2021 - March - Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng.

Shortly after I started this book I thought  that Izzy had done the best thing possible to that all-american perfect family home.  It is an interesting contrast between the two concepts of free to travel and absorb life anywhere and  living in the same regimented manner from birth to death in the community of your ancestors and hoping that your children, who are moulded in your shape, would follow the same path. 

The movie makes Mia out to be black but I see her and Pearl as Japanese-American types. 

I didn't really like the book, but I was forced to finish it to find out what happened. Did Mia and Pearl ever talk about the abortion? Did Lexie ever tell her mother - I doubt it. And the book is so full of misunderstandings of people. How did Bebe get a ticket to Canton - Not cheap. 

As I finished this book I was reminded of a song from long ago 'Little Boxes'    https://open.spotify.com/track/4VJrTc5QPr13zgkwxaTjjN?si=b382cc24c03b42da

Marks 5x6, 7 & 5 = 6.

Basic comments are quite enjoyed it, but unmemorable and unrealistic. Thought Mia was selfish in pursuit of 'art'. 

Pearl envied the Richardson's stable lifestyle

No sympathies for the adoptive mum of Bebe's baby. 

The mothering idea went through the whole book.  In some ways it was a comparison of motherhood.

Mia always called her  Mrs. Richardson, but as a landlord and employer one would, except maybe in Ohio. 

There was noticeably a lack of offialdom in looking after Pearl. 

And for Bebe, if you drop through the cracks there is no safety net

2021 - February - Narrow Road to the Deep North - Flanagan

Appreciated that it was a good Book, but Japanese stuff still brings back horrible thoughts. This is the starting comment from one of our 80+ readers, who remembers the Japanese behaviour in the war. 

C said " If I knew someone who had been there I wouldn't have been able to read it." I couldn't, and others couldn't take the horrors described in it. 

It was difficult knowing people who had suffered it. L said it was unpalatable, though there were lovely bits in it.

The characters were good and the places descriptions were good. It was a book of three parts. The secret him before the war and his love affairs, the middle bit which was his war, and the aftermath where he was trying to make sense of what happened. He couldn't help being a hero, but he got this pinned on him because he persisted in asking for help.  It explores how the japanese could be so inhumane.

C - A great book, so difficult, so good.

One of the few booker prizes that deserved it.

A good book, but not a nice book.

It was more real than the previous book 'The Beekeeper of Aleppo' .

However it did get good marks from those that could read it.

Maggie: do apologise: I totally forgot that we were meeting this evening. And very disappointed to have missed the opportunity to hear what everyone thought about The narrow road to the deep north.

For me it was an interesting and compelling read in spite of some of the truly horrific 

descriptions of thePOW camps. I felt that the characters were well drawn and believable. 

And it was interesting to get the insights into the perceptions of all the different characters 

especially the Japanese culture underpinning their behaviour.

As I’ve mentioned before, my husband was in several of these camps on the railway. And 

his telling of his experiences accorded entirely with the book.

I felt sorry for Dorrigo who had such an unfulfilled personal life. But it added an interesting dimension

to the book.

.

Daphne emailed me and probably all of us. She also found it a good read and would give it a 9. As 

would I. 

 

10, 9, 9,9 8,