Away, Amy Bloom

What a start to the New Year - another new member, and certainly our youngest ever.  Lara returned to us with her nearly 2 month-old baby son Thomas!  He slept through all the cooing (and the rest of the meeting), but luckily Amy Bloom’s Away provoked plenty of discussion so we didn’t mind Thomas’s lack of conversation.

As always it seems, we had a great variety of reactions to Away, but I think there was general agreement that it was a well written book and enjoyed by everyone at least in parts, if not the whole.  We spent a lot of time looking in particular at the character of Lillian – there was very much a split between those who felt she was traumatised and simply following her survival instincts through the book, whereas for others there was just not enough about her and her thoughts to engage with.  The ending also provoked a lot of differing opinions – some thought it showed that Lillian had somehow come alive again or learnt to live again through her journey and experiences, and so was able to let go of her need to get to Siberia, whereas for others the fact that she effectively gave up on Sophia to live a new life with John was incomprehensible and frustrating.

For many, it seemed to be a book of two halves – her New York life, and then the journey to Alaska, which, with its very different chapters, felt rather episodic and almost more like a series of short stories.  Again, some liked and accepted this, whereas it didn’t work for others.  There was general agreement that Bloom was very good at establishing the other characters in the book – Ruben and Gumdrop were popular, as was Yaakov whose relationship with Lillian and subsequent death was very poignant.   It was noted that he was one of the few characters not to have a happy ending.  Bloom’s device of spelling out the lives of different characters as the narrative left them was generally liked, although for some the ending for Lillian was a little abrupt.

A few members were not keen on the amount and descriptions of the sex of the book, and there was some discussion about Lillian’s attitude to the sex – whether she was a willing participant in some of it, or whether she regarded it as simply part of what she needed to do in order to survive.

Overall though I’d say this was one of our more popular books – a good start to the year!

See you all in February

Cathy

Happy New Year!

I hope 2010 is full of lots of really good books for you all!  We now have our programme of books for book group meetings up until June – hopefully something for everyone, personally I can’t wait for May and June!

Our next meeting is this Wednesday (13th Jan) when we’ll be talking about Amy Bloom’s Away - hopefully the snow won’t return (at least before then), and I look forward to seeing everyone, existing and new members, at the Trojan Rooms, in the Avalon Hotel on South Parade at 7.30pm.

Our Feb book is The Other Hand, by Chris Cleave, which I admit is not an easy read in terms of the issues that it raises, but I do hope it will lead to an interesting discussion (I have to say that – it was my recommendation at the meeting in Nov when we all brought books along for consideration!)

Our March book is Gordon Burn’s The News as a Novel.  Gordon Burn was a Newcastle writer (he died last year) and is the subject of a planned retrospective by New Writing North in March, hence the tie-in of one of his books.

In April we have The Shadow of a Smile by Kachi Ozumba, a first novel from Ozumba who teaches Creative Writing at Newcastle University, about a Nigerian student imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit.

In May we have the Booker-shortlisted Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, followed…

In June by the also-Booker-shortlisted The Little Stranger by Sarah Walters.  I’ve loved all her other books so have high hopes of this one!

There is no specific book planned for July, so we have various options – we could choose a book in May or June for the July meeting by bringing along our own selections and voting as we did in Nov, or we could make it a more informal meeting just looking at books in general, making it an opportunity to either share our own favourites, or else to shout out about a neglected book that deserves more attention.  Or any other ideas welcome – we’ve plenty of time to decide, and books to read in the meantime.

Lastly – thank you to all who came along to our Christmas meal way back in Dec.  In amongst the good food and Christmas chat we even managed to talk about Sarah Hall’s How to Paint a Dead Man.  It was a generally well-liked book, the writing was much admired, and the characters and storylines provoked some good discussion.

But for now I’m away to Away – see you on Wednesday!

Cathy

A Perfectly Good Family, Lionel Shriver

Thanks to everyone who came along last week, and a special welcome to the three new people, who hopefully liked what they found!

Lionel Shriver’s “A Perfectly Good Family” proved generally popular.  Most of us seemed to like or even love the book in varying degrees, although one member had so little empathy with the characters that she found it hard to like the book either.  There was considerable  admiration for the writing, and for the perceptive and unsentimental look at family life.  We talked at length about the three siblings, who we felt were all interesting and believable characters, generally felt to be quite unlikeable, but each did have at least some good points.  (As opposed to Averil, whom no-one seemed to like!)  Whilst we were all glad not to have any of them in our own families, nonetheless the siblings still provoked different reactions in different people – some prefered one to another, with no one sibling being either the most liked or disliked. 

Most of the group found the resolution of the central inheritance issue something of a let-down, even a “cop-out”, and equally, many were left unsatisfied with the sudden change of pace towards the end when a number of strands of the story were abruptly and even perhaps too neatly tied up. 

We moved on to look at some choices for our February book – we eventually decided to go with Chris Cleave’s “The Other Hand”, with “The Book Thief” and “The Red Tent” potentials for another time.  We also touched on Audrey Niffenegger’s new book “Her Fearful Symmetry” and Zoe Heller’s “Notes on a Scandal” and hopefully they’ll come back up again too. 

And finally, we decided to have our December meeting at a local Italian restaurant, San Carlo’s – hopefully the combination of good food and a good book (Sarah Hall’s How to Paint a Dead Man) will work well!  The restaurant is also on South Parade, on the same side as the Trojan Rooms, but further down towards the sea.  I’ve booked a table for 7.30 on Weds 9th Dec for all those who were at the meeting, but if you can’t make it after all, please do let me know.  Alternatively, if you weren’t able to make the Nov meeting, but would like to come to the meal, please do let me know here whitleybaybg@newwritingnorth.com and I’ll get a place set for you!

Hope to see you all at San Carlo’s in December!

Cathy

Talk of the Town, Jacob Polley

First of all, thank you to everyone who braved the drizzly weather last night, and a special welcome to newbie Rachel!

Reactions to Jacob Polley’s Talk of the Town proved to be very mixed, starting with the cover of the book itself – some of us were put off by the photo of a young lad smoking, others said that had they seen it in a bookshop it was intriguing enough to have made them pick up the book.  From there we had further split opinions on the dialect – some found it off-putting and in one case extremely hard to read.  We did have a Cumbrian-born in our midst, who said that once she got used to seeing it written down rather than spoken, she found the dialect convincing.  The lack of punctuation was off-putting for some, and even annoying to others.

We talked about the characters - many people found them all very hard to like or even empathise with.  Some sympathy was voiced for Chris, for Arthur (and also for his parents), and perhaps most universally for the tramp, in what was felt to be a very powerfully wrought section of the book.  The unprovoked nature of the attack on the tramp led us on to discuss the way that the older boys/men, Booby, Carl etc, could be as cruel to each other - for example Carl’s torture - as to others outside their group, and that the book was an interesting insight into the workings of peer groups, and especially the way younger boys look up to older ones and seek to emmulate them.  There was a feeling that Arthur had followed the classic path of being sucked into it all out of a need or desire to belong to the group.

The sense of time and place was felt to be well realised, and there were also some great insights into the inner life and thoughts of a young adolescent.  It was pointed out that Chris at least did not come from a particularly deprived background – his father had a job, he and his mother obviously had a strong bond, and when he was sent out for the day, it was at least with money in his pocket. 

Again there were mixed feelings about the plot and where it was going to lead, but interestingly, no-one in the group of nine had foreseen that Arthur’s role in the death of the tramp was not what Chris had assumed.  It was noted that there were quite a few loose ends left unresolved at the end of the book, not least what happens to Arthur, but generally this was not felt to be a failing, but rather perhaps a reflection on just how life is.

Returning to Whitley Bay - a couple of diary reminders: Whitley Bay’s literary festival, WORDplay is happening this weekend at St Paul’s Church from 10 to 5.30 – as mentioned in the last post they’re looking for some volunteers to help out on the day, or otherwise please do check out www.culturequarter.org for full listings and go along on the day!

And don’t forget that we can see both the authors of our next two books at BBC’s Free Thinking Festival at the Sage.  On Saturday 24th October  the event with Lionel Shriver (A Perfectly Good Family, Nov book) will be on from 10.30 til 11.30, and the following day, Sun 25th, Sarah Hall (How to Paint a Dead Man, Dec book) will also be on from 10.30 to 11.30.  Both events are free but entrance is by tickets, available in advance from the Sage box office on 0191 443 4661 or via their website.

And finally – at our November meeting we’ll be choosing a book for the group to read for our February meeting.  Please bring along a favourite read which you think could lead to a good book group discussion – there’ll be a chance for everyone to “sell” their book at the meeting, and then we’ll come up with one choice to read for the actual meeting in Feb and hopefully a whole list of other books we’d like to add to our Christmas wish list!

see you at the Sage or at the November meeting!

Cathy

WORDplay, Saturday 17th October, Whitley Bay – volunteers needed!

As many of you by now will hopefully know, Whitley Bay is getting its very own literary festival, WORDplay, to be held in St Paul’s Church and Parish Centre on Saturday 17th October.  The organisers have asked me to see if anyone would be able to volunteer a few hours on the day, to be around as extra pairs of hands.  If you think you can help out, please get in touch with Linda MacFadyen, events@culturequarter.org.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

What a great start to our autumn season – 3 new people!  (Once they’d found their way in through the Avalon Hotel next door – there is usually an A-board out in front of the Trojan Rooms explaining the route!)

Before we got down to Nineteen Eighty-Four, we looked at the books we’re doing for the next few months, including Lionel Shriver’s A Perfectly Good Family, which links in with her appearance at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival at the Sage Gateshead on Sat 24th October.  Also – Whitley Bay is getting its very own Literature Festival – WORDplay – on Sat 17th Oct, 10-5.30pm at St Paul’s Church.  It will combine a book fair, author and poetry readings, writing workshops for adults and children, and local theatre company performances.  As the saying goes – see local press for details over the coming weeks, events@culturequarter.org or info@outsideinevents.co.uk or just go along on the day and support and show your support.

Once we got down to it, Nineteen Eighty-Four provoked a really good discussion on everything from the book itself, to the level of surveillance in society today, politics, history, power for power’s sake and individuals’ responsibilities in society.  I think it’s fair to say everyone liked it (can you say you love something that bleak?), and all were struck by how many things in the book resonated in today’s society, and how many of his ideas and phrases have entered our culture, from Big Brother (although we did question how many participants know where the reference comes from, or even realise it’s from a book!) and Room 101 on TV, to the phrases such as doublethink and thought police.  We also talked about how perceptions of the book, and even its very success might have been different if the alternative title that Orwell was toying with – Last Man in Europe – had been chosen instead.

As a body of writing we liked the way Orwell both developed the story and described the world they lived in, although there was some doubt that had it been printed today such a long continuous chunk of Goldstein’s book (30-pages plus!) would have been included – there was general sympathy for Julia falling asleep while Winston read to her (and us)!

Incidently, I was orginally putting 1984 as the title of this book, until I came across the following comment in the Time Higher Education, “The change from a number written out as words to Arabic numerals in itself mimics the terrifying reduction of words and thoughts in the world Orwell creates.”  So back to the words then, even though they take longer to type!

Our next book is Jacob Polley’s Talk of the Town.  I’ve just started it and am already fascinated by the dialect – looking forward to seeing what everyone else makes of it – see you in October!

Cathy

Welcome to Life, Alice de Smith

Well, we’re back in business, with apologies again for the cancelled June meeting, especially to any of you we didn’t reach with the news.  Thanks to the nice people at the Trojan Rooms there was at least a note on the door telling you what had happened, but if you did end up at the Trojan Rooms on the night, you might want to think about the contact details that Liv has for you!

And so on to the meeting - reactions to Welcome to Life varied from OK to not really liking it at all.  Most of us found it a very easy, well paced read, although perhaps rather ”lightweight”.  Some felt there was not a strong enough sense of time and place – Jane suggested that more references to the music, films and TV that Freya and her friends were into would have placed the book more firmly in 1989.  Conversely references to cappucinos and paninis were questioned, although perhaps Cambridge was just ahead of where we all lived in 1989!

Most people found it hard to connect with or get involved with the characters too much, although we found the Glinkas interesting and would have liked to know more about them.  We talked about how the book could have been grittier – although that’s quite a difficult one because it’s the author’s right to write their own book, not ours to want it to be a different book! – but it did then lead on to a discussion about what genre we thought the book should fit into.  We felt that it wasn’t really chick lit, and despite it being told from the point of view of a teenager, those with knowledge of current teenagers didn’t think it would appeal to them, or was particularly aimed at them.

The ending provoked a lot of discussion – nearly all of us felt we’d have prefered the book to have ended with Millie’s last note to Freya telling her to always remember she was the most beautiful girl in the world (certainly an improvement on “be less scary”!).  There was some disquiet at the fact that Freya seemed so much more comfortable with her mother after her accident, in her reduced and more compliant state, although Shana pointed out that she’d read that as meaning she was coming to terms with Millie and her behaviour before the accident, at least as much as after it.

We then moved onto to talking about other books – Jane suggested another local author, Carol Clewlow’s Not Married, Not Bothered, and then told us about Black Swan Green – similar coming-of-age theme as Welcome to Life, but set slightly earlier and told from a boy’s point of view.  She did such a good job of selling the book that I was off to Whitley Bay this morning in a successful search for the copy she’d seen in a charity shop!

Brenda mentioned that she’d heard about a literary festival to be held in Whitley Bay - I’m afraid I haven’t been able to find out anything about it, but if anyone else knows more about it, please do let me know!

And so now, for all those who feel our last couple of choices may have been a little less than challenging, and dare I say it, fluffy, we move on to 1984….  I ought to confess that when I put it forward as one of several hopefully diverse choices which were then voted on, I had fairly recently re-read Brave New World (which I still loved), but hadn’t read 1984 for ages (in fact, since 1984) and so I thought putting it forward might give me an excuse to read it again.  Having read it while recuperating (not a choice I recommend for a speedy recovery) I can say categorically that fluffy it is not!  If anyone has any other books with similar themes (apart from Brave New World, which I’ll bring), then please do bring them along to the next meeting, together with any other books you’d either like to suggest that we read for a meeting, or just generally publicise as a good read.  Alternatively you can post some suggestions here, or if you send an email marked for me to Liv, she can forward it on to me.

We don’t have a meeting in August, so our next meeting, to tackle 1984, is on 9th September, at 7.30pm – have a great summer and see you in September!

Cathy

June Meeting cancelled

Hello Everyone

By now you will all have hopefully been contacted by Liv one way or another to say that unfortunately we’ve had to cancel the June meeting.  I came off my bike at the end of May, and altho the broken arm and dislocated elbow are doing OK, I’m afraid I’m still not quite up to leading the book group yet.   I’m really sorry, but look forward to seeing you all on 8th July, when we’ll talk about Alice de Smith’s Welcome to Life.  We then have a break in August, and come back on 9th September, for the much postponed, but quite timely (60 yrs since publication) 1984.

In the meantime I am at least getting a chance to read some of the books from my much-too-big “to-read” shelf, which is a bonus.  If anyone has any favourite reads they’d like to share with the group, please do bring them along to the July meeting, and hopefully we can all go away with some good ideas for summer-holiday reading !

See you all in July!

Cathy

The Room of Lost Things – Stella Duffy

Well – our biggest meeting yet!  Thanks to all who came along, and a special welcome to the newbies!

There was quite a mixed reaction to Stella Duffy’s “The Room of Lost Things” – I think it’s fair to say no-one actually disliked it, but the feelings ranged from loving it, to it just being OK.  Those of us who loved it seemed to particularly enjoy the insight into so-called “ordinary” lives and the minute details with which Duffy built up the people and places.  The mundaneness of the area was questioned as a location for the book, but again (apart from being where Duffy herself lives) it was felt that the very ordinaryness of the area was what made it interesting and was justification in itself as a location.

For some the title of the book had proved something of a red herring and they’d thought and hoped that more would be made of the items in the Room of Lost Things, and that they would have some significance or link to the other characters in the book.

The dual endings also provoked some good discussion.  For some the negative ending had seemed predictable and inevitable, whereas for others it would have seemed out of character.  The two alternative endings gave a choice, and there was no consensus as to which was preferred or “right”.  For a few though there was frustration that Duffy had not actually “done her job” and provided a “proper” ending!

As it is a book of details I’ll end with a couple – Dan and Charlie, the two guys who spend their days on the sofa watching the world go by are named for Dan Leno (a music hall comedian) and Charlie Chaplin who lived and worked respectively in the area.  And the Australian nanny’s full name is Helen Goff – Helen Lyndon Goff is the real name of P L Travers, the Australian author of the story of the most famous nanny of them all – Mary Poppins!

OK – I’ve finished showing off now, and instead I’m off to start our next book, hot off the presses and delivered in person to the meeting by the lovely Liv, “Welcome to Life” by Alice de Smith – see you on 10th June at 7.30!

Cathy

Out Stealing Horses, Per Pettersen

A slightly smaller group this time, but great to still have new faces joining us!

Out Stealing Horses was pretty well received.  We all enjoyed Per Pettersen’s  beautiful descriptions of the countryside, the unsentimental way the story was told, the small but insightful comments dotted through the book, and the way the two stories, present and past, were interwoven.  The character of Trond’s father in particular seemed to come out very clearly, and we talked a lot about the relationship with present day Lars, and also the brief meeting with his daughter, and what both told us about the man Trond had been in between the events related in the book.  Many of us said we’d look out for more of his in the future, which had to be a good sign of approval!

We also looked at the choices that NWN have put forward for their Read Regional in June, and we decided to go for Alice de Smith’s Welcome to Life.  Liv from NWN will be joining us for the May meeting and will have copies available for us to buy at the meeting – the book isn’t formally published until 1st June – at half price (£6.50 for the hardback).  Because of the Read Regional in June, we’ll now be doing 1984 in July, and since we don’t have a meeting in August we could look at a slightly longer book to read over the summer – any suggestions always welcome either here or at the meetings.

I hope everyone’s enjoying Stella Duffy’s The Room of Lost Things, and look forward to hearing what everyone thought on May 13th, at 7.30 – see you then!

Cathy