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.
No comments:
Post a Comment