Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

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.

The Girl From Venice by Martin Cruz Smith

Coeur de Lion, Bath  2nd February 2017

Mark T was unfortunately unable to attend the book group to discuss his own book choice due to the launch of his brother’s own book taking place on the same night, so it fell to NRB to write up the notes.  Mark sent us his thoughts in advance which started with explaining why he had chosen it, possibly a good indication of how he felt about it.  Basically he had been hoping for a good book which immersed you in Venice, but he didn’t feel it had done that.  The love story was disappointing, the “resurrection” of the girl unbelievable, the match-up of coarse fisherman and rich Jewish girl rather strange, and the courtship all over in one page (and as we know Mark likes authors to take their time over such things!). He found some of the writing rather bland and a bit “Janet and John”.  Overall Mark got some enjoyment, but overall found it a disappointment.

Sadly no one at the meeting was ready to counter that point of view.  Steve in fact felt rather more strongly about it. Having had to pay £8.99 for the book and not even got the coloured map that the hard-back edition contained, he felt distinctly robbed and was amazed that the book had “passed muster”. To him it had the feel of a pot boiler.  It started OK and he enjoyed learning a bit about fishing in the lagoon, and the body, the gunboat encounter etc was all quite dramatic, but after that the disbelief set in as the humble fisherman supposedly turned into a kind of James Bond. After that Steve found he resented the book for the remainder.  He found the dialogue stilted and thought the last few chapters were as if the writer just couldn’t be bothered.

Chris B bought the physical hardback but reassured us that after postage it worked out about the same  cost as the Kindle edition.  He liked it as a light, pleasant read, but he found it somewhat odd because surely a book about these types of events at this time should have been full of nervous tension, not pleasant at all! Some scenes did have a certain tension to them, but as the action moved to Salo and the cast of characters became more bizarre the whole thing became less and less real.

Rob was in broad agreement with this.  He saw it as a light, innocuous, easy read, but rather reminiscent of The Sunrise Hotel.  He did find the bits about Mussolini at the end of the war of some interest as it is a part of the second World War that he knew little about, but then again the details seemed too implausible to take at all seriously.

Mark W was also reminded of the Victoria Hislop howler.  He read it, succeeded in finishing it, but experienced no tension and summed it up as “claptrap”.

Neil was similarly unimpressed. He too was put off almost as soon as the girl miraculously came back to life, and never recovered from that point onwards.  Not usually being one to want to stop and highlight sections in the book or make notes, he had made several on this occasion to highlight just how clumsy he felt the writing had been, how unbelievable he found both the characters and plot and to point out errors in the basic continuity, for example when Cenzo ends up driving the woman’s Alfa Romeo which, in only the previous chapter, had actually been given to another woman.  He thought it highly ironic that the editor had been credited at the end when he/she should instead have been fired and banned from ever editing books again.

Chris W finished the comments in the pub….by revealing that he had actually really wanted to be the first to speak for a change because he had felt so emphatic about how bad it was. He really noticed the contrast with Golden Hill which he had enjoyed so much and the sense that where Golden Hill had immersed you in a time and place and made you willingly accept what took place, this book did not. He was also amazed at how the girl was apparently so unaffected by the loss of her family. He also picked up on lots of non-sequiturs where things were described but seemed completely unlinked. He described it as one of the least rewarding books he had read in the group.

From India, Richard commented: I generally concur with it being bad, but not REALLY awful.  
It was easy to read, and parts were enjoyable, and I quite liked the early bits set in Venice and the lagoon (hence not awful); but Mark's comments about it feeling like a draft rang true - there were a lot of inconsistencies, things explained more than one (as if he had forgotten that he had already done it, but as he never read through the draft, he wouldn’t know), really odd things (she lived with the man who betrayed her and her family in the same hospital ward for months / ?years? but then said she didn’t know who he was but would recognise his voice?! - and how could he have lived there for months if he was also being a film producer in Salo), and the last 30% got less and less interesting and the writing seemed more and more desultory.

So overall, not a great response from anyone to the book, but it was an enjoyable discussion nonetheless and thanks was noted for Mark making the booking of the space in the Couer de Lion.  The group was also temporarily enlarged by a young man by the name of Seb who got talking to the two Chris’s in the bar and came upstairs to plead his case to join the club and even helped proceedings by reading out Mark T’s email at the beginning.  However, as he was at last 20 years younger than even the youngest current member, it was felt that he might  not be a natural fit.  Very pleasant young man though and apparently full of confidence.

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

Any book with its lowest book club score in the sevens and highest from four members of the club in the eights must have something going for it. There was a general consensus that this was a very entertaining and enjoyable book and it was not surprising therefore that on a cold and frosty evening in January 2017 in the ancient hostelry of Ye Foxe and Badgerre in Wellowe we were informed that the book had just been awarded the Costa best first novel award for 2016.


Mr Smith turns up in 1746 New York City with its population of 7000 with a financial instrument which if honoured has the vast value of £1000. During the next 60 days whilst he awaits encashment of this bond by one of the nascent banking families of the City our hero stumbles through a number of amusing and sometimes frightening experiences which paint an authentic and vivid picture of life in the city at that time. In double quick time the story takes Smith to the coffee houses of the city, a frightening mugging scene on bonfire night, an emerging love interest, an early New York amateur dramatic performance, imprisonment in the local fort and a duel with swords on the common at dawn.

Perhaps the greatest compliment to the author should be awarded for his ability to set the scene in time and space in a most interesting and engaging way stimulating the imagination. The description of the city’s dark alleyways, the noise from the rigging of the nearby sailing ships, the scene in a crowded smokey coffee house and a frightening pursuit through the narrow alleyways are imaginatively and evocatively described and were appreciated by all. The author clearly has an in depth historical knowledge enabling him to weave the details of life at this time into an almost completely plausible story.

The book stimulated discussion about the social “glue” which kept this small mixed community of people living together. Here on this small tip of Manhattan Island were living Dutch and English, Catholic and Protestant, social elite and commoners and yet generally they all seemed to "rub along together" pretty well. Yet only a hundred miles away people lived in fear of their lives from attacks by the French and native Indians. At that time no police force was yet in existence to keep order in the settlement.

Of the minor criticisms several didn’t really grasp the descriptions of the money settlement arrangements and embryonic banking system that had established itself in New York to honour a “bill” written on a piece of paper in London which might take six weeks to cross the Atlantic and then sometimes would be lost by shipwreck.

Others questioned the implausibility of the storyline in respect of Smith's lineage which was only revealed as the final denouement to the story and the likelihood that his racial identity would not have been immediately detected by the untrusting New Yorkers.

Finally the other most appreciated feature of the story was the authors skilful and amusing writing style and innovative use of period English yet which read like comprehensible modern prose and not text from Shakespeare. Some of the best examples have been picked out for us by one of our most avid international contributors from the subcontinent.

• “Once, Mrs Tomlinson might have had a fresh, or ingenuous, charm. Now – said the judgement of the women’s gaze, at least, upon her six-and-forty years – she trembled, like a plum already fermenting, about to burst in a mess of juices.”

• “How hard it is to describe a desirable woman without running into geography! Or the barnyard. Or the resources of the fruit-bowl.”

• “the stupid things humanity was wont to do, in the grip of desire, and men proverbially.”

And when the narrator (Tabitha) capitulates to the reader on not having the skill to describe the rules and formalities of a duel of honour:
• “ But really, this is useless, and no more enables the reader to see the battle, than if I shouted numbers at you; which, indeed, I appear to be doing. The truth is, that I am obliged to copy these names for sword-fighting out of a book, having no direct experience to call upon. I throw myself upon the reader’s mercy, or rather their sense of resignation. Having previously endured this tale’s treatment of the game of piquet, and of the act of love, they may with luck by now expect no great coherence in the reporting of a sword-fight.“

All in all a jolly good read that was enjoyed by every book club member . As well as an entertaining story this was an interesting insight into life and customs in New York at the time.

The Glorious Heresies, by Lisa McInerney

The Coeur de Lion, 1st December 2016
The Glorious Heresies, by Lisa McInerney

Seven of us met in ‘Bath’s smallest pub’ to discuss this book by one of Ireland’s up and coming young writers – winner of the Bailey’s Women’s prize for fiction.

Set in post-Celtic crash Cork, the book follows a disparate group of characters including a local gangland boss, a decidedly opinionated and slightly dangerous grandmother, a reluctant sex worker, a couple of dodgy fixers and a school-leaving drug-dealing wannabe whizz kid and his gorgeous girlfriend. There’s an accidental murder, a spot of arson in a church and a series of wild and woolly adventures in the city and out in the western reaches of County Cork.

Steve, whose choice the book was, found it dark, funny and, knowing Cork reasonably well, very convincing – insofar as he had ever encountered a Cork like this. The point that struck him most forcibly, and one of the key thrusts of the book, was the range of issues the country has in shedding the grip of religion, only a generation or so earlier parting young mothers from their children and ruling the roost in communities. The transformation has been huge but it hasn’t been easy and there are deep scars to heal, as Maureen Phelan demonstrates. Lots of contradictions, as in real Irish life – the godsquad that prostitute Georgy falls in with ends up having her hammering on the door of the brothel where she used to work – which is where she falls in with Maureen and gains a kind of redemption.

There was a shared sense among us that it took a few chapters for the author to really find her voice. Too often in the early stages there was a sense that she was over-writing it. It was better when she focused on moving the action forwards, and less on over-florid expressionism. But once she got going it was an enjoyable read. Chris W had found the early part of the book a bit too dark for comfort and feared it might get a bit tough going but, similarly, found it easier going the further in he got. He appreciated the interwoven themes, the sense of foreboding created around JP, hoping Ryan and Tony came out of it well and that the younger kids came to no harm while dad (Tony) was drying out.

The social commentary was appreciated by Rob, not just around religion but more general social observations on family life on the edge of poverty. He also felt that the ending was done well – it’s unusual to get so much specific ‘filling in the blanks’ at the end, but this was mentioned and appreciated by several of the BBBC. Mark W, who had also commented on the Runyonesque cast of city low-life characters said he reckoned the final three chapters, and particularly the last chapter, which began: “The frame around which one builds one’s life is a brittle thing, and in a city of souls connected one snapped beam can threaten the spikes and shadows of the skyline”, were fine examples of an author expertly pulling her novel together to a satisfying conclusion. Again, Mark had found it hard to get going but worthwhile in the end.

Chris B enjoyed the book, found it extremely readable and pacy, getting inside the characters and generating empathy and sympathy with different characters at different times. Neil was perhaps a little less sold on the novel, and although admitting in general to being a happy reader, was unable to buy wholly into the character of JP for example, which he though was rather clichéd (Maureen too). In addition he didn’t feel JP was sufficiently scary. Hoped for better things for Ryan but was with Joseph when he said ‘Sort yourselves out’ – found it a bit tedious. His take on the ending was converse to some of the others in that he felt it to be a little spoon-fed to him – would have liked to have been left to tie up his own narrative loose ends.

Richard sent his comments from afar: having researched in a professional context around the drug issues in modern urban Ireland, he felt it dealt effectively with these all-too-real problems for young people. He also commented on how in general the structure of the book was convincing and mostly successful given the range of issues it addressed and the fact that it was the author’s first novel. Plenty to enjoy in the situations and relationships, but some of the characterisation was too florid and the writing didn’t really settle down.

Mark T had the mirror image experience of most others, in that he felt it started well, but then he got distracted by another book and when he came back he was unable to engage with it at all, found it unpleasant and unlikeable and didn’t finish it.

There was something for most of us to like in it and the discussion fired off another around how a generation ago the IRA would surely have figured in the cast of characters in an urban gangland setting (the contrast with the themes in Colm Toibin’s 1970’s-set Nora Webster was remarked upon).

Scores (with MT not contributing a score):
SC 7.5
RG 7.8
CW 7.8
MW 8.0
CB 7.8
NR-B 7.3
RV 7.5

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

The Vegetarian was winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2016 and mercifully short after some of our longer reads recently. Most of us found it strange and interesting. It highlighted our lack of knowledge about Korean society and linguistic style, though apparently the translator, Deborah Smith had not been to Korea until after she did her first draft, though later became friends with the author: more about their relationship here: Guardian Books

For those who do not know the story, here is a synopsis:

Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more 'plant-like' existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares. In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide and hospitalisation. She unknowingly captivates her sister's husband, a video artist. She becomes the focus of his increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks, while spiralling further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison and becoming - impossibly, ecstatically - a tree. Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.

In response to the strange quality of the book, Chris B had read it twice and concluded it was about the oppression of women in Korean (and other) society. Yeong-hye escapes from her dull, oppressed, unrealised life by rejecting the meat eating society, driven by her terrible recurring dream of violence. In the end, appears to be trying to return to the earth. Her experience creates mental illness, depression, eating disorder, psychosis which may be seen to be partly triggered by the abuse she experiences as a child at the hands of her father. Her siblings want to intervene both then and when her father hits her for her stubborn refusal to eat meat. But are too afraid. Her older sister protects herself by being obedient and leaving her sister to be the one that suffers. But she too suffers depression in living her accepting and conventional life, even with an unconventional artist husband.

We see too the reactions of the conventional Mr Cheong, Yeong-hye's husband and the painter obsessed with painted bodies in sexual poses to the two sisters' behaviour. Both fail to see or respond to the needs of the women. But interestingly, Kang seems to have had an even wider conundrum to explore:

 As she said in her Booker Prize acceptance speech, she writes to pursue questions, in this case, the question of being human. Yeong-hye, she says desperately wants to reject being a human, part of the human race that commits such violence.

We discovered that the three parts of the book were originally published separately and definitely for a Korean audience in the first place. Steve preferred the first and third parts and agreed with Chris' understanding of the book. He felt the section focussed on the Mongolian mark was less convincing. He also found some of the writing stilted e.g. the words of Mr Cheong. Was this Korean style, the specific authors' style or a result of translation? Richard had similar thoughts. Steve also found reading about such a different society with such differentiation between men and women interesting and challenging. He found the description of someone who has given up, lost hope and accepts she will die together with the imagery of the forest some of the most powerful parts.

The parts Mark T found interesting was the comparison between the two sisters. Both had much to admire but as often in life, maybe a combination of the best bits of both would be preferable! He also found the video art sections intriguing.

Richard enjoyed the book and found it quick to read. Like several of us, he found it strange and difficult to understand: the value of a Book Club is to hear other's views. But shouldn't a book be clearer about what it is about? Neil thought the same. Richard wondered if vegetarians are strange people already or are seen as strange when they become so?!

Chris W too found it interesting and fascinating in its depiction of such a different country. Like other Murakami fans, he found many echoes with that author in this book. He was interested in the experience of urban life which seemed very conventional and limited and the yearning in Young-hye to be close to nature. This only happens when she is sent to a mental hospital. Clearly food is very important in this culture, to the point where a father strikes his daughter over it. In the mental hospital, the vivid description emphasised how no-one was listening to the patient. He concluded it was an interesting book, well translated with some interesting snapshots but he did not pick up themes of oppression and abuse.

Neil found the cultural differences made the book harder to understand or emphasise with the characters. It was "quite interesting, a bit frustrating and difficult to understand what it was about".

Rob wondered if it was a book about Korean society for a Korean audience or for a foreign one. If the latter, it was too soft on the issues it raised. Whilst it was interesting and did make a point about the gender issues, he found it unconvincing. There was no cogent reason, he felt for the vegetarianism, no critique of the mental health system and the Mongolian mark made little impression, except perhaps for the sexual encounter. He was not convinced Kang was trying to say something meaningful as opposed to using things like the vegetarianism and the mental health system as plot devices.

Mark W was pretty underwhelmed by the whole thing: "fairly typical repressed far eastern sexual fantasy stuff in the middle, masquerading as art, dressed up at the beginning and the end with various musings. Not my cup of tea".

So interesting but not amazing as shown by the average score of 6.3 and £10 left in the kitty!

Where My Heart Used to Beat by Sebastian Faulks

The trouble with being a highly rated and esteemed author is that people then begin to expect seriously good books from you. The consensus from the Bath Blokes Book Club was that Sebastian Faulks somewhat let himself down with ‘Where My Heart Used To Beat’. 

Much of what one expects from Faulks was certainly there. A nice, easy writing style that meant the book flowed without too much trouble (and thus, for some, a highly welcome relief after we’d ploughed through ‘A Little Life’ and ‘History of Seven Killings’ in recent months). There were the usual highly perceptive observations about life, relationships, the world and so on - almost everyone came armed with quotes they wished to share with others (some with too many quotes). Yet, despite this, opinion within the group split in three as to what the resultant book provided:

• The predominant view was that it was a bit of a lazy book. By returning to previous themes around psychiatry and the first world war, Faulks almost gave the impression that he had a book to deliver and was doing it without having to do too much additional background research. It was a book all this sub-section of people relatively enjoyed, but felt it was (in the words of Steve) "formulaic Faulks"
• For a minority of others, it did deliver. Chris W. felt it managed to create in 300 pages all the content and story that ‘A Little Life’ had failed to do in nearly three times that amount of words. Mark T (whilst having yet to finish) was thoroughly enjoying it - and seeing parallels with his favourite ‘Magus’.
• Meanwhile Richard had a much more negative view - being "very disappointed and totally failing to be engaged by either the characters or the story".

One element of this discussion was whether, as the opening sentence to this summary implies, we were perhaps being too hard on Faulks. As Chris W said "People are judging him to too high a standard because of what he’s done in the past" - with the suggestion that a book of this quality from another writer would have been receiving greater praise.

So, having said that, the book generated more discussion and conversation than many and, as conversation progressed, there was a noticeable warming towards it. Points/issues covered included:

• There was some really good raw material - the Italian war scenes, the setting on the island (though one or two doubted the reality of that. Really. Which 50/60 somethings amongst us haven’t been invited to an idyllic island only to have a young woman take her clothes off and seduce us?) and the relationship with the father (Neil feeling the letter at the end had much potential for further narrative and could/should have appeared earlier on). The feeling persisted though that it didn’t quite all add up as it might have done.
• The core storyline of unrequited love naturally generated much conversation with differing takes on it. Some (Mark W. and Richard) thought the response when the couple came together after nearly 40 years was completely unrealistic given the stated impact on Robert’s life. Others (Rob, Mark T. and Neil) felt it was highly plausible, in that it is possible for a person to have that impact on someone’s life whilst also recognising it was a relationship of its time that could not be claimed back. Others (Chris B) felt Robert was just a bit pathetic for allowing his life to be so damaged by an early love affair. Richard just wanted to know why, if it mattered that much to him, he hadn’t sought out and found her years previously (obviously forgetting the difficulty in communication and tracing people in pre-internet days).
• There were differing views on the central character. Some, like Steve, liked the frailty and fallibility of the character, whilst others such as Chris W. got engaged with him and really wanted it to all turn out OK in the end.
• There was a view (Neil, Rob and others) that Faulks had once again been able to create a belief in the settings and the atmosphere so that the reader could really feel they were present in the story. 

There also followed a side discussion about why the two 20th century wars have been such a focus on content/setting in the books we have read over the years. They are clearly a major influence on society even now - having dominated the agenda for much of the 20th century. As we noted in discussion, the wars were a central influence on lives of all of our parents (and thus of some of the authors and/or the authors parents) and they really were not that long ago - the gap between the end of the second world war and the birth of all bar young Neil was less than the period of time that the Bath Blokes Book Club has been meeting.

So, a decent book, really enjoyable in parts, but ultimately (for most) not what it might have been. An overall score of 6.51 (with a probably higher score from Mark T still to come) - which is exactly the average score of all books since we re-calibrated the scoring in late 2014.