LETSBuzz Book Club 14th September 2003
This is a fictionalised account of what might have happened if Rembrandt had stowed away on a ship to Hull. A modern story is interleaved with the historical one but the modern story is literally incredible and relies on a ridiculous number of coincidences. It is however all quite enjoyable.
Sean
A very disturbing story, frighteningly plausible with echoes of Lord of the Flies. Extraordinary and very good.
Sean
Set in Florida about a group set up to use tourists to get rid of all the nasty modern things the author hates. It doesn't reach quite the level of grotesqueness of Native Tongue.
Sean
This one's about fraud in angling competitions and has the dead dog's head on the bad guy's arm (fondly remembered by the Carl Hiassen fans in the group).
Sean
A true story of growing up in South Africa written by the child of poor white farmers. It's not scintillating writing but it gave me an insight into that world. I didn't understand the title.
Sean
The story is set in a fictional bit of Southern India and is a family saga but unlike other such books, this one is set at tribal village level rather than at the middle class level.
Sean
There seems to be a rash of books set in Tasmania and New Zealand and this is one of them. The main character is a man transported for forgery. He is an artist and he gets jobs to paint and draw. He goes to a colony run by a lunatic and is given the job of drawing all the local fish. It's quite gruesome. The characters are extraordinary and nearly all unpleasant. A quite different book and well worth reading.
Sean
Bob
This was spectacularly bad (Doreen and Gill strongly disagreed). The narrator was unpleasant and pompous. The deaf pianist was a complete cliché.
Bob
About a working class girl involved with an ex-pat Iranian vegetarian restaurateur and his unusual matrimonial set-up (!) It's fairly unbelievable and a bit soap opera-ish.
Bob
I didn't understand a word of this but it does have some beautifully written sections. Various elements of the story seemed unrelated.
Bob
The author is a sort of American Nick Hornby. It's very easy to read, light and self deprecating. The book's about a band which plays at weddings and the like. Very funny.
Bob
Terrific and very very funny. Gill and Doreen were surprised; they hadn't found it funny but agreed it was a very good novel.
Bob
Compared to his last 2 books, this is utterly conventional. It's a three part story set in Hong Kong. Very enjoyable.
Bob
I didn't like this at all. It's like so many psychological thrillers on TV. The main character does nasty things because his teachers were unpleasant. There's nothing here to set it above all those other similar stories.
Bob
Excellent , but not one for the 'ladies' because it's a bit gruesome. It read like Martin Amis when he was good. It's about a group of characters obsessed with London. All very funny.
Bob
The author needed an editor with a heavier hand. There are pages and pages of dross. Quite interesting for its southern American setting.
Doreen
A very good story written from the point of view of an autistic boy. Funny but heartbreaking. Strongly recommended.
Doreen
The last of a trilogy of autobiographical novels. The first two were wonderful. This is disappointing mainly because it concentrates so much on the boy, Joe. One of the great strengths of the other books was the even handed treatment of Mum Dad and son. Teenage boys can be rather tiresome for the middle aged reader.
Doreen
One very short short detective story and one long short detective story. Disappointing because there are no real surprises. Gill said the author suffered from very weak plots from time to time
Doreen
I tried this a couple of times but found the language in the modern part a real barrier (its narrator is a Russian speaking American-English like a gangsta rapper) and the historical part was barmy with characters like The Well Regarded Rabbi. I gave up.
Doreen
I'd already read the book she wrote about the African part of the walk which was just a big ego trip. This book is the true story. She looks back and realises what an awful person she was. She cheated and was driven over some sections of the walk. She thinks she might now like to live in Africa.
Caroline
An Australian writer and a book written for teenagers recommended by Louise the local librarian who said "if you like Phillip Pulman, you'll like this" - and I did. It's set in medieval Japan and is about a boy who survives a massacre and is rescued by a nobleman. Vivid descriptions and a fine story which continues in the sequel Grass for his Pillow
Caroline
A collection of very short stories (only 2 or 3 pages long). I read them all in one go, which was a mistake. A few are set in Scandinavia and are a bit bleak and cover a whole range of subjects (perhaps too many) but I recommend it.
Gill
Very evocative of the 1970s at the height of union power. The scheme involves a special vehicle and a team who deliver spare parts for it. They each have little sideline like cake delivery. There's a split in the work force and then a sort of strike. A sweet little book.
Gill
This gave me a lot of trouble I had to draw a diagram of where everyone was in the street in case it was important (it wasn't ). The unexpected ending kept me awake.
Gill
This story is set on the Isle of Portland. Hardy's father was a stone mason so he knows all about the quarries. Although the book is set in 1840 it's not very Victorian. The well beloved is the main character's ideal woman but this is not the same person but moves from one woman, to her daughter and then her granddaughter all of whom he might have married but doesn't. Quite a gripping story.
Gill
This my kind of book. A 15 year old boy whose mother has cancer is farmed off to his grandmother, a journalist. They both go off to the Amazon. The story is one of adventure, politics, Indian culture and magic. It also has some seriously bad snakes.
Gill
A French autobiographical novel about a Jewish boy in Paris during the last war. When the Germans arrive Joe and his brother leave for Vichy France. The boys end up running around France one step ahead of the Gestapo. Despite the serious subject it has its lighter moments. A good yarn.
Rory
Popular Science so an interesting read and not too heavy on the actual science. It's about light, from cavemen up to the present day. It gives equal weight to the personal lives of the scientists, for example the fight between Hooke and Newton. In the author's opinion, the two greatest scientists of the 20th century are Feinman and Einstein.
Rory
I enjoyed this. Quite a lot of good laughs with a high percentage of stories of gruesome deaths with nasty animals. Stories of the early explores who died (usually after drinking their own urine). Some interesting stuff about the Aborigines who have been there for at least 50,0000 years
Rory
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.