Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

An entirely  kindle based reading pose gathered to review this drama set in rural Mississippi.  I chose it and was really besotted.  I thought that the narrative was beautiful, the characters and their relationships fascinating and the plot, if not gripping on every page, very pacey.  The opening chapter encapsulated Larry's world, his loneliness and his basic goodness in a few tightly written paragraphs.  There was general agreement that the story was enjoyable, and that the setting was evoked with eerie clarity.  Carole argued that the narrative style was a bit trashy, (but this was strongly contended by those of who thought otherwise!) She also felt that some of the characters (eg Wallace Stringfellow) were rather stereotyped, and not so believable.  Chris also wasn't very caught up in it - she didn't feel gripped by the story or characters, although she didn't have difficulty picking it up as she did with 'incredibly close...' Both Anna & Judith enjoyed it and felt that the 'murder, mystery' element was well balanced with the unfolding of Larry & Silas' relationship as boys, and later adults.  Judith was surprised that it ended so happily, expecting a much gloomier outcome for Larry.  Carole pointed out that a dog died, but didn't dock a whole point as it was a rather nasty dog...

Scores

Annie     8

Carole    5.5

Judith      7.5

Anna       7

Chris       5

quote:  'Occasionally as he drove past Silas had seen Larry leaning on his push broom watching cars.  Silas would front his eyes as if he had someplace important to'

Spreadsheet updated

The scoresheet for the books that we've read (66 and counting) has been updated and is available as usual as a Google spreadsheet ...

Click here to access it
As per usual, let me know if you have any trouble reading it. As before, it's been converted from MS Excel, and I've not quite sorted out all of the charts yet. Consider it a work in progress.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

This provoked a lively discussion between the four book group attendees.  Chris, who had chosen it, found it very heavy going.  She thought that Oskar himself was reasonably endearing and enjoyed his story, but found the grand parents' sub-plot an unwelcome distraction.  The rest of us agreed that Oskar's story was the most gripping, and I particularly found it almost unbearably sad at times.   We discussed how Oskar's humour (often seemingly unintended) helped dispel the worst of the gloom and horror created by his father's death, and the awful secret he has hidden under his bed.  Jill also felt that the grandparents' story didn't 'gel' with the main plot, although she did accept that some interesting analogies were being drawn between the Dresden and Twin Towers experience.  Both Anna and I thought that their story did add both to the plot, and to our ability to understand Oskar's 'quirky' personality.  Again though I found a lot of it incredibly intense and arduous to read.  There was a debate about the extreme personality traits - e.g. the grand father's muteness and the upstairs neighbour who was 'over 100' and hadn't heard any sound for years.  Was this an annoying affectation on the author's part, or a powerful comment on the impact of tragedy/loss? Our views on Oskar's mother varied - Chris found it difficult to understand her attitude towards Oskar and her lack of intervention.  Some of us argued that she was allowing him to deal with his grief (and consequent anger towards her) by keeping him safe 'from a distance' - it all made much more sense when it became apparent that she'd been in touch with all the Blacks in advance of his visits.  We thought the correspondence with Stephen Hawkings was very sweet and uplifting, and wondered whether the man himself had been consulted in advance.  I certainly felt that our discussion helped me to understand and like the story more, although both Anna & I would still contend that Everything is Illuminated is even better!  Amazon is in big trouble with us kindle readers for making some sections unreadable and missing out loads of photographs

Caroline wrote....

I confess that I had found his previous book, Everything is Illuminated, a little heavy going. When I read the first couple of pages here I was worried that there would be the same tricksiness in the prose, which seems more about dazzling the reader with the author’s skill than entertaining and engaging them. However, I quickly became very endeared by Oskar as a character. There is always a danger with split narratives that the reader will prefer one above others, and I did find myself enjoying the sections in Oskar’s voice more than others. I found his sense of loss very poignant indeed and although there have been criticisms that he doesn;t sound like a boy of that age, he is a unique character. I think it’s missing the point to quibble about how realistic he is in terms of what he knows of the world and how he expresses himself.  One thing spoiled the experience a bit though; poor formatting meant a large section at the end is illegible on a Kindle. I actually emailed and then phoned Penguin(because the buggers never responded to my email). This incensed me! I have just discovered that Amazon are in charge of how the book is formatted. I’m going to try and get a refund because it’s basically not fit for purpose if you can’t read the bloody book!  I have been reading a lot of manuscripts quickly recently for work, and I think I’ve read five or six books since this one. I confess I can’t remember why I have bookmarked certain pages now! Wish I could be there this evening to discuss, as I know some of these thoughts would come back.  I’m going to give it a seven because I found it to be a lovely and very moving book

Carole had read the book when it came out in 2005, and although she remembered liking it, not enough to read it all again. She gave it a 6, but said she might be talked up by the discussion!

quote: 'it made my boots lighter to be around his things, and to touch stuff that he had touched'

scores

Chris      5

Anna      7

Annie     7

Jill          7 

Caroline  7

Carole     6

Heartburn

Heartburn was not greeted with wild enthusiasm by the group: Caroline nearly attempted to retrospectively change her choice after starting to read it soon after we last met. She was annoyed by it constant anecdotal diversions. She warmed slightly to the 2nd half of the book, where she felt there was a little more of a plot. Judith felt it compared unfavourable to a book she'd recently read on a similar subject: 'A Summer without Men', Jill found the gossipy tone, and insular high class life style, infuriating and Chris was similarly unimpressed, particularly towards the end of the book where she felt the humour and cookery tips she'd enjoyed early on got much thinner on the ground. I suddenly decided to feel protective towards it, despite my frustrations when I read it (what was fact and what was fiction? why didn't she ever seem to have to do any child care? why was she so calm about having a gun pointed at her head?). We did all agree there were some quite funny scenes (key lime pie throwing, telling Betty Thelma had herpes, mother returning from dead and going off with Mel who was God), and that some of the recipes sounded quite interesting. It was probably also quite ground breaking in its day: she was very much a career woman, the notion of children as grenade in the marriage, challenging men's attitude to fidelity etc etc. Caroline had seen and enjoyed the film years ago, and we all thought it might have been more easily digestible in that format!

Scores:

Caroline: 5
Judith: 5
Jill: 4.5
Chris: 4
Annie: 6.5

quote: 'If I had it to do over again, I would have made a different kind of pie. The pie I threw at Mark made a terrific mess, but a blueberry pie would have been even better'

Ancient Light

A few weeks back, I posted about the new John Banville which Waterstones had sent me a copy to review.  Anyway, though my review's up on their website, I thought I'd post it here too.
 

“Billie Gray was my best friend and I fell in love with my mother”. This is the third novel that Banville has written about Alexander Cleave, now an aging actor reflecting on his coming of age. I haven’t read the previous novels but this book stands on its own and has enough references to previous events to give context.

The novel focuses on an affair that Alexander had with a married woman, Mrs. Gray, when he was 15 and she 20 years his senior. Recollections of this affair are interspersed with a contemporary story of a role he is asked to play.
 

The stronger elements of the book are the descriptions of this relationship, his boyish reaction (often sulky and petulant) and Mrs. Gray’s response (sometimes lover/sometimes mother). The relationship is described as wholly positive, and is in fact the benchmark against which his subsequent relationships are measured. This, despite the negative impact on his friendship with Billie, the potential response from his community (unspecified but clearly a small town where scandal would be both welcomed and ruinous) and the impact on his academic achievement. I couldn’t help but wonder if a similar story could be told with the genders reversed, though to be fair, Banville, through Alexander, raises this question himself.
 

The characters are strongly drawn, not just the main players but also peripheral characters. My favourite was Trevor the Trinity man, a drunk who’s on and off the wagon, an “aristocrat of the species”. This is perhaps an idealised version of a street drunk but it’s written with tremendous warmth. This does, however, highlight one of my criticisms of the book, namely that parts of it are idealised and unrealistic. For example, the impact of the relationship with Gray would surely have had negative aspects, while the description of Trevor is more that of an eccentric than the alcoholic he clearly is.
 

The physical descriptions of people are very visual which really brings them to life – Billie Stryker “might have been assembled from a collection of cardboard boxes of varying sizes that were first left out in the rain and then piled soggily any old way one on top of the other”.
 

The language throughout the book is elaborate but can be diverting. I found myself occasionally losing track whilst being taken down a rather lengthy descriptive passage. That said, this forces you to re-read certain passages and to understand the atmosphere that the author is no doubt seeking to create. Once you get used to the style, there are some absolutely beautiful turns of phrase - it’s definitely a book where you occasionally stop to re-read a section just for the pleasure of the language.
 

There are clear references to loss, both people and places – a daughters suicide, Mrs. Gray a mere memory, the past a place where things were simpler.
 

Overall, a beautifully written book for old friends of Alexander Cleave and fans of characters – both flawed and quirky.
  

If This is Home by Stuart Evers

Hot off the press....conspiracy theories abounded at tonight's discussion of 'If This is Home.' Caroline introduced us (well, me at least) to the literary tool of the 'unreliable narrator.' After 20 minutes of attempting to defend the book against Anna & I's accusations that it was a load of old tripe, she advanced the interesting theory that the entire thing was a figment of Mark's imagination and that he is in fact the murderer. This made her like it a lot more than when she had read it to start with! Jill and Judith both professed love/hate relationships with it, enjoying the descriptions of frustrated teenagers in a small town near Manchester, but finding some of the characters either under-developed or very unlikeable. The American locations were generally felt to be unconvincing, although Caroline thought that the men's behaviour at Valhalla was depressingly realistic. Anna & I remained entrenched in our positions that the plot was full of holes, the characters were horrible and the relationships made little sense. Unresolved questions include: why did Mark need to change his identity? Why did he change from fairly normal to undiagnosed psychopath? (unreliable narrator theory helps here...) Why did Bethany's father react to his return so angrily (if he was just the innocent boyfriend) or so evenly (if he was his daughter's killer)? What was the deal with Ferne getting all over intimate after 1 chat in the bar? Why did he keep going on about O'Neill as if he was in love with him, or at least suffering from an extended teenage crush? why did Mark's mum leave? do his parents seriously think his resentment at the prospect of another baby caused a miscarriage & ended the marriage? Jill, Judith & Caroline, feel free to balance out my very negative spin on it all!

2 other contributions by e-mail....


Was a bit underwhelmed by the book. Felt the jumping about only masked a not very gripping story. Who was o'neill and what exactly was their relationship? Did I miss how they got together? Why would she have gone with daniel other than to set up the red herring and, not wishing to stereotype, would anyone but a saint, which he wasn't portrayed as, really have walked away that calmly? Otherwise I did think her voice in his head was well done and the relationship with Ferne perhaps better drawn than that with O'neill and realistic. After all the agonising the end was a bit rushed with the actual murder very sketchy. Would like to know what everyone thought of the episode in Vegas considering they were offering 'anything you desire' what did they expect? None of this is very coherent or grammatical when I'm criticising other writing so I'll give him 5.5 for being able to string a sentence together!



I am afraid I did not like it at all. The main problem I had was that it just did not hang together for me. What was the big mystery he was trying to find out? If this was that she was not going to New York after all it was all very poorly executed, as her own narrative clearly states that she was. Did she let him find out she wasn't going to go so that he could move on with his life - if so why did the friend think she wasn't. Also, to follow this line you have to believe it ghosts and i don't.
Other questions I had -
Why did he change his identity? Was the author tried to kid us into thinking that he had more to hide? (there is also some hint, never explained, that the police officer thinks more than he is saying)
What on earth was all that rubbish about the blind eating?
Has any stranger rapist ever just laid down beside the victim and waited for the police?
I thought the description of his relationship with Oneil was unconvincing and I am not sure I ever really understood what they were doing in Las Vegas. In fact I thought that section was just tacky and over complicated. The idea that someone with a PHD in group behaviour would be interested in how men behave when in the company of women dressed in bunny suits is just nonsense - I think we already know that one.
On the plus side I thought the description of his relationship with his father and the couple of scenes between the two of them were poignant and nicely written as were some of the early descriptions between Mark and Bethany and between Bethany and her father. Also some nice descriptions of the town.
So for me - not well written, poor plot, unconvincing characters and interplay between them, and elements that were not believable.
I am afraid I am going to give it a paltry 4. Be interested to hear what others think - perhaps I would have been talked up?

Our scores
Jill - 5
Anna - 5
Caroline - 7.5
Annie - 3
Judith - 6
Carole - 4
Chris 5.5

Case Histories

If I can shamelessly intrude, I just wanted to report on having thoroughly enjoyed something that you all probably read years and years ago, Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. It was interesting to see a literary fiction writer cross over into crime fiction and do a great job giving the genre some proper emotional weight. It reminded me, on this point, of Atwood's "transgressions" into science fiction (am I allowed to speak of this genre here?). Anyway, I wrote a bit more over here ...

Link to Strange News

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

There was universal affection for Harold and his unlikely pilgrimage. Some of us (particularly Anna & Jill) feared that it would be mawkish, twee and sentimental, but we all agreed that it managed to steer clear of the many such potholes it could have fallen into. Its descriptions of loss and desperation hidden away behind very English domesticity were beautifully written and often almost physically painful to read ('I know it wouldn't have made any difference in the end but I should have let her see how much I wanted to keep her. I should have raged, Maureen'). Most of us (except me) guessed, or at least had an inkling that David was dead, but we were still all deeply moved by the last chapters covering Maureen and Harold's reconciliation and the ending of the pilgrimage at Queenie's bedside. On the journey up, we loved the characters he met - brilliantly bought to life often in just a few sentences, and for the most part, very credible. The descriptions of the weather, the countryside and the pleasures and pains of walking 500 miles in yachting shoes were all brilliantly done. Most of us felt that it was only in danger of losing its momentum during the scenes when the other 'pilgrims' started tagging along, but even this part had some great humour ('If you had the wherewithal you could follow his journey on twitter. Maureen hadn't the wherewithal') and was the plot vehicle which allowed Harold to arrive at the hospice without fanfare. Loss, redemption and flawed characters you could feel deeply attached to - what more could you want?

Caroline couldn't make it to the meeting, here are her comments:
thought this was a lovely, gentle and rather old fashioned story. I found it extremely moving (quite embarrassing to finish it on a crowded Victoria Line train...there was definitely some snuffling!) and although I did guess the storyline about his son being dead very early on (interested to know whether everyone did. Think the similar technique used in ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ re the husband being dead has meant I’m more likely to pick up on this than previously) it was very well handled and extremely moving. I did find myself wondering at the midway point whether it was going to start to drag a bit soon, but somehow it just continued to bubble away and keep my interest.
I think it was very quietly skilful and although I’m not sure whether I’d rush out to buy another by this author, I did enjoy it. I’d give it a seven.

scores:

Anna: 8
Carole: 8
Annie: 8.5
Chris: 7.5
Jill: 8.5
Caroline: 7

Quote: 'he felt the sun on his shoulder, watched a kestrel on silent wings, and all the time the ball of his foot pushed his heel from the ground and weight shifted from one leg to the other and this was everything'

Ancient Light

Got back from holiday to find that I have won in the Waterston's draw to review a new release. I have been sent an advance copy of John Banville's new book, Ancient Light, which says on the back  "Limited Edition Proof Copy". I am very excited because, even though it's not an iPad like some people win, I never win any raffles or anything! I have to post my review on their website by 5th July so read the breaking news first on Annie's Book Group blog!

The Help

Have just read The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. It's getting close to my birthday and I am not allowed to buy any books in case they are on my present list, so am combing the bookshelves for the odd not-yet- read. I think my mum read this and gave it to me. I was a bit wary of it - a white author covering the experience of black maids. In fairness to the author she covers this in notes at the back of the book and obviously had some concerns herself. She grew up in the American South and her family had 'help' so she does have direct experience.

On the plus side it's an easy read and a page-turner. The story is told mainly from the perspective of a black maid and a white daughter-of-the plantation though there are other first person narratives. The style is that each have their own chapters, giving their perspective of the same time and events. The characters are engaging and colourful but perhaps a bit stereotypical. The characters are all women with men playing only walk-on parts and to illustrate how strong, resilient, moral the main women characters are.

It tells a story worth telling - the white women are just dreadful (except our white heroine). They are bigoted, snobby, dim. The treatment of the maids is awful. However, I think it is still a much sanitised version of the reality.

The civil rights movement is getting going and Martin Luther King has come to prominence - this is lightly covered, as background.

It's not a challenging read and perhaps that's a bit strange for such a challenging subject. It's all very lightly done and you always feel its all going to work out. I am not surprised its been made into a film - I can also see it as a waltonesque television series - its a tough life but full of good people and the good people win in the end!

It does avoid a a Spielberg ending though - I don't know if the film does.

I did enjoy reading it and I liked the characters but don't expect depth. One for the beach perhaps.

Every Contact Leaves A Trace

  Right, I am turning over a new leaf ... I have learnt how to use this blog and will be writing 'hot off the press' summaries soon after the meeting so I actually remember what people have said. While all of us had our frustrations with 'Every Contact Leaves a Trace', Caroline was most passionate about hers: she had high expectations of something billed as a literary thriller, with a beautiful cover (leading her to shell out for the hard cover version) but found it a maddening read. A lot of the group agreed that it was often rambling and confusing, with constantly shifting timescales and perspectives. Some people found the 2nd half of the book, with Harry's story particularly tortuous, others preferred that to the early part which focused on Alex and Rachel's relationship and his bereavement. The thriller element didn't work very well for most of the group (I was probably the most positive about it, feeling that it involved quite a lot of 'cliff hangers' that kept me hooked into the story) - largely because of the tangents that kept being taken, and the denouement which didn't come as any surprise to most people. We did agree that it evoked the ivory tower atmosphere of Oxford very well and the London scenes, e.g. in his penthouse flat and the flat on Judd Street were beautifully described. The dysfunctional relationship between Rachel, Cissy and Anthony seemed really reminiscent of Secret History to me. The characters were for the most part very unsympathetic, some of us found it particularly difficult to understand the motivations and behaviour of Evie, Rachel and even Alex (content to not ask much at all about his wife's background). I thought that the 'lawyer voice' was very authentic (I hadn't realised that the author is a Worcester trained lawyer), but it was pointed out that Alex is a corporate not a criminal lawyer, so would be unlikely to think like that anyway! We also felt that there were numerous implausible parts to the plot: why didn't Alex just go straight to the police? why didn't Harry tell the truth when he heard she'd been murdered? Anna and Carole couldn't make it, and wrote these excellent reviews, which we all agreed with ...

Anna:

Still not finished Every contact...

But, comments so far ... I was interested by the premise of the book, having just a week before had a conversation with a colleague, who discovered when his mum died that she had 100 grand (or something like that - can't remember exactly) stashed in a off shore account. Neither he nor his father (who she'd been married to for 40 years) could account for how she obtained it, or why she kept it secret, and for a long time it really marred her memory of her. For a long time neither of them would touch the money, but eventually decided to use it for big annual travels together.

So, intrigued by the idea, but despite this have found myself losing patience with the book. Whilst it evokes very well the confusion Alex is facing, and you get a real sense of his emotions, the little side alleys it keeps turning into, and the minute detail of what he thinks/feels at every point, and every memory that is evoked, just really interferes with the thrust of the story. It doesn't help that I'm completely knackered, but I'm afraid it has sent me to sleep quite rapidly each night ...

At this point I score 6.5 (it gets the extra 6.5 as it is very eloquent, just lacking in pace and direction) - I guess that might change when I finish it, but ...

Carole:

Some thoughts from me, based on reading about 75% so apologies if its all changes in the last quarter!

There was something about this book that did not work for me. I want to say that it was too well written for a thriller. The writing style was just wrong for the the genre which meant that instead of being a plot driven page turner, the plot kept getting interrupted by streams of consiousness or coming of age diversions or something else. I also struggled a bit with the delivery of the plot - I nearly lost the will to live sitting in Harry's room listening to it being dragged out (I suppose that gives some feel of how the narrater feels though) I also struggled a bit with the behaviour being thought to be so bad (perhaps they get worse in the last 100 pages ot maybe I am a bad person), it was not nice but was it scandal level? I have only just got to the bit where anthony reappears so not sure what he has been up to??

I found some of the characters and their behaviour intensely annoying - why would you send the wallet off without having a bloody good look through it, would a tutor really end up with a student living in, would they really dress up to police the ball, why did'nt harry tell rachel that anthony was stalking her??????? I thought some of this was a lazy way of sending the story in the direction the author wanted it to go but it felt clunky.

I think there are some a number of differnt books in this that could have been good - the childhood story/family falls apart/relationship, the thriller/murder, the love story, the mystery (who was she really) - not sure throwing it all in one book works though.

I hate to say it but the thriller/murder plot lacks a wily detective (with own issues) to keep it moving!

I am keen to see how it ends though and keen to see what others make of it.

I think I would be going for either 5 or 6 and could probably be swayed up or down by others - probably a 5 though.

The Earth Hums in B Flat

This is (shamefully) written 5 weeks after our discussion, so its completeness and accuracy are very much in question ...

Overall, the reaction to this book was lukewarm: we liked the authentic Welsh village atmosphere that it evoked, and some of the characters who Gwenni encounters. Many of us felt that the 13 year old naïve but worldly wise Gwenni character was a bit well worn, and written better by other authors. Some of us also struggled with the sheer awfulness of her mother and the laissez-faire approach of her dad who was meant to love her but didn’t protect her. Her mother’s vitriol didn’t really ‘fit’ with the story that is revealed, eventually, about her previous relationship. The flying theme had the predicted reactions (those who don’t like magical realism relieved that she couldn’t; those that do disappointed that it comes to nothing ...). Some of us thought the premise that Gwenni, despite being extremely bright about some things, failed to recognise what ‘black dog’ actually meant, was a bit unbelievable. We discussed the fact that it was interesting to read about a Welsh village in the post-war era, and Anna pointed out that she’d just read a more interesting take on it from another author ... until she realised that it was the same author!

Including Andrew's enthusiastic score of 7.5, the average rating was 5.9 / 10.

The Earth Hums in B Flat

Hello. As me giving the thumbs-up only 50 pages in is (in part) responsible for this month's book group selection, The Earth Hums in B Flat, I thought that I'd better feed back my opinion of it now that I've finished it. Particularly so since I won't be able to attend your get-together in London. The link below takes you over to my "review" over at my (rival) blog - but it contains spoilers, so best hold-back on reading it until you're done.

The Earth Hums in B Flat

Spreadsheet

The scoresheet for the books that we've read (60 and counting) is now available as a Google spreadsheet ...

Click here to access it

Let me know if you have any trouble reading it. It's been converted from MS Excel, and I've not quite sorted out all of the charts yet. Consider it a work in progress.

The Sisters Brothers

Hi everyone

The week has completely run away with me, so here’s a very belated book report:

No-one at the get together (in nice new venue, worth another trip we think) felt that passionately about The Sisters Brothers, either in terms of loving it or hating it. Carole, Jill & Judith enjoyed it the most, especially the sparse but highly descriptive narrative and the relationships between the central characters. I appreciated the book’s style, and ability to bring 1850s ‘wild west’ to life in a very innovative way, but it was just too ‘male’ to be a real favourite. Anna & Chris both found themselves feeling very indifferent (it even took Anna a while to realised that she’d already read most of it before she’d read Human Skin!). Chris thought it could be adapted for screen by the Coen brothers. Most of us enjoyed the ‘vignettes’ e.g. the tooth brushing scenes, the book-keeper ‘romance’ & the healthy eating attempts by Eli. We also loved the description of San Francisco – its chaos and the rollercoaster fortunes of its residents. There was an even split about the plot line involving Warm & his gold seeking invention, some people getting much more into the book because of it, and others feeling it detracted. The role of the horses was also controversial of course ...

Here’s what Caroline thought:

I quite enjoyed it but generally, as that suggests, feel a bit lukewarm about The Sisters Brothers. I think it was a very slight story and did find myself getting into a bit of a mental rant about why it was short listed. I think this is because it was a macho book by a male author. This sort of literary fiction seems to get taken more seriously, whether it warrants it or not. Something of a comparable standard of skill by a woman, with less violence, probably wouldn’t have made the Booker shortlist*. I found the violence off putting in a way that I really didn’t with the Book of Human Skin (would love to know how you find this, Anne). It had the air of a Quentin Tarantino movie for me and left me with the same aftertaste. Nasty violence done stylishly and with humour can be entertaining. But it is still nasty.

I thought the characterisation was pretty good – Eli was a great mix of psycho and good guy!

I found the storyline with the Warm invention a bit daft and it lost my interest a bit.

Overall, this was okay but I wouldn’t read another by this author. It deserves a six out of ten because it’s well written but the whole business of the Booker short listing irritated me so much it has knocked off points! And while that isn’t Patrick De Witt’s fault of course, it doesn’t change the score!

... and Jacqui

Would give the book 8.5, didn’t enjoy the middle section! Loved the ending, all the tragedy and sibling rivalry. Would like to know why called Sisters’ brothers – is it him being a bit of a sissy, the power reversal in the brothers as they went from one being the strong to the other one weak, or the oneness of humanity & we’re all sisters and brothers man!

All this will be entered on the blog when I apply myself to learning how to use it…

Our next month’s book, chosen by Carole is The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan, and our next date is Tuesday 17th April, back at Waterloo Bar & Grill on Waterloo Road. Look forward to seeing you all there

Annie x

PS Carole was the winner of the 60th book anniversary quotes quiz, she didn’t get a prize.

The Book of Human Skin

Hi everyone,

Thanks for a fun evening, but I still can’t believe you all liked The Book of Human Skin! Consequently I may not be the most objective reporter of the discussion….anyway Chris, Jill, Caroline & Judith all found it a gripping read and enjoyed the plot twists, the romance and the sadistic villain. Caroline was particularly surprised that she liked it as it involved lots of elements that normally turn her off: historical setting, lots of different narrator voices & dialects but at some point it suddenly became compulsive reading for her. Jill loved all the grisly bits! I think my deep dislike of it was based on feeling that the characters and plot were immediately predictable, and that there was going to be no redemption (despite its formidable length). I also felt there was a distasteful implication that ‘ugly’ or gay people are evil ... Carole, Anna & Jacqui – I need your scores! (Judith & Jill can you send me yours again too please, think I wrote them down wrong). Updated nerdy spreadsheet to follow.

Next month’s book, chosen by me is The Sisters Brothers by Patrick De Witt (available at Amazon).

We’ll meet on Tuesday 13th March – look forward to seeing you all then

Annie