Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson

The Forester and Flower , 3rd December 2015

Chris B opened up proceedings by saying that he found there to be lots of good things about the book.  An interesting family, although it was a shame about the parents’ relationship, but the author conveyed the truth behind many relationships of the time no doubt. Chris really got into the book when it described the Blitz which he found well described and relevant to his own family background.  He found the overall concept interesting, but occasionally confusing.  Ursula didn’t seem to truly develop as a person and never fully engaged in relationships.  A mixed experience for Chris but overall positive.

Chris W was also absorbed by the Blitz descriptions and how vividly they portrayed the impact of a bomb blast for example, and enjoyed the way in which certain key eras of English history were brought to life.  He found himself a little nostalgic for some of the rather old-fashioned turns of phrase that were given a new lease of life here but that you don’t hear any more. However, at the same time he didn’t always get the point of the book and occasionally found himself waiting for some profound revelation that never came.  Was the book challenging the question of “what if’s” in peoples lives, or just a collection of short stories?

Steve was more effusive and found the book “mostly brilliant” in the hands of a very skilled writer. He too thought the Blitz descriptions were very strong and powerful, and the passage where an apparently intact body came apart like a cracker when they tried to move it stuck in his mind. He wasn’t exactly sure about the way the different lives were addressed, but he did feel it gave a really different perspective on those lives that made them somehow almost three-dimensional.  In his opinion it was a great social /historical commentary; descriptions of Clarence and his tin face for example reminded one of how commonplace such sights must have been. He wasn’t convinced by the Hitler segment and felt it unnecessary and indeed it showed signs of the author trying to be over-ambitious perhaps, but overall enjoyable.

Mark T on the other hand didn’t find this a very good book.  For him it was tedious re-reading the night of Ursula’s birth multiple times.  He did find the  horrendous male relationships fascinating in their awfulness and was intrigued by the rape carried out by the American, with it’s almost unbelievable speed and location.  He too felt the German part didn’t work and overall simply wasn’t gripped by the book.

Rob felt similarly to Mark here to the extent that he hasn’t finished the book and still has some way to go with it.  His fundamental problem was that he had loved The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and so LAL was not comparing well in his eyes. In fact probably the most interesting thing for him was that two authors should come up with the same general concept and write novels about it within such a relatively short period of time when, to his knowledge, there were no other well known novels on this theme at any time before (Neil notes that they were published within 6 months of each other, with LAL coming out first). So Rob discovered that reading this on his iPad, the Sports news was regularly proving more of an attractive read than the novel.   And he did ask for it to be noted that he had enjoyed the music…the live music playing in the other bar of the pub.

Neil was more enthusiastic about the book having found the atmosphere and the characters very lifelike and easy to be drawn in to.  He liked the way that Atkinson explored the sliding doors idea of how much your life could change if you handled small and short-term incidents differently and for him the most powerful example was how in one version of Ursula’s life she allows herself to be kissed by the American boy on her 16^th birthday and this ends up with her being battered to death by her monster of a husband while by merely kicking the yank in the shins when he advances on her it completely changes the course of her life.  A salutary lesson for those who chose to deny the terrible impact that rape can have on women’s lives, especially in society’s like Ursula’s where the shame was deemed to be so terrible.  There were times when he questioned whether a normal person would have had quite so many opportunities to die, even without the Blitz to contend with, and he too found the Hitler element unnecessary, but overall he found the writing style and descriptive ability to be very absorbing.

Richard shared his view via email and concluded that on reflection the book had been good, but certainly not amazing.  In contrast to Rob he found it much better than FFLOHA which he thought somewhat trite and dull.  By comparison LAL unfolded lots of different possible futures, the Blitz was well handled, he felt he got to know Ursula and the family and sibling dynamics were fascinating.  He also liked the idea that Ursula was bearing witness to the 20th Century.  On the downside Ursula seemed a rather vague and un-developed character at times and that the author hadn’t been completely sure of what she was going to do with the re-birthing idea until the end of the book.

Mark W added via email that he found the book rather hard going. There were parts that he enjoyed, particularly the extended descriptions of London in the war which she brought alive very well. However, the book as an entirety didn't convince him and he found himself getting irritated by the rebirths. Yes, the concept was interesting but ultimately pointless and he found himself thinking what a better book it would have been if she had just made it a straightforward narrative; not as clever but probably more enjoyable. She could have then ditched the Hitler bit which he found rather silly and unconvincing

We enjoyed meeting in the Forester and Flower and although the live music playing next door was sometimes a little intrusive, it was quite good on the whole and added to the evening’s entertainment!

The Sunrise, by Victoria Hislop

The Hare and Hounds October 1st 2015

The fact that we avoided talking about the book for so long and even let Chris W riff about new developments in drone selfies tells you how high the level of eager anticipation was to re-live the pages of The Sunrise.

Neil kicked off by reminding everyone why he had chosen the book in the first place, and what a good book he had thought The Island had been when he read it several years ago.  He even tried to deflect some of the blame for choosing it by reminding everyone that he had not chosen the Louis de Berniere book because Chris W had already read it…but no one bought that excuse, particularly Chris.

Neil’s overriding feeling was one of tremendous disappointment that such a potentially interesting idea, that one town on Cyprus should have been divided and abandoned and maintained as a patrolled ghost town for 40 years, had then been mined so poorly with such poor characterisation, poor writing style and wooden plot lines.  Clichéd personae and descriptions seemed to draw on soap opera style dramas of the 80’s such as Dallas.  Only the fact that the pace picked up in the second half made it readable, but then it accelerated to annoying light speed for the last quarter.  The only redeeming feature he found was that he was slightly more enlightened about the history of what happened in Cyprus at this time, but only slightly, and he found the Epilogue perhaps the most interesting part of the book.

Chris  would have preferred a 30 page synopsis that could have saved him having to read the whole book and found the characters tedious and paper thin.  Somehow he finished it but was still left wondering why Neil didn’t choose the de Berniere instead.

Richard particularly agreed about the characters not even being 2 dimensional, but barely 1 dimensional.  The plot was transparent with the possible exception of the murder of Marcos.  He found it easy to read and reasonably well paced, but at the same time very stilted with the language lacking any precision.  A terribly mediocre book that only succeeded in teaching him a tiny bit about Cyprus.

Mark T had enjoyed visiting Cyrpus and was looking forward to the book until his wife warned him that he would hate it.  It reminded him of reading terribly written stories in Womans Weekly when he was an adolescent !(well…. didn’t we all…..????)

Steve meanwhile wondered how a book like this got past the editorial process and had concluded that it had been rushed to meet a deadline.  He managed to find some interest in the book when Aphroditi discovered another woman wearing her jewellery but was dissatisfied with the fact that this was not properly concluded, and found details entirely unconvincing, such as the fact that the old guys on look out on the roof were never spotted by a helicopter for instance. 

Mark W likened it to a Mills & Boon novel and wondered if it was really possible that the author could also be capable of having written a much better book.  And rather than being drawn into the book he found himself almost perpetually conscious of the author penning a poor work of fiction. Mark also pointed out the potential racist bias that painted the Turks as the villains of the piece in a rather one-sided portrayal of events, which he doubted was fair and accurate, something supported by reviews from Turkish readers that Steve had found online.  Mark found the hasty wrap up ridiculous and was also incredulous of certain plotlines and doubted very much that the Turkish soldiers would have ignored the potential riches on offer from looting a grand luxury hotel in place of poor housing just because of a some railings and heavy locks.

Chris B was not at the meeting but had submitted more positive comments, perhaps partly due to a personal connection to the events described as he had been prevented from going on holiday to Turkey at the time because of the problems in Cyprus.  This generated a little more interest than most others managed in reading this albeit fictional account, but he still struggled with the Janet and John writing style and poor characterisation.

Rob, who had wisely chosen to go and watch a rather more exciting game of rugby in Cardiff and therefore missed the meeting, echoed many of the other thoughts about the book and even drew comparisons with that other much-loved book by the group, Cry of the Halidon.

Neil concluded the discussion of the book with a heartfelt apology for having put everyone through such a poor experience and recommended David Mitchell’s Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet as a suitable antidote.

Average score : 3.4

Nora Webster, by Colm Toibin

7 of us met at The Pulteney Arms on Thursday July 2^nd to discuss this book about the life, thoughts and development of a recently widowed woman from County Wexford in southeast Ireland in the late 60’s / early 70s.

Everyone agreed it was a quiet book that didn’t immediately catch fire. However, for most of the group it drew us in and painted vivid and engrossing scenes that told a much more complex story than was initially apparent. A ‘sleeper’, one called it. Described by one of us as a ‘journey through bereavement’ there was appreciation for the clever way that Toibin managed to make this a very personal account of the awakening of the previously-suppressed independent personality of an intelligent Irish woman. There was no judgement in the narrative; that was left entirely for us to make. It dod seem though that in every situation she found herself in, Nora was the odd person out – which must have been exactly how she was feeling.

And make it we did, particularly with regard to her relationship with her boys. One of us in particular found her parenting skills shockingly bad and ended up disliking her for that and other reasons. Conversely more than one of us really bought into the development of Nora’s personality and story, and some felt that it was this gradual build-up of a character that was the book’s chief attraction. It didn’t shy away from describing strange episodes that might not have seemed entirely plausible – two young boys left with Josie… for two months! A visit where ‘something’ may have happened, but we never find out exactly what. For all of us to differing degrees, there was a subtle unstated suggestion of child abuse, and one of us said he appreciated that it didn’t come to anything concrete but stayed there in the background throughout – much more effective.

Nora’s discovery of music as a metaphor for her widening horizons was well drawn and provided the exclude to vivid and amusing scenes. Particularly with the ‘I don’t care what they think’ music teacher. The drunk drive home with the fierce woman who organised the pub quiz was also enjoyed, and both exemplified the way in which ‘small’ events were given due prominence in the narrative without feeling insignificant or overblown. The geographical settings were ‘brilliantly realised’ without resorting to florid descriptions – even for those who had not visited Ireland.

Juxtaposed with this homey parochial background was the emergence of the Troubles in the North, and the suggestion that Maurice would have been involved had he still been alive, as well as the temporary disappearance of the daughter as she herself got involved in Dublin, taking her own steps to independence along the way.

So we (most of us) enjoyed the journey, but views became a little more fragmented as the end of the book drew near, with its dream-like episode and strange half-lit revelations coming to Nora. It prompted the response ‘So what?’ from one of us – is it much more than simply an enjoyable read? What does it really tell us about life the universe and everything? Another found the sequence unbelievable (along with most of the rest of the book) and was unable to see what it added to the narrative.

Overall though a rewarding, slow burner of a book that proved that you don’t have to use dayglo colours to paint a vivid picture.

Average score out of 10 was 7.34.