The Red House by Mark Haddon

The Red House by Mark Haddon

Four members of our group met to discuss this book and, despite all admitting that it took a few chapters to get into the story, we all enjoyed the read.

It is not an uplifting story, and lacks the LoL humour that Mark Haddon has managed in other books we have read. It illustrates ‘real family life’ and, despite being sombre, it does contain some (dry) humour. Overall it is a reflective story.

A family is ‘thrown’ together on holiday and they go about all the normal holiday stuff: activities (canoeing, trip to Hay on Wye, walk up the mountain) and meals together with ‘undercurrents’ and the occasional disagreement. ‘Matter of factness’ prevails with simple everyday things used to illustrate the ‘normality’ of 'living together' (e.g. tapping the sink drainer into the bin!).

Underlying the normality, each Individual character has a personal circumstance that others are not fully aware of that adds the drama and intrigue: Angela’s loss, Daisy’s sexuality, Louisa’s past, Richard’s work worries, Dominic’s secrets.  Alex comes through here as the least ‘troubled’ adult and Benjy enjoys childhood simplicity. So, this is a ‘normal’ family ‘jogging along’ without communicating as well as perhaps they should. We are also shown that communication with the outside world using mobile phones is risky. There is a moral here!

Of the characters: We felt sorry and worried for Angela, absolutely adored little Benjy, hated Melissa and loved Daisy. Alex and Richard the ‘young buck’ and ‘old stag’ and their evolving relationship is brilliant and adds the humour that is otherwise lacking in the book. We respect Louisa for her organisational skills and for ‘trying hard’ all week and agreed that she is the most interesting character, probably because of where she has come from and where she is now. Her perspective is different and she is the 'even keel'.

The reader is kept on the edge, waiting for the big drama to happen. It happens but not as, or what, may have been anticipated.

Would we recommend it? Yes – but heed the words of one of our group: “When I closed it at the end I didn’t feel as if I was losing a good friend.”

Our next book is THE BOY WITH THE TOP KNOT by Sathnam Sanghera.

We will meet to chat about this book at 8.15pm on Tuesday 13th November in Gatehangers Inn.

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.