David Nicholls – One Day

27^th 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

The Third Policeman – Flann O'Brien

29th April 2010

Group notes, but heavily biased towards Rob's view!

Almost unanimity last week (including comments from absent friends), but sadly in the negative direction as The Third Policeman failed to be arresting for this particular group of readers. Mark T. went so far as to say he hated what was the worst book yet chosen. As a result, there was remarkably little discussion about the book to report here. I was the exception to this damning view and, whilst not thinking it was a great or even hugely enjoyable piece of literature, nonetheless felt it had several positive factors in its favour. As I was largely alone in this (though with some lukewarm support from Steve) my apologies for this note being heavily biased to my comments as, otherwise there would be little to report other than people saying how they disliked it both in terms of writing style, plot (or lack of) and how it failed to engage the reader. So in order to reflect that there was some debate I'll just record that in my opinion:

The writing style was highly clever in the way it used words in unusual (and often cumbersome) ways that said things in a structure that completely fitted in with the 'unreal' nature of the book itself

The way his brain worked and generated bizarre yet fascinating ideas was both engaging and thought provoking e.g. there being only two directions on the globe not four (difficult to argue with) and the transfer of life properties through friction on (for example) the bike saddle

The humour and style was way ahead of its time and you could see clear elements of what later appeared in the Goons and Python.

But I recognise when I'm onto a loser and the discussion I had anticipated about what was really going on at various points in time in the book never got going. After brief forays into why when and how he died (in the house with the black box or was he dead at the outset?), what we thought about the footnotes (best bit for Neil, tedious for most others), why/how some people rated this so highly (Hay Festival literati) and the nature of the Irish police and society, there was at least some acknowledgement from most that it was good to have read it as an 'experience' and so we drifted into a second discussion about Orwell's Coming Up For Air as Will had finished it over the last month. Opinions on that remain as before. Will also added in a couple of other comments and scores on recently completed books including him concurring with the prevailingly positive views on Sacred Games.

4.29

The Elephant Keeper – Christopher Nicholson

Apparently we read two books in April 2010, not sure why now...

It was an interesting discussion - as it flagged up a range of issues to do with writing style, social history etc etc. Also, with it significantly being set in and around the west country a couple of people (Mark T I think for one) found that of added interest. The comments were, on the whole, quite positive other than from Steve and myself and so it was a bit of a surprise when it came to the scoring that they were on the whole quite low to average (apart from Richard and to a lesser extent Mark).

As I recall at this distant moment, the following were key points in the discussion:

The first part of the book was generally agreed to be the best. It told a good story and contained a lot of interesting social commentary e.g. the relationship between master and servant, the reactions to an elephant appearing int he country for (probably) the first time), the description of city and rural life etc

However, there was also a general view that it tailed off in the latter part - in particular when he went to London when several people began to feel that the novel just stopped working

A majority view (though not consensus) that the relationships between the keeper (see I can;t been remember his name - shows what an impact it had on me) and the elephant became unbelievable at the book went on

Differing views on t he writing style. Consensus that he managed to get the flavour of the period but whether it was well written varied from definitely (Richard) to weak (me).

6.01

Coming Up for Air – George Orwell

25th March 2010

One of our longest and most wide-ranging discussions ever arising from the book in question. Seven of us present and four definite votes of approval for 'Coming Up for Air'. I was a bit more ambivalent, Ras was unimpressed finding it somewhat tedious whilst Mark T has yet to finish it. The overwhelming prevailing view was that Orwell's ability to turn a phrase and, in particular make an observation about life and the world is almost unrivalled. It was difficult to stop people (particular Richard) from reading out their favourite quotes, which seems a good indicator of whether a book has made an impact on its readers or not. The root cause of the slight divergence of opinion was mainly around the slow pace of the novel and/or the debatable question of whether it was a novel or not i.e. given that so little actually happened, could it actually be described as a story as opposed to Orwell wanting to expound on his opinions about the world and using the setting of a person's journey into their past as a mechanism for doing so.

Putting these points to one side, there was little doubt that Orwell struck a chord with many of us in terms of the observations he made about the world and life experiences (too many for me to either recall in full or select the best ones) - hence the wide ranging discussions that took us into questions about whether the world is a better place to live nowadays than it was thirty/forty years ago, global warming and misogyny.

There were a few other minor debates about the book - such as whether George Bowling was a believable character or an old Etonians version of what a lower middle class insurance salesman would have lived like but beyond that the clear view was that Orwell's writing style had both created a pleasurable experience (for most) and generated much discussion and conversation (for all).

6.96

The Road – Cormac McCarthy

25th February 2010

Divided opinions about 'The Road'. Most people really liked it, whilst a couple had mixed feelings and Rob hated it. There was one point upon which there was complete agreement, that it was an extremely depressing book to read, though Mark T. emphasised that he found it enjoyable to be so depressed by it (we should all be worried for him).

I can't recall a great deal of the discussion to report on - it felt a strangely subdued meeting (caused by the book content or as one person noted 'most of us looked and sounded really tired'. We should stop working so hard) and people drifted off home much earlier than usual. The other possible explanation of course being that we were missing the garrulous Neil and Richard.

General appreciation of the writing style with most people thinking his use of descriptive language was highly enjoyable - the exception being me (and to an extent Richard in his email) who felt he was using adjectives and adverbs out of context and without any possible meaning

General feeling that he built the tension up really well and that it was a gripping, easily read novel - exception was me (spotting a theme yet?) who felt no tension at all

Ras (and possibly others) felt it pulled on feelings as a father. I thought he was such a pathetic figure I couldn't relate to him or his relationship with his son

General view that the book left too much unexplained (such as why the destruction had happened, how the pair of them had got to that stage without the son appearing to have any 'nous' etc) and that this detracted from the integrity of the book - Mark disagreed with that one (yay, not me) feeling that the emotions, relationships and moral tale were what mattered rather than the context

Some discussion about how mankind does have the potential to behave in that kind of a way (i.e. mostly evil and looking out for themselves) when it feels threatened

A general view that this was not as good as the previous McCarthy we read (All the Pretty Horses), perhaps because he had not focused in on a theme that he really knew and felt at home with.

6.19

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson

28th January 2010

Helped by Neil describing it as the best book he had read since the book club started and Ras giving it nearly twice his average mark, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has rocketed in with an astounding 8.14. (later revised down after all scores came in).

General approval then, in particular for the way in which Steig spun a tale. Clear agreement that he really hooked us in to the story and it was a book that we (almost all) looked forward to getting back to and resented having to put down. The possible exception was Steve, whose main gripes were that the quality of writing was not great - something that several others shared to varying degrees, and that the hype around the Larsson story had elevated a rather tedious whodunnit to far higher status than it really deserved. This led to a re-run of the discussion about how we rate books - yes it wasn't great literature in the sense of literary writing style, but how much does this matter if it was enjoyable in other ways... and then of course there is the issue of it being a not very good translation (Steve) - something that has been acknowledged by Larsson's wife...

Other issues that cropped up and/or were commented upon:

Linked to the quality of writing, some opinions (not agreed by all) that whilst telling a good story it didn't really paint a picture of the place and the action (lacking aesthetic value was my comment). Those who had been to Scandinavia disagreed.

On a similar theme, there were a number of incidents or important pieces of information that were unbelievable. Did this matter? Was this supposed to be a highly realistic book (in which case it probably did) or more a flight of fancy (in which case it probably didn't).

Differing views on the end - an almost equal divide between those who thought he tied up all ends nicely and didn;t rush the ending and those who thought he dragged it out unnecessarily

We generally liked the characters - in particular the two main ones (plus the old man) - which helped draw us into the story

Some frustration at important questions not being answered (e.g. what was the importance of Salander's mother in this), but we were told by Neil who has read the second in the series that this is because they form part of the subsequent novels

On the positive side of the writing style, he very cleverly interlinked the different story lines within chapters in a way that worked by keeping the momentum going without confusing the reader

Clever people noted that he gave away the answer to whether Harriet was dead or not right at the start.

Beyond the specifics of the book, we then moved into a discussion about whether this was a literary phenomenon or a publishing phenomenon - general view is that it was the latter - and of course the film is just waiting to be produced (twice). The story behind the book of the lawsuits and argument between Steig's common law wife and his blood family about the resultant money and the apparent failure of Swedish law to recognise the rights of non-married partners was of some surprise to us given the image of Sweden as a socially enlightened country.

7.63

Secret River – Kate Grenville

Late November 2009

No notes survive of our deliberations on this book. The score was on the high side. I (Steve) recall an engaging and relatively well-written book. The initial section in London which told the back story to the protagonist's arrival in Oz was maybe rather one-dimensional and Blackadder-ish. The section in Australia felt more authentic. The profound contrast between the immigrants' greed for land/property/wealth and the nomadic season-driven tempo of the aborigine lifestyle was very effectively drawn. Google Maps proved very useful, to help pinpoint and orientate oneself. There was a sense that this book was a real eye-opener in Australia, telling a story which has been downplayed in history.

If anyone can remember anything else that we talked about, please comment.

7.18