January 2017 - The Buddha in the Attic - Julie Otsuka

This is a composite story about Japanese brides who came to San Francisco in the early 20th Century starting from their journey by ship from their homeland to their lives in the USA.

For most of them their American lives failed to live up to their expectations as on the ship they nervously exchange photos of their future husbands. Experiences vary for individuals but variously work as servants, in commerce, on farms and for some in brothels. Many are treated badly and some die ( including in childbirth). Few of them learn English or integrate fully into the culture or social life of the area. It is not until their children are old enough to make friends that integration by this second generation begins.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbour they and their families are rounded up and interned. We then learn from an American narrator that their places homes and businesses- are taken by a new wave of immigrants from other parts of the US and life goes on with the Japanese missed by only a few for a short term

This was a short book, but not an easy read because of its composite nature. The 'voice' in all but the last chapter is one of the women but she uses 'we' and 'us' in Japanese literary style so we are unable to identify with individual characters as they struggle in their new life. Many of, unused to this style of writing felt that it made the book a less enjoyable read – but for others it emphasised the universality of the women's situation.

We discussed a theme which seems to recur in our own society: namely a pattern of immigration which brings first men to seek work and a better standard of living before sending for their wives and families. This is the often followed by a stage where the women who may have a limited understanding of the host culture and language and as a result may cling to their own compatriots as they struggle with daily life. This can be seen by the host nation as a 'protectionist' attitude to their own culture. Children may then as second generation become more integrated and help to break down barriers- in the book there is just such an example of a Japanese boy who leaves behind his jumper at his American friend's house and is clearly missed by his friend when he is interned.

Another theme which runs through this book is the secondary place of women in society and alongside this the ill treatment of many women by men in their lives. We acknowledged that not only was this characteristic of the period but also persists today in many countries and societies.

One comment made was that these women were in no worse a situation than many others of that time and indeed today. We also discussed why they may have chosen to emigrate from their homeland – although we learn early on that the reasons were many and varied – some were sold or forced into marriages by impoverished families and variously left homes on farms or in fishing villages. Others were city girls. Many chose this route in the hope for a better life in the US. Most had failed to find suitable husbands in Japan.

We mostly missed the relevance of the title – there was only one mention of 'the Buddha in the attic' and no explicit reference to this influence on their daily lives. Although we could infer that their stoicism derived from their Buddhist way of life.

In conclusion:

Some found the style irritating and felt it detracted from being able to identify with the individual women, so that you could follow their individual stories and lives. There was some acknowledgement of some lyrical and poetic language

Scores ranged from 4 to 6 with an average of exactly 5

December 2016 - Harvest - Jim Crace

Walt has lived with the workers on Mr Kent's estate for 12 years, had a wife and buried her and now has a relationship of convenience with a widowed neighbour. It appears to be a feudal village very set in its ways and customs. 

The story details event in the village after the harvest. It starts with a fire in Mr Kent's barn which in all likelihood was set by a trio of likely village lads after a drunken night out. But with the arrival of family of three into the community these become the scapegoats for the fire and the 2 newly arrived men are placed in the stocks. The woman has her head shaved but is still attractive to many of the village men including Walt.

The next new arrival is Mr Kent's cousin who comes with a 'surveyor' to claim the estate, and wants to enclose it for sheep farming. This would mean the loss of grazing and other long held rights for the villagers. Walt is deputed to assist the surveyor.

Following the violent death of Mr Kent's horse a couple of women are accused of witchery and are imprisoned in the manor house by the cousin's soldiery who torture and- the inference is- rape them. This includes the 5 year old harvest queen.

The villagers flee with as many of their possessions as they can manage. Walt is left to try to negotiate the release of the hostages with Mr Kent and to search for the surveyor who has vanished and the shaven headed woman who continues to surreptitiously feed her husband still in the stocks. (Her father having died there and been partially eaten by a pig!)

Eventually Mr Kent and his cousin all leave in stages with the hostages still guarded by the soldiers and Walt hides to see them go. He then releases the remaining stranger from the stocks who reunited with his wife takes up residence alongside Walt in the manor house (where Walt has already found the surveyor, long dead.) 

Walt is supposed to be guarding the estate but with the village deserted except for the two strangers whom he distrusts, he decides to pack up his possessions and leave.

The strangers loot and set fire to the manor house and they too leave.

This was not an easy book to get into although the descriptive language conjured up both attractive and shocking images. Most of us persevered to the end but there was some dissatisfaction with the inability to locate the tale in either time or place. In discussion we mooted the idea of England at the time of the first enclosure acts in C18 but this was by no means certain.

Others liked the fact that the lack of time and place gave it universality.

Themes we discussed included:

• The impact of new arrivals – immigrants – on a closed and traditional community
• The way in which such strangers can evoke suspicion and become scapegoats
• The never changing behaviour of young tearaways
• Fear of and resistance to change
• Abuse of women

missing books

A Man called Ove

Mr. Weston's Good Wine

My Life in Houses


and awaiting Oscar and Lucinda

October 2016 - Neil Gaiman: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

A very select group had a lively evening and among many other topics did discuss the book. There was agreement that the opening pages, which described a man leaving a funeral and deciding to visit a childhood home, engaged the reader and suggested that the story would be an easy read of reminiscences. The first notes of something very different came after his arrival at a seemingly traditional old-fashioned farm run by a mother and a grandmother, a daughter having apparently gone to Australia after the events that had occurred many years previously. The boy who had been living nearby had, after witnessing the suicide of his parents  opal miner lodger, sought refuge from an abusive father and unlikeable mother in a friendship with the daughter who seemed to be a couple of years older than him. A sequence of bizarre events followed, many quite gruesome, involving possession and magic, harpies and a fairy ring. During these events it became apparent that the Hempstock family at the farm were not normal humans and were virtually immortal, and that they had powers to fight evil and protect the good, which they eventually succeeded in doing. As an adult the boy had only vague memories of the titanic struggle for good in which he had taken part, and seemed nearly as bewildered on re-encountering the Hempstocks as the readers of the book, who were left with a lot of questions:-

Who or what were the Hempstocks?

When was the book set?

Whose was the funeral?

How old was the boy?  said at one point to be seven, but remarkably mature thinker -

What was the point of the opal miner?

How did his mother become an optometrist?

Was it a fairy story? Was it an allegory? Was it Sci-fi?

Who are the intended readers? Settled for teenagers but it did grip adults.

Despite all these questions there was general agreement that the book had strengths. The plotting was bold, the characters were vividly portrayed, especially the Hempstocks, and the writing had clarity and style.

Marks (from 5 people) Average 6.5 Range 6-7

July 2016 - England and Other Stories - Graham Swift

Sample of comments about this book:

-This book put me off reading. 

-Didn’t like the tenor of the stories – some were so negative.

-Would never read him again.

-Didn’t encourage her, nothing there that made her want to read another of his.

-Finished it and congratulated herself, but nothing stayed with her.

-Didn’t know what he was getting at.

-Didn’t see the point of them, very few had an outcome. Like vignettes.

-Not the sort of thing you want to read.

-Almost as if he was writing down ideas for stories.

- A couple of the later stories were quite interesting, but it was a lot of work to get there. 

3 of the six of us didn’t finish the book.

A couple of people thought that some of the stories were well written, but someone thought that it was poorly written.  Maggie wrote “I'm ploughing my way through the short stories but have yet to get to one which is in any way uplifting but in fairness I'm less than halfway through! I can appreciate, however, the skill in encapsulating a tale and painting believable pen portraits of the characters in just a few pages.”

He is supposed to be quite well thought of as an author. It was suggested that we try “Last Orders”, but I don’t think that we will be searching the shelves for the book.

A comment about the marks “5 for effort, but I don’t know whose”

Marks – 0  5 5 4 4   à 3 ½

June 2016 - Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

The story of Nora, who has just lost her husband Maurice, and has to work her way through her grief before she can be more optimistic about the future and her life with her young sons and improve her relationship with her older daughters who have left home. It is set on the East Coast of Ireland, with some references to the contemporary politics of the late 1960s to early seventies. 

Oonagh thought it improved on 2nd reading. Others described it as immersive while you read it, but easy to get distracted. 

It was described as about a process;

Nora had disappeared into her marriage and now it had tragically ended, had to chart a path through to a more independent future.

On discussion we thought Nora a not very likeable character but understandable.

Marks, very uniform, all 7 with one 8.

Drinks: 4 decaffeinated, 2 caffeine heavy and 1 tea.

March 2016 - The Marlowe Papers - Ros Barber

This was a full length novel written in blank verse- specifically iambic pentameter- modelled on the writing of William Shakespeare or possibly Christopher Marlowe.

The tale purported to be the story of Christopher Marlowe in exile as a heretic and atheist, at a time when religious extremism was rife under Elizabeth 1. He travels under a range of aliases often carrying out espionage missions for the Queen. He continues to write the entertaining  plays for which he gained renown and popularity in England ; but must now write under a nom de plume as he escaped from England having been helped to stage his own death. He steals the name of William Shakespeare an aspiring author who rarely leaves his country home.

Although some of us opened this book with some trepidation, we found it readable once we got into it. This was helped in some part by the way the verse was laid out on the page so that it was usually clear who was speaking. It helped too, that there were clear chapters often with helpful headings and some of them very short. The chronology of events, though, was not always easy to follow.

I'm not sure that any of us were convinced that CM was in fact WS but we all acknowledged the huge
amount of research underpinning this work. We recognised many of the historical figures included.

The Marlowe papers prompted an animated discussion, during which we were reminded that the written works of the Elizabethan and earlier periods grew out of an oral tradition.

Comments included:
I enjoyed it more than expected but could only read it in bite size chunks.
Enjoyed it but not something I'd usually read for pleasure.
Clever. I learned from it. A satisfying read
I loved it. It flowed over me. The love scenes were beautifully written.

Several of us admired the effort behind it and the ability to sustain the medium of verse in such a long work.
One person did not enjoy it as much, being concerned about the historical accuracy. And found it took a lot of reading to extract the story.
The scores:6;7;6;7;5;7;8 = 6.5