The conversation started like this: "it's nicely written but I found myself wondering where it was going, I got bored and had to force myself to finish it."
Oh no, I thought, this is going to be a one drink meeting and early to bed. How wrong was I? well, very!
Our resident Ian McEwan fan jumped in: "I absolutely adored it, it was extremely clever and there was a constant sense that this was going somewhere interesting, something would happen."
Now, I should have seen this coming as every time I have seen said fan recently she has been talking about how the 'tension' was building and wondering if I had got to the bit where...? and I was a bit bemused...
...because, my take on it is: I didn't get it! I didn't experience any tension but I really enjoyed the read and the characters. I thought it was a bit Bridget Jones in places, there were loose ends all over the place and the characters weren't all that convincing (I don't feel the author knew these people very well.) I was disappointed in the ending but probably because I failed to spot the 'clues' which were (according to no.1 fan) peppered throughout. As an Ian McEwan 'virgin' I didn't know to look for clues though!
Our education continued, we learned that this book is Ian McEwan's first happy story, and it was quirky and full of deceit. You see, I for one didn't realise it was happy and I didn't notice the deceit! We did all agree that we enjoyed the quirkiness of the novella's. Also, the writer character is, in fact, Ian himself. You do have to read the book to realise how highly he rates certain of his abilities and how funny that is.
So it seems that with Ian McEwan, you either love him or simply enjoy him. Certainly no-one hated the book but it was fabulous to have someone who was able to see the book for what it was and allow the rest of us to understand what makes a great spy story and to gain some appreciation for the talent Ian McEwan has. That is the beauty of a book group.
Of the characters most of us felt they were not very convincing. We did like Shirley a lot and Jeremy so Sarina (boring as she was) did choose her friends well.
Would we recommend this book? Yes, especially if you like Ian McEwan. And, if you haven't read him and don't know what to expect, give it a try and please look for the clues!
As agreed, some of our group also chose to read another of our choices: Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey. We didn't discuss this book in detail but the overriding response is it is very well written, gripping, and a great read.
Our next book is The Painter of Signs by R.K. Narayan. We will meet to discuss our reading experience on Thursday 14th May, 8pm at The Hundred. Again we were split in our choice and we will try to also read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. So we have a readathon going - happy reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment