July 2014 - Wool and You before Me

WOOL    by Hugh Howey

It's a post apocalyptic dystopia . The planet has been turned into a radioactive wasteland and the several thousand-strong group of people who have lived for generations in a 144 story underground silo believe they are the only people left alive. Their society is rigidly stratified along medieval European lines: the lowest floors are where the workers live, generating power, making things and growing food; the middle floors are the domain of the IT department which acts as a priesthood and possesses the ancient book of rules for how life must be lived within the silo, and the upper floors are where the administrators live and work.

The heroine of the story is Juliet, a sassy no-nonsense engineer, who is plucked from her comfort zone and support network in the lowest of the low levels to become Sheriff of the silo with an office on the top floor. Readers immediately sense that if any problem or crisis can be dealt with by grit, ingenuity, hard work and engineering know-how then Juliet's surprise appointment is bad news for the bad guys.

The bad guy turns out to be power hungry Bernard [head of IT] who, not content with being the shadow power behind the throne, plots his way to become Mayor as well. Juliet is the only thorn in his side and he trumps up charges against her for which the penalty is exile from the silo wearing a protective suit. What nobody outside of IT knows is that the suits are deliberately made with sub-standard materials and only protect the wearer long enough for them to go through the strange tradition of cleaning the silo's window on the outside world and stumble away for a few hundred yards before collapsing. Exile is death. Juliet, however, has worked this out and tricks IT into giving her a suit made from proper materials supplied by her friends in engineering. She escapes, finds another silo, helps the handful of survivors in it,discovers that there are many more silos and that the IT heads of each have been in radio contact with each other from the beginning. Meanwhile, back in the old silo, the revolution has begun.

Our opinions were mixed. We all agreed that it started well.The society it introduced us to was interesting and the characters were engaging. Most of us thought it dragged a bit in the middle but half of us thought they would want to read the next part of the trilogy. One reader loved it. Others had specific niggles including: how did the servers keep going off so long?( perhaps a bit of professional pride being hurt here ) ; the understandable complaint from a largely over-60s reading group that there were too many stairs and a minority interpretation that it was all about tomatoes .

Marks: average 7            range 5-8

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You Before Me     by Jojo Moyes

It's basically a simple story.
Will is a young man who has it all. He's a mover and shaker in global finance. A typical day involves buying an under- performing company before breakfast, re-structuring it before lunch and selling it at a huge profit in the afternoon before letting off steam by skydiving into his seat at a 5 star alfresco restaurant to the rapturous applause of the other diners and the adoring gaze of his blonde model girlfriend. He works hard to play hard. That's what he always dreamed his life would be and he's made it happen.

Then he gets hit by a vehicle and wakes up to the prospect of living the rest of his life as a quadriplegic, dependent on other people to feed him, empty his catheter and prevent him developing bed sores.

Does Will react to this drastic change of circumstances by regarding it as a new and ultimate challenge that he can overcome by employing his amazing battery of life-skills? No, dear Minster Readers, he does not. He feels that, with no prospect of physical recovery, this is not a life he wants to live and tells his parents that he wants to go to a clinic in Switzerland to die. The most his parents can do is to persuade him to live another six months so that he gives himself some chance to adjust and find a reason to live. During this time he will need a paid companion.

Enter Louise, a rough diamond from the poor part of town. Louise is under pressure. She lives with her parents and single-mum sister with whom she has an intense love/hate relationship. Her dad is about to be made redundant with little prospect of getting a new job at  his age, her sister wants the family to fund her to go to law school to make something of herself, her mother works at home all hours so their cleaning, ironing and outside catering bills are kept to a minimum, but when Lou loses her well loved job as a waitress in the local cafe the future looks grim. Desperate for work she turns up to be interviewed by Will's mum for the post of companion to Will. Her main qualification appears to be a flair for quirky clothing combinations but, in a rare moment of inspiration, Will's mother appoints her on the spot and the love story begins.

At this point some of us inwardly groaned as we anticipated several hundred pages of true love not running smooth. They would start off curious about each other, then have an almost terminal bust up, get back together and one  develop feelings of affection for the other which needed to be hidden etc. until mutual glorious love eventually reigned supreme. We read on to find out that it went something like that, but not quite.

At the same time as the love story begins so too does the polemic about the problems faced by severely physically disabled people and a discussion among the characters about the rights and wrongs of assisted suicide. Again, at this point some of us feared that this could become too heavy handed.

But our fears on both counts were largely groundless. The book turned out to be a lot better than we expected and we  all enjoyed reading it. From a literary point of view we all agreed that Moyes had chosen the right ending. His death adds an urgency to the moral debate which a so-called happy ending wouldn't. Many of us recalled scenes that we loved including the meeting with the ex-girlfriend; the wedding dance and their goodbye session. We were touched by how he had used his time to broaden her horizons.

Marks.   Average.  6              Range.      6-7

2014 June - A lady Cyclists Kashgar trip, and Seb Faulks short stories

Both books this month are multiple stories. A lady Cyclists guide alternates chapters between a story in 1923 and a story in the current time. A Possible Life seems to be 5 entirely separate stories.

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar    by Suzanne  Joinson,  2012 Bloomsbury

Alternating chapters about 3 women missionaries in Kashgar, on the Chinese side of the Himalayas, in 1923, and a woman traveller and writer in current time London. Millicent was the very controlling and arrogant leader of the three ladies, in love with the younger sister of the middle girl, the missionary of the bicycle. They assist in the birth of a child, whose mother then dies and they end up with the child. The locals accuse them of murder and they are under house arrest, but Millicent keeps trying to convert them with leaflets and other means, upsetting the locals. Eventually the youngest dies, and Millicent is imprisoned, and the middle girl Evangeline escapes with the baby. The other story eventually finds out that she is the granddaughter of that baby, brought up in England.

D. Found that reading a story in two different times was difficult, so read the current time story first. M. also didn't like having two time periods intermingled in books. It was the better story. The missionary setup was totally implausible, and upsetting. O who has read other books about missionary ladies, thought that it was reasonably well researched, but implausible. Millicent being so pig-headed made her quite a good character. She was also described as very controlling and arrogant. The timescales of each part of the story are confusing because of their uncertainty. Also the behaviour of the baby was totally unbelievable. He was either being fed or wrapped around Eva, but never a problem. Also most of the 1923 story was spent in the one village/town, and the travelling to get there was glossed over, as was the escape journey.

Alison was looking for 'devices' in the book, liked the modern story but felt that it failed because she didn't know how to make the relation between the two stories. Was the owl a device or a connection? The conclusion was that the owl was totally dependent, just like the first convert who is killed after being taken away from the missionary ladies.

The title is taken from the book that Evangeline is going to write from her forbidden diaries about their time as Missionaries.

A final comment about the book was that it went full circle but it wasn't worth the length of the journey.

The marks ranged from 3 to 7, with an average of 4.5

Published by Bloomsbury - does that mean it is in the ideals of the Bloomsbury set?

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A Possible Life Faulks, Sebastian Hutchinson

5 short stories at different places and times, about totally unrelated people. I think it seems like an exercise in writing about how peoples lives have turned out. Not Impressed.

It was a struggle to find the common themes between the stories. Maybe there weren't any? Possibly it was that there were choices in each story that allowed the protagonist to walk a different path.

There were many different opinions of which stories were good and which weren't. One of us nearly didn't go on after the first.

M liked the first and second, and the third about the adopted brother who turns out to be a half-brother. She didn't like the last two. L found the first story depressing and the second not much better about the boy in the workhouse. She read them hoping that something would improve but it didn't for her. D liked the first story best. R said of the main character “He was not unhappy” D said that the book went downhill after the second story.

R didn't particularly like the book, but had to read it as she is a great fan of Faulks. She claimed that it was 'unsettling' as it stated on the cover.

P - I liked the second story about the workhouse boy that makes good, but the last story by 'Freddie' about Anya the folk singer blows me away. Reminiscent of Tommy Roe 'The Folk Singer' it questions what we should do in life, and whether we chose the right pathway. A 9 in its own right. Perhaps because it is written about the era that I grew up in.

There was a comment that echoes are things that he put in – I don't understand this. Maybe I wrote it down wrongly or incompletely.

In general the comment was “unmemorable”. Two people didn't give it a mark.

Otherwise the mark is 5. In some cases this was determined by giving a mark to each story and averaging them. M scores by marking for character, plot, and language and averaging them. This could be developed.

May 2014- Where Angels Fear to Tread and Unaccustomed Earth

Where Angels fear to Tread.                     E.M.Forster

This book, Forster’s first published novel, rather surprised the Group.

It concerned an Edwardian middleclass English family who had  been reluctant to accept their son’s choice of bride on the grounds of her lower class status and lack of accomplishments. When, after fathering a daughter, he unexpectedly died, they became concerned at the looming prospect of her choosing a dentist as a second husband.

To avoid this seemingly catastrophic event she was persuaded to make a visit to Italy. Shock! Horror! She there met and married an extremely minor Italian aristocrat, bore him a son and died.

These facts being generally known back in Britain, the family began to fear that they would be perceived as not doing their moral duty by the boy, as they were already doing by his half-sister, if they did not take an interest in him. Accordingly the son, his sister and the mother’s companion set out to rescue him from the fate of being brought up by an Italian father.

Various events led to a melodramatic kidnap of the child who was then unfortunately thrown out of the vehicle in which they were fleeing with him and killed.

There was general agreement in the Group that the plot was ludicrous in the extreme, but that there were occasional glimpses of the writer to come.

The presentation of the various social settings was often wryly funny, the importance to the characters of conscience, responsibility and respectability was well presented, and the descriptive passages vivid.

Marks 1 5 6 4 5 6 3 Average 4

 ++++++++++++++++++++

Unaccustomed Earth                        Jumpha Lahiri

The Group had already read “The Namesake” by the same author, and these short stories echoed its themes of alienation and integration. 5 short stories were followed by 3 linked ones. Most of the Group had read them one after the other and felt that the impact of any individual one had been diminished by their repetitive nature. Any one of them read singly would, however, be appreciated as a vivid portrayal of a particular and distinctive example of the common problem.

The culture and generational clashes varied from story to story and affected a range of characters which the group felt were brilliantly evoked in a few sentences. Cultural expectations might lead to marital difficulties; old traditions to surprising developments; education to separation; maladjustment to alcoholism; ignorance to misunderstanding; parental ambition to student rebellion. Although happy occasions were described from time to time, every story contained sadness, loss or betrayal, which “pulled at the heart” because its description was beautifully written.

Marks. 8 8 9 8 7 8 4    Average 7.5                                               (OL)

April 2014 - Rachel Hore- The Silent Tide & Pat Barker - Toby's Room

The Silent Tide                      Rachel Hore

This book was not well received by the majority of the group, it had comments like ‘chicklite’, rubbish, no depth and pretentious. Others were a little kinder, a relaxing and reasonably competent read, non-demanding, non- pretentious, a real mixture in fact. We felt the facts were incorrect, and we didn’t care enough about the characters.

There were two love stories intertwined in with a mild mystery thrown in, one was about the writer Hugh Morton and his first wife Isobel who he wood and wedded, the second was about his biographer Joel and his editor Emily. The parallels were that both men were writers and both female characters were their editors.

The story about Hugh, Isobel, daughter Lorna and his second wife Jacqueline was interesting but tedious, this could have been condensed. The love story concerning Emily, Joel and ex lover Mathew was immaterial except that Emily kept unearthing facts about Hugh and Isobel’s life together, with more than a little help from Lorna.

It started with a well written chapter and ended with such a highly unlikely one.

Marks ranged from 0 to 6 (1 six, 4 fives, 1 four, 1 three, 1 two, 1 nil = 35) which brings the mark to 3.5

DRW　

                    Toby’s Room               

Pat Barker

We as a group had different thoughts about this book, some thought it was a well crafted book and enjoyed it, but others didn’t like her writing style. The main complaint was the slipping from one scene to another, sometimes in the same paragraph.
The main characters were Toby, Elinor, Kit and Paul. Toby’s character was not liked by the group, we didn’t have any feeling for Elinor either, Kit was well drawn and Paul made up the foursome as he was infatuated with Elinor, and allowed her to use him.

The book was set around WWI, it depicted the horrendous life in the trenches in France, this was well researched and documented, the atmosphere portrayed was just right. We also read about the effect the war had on certain elements of British society, and in the social circles the foursome belonged to many were pacifists with no thought of the war at all. The German people who had settled in Britain before the war were treated with suspicion, by people and the British Government, their movements were restricted. Life was difficult for them.

The book focused on two areas the incestuous relationship between the brother and sister, Toby and Elinor, which some felt difficult to read. Elinor was obsessed with Toby an Officer in the Medical Corp, when he was declared ‘Missing in Action’ she needed to know how he died and selfishly took every opportunity to find out.

The other area was the on the facial surgery of the injured. Elinor an artist, who took classes of anatomy and dissection during her college course, enable her to work at a specialist hospital helping to reconstruct the soldiers faces who had been injured in the war, by drawing their injured faces enabling surgeons to carry our the necessary operations. It was also to delve into Toby‘s death. Many in the group found this aspect of the book fascinating, a discussion took place between some members regarding the differences between treatment then and now, and how things have changed in this specialist area over the years. During WWI  reconstruction surgery was mainly experimental, the description of the smell and work of dissection in the book was as some of our members remembered.

How Kit, a pacifist who was drafted into the Medical Corp. as a stretcher bearer, dealt with his horrific injuries, his treatment, and the impact it had on his life was a story in itself.

This was really bleak book, the marks ranged from 5 to 8 (1-five, 5-sixes, 3 sevens, 1 eight = 64) which brings the mark to 6.5.

DRW

MArch 2014 -Follett- Winter of the world.

Winter of the World is the sequel to Fall of Giants coincidentally also by Ken Follett. It's a historical novel based around the events preceding and during World War II. It follows these events from the point of view of various people and families based in Germany, Russia, Britain and the US; it also takes in the Spanish Civil War. Coincidence is in fact rather the name of the game because these characters have to interact with each other so they meet up in various theatres of war and at most important historical events under slightly contrived circumstances. They are also rather all-knowing about everything going on around them. 

However to quote our very own sage 'knowing what was likely to come next and a surfeit of coincidences did not prevent (one) from being carried along with the rapid stream of the story, which did not give time to pause and think about its credibility. I would say the individual episodes, coincidences apart are fairly realistic, and that the book does give a real sense of the way in which situations were continually changing and affecting not only people's personal lives but how the world would be in the future'.

This book affected different members of the group in different ways; one member found it rather
disappointing after enjoying the previous book and admitted to being somewhat bored by it.
Another member was so drawn into the story that they felt personally bereaved when the German, Walter, was killed. It was generally felt though that there was a good range of characters.

One of our group commented on how the side story of the detective work and bravery shown
surrounding the prevention of the continuing murder of the handicapped and Jews from hospitals made for an exciting subplot, maybe because this was one historical event of which we did not already know the outcome.

One or two people felt a slight anti-British bias which prevented them from wholly enjoying the
book.


Marks ranged from 4 to 7 giving an average of 6 1/2

It was commented that it reminded one very much of “The Winds of War” by Herman Wouk (author of “The Caine Mutiny).   

February 2014 - Harold Fry's Wanderings, and Half of the Human Race by Anthony Quinn

February 2014 

 Half of the Human Race    by Anthony Quinn

There were a wide variety of opinions on this book. The males among us thought that we learnt something of the Suffragette movement from it. One person thought it was boring and did not read it, another picked it up when she was stuck for something to read. The two good characters were Tamurlain and Connie, though if they had got together one wonders if she could have made something of him, and got him off the drink. Will was a weak, sort of upper class wishy-washy character who is rejected by Connie three times until the end of the book, when she settles for him, but by that time you don't care any more. I thought that it was a three aspect story with Cricket, suffragism, and the war all having their part. Interesting thought that the cricket was a contrast to the Women's fight for the vote.

Connie's father had been a forward thinking fellow to allow his daughter her freedom to pursue medicine, and we wish she could have become a doctor.

Will was a bit of a weak character, he was not liked much, until after the war when he improved. There is some confusion about his status within the cricket club. Was he a Gentleman or a Player?

6 read it, the grade was 6 +/- 2

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Saturday March 1, 2014 -  Telegraph book of the week:- Perfect by Rachel Joyce
And what Elena Seymenliyska has to say about Harold Fry.  We await our reading group review.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10132028/Perfect-by-Rachel-Joyce-review.html

The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Harold Fry has a lonely life on the south coast. He and his wife stopped communicating years ago. They remain polite and care for each other, but have not really spoken for years. A letter arrives telling Harold that Queenie, a former colleague who left the area years previously, is dying in a hospice in Berwick. We gradually learn of the former friendship between Harold and Queenie, never more than a friendship, and the fact that Queenie had once made a sacrifice on Harold's behalf that Harold has never acknowledged.  Full of remorse and emotion, Harold writes to Queenie and heads out to post the letter. He is wearing yachting shoes, and, fortunately, has his wallet with him.

This is the start of his pilgrimage. He never posts the letter, but sends a message to say that he is coming, and that Queenie should "hold on". He has no map, no suitable clothing and no real plan, but heads north. He meets people, is treated kindly, gets lost, sleeps rough and is featured in the newspapers. A following of pilgrims, each with their own needs, is initially a boost but becomes a distressing burden.

His wife, after the initial concern when he failed to return from the post box, gradually comes to admire his resolve. We learn that she believes that Harold has Alzheimer's, and she reflects on their relationship. We learn of their son, intelligent and troubled, who eventually took his own life in Harold's shed, destroying his parent's lives.

Harold eventually reaches Queenie, and at the finish we feel that Harold and his wife may have a better future together.

The book has warmth and humour and a dog. It has cancer and nuns. Gratuitously grim, irritatingly unlikely or a moving portrayal of grief and guilt? The book divided the group, some of whom could admire it but found it too depressing.

The score was 6, which ranged between 2 and 10!

Dec-Jan 2014 Miller (pure) and Mantel (Bring up the Bodies)

 December 2013/Jan 2014

Pure     by Andrew Miller

We were pleasantly surprised by this well written unusual book; the characters were well formed and interesting. The story was of a young man Jean-Baptiste Barratte who was commissioned to undertake the removal of the dead who were buried in a cemetery in the centre of Paris. The cemetery was overflowing with bodies and was causing a health hazard, the smell and description of the place was horrendous. This was engineer Jean-Baptiste first contract, he had good references and hoped to work on a substantial project. but undertook this unpleasant job hoping to further his career.

After assessing the situation he arranged for miners from Normandy along with his friend Lacoeur to dig up the bodies, which were then transferred to consecrated ground in a quarry outside Paris, where they remain to this day. The whole exhumation of the cemetery was months of disgusting work.

During this time Jean-Baptiste lived close to the cemetery with the Monnard family, the daughter Zigiette took objection to his work which we believe affected her mind and during the night came to his room and tried to bludgeon him to death. The maid, Marie saved his life but the attack left him with brain damage, he could continue his work but could not read and write afterwards. Jean-Baptiste had met and lived with a prostitute Heloise Gadard who was educated and helped him with his work. He was a very likeable character and felt great sympathy for him throughout the book.

During the book we were introduced to Armand and his partner Lisa, and the sexton's young daughter Jeanne. Lacoeur raped Jeanne, this was not a gruesome scene in the book, but written with sensitivity but the mood of the book changed after this.

We felt we would not recommend this book to our friends as the beginning was so off putting. It did gain momentum, it was very descriptive and clever and all had to finish it. We noted that it won the 'Costa' book of 2011 .

Unforgettable Marks 8/8/7/8/8/7/8 = 54= 7.7

Bring up the Bodies     by Hilary Mantel

Some of our group thought this book was excellent and easy to read, others thought it was slow but gathered pace as it got going. Some didn't think very highly of it at all, and thought it took a lot to say a little, so it was a 'mixed bag' within our group. We understand there is a third book coming out and so some of us are looking forward to it. There is also a play in the making, which incorporates both Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies to be shown in London.

A few felt sympathy for Thomas Cromwell and wished he would leave the kings service, but really his life at court was of his own making, with all the manipulation he did on the Kings behalf, no wonder he was disliked. Many were afraid of his power whilst he was in, the Kings favour and he had many enemies just waiting for his fall from grace. All this was with the knowledge that the King could tum on him in a second as he had done with Cardinal Wolsey, who was Cromwell's idol and benefactor. During the book Cromwell takes revenge with the five courtiers who were disrespectful to Wolsey after his death.

The main story was the removal of the Kings second wife Anne Boleyn to make way for his third wife Jane Seymour, and we all know that plot.

      Marks 8/7/6/6/7/10/6 = 50 = 7.1             

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These were taken from the printed page, photographed, displayed in Irfanview and I used the Kadmos OCR plug-in to convert them back to electronic text, then corrected the errors put in by the OCR translation, and here they are.   The OCR  was not too happy with the times New Roman text-  a capital T came out as 'I' and the 'e's were mostly transcribed as 'c'.