year after year and encountering some mystery. I see a comment re the special girls in Jean Brodie. There’s also the boys in Lord of the Flies. Islands and school settings offer tremendous scope for groups–Robinson Crusoe obviously didn’t–as do clubs. The Joy Luck one is an an amazing book. And I remember reading the Group way back.

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  10. I read “Dune” many years ago. I only remember how precious water was. People collected sweat and urine, I believe, and learned to drink it. I was disgusted then, but remembered the author, Frank Herbert. A couple of years ago, I found Herbert’s “Hellstrom’s Hive” in the library and checked it out. I found the concept fascinating. I wouldn’t have read it, except I was in the mood for sci-fii at the time and recognized the author. The ‘Joy Luck Club’ by Amy Tan, later, gave me an interesting perspective on immigrant groups to the US and how some bond.

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    • Thank you, Katharine! Excellent example of how a book can grow on a person during a different time in their life. And nice to hear that Frank Herbert wrote another interesting book (perhaps several) in addition to “Dune” and its sequels. Also, I agree that “The Joy Luck Club” is one of those novels that really illuminates the immigrant experience in the U.S., along with novels like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Americanah,” Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner,” Jeffrey Eugenides’ “Middlesex,” Junot Diaz’s “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” Colm Toibin’s “Brookyn,” etc.

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  11. I’ll be checking soon on “The Women” by Kristin Hannah to see if I can reserve from my library. Different subject,non fiction, Amy Tan’s “The Backyard Bird Chronicles ” has beautiful drawings of avian friends done by Ms.Tan and writing,only as she can describe on how birds are fascinating and how we are all fortunate to be able to observe their magical world.

    Michele 🐦 nerd

    E &P way back

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    • Thank you, Michele! I’m also looking forward to reading “The Women.” I’ve read every Kristin Hannah novel my local library has. 🙂 SUCH a great author.

      Sounds like a VERY interesting/accomplished nonfiction Amy Tan book! And I enjoyed your bird sign-off. 🙂

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  13. Fascinating theme, Dave. An association for cat writers!? Apart from the novels you’ve already mentioned, I can’t recall other titles. Considering that every great heist, political, or international thriller depends upon a criminal gang/group, organization, or association, there are probably lots more titles available.

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    • Thank you, Rosaliene! Seems like there’s an organization for almost everything. 🙂

      Your comment’s last line is undoubtedly true; there must be many, many novels with an organizational element, whether positive or negative.

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  14. Many concatulations to you and Misty on joining CWA! I’ve really enjoyed being part of it, though I can’t fully participate due to my bad health. I didn’t really have prior experience with arts groups, except for the informal outsider artists sticking together sorts.

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    • Thank you very much for the “concatulations,” Leah, and for recommending that I apply to the Cat Writers’ Association! I’m glad and grateful that you did! Seems like a VERY friendly group that does a LOT of things. Sorry your health prevents you from participating in the CWA as much as you’d like to. 😦

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  15. Here’s more, and I can’t believe I didn’t think of this first sooner: The Fellowship of the Ring. Nuff said. Then there’s the rebellion/resistance which grows against the brutal regime of President Snow–with ‘Mockingjay’ Kasniss Everdene as its figurehead–in ‘The Hunger Games’. Finally (for now, anyway) there’s a wonderful short story by Isabel Allende entitled ‘The Schoolteacher’s Guest’ in which a small community comes together in a collective act of covering-up an act of justice/revenge. If any more come to me–at around 3am, as is normal–I’ll be back with them. Thanks again for the thought-provoking post! 🙂

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  16. Another great topic, Dave , and as usual I’ll have to give it some thought. To be going on with though, I’ve just finished a re-read of Frank Herbert’s ‘Dune’ and the follow-up ‘Dune Messiah’ (reviews to be posted on my website soon). If you know it, the action is derived from the sisterhood known as the Bene Gesserit, with their programme of selective breeding aimed at the production of a ‘Kwisatz Haderach’. Jessica, one the sisters, has disobeyed orders and produced a son, Paul, rather than the daughters she was ordered to conceive. I won’t say any more, but it’s the achievements of Paul that drive the story, and the actions of a group who wish to bring him down in the second book. Enough said. I’ll have a think about some others. 🙂

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  17. Rumer Godden’s IN THIS HOUSE OF BREDE is set in a convent. Since I’m a fan of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, I’ll mention his series of books about the Ankh-Morpork City Guard, which are exceptionally clever and very funny. The first one is GUARDS, GUARDS.

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    • Thank you, Kim! Excellent mentions! Terry Pratchett is indeed quite funny and satirical. I’ve read two of his Discworld novels (“Small Gods” and “Unseen Academicals”). And I must try Rumer Godden at some point!

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  19. Congratulations Dave and Misty on your acceptance into the “Cat Writers’ Association” Misty the Cat…Unleashed has humour and great insights. It is a true page turner.

    I am fascinated by groups because I have found that being part of a community of creative individuals enhances our creative urgency. Surrounding ourselves with like-minded people who share our passion for creativity can inspire us, spark new ideas, and push us to think outside the box. You reminded me that many literary successes came from being part of a group.

    Some of the most famous literary groups that I love exploring: the Bloomsbury Group, known for their intellectual discussions and influence on modernist literature, the Inklings, a literary discussion group that included notable authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and the Algonquin Round Table, a gathering of writers, critics, and actors known for their wit and humor in the 1920s. These groups played significant roles in shaping literary movements and fostering creativity among their members.

    Some examples of books that include groups of people are “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling, and “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

    “So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.” Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

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