LETSBuzz Book Club 30th August 1998
Gill don't like this very much and was irritated by what she felt was theauthor's laziness in writing a book about a writer spending a summer writing a book, which gave made her feel that it had just been "knocked off" quickly.
Gill
A book of short stories set in rural America which Gill liked though she was a bit perturbed by the constant graphic descriptions of hunting, fishing and other backwoods pursuits.
Gill
Gill thought this was excellent, the story of a poor family particularly examining the strength of the bond between mother and daughter. Well written and very strong.
Gill
This was a compendium of four books so it was a long but easy read. The story starts in the thirties and runs through until the war years. Very amusingly written in diary form and originally published as a series in the magazine "Time And Tide".
Gill
Seán thought this was "moving enough" but not a great book and was a bit disappointed by the obvious ending.
Seán
Seán enjoyed this, a good story with a suprisingly modern perspective. It also cast some further light on Jack Maggs by Peter Carey which he had read quite recently. Seán is now encouraged to read more Dickens and to this end had borrowed 'Bleak House', which led onto a discussion about spontaneous human combustion.
Seán
First novel by Canadian author. Set in British Columbia in the 1940s about a 15 year old girl on a remote farm. Seán enjoyed the immensely detailed descriptions of farm life. A rites of passage novel with a running theme of being pursued by something frightening but unseen which the main character eventually shakes off.
Seán
Set on the night before the execution of an illiterate Irish soldier, this examined the relationship and conversations between the condemned man and the more educated and urbane soldier despatched to spend his last night with him and get him ready for his fate. Seán recommended this.
Seán
This was a very modern English novel concerning a group of friends and the consequences of an affair taking place between two of the cast. Andrew found a lot of the dialogue frankly unbelievable, the conversations became unrealistically apocalyptic very quickly and didn't accurately reflect the reserve that characterises the British.
Andrew
Andrew enjoyed this a lot and felt that it benefited from theauthor/narrator having a companion on his trip along the Appalachian Trail, providing him with a good comic foil. Andrew also liked (and empathised with) the author's righteous anger about various subjects ranging from the destruction of species to the pathetically short distances that the average American is prepared to walk.
Andrew
Jean liked this a lot, a story of Chinese-American characters concentrating on the relationships between the female characters, particularly mothers and daughters. The men are incidental characters throughout. Each chapter is a self contained story with the recurring theme of the huge cultural difference between China and the USA.
Jean
Jean admitted to an addiction to this author who has written many journals. Alas, this was the last as she died soon after its completion. A reflective book on the nature of ageing and how the author grows less physically able to do things. Jean recommended that newcomers to the author should start with an earlier journal, a series of books that she started when she was aged 70. May Sarton also wrote some novels and poetry.
Jean
Rory found this book of short stories enjoyable, down to earth and said that it held his attention.
Rory
Roy told us about his search for The Lays Of Ancient Rome byMacauley and about Lilley's, an antiquarian book seller in a large country house near Aylesbury. It was there that Rory picked up a Cities In The Sand. This was a book in two parts, the first being a non-fictional account of the author's family and their longhistory of spice trading with the middle east. The second half was about the later Roman emperors in the years just before the eventual fall of theRoman Empire. Some hilarious stories of such short-lived emperors as Elagabalus.
Rory
A biography of Sir George Bernard by an author who clearly worshipped his subject but who eventually felt very let down by him. Descriptive of Shaw's whole outlook on life and his studied disinterest in food and all the pleasures of the common man. Rory found the book funny and revealing both about the subject and the author.
Rory
The author is a poet and definitely writes like one. Doreen described this as a wonderful book and read us several passages. It deals with the holocaust and a young Jewish boy taken alone to Greece. He is haunted for the rest of his life by the fate of his remaining family under the Nazis.
Doreen
Linked to Doreen's other choice by also being about the holocaust. In this book the narrator is a female dwarf who chronicles the reaction of a peaceable and integrated German community of basically "good" Germans to the coming of Nazism and the gradual taking away of the Jews. It also describes the post war atmosphere in which everyone then denies the atrocities that took place.
Doreen
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.