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Meeting on Wednesday November 24^th

We have been reading “Angel’s Game” by the Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  This is a “prequel” to Zafon’s more famous, earlier, “The Shadow of the Wind” which was set in Barcelona just after the Civil War.  ‘Angel’s Game’ is set in the 1920s, political unrest is all around, Barcelona is in many ways a desolate place and the clouds of war are already gathering on the horizon.  Frances was struck by the fact that although we know that Barcelona is usually hot and sticky, the overall feeling of the book is of cold.  The heat is referred to and people sit outside to escape the torpor; even so, the atmosphere as well as being dark also has a chill about it the whole way through the book.

 The story is told by David Martin , a young man finding his way after a difficult childhood; abandoned by his mother and brought up by his ex soldier father – a difficult and embittered man. David finds some measure of success as a journalist writing a series of crime stories for the back page of “The Voice of Industry”.  As his imagination and the stories develop, they take on a realism of their own and the characters and places in the short stories seem to come to life for David.  The divide between reality and imagination becomes more blurred, but the streets and places are firmly set in the real Barcelona and are recognisable today.

 We all agreed the book was extremely well written, atmospheric and dark, peopled with rounded characters.  It is a page-turner which nevertheless leaves many questions unanswered.  The division between the real and the imagined is blurred and most of us found the Epilogue unsatisfactory and possibly unnecessary – an attempt to tie up some loose ends perhaps?  A couple of the group found some of the philosophising rather dull and some of the modern idiom jarred a little –surprising since the translation is by Lucia Graves, daughter of Robert Graves. Would we read this book again?  Two of the group have already read it twice, and another couple certainly intend doing so!  Would we recommend it to a friend? Certainly.

Our next meeting will be on 26^th January when we will be discussing two books: “The Thing around your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, the author of “Purple Hibiscus” and “Half of a Yellow Sun”, and “The Snow Goose” by Paul Gallico.  We will also be planning our Spring reading and have decided to add Dickens’ “Great Expectations” and “Homage to Catalonia” by George Orwell to the list of books we may choose.

‘100 Cars Britain Can Be Proud Of by Giles Chapman’  £9.99

 Great Britain has one of the world’s truly astounding records for producing exciting, groundbreaking and popular cars. This island nation has given life to more great marques per head of driver population than anywhere else, with names that conjure up the most distinctive vehicles on the road. There is still nothing else with comparable character and heritage to match an Aston Martin, Bentley, Bristol, Jaguar, Lotus, Land Rover, Mini, Morgan or, of course, a Rolls-Royce.

Even the cars we don’t make any more – such as Jensens, Morrises, Rovers, Triumphs and TVRs – inspire extraordinary desire and affection worldwide. But we Brits do have a bewildering tendency to think our motor industry has gone to the dogs, and that the ‘Great British Motor Car’ is a thing of the increasingly distant past. 

This book sets out to redress the balance. In it you’ll find 100 cars that Britain should be resolutely proud to celebrate – one hundred stories of vividly contrasting road-going machines that will blip the throttle of the sourest car curmudgeon. Not just those magnificent pioneer, vintage and classic machines of the glorious past, either, but also the new cars that, today, are keeping British designers, engineers and car factories humming with activity.

‘Slippery Tipples’ by Joseph Piercy £9.99

From European favourites such as Mastichato Chios, which saved 2,000 Greeks from a bloody massacre at the hands of vengeful Turks, to legendary drinks such as Amarula, invented by African elephants; from classic cocktail ingredients like Midori, the bright green Japanese melon drink launched at the wrap party for Saturday Night Fever at Studio 54, to student stalwart Jagermeister, dreamt up by a confidant of Herman Goring and hugely popular among senior Nazis, Sippery Tipples tells the stories behind the word’s most extraordinary drinks. Alongside a country-by-country guide to murky and mysterious booze and dozens of cocktail recipes is a series of easy to follow recipes for making your own liqueurs and spirits. If you would like to concoct your own fruit brandies or make a drop of traditional full-strength Pimms then this is the book for you.

 Submariners’ News by Keith Hall £12.99

For many years submariners produced ‘local newspapers’, reporting from the deep with a unique take on their unusual lifestyle. Held in much affection by submarine crews, they enjoyed a long period of popularity from the 1970s-1990s for their irreverent and decidedly un-PC approach to underwater living. In this entertaining book, author Keith Hall examines the development of this strange branch of ‘underwater journalism’, collating the articles and anecdotes, jokes cartoons and stories that have been published over the years to brighten up the lives of submariners far from home, providing an insight into the bizarre self-contained world of the submariner.

During the Second World War over 400,000 Germans and Italians were held in prison camps in Britain. These men played a vital part in the life of war-torn Britain, from working in the fields to repairing bomb-damaged homes. Yet despite the role they played, today it is almost forgotten that Britain once held POWs at all.

For those who worked, played or fell in love with the enemies in their midst, despite restrictions and the opinions of their peers, those times remain vivid. Whether they took tea on the lawn with Italians or invited a German for Christmas dinner, the POWs were a large part of their lives. This book is the story of those men who were detained here as unexpected guests.

It is about their lives within the camps and afterwards, when some chose to stay and others returned to a country that in parts had become a hell on earth.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Well, this book attracted a range of responses and scores. Lowest was 4 (mean old Meg) and highest was 9 (Jamie). It was the first book we’ve chosen where we’ve really struggled to say anything much about it at all, essentially because it has very little substance of any sort. The pictures are good though and carry the book – and that’s presumably what’s made it so popular and has lifted it out of the run of wacky diaries by imaginary agonised adolescents. Characterisation is mostly done through the drawings and considering their simplicity, it is remarkably effective. We all enjoyed their humour and clarity and the way they sometimes added to the story.

We all found the book humorous though some of us were more enthusiastic about that aspect than others. Some jokes were very weak and we thought Jeff’s friend who was credited with having flagged up the jokes that stunk, hadn’t done an entirely thorough job. On the other hand, there were a few moments that we all found hilarious – Greg’s mum’s attempt to discipline her older son for his dodgy reading, for example!

For several of us, however, there was a serious issue to which we objected. Greg, the protagonist, is not just a wimp. This is not a book about a geek coming good or a weed winning through. This is a book about a boy who is a moral wimp, a devious, dishonest coward and bully who does not get his come- uppance but gets away with unpleasant behaviour and continues to take advantage of people more vulnerable than he is. There are little instances early in the book and later Greg allows his friend Rowley to take the rap for a nasty bit of teasing that he perpetrated. Rowley then gives him the cold shoulder but by the end is back in his dysfunctional friendship with Greg – who has learnt another lesson in unpleasantness. Whereas we all feel happy for Rowley to forgive Greg and make up, we all wanted Greg’s behaviour to change for the better and the friendship to become healthy, rather than remain unchanged and give the impression that nastiness is a useful life strategy. It raises the question of the moral responsibilities of children’s authors.

Perhaps Greg will become a nicer person as the series progresses.  Unfortunately, none of us felt inclined to read a second book. We might go and see the film. As it’s a book which is hardly likely to be wrecked for any of us by a film interpretation, it might be interesting to see what a film maker does with it – especially how the cartoons are dealt with, seeing as they are its main virtue.

You may well already have come across this book – it’s another mysterious phenomenon. If you haven’t, don’t make the effort to seek it out – it’s not really worth it.

 Meg Harper

The next meeting is on December 14th at 4.15pm when we will be discussing ‘Bewitched’ by Kate Saunders. Everyone welcome, just turn up!

Click here for the sordid details …….. http://www.warwickbooks.net/reviews/the-glass-room/