Just 4 of our group met to discuss this book.
One of our 4 had been unable to get a copy of the book from the local library service and had not read it. So the other 3 of us had a lovely time recounting the story and reading short extracts to illustrate our commentary and to highlight the superb way in which Toni Morrison writes.
The story focuses on the lives of black Americans living in Ohio in the 1940's. The story of each character is told and then pieced together, with the other stories, into a haunting tale of lives in a time, and place, where prejudice and poverty led to tragedy and guilt. Indeed one of our absent members declared her own feelings of guilt for "something our own country is partly responsible for".
The characters (white, black, mixed race, poor, comfortable, rich) were all, in some way, part of the life of a young black girl, Percola, who lives in the poorest of circumstances. Despite her grim life, all Percola wants is to have blue eyes.
It is hard to say whether our discussion is really representative of our group. I came home to an email from a member of our group who said: I started but got bored, disliked the style of writing and generally felt that life was too short to persevere with a book I’m not enjoying! So, not everyone enjoyed it and I suspect some other members of our group didn't come along because it was dismal weather and the enthusiasm to discuss this book was just not there.
So, would we recommend it? I don't really know. It's quite a personal read. I think it's one to try and probably not an ideal book for group discussion.
Here's hoping for a more invigorating discussion when we all meet again after Christmas having read our next choice, and final book of the decade: Early one Morning by Virginia Baily which we will discuss at 8pm in The Hundred of Ashendon on Thursday 16th January 2020.
Friday 22 November 2019
Friday 15 November 2019
Reading Choices for the Festive Season
So, we need a good read for the Christmas period, in readiness for a nice long session at our local pub in cold and Frosty January. The choices are here.
We will meet at 8pm on Thursday 21st November in The Hundred of Ashendon to discuss The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and then choose our next book from the below.
"Pilgrim" is an American former intelligence agent known as the "Rider of the Blue" who later writes a book on forensic pathology. Pilgrim becomes involved in a case in New York City where a mysterious woman uses his book to commit untraceable murders in the aftermath of 9/11.
The "Saracen" is a Saudi who becomes radicalised by watching his father's beheading. He later trains as a doctor and fights in the Soviet–Afghan War. Pilgrim is recalled to the intelligence community who have detected a threat involving the Saracen, who has created a vaccine-resistant strain of the variola major virus.
Two women's decision to save a child during WWII will have powerful reverberations over the years.
Chiara Ravello is about to flee occupied Rome when she locks eyes with a woman being herded on to a truck with her family.
Claiming the woman's son, Daniele, as her own nephew, Chiara demands his return; only as the trucks depart does she realize what she has done. She is twenty-seven, with a sister who needs her constant care, a hazardous journey ahead, and now a child in her charge.
Several decades later, Chiara lives alone in Rome, a self-contained woman working as a translator. Always in the background is the shadow of Daniele, whose absence and the havoc he wrought on Chiara's world haunt her. Then she receives a phone call from a teenager claiming to be his daughter, and Chiara knows it is time to face up to the past.
When Adela Quested and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, they quickly feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced 'Anglo-Indian' community. Determined to escape the parochial English enclave and explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz, a cultivated Indian Muslim. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves with Aziz, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal that rouses violent passions among both the British and their Indian subjects. A masterful portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India compellingly depicts the fate of individuals caught between the great political and cultural conflicts of the modern world.
We will meet at 8pm on Thursday 21st November in The Hundred of Ashendon to discuss The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and then choose our next book from the below.
I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
The "Saracen" is a Saudi who becomes radicalised by watching his father's beheading. He later trains as a doctor and fights in the Soviet–Afghan War. Pilgrim is recalled to the intelligence community who have detected a threat involving the Saracen, who has created a vaccine-resistant strain of the variola major virus.
Early One Morning by Virginia Baily
Two women's decision to save a child during WWII will have powerful reverberations over the years.Chiara Ravello is about to flee occupied Rome when she locks eyes with a woman being herded on to a truck with her family.
Claiming the woman's son, Daniele, as her own nephew, Chiara demands his return; only as the trucks depart does she realize what she has done. She is twenty-seven, with a sister who needs her constant care, a hazardous journey ahead, and now a child in her charge.
Several decades later, Chiara lives alone in Rome, a self-contained woman working as a translator. Always in the background is the shadow of Daniele, whose absence and the havoc he wrought on Chiara's world haunt her. Then she receives a phone call from a teenager claiming to be his daughter, and Chiara knows it is time to face up to the past.
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
When Adela Quested and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, they quickly feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced 'Anglo-Indian' community. Determined to escape the parochial English enclave and explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr Aziz, a cultivated Indian Muslim. But a mysterious incident occurs while they are exploring the Marabar caves with Aziz, and the well-respected doctor soon finds himself at the centre of a scandal that rouses violent passions among both the British and their Indian subjects. A masterful portrait of a society in the grip of imperialism, A Passage to India compellingly depicts the fate of individuals caught between the great political and cultural conflicts of the modern world.
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