Book Group meeting Wednesday 17th August 2011
The Warwick Books Book Group met on Wednesday 17th August at the Old Punch Bowl in Warwick at 6.00pm. Thanks once again to Angie and her team for making us so welcome.
This month we hadn’t chosen a book, but each of us came prepared to talk about a book we had read recently or particularly enjoyed.
There were seven of us at the meeting but we had managed to read rather more than seven books between us!
The first under discussion was Ken Follett’s “World Without End”. This is a follow up to “Pillars of the Earth” – an historical novel about the building of a Cathedral in the twelfth Century. “World Without End” is set in the same city of Kingsbridge two centuries later. The story starts with some children witnessing a murder and continues with more murders, family conflict, plague, famine and war. This is an enjoyable book, but without the thread of the building of the cathedral that runs through, “World Without End”, it seems rather too long.
The next book under discussion was “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro. This story starts off following a group of children growing up at a luxurious boarding school, Hailsham, set idyllically deep in the English countryside. As the book progresses, the reader realises that there is a darker side to this school and in fact these “chosen” children are to have a strange and life-threatening destiny. They are used for “spare part” surgery, donating various organs of their bodies. As they become gradually sicker, they are nursed and cared for by other members of this strange community. There is also a love story running through it and the book has been made into a very successful film. This is a beautifully written and haunting story; it will stay with you for a long time. Thoroughly recommended.
Lawrence Durrrell’s “Alexandra Quartet” was next to be discussed. This is really four separate books, but is available as a bind up of all four in one volume. Each book offers a different perspective of the same events and are set in Alexandria before and during World War 11. Written between 1957 and 1960, these continue to be a favourite with readers half a century on.
“Aphrodite’s Hat” by Sally Vickers is her latest offering. This little book of short stories is an easy and enjoyable read and a “must” for Sally Vickers fans. To quote William Palmer of the Independent, “The stories are filled with women who are not sure why they married their husbands and husbands who have run out of anything to say to their wives. The women come off better under the assault of time, though their fate is to be haunted by memories of lost love and, sometimes, its actual ghosts.” Excellent for a holiday read.
“The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ” is a fairly new offering from Philip Pullman, only published in paperback in June 2011. This is a novel retelling of the new testament stories about Jesus Christ, where Pullman has imagined Him as two people – identical twins, Jesus and Christ. Christ is the weaker twin, the studious one, but jealous of his more attractive carpenter brother, Jesus. This retelling of the scriptures encourages you to think about their meaning while enjoying and returning to some of the most exciting stories ever written. Pullman is an excellent story teller, often vilified as being anti religious, but his love of the Bible stories shines through this excellent book.
“The Importance of Being Seven” by Alexander McCall Smith . This is the latest of the 44 Scotland Street series. Bertie McCullough is six and longs to be seven. This precocious but amazingly loveable child is the star of these stories and we observe the goings on in Scotland Street mostly through his relatively innocent eyes. A gentle book, as all Alexander McCall Smith’s books are, we learn more about Bertie’s awful mother,Irene; and friends Domenica, Antonia and Angus Lordie take a disastrous holiday in Tuscany.
“The Gallows Curse” by Karen Maitland is another new book, still available only as a £12.99 large paperback. Set in 1210, this is the story of a mother accused of murdering her baby against the backdrop of fear that typified England under King John. With an opening scene of a woman being hanged for witchcraft, this is an exciting story full of treachery, lies, treason and murder.
“The Violins of Saint-Jacques” by Patrick Leigh Fermor is the only novel written by this amazing man, who sadly died earlier this year. Set on an imaginary tropical island, this is the story told to a traveller by a mysterious French woman. Centred around the festival of Mardi Gras, this is a tale of intrigue and decadence against the colourful background of the Caribbean. Hailed in 1953 as an exotic sweep of colour in an otherwise drab world, it is highly recommended.
“The Cellist of Sarajevo” by Steven Galloway. Based on two real characters, this book is about the seige of Sarajevo in the 1990s. A cellist sits by his window playing the very demanding but beautiful Adagio by Albinoni. People are outside in the Market Square queing for bread. Suddenly a shell explodes in the market place and all 22 people die. The next day, the cellist comes down from his apartment, sets up his stool and plays Albinoni’s Adagio in memory of the 22 deaths. He does this every day for the next 21 days. The other character based on fact is a female sniper. Such people always used a psuedonym so that their families would not be threatened. This character is known as Arrow. The third character,Kenan, has to collect water from the brewery for his family. Most of the water in Sarajevo is polluted, but the water on the other side of town, near the brewery, remains safe to drink. Kenan risks his life, regularly crossing the city, always in fear that he will not return, leaving his family and neighbours unsupported.
The final character is the baker, Dragan, who is totally bemused by the loss of his beloved city and dreams of it being once more a place without conflict where people treat each other with tolerance and respect.
Only the music and Dragan’s dreams bring hope to this tortured city along with Galloway’s beautiful, sparse, subtle prose. Another book that will stay with you.
Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. A rumbustuous novel. Set a little later than Dickens’ time, this is a story about prostitutes, in a London of trolleybuses, department stores and the new underground railway. The main protagonist, Sugar, is an unlikely character, both poor and forced into prostitution by her mother (the evil Madame, Mrs Castaway) , but also intelligent, well read and articulate. By no means beautiful – she is tall and almost without bosom and suffers from some kind of psoriasis-like skin condition, but praised as unequalled in the popular men’s magazine , “More Sprees in London”, she is reputed to be prepared to do “anything” to please her gentleman clients
There are some wonderful descriptions of the life of prostitutes, their madames and the efforts made to hide the shabbiness of the brothels from their clients, but having read once about using a chamber pot, douching and manly release from frustration, it becomes rather repetitive to keep reading about it. However, although over graphic and over long, this very rude book is great fun.
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. Part of the Cousins War series, Philippa Gregory has moved away from the Tudor period back in time to Edward IV and the end of the Wars of the Roses. Told by Edward’s commoner wife, Elizabeth Woodville, we learn about the machinations and political rumblings during this difficult time of civil war. Philippa Gregory supports the theory that Perkin Warbeck was indeed Edward’s son Richard, smuggled out of the country while a substitute was sent to join Richard’s ill-fated older brother in the Tower of London.
Although we know the story and its outcome, Philippa Gregory manages to ratch up the tension as Elizabeth Woodville waits in Sanctuary not knowing whether her brothers and her sons are alive or dead, who is friend and who is foe. We are really looking forward to Philippa Gregory’s visit on 19th September when she will be talking about her latest book in this series, “The Lady of the Rivers”
Our next meeting is scheduled of Wednesday 14th September at 6.00pm at the Old Punchbowl Inn when we will be discussing Tea Obreht’s stunning debut novel, “The Tiger’s Wife”
