LETSBuzz Book Club 3rd November 2002
Jean felt short-changed because the book had been hyped as "brilliant". She felt it did not live up to the praise lavished on the cover. It is a rattling good yarn set in North America with ridiculous coincidences. Gregory is born into a travelling family - his father is a preacher. They fall on hard times, living in a Spanish ghetto in Los Angeles. He serves in Vietnam, becomes a rich lawyer, but is unhappy and goes into therapy. Jean was not engaged.
Jean
This is not fiction - more social history. It is based on the author's grandmother's house, each chapter relating to the house or the garden in some way. There is a short bibliography. The writing is very skilful and a pleasure to read - not to rush through.
Jean
This book is the precursor to A House Unlocked. It contains childhood memories of the author's early life in Egypt, but is more about what childhood is like. She suffers a severe cultural shock when she is sent back to England. It is beautifully written.
Doreen
This is not great literature but it has been serialised on the radio. It is similar to Bridget Jones' Diary, but much funnier.
Doreen
Set in Botswana, this tells a fictional account of a woman who runs a detective agency. It tells you a lot about Botswana in an enjoyable way. The range of other works (non-fiction) by this author is amazing.
Doreen
The story is told by two voices - the midwife and her teenage daughter. She has no medical training and is not accepted by the medical establishment in the USA. She encourages home births but something goes wrong and she is charged with murder after a mother dies. It is a gripping thriller - you don't know what is going to happen.
Doreen
This is all gloom and tragedy, but extremely well written, of course. The story concerns a nine-year-old girl who runs away from home and sets up a series of tragedies. It is set in Ireland and contains great descriptions of sea and land.
Doreen
Bob only read a few pages: he didn't like the diary format, nor the heavy name-dropping.
Bob
The book sports a lurid cover and has won literary prizes. It is about a magician and is set in early 20th century San Francisco. He gets mixed up with President Harding's death. Recommended.
Bob
Bob had avoided David Lodge before as he thought he was a "smart-arse". The university life scenario was a very familiar theme. Nevertheless, he was entertained by and diverted by the sub-themes, such as Artificial Intelligence.
Bob
This was the author's first published novel and it is very funny. It is all about one lunch hour and is obsessive in its detail, perhaps a pastiche of John Updike.
Bob
This is partly travel book, partly the story of a hunt for a rogue elephant that had killed many people, mostly ones who had been drinking alcohol. It is an interesting, if patronising, book but the author's personality comes over a little too much. Nevertheless, enjoyable.
Seán
Boyle's thesis is that that using numerical methods is not always the best way of measuring things. When you measure something it can easily have an effect on what you are measuring. This is particularly relevant to the current government's obsession with setting targets. It is an interesting book, though it does go on a bit.
Seán
This is a big book which starts off well in Burma and India but turns into a long - and difficult to follow - family saga. The author would have been better advised to stop after the first third. Not recommended.
Seán
This made Seán laugh out loud. It's about the blue-tongued vole, which is about to become extinct. It is outrageous, impossible and very bitter about Florida people and what is being done to the state.
Seán
This concerns an unsuccessful writer in the Ukraine who happens to own a penguin. He gets work writing obituaries for people who (he learns) die soon afterwards. This is black humour, slightly surreal, and recommended.
Seán
This one didn't win the Booker prize this year but is, nevertheless, excellent. There is a small family coping with life in Bombay (Mumbai). The characters of the children are wonderful. Recommended.
Gill
This is about the siege of Leningrad. It is about what people do under extreme stress and in extreme cold: excellent.
Gill
This is on a par with other Bryson works, despite being criticised at the time it was published. It contains the usual stuff about Australia - it's the driest, hottest flattest place and it has the deadliest fauna. Gill laughed out loud.
Gill
This was published in the 1960s but concerns a Yahi Indian who was the last surviving member of his group and died in San Francisco in 1916. Before that, he lived for over twenty years in a cave with his mother, uncle and cousin, successfully avoiding being discovered by white men, who had killed or captured the rest of the Indians. It is not great literature, but the story is interesting. It is full of incident and reflection, but difficult to tell how much is true and how much imagination.
Rory
This biography of William Blake took Andrew a long time to read. It is a straightforward chronological account of his life. He was a jobbing engraver in Soho, London, but what set him apart was his choice of subjects - visionary or mad, according to your opinion. No theories are advanced about Blake's visions, although many religious influences were provided by Swedenborg. Andrew couldn't really recommend it.
Andrew
This is the author's reminiscences about being 14/15 years old and his friends in Glasgow. Suzy (another boy's girlfriend) is his obsession, and Led Zeppelin come to play in Glasgow. He and his friends are about to fail their GCSE exams - they have a simple, single-minded approach to life. He compares this with his life later in Brixton. He has no regrets.
Andrew
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.