Before I go to Sleep - S.J.Watson.
A first novel from this author. A
couple of us got bored with it and found it hard work. I gave it up
twice.
Chris announced controversially that
the whole book up until she wakes up in Hospital after the fire takes
place in one day. It seems longer because she is reading from the
diaries.
There were flaws in the book. We
disagreed with the fact that she was released from hospital without
medical supervision – Our Doctor was not happy with that either,
though it was commented that she was in there voluntarily. A point
of contention was the Doctor telling her that her son was dead,
despite him only knowing that because she had told him.
It was weak, with lots of loose ends,
such as how did she find things, and implausible. The implausibility
made it annoying to some of us. How did she get out of the hotel when
she was tied to a chair and gagged, and 'Mike' didn't despite being
free?
So feelings were mixed. It held some
peoples interest, but others got bored with it. Someone thought it
was a good bock, though ending was contrived, and problematic. More
stated that they were disappointed with it. One said that it reminded
her of Sophie Hannah, but wasn't as deep. Another felt that things
were not right throughout, except the ending. And didn't like what it
does to your head when the only person you trust is lying all the
time.
We thought that it would make a
brilliant film. Is this the way literature is going these days,
written so that it can be made into a film? Is that good or bad?
Does it reflect the attention spans or constrained time for reading
that most of us have?
Marks ranged from 4 to 8. Is this the
mark of a good reading group book? Marks 6/10
----------------------
The Observations Jane Harris
Bessie, a young prostitute fleeing
Glasgow, finds a job in a country house where the mistress is always
taking measurements - Observations – of her until she goes mad,
causes havoc in the village, and ends up in a mental home. Bessie
comes to work at the mental home looking after her mistress and finds
happiness and security.
Here's a statement that pretty well
describes it: “ I quite enjoyed it once it got going, but it took
me a few tries to get into it. I felt I had to finish it so I could
join in the discussions, but out of preference I would not have read
it.”
Three people gave up on this book. It
was called tedious. I gave up twice and then skipped to the last few
chapters, and didn't think that I had lost anything. The discussion
was basically Daphne telling us about the story, with a few
interjections. Chris thought that it was worth reading because it had
a nice ending, though quirky. Mind you the lead up to the ending had
the mad woman on the loose, and Bessie's mother being cut in half by
the train. Some thought that it was so implausible that you
couldn't accept the situation.
Other thoughts were that it was
compelling and intriguing. You wanted to know about Bessie's past,
and about Arabella. They were pleased that they had finished it. That
was a consensus of those that did finish it. There was humour in it,
though it was 'bitty'.
Again, marks ranged from 4 to 8, with
an average of 5 5/7 = 6
No comments:
Post a Comment