Tonight's group sitting down for some nice grub & a chat about 'My Policeman' consisted of Anna, Caroline, Chris, Carole & I. Anna who chose it was not particularly swept away by it, but did get talked up as our discussion went on. She thought Patrick's diary worked well, but that the device of having Marion's diary written 40 years later was a bit clumsy at times. Carole was also slightly underwhelmed, enjoying many of the individual scenes, but feeling that she had read more interesting books covering the subject of being gay in the '50s. She also felt the plot was fairly predictable. She drew a comparison with 'A Line of Beauty' which she felt was a more complex / interesting view of attitudes in the 80s. Caroline really loved the book, finding the story really engaging, and the characters and setting poignant and beautifully described. I also really enjoyed it, particularly the conflict between Patrick and Marion, both of their relationships with Tom and the evocation of Brighton and '50s society. Like Carole and Anna, Chris felt that the story line had been done better in other books, and did not feel particularly enlightened by the descriptions of life in the '50s. We spent quite a long time debating the credibility of Tom and Marion continuing to be married, and Tom's decision to break off all ties with Patrick once he is arrested. On balance we decided that in the context of the times and Tom's struggle to come to terms with his sexuality, it was believable that they should have continued in a loveless relationship (and we could all come up with our own examples of similar modern day marriages). Marion's journey from being angry and bitter to being remorseful and attempting to bring Tom and Patrick together seemed to some of us to have taken rather a long time, but again can be explained by her infatuation with him. While clearly a gorgeous hunk, neither Marion nor Patrick's description of Tom really explained why they both fell in love with him - their characters were both much more interesting and intelligent. We all agreed that there were some great individual scenes: Chris loved the police box, I loved the spam sandwich marriages, and Caroline enjoyed the descriptions of how they dressed up for special occasions. At the end of an excellent mutual 'chewing over' of the book are scores are:Anna: 7
Caroline: 8
Annie: 7
Carole: 6
Chris: 6
quote: 'my tough beautiful sea creature'
