The Story of Lucy Gault

Note that the book to be read for the May meeting (see below) has been changed to Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

We met on 11th April at Jan's house to discuss The Story of Lucy Gault.  The Story is one "of a great and unexpected calamity" but also over its 70-year period of time, the story of how "calamity shaped a life" Guardian Review.  After the drama of the opening chapters the book becomes a narrative of how the child Lucy's impetuous (but understandable) need to run and hide rather than be moved from her home shapes and colours her whole life.  We were moved by the fact that for Lucy she could never have any redemption until perhaps the end.  She has contact with the nuns and she visits the man in the asylum who was the victim of her father's shooting incident where he wounded a group of intruders, this in the summer of 121 when the houses of Protestant landowners were being attacked during the Troubles.

Lorraine and Michelle sent us written comments.  Lorraine blew hot and cold about this story. She says "I could understand that Mr Gault had to disappear for a while or THEY would have been after him but they left no forwarding address and not really knowing what had happened to their daughter and nobody knew where they were for years. He was besotted with his beautiful wife and I didn't feel she was grieving much for their lost daughter. They were just having a great time."  The three of us who met felt the same, given that staff stayed on at the big house, how was it that they never made contact.  They moved around, they were, despite efforts made from Lahardane, untraceable.  Michelle wrote "In order to believe in Lucy I had to suspend belief to some extent - would parents leave so quickly after losing their much loved daughter?"  

Michelle also wrote that "the enduring sadness of this book is the guilt felt by Lucy, her parents and the guilt of the boy who led the attack on the house and how that guilt crippled all of their lives."  In the end Lucy could not allow herself some happiness with Ralph.  We all took a great sense of that from our reading of the novel 

We felt that Michelle would have the best insight into the Irish psyche and cultural aspects of the time in relation to the setting of the novel.  She wrote "His picture of Ireland is very static and is rooted in the old story telling traditions of the country (in Lucy's local town the stories about her are told and retold, and nothing is lost in the telling.)  Trevor's Ireland is essentially the country he left when he came to England.


Brief biographical notes

William Trevor KBE (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016) was an Irish novelist, playwright and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he was widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in the English language. He won the Whitbread Prize three times and was nominated five times for the Booker Prize.  He was made a Saoi of a state-supported Bardic school of Irish creative artists. The title is awarded for life and held by at most seven people at a time.

Trevor spent most of his life in Devon, from the 1950s until his death aged 88 in Devon, South West England which means that none of his books was published until after he had left Ireland, the first being in 1958.

We all rated this book highly.  Caroline and Lorraine gave the book 4 stars, Michelle 4.5 stars and Jane and Jan gave it 5.

Our next meeting will take place on May 9th at Michelle's house when we will discuss Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

Book Club meeting at Françoise’s house on 14th March 2019

to discuss The Waves by Virginia Woolf.

Françoise, Jane and Caroline were present.  Michelle had sent us her comments. 

Three out of the six have read the Waves and all three fully appreciated the beauty of the poetry-prose of this extraordinary book. Virginia Woolf called it a play-poem and not a novel.  There is no story and the three girls and three boys were not meant to be totally separate characters.  There is a feeling of melancholy and sadness building from the inside out.  Virginia reveals through their thoughts and their meetings throughout their lives, the extraordinary in a group of disparate and ordinary people. Their fears, their loves, their hopes, their self-questioning and much more.

Virginia Woolf was born in 1882 and died in 1941. Her father was a notable intellectual and her sister Vanessa became a well regarded painter. Her husband Leonard Woolf was a publisher.  Virginia became one of the leading figures in the Bloomsbury Group with other writers, artists and thinkers.  “They were an informal collection of like- minded people and friends who turned their back on Victorian society and ideas and hoped to discover a new artistic method to match the twentieth century”.

Sadly Virginia Woolf suffered from mental illness all her life but her sensitiveness and depth of feeling and expression have left us with several wonderful books to read and re-read.

Jane listened to us talking about the book and felt inspired to read it.  It is a book that one can have next to one’s bed and go back to from time to time.  Poetry, and very captivating.

Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro
A collection of 5 bitter sweet short stories that we all enjoyed reading. The different themes running through the stories were those of music and struggling musicians, relationships which are failing and the inability of people to recognize their limitations. Going from Venice to the Malvern Hills  and onto the US and the world of celebrity superficiality. The stories are very readable and subtle with an ability to stand back quietly and surprise the reader. Sometimes melancholic and sometimes very funny. The stories definitely lend themselves to a second reading.
We gave them an average of 4 stars.

The Bone People

Lorraine, Caroline, Jane and Jan met to discuss The Bone People  by Keri Hulme.  Jane had started but not finished the book, Jan had hoped to do a reread but had not managed to achieve this, however she had looked up stuff about the author, Keri Hulme, as she wanted to know a bit more about her background to see if there were things in her early life which might have foreshadowed her writing on the novel.  How much of her earlier experiences might account for her drawing of three complex and troubled characters who populate the novel.  How much might catharsis have been a process that was driving her writing.

Keri Hulme was borne in 1947 and is a New Zealand novelist, poet, and short-story writer. Her novel, The Bone People, won the Man Booker Prize in 1985. She was the first New Zealander to win this award.  Hulme's writing explores themes of isolation, postcolonial and multicultural identity, and Maori, Celtic, and Norse mythology. She has also written under the pen name Kai Tainui. 

Hulme was born in Christchurch, in New Zealand's South Island. The daughter of John W., a carpenter, and Mere, a credit manager, she was the eldest of six children.  Of her mixed ancestry Hulme says  "Our family comes from diverse people: Kai Tahu, Kāti Māmoe (South Island Maori iwi); Orkney islanders; Lancashire folk; Faroese and/or Norwegian migrants." Hulme'ser father died when she was 11 years old.   She worked as a tobacco picker in Motueka after high school. She began studying for an honours law degree at the University of Canterbury in 1967, but left after four terms and returned to tobacco picking, continuing to write throughout this period.   I wonder what lies behind that....

Caroline said that she found the writing powerful, that she was writing very much 'out of the box'.   Caroline was very impressed by the book and awarded 4.5 stars 

Lorraine found the book hard work to read, she had to keep checking back to orientate herself in the narrative, to harness the thoughts in her head.  Lorraine gave the book 4 stars for the calibre of the story and writing and 3 stars for accessibility

We wondered about mysteries surrounding Simon, his muteness, his attempts to speak which resulted in vomiting.  A troubled child.  Kerewin had lost the will to paint, we wondered why.  Often in the book some details were give but the not elaborated upon.  So some of the what we took from the book was speculative but the writing carried the narrative forward.

Michelle submitted a thorough review which Lorraine read to us.  It was clear that she felt intense indignation about the treatment of Simon by Joe.  The abusive section was harrowing to read.  Michelle said : I give the Bone People 5*. A literary novel without a doubt - and brave handling of a difficult subject. I'd probably have given it 6 stars if it had stayed rather more on point!

We discussed the reception that the book had received after it finally got published.  Twelve unsuccessful attempts to find a publisher.  Critics gave a mixed reception.  One reviewer criticised the fact that a book should meet the requirements of the reader, to write for a readership.  Jan put the other view that in effect with writers it is horses for courses.  Writers have different objectives in writing a novel, or other genres.  Some writers read to be popular, accessible and to entice readers to buy their subsequent books.  At the other end of a spectrum other writers write the book they want to, the story they have to tell in the language and style they find appropriate. That is another kind of art.   Keri Hulme would fall into this category.  Jan gave the book 5 stars.

Info for further meetings:

Jane says: Just to let you know that the next book club date has been changed to the 3 January and we are reading ‘Never stop walking’ at Caroline’s house in Hameau Joulines, La Pernelle. Françoise, I am happy to drive us if you want.  Thank you so much to Lorraine for a delicious kedgeree lunch today and an interesting discussion about The Bone people.

Here are the books we will be reading in 2019. Venue should be confirmed a few days before by whoever is welcoming the book club by group email.

February 14th - Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro

March 14th - The Waves by Virginia Woolf

April 11th - Lucy Gault by William Trevor

May 9th - Mr Pye by Melvyn Peale

June 13th - Gorky park by Martin Cruz Smith

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

On Thursday 15th November Jane, Lorraine, Caroline and new member Michelle Hargreaves met at Jan's house in St Vaast La Hougue to discuss Little Fires Everywhere. This title, published in 2017, is the author's second novel and takes place in Shaker Heights, Ohio where Ng grew up. She described writing about her hometown as "a little bit like writing about a relative. You see all of the great things about them, you love them dearly, and yet you also know all of their quirks and their foibles." It is about two families living in 1990s Shaker Heights who are brought together through their children.

Everyone had enjoyed reading this novel and there was a good discussion about various aspects. Caroline for example felt that the teenagers were drawn characters. We talked about the moral issues raised in the book, particularly the trial between the McCulloughs and Bebe Chow and the dilemma as to who should have legal custody of May Ling Chow.

Jan had written a short review as follows:
I had a love hate relationship with this novel as I read it.  It is described as a tale of morals and motherhood and there is an awful lot of Anne Tyler about it. I have read most of Tyler's novels and I could feel that I am somewhat played out on small town American domesticity and family sagas. Tyler has written about different families but I sometimes feel, and especially with so many books out there that I want to read, that once you have read one you have read them all.   I am sure there are many Anne Tyler fans who would be happy to debate that!

Someone has burned down the Richardson's house, the youngest of four children is blamed. We wait until the end to find out who the culprit is and what motivated the act of arson.

The novel is more about babies and the extremes of busybodiness and meddling which can be an overarching part of the lives of some self-righteous people. Namely Mrs Richardson. There is the matter of an abandoned baby, an adoption which might not have taken place as it should have done, through the proper channels. There is a custody battle which goes to court. During this process I found some of the writing on motherhood overly sentimental and cloying. I allowed myself to be irritated by this and then I questioned my ability to feel compassion.  Was I being unfeeling? I think it is within the power of writers to connect with the feelings of their readers and extract the reactions that they themselves recognise and feel to be appropriate. Or to fail in that and leave the reader cold. Certainly though as Ng writes about the custody issue she left me feeling ambivalent as to for whose plea the judge should find favour, the birth mother or the adoptive parents.

There are many aspects to the narrative: race, class, privilege, teenage sex, abortion, surrogacy. It's all in there. It is a rich list of ingredients but I did not ultimately find it a tasty dish.

Jane rated the book 5 stars, Caroline and Lorraine gave 4 and Jan gave 3.5 stars.

We meet next time at Jane's for lunch on Thursday December 13th at 12.30 p.m. to discuss The Bone People by Keri Hulme.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Jane reports: The discussion was brief but came down to the shared opinion that it needed to be read and appreciated page by page and not seen as a complete work. The language and descriptions were incredibly rich. We were curious as to why it is seen as such a great work. Not a book to curl up with on a dark night as it will send you to sleep rather quicker than you had hoped ! The we tucked into lunch ! Medal goes to Caroline for getting through the entire book.

• Caroline -gave it 4 *
• Jane and Christine did not finish it
• Lorraine 2 *

Jan was not at the meeting and did not read the book but did a bit of homework and wrote as follows:

Wikipedia says:
This is a landmark 1967 novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez that tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town of Macondo, a fictitious town in the country of Colombia.

The magical realist style and thematic substance of One Hundred Years of Solitude established it as an important representative novel of the literary Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s, which was stylistically influenced by Modernism (European and North American) and the Cuban Vanguardia (Avant-Garde) literary movement.

Since it was first published in May 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude has been translated into 37 languages and has sold more than 30 million copies. The novel, considered García Márquez's magnum opus, remains widely acclaimed and is recognized as one of the most significant works in the Spanish literary canon.

The basic structure of the novel traces the chronicle of the Buendía family over a century. It is the history of a family with inescapable repetitions, confusions, and progressive decline. Beginning sometime in the early nineteenth century, the novel's time span covers the family's rise and fall from the foundation of Macondo by the youthful patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, until the death of the last member of the line. Throughout the narrative, the fates of the Buendías and Macondo are parallel reflections. In fact, we witness the history of a people who, like the wandering tribes of Israel, are best understood in terms of their genesis from a single family.

                                                                        ------0000000------

What did Jan think:

I started this novel twice with an interval between.  I felt I had not given the novel my full attention the first time and went back again resolving to give more focus to the narrative and try and wrap my head round the characters.  But this was such a problem, with the repetition of names as the narrative unfolded.  But not just the repetition of one character's name, but the successive naming of subsequent generations using the small pool of names for the characters.  I mean, 17 Aurelianos and 7 generations of Buendias!!  There were times when I felt as if I was reading the Bible.  It's a family saga without equal!

I resorted to Wikipedia and thought, well if I read this I will at least have learnt something about the plot, the symbolism and metaphors, the context, the significance in Latin American literature, the reasons for the acclaim it received.  And, what magical realism is.  Well, to be truthful if I never read another magical realistic novel again I will be happy!  My reading temperament is not cut out for the blurring of fantasy and the real world.   It's a style of writing in which the supernatural is presented as mundane, and the mundane as supernatural or extraordinary,  a constant intertwining of the ordinary with the extraordinary. 

I was interested to read what the Solitude of the title represented and I read that:

"Perhaps the most dominant theme in the book is that of solitude. Macondo was founded in the remote jungles of the Colombian rainforest. The solitude of the town is representative of the colonial period in Latin American history, where outposts and colonies were, for all intents and purposes, not interconnected.  Isolated from the rest of the world, the Buendías grow to be increasingly solitary and selfish. With every member of the family living only for him- or her-self, the Buendías become representative of the aristocratic, land-owning elite who came to dominate Latin America in keeping with the sense of Latin American history symbolized in the novel."

In addition to Wikipedia I read other critiques and sets of study notes on the Internet in order to try and get inside the framework and purpose of the novel, but in truth even these bits of text had my head spinning.  But of all the comment and criticism I read about 100 Years this particularly struck a chord with me: 

"Although One Hundred Years of Solitude has come to be considered one of, if not the, most influential Latin American texts of all time, the novel and Gabriel García Márquez have both received occasional criticisms. Stylistically, Harold Bloom (Harold Bloom (born July 11, 1930) is an American literary critic and Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University and has written 40 books including 20 on literary criticism - so he knows a thing or two) remarked that "My primary impression, in the act of rereading One Hundred Years of Solitude, is a kind of aesthetic battle fatigue, since every page is rammed full of life beyond the capacity of any single reader to absorb... There are no wasted sentences, no mere transitions, in this novel, and you must notice everything at the moment you read it."   - my underscoring.

To conclude

That was the problem, the intensity of concentration the book seemed to require almost reduced me to tears of frustration.

But at least I know a bit more about this important and iconic novel than I did before and, in a way, I'm glad it was chosen!

The Light Between the Oceans

Four of us met at Jan's house on Thursday May 17th to discuss The Light Between the Oceans by M L Stedman.  Jane and Sally were not able to be with us.

We all enjoyed reading this book. It is a tragic story about good people and the fateful decisions that they made.  They broke the rules to follow their hearts.  It is about the love and happiness that Tom and Isabel found in their decisions but in the end this interval was short-lived. 

The arrival of a boat at the isolated island inhabited by lighthouse-keeper Tom and his wife Isabel,  and this boat carrying a baby in the arms of her dead father, prompts the recently bereaved Isabel, mother of a stillborn child, and Tom to rescue the baby and, against Tom's better judgement, they claim her as her own.  The descent into deceipt was slow until they reached a point where they were trapped by their decision to keep the child.

It is a story about right and wrong and the fine line that sometimes separates these values.  It is a story for which there can never be a 'good' and tidy outcome for the characters involved.  We debated the rights and wrongs of what Isabel and Tom did, that after the trauma of miscarriages and stillbirth Tom wanted to make it right for Isabel, but in Stedman's writing you are aware of his misgivings right at the outset.   Stedman's writing cleverly seduces the reader into accommodating Isabel's decision to keep this "gift from God." But in the end where there is justice for one person it is another's tragic loss.
   

Jan pointed out that M L Stedman, originally from Western Australia, has now lived for many years in London, where she worked as a lawyer before embarking on creative writing.  She wondered if this accounted for Stedman having so ably written a narrative which effectively placed the reader in the position of seeing both sides of the matter, the case for and against in relation to the self-adoptive parents and to the biological mother.  Legal people are trained to be able to defend and prosecute. 

In the end what most people would see as natural justice prevailed.  But the cost was very high.  In our discussion it was suggested that the ending was rather weak.  And that the timing of the death of Isabel somewhat melodramatic.  This did not detract, however, from us all feeling this was a gripping story well told and although we did not remember to vote at our meeting my sense is that we would all give it 4 or 5 stars.

The next meeting takes place at Jane's on June 14th when we will discuss 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

Thursday 19th April 2018 meeting at Lorraine's

Thursday 19th April 2018 meeting at Lorraine's

Present were Caroline, Sally, Jane, Chris, Francoise with her adorable little grandson, and Lorraine. Apologies from Jan who was back in England.

We discussed "Rebecca" By Daphne du Maurier.

Although all of us present had read the book in our youth. Some of us more than once and we had seen at least one of the films. Very strangely most of us could not remember the outcome of the story and what happens in the end!

We all agreed it was a gripping tale, beautiful written and kept us all enthralled to the end. Thank you Jane for suggesting it.

The book was awarded 5 stars by the majority.

I quote Jan's words as they seem to sum it up so succinctly

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

A novel that has never been out of print and sold nearly 3 million copies in the 30 year interval after its publication.  In 2017, it was voted the UK's favourite book of the past 225 years in a poll by bookseller W H Smith!!!

For me it started as a slow-burner of a novel. Mrs Van Hopper and her companion are staying at a hotel in Monte Carlo. Both these characters made me squirm a bit, Mrs Van Hopper’s shameless pushiness and the younger woman’s reticence and self-effacing manner. These are the opening chapters and then with the marriage of the young woman and Max de Winter the narrative takes off. Our ‘heroine’ was led like a lamb to slaughter. Du Maurier cleverly drew the creepily manipulative and poisonous Mrs Danvers well and the new young wife’s fearfulness and blind innocence at times made me want to shake the book at her! It was hard to feel sorry for her you just wanted her to show some mettle. She does finally gain confidence and become more assertive when Mrs Danvers is humbled. It was hard to warm to any of the characters except the man on the beach who refused to give up his secrets even though it was for fear of being locked into an asylum. 

Gradually the novel shifts from a psychological drama about obsession to a thriller: will the killer be unmasked and brought to justice. I thought this plot was cleverly written and at just the right pace. The twists with regard to Rebecca’s visit to the gynecologist and her confrontation with Max in the boat hut were clever. I did guess that Rebecca’s shooting was something which she engineered. 

A great ending to the book, rightly famous in the world of literature.

Two further comments: As the story reaches its climax I found myself wanting Max to ‘get away with it’. This sometimes happens when I read a book and a character is so obviously guilty but the author has contrived to make you engage with the guilty one. I think that is skillful writing because the author has manipulated her reader. Secondly it never occurred to me until I came to write this review that the second Mrs de Winter is never named. I went to the opening chapters to check what it was, assuming I had forgotten it, only to find we are never told. I wonder what prompted du Maurier to use that device? Perhaps it was to emphasize her identity as the second Mrs de Winter rather than a person in her own right and perhaps also to subordinate her to Rebecca whose ‘presence’ is constant and who is mentioned so often in the text."

About the author

Daphne Du Maurier also known as ‘Lady Browning’ was a British writer and playwright born on 13th May 1907 in London. She belonged to a creative family where her father and mother both were actors, her uncle was a magazine editor and her grandfather was a writer. This became the base for her literary talent as she started writing when she was very young. As a child she knew how to stay in the limelight having met many celebrities because of her parents’ career. At first she was not considered as intellectual as other famous authors such as George Elliot and Iris Murdoch and her work was seen as somewhat ‘old aged’. But now Maurier is recognized as one of the most brilliant writers and is called ‘the mistress of suspense’. She was home schooled by well-educated governesses and later attended the elite schools of London and Paris.

Because her childhood contained many literary and artistic experiences, it was not a surprise that Du Maurier had a very vivid imagination and a profound love for writing and reading. Her first novel ‘The Loving Spirit’ was published in 1931. It was after reading this very novel that Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick also called ‘Boy Browning’ sailed all the way to London to meet the author of this book. They got married the next year and remained married for the next 33 years till Boy died in 1965. They had 3 children. The marriage had its share of difficulties because of Daphne du Maurier’s secret bisexuality however she denied this fact.

Du Maurier’s other works are ‘I’ll Never Be Young Again’ (1932), ‘The Progress of Julius’ (1933), ‘Jamaica Inn’ (1936), ‘Rebecca’ (1938), ‘Frenchman’s Creek’ (1941), ‘Mary Anne’ (1954), ‘The Scapegoat’ (1957), ‘The Glass-Blowers’ (1963) and ‘Rule Britannia’ (1972). She also wrote many short stories including ‘Come Wind, Come Weather’ (1940), ‘Early Stories’ (1959), ‘The Breaking Point’ (1959), ‘Not After Midnight’ (1971) and ‘The Rendezvous and Other Stories’ (1980).

Our next meeting is at Jan's on Thursday 17th May to discuss "The Light Between Oceans" by ML Stedman.

The March meeting was held at Caroline’s but unfortunately Sally and Christine could not attend.  Jan brought her sister-in-law Liz who participated fully having read The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry in two days. 

The meeting was lively and it was agreed at the start that we had all really enjoyed the book.  Sally had a few reservations.

Christine sent us a short description of the life and work of Sarah Perry. The Essex Serpent is only a second novel.

Jan had written a little about the texture of the narrative which she read to us and she had researched “very long fish” as the monster which came up on the shore had seemed a little improbable!  It could have been an Oar fish.  Perhaps the improbability of certain aspects of the novel added to the mystery and drew us all on to read the next chapter.

The Independent writes:

Set at the very end of the nineteenth century, the Essex marshes become Perry’s Dover Beach, the setting for a three-way clash between science, religion and superstition, three serpents entwined: the snake of Asclepius coiling round its staff, that from the Garden of Eden, and a mythical terrible beast, “a monstrous serpent with eyes like a sheep, come out of the Essex waters and up to the birch woods and commons,” claiming human and animal lives alike.

The Essex Estuary abounds with fearful rumours of the latter, but Cora Seabourne – a young widow and aspiring Mary Anning, recently arrived from London – is convinced it’s a previously undiscovered “living fossil.” Meanwhile, William Ransome, the local vicar – a man whose faith is one of “enlightenment and clarity,” not blood, brimstone and darkness – is unconvinced by either explanation.

When it comes to historical fiction, Perry’s achieved the near impossible; she’s created a novel and within it a world that seems to have sprung complete and fully formed directly from the period in question – a long lost fin-de-siècle Gothic classic – but her characters are as enticingly modern as they are of their period.

Cora is about as far from a stereotypical Victorian wife as one can imagine – unconcerned with looking pretty and in possession of exceptional (“masculine”) intelligence – William as questioning as he is devout, and the host of other characters with which they are surrounded are pushing for welfare reforms and medical advances.

Each of whom is beautifully rendered – their desires real and raw, and their pleasures and pains deeply felt. In terms of contemporary comparisons, I was reminded of Sarah Moss’s Victorian-set novels Bodies of Light and Signs for Lost Children: the two authors linked by period and a concern with medicine, but also a similar masterful but understated command of their subject.

Perry also showcases the most beguiling evocations of landscape. “Colchester. Colchester! What is there at Colchester? A ruin and a river, and web-footed peasants, and mud,” someone asks Cora. So much more, Perry goes on to prove! For only a second novel it’s a stunning achievement, one for which I predict prize nominations galore.