Book Choices - September 2012

THE BOY WITH THE TOP KNOT by Sathnam Sanghera

It's 1979, I'm three years old, and like all breakfast times during my youth it begins with Mum combing my hair, a ritual for which I have to sit down on the second-hand, floral-patterned settee, and lean forward, like I'm presenting myself for execution.

For Sathnam Sanghera, growing up in Wolverhampton in the eighties was a confusing business. On the one hand, these were the heady days of George Michael mix-tapes, Dallas on TV and, if he was lucky, the occasional Bounty Bar. On the other, there was his wardrobe of tartan smocks, his 30p-an-hour job at the local sewing factory and the ongoing challenge of how to tie the perfect top-knot.

And then there was his family, whose strange and often difficult behaviour he took for granted until, at the age of twenty-four, Sathnam made a discovery that changed everything he ever thought he knew about them. Equipped with breathtaking courage and a glorious sense of humour, he embarks on a journey into their extraordinary past - from his father's harsh life in rural Punjab to the steps of the Wolverhampton Tourist Office - trying to make sense of a life lived among secrets.

THE ENGLISH PATIENT by Michael Ondaatje

The English Patient is a 1992 novel by Sri Lankan-Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje. The story deals with the gradually revealed histories of a critically burned English accented Hungarian man, his Canadian nurse, a Canadian-Italian thief, and an Indian sapper in the British Army as they live out the end of World War II in an Italian villa. The novel won the Canadian Governor General's Award and the Booker Prize for fiction. The novel was adapted into an award-winning film of the same name in 1996. The narrative is non-linear and the main characters are examined in depth and detail.

The film stars Ralph Fiennes so you can imagine him as you read the book!

TARA ROAD by Maeve Binchy

(In honour of Maeve Binchy who died last month)

Ria Lynch and Marilyn Vine have never met. Their lives have almost nothing in common. Ria lives in a big ramshackle house in Tara Road, Dublin, which is filled day and night with the family and friends on whom she depends. Marilyn lives in a college town in Connecticut, New England, absorbed in her career, an in her life that is independent and private woman who is very much her own person. Two more unlikely friends would be hard to find. Yet a chance phone call brings them together and they decide to exchange homes for the summer. Ria goes to America in the hope that the change will give her space and courage to sort out the huge crisis threatening to destroy her. Marilyn goes to Ireland to recover in peace and quiet from the tragedy which she keeps secret from the world, little realising that Tara Road will prove to be the least quiet place on earth. They borrow each other's houses, and during the course of that magical summer they find themselves borrowing something of each other's lives, until a story which began with loss and suffering grows into a story of discovery, unexpected friendship and new hope. By the time Ria and Marilyn eventually meet, they find that they have altered the course of each other's lives forever.

When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman

Well we made another great book choice and had plenty to discuss at our meeting last night. We all agreed this was an excellent read though a few preferred the first half of the book to the second (because the latter lacked chronology).

Winman's descriptions of situations, smells, feelings, places etc. conjured up memories of events in our own lives. Perhaps it's because much of her story related to the time when most of us were children, we were able to relate to the luxury of Orange Maid ice lolly’s, the dream of winning The (Football) Pools, IRA Bombs that shook and destroyed lives and the community feel good factor of a Silver Jubilee. We could almost taste the '4 a penny' Black Jacks and Fruit Salad sweets and took time out to reflect on the freedom we had in our own childhoods. On a slightly darker note, for Sue Roberts the book brought back memories of a highly distressing school nativity play. At least now Sue understands why the thought of wearing brown tights is so traumatic for her!

This book tells a story of what could be regarded as a typical childhood in a loving and close family. The story that unfolds is far from typical and Elly (the central character who names her pet rabbit God) takes the reader on a journey that leaves the innocence of childhood behind (but not too far behind).

There is much humour throughout the book and yet a feeling of impending ‘disaster’ and an undercurrent that implies there is something ‘wrong’. Sometimes the wrong becomes evident but at other times the reader is left to wonder.

Relationships are the central theme – some are beautiful, some quirky others cruel and abusive. Elly and her family have strong family ties, they are close and loyal to one another and to those they love.

Of the characters we enjoyed the relationship between Mum and Nancy, we loved Arthur and Ginger and Elly’s family for taking them into their lives. Our hearts reached out for Jenny Penny. For Elly we were concerned for her apparent inability to lead a normal life with normal relationships.  Though she had an enviable relationship with her brother and her parents, and she cherished that and recognised it was more special than other children enjoyed:  that point is best defined by a line from the book itself:  “On the beach there were parents holding cigarettes and lager instead of their children’s hands.”

Would we recommend this book – most definitely.

Our next book choice is The Red House by Mark Haddon - we will meet to discuss this book on Tuesday September 11th. Sue Roberts has offered to 'host'.

July 2012 - Book Choices

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 10th July, 8.15pm at Gatehangers. We will be discussing When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman.

Here are our choices for our next read to see us through the Summer!

Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth 

Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their grimly impoverished surroundings, but also because of what they were expected to endure. But while Jennifer witnessed brutality and tragedy, she also met with amazing kindness and understanding, tempered by a great deal of Cockney humour. She also earned the confidences of some whose lives were truly stranger, more poignant and more terrifying than could ever be recounted in fiction. Attached to an order of nuns who had been working in the slums since the 1870s, Jennifer tells the story not only of the women she treated, but also of the community of nuns (including one who was accused of stealing jewels from Hatton Garden) and the camaraderie of the midwives with whom she trained. Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving, Jennifer's stories bring to life the colourful world of the East End in the 1950s.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver...

There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.

Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...

The Red House by Mark Haddon

After his mother's death, Richard, a newly remarried hospital consultant, decides to build bridges with his estranged sister, inviting Angela and her family for a week in a rented house on the Welsh border. Four adults and four children, a single family and all of them strangers. Seven days of shared meals, log fires, card games and wet walks.

But in the quiet and stillness of the valley, ghosts begin to rise up. The parents Richard thought he had. The parents Angela thought she had. Past and present lovers. Friends, enemies, victims, saviours. And watching over all of them from high on the dark hill, Karen, Angela's stillborn daughter.

The Red House is about the extraordinariness of the ordinary, weaving the words and thoughts of the eight characters together with those fainter, stranger voices - of books and letters and music, of the dead who once inhabited these rooms, of the ageing house itself and the landscape in which it sits. Once again Mark Haddon, bestselling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and A Spot of Bother, has written a novel that is funny, poignant and deeply insightful about human lives.

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

LOL - oh how we laughed out loud.

At last, a book we all agreed on, a laugh out loud, very funny read. All the better because not one of us expected an Evelyn Waugh book to be so hilarious, we were expecting a 'classic' of a more 'classic' kind.

Having not expected the story to unfold in the manner that it did meant the beginning was a little confusing but as the scene began to unfold it became clear that this book was confusion personified. That was one of the points. 

There were many points made by the author about foreign correspondence (as Sue Roberts, informed us in her very own scoop) Waugh had been one himself (for the Daily Mail) working in (among other places) Ethiopia and Jacksonville (in Scoop) is based on Addis Ababa.

For a book based in a far gone time (written in 1938) many of the tales and experiences shared were equally applicable to current times and press behaviour. Indeed the scramble for 'news' and a scoop today is only altered by the technology available to do whatever it takes to get it and get it reported first.

That said, the issues raised are a great snapshot of the time - declining Aristocracy, rise of Capitalism, Fascism, Bureaucracy gone mad, the rise of the servant classes, Germany and Russia. 

The little 'asides' throughout the book are wonderful and keep the humour flowing.

Of the characters we loved Mr Baldwin (and his Cuthbert), were thoroughly entertained by the crazy Mrs Stitch, were appalled by Lord Copper, disliked Katchen and felt very sorry for Salter (although all came good for him in the end). William was the most surprising character of all and can only be described as an assertive push over.

The cleft stick left us confused - apparently all: A cleft stick was a piece of wood with a 'Y' shaped end into which a message, or later a piece of newspaper copy, could be inserted for ease of carrying by a messenger. When Lord Copper suggests that Boot should take some cleft sticks with him to Abyssinia, he is implying that his correspondent might encounter some problems. Whether such implements were in reality still in use at the time of his Abyssinian adventure, who knows?

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 10th July at 8.15 when we will discuss When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman.  

Our Book Choices for May/June 2012

Next Meeting: On Tuesday 8th May, 8.15pm we will meet to discuss Scoop by Evelyn Waugh.

Next Book: The following books are our choices for the group 'read' during May and June:

When God was a Rabbit – Sarah Winman

Young Elly's world is shaped by those who inhabit it: her loving but maddeningly distractible parents; a best friend who smells of chips and knows exotic words like 'slag'; an ageing fop who tap dances his way into her home, a Shirley Basse impersonator who trails close behind; lastly, of course, a rabbit called God. In a childhood peppered with moments both ordinary and extraordinary, Elly's one constant is her brother Joe. Twenty years on, Elly and Joe are fully grown and as close as they ever were. Until, that is, one bright morning and a single, earth-shattering event that threatens to destroy their bond for ever. Spanning four decades and moving between suburban Essex, the wild coast of Cornwall and the streets of New York, this is a story about childhood, eccentricity, the darker side of love and sex, the pull and power of family ties, loss and life. More than anything, it's a story about love in all its forms.

Before I go to Sleep – SJ Watson 

Christine wakes up every morning in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar man. She looks in the mirror and sees an unfamiliar, middle- aged face. And every morning, the man she has woken up with must explain that he is Ben, he is her husband, she is forty-seven years old, and a terrible accident two decades earlier decimated her ability to form new memories. But it’s the phone call from a Dr. Nash, a neurologist who claims to be working with Christine without her husband’s knowledge, which directs her to her journal, hidden in the back of her closet. For the past few weeks, Christine has been recording her daily activities—tearful mornings with Ben, sessions with Dr. Nash, flashes of scenes from her former life—and rereading past entries, relearning the facts of her life as retold by the husband she is completely dependent upon. As the entries build up, Christine asks many questions. What was life like before the accident? Why did she and Ben never have a child? What has happened to Christine’s best friend? And what exactly was the horrific accident that caused such a profound loss of memory? Every day, Christine must begin again the reconstruction of her past. And the closer she gets to the truth, the more un-believable it seems.

The Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton

Why was a four-year-old girl apparently abandoned by her parents in 1913 and left alone on a ship bound from London to Australia?

To answer that question, Morton constructs a generation-spanning chronicle of three women. First is a Victorian fairy tale author named Eliza Makepeace. The second thread is Nell Andrews, the perplexing abandoned child who sets out to solve the conundrum of her true origins. Strand three is Cassandra, Nell’s granddaughter, who in turn goes to England to play detective.

If it’s atmospheric entertainment you want, this is a knockout. Morton, like her heroine Eliza, has the storyteller’s touch. Filled with romance, tragedy and luscious period detail, the novel would make a rip-roaring mini-series.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

As predicted we all turned up with our different publications of this classic book and Vanessa's beautifully illustrated version, a childhood treasure belonging to her daughter, was the most stunning.

Everyone loved this book, expect me! I found it sickly sweet and far too perfect, too moralistic and too obvious. I didn't even finish it. Sara understood my point of view. She had read part of the story while ill (with flu) and enjoyed it but found that, on recovery, it was a little less enjoyable.

Despite my complete lack of 'joie de vivre' this book was a hugely popular choice among the rest of our group. It takes you right back to childhood (if you happened to read it way back then). It is an undemanding, un-contentious, light read, insight to American middle class women during the Revolution.

Jo is, without doubt, the Ashendon Book Group favourite character.

Our big question was: did Laurie marry Jo or Meg or who? we were split and the answer (apparently) will be found on reading the sequels: Little Men and Good Wives (for which there was great enthusiasm but I think my powers of dissuasion eventually won through and they won't be on our group reading list!)

Would we recommend it? A big 'Yes', but not as a Book Group read - it's not a big discussion piece.

Our next book is Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. We will meet to discuss this at Gatehangers on Tuesday 8th May at 8.15pm.

Our Book Choices for March/April 2012

We will be choosing our next book to read on Tuesday 13th March when we meet at Gatehangers (8.15pm) to discuss Little Women by Louisa M Alcott.

The Debt to Pleasure by John Lancaster
Winner of the Whitbread Award for Best First Novel and a New York Times Notable Book, The Debt to Pleasure is a wickedly funny ode to food. Travelling from Portsmouth to the south of France, Tarquin Winot, the book’s snobbish narrator, instructs us in his philosophy on everything from the ‘erotics’ of dislike to the psychology of the menu. Under the guise of completing a cookbook, Winot is in fact on a much more sinister mission that only gradually comes to light.

Scoop by Evelyn Waugh

First published in 1938, Scoop is billed as one of the funniest novel ever written about journalism. Which says a lot: have you seen how many fiction books revolve around the Fourth Estate?

In this book, which is essentially a comedy of errors, we meet William Boot, who is mistaken for John Courtney Boot, an eminent writer, and is sent off to the African Republic of Ishmaelia to report on a little known war for the Daily Beast.

With no journalistic training and far out of his depth, Boot struggles to comprehend what it is he is being paid to do and makes one blunder after another all in the pursuit of hot news. In fact Booth is so out of his depth he does not even know how to write a telegram -- the main means of filing his reports to the London.

Daughter of the Desert by Georgina Howell

A fascinating story, a heroic protagonist with an entourage of heroes and villains , statesmen and tribesmen. More importantly, as many readers remarked, a window into what could have been done a hundred years ago to assuage the conflicts in the Middle East- but was not done because of the prevalent dismissal of women's abilities and achievements. A tragic history of civilization and a heroic history of an individual.