Neil opened
the discussion by confirming that he had enjoyed this book a good deal, but
that he was not surprised as the recommendation came from a trusted friend who
has also suggested 2 or 3 other excellent books in the past. Obviously there has been some debate about
whether this is a novel or a collection of short stories, but as the author
said when interviewed for Radio 4, she considers it simply as a book and that
is good enough for Neil.
He was
particularly taken by the fact that a book about such ordinary and, on the face
of it, almost boring people, living quite small lives in a small town that is
quite unremarkable, the author manages to make it so interesting and
engrossing. Yet it is not because she
has used elaborate or fancy language, her writing style is quite economical,
but her perception of people’s true feelings is very insightful and
revealing. This seems to be particularly
true when it comes to more senior citizens and their families. The poignancy
with which she wrote about these characters and their often quite sad stories
left a real mark. He also got a vivid sense of the place, something he measures many books' success by.
Mark W
noted that he is not generally a fan of American literature and their abuse of
the English language, so he had put off reading the book and it did take him a
while to get into it, but then he started to enjoy it He found the concept of
the book unusual and interesting, and the hospital episode surprisingly funny.
In general Mark likes books and films that do small town observations well and
so this fit the bill well and he found it to be a beautiful book.
Chris B
described it as a book about middle class people, but he liked the way Strout
got inside the heads of the characters and shows what’s going on below the
surface while most of us only see the tip of the iceberg. He saw the influence
of parents as a key theme and liked the context of age and the way that
dilemnas faced by the old, particularly dealing with loss and depression, were
handled.
Chris W
picked up on the sparing use of language and yet was impressed how she still
managed to cleverly explain subtle nuances of life in a very skilful style. He
too felt that it probably helped to be over a certain age to really enjoy this
book and suspected he would probably have been quite bored by it if he had read
it 30 years ago. He was touched by the
fact that the “loss” of Olive’s son actually affected her more than the loss of
her husband. He too admitted to usually getting irritated by Americanisms, but
found this book to be OK.
At some
stage around then we had to look up what Donut holes were!
Steve was
quickly put in mind of The Shipping News whilst reading this, another book
which he enjoyed. He described the style
as self-contained and unremarkable and yet very powerful because it connects
with everyday people and ordinary lives. He also found a theme of forgiveness
in the book, but if he had one criticism it was probably that the book tried to
be too wide-ranging. He also admitted to being somewhat angered by the passing
off of the taster for The Burgess Boys as a final chapter as it was not
signposted as such at all, a common issue that several of us identified with.
The three
absentees submitted comments via email which everyone has seen, but in short
summary, Mark T was yet to finish due to
some very real issues of old age and death in his family , so could relate to
the subject matter very well. But he was occasionally getting frustrated at
having to learn about a whole new set of people with many of the chapters. This
was something Rob had also found, although he liked the easy writing style that created a
picture of people and of small town America that was quite tangible.
Rob also
found strong themes about ageing, disempowerment, depression, loneliness, unfulfilling relationships, loss and uncertainty for the future and once again
found that being almost 60 made these quite powerful to read about. He thought
the emphasis more on depression than other more commonly referenced conditions
such as dementia, made the book more realistic.
Richard very
much enjoyed the book, although he preferred some of the "stories" to others. He
found the tales of middle-aged or elderly people finding some sort of loving
relationship very moving and, by contrast the chapter where Olive couldn’t
relate to her son’s life in New York, very upsetting. Although not a novel as such, it did what
Richard wanted and developed characters, developed a sense of place and encompassed
a range of experiences. Overall
he felt it provided complicated pictures of complicated, real people, with
smooth effortless prose.
