11/04/2017
Forthcoming books
31/03/2024
Book 286: Stella Maris
26 March 2024, at Judith’s
While our reading of Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy, was not an official double-header, it did seem like a natural follow-up to February’s reading of The Passenger by the same author. Both books had been published at about the same time, and included characters that crossed both stories. There were some reservations about Stella even before we agreed to read it; The Passenger received a cool response at our previous meeting and there was some concern that McCarthy had been given free reign by his editors because of his lofty status.
Well, it turns out we were right.
Jane gave the book what she described as a “thorough skim”, and though she flipped entire sections she did not feel as though she’d missed anything. She also wondered why the story was produced as two separate books. Charles concurred, saying that it felt like “leafing through a car crash”. The book felt, in his opinion, as though McCarthy had devoted himself to maths and science and then spent the entire novel shooting them down. Alicia was a proxy for his final rejection of the world; the book was self-indulgent.
Judith (who started the book three times!) felt that the author simply wasn’t interested in the reader (an opinion reflected by Helen B, below). There were entire blocks of text that added nothing to the plot (though, as she noted, this had also been the case in The Passenger). Karen, who reads for enlightenment and entertainment, felt neither.
Maureen felt frustrated at the failure to provide some background to the people and their work that are mentioned; it was, overall, a “huge disappointment”.
Karen and Charles, with their backgrounds in mental health, were both perplexed at the psychologist character. As Karen said, “I’ve never heard a conversation like that with a patient!”, while Charles felt that psychosis tends to be one-tracked yet Alicia’s was “phantasmagorical”. Both also noted that the psychologists they have worked with are “rapier sharp” and that any psych worth their salt would be heading for the trauma angle, an angle that was never explored.
There was some talk about McCarthy’s legacy. Should these books have been published? Who are the gatekeepers of a creative person’s legacy? (Mark mentioned Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker as a point of comparison. Booker short-listed, but far from his best.)
Brigitte reminded us of our agreement that McCarthy can still write excellent passages that focus on the environment (topography, climate) and did so on some occasions in The Passenger, but these were entirely lacking in Stella. Jane also noted that Bobby was a far more believable character, and everyone instantly agreed!
The telegram boy delivered some messages to our door from absent friends. A few notes from these below:
Helen B: “I thought a lot about Stella Maris and finally decided that it is not really a novel. I think Cormac McCarthy just decided he was entitled to spew forth all the things HE was interested in and did not really have a reader in mind. After a lifetime of being a recluse, he opened up about the things he was interested in and made little attempt to make it a readable text . . . I much prefer Will Self’s unholy satires about mental institutions and mental illness to the cold, lifeless way this was written.”
Simon P: “I didn’t finish Stella Maris because I quickly realised I was having the same bad reaction that I had to The Passenger. There was no plot to drag me through the interminable conversations about mathematics and psychotic delusions. In fact, I had to reread so many of these conversations because I had lost track of who was saying what.”
Helen P: “Stella Maris went some way to explaining The Passenger and so I think it was a good idea to read both books . . . I also found Stella Maris a difficult read (but mercifully short). I’m interested in maths and physics but the continual name-dropping of physicists and mathematicians was irritating and didn’t inspire me to research their backgrounds / theories. Both books . . . left me feeling ignorant and locked out of what the author was trying to say.”
Overall, this was a poor and disappointing book, and this is reflected in the (almost all-time worst) marks.
Karen: 3
Maureen: 3
Charles: 3
Judith: 3
Brigitte: 2
Jane: 2
Mark: 1
From afar: Helen B: 5, Simon P: 4, Helen P: 5.
Average: 3.1
Book 285: The Passenger
Book Club notes 27 02 2024 – ‘The Passenger’ – Cormac McCarthy. Notes by Maureen. Simon P and Helen P did not attend.
A quick synopsis: Both ‘The Passenger’ and ‘Stella Maris’, which the club will read next month, follow the lives of Bobby and Alicia Western, siblings whose father helped develop the atomic bomb. Bobby and his sister Alicia, who are very close, are both highly intelligent, especially in the area of mathematics. Alicia also has schizophrenia and hallucinations which taunt her and she ultimately commits suicide. Bobby is haunted by his sister’s death.
Bobby is a salvage diver, one of a crew that attended an accident where a plane has crashed into the sea. One passenger and the black box are missing, and Bobby is visited by government agents who then confiscate his car, freeze his bank accounts, and ultimately he is left destitute and alone.
Simon H: felt the book was both very humorous and terribly sad at the same time. He felt the Bobby, the protagonist, was a tragic figure who was doomed from the start. The plane crash incident, which he attended in his role as a salvage diver, led to the loss of control over his life and in effect, finished it. Simon liked the interesting range of characters – for example Kline, who was in a way a vehicle to get through to Bobby how dire his situation was and how there was no way out. Simon found the story poignant and thought-provoking.
Helen B: also enjoyed the book and felt it was very well written. She found it very sad and also very funny at times, and the left-field characters.
She thought the book was an indictment on the US and how paranoid the country seems to be now as well as in the past eg McCarthyism and the treatment of Oppenheimer; and the conspiracy theories and hounding of individuals. She felt the author had fictionalised his own experience. She also suspected that, given McCarthy was dying and this would be some of his last work, that he had just included everything he could, hence the long passages on obscure subjects.
Jane: struggled to read the book. She felt that it went down a lot of rabbit holes (eg the significance of the antique violin the sister had bought?) and that there were elements of madness. She felt unease about the nature of Bobby’s relationship with his sister.
Charlie: commented on the many sections detailing Alicia’s complex and unusual hallucinations and the idea that he was able to share these hallucinations with her brother. (MR note: he also made a comment about plutonic mathematics and no room for constructs that I didn’t understand Helen mentioned the McCarthy Institute?).
Karen: wanted something resolved and said the way the hallucinations were portrayed was not believable.
Judith: felt the book was very self-indulgent eg the long sections on quantum mechanics and other scientific concepts, which she believed did not add to the story. She felt McCarthy is not skilful when writing about women and these parts did not ring true. She also felt the story suffered from the lack of punctuation, making it difficult to differentiate which character was speaking. She also said that the long passages of prose in italics was hard to read and grated on her.
Brigitte: thought the author had tried to incorporate too many ideas and directions, with nothing resolved. She also struggled with the lack of punctuation. Overall, the book left her cold.
Mark: thought the book had a great opening but, unlike other McCarthy works, it did not have a powerful voice to sustain the narrative. In his view the wheels fell off and the story was ‘2nd division McCarthy’, not in the same leagues as previous books and characters. He did appreciate the great landscapes that the author painted through the book but was otherwise very disappointed.
Maureen: felt like she was drowning when reading this book. There were so many characters, themes and long convoluted passages on quantum physics and other complex topics which she felt added nothing to the book. She commented that a number of McCarthy’s books had been turned into successful films but this one had such a meandering story that it was be no mean feat.
Scores:
Brigitte – 6
Charlie – 7
Mark – 5
Karen – 5
Judith – 5
Jane – 6
Simon – 8
Helen – 8
Maureen – 5
25/02/2024
Book 284: Jack Maggs
The group met at Karen and Charlie’s home to discuss Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs. This was the first of our traditional January double-headers in which we pair two books (the other, Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, is reviewed separately).
Jack Maggs was chosen to sit alongside Demon Copperhead, and to pose the question, “How well do contemporary novelists re-imagine Dickens’ characters and world?” The answer was “Not real well!”
Marion was not engaged in Carey’s world. Other novels she’s read that are set in the same period felt much more accurate; Maggs was, in contrast, almost farcical at times (“and not even interestingly farcical!”). She did not like it all, and found the ending twee. Having read a lot of Carey, she found this one a poor effort. The references to Indigenous Australia in particular felt tokenistic.
Simon P found that too much was made of the hypnotism; this became and integral part of the plot and was, in his opinion, too much. Simon found himself asking of Maggs, “Why is he doing this? Why does he stay?” He did, however, plug on and finish the book, even if it was a struggle. Simon also wondered if Carey had employed a team of researchers, as at times the writing wore its research a little clumsily.
Charles agreed: there was no reason for Maggs to stick around. He also felt it was four books in one, none of them being particularly satisfying. As for Henry Phipps: what an absolute nothing!
Helen B allowed herself to go along for the ride, as it were. She wondered if Carey was simply challenging himself to see if he could write in the style of Dickens. Her verdict? Yes, he can! Sure it was at times silly, but so too was Dickens. Overall, Carey did a good job.
Jane was equally surprised and disappointed by Maggs’ endeavour to support Phipps, and found this unconvincing. She did go with the writing, though, and loved some elements (such as Maggs’ ill-fitting shoes!). However, she felt like she had a real sense of place in Kingsolver’s Appalachians in way that she did not feel for Carey’s London.
Helen P had read it many years ago, and had forgotten almost everything about it. However, she did enjoy the writing style – especially so after Demon Copperhead! The theme that ran through both books was each protagonist’s obsession with a specific period in their lives, a time that they can’t let go of even their future was successful. Karen agreed, finding the connection between the original works and the reimagined works “flimsy”. Helen felt that Carey did develop characters quickly, unlike the slow burn of Dickens (perhaps serialisation allowed Dickens more time, perhaps too much time).
Judith just couldn’t get into it, but then she does not like Peter Carey’s writing. This one was scrappy, almost incoherent at times (though Mercy was ok). However, Carey did cover issues brushed over by Dickens, such as homosexuality and child sexual abuse.
Mark had enjoyed this book on first reading, many years ago, but was less engaged this time around.
Bridget did not like it all, and Simon W did not read it.
Our marks:
Charles 5; Marion 2; Helen B 7; Simon P 6; Helen P 8; Jane 6; Karen 6; Mark 6.
Average: 5.7
Book 283: Demon Copperhead
The group met at Karen and Charlie’s home to discuss Barbara Kingsolver’s most recent novel. This was the first of our traditional January double-headers in which we pair two books (the other, Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs, is reviewed separately.)
Demon Copperhead reimagines Dickens’s David Copperfield in modern-day rural America contending with poverty and opioid addiction. The group agreed it covered every trauma imaginable: not just poverty and addiction, although they were writ large. What comes with that is violence, bullying, atrocious foster care, awful housing, ill health and the perilousness of the healthcare system in the US to name a few.
The book follows the life of Damon Fields who is born in southwest Virginia in the late 1980s to a teenage mother who is an addict. Sadly, the life of Demon (the name he becomes known by) doesn’t improve along the way. The book is packed with his and his family, friends and neighbours unrelenting trauma. Many in the group felt it was similar to Bodies of Light in terms of trauma and the length of the book; that is, too long!
However, the positives for some in the group were the well-drawn characters and the realness and ability of the author to channel a young male. Most wanted to finish the book, needing to know what would happen and hoping for Demon’s redemption. A great quote from the book is when Demon discovers Dickens’ writing at school: “He is one seriously old guy, dead and a foreigner, but Christ Jesus did he get the picture on kids and orphans getting screwed over and nobody giving a rat’s ass. You’d think he was from around here”.
Statistics were provided that last year in the US, opioids were involved in more than 80,000 overdose deaths, representing yet another hike in an epidemic that began in the mid-1990s. Barbara Kingsolver, from Appalachia herself, was clearly wanting to illuminate the social issues in the region and in the US. And Demon sums this up: “I thought my life couldn’t get any worse,” he says. “Here’s some advice: Don’t ever think that.” He’s 10 years old.
Scores were as follows- Maureen 6; Karen-6; Helen B 5; Judith 7; Jane-6; Charles 6; Simon P 6; Helen 7; Mark 5; Simon 4; Brigitte 7.
19/12/2023
Book 282: Bodies of Light
Tuesday, 12 December 2023 at Judith’s
Our Christmas get-together was kindly hosted by Judith, with everyone except Jane (Covid strikes again!) present and in good spirits – even better after several bottles of bubbly were polished off!
Overall, a fairly positive response to Bodies of Light from most of the members, with some more muted reactions from Judith and Charlie. General points of agreement were that the writing was good, the better parts were set in Australia and it was a story that needed to be told. The neonatal deaths and the obvious comment on Kathleen Folbigg (very topical now) were very important and something that needs to be examined in society – the readiness to blame the mother etc.
As with many contemporary books that deal with forms of mental illness, Charlie found it unsatisfactory (he knows too much!) and just an amalgam of many case studies from work. The end (he called it the “Shantaram section”), he found unconvincing – he did not believe she could reinvent herself so easily. He found the American section boring but overall liked the writing. He and others felt that the section with Judith was really good and showed what the effect of one good person in a troubled life can achieve.
Judith felt it was too long, the end was boring and she felt that Maggie showed no feeling for any of the men – even the nice ones! She didn’t like it.
In contrast, Brigitte loved it! She empathised completely with the heroine and found the pace enjoyable. She found the story convincing and really wondered about her innocence or guilt. A real story of survival against the odds.
Simon W. also felt it was too long but found the writing accomplished though he thought the voice did not always match the background – it was too “educated” at times. He felt the second half became tedious.
Helen B. and Karen were impressed by how well she showed the terrible effects of childhood trauma on people and their subsequent difficulty navigating relationships, even with good people. Helen felt the issues raised were well-handled and convincing. She felt there was a type of peace achieved at the end and found the whole thing very sad and affecting. She was struck by how such a middle-class, well educated and seemingly well adjusted author could write so convincingly of a totally different life.
Also in the positive corner was Simon P, who couldn’t put it down! He felt though there was a little too much of the soap opera about the constant stream of dramas and living on the edge. He was not sure about the ease with which Maggie could become someone else, though perhaps back in the 90’s it was easier?
Helen P. like the style and found she was very emotionally engaged, that it told an important story which was informative but not enjoyable. She found it faded from her mind very quickly however.
Maureen liked it and found the story worked well for her. She understood the need for Maggie to become someone else and enjoyed it to the end, though she also felt the beginning was the best section.
Mark found it a good audio book in general, with a few tedious patches. The beginning was so true, he was reminded of the lives of many students he deals with on a daily basis. Karen had raised the issue of the importance of “one good teacher” in a life, but Mark pointed out that often they still have to go home and suffer. He felt it can be unwise sometimes for privileged white authors to take on roles such as these but here, she did a good job at raising issues. He found also that the story disappeared quickly from his mind.
It was a lively and fun evening, despite the traumatic nature of the novel! Thanks again to Judith – and to all the Book Club members, who make it such a joy to meet every month. Looking forward to many more good reads next year.
Marks:
Karen 7 Charles 6 Maureen 8
Brigitte 8 Judith 6 Simon W 7
Helen B 8 Simon P 8 Helen P 8
Mark 7
Average: 7.3
18/11/2023
Book 281: Green Dot
31 October 2023, at Helen and Simon P’s place
Despite trawling the group collective memory, no one could remember who had chosen this book and why. Overall, Green Dot generated a lively discussion that conflicted with the positive reviews published so far.
Charles did not enjoy Madelaine Gray’s first novel in which the author’s background appeared to be reflected in the main character, Hera – a young woman from a privileged background with a couple of degrees. He didn’t finish, giving up around page 250.
Judith found the book readable (except that the last 40 pages were very boring) but lacking in empathy or insights into the leading characters. For Judith, Green Dot did not fulfil the usual reasons for reading a book – to be enlightened or entertained and – said that reading it was a waste of four days or her life. Judith found Hera a bland and neutral main character.
According to Karen, Hera “banged on” too much. Karen read a recent article in Spectrum (Sydney Morning Herald) that described Green Dot as a study of contemporary women’s lives and suggesting that Gray wanted to make a point about queer politics . . . and where was the point about queer politics (asked the group) when the main character spent almost the book in a heterosexual relationship?
Brigette was compelled to keep reading to discover what was so good (according to publicity) about the book. She didn’t think that the book was about queer politics and found nothing interesting in the life of the main character. She questioned the author’s purpose in writing Green Dot. In Brigette’s opinion Hera was not a nice character – she talked about herself all the time and didn’t show any love for her father.
Helen B speculated that the book had been written for younger readers but in reality, it was like many books written about affairs in the 1960s and 70s. Helen was unmoved by the book and disliked the Hera’s apparent lack of interest in life and her ongoing search for something. Hera appeared to be obsessed by Arthur rather than in love with him. Helen queried whether we were all too old to appreciate Green Dot and that younger person’s perspective might be different.
In Simon W’s opinion, the plot was a “copout” and the oldest plot in the world, i.e., a young woman throwing her life away by having an affair with an older man. He found that the ending, where Hera had moved on from the affair and confronts Arthur, unconvincing. Simon finished the book in the hope that something different might happen. He liked the structure and contrary to other group members, felt some sympathy for Hera.
Helen P found the book easy to read and finished it but was annoyed by the language used, the sense of entitlement and the privileged lifestyles of Hera and her friends. She described the book as somewhat schizophrenic – a modern setting and language but with very traditional roles ascribed to Hera and Arthur.
Scores were allocated by those present as follows:
Brigitte – 2, Charles – 3, Helen B – 4, Helen P- 4, Judith – 2, Karen – 1 and Simon W – 5 for an average score of 3.
Jane emailed her score for Green Dot (6), increasing the average to 3.375!
01/09/2023
Book 280: The Burgess Boys
At Helen B. and Simon W’s
A relatively muted but moderately positive response was given to The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout at Helen and Simon’s. The novel describes the unravelling of the lives of 3 siblings and their families when a childhood lie, which has shaped all their lives, is revealed after a racist act by one of their children.
As Judith put it, on the readability front, it scored very highly, a statement everyone agreed with. There was also general agreement that Strout does relationships and family dynamics very well. Perhaps the best responses came from Helen B and Simon, who both like Strout’s work in general and this novel in particular (possibly because of a tendency to empathise with the ruined childhoods of the characters!). General agreement too that Zac was perhaps the most unconvincing character. His action at the mosque was never satisfactorily explained and his apparent motivation was facile (Judith). Jane asked whether his actions were a cry for help or attention? Judith felt his apparent transformation after spending a few months with his father was unconvincing and the apparently happy ending was facile. Brigitte liked Bob best, despite his weakness as a person. Very few of the characters had much to like about them but Strout has an acute eye for the self-delusions and small-mindedness of rural communities and the feeling of superiority of the elites in Manhattan (Helen B.) Shirley Falls town is almost a character in itself.
Most of us thought her characterisation was quite strong and Jane thought they were all wrestling with working out what is a “good life”. She thought the flawed characters, especially Pam, were very interesting. She enjoyed the unravelling of Jim from his early appearance as a sort of Hero to the broken man at the end.
Charles felt Jim was a cipher, without nuance, and said he was not surprised by the “revelation”, (Helen and Simon disagreed), while Brigitte felt his arrogance and machismo were well-done. Maureen (in a message from afar!) said she enjoyed the original story of the poor childhoods but she completely lost interest in the novel once the narrative changed to the lives of Jim and Helen and their circle in New York. But at least “it was a good read”.
Karen felt Susan was made to look bad for no apparent reason.
Most of the group felt the Somali community was well-drawn and the issues of assimilation and foreign-ness handled deftly.
Brigitte and Judith both thought the book was too long.
Simon particularly liked the description of Helen’s visit to New York and the foreshadowing of the mortgage crisis. He would have liked to see how Strout would have presented it if it was set during the Trump era.
Helen P. sent fer opinion from her holiday in Europe and said: she found the characters fascinating – realistic and balanced. She liked the portrayal of family relationships and the way people assume – or are assigned – different roles and what happens when that order is disrupted e.g. by Jim’s affair. She felt it was a great read.
Marks: Maureen 4 Judith 6
Helen B. 7 Simon W. 8
Karen 7 Charles 7
Brigitte 6 Jane 7
Helen P. 8
Average: 6.6
Simon P and Mark did not read it………………….
30/07/2023
Book 279: The Trees
The trees – by Percival Everett – Tuesday 25th July 2023.
The book group met at Brigitte’s, where we settled in with intent.
The trees is Percival Everett’s 20th novel (who knew?) and he appears to specialise in a certain satirical style of humour, often aimed at drawing attention to the absurdities of racism. This crime story, of sorts, is set in the town of Money- which is a real town in the US state of Mississippi. Essentially, two murders are committed by a person or persons unknown and the local sheriff’s office, led by the improbably named Red Jetty, begins to investigate assisted by deputies Delroy Digby and Braden Brady in the company of the local the coroner, Cad Fondle. What could go wrong? Oddly, the murdered men, slaughtered in separate incidents, were each found alongside a dead black man whom the characters found to be strangely familiar but whose body disappeared before its identification could be confirmed. At last, two detectives from the MBI (Mississippi Bureau of Investigation), Ed and Jim, are called in to take over the investigation but their presence is not appreciated by the local constabulary; not least because they are black. Many, many more characters are introduced as the trail of murders increases, and we are subsequently introduced to the waitress (or is she?) Gertrude (aka Dixie) and the enigmatic Mama Z. But, as we readers were about to discover, The trees is a whodunnit where, according to Jake Arnott in The Guardian, “the crime scene is history itself”.
Most of the group loved this novel, with some planning to catch up on Percival Everett’s back catalogue of books. Mark found the early chapters to be “a bit of a grind” but then decided to “go with it” and eventually found enjoyment. Others were more enthusiastic with Helen B. describing the book as “hilarious but horrendous” and Judith declaring that she found the book to be “terrifying but clever; a real page turner”. In contrast, Brigitte found the book to be “a pain; full of expletives and poor grammar”, with the only redeeming feature being the president’s (Trump’s) awkward speech – which, alas for Brigitte, arrived only after “200 pages of horror”. Jane also commented on the presence of Trump in the narrative as being consistent with the racism narrative. She was somewhat surprised that the employment of people with few qualifications into professional roles such as Coroner (Cad Fondle was a ‘reverend’) was not a fiction devised by the author but a moderately alarming fact of life in some US jurisdictions. Subsequently, Helen B. commented on the clever way that Everett had woven real people and events and events into the narrative, perhaps to remind the reader of the many contexts of racism.
Helen P. (via notes given to Simon) found that the descriptions of poverty and racism were particularly graphic. Maureen commented on the pervasiveness of racism into all corners of the plot. The book’s strong humorous edge was appreciated by most, Simon W. reveling in the many inventive names used in the plot. Monikers such as Junior Junior (failed Hog thief) and Helvetica Hind (surely the only character to be named after a font) caught our attention. Judith commented upon the longevity of racism and there was a fairly lengthy discussion about the role of tribalism, economic poverty and poor education as contributing factors. Of course, none of this is lost on Percival Everett who has had a lot to say about the importance of education and reading in particular, viz:
There’s a reason that oppressive regimes often resort to burning books. No one can control what minds do when reading; it’s entirely private
Of course, the humour used in this book was irreverent, often ironic, and decidedly ‘black’ in nature. Most agreed that of the great successes of Everett’s writing was his use of the sometimes banal to highlight the illogicality of racism. Occasionally the humour was slapstick, with this writer amused by the many aphorisms from his description of the town Money “named in that Southern tradition of irony”, to his somewhat brutal credo for the Acme Cadaver Company: “You stab ‘em; we slab ‘em”. Ultimately, however, The trees is a powerful satire, in which the deaths black people in America’s south are recalled as the stumbling white population contend with the more contemporary murders. Even the Klan (featuring a local organizer, or ‘Kleagle’!) is lampooned for their pitiful cross burning episode. Nothing and no-one is spared.
Apart from Brigitte’s comments, there were a couple of other dissenting comments. All agreed that there really was a very large, eventually unwieldly, number of characters who sprouted up as the book progressed (that said: who could forget Ho, Chi & Minh?). And Karen focused the group’s attention upon the ending of the story, which was always going to be tricky given the runaway train nature of the novel.
This was a book which generated a lot of discussion and much interest in Percival Everett. Thanks, once again, to Brigitte who graciously hosted the evening. Marks were as follows:
Helen (P)- 7 Judith- 8
Helen (B)- 8 Simon (W)- 8
Simon (P)- 8 Brigitte- 8
Karen- 8 Mark- 7
Charles- 8 Jane- 7
Brigitte- 5 Maureen- 8 Average—7.5
Notes by CH.
Book 278: We Come With This Place
This month’s book was We Come With This Place, by Debra Dank. Thank you to Charlie and Karen for hosting the group.
This review will be very short as there was a consensus that was immediately palpable in the room.
Jane thought it was a very hopeful book. It offers a different perspective from other indigenous writers. She had a sense that this book tackled all issues and gave a sense of the whole journey.
Helen B found it a fairly smooth read due to the quality and the rhythm of writing and appreciated the command of language.
Charlie said that country was the whole important theme and that the author gave lots of context.
Simon P found it interesting as he felt that he could relate, as a white man, to the themes that were explored in the book. He found that, at times, the metaphors were a bit clunky but interesting.
Karen found the writing was very inclusive and there was great humility in it.
Judith commented on the quality of the language as it is her second one. It has a peaceful quality to it.
Helen P said that horrible facts were described so well but calmly. The description of the life lived by Aboriginals is incomprehensible for whites.
Simon W remarked there was no beginning and end in talks between Aborigines but he felt the author was a better story teller than writer.
Jane remarked on the paradox of white farmers wanting land without recognising the value of what they had in front of them.
Brigitte was very taken by the rhythm of the language, the peacefulness of it all and, of course, the magnificent love for the land. It was so well described. It is very hard for a white person to understand the love and complete unity that is in the heart of an aboriginal person when it comes to country. They are inseparable. It is a beautifully written book with great respect for the white community.
Score: 8.2
Helen P 8, Simon P 8, Brigitte 9, Helen B 9, Simon W 7, Karen 8, Jane 9, Charlie 8, Judith 8, Maureen 8.
24/06/2023
Book 277: Shrines of Gaiety
The group met at Jane’s on Tuesday 30th May to discuss Kate Atkinson’s latest offering.
Shrines of Gaiety describes the seedy underbelly of London’s Soho in the 1920s, presented as the story of one Nellie Coker, owner of several nightclubs. Nellie’s character is based on the real life Kate Meyrick, described as “the queen of Soho’s clubland”.
Personally, I found this one disappointing; compared to previous books from the same author, it failed miserably in my opinion. At 512 pages long (yes, I did count them) I felt that it could have shed 150 pages and been the better for it. The cast of characters was extensive and each came with a comprehensive backstory, some of which added little to the whole.
Charlie thought it was “okay, a bit of a romp” and this was a sentiment shared by several others. He thought (as did Maureen) that it painted a good picture of the 1920s, post-war mood in London. He wondered if the playful style was consciously mimicking that of another writer, perhaps Stella Gibbons?
Brigitte really enjoyed the book and gave one of the highest marks of the evening. She (unlike grumpy old me) liked that there were lots of characters and thought that this contributed to the narrative, making it “like a big dance”; she liked the presentation, finding it both funny and terrible and thought the mix worked well overall.
Judith was initially disappointed, but then went with it, liked the writing and thought it a very satisfying read by the end. The end, however, was identified several times as being one of the less good features of the story; I thought the end was sort of the last straw, or something, but by then I was counting the remaining pages. Helen P thought the end abrupt, as if the writer had (finally) run out of steam. Jane was surprised and shocked by the demise of the anti-hero Detective Chief Inspector Frobisher.
Helen B found the book disappointing overall and felt it lacked any serious element at all. She described it as very ho-hum (?) but nonetheless enjoyed the character of the desk sergeant. Karen was another who thought that the post-war mood was well represented and loved the description of Nellie Coker. Jane pointed out that the narrative was all about opportunism.
This was the first Kate Atkinson book for Helen P and she was less than impressed! She was very disappointed, hated the writing and found it “all tell and little show”. She found it repetitive and constantly questioned the veracity of the narrative. Overall she thought it “readable”, but the writing style got up her nose very quickly.
Simon P described it as a good read, but thought the plot very predictable. Maureen thought it “entertaining enough”, but a very light read. She pointed out the amazing number of coincidences that peppered the narrative and thought it would make a good television series, in spite of it being somewhat unbelievable.
So, a mixed bag of opinions which gave rise to a good, lively discussion. The marks varied quite a lot, but produced a respectable average. Thanks to Jane for hosting.
Marks
Jane: 7 Judith: 8
Simon W: 5 Helen B: 5
Maureen: 6 Charlie: 7
Karen: 7 Brigitte: 8
Simon P: 6 Helen P: 5
Average mark: 6.4
Authors cower and gnash their teeth before it. Publishers pose and fawn in despicable attempts to curry its favour. But all is in vain. The Purple Book is incorruptible.
The Purple Book 