LETSBuzz Book Club 17 May 1998
I had read High Fidelity by the same author and had found it depressing. However Fever Pitch was brilliant. It is about obsession with Arsenal. I was reading it yesterday when Arsenal won the Cup. It explains the nature of obsession, how his team comes above everything. I understood why he has this obsession even though I am one of the types of football supporters he despises (go occasionally, only really interested in the big matches).
Doreen: It's very entertaining and very funny.
Seán: I hate football. The fans are tribal and lack analysis. When asked who they are answer, I'm an Arsenal fan. However I would like to read this.
Gill
When I was in the Girls' Brigade I did a comprehension passage from this book. I would have been about 10. So when I saw it I thought I would read it. It's not a book for children. It's about them through a child's eyes. It's set at the end of the last century, starting off in Jamaica. There's a hurricane, the English family's house is destroyed and the children (5 of them) are sent home to England. Their ship is boarded off Cuba by a bunch of inept pirates. The children (7 of them by this time ) end up on the pirate's boat and the pirates don't know how to cope with them. The story, told from a 10 year old girl's point of view, rings so true. It paved the way for Lord of the Flies and is every bit as good. It's not at all sentimental. There are horrific bits but the children don't grasp the significance of them.
Seán: the cover makes me think it's a woman's book.
Gill
I'm still reading this. I bought it after reading another of his, The Pope's Rhinoceros. It's a lengthy story set in the 19th century. A complicated story, part thriller, part mystery, part love story. You're given just enough to keep you going, but not the whole picture. The man is writing a classical dictionary, but this is only a part. The book brings in the East India Company, the siege of Rochelle, the French Revolution. The narrative shifts sometimes by 5 minutes, sometimes by150 years. I can't say much more without giving away too much. I recommend it.
Seán
The author writes sci fi novels under this name and "straight novels" as Iain Banks. He is a very good author who draws characters very well. In this book he chooses to speak with the voice of the spacecraft. Internet signs and symbols are used with dialogue on modems. This becomes rather tedious and the good plot gets rather lost. It's a potboiler dragged over 400 pages. This is a word of warning, avoid the Sci-fi stuff and go for his other stuff. It shows that you need more than an exotic environment. The hero of the book is the "Culture". Machines run the Galaxy, there is no external threat and everyone is very laid back. Then there is a threat from the Baddis Affront. They have bred a bat which they use as a squash ball! The machines get frightened and become greedy. It's analogous to what happened to the USA which became self congratulatory about its culture and had no self analysis. It could have been a much better book
Gavin
This is about two migrant workers who have come to Salinas from California. Lennie, who is big and stupid and George who is small but smart. Each chapter has a theme. George is looking after Lennie but sometimes Lennie is looking after George. I feel sympathetic towards them both. Lennie can't help the way he is.
Gavin: They both have a dream. They are drifters in a land of opportunity The dream has really died but it's living on in Lennie who is like a child. Lennie does terrible things because of his great strength and George sticks by him because he needs him. It's a tragedy and nemesis, Lennie is going to die. It's a great drama.
Mark
>Star Trek Premier Contact
I've read this in English as well as French. I prefer the English version. It's set in 2063 and the Borg have returned. The spaceship goes back in time. There's a lot of psycho babble in the new series, the old ones were more cowboys and indians. It's a good story.
Mark
I read this because Seán recommended it. It's great. I loved it because of all the Dickensian references. Jack Maggs is Magwitch, and Phelps is Pip from Great Expectations. Tobias Oates is Dickens himself. Tobias is the name of one of Pip's dead brothers. Oates wife is called Mary, the name of Dickens' adored sister in law. This is a version from Magwitch's point of view. The author does a great job of describing Victorian London with all its dirt and poverty and Maggs is a frightening and mysterious character. The book is more than a pastiche but it has sent me back to the original which is of course brilliant.
Doreen
I've read her previous stuff all good. I didn't want to put this down and found myself wanting to go to bed so I could read it. It's an historical novel and very believable. There are four main characters: one of the first convicts to be transported to New South Wales, an officer on the ship who is going to Australia to build an observatory ,then in the modern part of the story, Daniel who is severely handicappedand his mother, Ola. There are two parts to the story but they never really come together. Both stories say we think we know what we want, but we are totally wrong. There are similarities between the two about the nature of love. Ola believes her son to be a sort of Messiah figure and does not really see him as handicapped. He is someone who understands suffering in the world. She must look after him so that when he has the strength he can burst on to the world.
Caroline
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.