LETSBuzz Book Club 26th September 2004
An epic (530pp) tale, about many things - Greek immigrants in the USA, the history of Turkey and Greece and gender confusion. The narrator starts the book as a girl and along the way becomes "he."
The first part of the book is a huge flashback covering the history of the narrator's forebears, including her grandparents (who were brother and sister - apparently the cause of the narrator's geneticly-ordained "middlesex" condition).
The writing is very good and Andrew enjoyed the book, but he did find it a bit long.
Andrew
Andrew quite enjoyed this book about an "exploded ordinary family" with its extraordinary, shocking ending.
Henry Sutton tends to write about a sector of the population generally overlooked by writers - "very ordinary people".
Andrew
An unusual book written from the point of view of a murdered teenager (who's now in Heaven). Her murder was a mystery to the people of her town, and she watches as friends and family deal with her death and its aftermath. Her father believes, correctly, that he knows the murderer's identity, but he can't convince the police.
The writing is beautiful despite the often gory subject matter. Her family and friends are very well drawn and their relationships described in a truthful and satisfying way.
Andrew recommends this book.
Andrew
This is a long book. Uncle Rory has disapppeared and it's a very, very long process of finding out that the book describes. Unfortunately, it becomes obvious what happened abouit half-way through the book.
Three families who regularly meet are at the centre of the book - one lower-, one middle- and one upper-class. This feels unlikely, it's a poor device and it's too stupid to take seriously.
There's a lot of sex in the book - all following the same pattern: an awful lot of alcohol then sex all night. This is, of course, very unlikely and, after a while, boring.
Not recommended by Gill: "If that's his best book, I'm not reading any more".
Gill
Gill liked this book, about "ordinary people, not glamorous, not middle-class". The main character is not very articulate, but writes down what's going on in his head and tells of his struggle to communicate.
However, Gill did find the book a bit brutal.
Gill
Very good, but Gill was skipping a bit by the end.
Gill
Tony Swann is an antiquarian bookseller with an office in Leighton Buzzard.
This is a short book, about 100 pages, which is supposed to be a novel but which feels highly autobiographical. The reader maybe finds out more than desired about the book's subject, who goes a bit strange in his twenties; the strangeness is followed by paranoia, then he "goes completely off his head". Eventually he is hospitalised, recovers and marries at the age of 43.
If you can grit your teeth and bear it the books good point is that he "tells going mad like it is and he doesn't pull any punches." A sort-of-recommendation.
Rory
A novel about Tennyson and the people around him on the Isle of Wight one particular summer. They are real people - some of whom Doreen already knew of.
Doreen thinks the author is very unfair to George Watts, and also to Tennyson, but the book is quite funny.
Doreen enjoyed the book and, of course, felt obliged to check the punctuation all the way through.
Doreen
Another very good book by Pat Barker, with war the subject once again.This time, however, it's the recent war in Afghanistan and the book is set in England afterwards.
The book is about how people cope with big changes in their lives, without being heroic. The characters are all believable, the book has a good sense of place and nothing very outrageous or evewn exciting happens.Recommended.
Doreen
This book was too catholic for Doreen's taste - Keneally had considered being a priest. It's set in Australia in the 1940s, featuring a very innocent priest not coping well with his duty of the silence of the confessional - a much-used device.
Doreen wasn't entirely convinced and was vaguely dissatisfied with the book.
Doreen
Subtitled "My African Life", this is a beautifully written book, beautifully translated. The author travels to Africa a lot, and each chapter deals with a particular subject. The author is non-judgemental and wants to talk to everybody, to hear their story.
The book was very refreshing, and Doreen now intends to read all of the author's books. Terrific. Thoroughly recommended.
Doreen
Christine heard this being read on the radio, and decided to read it herself - with some difficulty. It was easier to understand on the radio.
You may need to persevere, but it is worth reading.
Christine
The story of another family Frank, in Holland in WW2. This family live in The Hague and survive the ear in hiding.
Christine's family had actually lived in the house the Franks hid in, and after hearing the story on the radio she helped with the book.
The book is not grim and is worth reading.
Christine
Caroline loved this book, which she read before seeing the film. The author does a de Bernière at the end, refusing to give the reader what she wants. It's a very anti-war book, and in the course of it the reader learns a lot about the American civil war.
Recommended.
Caroline
Wonderful. The book was written in Spanish and set on the continent, and it's a very complicated, multi-layered whodunnit. The translation is excellent and you even warm to the main character, who is really quite unpleasant.
Recommended.
Caroline
An excellent children's book for adults. It's about a boy and his family who move to a new house, full of great hopes and plans. The boy, Michael, finds a thing, called "Skellig", in the garage. But who or what Skellig is never emerges.
Recommended.
Caroline
Another creepy house, another children's book for adults. Scary but an enjoyable read.
Caroline
Subtitled "A Journey into Secret Mongolia", this book is the story of a trip to Mongolia by a Tibetan monk, who had fled the country, and the author, his friend. The author being an American, however, means that the book also has a lot about George Crane.
Quite good, well written.
Caroline
The follow up to The Bean Trees, a very good book. Unfortunately this book reads as if someone had "got at" the author after the earlier book and said "you can't do that", so she felt that she had to make amends, and this unsatisfactory book is the result.
It starts with a ridiculous coincidence, and ends improbably and unbelievably with a ridiculous happy-ever-after plot twist.
Cods-wallop, whatever that is. (Most probably, according to the internet, week gassy beer).
Seán
About a left-wing shock-jock in London. He's not a sympathetic character, and after he accidentally becomes involved with an unpleasant character from the criminal underworld the plot gets more and more improbable. Not particularly good.
Seán
Seán liked this book. It's a whodunnit from the point of view of a very intelligent but autistic teenager: much of what goes on around is completely inexplicable to him. A very interesting read.
Recommended.
Seán
It's about the author, a journalist, going to live in Kabul with a bookseller and his family.
Initially at least the translation was awful, with idiom being use inappropriately. This was very distracting at first - whether the translation improved or whether the fascinating subject matter distracted him from it, Seán wasn't sure.
The book deals with the lives of the bookseller and his family under the Taliban regime and afterwards, and is revealing in particular about the position of women in Afghan society.
Worth reading in spite of the journalistic style and the irritating translation.
Seán
A different book, it took a while to get used to the poor-south-Texan vernacular. The narrator is a bright but disadvantaged teenager who gets caught up in the aftermath of a school shooting. The somewhat Neanderthal authorities of the town, most of whom are apparently members of the same unpleasant family, imprison him and things go from bad to worse. The book is populated mostly by an unpleasant cast of ne're-do-wells, shsyters and the terminally stupid.
It's terrific, however, rising above all that to deliver many surprises including an amazing ending.
Read it.
Seán
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.