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 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

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

The Memory of Love

Hi everyone,

Carole, Chris, Anna & I met to chew over The Memory of Love last night. It was probably fairly telling that we’d all finished it rather close to the start of the discussion ... Anna felt it was beautifully written and had some interesting reflections about the impact of war and trauma on the main characters. I swung between enjoying some of the writing, and finding other parts clichéd and overblown. Carole felt it was quite ‘light’ and whilst easy to read, not particularly memorable. She took off an extra .5 from her score for the dog death! Chris was even more unimpressed with it – finding it difficult to picture the setting or individuals (perhaps partly ‘kindle’ related). None of us felt particularly engaged with the characters, although we all obviously rather fancied Kai, and liked some of the minor characters e.g. Julius, Agnes, Adrian’s mum, Abass (Carole thought he was a bit precocious mind you..) We did find the commentary about Sierra Leone interesting, and would have liked more about the wider context of the civil war etc. There were some very powerful scenes e.g. the ‘sensitisation unit’, the descriptions of the coast. Most of us felt that the plot dragged a bit, and were frustrated (as well as shocked) by Nenebah’s death which seemed like a cheap way out of a tricky story line. We thought that it was a silly & unlikely coincidence that she was the connection between the men, although surprisingly Carole had predicted that Mamakay might turn out to be Nenebah! We would have liked a more dramatic/interesting resolution to Elias’ story. Although the book was clever in its description of how the war made people reserved / indifferent / self seeking / psychologically tortured, this often made the characters difficult to ’bond’ with, especially when there were so many lengthy descriptions which didn’t seem to lead anywhere ...

So, as usual I should have taken some notes because I can’t remember very
much already….

Here are Caroline & Jill’s comments:

Caroline –

Overall, I enjoyed this book but it took me a fairly hefty chunk before I got properly into it. It did make me feel that a drawback of a Kindle is when you find a book hard to engage with...you can’t turn it over in your hands, look at the cover, look at the author info...do those things that for me, can help make a connection with a book. I like the Adrian character and loved Kai [was I alone in thinking he sounded extremely fanciable? !] I loved Abass too! Was very very endeared to him and think she was very good at drawing characters. The different voices were good too. You got a very strong sense of Elias Cole making excuses for things he did and I had a strong image of a fussy little, selfish man. Details on characters were great – I loved Attilla, Adrian’s boss and his physical detail. Also the creepy small hands of Johnson! [think was called Johnson?]

Didn’t see the twist coming about Mamakay being the person who linked all the men. Was very shocked when she died. Thought the revelation about Cole’s lack of action causing death of Julius was a very good one. Some of the writing was stunning. I can’t give a page number because I’m not sure the Kindle ones coincide with actual book, but the paragraph about Westerners being on modern Crusade was just fabulous for eg.

But for all this, I was never really gripped and I think her quite cool, or slow burning style was the reason for that. I do like a strong story and for me, this could have done with a bit more of a narrative backbone maybe. Dying to know what others thought!

Jill (by text) -

Loved it. Slightly misogynistic, Elias reminds me of an Ian McEwen character – tricky at times, but persevere and it makes sense. Reminded me of Gift of Rain but not so melodramatic. Really engaging read.

Updated spreadsheet attached with all our scores

We’ve decided not to try and meet before Xmas, so our next get together is Tuesday 10th January – hope you can all make it.

Caroline’s up next, and she’ll circulate her choice in the next couple of days

Have a lovely Christmas if I don’t see you before

Annie xx

The Age of Innocence

Hi everyone,

Thanks for a lovely evening pondering the literary worth of The Age of Innocence - most of us enjoyed it more than we thought we would, but no one’s going to be rushing out to buy her other titles! Scores on the doors attached. We also mobbed our resident famous children’s author for her autograph and learnt a very, very shocking fact or two about Desert Island Discs.

Next month’s book is The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee (available at Amazon) chosen by Carole – start it soon, it’s very long! Next meeting date is Tuesday 7th June. Jill is the next to choose, followed by Judith in July.


Lots of love

Annie x

PS Jill has snuck in to lead as most generous book scorer ...