summaries 2022

THREE MEN IN A BOAT - Jerome K. Jerome

from Tatiana:

Our windy get-together on Jill’s terrace was a welcome cooling down, making it a perfect evening among friends to discuss Three Men in a Boat. We had all heard of this book (and several had read it years ago) and expected it to be as funny as it was acclaimed to be so it was interesting to hear the various takes on this theme.

Some found it not at all funny and a bore to read. Some admitted the various situations elicited a smile now and then but were mostly frustrating because the antics and events were foolish, if not stupid. Others found it as funny as they remembered it being or heard it was, with an added plus of discovering some beautifully written passages – both along the lines of descriptive travelogues and philosophical musings.

I, for one, was quite struck many times and – for those who have not yet read the book – I provide two such passages:
“The Cistercian monks … spent the day in labour, reading, and prayer, and over all their lives there fell a silence as of death, for no one spoke. A grim fraternity, passing grim lives in that sweet spot, that God had made so bright! Strange that Nature’s voices all around them – the soft singing of the waters, the whisperings of the river grass, the music of the rushing wind – should not have taught them a truer meaning of life than this. They listened there, through the long days, in silence, waiting for a voice from heaven; and all day long and through the solemn night it spoke to them in a myriad of tones, and they heard it not.”

“… And the red sunset threw a mystic light upon the waters, and tinged with fire the towering woods, and made a golden glory of the piled-up clouds. It was an hour of deep enchantment, of ecstatic hope and longing. The little sail stood out against the purple sky, the gloaming lay around us, wrapping the world in rainbow shadows; and, behind us, crept the night.”

Three Men in a Boat made for a fun discussion, allowing us to branch off into the evolution of the English language, the places along the Thames being described and the ways it is a precursor to the comedy of our day. All in all, a lovely meeting.

from Margaret:

Our summer session was ushered in with a classic comedy of a century and a half ago. We were a small gathering, due to the usual problem of holiday commitments, however, we had such contrasting opinions that the meeting was very lively.
This book is, of course, a classic of Victorian humour and we had almost all read it at one time or another (usually in the remote past). What had surprised me personally was that the book was still funny in an exaggerated slapstick sort of way, a type of humour that not everyone appreciated.....we're in the style of the “Jeeves” books, British TV shows like “Fawlty Towers” and “Fools and Horses”, Benny Hill and, more recently, Rowan Atkinson's “Mr. Bean”, so ideas of what is funny haven't changed all that much.

Our American member, however, did not find it funny, which says something about ideas of humour varying according to upbringing and conditioning. Some reservations also from our Italian member who did not like the idea of “eternal losers” that this book portrays in an exaggerated way. Luckily, we were three to two so Mr. Jerome K. Jerome passed muster.
Attention was also drawn to Jerome's poetic language, with many lyrical passages that made the trip on the Thames sound idyllic, despite the problems the three protagonists encountered.

I amused myself studying the language and taking note of transformations. Basically, there weren't big changes in syntax and vocabulary. Most changes were in colloquial expressions that have gone out of use....which says a lot for language stability in 150 years.

OUR SOULS AT NIGHT - Kent Haruf

from Tatiana:

The discussion around Our Souls at Night was made more interesting by the fact that we are all at the age where looking at our future entails facing the possibility of being alone, vulnerable and subjected to the will of others. We all thought the writing was direct and real, and Haruf capable of conveying both the female and male perspective with equal success. While some thought that perhaps the story went on a bit too long focusing on what they ate and the places they went without either being of any significance for the story, most of us thought that it was actually the right way to make the reader understand a time and place being experienced by two people of a certain age relishing the mundane because it ceases to be so when shared.

So it was that we were all rather lulled by the ordinary to the point that when it crashed, we were shocked. And our first reactions were taking the son’s cruel manoeuvre and considering what it would feel like to have it happen to us. Most of us are convinced that we would not worry about “what others think” when deciding how to live our lives, and that were any of our children to behave like that we would be ashamed and angry enough to fight, but when push comes to shove it was not hard to relate to Addie’s predicament and understand that she truly had no choice.

The effect was a bit like a cold shower drenching what seemed to be the makings of a happy-ever-after story and none of us were unscathed.

from Laura:

This book was suggested to me by a good friend. I didn't know this author at all, but it seems he was quite known at the end of the nineties, he was from Colorado, and he's more famous for Plainsong and Eventide, which I am determined to read.

"Our souls at night" was completed just before he died in 2014 and it was published posthumously and then adapted into a movie in 2017 starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.
It's a short novel, written in a simple style, apparently under-stated but very direct, I would say, the dialogues look like a list of phrases, no quotation marks anywhere in fact, but they manage to convey the characters' feelings and their peculiar situation. Two lonely people in a small town who find the courage to be together in their own personal way, despite the formalities dictated by social convention and their families' prejudiced interference.

I like that the story starts right away with Addy knocking on Louis's door and asking him to share a bed at night.
She is more forthcoming and brave, often teasing him and pushing him to open up, regardless of the gossip they are generating. I enjoyed their banter and could really imagine them in the flesh. Pity that when he abandoned his reticence and gave the relationship his all, unexpected circumstances forced her to give up her freedom. A very sad ending, but maybe this is just what makes this novel so original.

This book is a small treasure for me, it seems unpretentious and sometimes boring, but I find it really profound and soulful, its concept is innovative and inspires a different view of old age and its innermost sentiments.

BY THE SEA - Abdulrazak Gurnah

from Tatiana:

I was happy to have read By the Sea, and consider it an important addition to the immense canon of immigrant literature because it not only realistically and empathetically describes the alienating and frightening experience faced by those who leave their native countries but also delves into the consequences of the unsaid.

Either element can stand alone as a story but Abdulrazak Gurnah wove the two themes together and the result is an emotional read and a greater understanding of how what we do not talk about with the people in our lives can be misconstrued or inflated and mar our lives forever. I appreciated the main character’s ability to face up to his misdeeds while, at the same time, narrating the events that culminated in his downfall, and found his recounting of the fall into tyranny of his newly “liberated” country informative, albeit grim, reading.

Gurnah’s juxtaposition of sunny, mellow Zanzibar and grey, blustery England made me feel the strong sense of nostalgia our protagonist experiences despite the corruption and violence he is glad to have escaped, and I wonder how much harder it is for those immigrants who do not speak the language of their new homes.

By the Sea made me realize how resilient and strong those who make it really are.

from Margaret:

We were a really small gathering: only four of us present due to illness and work commitments.
This was Grazia's book, but she was unable to host due to illness, so we met in my house where, despite the depleted numbers we had a good discussion. Laura was with us after a very long (too long) absence, due to the problems created by the pandemic.

I'm afraid mine was the discordant voice because all the others enjoyed the book and got a lot more out of it than I did. Of course, the writer is a Nobel Prize winner and one hesitates to criticize a writer of this elevated status. However, maybe I was too taken up with the form rather than the contents,
I found the story rather rambling, with too many flashbacks and a confusing exchange of narrators in the second part. The beginning, recounting Latif's immigration experiences was, I thought, the most interesting part and of course I was upset at the confiscation of his precious incense. It was seemingly a very big issue.

Maybe it was Grazia (on the phone with us) who explained it was simply a symbol of his past life (or maybe it was Jill or Francoise or Laura), however, it was given such a build up in the first chapter that I was surprised it didn't crop up again somehow in the rest of the book. I found the feud between the families banal...but maybe this was the whole point as these lifelong feuds often are.

Anyway, in the end, the two men were reconciled so you could say it had a happy ending (sort of).

from Laura:

Zanzibar is one of the places I always dreamt of visiting but never had the chance to. On pictures it looks like paradise, the lure of lonely sandy beaches and crystal clear waters is too great to resist, then again most of the islands in the Indian Ocean have this prerogative.
Strangely enough I never considered what kind of people live there. This book filled that void.

The story of Saleh Omar and Latif Mahmud is a hard one, they both left their country and have been accepted by the UK immigration authority, although in different circumstances. They left everything behind, running away from a place where safety is a luxury, where you can lose status, family, house and freedom in the blink of an eye.

Their lives were connected in Zanzibar through tragic circumstances, and destiny works its magic to bring them together in a foreign country, where they get the chance to clear old resentments and start a new chapter on happier grounds.
Abdulrazak Gurnah succeeds in picturing the different sentiments of the characters, precariousness is the leading theme here, no one and nothing is safe when you live in a country without democracy, life cannot be taken for granted, people’s human rights are precarious at best and can be crushed on a whim.

It takes a lot of courage and/or desperation to escape on a boat with just your clothes on and hope to stay alive and be adopted by foreign people who consider you a problem. We have plenty of examples in front of our eyes every day in the hundreds of migrants seeking asylum in Italy, who cross our society like ghosts nobody wants to deal with.

from Eva:
I enjoyed the book very much but did not finish it yet.
It reminds me a bit of Salman Rushdie’s “ The Moor’s Last Sigh” – I liked the colourful different way of telling and writing which for me creates a nice oriental, exotic atmosphere.

WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING - Delia Owens

from Tatiana:

Another enjoyable afternoon with the book club, time for laughs and affection and sharing that makes every meeting wonderful, whatever the book.

Where the Crawdads Sing was, in fact, a good choice, for while we were not unanimous in our opinions, we all were happy to have read it, albeit for different reasons. Perhaps where we all concurred was the author’s phenomenal ability to describe the marsh – not just the flora and fauna but the light and atmosphere. For a first novel, Owens’s skill in making us see a place none of us had ever been was impressive.

Several of us would have been perfectly happy for the book to have consisted entirely of the Marsh Girl’s intimate connection with the natural world around her and how it helped her survive being entirely abandoned by ten. The whole murder mystery aspect appealed to some, giving the book an interesting edge, while for others it appeared far-fetched, sketchily written and not on par with the first half of the book.

The same goes for the courtroom drama – too much Perry Mason for some, acceptable to others. Where we all pretty much came together again was the “surprise” ending, which was rather forced for some and manipulative for others, taking away from the impact of the book as a whole.

The book lent itself well to discussion, touching on whether or not a child so young could actually survive on her own, whether or not an entire town could be so uncaring and downright mean to her, could someone self-taught become a famous poet… There was no shortage of subjects and now, knowing that a film has been made based on the book, there will be more to banter about when we see it.

from Margaret:

Only Jill and Laura missing at this meeting – the first without masks!! - at Margie's house. The book produced a very lively discussion as we all voiced our different opinions. On the whole, it had been well received – with only one exception.

Speaking for myself, although I was mostly positive, I also had some reservations. This was a first novel and I felt that the writer had been induced (or bullied) by her publisher to add elements to make it more commercially appealing. The story revolved around Nature – the habitat and the wildlife of the marsh where the “Marsh Girl” lived.

Her descriptions were superb and conjured up a true and lively picture of the ambience. We all felt sympathy for the little girl left to fend for herself by an abused mother and a feckless father. The account of her survival was fascinating and, for my part – because not everyone agreed – a plausible story of how human nature can survive against all odds. We have, after all, endless examples of African and Syrian minors who manage to make the difficult journey overland to the Mediterranean and get on a boat to the Promised Land of Europe. I also thought it possible (again all didn't agree) for a genius to spring up in the marshes as genius can inexplicably blossom in many improbable places.

What I didn't like was the murder story. I really felt that the author had been persuaded (most reluctantly) to fit it in. Her reluctance came through in the characters of the two rather moronic lawmen who seemed to get it into their heads without any real evidence that Chase had been murdered by Kya, then with the Perry Mason-style trial and, lastly, with the hasty ending where it was revealed that, despite the laws of probability, she had in fact carried out the murder....too small time lapse, getting up the tower to raise the trapdoor beforehand, luring the would-be rapist Chase up the tower so that he could fall to his death....none of this was explained and I felt that the writer just didn't have her heart in it.

A great pity, because this was a masterly piece of writing that deserved to stand on its own. The problem is...would a book concentrating exclusively on the story of a young girl growing up and fending for herself amongst Nature sell??

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY - Matt Haig

from Tatiana:

A bit reduced in number for various reasons but still enough of us to make it a lively and truly pleasant afternoon. Opinions about The Midnight Library were not unanimous but did have some common denominators. We did like the concept of the midnight library, a place between life and death where the infinite possibilities of one’s existence are there for perusal.

The idea that one is much better off making the very best of whatever life she is living is also a rather clichéd but nonetheless true concept that we have all considered essential at some time or other in our lives. Many of us thought that the science fiction or fantasy aspect of the story was less than successful because there were glitches in the construct that made it hard for us to totally fall into the story and believe even the most unbelievable things.

In a story such as this, where the underlying moral is based on a fantastic premise, getting swept up is rather important and that didn’t happen for everyone. Some found the different lives interesting though veering towards the tedious after a while, but the best part, perhaps, was comparing notes on how we, who have made some pretty definitive choices in our lives about where to live, etc., could have done things differently had our circumstances or our choices been different. This alone made the book a good choice for discussion, even if many of us would not recommend it to someone else.

from Margaret:

Unfortunately, I missed this meeting, due to a bad dose of the cold (no COVID...I did the test as a precaution and it was negative). To those who are not familiar with this writer, Lena's choice may have seemed a little eccentric. However, the theme of possible alternative lives is one which all of us have no doubt pondered over.

Parallel time zones, extrasensory perceptions and overlapping experiences was quite a big theme in the '50s & '60s (which you young things won't remember). I have several books on the subject. I particularly remember a successful West End play called “An Inspector Calls”, by J.B. Priestly (a writer now largely forgotten), which was broadcast over the radio. (Yes! I'm as old as that!!) This was a crime investigation story which dealt with possible parallel different endings. None of this stuff is viewed with much sympathy today, which is an era of SCIENCE and HARD FACTS and not much else.

Anyway, to get back to our book...I already knew this writer, as I have a copy of “The Humans”, a previous book, which talked about an alien creature from another planet and his views on the eccentricities of the human race. Like “The Midnight Library” it is spiced throughout with philosophical reflections in an off-the-cuff manner. I would, in fact, describe Haig as a “pop philosopher”, not meaning this in any derogatory way....as I really believe that a philosopher who is able to communicate to the masses is a rare treasure, giving the average reader a glimpse into worlds of thought that would normally be pretty inaccessible.

I enjoyed this book ….apart from the fact that I thought the writer could have made the alternative lives a little more ordinary.....how many of us would ever aspire to live as a famous pop star, Olympic medallist swimmer or a Polar Research scientist? For most of us, the alternative lives would run along more down-to-earth tracks.....However, as a book of fantasy, it worked well enough and had a satisfactory moralist ending.....No memorable phrases have stuck in my mind, although “The Humans” abounds in chatty pearls of wisdom such as: “a watched pot never boils. That is all you need to know about quantum physics.”

from Laura:

This book explores the parallel universe/multiverse hypothesis as originated by the quantum physics theories.

I would have enjoyed a more scientific approach to the subject, even though I must admit that when I researched the existing info on line a few years ago, I got a bit discouraged by the complicated language.

Alas the author here utilizes the idea as a starting point for a fantasy novel that has no relation to science at all. It was hard to finish the book, I just forced myself to get to the end, maybe I've become too demanding or hard to please, but I found it rhetorical, far-fetched and unconvincing.

I don't dislike fantastic stories per se, they can capture my attention quite thoroughly if well written and compelling. This one just doesn't have the right ingredients.