The Lonely Hearts Book Club

Sloane, Maisey, Mateo, Greg, and Arthur discover that literature can be healing and transformative through the Racing in the Rain Book Club. Before Sloane starts the club, she and the other primary characters lead isolated lives. Sloane, Mateo, and Arthur possess an innate love for books and story. However, much like Maisey and Greg, none of them has a close social network. Starting the group allows Sloane to share the pleasure she finds in reading and “losing [her]self in a story” with others (6). At the same time, the club grants her and her new circle of unlikely friends a common ground over which to relate. For example, when the club reads their first book, The Remains of the Day, Maisey finds her personal experiences of love articulated on the page. She finds relief in relating to Sloane and Arthur over the story because the “nice thing about having literary friends [is] that they” understand (151). When the group begins their second book, The Joy Luck Club, Mateo discovers a similar venue for conveying his complex emotional experiences to his new friends. Discussing Amy Tan’s novel offers Mateo a throughway to processing his feelings with people he can trust and who also relate to the story.