27th May 2010
No group notes apparent, so these from Richard stand in (edited to remove spoilers):
I started by being mostly irritated – there were a few errors (eg p 118 – Dex drives from St John’s Wood and he listened to virtually an entire CD (ie about 80 minutes) before he gets to the M40 – a journey than even in rush hour traffic can only take about 30 minutes) or (eg p 121 and p 130 - on page 121 his sister is 34, on p 130 his mother is 49 – which means that she had her first daughter when she was 15, getting pregnant probably at 14!) or (p 182 – the ‘bilious green’ typeface of a word-processor was the old Amstrad’s and they were around in 1983-4, but certainly NOT by 1995 – no-one used that sort of word-processor by then); and lots was unbelievable – for example (pp 79-80) the claim by Emma that she had never had a holiday – caravanning with parents until age 16, and then 6 days in the Cairngorms with Tilly – so what about all the other school and (more importantly) long university holidays – she actually did NOTHING in all of them other than one 6-day camping trip?).
And the characters seemed SO stereotyped, and also so irritating – he so ‘Mr Perfect’ with everyone fawning over him; she SO embarrassed and gauche and un-self-confident.
But lots changed for me, and when [that thing] happened I was really quite upset and (although I had seen [something of the kind] coming for ages – again the writing was really stereotyped) when it happened I actually went into a slight ‘shock’ reaction – I felt it quite intensely. So, without realising it almost, the characters (and especially Emma) had become extremely deep and solid and real for me. I also found the descriptions of Dexter’s drinking very good and very real.
Lots of the language was good, again an important element for me – and there were good flashes of humour too – I enjoyed the bit when they were on the Greek island and they decided to tell each other a secret, and Dex thinks “but perhaps it would be better to go for something that didn’t reveal him as shallow or seedy, duplicitous or conceited” (p 92); and I enjoyed the bits where he missed every cultural reference that Emma makes in their conversations! I also enjoyed the structure – it was a good way to tell the story of 20 years without getting tedious.
So - if this had not been a club book, I might have not persevered – and I am very pleased indeed that I did persevere, as I found it a moving and rather lovely story.
7.62
