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.