November 2015 - The Goldfinch - Tartt

A former pupil of Rembrandt, Fabritius is regarded as a lost genius; barely a dozen of his works survive following the 1654 explosion in the Delft gunpowder Arsenal which killed hundreds of people including the young artist. One painting, often acknowledged as his masterpiece, is an exquisite tiny oil of a goldfinch, chained lightly by the ankle to its metal perch, affixed to a wall. 

As with Fabritius’s own sudden demise, The Goldfinch opens with catastrophe: an explosion at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, where 13-year-old Theo Decker and his mother have dropped by to see an exhibition of the Dutch Golden Age. She is killed in the disaster, her last words to her son seem prophetic: “I guess that anything we manage to save from history is a miracle.” 

Theo’s coming-to in the wintry stillness of the bombed-out galleries, his fear, disorientation and claustrophobia, the still lifes on the walls staring glassily down on the dust and rubble-covered scene, is a shocking opening to the book.

Initially Theo stays with ultra-polite, wealthy Manhattanites the Barbours, the family of a nerdish school friend. He also meets and develops a sort of father-son relationship with Hobie the partner of the old man in the museum, and a lifelong romantic affection for Pippa who also survived the explosion. After a few months his estranged alcoholic gambler of a father, accompanied by the lovely Xandra, abruptly whisks him to the parallel universe that is Las Vegas, where at first Theo’s only companion is a yapping miniature dog. Later he meets Boris, the boy who will become at the same time both his best friend and worst nightmare and is the character who brings a much needed element of black comedy to what would otherwise have been unrelieved blackness.

When his father dies while fleeing his creditors Theo runs away back to New York and becomes Hobie's business partner. This goes well until some shady characters find out that he has been passing off restorations as original pieces of antique furniture. Then Boris turns up to say that he had taken the Goldfinch from Theo's hiding place and lost it while using it as collateral in drug deals. They go to Amsterdam, kill some baddies, rescue the painting and claim the insurance reward which Theo uses to buy back the mis-sold antiques and so protect Hobie's good name.

The novel concludes with several pages of high-minded whimsicality along the lines that the deathlessness of a work of art can make the keenest losses more bearable. THE END!

Almost everyone enjoyed parts of the book. Most people's favourite sections were the explosion at the beginning and the gangster bit in Amsterdam at the end. There were mixed feelings about the schooldays in Vegas with Boris, but the years in New York through his twenties dragged a bit. The characters were all well drawn and interesting but the story could have been shorter. At the end of our discussion we were left with one big outstanding question:why did the silly boy take the painting in the first place?

Marks.   Average 7

               Range 6-8

October 2015- The Mission Song

The Mission Song - John Le Carre

When the Cold War ended, le Carré, the master of spy thrillers, turned to writing stories set in the third world, continuing the themes about which he clearly feels very strongly – corruption and betrayal. This one is set largely in an anonymous northern island, and is told in the first person by Bruno Salvador, a British citizen (or at least so he believes) who is sent to translate at a conference between a collection of conflicting Congolese tribal leaders/war lords and a shadowy organisation of nameless individuals called the Syndicate. An unnamed British government department has selected him because his background (an Irish Missionary father and a Congolese mother) means that he has acquired fluency in English, French, Swahili and a range of minor African languages. Bruno is initially pleased to help because of his empathy with the people of his homeland. The meeting is ostensibly about organizing a coup prior to planned elections, so that the ‘real’ democratic forces can seize control and the Syndicate can exploit the rich minerals for the benefit not only of themselves, but also of the Congolese people, who will receive the “People’s Portion”. Needless to say, all is not as it seems.

Bruno’s naïvity (and how can one so intelligent be so naïve?) is quickly stripped away as the relations between the Congolese delegates and the representatives of the Syndicate become clearer, and he becomes privy to an entirely different agenda. He is torn between his ethical principles and his professional duty as an impartial interpreter. When he chooses the former, and returns to London at the close of the conference he carries with him evidence of the coup. But remarkably he is still naïve enough to trust people in authority and so more betrayals occur. He is forced to go into hiding with a politically active Congolese nurse with whom he formed an instant romantic attachment after earlier having met her by chance while interpreting for a dying man in a London hospital. This part of the plot stretches credulity too far for me. In the end morality wins and Bruno, with help, does manage to stop the coup, but with serious consequences for him and his new girlfriend. At least they are alive; in real life I suspect they would have ‘disappeared’.

Overall the book is well-written and most of the characters are believable in terms of their dialogue and speech patterns, but the plot, which bears some resemblance to the notorious botched 2004 attempt to organize a coup in Equatorial Guinea that involved Mark Thatcher, is rather turgid and little more than a polemic against the wickedness of Western influence in Africa, even though most of the Congolese characters are just as venal. Reviewers have pointed out a number of weak plot features, which I agree with. For example: how is it that one of the Congolese ‘war lords’ is brutally tortured by agents of the Syndicate, but within a few hours appears at the conference table full of life and none the worse for his ordeal; why doesn’t Bruno copy his stolen material while on the run; and why was he not searched when he left the island at the end of the conference?

Le Carré has written many marvellous spy novels and some of his later efforts after the Cold War era are almost as good, but this is not one of them.

No score available. 

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

A short book, an easy read, but expertly crafted. Written in the first person it tells the story of Changez, a bearded Pakistani, as revealed to an American stranger who may or may not be FBI. We learn that Changez has lived in the US, was top of his class at Princeton and snapped up by Underwood Sampson, a consultancy firm,on graduation. He lived the good life, with position, money and parties, working hard until, on assignment in Chile, he realises how much the US interferes in other countries, and he stops working and is subsequently fired. And then comes 9/11, and he realises, as he sees the twin towers fall that he wants  to harm America. And as he realises, in the aftermath, that he is somehow  treated differently, we get some understanding of why. 

Here he is, back in Lahore, presumably now a "fundamentalist". He is teaching and we learn that he was initially against violence, but experiences have made him change his mind. 

The atmosphere is tremendous with an undercurrent of tension throughout.  Did the relationship with Erica, the rich American girl add anything? - perhaps it added to his story that he was an outsider, not really accepted in the US and had chosen an unsuitable girl. 

The book gives a glimpse of life in a troubled Pakistan, on the brink of war with India. As Changez travelled back to the US after a visit home he realised that the plane was full of bright young people from his home country being removed to safely in the west, and found himself full of contempt. 

So, why is he talking to the stranger? We learn that he now has a position of influence in his own country and, presumably, is teaching against the west. Is he acting alone? What about the waiter? Or the power cut? And what happened at the end?- we were divided in our thoughts. Clearly something happened. A killing? A kidnap? Of whom? 

Most of us enjoyed the book, although Alison did not like the style. It led to a discussion of displacement and the tendency of people from similar cultures to want to live together.

 A good read. 

Average mark 7.5 ( 6 - 10!)

2015 - August Stone's Fall by Pears, Iain

A book told in three parts: 1909, 1890, and 1867. It actually starts in 1953 with the funeral of Elizabeth, when Braddock a young journalist in 1909 is handed a sealed document. In 1909 Braddock had been employed by Elizabeth to ostensibly write a biography of John Stone, but actually to find the child mentioned in Stone's will. This contains the stories written by Cort in 1890 and the one written by Stone before he kills himself about his time in Venice in 1867. Stone's fortune is built upon the design for a torpedo that he rescues from the Venetians after MacEwan gets into financial difficulty. It is a surprise to find out that Henry Cort is Elizabeths half-brother and that Stone has married his daughter. 

anomalies: 

1890 Cort was trained by Drennan/LeFevre but didn't know him before [Part 2]

1867 Venice – Cort and Drennan dine together with the Ambassador [Part 3] This is Cort Pere.

1867 page 468 Cort stops the man and asks him who are you. The man responds in English “I am Venice” Next sentence it says that he responded in Venetian.

July 2015 - Snowdrops by Miller, A.D.

You grasp the tenor of this book as soon as you realise that the eponymous snowdrops are not the beautiful white flowers that push their way through the snow in the Lake District alongside the daffodils. Rather they are the corpses in Moscow that poke up in the melting snow of Spring; corpses that might be homeless people or drunks or even victims of murder. One such is revealed, with his leg stuck out of the boot of a car and already smelling unpleasant, outside the apartment of Nicholas a young British expat lawyer. Although the story of how this body got there is rather a side issue, it serves to set the scene.
Nicholas is the narrator and the reader follows his progress as he becomes ensnared by two beautiful Russian girls and separately by a wheeler dealing Russian conman in a cowboy hat. By the time he comes to suspect - rather later than the reader - that he is being used he is in too deep to extricate himself or doesn't want to in case it jeopardises his relationship with Masha. This leads to them conning a little old lady out of her apartment with the promise of a better one out of town. In Russia similarly conned people become snowdrops as in the original corpse in the car.
The book received many glowing reviews and not only on its own cover. However the group was for once as one in thinking the cover came from a different book. There was a feeling that the book was chillingly accurate in its portrayal of a corrupt and immoral post-Soviet Russia but that the characters themselves were not well filled out, being almost shadowy caricatures. Maggie called it a thriller without the thrill, a description we liked and this was particularly true because the narrator is telling this to his new fiancee back in England so that we know he emerged relatively unscathed - although this relationship was unlikely to survive the telling. There was a feeling that Nicholas himself was not entirely credible in his naivete as he was a lawyer who had been four years in Moscow.
The marks were so uniform as to hardly need Peter's mathematical skills.

Marks 5 (one 6 balanced by a 4, all the others gave 5)

Nb Ros read it in 2013 and has the photo to prove it. 

June 2015 A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki

Well there were 4 of us at book group, and those of us who had read the book liked it a lot! Even Peter, who sadly could not be with us, liked it a lot.

Written by Ruth Ozeki, a Zen Buddhist Priest who lives in partly in British Columbia and partly in New York, it is about Ruth, a Japanese American writer who lives in British Columbia and would rather be in New York. She discovers a "Hello Kitty" lunch box on the beach which contains the diary of Nao, a 16 year old Japanese girl. Through it we learn of Nao's relationship with her father, her school mates and her grandmother and life in Japan, particularly the life of a family where the father is deemed a failure. We also learn of life on a British Columbian island, which is closed and rather limited.

Japanese culture does not accept failure. Suicide is common. There is cruelty  towards people who do not conform. However, there is also Buddhism and the contemplative life of the wise and ancient grandmother. Nao, growing up gradually learns that there is a noble side to her father as there was to her great uncle, so the book has a redemptive end which worked well.

I loved it. I learned about Japanese society from the book and from the discussion. I think the book cleverly links numerous themes which include the Pacific gyre, the tsunami, Buddhism, suicide, prostitution, Kamikaze pilots, quantum physics and lost cats, and although I found the crueller aspects hard to read, there was a purpose to them. There was also some magical realism, which never goes amiss!

I gave it 9 and failed to record the other excellent scores!

RJP 30 July 2015

2015 April & May

Well, If nobody sends me the writeups, I can't post them. Alison  also has editing privileges.

So from my records of what I wrote and Alison and Chris's reviews, that's what you get.

April:   The Lie by Helen Dunmore

I expected better of Helen Dunmore. It's about a young soldier returned from the war in which his best friend, the wealthy Frederick, has died. They were together at that time. He is living in an old lady's house and has buried her without telling anyone when she died. Is this the lie? He keeps having flashbacks and telling his past history. I gave up on page 190 when Danny ended up kissing Frederick. The last page indicates that Danny kills himself.


May:- The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year   by Sue Townsend

I did like the comic elements in this book, which I had in fact read before. There were more serious points too although I'm not quite sure what they were. Perhaps that if you build someone upon a pedestal they are quite likely to have feet of clay. Sometimes books expect you to believe the unbelievable, and then when you see people in the plot not believing it, you begin to think, you're right, it is unbelievable, she was mad (in the loosest sense of yes, she had psychiatric problems). Still she could hardly be blamed with those terrible twins and philandering husband. Though I did like the open house and household arrangement, it seemed to almost work for a while. Even her husband's mistress fed her occasionally.

One of the saddest fallouts from the whole plot seem to be the poor Chinese boy who was out of his depth with the conniving Poppy. His poor parents.

I give it 7 as an easy comic read but made up, almost, of caricatures. Fizzled out a bit at the end. Ali.


The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year

Loved the quirkiness of the beginning. Laughed (although not outloud) at the development of story during first two thirds of the book. Felt dismay at Eva's downhill slide towards the end and felt the tale fizzled out at it's finale. Was this ending a "don't try this at home" warning to the thousands of people Sue Townsend thinks are in desperate straits? She paints a ghastly picture of modern youth that just doesn't chime with how I remember my children and their friends at that age. She may well abhor the callous and vitriolic comments made on social media but isn't this just that the nutters who have always been there now have a more efficient way of making themselves heard?
Score 7 Chris

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After 1 1/2 pages I knew it was going to be a depressing book. Children starting at university was totally unrealistic. The children were unrealistic. The writing style was juvenile(?) and light, and did not draw you into the book. I would have laughed at the idea of the husband being locked out if it wasn't so depressing. Gave up after less than a dozen pages.  Mark 0. P.