2021- January The Beekeeper of Alleppo - Christy Lefteri

From the first page you know that this is going to be a dispiriting book. It is about a man and his family who have to flee Syria and make their way to England. On the way he takes on a lone boy to replace his dead son. His wife is blind and very depressed.  I kept leaving the book and coming back to it as it was our reading group book. Chris gave up and went for something lighter.  He said that as you know early on that they have made it to the UK, what's the point of reading further. 

This was a criticism of the book by most readers, that it jumped around in place and time. O said that 'the structure was irritating'.

It was a traumatic story, certainly not escapism that most of us want inthese days of Covid. 

L found the bees interesting. They were, but not as someone said  'an allegory for life'. Another comment was that the book was about blindness, Afra's psychological blindness caused by the death of her son, and Nuri's emotional blindness due to the traumatic shocks that he has seen. Also throughout the book he was seeing things that didn't exist, like the little boy Mohammed. 

M did like the characters.  were they beleivable? Hard to say with Nuri seeing these young boys accompanying them that were fictitious

We couldn't understand how he kept that large amount of money safe during all his travels and the rough areas he was in. Also how did he get so much money, and what currency was it? 

At the end it all came rather fast as they got via the smuggler Italian passorts that meant that they were able to travel throughout the EU untroubled, and flew quickly from Greece to England. 

M says that she has recommended it to her otehr book group, but doesn't know that was such a good idea. It was a book selected for us by the librarian, not one we chose.

However the marks averaged at 7. 

 

2020- December Middle England - Jonathan Coe

It is a story about a family and their friends dated from 2011 through to 2018. It came across to me as vignettes of life not attached consecutively to each other and therefore not making a flowing story.  it was 'disjointed' , and tthough it was enjoyable reading, after one or two chapters it was easy to put down and there was no compunction to pick it up again, except in the hope that something might happen. 

As we have all lived through this period and it is fresh in our minds, the thought was expressed that it might later be useful to a Martian who was wanting to know what all the fuss was about during this period.  

It was the third book of a trilogy, which meant that we had not been introduced to some of the characters beforehand, and were expected to know their history.

A couple of readers said that they didn't like any of the characters. 

The writing was quite good though. 

My notes: Interactions within a family group and friends in the 2010-18 time period. It almost seems like little excerpts in life that he tries to link up. I read a bit, then think I'm bored, and come back later and read a bit more. Quite involved in trying to get to know the characters and see where the story is leading.

MS wrote about it: "Have finished the book for the second time and still can't make up my mind what I think about it.

Reading it was quite interesting but basically it was all modern history and I just feel there was not

much imagination in it. I wouldn't read it again but I will give it 6/7."

That was it. the mark was 6. 

Lots more discussion in our Zoom meeting about different topics instead of the book.  It got short shrift.