The Carhullan Army - Sarah Hall

The Devonshire Arms, Bath, November 24th 2011

There was, unusually, a full house for the discussion on this book. The book was selected by Mark T partly in response to a suggestion that we as a group had read far more male authors than female, and was it time to redress the balance? 

To remind us, the book is set in the near future: Britain has run out of oil, is a satellite state of the US and has its armies stretched overseas, fighting pointless wars. The country is run by The Authority. The story is based in 'Rith' and the surrounding Lake District. A woman known as Sister narrates, from her prison cell. She describes her escape from the bad conditions in Rith, to Carhullan, a female commune. The place is run by Jackie.

There was lively discussion around the book. Most of us enjoyed some aspects of the book, although Mark Th did not enjoy it at all, apart from the ending, but that was only because the ending was the end. The majority did not like the ending as they found it too abrupt and unbelievable, although Rob and Neil thought it was OK. Some liked the gist of the story and found it a good yarn (Richard, Neil), but others (Richard, Steve) felt that the writing style let it down. Richard felt the bleakness was overwhelming and it reminded him of one of our earlier excellent but bleak books –the prison experience in Northern Africa (The Absence of Light) [Ed: writer's opinion, most of the club thought that book was rubbish!]. Chris B and Mark T found the cage description particularly good.

Rob and others enjoyed the description of the communal living, and thought the book raised interesting questions, such as how easily could this country get to a situation described. Ras liked the direct style and thought that the author pulled it off rather well. Neil found it amusing that the men in the story could not seem to fend for themselves.

Chris W felt the book was like an exam question, and did not like the writing style, but thought the plot was quite clever. Mark T liked the description of the life in Rith, and particular liked the decline of her relationship to Andrew. He found the description of the insertion of the coil particular moving and painful. Most people found Jackie intriguing, and lots of discussion about how male she was and whether she was psychotic or not.

There was a lot of debate about where the story was based. Some thought Rith was Penrith, but others including Steve thought it could not be because of the River geography. It was unclear why the US was ok and why the UK was not. There was some questioning over why it had to be a women-only camp, and whether this had been satisfactorily explained in the book, whilst others saw the clear logic of the gender issues that underpinned the book.

There was much talk, obviously, on the sexual position of the women and some thought it plausible that the women would go and seek the downcast men living nearby for sex, but others, (Mark T) were not so sure. Similarly there was some disagreement about whether Sister could turn so easily from men to women.

Rob thought that the radio signals that Jackie picked up about the King dying and possible attacks were all made up by her in order to legitimise her demands for the army to go on the offensive. Others were not so sure. There was a lengthy discussion about how much more had to go wrong in our present situation to make the story come true. Some though the gap was not that great. So in the end most thought the scenario was believable and most people got something out of the book and the discussion.