LETSBuzz Book Club 6th May 2001
Not as good as the blurb. It's about an 8 year old girl with an amazing mother who does things like turning a room into a cosmic calendar. This interesting stuff gets in the way of the story. Mother turns out to be a manic depressive whose ideas about bringing up a child clash with those of the father. It ends peculiarly. An engaging read.
Recommended with caution.
Caroline
Published 1991 but begun in the 80s. This is lesbian fiction, which I would have loved if I'd read it in the 80s. It deals with bereavement and the main character is in some sort of mystical touch with someone from the 1660s. The historical stuff is interesting. It cost 50p. I'm glad I didn't pay £5.
Caroline
I'd read something else of his and I enjoyed this. Startling beginning and good until three quarters of the way through when I lost patience. A horrible and totally unbelievable ending.
Caroline
Written about 100 years ago. It's about the frustrations of motherhood. A woman decides to make a new life for herself. It caused shock waves when it came out and was perceived as anti-motherhood, which it's not.
Caroline
I enjoyed it. There was less magic realism than I expected. It's a family saga. The characters develop as the book goes on (the sign of a good novelist). I didn't enjoy all the stuff about the disappeared but that's because I'm squeamish. Recommended.
Caroline
This is storytelling about two old women left behind by the tribe in a harsh winter and they survive and grow up through it. It's simply written and carries you along.
Caroline
This was so good I've ordered the other volumes. It is very evocative of childhood and growing up in terrible poverty in New Zealand. It had echoes of Huckleberry Finn.
Doreen also loved it but warned Caroline that the next volumes are desperately sad.
Caroline
Published in the early 90s. A first novel set in an American college. A group in a Greek class set themselves apart from the other kids by being aloof. There are parallels with Brett Easton Ellis and Jay McInnery. It's a long book and a long time is spent setting the scene. Half way through something truly remarkable and horrific happens. It's a good holiday read.
Andrew
This doesn't tread any unfamiliar territory. It's about a guy in small town America. It's a bit twee, a bit neat. Not her best book. Her skill seems to be softening with age (like Penelope Lively). It's quite funny in places. Partially recommended.
Andrew
I reviewed another of his novels about a boarding house (Hanover Square). This is a re-write of that book. The first was set in the 1920s. This is set during WWII in Henley on Thames. The drama hinges on some US soldiers. One of the characters takes up with one, another character has a German friend who comes to live in the boarding house. This is dark but not as dark as Hanover Square.
Andrew
A novel about a man who is a loser. He's a failed geography teacher who becomes a tour guide. It's very lively and you get dragged along by the narrative. An easy read
Andrew
I read this on a long journey and read it straight through. It was very familiar. All about London and Londoners. It's also about class and it's a very male book. Lots of black comedy and it made me laugh. Recommended
Gill
The author was a chemist and absolutely passionate about his subject. Each of the stories is about an element. The subjects include childhood, romance and his experiences as a Jew employed by the Nazis to work in labs. Each story is quite different.
Gill
I really enjoyed this. She's brilliant at dialogue. It's about a woman who adopts an abandoned child. The book deals with the issue of the Cherokee Indian in modern society and about them losing their children when they are adopted by white families. It has a great ending. Caroline enjoyed it but hated the ending where she could see the hand of the author.
Gill
These are short stories which have all merged: none have stuck with me. Not as good as the novels.
Gill
He's a very fine novelist. This was thoroughly enjoyable. It's well researched but never dull. I thought the daughter was a little pointless. Recommended.
Gavin
Short stories. Some clunky some brilliant. The open story is very fine; weird but beautiful.
Gavin
The writer is from Ghana. She is no fan of white people, the middle class or men. It's a mixture of poetry and prose which can be very lyrical. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Gavin
Asimov writes a good introduction to each story. These stories were written in the 50s and 60s. Asimov distinguishes between hard sci-fi and fantasy. Arthur C Clarke's story is the former and is about a balloonist travelling to Jupiter and the creatures he finds there. Frederick Pohl's story is about a tax fiddle run by the Mafia and contains little science. There's one story by a woman, Joanna Russ, about a planet where all the men have been wiped out. The women have become very macho, fighting duels and the like. Then men arrive and the women have to decide whether they will kill them or accept them. All the stories are very good.
Rory
This is a very simple book. The author says it's all true but clearly some is not. It's a catalogue of the provinces ruled by the Tartars. Marco Polo was in the service of Kubla Khan and travelled round the empire. It's not a wonderful work of literature but a contemporary view of something so long ago and so far away. M P is interested in how people lived, what they ate and how they traded.
Rory
A travel book describing a cycle ride from Swanbourne England to Swanbourne Australia. The author is young and reasonably humble. The journey is the important thing not the countries visited.
Jean
I didn't get through these. Some are ridiculously short (3 or 4 pages). Really unsatisfying, even though I enjoyed the writing.
Jean
A story about a woman past middle age and a con man. The story is gripping but I found I didn't care much. I couldn't really believe in either character.
Jean
I got fed up and annoyed with this. The coincidences are ridiculous.
Caroline said this was the author's worst book.
Jean
I don't usually read crime. I quite enjoyed this. It was like a crossword puzzle. But it felt stagey.
Jean
I gave up on this. Too soppy for words.
Doreen
A very funny travel book about Ireland. The author is English with an Irish background. His journey is governed by the saying "never pass a bar with your name on". He has a great time and so does the reader.
Doreen
A very accessible discussion of Seneca, Montaigne, Nietzsche and others. The author uses modern examples and some very unusual illustrations.
Highly recommended.
Doreen
Quite different from the First World War trilogy. Set in the present. An unusual story about a psychologist who meets a young man in extraordinary circumstances. Several years before the psychologist's evidence helped convict the man (then a young boy ) of murder. Well written and tense.
Doreen
Not as good as The Poisonwood Bible. Tone is rather lecturing. The characters explain to each other such things as the benefits of organic growing, the dangers of pesticides, and the catastrophic effects of interfering with nature. She is also very keen on the idea that babies are the path to women's happiness and that most men are only good for sex and providing babies.
Doreen
More of the same from this author. Chinese family history from the female point of view. Well written and interesting
Doreen
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.