Westside Readers' Group, Shetland:  5th March 2003

Wednesday - Ash Wednesday. We're all here except for Nicola; thirteen of us.  Shetland Arts Trust's Literature Development Officer Alex Cluness asks the million dollar question:  'Well, what did you think of it?'

 The autobiography form:  Fiona felt it was an A - Z of the twentieth century, footnotes and all.  There was a nod around the group; Caroline and Lee felt the footnotes were really irritating.  Marsali thought they were part of the biography pastiche/spoof academic, sometimes unnecessarily overdone - presumably deliberately. Katherine pointed out that that index was also a spoof in places. Judy agreed that it was a good overview of the century.  Marsali had wondered why the writer hadn't had Logan born in 1901, but thought this was a link to the title - any human heart, a random one, not a representative Everyman.  We were all impressed by the huge amount of research the writer had done.  Mary liked the introduction; she felt it set the story up well. Most of us liked the diary form, although Bo found it a bit tedious.

The storyline:  Marsali said she hadn't got into it at first, and felt about half way through that she couldn't understand why the writer bothered, then felt the ending made sense of the whole - perhaps that linked with the title, not trying to say the last word in the middle.  Kirsty, the youngest of us, liked the boy.  Robin felt the public school was real, but not Oxford - it was a cliche.  Most of us disagreed - it was just the sort of set Logan would be in.  Gundil felt it was artificial, the way he met everyone - Mary pointed out, though, that if you'd been involved in, for example, the Bloomsbury set, you would have met all those people.

Bo, Marsali and Lee all felt that they began to sympathise with Logan after the war, when he returned to find Freya and Stella dead; Mary agreed.  'It was the first time he wasn't being a shit to everybody.'  Robin didn't like the American bit, but felt it was because he hated that sort of milieu. Several of us found the African time a bit tedious;  we wondered if this was because the writer hadn't been there, but found he had. Was it, then, something in Logan's attitude to Africa - standing back, not getting involved?  Gundil found the story unbelievable, particularly Logan'sinvolvement with the Baader-Meinhof gang.  Bo disagreed - she felt Logan needed to try and clarify his life, which was what sent him to do something; Marsali wondered if it was real.  He'd had the accident, and tended to deceive himself - for example with Mme Dupetit - in fact, she felt this was one of the interesting things about the book as a whole, how much of it was 'true' and how much Logan's gloss.

Katherine, just reaching retirement herself, said that she was amazed by a young writer's insights into what it felt like to be ageing.  She'd foundthe first two-thirds exhilarating and the last third sad - he'd just faded away and not had an obituary.  Mary agreed 'He'd outlived everyone.'  Lee said that the accolades didn't matter, he'd achieved contentment.  Bo: 'Serenity.  He could be himself.'  Marsali:  'Yes, I thought that was what the author was saying; in the end, what mattered was who he was, not all the things he'd done.  And there was the lovely description of the thistles floating free, and that was where he was found when he died.  Death wasn't the last word.'  Judy agreed:  'He was redeemed at the end.'

Characters:  Emma commented on the ten-year segments, and how it all revolved around people Logan went to school with, rather than family, and we agreed generally that this was realistic.  Fiona said that people you went to boarding school with became family.  Caroline felt he was dismissive of family; Mary agreed; he was disillusioned with his mother after her affair, only paid duty visits.  Marsali wasn't sure: he did visit, and you tend to take family for granted.  Mary wanted to know what happened to Land, she'd expected her to come back in; Katherine liked the way the loose ends weren't tied up.  We felt the characters were vivid: Gloria, Lionel; we were glad Gail got the house.

We were struck by the way we were discussing it as a real biography, even though we mostly agreed that we didn't think Logan was a real person even while reading.  Marsali commented on how well she felt the writer had changed the tone from schoolboy through to adult - it was always completely convincing.  She loved the lyrical description at the end.  There were little bits that people found unconvincing; Mary thought that given his previous income and jobs he wouldn't have been reduced to eating dog food, and several of us wondered how you could just forget about having a house in France - it seemed to reappear rather suddenly.

Overall:  We didn't like the cover, although we mostly agreed with the review snippets.  Laugh? - no, in general, we didn't find it very funny, although bits of it were, like Logan fighting against liking rugby.  Gundil felt it was well-written, but unbelievable.   Katherine said she wouldn't have picked it, but was glad she'd read it; she also felt it had sent her to other books, for example about 60s modern art.  Alex said it sounded like Boyd's The New Confessions, which he recommended.

Marsali wanted to read it again, but this time as a novel, thinking about themes and shape and characters.  We were all agreed it was well worth reading, although interesting rather than gripping; a really good travelling book, for picking up and putting down, although those of us who'd read it in several long sittings said it worked well like that too.

Next meeting at Burrastow, past Walls, after a very long discussion of what nights everyone has free.  All keen readers welcome.