July Group of the Month- The Cardiff Reading Group read Gifted by Nikita Lalwani

The Cardiff Reading Group was formed about three years ago, and meets once a month. We have over twenty five members in total, although due to busy working and home lives, attendance at meetings varies from around six or seven up to twenty. Our members come from all walks of life, ranging from recent university graduates, to couples in their thirties and forties, and those who have retired from work and are rediscovering their love of literature. Most of us didn’t know each other before joining the group. We have a strong male contingent – although typically at this meeting, only one man was present.

About the book
Being based in Wales, we often choose to read novels written by local authors, so were pleased to be sent Gifted, which is set in our home city of Cardiff in the 1980s. The references to landmarks that have long since disappeared provided an added extra appeal – and a good dose of nostalgia for some – in a book that was well-received by the whole group.

Gifted tells the tale of Rumi, a child maths prodigy, who dreams of getting accepted into Oxford University before her fifteenth birthday, and the relationship she has with her parents.  It’s a very readable book; simply written but full of emotion and intrigue. The main characters are complex and multi-dimensional, especially Rumi’s parents. Deep down, you know her father, Mahesh – who moved from India to Cardiff after getting a full university scholarship – wants the best for his daughter, but his attempts to nurture her mathematics skills are at the expense of her social and emotional development.

Her mother, Shreene, is a lonely, lost woman. She never wanted to come to the UK and struggles to combine embracing a new culture while holding on to her roots. She finds it hard to communicate with her daughter who knows little of the land her parents have left behind.  Nikita paints a wonderful portrait of a stressful household populated by people who want nothing more than to express their love and affection for one another, yet don’t know how. As one of our members commented, they are like little islands floating around in the sea, not connecting because of their own issues they have not been able to deal with. As a result, one moment you want to give Shreene and Mahesh a good shake and snap them out of their behaviour; the next you’re sympathising with them and while not condoning their actions at least understanding where they come from.

Amid all this are some great moments of humour – Mahesh’s rigid studying schedule for Rumi and her rebellion, for example, which sees her sneaking off from her maths books and escaping into the world of Enid Blyton’s Mallory Towers, to this day, essential reading for teenage girls everywhere.  Like Rumi, Nikita grew up in Cardiff and we wondered how much of the book was based on her own experience. The author writes with such vivid detail, situations and characters are well-observed and very believable; leaving us debating how much was based on fact and how much on fiction. As a group, we have often discussed the tendency of first-time novelists to chuck all their ideas into the pot to produce a confusing jumble of ideas. Thankfully, Nikita doesn’t fall into this trap. We’re all very interested to see where she will go with her next novel.

The book ends with an element of resolution – although it is left quite open ended. We were divided on what we thought of this. Some would have liked even more ambiguity and to be allowed to form more of their own conclusions; others were desperate to know more about what happened after we leave the characters behind. We all agreed it was good to have an element of the unknown in a book, for an author to leave you thinking and wanting more, rather than dictating every last thought.



June 2008 Group of the Month - The North London Book Group review  The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein

About us: We first came together a few years ago as parents of pupils at Highgate School in London and now many of our sons will be taking their final exams at university this summer.The school brought us together but our group flourishes in its own right and  we have become good friends  over the years. Our meetings are great fun and often thought-provoking. We work or have worked in private industry, government, education, financial services, journalism and garden design. Unsurprisingly, we all love reading – but the breadth of knowledge of authors and their works revealed by some of our members is sometimes quite astonishing.

The book: We were intrigued to see how Jennifer Cody Epstein would tackle fictionalising a true story in her debut novel The Painter of Shanghai, which covers the first half of the life of Pan Yuliang, a noted Chinese artist.

Pan Yuliang’s life was quite extraordinary: orphaned at the age of seven, she was taken in by her uncle who, after years of struggling with an opium addiction, sold her into prostitution when she was 14 years old. A tax official, Pan Zanhua, bought her out from the brothel when she was just 17 and set her up as his second wife or concubine; supported by Zanhua.  Yuliang broke many taboos by attending art school - on merit and despite being a woman; establishing herself as a leading exponent of Western-style painting, especially nudes, and coming under attack both because of her dubious past and her revealing celebration of the female body. Yuliang left China for France in 1937, so she could practise her art freed from the political and social constraints of her home country.

The basic plot of Yuliang’s story is so amazing that some of us wondered why the author chose to fictionalise it but we recognised that, in so doing, she was free to fill in the gaps and to try and find a rationale for her actions and attitudes.

To this end, the author does not offer a point of view other than Yuliang’s. A story that involves the subjugation of women in both polite society and in the underworld could have been presented from a feminist viewpoint, equally the contrast between Chinese and Western values could have been the backdrop to a politically-charged analysis of the role of art and politics. The focus of this story, however, is resolutely on Pan Yuliang – what makes her tick, how she is affected by her experiences and how and why her art becomes her overriding passion.

There are many interesting cultural and period details throughout the story.
We were moved by some aspects of the story, especially Yuliang’s relationship with and the terrible end of Jinling, her friend and mentor in the brothel, but most of us found we had not become truly involved in Pan Yuliang’s fate. We could empathise with her inability to express emotions because of her terrible early experiences and we could admire her courage in the face of society’s disapproval but the very qualities that enabled Yuliang to pursue her passion served also to prevent our identifying with her at an emotional level.

May 2008  Group of the Month - The Number 1 Ladies’ Book Club review  The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid

We are a group of seven twenty-something females from Sheffield who meet every month to discuss books and films – we alternate between books and films, which gives us a chance to read longer books (and to make sure everyone finishes them!). We try to use the book club as an excuse to read things we never would have oth

erwise and in the last year we've read an eclectic range of books, including Dombey and Sons by Charles Dickens, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs.
 
Meetings usually involve a fair amount of wine and chocolate and we take a relaxed and fun approach to reading and discussing books. We have been known to have some heated debates though and while some books, such as Khalid Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns have been universally enjoyed other have been a lot less popular!

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

This short but gripping novel tells the story of Changez, a young Pakistani man living in America, who has secured a high-powered job on Wall Street. Although, at first, he is seduced by the wealth and status his new career offers, 9/11 and its after-effects, particularly America’s aggressive foreign policy, make him dramatically reassess his attitude towards his adopted country.

Mohsin Hamid tackles a controversial subject with intelligence and sensitivity and shows there can be no simple answers. Changez is both restrained and thoughtful, a world away from the typical image of the single-minded ‘fundamentalist’. His disillusionment with American values stems in part from his growing disgust with the ruthless capitalism of his chosen career and the unofficial motto of the finance company he works for, ‘focus on the fundamentals’, makes us question just who the ‘fundamentalist’ of the title really is.

The novel has an intriguing narrative style, which sees Changez relate his history to a mysterious American, who remains almost entirely silent throughout. Changez’s narrative voice drives the story forward at a fast pace but it isn’t always clear how much it can be trusted. As the story progresses, the motives of both narrator and listener become more and more questionable, and Mohsin Hamid uses this to slowly increase the tension until the novel reaches its chillingly ambiguous ending.

Not all the members of the group were convinced by where Changez’s emotional journey eventually led him, but the novel generated a lot of discussion, which is usually the sign of a good book. We all felt the use of the monologue gave the story an edge it might not otherwise have had and that the author cleverly played on our own preconceptions as readers. Everyone in the group enjoyed the Reluctant Fundamentalist and at just over 200 pages it’s an easy but thought provoking read

April 2008 Group of the Month - The Kings Beck Book Club, North Norfolk review Salt by Jeremy Page

There are 15 members of the group, ranging in age from mid-twenties to mid-fifties. With the exception of our one dominant alpha-male, we are all women in various stages of life and love. We all met through children, friends or work and although we are all very different, we share enough similarities to enable the group to flourish.  We usually have around 8 people at each meeting, but as these are not always the same people, the dynamics of the group are constantly changing, keeping meetings fresh and interesting. 

One of our member’s on what the Book Club means to her:  When my grandfather died we found wardrobes full of books. His floor to ceiling shelves were stuffed with books three-deep.  His enthusiasm was infectious and we all inherited it.  Reading for pleasure feels like a luxury, albeit a daily one, and it's something I would struggle to do without. Book club has brought a new and welcome dimension to reading. Reading a book at the same time as other people, with the knowledge that you will be discussing it as a group, alters the experience. The discussions we have can fill my own gaps in knowledge, perhaps about the historical or cultural setting of a book, and I benefit from hearing others' impressions of characters.

Salt by Jeremy Page

This tale of intrigue and discovery is set in North Norfolk, a place dear to the hearts of many members of the book group, whether because we were born here or settled here.

The story begins with Goose, the male narrator Pip’s grandmother, discovering a German soldier buried up to his neck in mud on the bleak salt marches of North Norfolk. A family saga unfolds, as told by Pip, which delivers us across the windswept coastal area of Blakeney with its patchwork skies, to the bleak interior of the fens. The harsh, dominant character of Goose mirrors that of the landscape and it is often difficult to tell if this is a book about the characters or about the landscape.

As the fabric of the book unfurls, Page’s ability as a storyteller evolves as he explores the duplicitous nature of truth. The book guards its secrets well as Pip struggles to unravel his family’s history – Who is Elsie? What really happened to Hans?

Although the tangled web that Page weaves evokes the true nature of family relationships, the reader is occasionally left stranded with a number of threads that lead so far, but are not expanded upon; questions that are left unanswered. Long, meandering descriptive passages also have a tendency to detract from the main story. Indeed, the huge panoramic scenes seem more suited to film – given Page’s background, could this be one in the making?   Some of the group described this as a dark and haunting book, with little joy to be found. Whilst it is true the theme of loneliness runs throughout, the mood of the landscape and the cadence of Norfolk are captured skilfully.

There is no doubt that we will see a copy of the book in every guest house worth its salt along the North Norfolk coast this summer.


March 2008 Group of the Month - The Spotborough Reading Group in Yorkshire review  Black Diamonds by Catherine Bailey

The group met with great enthusiasm to discuss Catherine Bailey’s book, Black Diamonds. This is local territory for the Sprotbrough group as Wentworth is only 12 miles away and the early Fitzwilliams were lords of Emley and Sprotbrough before their Wentworth days. Unfortunately several members were missing as they were unable to make the extra meeting we needed to meet the deadline.

There has always been an air of mystery about the hall – would this book solve the mystery of the battles over inheritance?  Was the 97h Earl the rightful owner of the hall? Should Toby or Tom have been the 10th Earl? Tales had circulated locally for years concerning the Fitzwilliam family and their efforts to conceal their history.

Written in a fast, entertaining style the book mixes the social history of mines and mining, the political scene throughout the 20th century, with the history of the Wentworth family making a fascinating read.

It highlights the contrast between the vast opulence of the Fitzwilliam family with the poverty and hardship of the miners on whom most of their wealth was based. But this is no easy comparison. The miners preferred to work in the Fitzwilliam mines as they were safer than the nearby Cadeby and Denaby mines which were owned by mining companies and had an appalling record of safety and concern for the welfare of their workers. The description of the miners being evicted from their homes during the bag muck strike was not new to our reading group but is a graphic reminder of how local politics has been formed.

The Fitzwilliam family had a more paternalistic attitude to their workers and their families, providing some support during times of hardship, notably during the General strike. The Wentworth miners supported the Fitzwilliam family in their efforts to prevent the destruction of the house and gardens by opencast mining in 1946.  The link between the Fitzwilliam family, the Cavendish family from Chatsworth and the Kennedys was news to everyone although we all knew that Kick Kennedy was buried at Chatsworth. How well this liaison had been covered up.

The group felt that this was a fascinating book, weaving together the history of the Fitzwilliam family with a social history of the early 20th century and the place that the miners and coal, black diamonds, had in this history.

March 2008 Group of the Month - The Bretton Book Club review The Glass Books of the Dreameaters   by G.W. Dahlquist

We are a group of nine ladies who have been meeting for over two years. We have various jobs/professions – Market Researcher, Health Visitor, Land Charge Clerk, Speech Therapist, Children’s librarian, Teaching Assistant, two Finance Officers and a PA. We meet in each other’s houses and live in Peterborough.
 
Set in ten deliciously crafted Victorian news-stand style booklets, the “Glass Books” begins with Book One where our heroine Miss Celeste Temple receives a simple note from her fiancé, government official Roger Bascombe, in which she learns of the end of their engagement. Not one for taking things lying down Miss Temple decides to follow Roger to try and determine his reasons for discarding her. The adventure begins as she follows him to a strange, seedy-feeling masked ball from whereon in she is thrown into a strange series of events and into a dark world with bizarre and erotic goings on.

Book Two introduces us to a thoroughly notorious assassin, Cardinal Chang. Hired to kill a certain Colonel Trapping at the very same masked ball, he finds his mark already dead. Once again our hero is hit by inquisitiveness and between pursuits and attacks upon his person, he sets out determined to find out just who killed Trapping before him.

Our third hero makes his appearance in Book Three. Doctor Svenson, chaperone to his prince - the Prince of the Duchy of Macklenburg, is a true and loyal person to the end. Even though the prince is of questionable character himself, Svenson sets out to find him when he is abducted in mysterious circumstances.  And thus begins a story about a dark and shocking conspiracy centred around a mystifying process which seems to suck out wicked experiences and record them into a strange glass book for subsequent readers to enjoy… All of which is a strangely enjoyable read if you can stick with it. Dahlquist has created a mammoth work, which captures a dark and gothic atmosphere unlike any other book our group has known.


December Group of the Month

This month we decided to do a round up of all the comments our Groups of the Month had made about the books we asked them to review this year. Here is a selection to inspire your reading:

January - The Fernbank Culture Club, Bristol - Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

"I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I found it easy to read, yet absorbing and, at times, disturbing.  The characters were drawn as mostly essentially flawed people who judged each other readily.   The book left me with a sense of wellbeing. Maybe because I felt that we are all struggling with our demons."

February - The Surrey Bookworms - The Dream Life of Sukanov by Olga Grushin

‘A wonderful first novel set in Moscow, about a middle-aged man looking back on his life and what might have been. Plenty to discuss in a book group.’

March - Chilbolton Ladies Group, Hampshire - House of Orphans by Helen Dunmore

‘The book was deemed to be an interesting and thought provoking read, gave us all an introduction to a period of history we did not know a lot about and we would certainly consider other books by Helen Dunmore for our book group!’    
                     
April - Billericay Literary Society, Essex - Disobedience by Naomi Alderman

‘The novel grabs the attention and explores serious issues with a light touch.’

May - Goldthorpe Library Readers Group, Yorkshire - The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

‘The verdict was unanimous. This book was well written, very moving, and a real page-turner. A readers’ group dream of a book. Pass the word on!’

Prior Park College Reading Group, The Gleaners - Just In Case by Meg Rosoff

‘We all thoroughly enjoyed reading Just in Case and know that other reading groups like ours will find. as we did, that there simply wasn't enough time to cover all the many and varied issues raised in the writing, but we will always remember with happy memories and much gratitude, the opportunity to share such responses with the very person whose extraordinary imagination gave us such food for thought.

July - The Bretton Book Club Cambridge - The Ghost at the Table by Suzanne Berne

‘Berne has created a novel that is easy to read but that will keep you thinking for days afterwards.  Although it is a story about a family in America, whose claim to fame is growing up near Mark Twain, the underlying philosophies apply in anyone’s life.’

August - No Group of the Month

September -  Trentham Book Club, Stoke on Trent - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera 

We concluded that Love in a Time of Cholera is not so much telling a story as painting a picture. The descriptions evoke smells and sounds and there is passion, humour and wit but perhaps not sufficient to sustain every reader over 300 pages.  The best books for discussion in book groups are those on which we do not agree, so, by those standards, this is certainly one to be recommended.

October - Penistone Library Reader’s Group, Yorkshire - No, I don’t want to join a Book Club!  by Virginia Ironside         
‘Overall we enjoyed the book and would recommend it - especially as a retirement present for a colleague - female of course.’
                  
November - Book Badges Club - St Austell, Cornwall - Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson

‘All agreed that the story was slow to start and easy to put down at the beginning but, as the characters started to reveal their histories, it became compulsive.’



November 2007 Group of the Month

The Book Badges Club from St Austell, Cornwall, reviewed Linda Ollson's novel Astrid and Veronika

We are a small group of six who meet at a small bookshop in St Austell, Cornwall. We are mainly mums and dads with children of similar ages. That said we are happy to expand and have recently been joined by someone who no longer has to factor in babysitting on the book club nights. The book we read is chosen by a member of the group and we take turns in hosting and suggesting the next title.  It was particularly liberating therefore to be sent a book that no one had any say in choosing. Having looked at it the majority felt that they would not have normally picked it up except for our Danish member who was looking forward to it.

We all gathered last night to discuss the book and had our most argumentative evening in two years! What a split in opinions. On the whole, everyone loved the way the story unfolded. We all felt the cautious friendship of the two women was plausible and sensitive. Again, all agreed that the story was slow to start and easy to put down at the beginning but, as the characters started to reveal their histories, it became compulsive.  Only one member truly disliked the writing style, finding it disjointed and at times messy.

The big problem came with our reaction to Astrid’s story. Olsson’s writing style caused a huge problem here. When she wrote about Veronika she was fluent and expansive.  We were told about her feelings, her reactions, the reactions of others around her, leading up to and after the key events in her life. But with Astrid’s far more traumatic life we get nothing more than snippets. Indeed for 60 years of her life she appears to have imprisoned herself, socially and emotionally. We were struggling with the briefest of clues to try and understand the way that Astrid acted. And therein lay the problem.  When a reader engages with a book they bring to it their own personal experiences and these are used to fill in the gaps and condition the reader’s responses.  When an author leaves so many vital gaps the reader is really forced to fill them in from their own background and that led to some huge differences in opinions. I really liked Astrid but found myself horrified and confused by her actions and couldn’t find anything in the book to help reconcile my feelings. Half of the group agreed that it was the place of literature to be able to explore hideous events. The other half felt that the book reflected reality and that no more needed to be said. The few brush strokes provided by the author were enough. Boy, did we ever disagree!

However, whichever side we were on no one marked it lower than 7/10 as we all really responded to the book.  No book has caused such a split vote and it is already being passed into other hands to see what other readers think.



October 2007 Group of the Month

Penistone Library Readers Group

Formed in 1999, we hold the proud position of being the first Readers Group in the Barnsley area.   Since our formation we have been lucky enough to access grant funding from various sources which has helped to buy multiple copies of titles, and also to hold several very successful Author Events in the Barnsley area - we’ve also been on the recent Book Quiz programme on BBC 4. We are a vocal group who are passionate about books and reading and look forward to marking the tenth anniversary of our conception very soon!

Review of No I Don’t Want To Join a Bookclub!

I handed this book out with some trepidation - our group includes both under and over sixties, and one token male.
What would we make of a book written in diary format by a woman who has reached sixty and wants to celebrate by doing exactly what she wants?

Reviews were mixed - some loved the quirky humour and the perceptive comments on life.  Others enjoyed the writer’s description of her new grandchild and could relate to that, while we all found the portrayal of the death of a close friend was written in a simple but very moving way.

Younger members of the group were irritated by the author’s assumption that sixty is old - their parents, while over sixty do not feel about life in that way. Our token male member, while he found the book readable and amusing, couldn’t relate to it in the same way as the others did - definitely another volume, written from the male point of view, is needed!

There was some discussion about the author’s negative attitude to parts of her life, but overall we enjoyed the book and would recommend it - especially as a retirement present for a colleague - female of course.

September 2007 Groups of the Month

To celebrate Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 80th birthday, we have asked two  reading groups to read two of his novels. One Hundred Years of Solitude, published 40 years ago this year, was read by the After Hours Book Club in Cheltenham, and Love in the Time of Cholera was discussed by the Trentham Book Club in Stoke-on-Trent. Their reports are below.

The After Hours Book Club from Cheltenham discuss Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude


Description of ourselves: A group of eight working ladies some who have known each other for over twenty years but all met two years ago to enjoy books over a glass wine. Seven of us work in education and have children of similar ages.  We were delighted to be chosen to review a book but our faces dropped over the choice, having assumed we would be given a newly published book. However it gave us the opportunity to read something we otherwise would not have chosen. Always up for a challenge we tackled One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The story of seven generations of the Buendia family and the village of Macondo in Columbia they have discovered and built.  This is a book of magic and fantasy. At times it is difficult to follow as the family adopts the same names. The 100 years, as documented in the family encyclopaedia by Melquiades, is a journey through the lives and generations of the Buendia family, the rise and creation of its town through 32 civil wars and liberation and downfall of this strange and mythical place.
The characters, especially those of the women, came to life with very descriptive passages of their interwoven lives, at times eccentric, unbelievable and disturbing, at others magical and full of astounding and graphical descriptions and images.

Solitude seems to be the theme of the book. Each character has a time of solitude which is something we all face at times. That experience, whether self inflicted or imposed, is wonderfully portrayed.  Our favourite character was Ursula, who masked her blindness and was able to know exactly what was going on around her.

The book reminded us of a previous book we had read; Like Water for Chocolate, set in Mexico.  This is a book to be read in large chunks so that you can escape into the mythical world of Macondo. If you enjoy a book with a good story this would not be for you, but if you want an ultimate fantasy through time, enjoy.

Trentham Book Club in Stoke-on-Trent review  Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Trentham NWR book group began in 1981 as part of National Women’s Register. We are a group of 18 who meet ten months of the year to discuss a book and in August we have a day out with a literary slant.

Love in the Time of Cholera had a mixed reception in the group causing a division between those who thought it was an amazing classic and others who were disappointed. Set on the Caribbean coast in the first half of the 20th Century it takes the reader to an exotic location as we follow the characters through a journey of over fifty years. We agreed that this is a story about love and wondered whether cholera might be a metaphor for love itself. Love for the character Florentino is youthful, fleeting, passionate, idealised, unrequited and often paid for and, in contrast, Fermina marries young and grows to love. It is only in old age that the love is portrayed as tender and sympathetic.
Those who enjoyed the book found a gentle courtesy and mighty descriptive powers conjuring up a time and place removed from 21st Century England.

We concluded that Love in a Time of Cholera is not so much telling a story as painting a picture. The descriptions evoke smells and sounds and there is passion, humour and wit but perhaps not sufficient to sustain every reader over 300 pages.  The best books for discussion in book groups are those on which we do not agree, so, by those standards, this is certainly one to be recommended.

August 2007 Group of the Month
 
The Chesterfield Readers' Group reviewed Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte  
 
We enjoyed re-reading this – most of us not having read it for fifty years or more! And some of us remembered it with much affection. Several of us come from Yorkshire and some of us remember Haworth parsonage long before it became part of the Brontë industry. It was generally agreed that this is a difficult novel so it was surprising to find it in the hundred best reads. We felt that some of the choices had more to do with television adaptations than literature and some were sheer nostalgia for childhood.

We discussed the usual problems with the book – the unreliable narrator, which one member of our group likened to a Chinese Box: Lockwood quoting Nellie who quotes Catherine, Hindley, Linton and Isabella at times when she could not have been present. We found Lockwood a very unreliable narrator, a city man with no experience of this harsh, isolated world and these tough, emotional people in it. The fact that he is himself unmarried, loveless, makes it probable that he is unable to recognise passion in others.

We had some tangential fun referring to  Prof. John Sutherland’s book Is Heathcliffe a Murderer? and The Crimes of C. Brontë by James Tulley which purports to prove that the entire family was murdered by Charlotte’s husband, her father’s curate. Both of them highly recommended.

Inevitably our discussions led to adaptations both for the cinema and for television. Those of us who are old enough to remember the ghosts of Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier skipping merrily over Penistone Crags agreed that such a complex, puzzling novel can only be rendered trivial – even risible – on the screen. Even the recent Radio 4 serialisation sometimes sounded like the kind of parody Sue Limb could have written! Perhaps, we wondered, the problem is that the Gothic has been so well-explored since the nineteenth century.

So we agreed that this was the kind of novel best left as text – though most of us gave up on your free hand-out text and resorted to our own school version for eye-comfort!

Is Wuthering Heights merely a kind of violent, haunting family saga, or is it Emily Brontë’s venture into Gothic Horror? Whichever, we all agreed it is a great novel, well deserving of its place in the literary canon – if not in the BBC’s Best reads!

Bette Paul
Co-ordinator
Chesterfield Readers’ Group


July 2007 Group of the Month


The Bretton Book Group, Cambridge reviewed  The Ghost at the Table by Suzanne Berne

The Bretton Book Group meet in Cambridge, and were shortlisted for the Penguin/Orange Readers Group Prize in 2006.

This is their description of themselves:

‘We are a group of nine ladies who have been meeting for over two years. We have various jobs/professions - Market Researcher, Health Visitor, Land Charge Clerk, Speech Therapist, Children's librarian, Teaching Assistant, two Finance Officers and a PA.’

On being shortlisted:

‘We all felt very excited and honored about being short listed we know our group is great because we have made it into the kind of group we all love - but to have that recognised is fantastic"

This is a book that has divided the opinions of the group, it seems to create a love or hate relationship with the reader.  Some enjoyed every minute of the book, feeling that Berne makes writing look easy with the words flowing effortlessly and naturally onto the page, creating characters of substance and history within a few pages.  One person commented that ‘reading this book is like having a box of lovely chocolates. I want to be left alone with it. I know that I should savour every bite, but what I am actually doing is gobbling the whole box as quickly as I can.’  One thing the group did agree on is the interesting way character’s perceptions of events vary, meaning the reader is never sure of exactly what happened.

The writer’s style is clear and engaging, and gives the impression of being ‘simpler’ than it really is.  The chief protagonist’s role as a writer of re-designed history for children is clever, as the re-interpretation of what has happened in the past is the theme of book.  The single viewpoint, the claustrophobic, not-to-be-trusted interpretation of events and the short, controlled time-span all make this an easy, if slightly uncomfortable read, it is just disturbing enough.  It is pleasant as a reader to know that you are being manipulated, but to trust the narrator sufficiently so as to not mind, and even to welcome the manipulation.  This was an ‘easy read’ but not a lightweight book.

Stories are a key theme in the novel and this acts to blur the distinction between reality and fiction, we are continually reminded that she is simply telling us a story as well, events are told from her perspective and she hides what she doesn’t want us to know, in the same way that she hides the gruesome details in her fiction to create an ideal, romantic image.  Underneath the seeming simplicity is the realisation that life is subjective, full of secrets and false impressions that create your memory of events.  This acts as a poignant reminder that no matter how well you think you know someone you can only ever know the person they chose to present to the world.  How can you ever know what reality is when memory and impressions are so subjective?  The answer, the novel suggests, is that your reality will be as much a fiction to them as their reality is to you.

The ‘ghost at the table’ we early assume is either the third (dead) sister, or the mother, who died after a long illness in circumstances which are never clearly resolved.  A little later we, perhaps, believe that the ‘ghost’ is the old, wheel chair bound father, whose words are few and seldom understood (and even more seldom responded to). Only in the last third of the book do we begin to have the uneasy suspicion that the ‘ghost’ – the unreliable, troubled, unstable outsider – is in fact our narrator.  The meat of the book comes through this realisation that although we see all things through her eyes, and although our sympathies are with her, we cannot trust her – and cannot even make a reliable judgement as to whether or not she is dangerous.

Berne has created a novel that is easy to read but that will keep you thinking for days afterwards.  Although it is a story about a family in America, whose claim to fame is growing up near Mark Twain, the underlying philosophies apply in anyone’s life.  Every family has secrets and everyone ends up wondering what piece of information they are missing that will complete the puzzle.  Ultimately, it shows that memory is subjective and the image you present to the world is a fiction, no matter how truthful you think you are being.  Life is just a story for someone else to read.

June 2007 Groups of the Month

The Thorns Literature for Fun Group reviewed Just in Case by Meg Rosoff

A near-accident with David Case's baby brother triggers him to consider the delicate way that life is balanced on the verge of disaster.  However, his perception is that this is not chance or coincidence but FATE and that fate 'has it in for him'.    In order to try and avoid his fate he decides to change himself in every way possible, in the hope that fate will no longer recognise him.

The book is very engaging and everyone in the group felt the magnetism of it. The novel generated much discussion amongst the group.  'What is real?', 'What is imagined?', and ‘What is the purpose and significance of the dog?' The debate continues...

In other ways David/Justin seems a typical teenager, going through uncertainties and the confusion of maturing into an adult.  The juxtaposition of a teenager with very immature behaviour and a toddler with adult thought processes is quite an unusual combination.  All the adults in the story seem very unconcerned about Justin, but his new friends Agnes, Peter and Peter's young sister Dorothea are great supports in helping him through his ordeals.  They also help him to see that there are other points of view of a situation and that although he may not be able to control events he can certainly control his attitude towards them.

Certain parts of the novel were beautifully and sensitively written, particularly the scene on the beach and the discovery of amber in the late sunlight, which could also have an allegorical meaning. This could be a book read on several different levels;  either as a teenage book where some of the normalities of life are ignored in order to provide Justin with an escape from his 'doomed' future;  or with a far deeper meaning, where the events stand for much larger issues.

But even though some of us were unsure about the start of the book, it is a book that cannot be abandoned before the end.  It certainly provoked much discussion in the group and some members read it more than once.

Bath’s Prior Park College Reading Group The Gleaners,  meets Meg Rosoff

My Reading Group, 'The Gleaners', has been asked by Penguin to review Meg Rosoff's second novel Just In Case, ahead of its paperback publication in June. When we received this lovely invitation, we were already aware that the novelist was scheduled to talk at the Literary Festival in Bath, just half a mile from Prior Park College, where all our members work. We were absolutely delighted that our offer to invite Meg to meet with us before her public appearance was accepted. And so it was that we gathered late on a Sunday morning in March in the College Library, looking out on what is reputed to be one of the finest views in England, of the Prior Park Landscape Garden, with its beautiful Palladian Bridge and the magnificent Georgian city in the background, to discuss the book we had all read with such anticipation, sharing a brunch of homemade muffins, cookies, quiche and cake.

Meg was particularly interested in the fact that ours is a boarding school, as this is the setting of the next book she is writing. She was also quite taken that one of our group was born and brought up in Luton, the setting of Just In Case. She told us that she had intended to fictionalise the actual locality, but had been persuaded to be as precise as she has and we were fascinated to listen to Meg talk about her own upbringing in the suburbs and how she was constantly struck by the peculiarity of those in families, raised in exactly the same circumstances, who exhibit such radically differing needs later in life, in terms of living one's life in the area in which you were born or desperately needing to escape that environment. It is this concept of what one might call 'fate' that is at the heart of this wonderful book, which also explores our struggle to come to terms with the enormous consequences of seemingly insignificant actions, like being in a place at the wrong time or just being in the right place just in time.

We asked Meg about the protagonists being teenagers, as they had been in the much celebrated first novel 'How I Live Now' and that we felt she was not writing for teenagers per se, as her writing clearly has such widespread appeal. She told us that she really felt that there was a great deal of herself in her hero Justin and that the existential angst she was interested in exploring best suited that time of life when the world does seem not only full of possibilities, but full of seemingly irreconcilable contradictions. As a strange case of life imitating art, she also told us that she had so loved writing about the  Greyhound dog called 'Boy' who is seen only by a select few characters in the story that she subsequently acquired two Lurchers!

We all thoroughly enjoyed reading Just In Case and know that other reading groups like ours will find. as we did, that there simply wasn't enough time to cover all the many and varied issues raised in the writing, but we will always remember with happy memories and much gratitude, the opportunity to share such responses with the very person whose extraordinary imagination gave us such food for thought.

May 2007 Groups of the Month

Goldthorpe Readers’ Group, Yorkshire

Number of readers in the group: 12

The group meets at Goldthorpe Library near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, in the middle of what was once a coal mining community. The group came together shortly after the aftermath of the 1984 Miners' Strike, as a way to encourage people to use the resources and opportunities available in the district. We are a mixed group of people consisting of former coal miners, housewives, those who still work or have now retired, librarians, and young mothers, so we occasionally have children sat in with us. We are very passionate about books and we are very down to earth. We always start with a cup of tea and take turns to have our say about the chosen book of the month, although the conversation can get overheated sometimes! The group meets in the middle of the library, so people come and go amongst us, eavesdropping on what we say. The children's library is also right next to us, so during the break we quite often talk to the children about what they are reading. The session usually ends up as a friendly shouting match, with more tea, before exchanging books and recommendations, usually on the grounds of, ‘you MUST read this before you die'. It's a great mix of people and we love getting together!

Review of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

Feelings were mixed when the book was handed out. Was this going to be a slushy, sentimental love story? Would it appeal to male and female readers alike? The title gave no clues, so we all jumped in at the deep end and started to read it.

The story, about what happens when one person makes a decision that will change the lives of all who love him, is believable and gripping. Dr. David Henry helps to deliver his own twins one stormy night. Paul, the son, is perfect in David’s eyes, but his daughter, Phoebe, is born with Down’s syndrome. Haunted by his childhood experiences, he persuades his loyal nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to a home, leaving his wife to believe that the child died at birth. Caroline goes against his request and makes her own life changing decision. She keeps the child and raises her as her own. Both these actions have consequences in the years that follow.

Kim Edwards has written a book full of characters that drew us all into their lives. We were totally absorbed by the story and wanted to follow every moment of what happened next. The descriptive passages were beautifully written, from the first snowy stormy night, to the last view of Lexington at the end of the book. The interwoven lives of Nora, David, Caroline and Phoebe were believable, tragic, but gripping. It was easy to follow and a great book to relax with. The book threw up a lot of questions about family secrets and how we all live with certain consequences many generations later. What a wonderful, treasure of a book! It turned out to be a beautiful, compelling and descriptive read.

The verdict was unanimous. This book was well written, very moving, and a real page-turner. A readers’ group dream of a book. Pass the word on!

Castleford Readers’ Group -

Number of readers in the group: 15

Castleford Readers’ Group started about 3 years ago as part of the friends of Castleford Library scheme. We meet once a month for two hours and review a wide range of books. One reader is visually impaired, so the group tries to read books that are also available in large print or on audio cassette/CD.

Review of  The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

‘Every family has secrets that they have to deal with.’
 ‘This is an excellent story, with good descriptive passages. The author cleverly describes the feelings of each individual character. This is a story of grief, love, and forgiveness.’

‘A fascinating story, from beginning to end. There were layers upon layers of feelings cleverly woven into a plot with plenty of unexpected turns. All of the characters came alive in the book. You felt that you knew someone just like them. A compelling read – I had to know how it ended.’

‘The story was unusual and was not a story I would have naturally chosen to read. However, it turned out to be well worth the effort with a salutary and pleasing conclusion. This is a family saga with a dreadful secret. Thought provoking. Not a book you can book down and easily forget.’

‘This is a very believable story, a gripping tale and I was unable to put it down. It shows clearly what happens when harsh decisions are made in life. I felt sad and angry for the characters involved. It made me think, ‘what would have happened if only they had …?’ Sometimes, we try to do the best for those we love, but it can easily be the worst decision we can ever make.’ 

Every member of the group loved the book. A treat to review it.

The Dysfunctional Book Group

Our book group started in February 2005 and since then we have read 16 books, of a very diverse nature. There are 6 of us and we meet every six weeks or so in one another’s houses, with an occasional extra trip to the theatre or a restaurant- literature related of course! We were all friends before we started the group and our aims in starting the group were to meet more, share our reading tips regularly (we get a lot of book ideas from our meetings - beyond the ‘group book’) and to encourage one another to read things we might not normally read. We call ourselves the ‘Dysfunctional Book Group’ because we have a stereotypical idea of what a book club might be like and we are not ‘it’.

Review of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

Our reading group found ‘The Memory Keeper’s Daughter’ a very ‘easy read’ in terms of accessibility. We all read it very quickly having been hooked by the theme- what happens when you play God? David makes a hurried decision, doesn’t think it through, generalises his own experiences and emotions, doesn’t discuss it and then lies about it - quite the recipe for disaster!

The situation and the decision David makes seem believable and the book creates a good sense of the era (the early sixties) and the passage of time after this. When our group discussed it we found we had a lot of ideas to discuss and that it was easy to remember the book in detail, which is not always the case with books we have read. The narrative moves around to show how David’s decision is affecting all five people immediately involved in it - himself, his wife Norah, the nurse Caroline and his children Paul and Phoebe. We did want to know all these stories and in fact when one story was being told we did wonder how the other characters were faring. Wanting to know how each character’s story unfolded helped to drive us all along.

The main plot was good and some of the close detail was interesting to us. For example, we were struck by Caroline’s Upside Down club and campaign for mainstream education for Phoebe. None of us could remember any U.K parallels in the late sixties and early seventies.


Canterbury NWR Book Group, Kent

Canterbury NWR Book Group - NWR stands for National Women’s Register and our book group is an off-shoot of the Canterbury NWR group.   The book group was set up over 23 years ago in September 1983 and we still have a couple of original members!  We currently have 13 members, who meet monthly in each other’s houses and we borrow all our books from the library.   

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards. Reviewed on behalf of the group by Alison McLeod

We all agreed that The Memory Keeper’s Daughter was action packed from the outset and had been an easy read.   

The book centres upon a secret.   David is a medic and during a snow storm he has to deliver his wife of twins.   When the second twin, Phoebe, is born and obviously has Downs Syndrome, he decides to give her away and tell his wife Norah, that she was still-born.   His intention is to save Norah from the trauma of having to cope with a disabled child.   He himself had a disabled sister, Joy.   His abiding memory is the loss he felt when she died aged 12.  He gives Phoebe to the nurse, Caroline, who is present at the delivery and requests that she take her to a special home.   However, Caroline finds herself unable to leave the baby when she gets there.   Although David did intend to tell the truth to Norah, before he was able to, she had arranged a memorial service for Phoebe, by which time he felt it was too late to reveal the truth.    They are both grieving but unable to support each other. As the story unfolds the book deals with the impact his actions and his closely guarded secret have on the main characters.

It’s an interesting topic and raises many questions, we wondered if the author had ever been entrusted with a secret.   We had the longest book group discussion that anyone could remember.   Overall, the majority of our group thought they would recommend it for a ‘Good Holiday Read’

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April 2007 Group of the month, The Billericay Literary Society


The Billericay Literary Society was formed over 25 years ago.  Apart from July and August, we meet on the second and fourth Thursday of the month at The Fold, the home of the BAA.  Our membership has stayed at around the 20 mark for all the time we have been in existence and of those an average of about 12 members turn up each fortnight. 

Our evenings are informal but focused: after a short settling in time to allow everyone to arrive and catch up with local news, one of our members introduces the book to be discussed.  This introduction might give details of the author, pick out significant passages from the book, discuss its form and language and explores some of the issues raised by the book – or any or all of those things.  The programme for the year is chosen at the Annual General Meeting in June.  Members come to that meeting with a shortlist of books they want to be included, either because they have enjoyed a novel and want to share their pleasure or because a title – either classic or contemporary – has attracted them.  Over the years our programme has included 18th century classics and Booker prize-winners, travel books and biographies, play readings and poetry evenings. 

For the last four years we have hosted an Essex Book Festival event held at Billericay Library and it has proved most interesting and rewarding to look after and introduce the authors who have come to talk to us.  This year we are looking forward to welcoming Naomi Alderman to our library, whose first novel, Disobedience, we have recently read.

Review of Disobedience by Naomi Alderman

This interesting novel tells of the working out of a woman’s feelings about Orthodox Judaism.  Since settling in New York eight years previously, she has been estranged from her father, the religious leader of his community, and has renounced her childhood faith.  Returning to the Jewish community in North London for her father’s funeral, she is forced to reassess her attitudes to life and belief.  Three characters are revealed: Ronit herself; Dovid her cousin and father’s successor; and Esti, Dovid’s wife and Ronit’s former lover.  The different points of view are handled sensitively and not without humour, the clash of cultures is described in sympathetic terms.  No simplistic answers are offered, although ultimately Ronit arrives at a kind of conclusion about her faith, but the informative passages explaining some of the Jewish rituals are highly moving.  The novel grabs the attention and explores serious issues with a light touch.

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The Chilbolton Ladies (and 1 man) Group, Hampshire

This group was set up in October 2004 by the very enterprising Emma Way who put up a notice in the village shop.  The first meeting comprised of 6 members, it rapidly increased to 12 and we have regular requests from others to join.  We have however, decided to keep the number to 12 in order to ensure everyone at least has a chair to sit on at our monthly meetings as well as to maintain a degree of intimacy within the discussion.

The ages of the members range from slightly harassed mothers of young children to an elegant great-grandmother, a spattering of retired ladies and some who continue working.  We have only one man in our midst! Everyone has very different backgrounds and life experiences, many have travelled widely and there is a range of many interesting career pathways which all adds up to provide a rich and bountiful tapestry against which to explore and discuss literature.  The binding factor is an interest in books and reading and the motivation to broaden our horizons with respect to our reading choices, rather than the common denominator being purely friendship based.

We have read a wide variety of books and each member gets to make suggestions.  The local library kindly provides us with what they can (provided enough notice given) and there is always space for us to include a sudden ‘must read’ novel. In addition to this we have (quite recently) added a poetry section whereby the host of the evening chooses a poem to read to the group.  This has added an interesting dimension and has certainly served to revive my own interest in poetry, something I had not given any thought to since my school days!   Each person takes it in turn to host the evening and wine and nibbles are enthusiastically consumed during our discussions!

The House of Orphans by Helen Dunmore
Reviewed on behalf of the group by Elizabeth Byrne

Everyone said that The House of Orphans was an easy book to relax with during the Christmas season (during which time we read it).  The book was is set in Finland in 1901–1904 and centres on the protagonist Eeva.  We all agreed that it was a very interesting setting and period within which to set a story and wondered about the author’s motivation to do so and where her interest stemmed from.  It was certainly written in a very authoritative way about the region and political set-up.   It was informative about Finland of that time about which none of us knew very much.  Some members wanted more information about the political situation and felt that was an area which could have been developed more within the book.

Eeva was a young girl who was sent from Helsinki to live in an orphanage in rural Finland.  When her father, a revolutionary, died, she went to live with her fathers friend and his son Lauri, but this was not deemed acceptable so it was from here she went to the orphanage.  She was not there very long before she became the housekeeper for Thomas, the widowed local doctor.  And so the book moved away from life within the orphanage, and other than some contact the doctor had with it, we did not get to hear very much after that.  This was interesting, given the title of the book.  However, an emerging theme of the central characters, (namely Eeva, Thomas, Lotta, Lauri whom Eeva eventually joins back in Helsinki, and Sasha and Magda, contemporaries in Helsinki) was one of isolation, loneliness, being lost and alone in the world.  Each character had endured loss of some description. Perhaps this is how the title draws the book together, in that these characters are pushed together in circumstances which united them and gave them a sense of unity though not necessarily one of common beliefs.

Eeva’s relationship with Thomas was a complicated one, not least because she absolutely did not fit in with the stereotype of a young girl being employed by an older and worldly doctor.  Eeva’s intelligence and personality were beguiling for Thomas who became mesmerized by her, much to the distress of his close friend, the interfering Lotta.  Thomas was bereft of his own wife and indeed his daughter with whom he has a complex and distant relationship.  Eeva appears to fill some gap in his life both due to her femininity as well as being a quasi daughter figure for Thomas.  Thomas does, at all times, maintain an appropriate ‘distance’ from Eeva, although an inappropriate liaison with a young girl, a friend of his daughter, was alluded to in the novel.  

The plot of the book took us from Eeva’s time with the doctor, back to Helsinki and being reunited with Lauri.  Eeva began her own independent life, got a job in a bookshop and shared a small room with Magda.  Her relationship with Lauri developed against the background of political unrest and social activism.  The story unfolds in parallel to the Finnish fight for freedom which we heard about mainly through the eyes of Lauri and Sacha.  The tension of the time was palpable.  Parallels can be seen in the action of the young Finnish people in their quest for freedom, their patriotism and martyrdom and the regular reports we hear of terrorism and martyrdom in modern day life.

The style in which the book was written was, we thought, very ‘Scandinavian’ – it was clear, clean and crisp.  There were intensely written descriptions and observations of people and nature which created vivid images in the minds eye of the characters and settings.  At times it was almost possible to feel the cold of the harsh Finnish winter and experience the intense emotions of loss, desperation and indeed hope portrayed by the characters.

The concluding chapter was divided into sections devoted to a number of the characters but we were surprised not to hear more about Eeva here.  It felt somewhat dissatisfying not to tie up the ends, so to speak of the main protagonist.  We wondered why the author had chosen to do this and felt it would have effectively brought the book together to have heard about Eeva at this stage.  However, the book was deemed to be an interesting and thought provoking read, gave us all an introduction to a period of history we did not know a lot about and we would certainly consider other books by Helen Dunmore for our book group!

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Notes on a Scandal diary from the Fernbank Culture Club


Photo:The Fernbank Culture Club, Bristol

The Fernbank Culture Club (above) comprises six members who have been meeting regularly since New Year’s Eve 2004. We all enjoy reading, films, theatre, music and walking. We meet monthly in Fernbank Rd to watch a film and our post-film discussions often embrace books/theatre/music. Four of us are in our 50s, two in their 60s. Three occupy senior positions in Social Services, two are teachers and one is a retired computer software MD.

Notes on a Scandal

"A cruel but enticing voyeuristic experience unfolds for the reader of Zoe Heller’s novel, Notes on a Scandal. We encounter the obsessive passions of two middle-aged women, and through the narration are drawn into an intimate collusion with the protagonist, an inveterate sociopath, Barbara Covett. Her victim, Sheba Hart, is an unusual ‘antihero’. She too, is psychologically unstable with, perhaps, a more circumstantial madness, leading her into an imprudent affair with a minor.

Zoe Heller’s well-observed novel, at first, took me back 35 years to reminisce on my grammar school years and the experiences and stories of the teachers then and later, to reflect on the people I have met over the years, as a teacher myself. The elements of the complex psychological relationships between staff and pupils are echoed and then cleverly extrapolated in Zoe Heller’s novel. We are thus subtley engaged in a delusional world which appears to be rooted in reality and elicits a discomforting frisson of recognition and thereby virtual association. Zoe Heller is bitingly cynical in her recreation of school life, particularly exemplified in the sadistic headteacher, Pabblem. I am deeply impressed by her vividly staged scenes of repartee in the staff room and aspects of teaching with which those in the profession would empathise. In this sense I do indeed feel a sense of exposure in the knowledge that Zoe Heller found our ‘inner sanctum’ to be so transparent. "

"A very good book to be off ill with ...! Tucked up in bed with the lurgy, this book got me through the day . A very easy read . The description of the teachers' staff room was funny , bitchy and no doubt very true to life. The main theme was the relationship between two very different women and their perceptions of not just the relationship with the young boy but of other issues too. The way this relationship developed and soured was  compelling .However i was less convinced by Sheba's attraction to the pupil and her motivation for getting involved with him.  The fact that it described, so well , an area of London I know very well was another appeal ."

"A cruel but enticing voyeuristic experience unfolds for the reader of Zoe Heller’s novel, Notes on a Scandal. We encounter the obsessive passions of two middle-aged women, and through the narration are drawn into an intimate collusion with the protagonist, an inveterate sociopath, Barbara Covett. Her victim, Sheba Hart, is an unusual ‘antihero’. She too, is psychologically unstable with, perhaps, a more circumstantial madness, leading her into an imprudent affair with a minor."

"Zoe Heller’s well-observed novel, at first, took me back 35 years to reminisce on my grammar school years and the experiences and stories of the teachers then and later, to reflect on the people I have met over the years, as a teacher myself. The elements of the complex psychological relationships between staff and pupils are echoed and then cleverly extrapolated in Zoe Heller’s novel. We are thus subtley engaged in a delusional world which appears to be rooted in reality and elicits a discomforting frisson of recognition and thereby virtual association. Zoe Heller is bitingly cynical in her recreation of school life, particularly exemplified in the sadistic headteacher, Pabblem. I am deeply impressed by her vividly staged scenes of repartee in the staff room and aspects of teaching with which those in the profession would empathise. In this sense I do indeed feel a sense of exposure in the knowledge that Zoe Heller found our ‘inner sanctum’ to be so transparent."

"I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I found it easy to read, yet absorbing and, at times, disturbing.  The characters were drawn as mostly essentially flawed people who judged each other readily.  As the characters developed I felt an empathy with many of them, whilst being able to distance myself sufficiently to assure myself that they were not like me.  Yet I found the main draw of the story was the way it demonstrated how the people in the story are just like so many people in our lives as we judge them without really knowing them. We were drawn to Barbara in the first half of the book as a person of integrity and a strong character.  Her descent into bitterness and them to disturbed, manipulative behaviour, which completed her character, was compelling. This successfully outlined the way we she survived.  The book left me with a sense of wellbeing. Maybe because I felt that we are all struggling with our demons."

"Zoe Heller’s well-observed novel, at first, took me back 35 years to reminisce on my grammar school years and the experiences and stories of the teachers then and later, to reflect on the people I have met over the years, as a teacher myself. The elements of the complex psychological relationships between staff and pupils are echoed and then cleverly extrapolated in Zoe Heller’s novel. We are thus subtley engaged in a delusional world which appears to be rooted in reality and elicits a discomforting frisson of recognition and thereby virtual association. Zoe Heller is bitingly cynical in her recreation of school life, particularly exemplified in the sadistic headteacher, Pabblem. I am deeply impressed by her vividly staged scenes of repartee in the staff room and aspects of teaching with which those in the profession would empathise. In this sense I do indeed feel a sense of exposure in the knowledge that Zoe Heller found our ‘inner sanctum’ to be so transparent."

"After 30 years in education I found Notes on a Scandal, set largely in a school, a compelling if uncomfortable read. I could not put the book down, yet I was not wholly convinced by the central storyline:   the attraction of teacher Sheba to spotty pupil Connolly seemed an unlikely scenario, pushing the boundaries of credibility. Was this because I have never felt drawn to an adolescent boy at school in this way, or because the boy in question seemed such an unwholesome individual hardly likely attract a married, good-looking woman like Sheba? If he had been an Adonis would this have made the storyline more believable? Possibly.

I was much more intrigued by the character of the narrator, Barbara, and the behaviour of the state school staff which rang more true. Heller excels in her description of the Headmaster, Pabblem ‘a petty-minded despot obsessed with staff punctuality charts’ and the sly Maths teacher, Bangs, who collects jackets because, “They’re just cool, aren’t they?” She is able to successfully conjure up these horribly familiar staffroom figures with great panache.

I was unprepared, however, for the masterly denouement. With the exposure of her affair the net tightens around Sheba who is forced to leave the marital home. In steps Barbara to ‘take care’ of her. The intricate web spun by Barbara round Sheba, we realise, will ensnare Barbara long after the scandal has blown over."

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The Wherwell Book Group, Hampshire

Our reading group has been going for four years. Eight of us meet every six weeks at the home of a member of the group.  We banish the husbands, share a bottle of wine, and discuss with relish the most recent book to have been chosen.  We are all mothers of school age children.  Most of us work on a part-time basis, and we have read an eclectic range of titles, including selected classics, non-fiction, biography and contemporary fiction.  Whoever is responsible for hosting the kitchen supper chooses the book – generally without dissent.   Since we have quite varied reading tastes, this invariably means one tends to read a book one wouldn’t normally have chosen.

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

We chose this book just before it won the 2006 Man Booker Prize.  Our book group, of eight mothers, has been meeting for just over three years.  We have a wide range of interests, and our choices reflect this. 

Emma Todd writes:

I had loved Kiran Desai’s first novel Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard.  I recommended The Inheritance of Loss to our book group, aware that it had already generated some super reviews.  We were intrigued by Desai’s literary legacy – her mother is the acclaimed writer Anita Desai - and her young age.  Kiran is the youngest female winner of the Man Booker at the age of thirty-five.

We are introduced to two of the central characters in the second paragraph of the first page. It is the mid 80s and the reader is immediately transported to the isolated home of Jemubhai Popatalal, in the foothills of the Himalays, in North East India.  Jemubhai is a retired Indian judge, Oxbridge educated and emotionally crippled by his past.  He is a man who has fashioned a strange anglophile existence far removed from those of his neighbours. He lives an isolated life, bitter and lonely, and disdainful of his Indian compatriots.  Jemubhai’s reclusive, fragile tranquillity has been disturbed by the unwelcome arrival of his teenage Granddaughter, Sai.   Sai, having lost both her parents, and left her convent education, stands on the cusp of womanhood, in search of life outside the confining strictures of the narrow world her Grandfather inhabits.  She falls in love with her Nepalese tutor, Gyan.  Their romance is complicated by the increasingly unstable climate of unrest in the region caused by Nepalese insurgence.  Gyan is torn by his political convictions, his love for Sai, and his abhorrence of the westernised life she embodies.

Life in India is contrasted with the world of 80s New York, seen through the eyes of Biju, the son of Jemubhai’s cook.  Biju is living in an impoverished underworld of illegal immigrants, desperately trying to stay one step ahead of the i