That heated argument over the ending of The Goldfinch nearly broke my book club last night

We met at Sarah's house around 7pm and within 20 minutes two members were yelling about whether the ending was hopeful or a cop-out. One lady actually walked out and slammed the door. How do you get past a fight like that without losing half your group?

2 comments

2 Comments

anna75815d ago

My friend Karen runs a book club in Austin and they had a MASSIVE blowout over The Round House last year. Two members got into it so bad about the ending that one threw her iced tea across the porch and the other screamed "you just don't get trauma" and drove off. The host finally had to call both of them the next day and say "look, you can either agree to disagree or we're done as a group." The one who screamed ended up coming back with a peace offering of homemade cookies and a note that said "sorry I lost it, let's talk about the dog instead." They've been fine ever since, just no more ending debates allowed after 9pm.

tessa_kelly15d ago

Saw a similar fight happen in a Facebook group I follow where they settled it by having everyone write a one-sentence takeaway about the ending without being allowed to argue back. Sometimes you just have to force people to sit with their own opinions instead of shouting them at each other.