LETSBuzz Book Club 21st November 2004
Bob doesn't think anyone will be interested in this one: unspeakably black, nihilistic stuff, too much even for him. None of the characters are attractive. But it is well written.
Bob
Bob said this was one of the best books he'd ever read. Doreen and Andrew also thought it very good. A savage satire set in Thatcher's Britain. Very critical but also very funny with some great jokes. Lots of different characters but one family at the centre, all establishment figures, all 'deeply horrible'.
Bob
Gill had high expectations of this book as other members of the group had rated it very highly. Gill had problems with the idea of an angel in the garage. She was disappointed with the book and struggled to get through it.
Gill
Gill loved the language: the author writes with simplicity but tackles big themes, (eg Aids in Africa). These books are too short (Gill finished in 2 days) - but highly recommended.
Gill
Christine liked the author's moral style, and his way of talking about Africa. He feels Africa ought to be left alone to sort out its problems, it doesn't need our help. Christine found these two books marvelous - very light, but still deep.
Christine
"Crappiest of crappy books". An American book about a 13 year old girl who is a bit of a misfit. Christine only read this book because she was away from home and nothing better was available.
Christine
This includes some quite terrifying reading - eg a description of the employment of 4-year old girls in lace-making and straw plaiting. A fascinating book with much of local relevance - references to Beds, Bucks and Northants.
Christine
Doreen was puzzled to find that she recognised two chapters in the middle of this book - and then discovered these had been published earlier as a novella 'Lives of the Animals'. Coetzee is a difficult and grim writer, the world he describes is a hard place. This book is sold as a novel but is more like a group of essays in the voice of the central character, a campaigning vegetarian. Doreen found this book hard work.
Doreen
Builds a story around the lives of Charles and Mary Lamb. Very entertaining. The reader can smell and taste London when reading this book.
Doreen
Set in Turkey. Not very interesting - it reads as though the author had done lots of research and just couldn't stop writing, had to put it all in. Uses many extremely obscure words - why? Doreen felt the author had an axe to grind: 'war is terrible'. Book bears a strong resemblance to Captain Corelli's mandolin, which Doreen had enjoyed, but differs in that there is no real story, the narrative is too chopped up. Very disappointing.
Doreen
A book, set in the near future, and aimed at teenage girls. The heroine, a 15 year old anorexic American girl who comes to England, is a likeable character, who finds the English very quaint. Recommended.
Doreen
Christine loved this book but Doreen did not, thought it 'too obvious'. The heroine, another 15 year old, is not very interesting, a bit of a cliché. Her mother is dead and she is struggling to look after her family while also aspiring to be a writer.
Doreen
Caroline had started reading this book 5 years ago but had had to stop reading on page 9 where 'something horrible happens to a small boy'. She has now read through to the end and was glad she had gone back to it, found it 'very good indeed'. A very well-written story about a girl who grows up to be a judge and whose past comes back to haunt her.
Caroline
This is her latest book. Caroline really enjoyed it - complex rounded characters, as always with Pat Barker.
Caroline
Andrew was very disappointed with this, it didn't engage him. He found it a tough read, and finally gave up at page 90. Not recommended.
Andrew
It took a while to get into this but the book improves with the arrival of Dorothy, an evangelical Christian who is also an engaging character. The narrator is an unpaid skivvy in his parents' guesthouse, a job he enjoys. There is a seedy outer London suburb feel to this book. It 'goes a bit mad' at the end ('quite barmy' according to Doreen). Cautiously recommended.
Andrew
Andrew was drawn to the book (available in Leighton Buzzard library) as his mother grew up in this area of London. It gives an insight into the people who lived in the area - a community that has now disappeared, the houses having been knocked down in the '60s and replaced by high-rise flats. It includes a description of the gruesome but common practice of having all one's teeth extracted (by the local butcher, without anaesthetic) as a 17th birthday 'present', to save on future dental costs.
Andrew
Jean, in her idealistic youth, had liked the idea of communal child-rearing. This book, where the author was neglected by his Bhagwan-worshipping mother, changed her mind.
Jean
Apparently 'his best work' (according to 'The Times') but disappointing. Central character is a seven year old child but the author seems to have made little or no effort to write from a child's viewpoint.
Jean
Shah grew up in Kent but her father (the storyteller of the title) never let her forget her Afghani roots. This is the story of her return to Afghanistan to try to understand her country of origin. She makes a documentary, and part of the time has to travel in disguise. A fascinating story, even if sometimes the author seems somewhat foolhardy, taking crazy risks.
Jean
Disappointing - perhaps because expectations had been raised by others' reviews. Enjoyed, but not as much as had hoped.
Jean
A bleakly humourous first novel about the experience of depression. Winner of the Mind Book of the year.
Jean
A great title, and a thoroughly enjoyable book. The book describes the author's experiences while travelling around America by train, focusing more on the strange, eccentric and sometimes sad people that she meets in the smoking compartment, than on the landscape outside the carriage. In comparison with the American train companies described, Silverlink seems highly efficient.
Jean
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.