Thank you very much to everyone who came to last night's Christmas meeting; Oryx and Crake was a popular choice that provoked much discussion, and the food wasn't bad either.
In honour of our five year anniversary (our very first meeting was on December 13th 2006 in Warnham), I am listing the 56 books that the South Down Bookworms have read and discussed in that time:
Andrea Levy Small Island
Audrey Niffenegger The Time Traveller’s Wife
Louis de Bernieres Birds Without Wings
Sebastian Faulks Birdsong
Beloved by Tony Morrison
Vanishing Acts Jodi Picoult
Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende
Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger
We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Interpretation of Murder by J Rubenfeld
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Stasiland by Anna Funder
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka
Life of Pi by Yann Martell
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemmingway
The Savage Garden by Mark Mills
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Tell it to the Skies by Erica James
Engleby by Sebastian Faulks
The Island by Victoria Hislop
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Steierstad
Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom
In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunnant
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
The Corner of her Eye by Dean Kroontz
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Suite Francais by Irene Nerimovsky
Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
Belle de Jour – Secret diary of a London call girl
White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Tales of Beadle the Bard by JK Rowling/The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Blood River by Tim Butcher
Wedlock by Wendy Moore
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffinegger
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
The Sea by John Banville
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Saturday 17 December 2011
Thursday 15 December 2011
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
The South Down Bookworms' Christmas meeting this year takes place in Billingshurst on December 16th 2011. It also coincides with the fifth anniversary of our first meeting! Please find discussion questions below:
1.Science-fiction, or ‘speculative-fiction’ as Atwood terms her own work, often works best when it is a plausible fictional world that has been created. How plausible is the world of Oryx and Crake?
2.How effective and/or reliable a narrator is the Snowman? Is the nickname he gives himself justified? And how successful is the narrative structure of the novel?
3.One aspect of the novel's society is the virtual elimination of the middle class. How is this situation created? Where would we find ourselves in the world of Oryx and Crake?
4.Discuss the importance of Jimmy’s mother within the context of the novel as a whole.
5.Snowman soon discovers that despite himself he's invented a new creation myth, simply by trying to think up comforting answers to the "why" questions of the Children of Crake. In Part Seven-the chapter entitled "Purring"-Crake claims that "God is a cluster of neurons," though he's had trouble eradicating religious experiences without producing zombies. Do you agree with Crake? How do Snowman's origin stories reflect on spirituality and the way it evolves among various cultures?
6.Do you always believe what Oryx says?
7.Why does Snowman feel compelled to protect the benign Crakers, who can't understand him and can never be his close friends? Do you believe that the Crakers would be capable of survival in our own society?
8.In the world of Oryx and Crake, almost everything is for sale, and a great deal of power is now in the hands of large corporations and their private security forces. There are already more private police in North America than there are public ones. What are the advantages of such a system? What are the dangers?
9.The pre-contagion society in Oryx and Crake is fixated on physical perfection and longevity, much as our own society is. Will these quests lead to the inevitable downfall of our own society? Does the novel provide any answers or alternatives?
10.Is there a feminist slant to this novel?
11.In what ways does the dystopia of Oryx and Crake compare to those depicted in novels such as Brave New World, and 1984, and in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale?
12.The book has two epigraphs, one from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and one from Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Why do you think these were chosen?
13.What did you think of the ending? What interpretations might it offer?
1.Science-fiction, or ‘speculative-fiction’ as Atwood terms her own work, often works best when it is a plausible fictional world that has been created. How plausible is the world of Oryx and Crake?
2.How effective and/or reliable a narrator is the Snowman? Is the nickname he gives himself justified? And how successful is the narrative structure of the novel?
3.One aspect of the novel's society is the virtual elimination of the middle class. How is this situation created? Where would we find ourselves in the world of Oryx and Crake?
4.Discuss the importance of Jimmy’s mother within the context of the novel as a whole.
5.Snowman soon discovers that despite himself he's invented a new creation myth, simply by trying to think up comforting answers to the "why" questions of the Children of Crake. In Part Seven-the chapter entitled "Purring"-Crake claims that "God is a cluster of neurons," though he's had trouble eradicating religious experiences without producing zombies. Do you agree with Crake? How do Snowman's origin stories reflect on spirituality and the way it evolves among various cultures?
6.Do you always believe what Oryx says?
7.Why does Snowman feel compelled to protect the benign Crakers, who can't understand him and can never be his close friends? Do you believe that the Crakers would be capable of survival in our own society?
8.In the world of Oryx and Crake, almost everything is for sale, and a great deal of power is now in the hands of large corporations and their private security forces. There are already more private police in North America than there are public ones. What are the advantages of such a system? What are the dangers?
9.The pre-contagion society in Oryx and Crake is fixated on physical perfection and longevity, much as our own society is. Will these quests lead to the inevitable downfall of our own society? Does the novel provide any answers or alternatives?
10.Is there a feminist slant to this novel?
11.In what ways does the dystopia of Oryx and Crake compare to those depicted in novels such as Brave New World, and 1984, and in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale?
12.The book has two epigraphs, one from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and one from Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Why do you think these were chosen?
13.What did you think of the ending? What interpretations might it offer?
Tuesday 15 November 2011
The Sea by John Banville
Here are this month's questions for our meeting in Crawley:
1. The Sea is made up of three temporal layers: the distant past of Max's childhood, the recent past of his wife's illness and death, and the present of his return to Ballyless. How does Banville shift between these time periods?
2. Morden frequently refers to the Graces as gods, and the original Graces were figures in classical mythology. What about these people makes them godlike? What distinguishes the Graces from Max's own unhappily human family? Are they still godlike at the novel's end?
3. Morden is disappointed, even "appalled" [p. 4], to find the Cedars physically unchanged from what it was when the Graces stayed there. Yet he is also disappointed that it contains no trace of its former occupants [p. 29]. What might explain his ambivalence? Has he come to Ballyless to relive his past or to be free of it? Given the shame and sadness that suffuses so much of his memory, how is one to interpret his sense of the past as a retreat [pp. 44–45]?
4. "How is it," Max wonders, "that in childhood everything new that caught my interest had an aura of the uncanny, since according to all the authorities the uncanny is not some new thing but a thing known returning in a different form, a revenant?" [p. 8]. What might account for this sense of déjà vu? What episodes in this novel seem to echo earlier ones?
5. How does Banville depict the other characters in this novel? To what extent are they, as Max suggests, partial constructs, as Connie Grace was "at once a wraith of my imagination and a woman of unavoidable flesh and blood" [p. 65]? Does Max's wry, self-reflective voice give these characters an independent life or partially obscure them?
6. Throughout the novel Max suffers from an overpowering, all-pervasive sense of guilt. Is this guilt justified? What are his sins? Has he managed to atone for any of his failures or redeem any of his spoiled relationships by the novel's end? Is such redemption possible in this novel's view of human nature?
7. On learning that she is fatally ill, both Max and Anna are overcome by something he recognizes as embarrassment, an embarrassment that extends even to the inanimate objects in their home. Why should death be embarrassing?
8. Significantly, Max's fantasies about Mrs. Grace reach a crescendo during an act of voyeurism. What role does watching play in Max's sense of others? Has observing people been his substitute for engaging with them? How does he feel about other people watching him?
9. Max is a poor boy drawn to a succession of wealthy women, culminating in his very wealthy wife. Was his attraction to them really a screen for social climbing? In loving Connie and Chloe and Anna, was he betraying his origins? Are there moments in this novel when those origins reassert themselves?
10. Why might Max have chosen the painter Bonnard as the subject for a book? What episodes from the painter's life parallel his own or illuminate it metaphorically? Note the way the description of the Graces' picnic recalls Manet's Dejeuner sur l'Herbe. What other scenes in the novel allude to works of art or literature, and what is the effect?
11. The Sea has a triple climax that features two deaths and very nearly a third. In what ways are these deaths linked, and to what extent is Max responsible for them? Do you interpret his drunken night walk on the beach as an attempt at suicide? How does your perception of Max change in light of Miss Vavasour's climactic revelation about the events that precipitated Chloe's drowning?
12. Just as the critical trauma of Max's life grew out of a misapprehension, so the entire novel is shrouded in a haze of unreliable narrative. Max's memories are at once fanatically detailed and riddled with lapses. Can we accept any part of his account as true? Are there moments in this novel in which reality asserts itself absolutely? What effect do these ambiguities have on your experience of The Sea?
1. The Sea is made up of three temporal layers: the distant past of Max's childhood, the recent past of his wife's illness and death, and the present of his return to Ballyless. How does Banville shift between these time periods?
2. Morden frequently refers to the Graces as gods, and the original Graces were figures in classical mythology. What about these people makes them godlike? What distinguishes the Graces from Max's own unhappily human family? Are they still godlike at the novel's end?
3. Morden is disappointed, even "appalled" [p. 4], to find the Cedars physically unchanged from what it was when the Graces stayed there. Yet he is also disappointed that it contains no trace of its former occupants [p. 29]. What might explain his ambivalence? Has he come to Ballyless to relive his past or to be free of it? Given the shame and sadness that suffuses so much of his memory, how is one to interpret his sense of the past as a retreat [pp. 44–45]?
4. "How is it," Max wonders, "that in childhood everything new that caught my interest had an aura of the uncanny, since according to all the authorities the uncanny is not some new thing but a thing known returning in a different form, a revenant?" [p. 8]. What might account for this sense of déjà vu? What episodes in this novel seem to echo earlier ones?
5. How does Banville depict the other characters in this novel? To what extent are they, as Max suggests, partial constructs, as Connie Grace was "at once a wraith of my imagination and a woman of unavoidable flesh and blood" [p. 65]? Does Max's wry, self-reflective voice give these characters an independent life or partially obscure them?
6. Throughout the novel Max suffers from an overpowering, all-pervasive sense of guilt. Is this guilt justified? What are his sins? Has he managed to atone for any of his failures or redeem any of his spoiled relationships by the novel's end? Is such redemption possible in this novel's view of human nature?
7. On learning that she is fatally ill, both Max and Anna are overcome by something he recognizes as embarrassment, an embarrassment that extends even to the inanimate objects in their home. Why should death be embarrassing?
8. Significantly, Max's fantasies about Mrs. Grace reach a crescendo during an act of voyeurism. What role does watching play in Max's sense of others? Has observing people been his substitute for engaging with them? How does he feel about other people watching him?
9. Max is a poor boy drawn to a succession of wealthy women, culminating in his very wealthy wife. Was his attraction to them really a screen for social climbing? In loving Connie and Chloe and Anna, was he betraying his origins? Are there moments in this novel when those origins reassert themselves?
10. Why might Max have chosen the painter Bonnard as the subject for a book? What episodes from the painter's life parallel his own or illuminate it metaphorically? Note the way the description of the Graces' picnic recalls Manet's Dejeuner sur l'Herbe. What other scenes in the novel allude to works of art or literature, and what is the effect?
11. The Sea has a triple climax that features two deaths and very nearly a third. In what ways are these deaths linked, and to what extent is Max responsible for them? Do you interpret his drunken night walk on the beach as an attempt at suicide? How does your perception of Max change in light of Miss Vavasour's climactic revelation about the events that precipitated Chloe's drowning?
12. Just as the critical trauma of Max's life grew out of a misapprehension, so the entire novel is shrouded in a haze of unreliable narrative. Max's memories are at once fanatically detailed and riddled with lapses. Can we accept any part of his account as true? Are there moments in this novel in which reality asserts itself absolutely? What effect do these ambiguities have on your experience of The Sea?
Tuesday 11 October 2011
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Here are the discussion questions for October's meeting in Crawley:
1. When Alice becomes disoriented in Harvard Square, a place she's visited daily for twenty-five years, why doesn't she tell John? Is she too afraid to face a possible illness, worried about his possible reaction, or some other reason?
2. After first learning she has Alzheimer's disease, "the sound of her name penetrated her every cell and seemed to scatter her molecules beyond the boundaries of her own skin. She watched herself from the far corner of the room" (pg. 70). What do you think of Alice's reaction to the diagnosis? Why does she disassociate herself to the extent that she feels she's having an out-of-body experience?
3. Do you find irony in the fact that Alice, a Harvard professor and researcher, suffers from a disease that causes her brain to atrophy? Why do you think the author, Lisa Genova, chose this profession? How does her past academic success affect Alice's ability, and her family's, to cope with Alzheimer's?
4. "He refused to watch her take her medication. He could be mid-sentence, mid-conversation, but if she got out her plastic, days-of-the-week pill container, he left the room" (pg. 89). Is John's reaction understandable? What might be the significance of him frequently fiddling with his wedding ring when Alice's health is discussed?
5. When Alice's three children, Anna, Tom and Lydia, find out they can be tested for the genetic mutation that causes Alzheimer's, only Lydia decides she doesn't want to know. Why does she decline? Would you want to know if you had the gene?
6. Why is her mother's butterfly necklace so important to Alice? Is it only because she misses her mother? Does Alice feel a connection to butterflies beyond the necklace?
7. Alice decides she wants to spend her remaining time with her family and her books. Considering her devotion and passion for her work, why doesn't her research make the list of priorities? Does Alice most identify herself as a mother, wife, or scholar?
8. Were you surprised at Alice's plan to overdose on sleeping pills once her disease progressed to an advanced stage? Is this decision in character? Why does she make this difficult choice? If they found out, would her family approve?
9. As the symptoms worsen, Alice begins to feel like she's living in one of Lydia's plays: "(Interior of Doctor's Office. The neurologist left the room. The husband spun his ring. The woman hoped for a cure.)" (pg. 141). Is this thought process a sign of the disease, or does pretending it's not happening to her make it easier for Alice to deal with reality?
10. Do Alice's relationships with her children differ? Why does she read Lydia's diary? And does Lydia decide to attend college only to honor her mother?
11. Alice's mother and sister died when she was only a freshman in college, and yet Alice has to keep reminding herself they're not about to walk through the door. As the symptoms worsen, why does Alice think more about her mother and sister? Is it because her older memories are more accessible, is she thinking of happier times, or is she worried about her own mortality?
12. Alice and the members of her support group, Mary, Cathy, and Dan, all discuss how their reputations suffered prior to their diagnoses because people thought they were being difficult or possibly had substance abuse problems. Is preserving their legacies one of the biggest obstacles to people suffering from Alzheimer's disease? What examples are there of people still respecting Alice's wishes, and at what times is she ignored?
13. "One last sabbatical year together. She wouldn't trade that in for anything. Apparently, he would" (pg. 223). Why does John decide to keep working? Is it fair for him to seek the job in New York considering Alice probably won't know her whereabouts by the time they move? Is he correct when he tells the children she would not want him to sacrifice his work?
14. Why does Lisa Genova choose to end the novel with John reading that Amylix, the medicine that Alice was taking, failed to stabilize Alzheimer's patients? Why does this news cause John to cry?
15. Alice's doctor tells her, "You may not be the most reliable source of what's been going on" (pg. 54). Yet, Lisa Genova chose to tell the story from Alice's point of view. As Alice's disease worsens, her perceptions indeed get less reliable. Why would the author choose to stay in Alice's perspective? What do we gain, and what do we lose?
Found at:
http://books.simonandschuster.com/Still-Alice/Lisa-Genova/9781439116883/reading_group_guide
Found at
1. When Alice becomes disoriented in Harvard Square, a place she's visited daily for twenty-five years, why doesn't she tell John? Is she too afraid to face a possible illness, worried about his possible reaction, or some other reason?
2. After first learning she has Alzheimer's disease, "the sound of her name penetrated her every cell and seemed to scatter her molecules beyond the boundaries of her own skin. She watched herself from the far corner of the room" (pg. 70). What do you think of Alice's reaction to the diagnosis? Why does she disassociate herself to the extent that she feels she's having an out-of-body experience?
3. Do you find irony in the fact that Alice, a Harvard professor and researcher, suffers from a disease that causes her brain to atrophy? Why do you think the author, Lisa Genova, chose this profession? How does her past academic success affect Alice's ability, and her family's, to cope with Alzheimer's?
4. "He refused to watch her take her medication. He could be mid-sentence, mid-conversation, but if she got out her plastic, days-of-the-week pill container, he left the room" (pg. 89). Is John's reaction understandable? What might be the significance of him frequently fiddling with his wedding ring when Alice's health is discussed?
5. When Alice's three children, Anna, Tom and Lydia, find out they can be tested for the genetic mutation that causes Alzheimer's, only Lydia decides she doesn't want to know. Why does she decline? Would you want to know if you had the gene?
6. Why is her mother's butterfly necklace so important to Alice? Is it only because she misses her mother? Does Alice feel a connection to butterflies beyond the necklace?
7. Alice decides she wants to spend her remaining time with her family and her books. Considering her devotion and passion for her work, why doesn't her research make the list of priorities? Does Alice most identify herself as a mother, wife, or scholar?
8. Were you surprised at Alice's plan to overdose on sleeping pills once her disease progressed to an advanced stage? Is this decision in character? Why does she make this difficult choice? If they found out, would her family approve?
9. As the symptoms worsen, Alice begins to feel like she's living in one of Lydia's plays: "(Interior of Doctor's Office. The neurologist left the room. The husband spun his ring. The woman hoped for a cure.)" (pg. 141). Is this thought process a sign of the disease, or does pretending it's not happening to her make it easier for Alice to deal with reality?
10. Do Alice's relationships with her children differ? Why does she read Lydia's diary? And does Lydia decide to attend college only to honor her mother?
11. Alice's mother and sister died when she was only a freshman in college, and yet Alice has to keep reminding herself they're not about to walk through the door. As the symptoms worsen, why does Alice think more about her mother and sister? Is it because her older memories are more accessible, is she thinking of happier times, or is she worried about her own mortality?
12. Alice and the members of her support group, Mary, Cathy, and Dan, all discuss how their reputations suffered prior to their diagnoses because people thought they were being difficult or possibly had substance abuse problems. Is preserving their legacies one of the biggest obstacles to people suffering from Alzheimer's disease? What examples are there of people still respecting Alice's wishes, and at what times is she ignored?
13. "One last sabbatical year together. She wouldn't trade that in for anything. Apparently, he would" (pg. 223). Why does John decide to keep working? Is it fair for him to seek the job in New York considering Alice probably won't know her whereabouts by the time they move? Is he correct when he tells the children she would not want him to sacrifice his work?
14. Why does Lisa Genova choose to end the novel with John reading that Amylix, the medicine that Alice was taking, failed to stabilize Alzheimer's patients? Why does this news cause John to cry?
15. Alice's doctor tells her, "You may not be the most reliable source of what's been going on" (pg. 54). Yet, Lisa Genova chose to tell the story from Alice's point of view. As Alice's disease worsens, her perceptions indeed get less reliable. Why would the author choose to stay in Alice's perspective? What do we gain, and what do we lose?
Found at:
http://books.simonandschuster.com/Still-Alice/Lisa-Genova/9781439116883/reading_group_guide
Found at
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Here are the questions for September's meeting in Brighton on Her Fearful Symmetry:
1. Who did you sympathize with more, Julia or Valentina? Did your sympathies change as the story moved on?
2. Why do you think Valentina chose to risk death to be free from Julia? How much do you think Elspeth influenced her decision?
3. Do you think Elspeth intended to take Valentina's body all along?
4. How culpable was Robert in the plot to fake Valentina's death?
5. What does the subplot about Martin and Marijke add to the novel? How does their reunion compare with Robert and Elspeth's?
6. When you found out Elspeth and Edie's secret, did it change your opinion of those characters? Why do you think they tried to trick Jack in that way?
7. In what ways did each of the characters manipulate and control those they loved? Did the manipulators turn out happy in the end?
8. Rate Her Fearful Symmetry on a scale of 1 to 5.
1. Who did you sympathize with more, Julia or Valentina? Did your sympathies change as the story moved on?
2. Why do you think Valentina chose to risk death to be free from Julia? How much do you think Elspeth influenced her decision?
3. Do you think Elspeth intended to take Valentina's body all along?
4. How culpable was Robert in the plot to fake Valentina's death?
5. What does the subplot about Martin and Marijke add to the novel? How does their reunion compare with Robert and Elspeth's?
6. When you found out Elspeth and Edie's secret, did it change your opinion of those characters? Why do you think they tried to trick Jack in that way?
7. In what ways did each of the characters manipulate and control those they loved? Did the manipulators turn out happy in the end?
8. Rate Her Fearful Symmetry on a scale of 1 to 5.
Wednesday 6 July 2011
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The non-fiction-fest continues! Thanks to Hazel for this month's choice, and for the images and discussion questions, ready for our summer BBQ meeting on Friday 8th July in Horsham.
1. How does Capote build suspense despite the fact that readers know the ultimate outcome from the beginning of In Cold Blood?
2. What does the crime reveal about the town of Holcomb? How does the gossip surrounding the murders reflect underlying truths about the town? What seems to be Capote’s view of small town American life?
3. In what ways is In Cold Blood like a fiction novel? How does Capote report the facts and allow different voices to speak without using a journalistic style?
4. In Cold Blood starts with details about the Clutter family's last day alive. Did any of the details particularly stick out to you? Did Capote make you feel attached to the family by sharing these details?
5. Were there any other characters you empathised with because of small details Capote wrote about them? Bobby Rupp? Alvin Dewey?
6. Why did Capote leave out descriptions of the two older Clutter sisters? Did the narrative benefit from this exclusion?
7. What role does "dreaming" play in the novel, both figuratively and literally? Think of Perry's dream of the parrot and of finding gold in Mexico, and of Dewey's nightmares. How reliable is what Capote tells us about these dreams?
8. Why do you think Capote split the narrative into sections? Why do you think he did not describe how the murders happened until Dick and Perry were caught and gave their confessions?
9. Did you feel sympathy for Dick or Perry at any point? Did they seem human despite the brutality of their crime and lack of remorse to the end?
10. What do you think is Capote’s view of the importance of the killers’ backgrounds and upbringing in their subsequent criminal behaviour?
11. Capote seems to paint Perry in a more sympathetic light than Dick. He seems sensitive and even kind at points; however, by the end you find out that Perry committed all four murders. Did that surprise you? Did you sympathize with Dick more than Perry at any point?
12. In what ways does Capote reveal the nature of his research through the construction of the book? Is it important that Capote himself is never named? Does his absence endanger the credibility of the narrative?
13. Do you think Dick and Perry were sane? Did the psychiatric analysis of them and descriptions of other cold blooded killers make you think differently about violent crime or the death penalty?
14. The book was highly controversial when it was released because many people thought that Capote was more sympathetic towards the killers than the Clutter family. Would you agree with this view?
15. In an era when true crime stories are common what, if anything, does this story have that sets it apart from other non-fiction crime writing?
Sunday 12 June 2011
Wedlock by Wendy Moore
Another foray into non-fiction for the South Down Book Worms. Here are the discussion questions for Wedlock by Wendy Moore for our meeting in Horsham on Tuesday 14th June 2011.
1. Is this a ‘Georgian misery-memoir? How would you classify the genre, and how did you enjoy the reading?
2. Is opening with the duel between Andrew Robinson Stoney and Henry Bate effective? How do you respond to the narrative style and structure of the account?
3. Why did Mary marry the ninth Earl of Strathmore?
4. “In all Mary’s relationships – with lovers and friends, servants and acquaintances – money would always cloud a person’s true motives.” To what extent does this affect Mary's judgements?
5. How did you react to the revelation from Mary herself that she was not fond of her three sons, had an ‘unnatural dislike’ of her eldest son, and favoured her daughters? Or her four abortion attempts whilst in the ‘adulterous’ relationship with Gray?
6. How was Andrew Robinson Stoney represented by the biographer? What of his first marriage to Hannah Newton?
7. The changing views of marriage in the 19th century as outlined by Moore are attributed to the rise of the novel, and the representation of an unrealistic emotional ideal to replace the ‘marketplace’ imperative for marriage. Is this a fair historical depiction?
8. Is the portrayal of Mary Eleanor Bowes ultimately a sympathetic one? Or did she bring her misfortunes on herself?
9. How do Mary Eleanor’s connections with our royal family influence your reading?
10. How significant was the biography's context, within the Age of Enlightenment, to your reading of the text?
11. Mary Eleanor endured eight years of almost unspeakable abuse and torment at the hands of her second husband. Why did she not confide in anyone until Mary Morgan?
12. During the eighteenth century, women met in literary salons like the famous blue-stocking club and some women enjoyed success in writing poetry and especially novels. How does literature play a role—then and now—in empowering women? Can literary gatherings or reading groups help in emancipating—or subverting—women?
1. Is this a ‘Georgian misery-memoir? How would you classify the genre, and how did you enjoy the reading?
2. Is opening with the duel between Andrew Robinson Stoney and Henry Bate effective? How do you respond to the narrative style and structure of the account?
3. Why did Mary marry the ninth Earl of Strathmore?
4. “In all Mary’s relationships – with lovers and friends, servants and acquaintances – money would always cloud a person’s true motives.” To what extent does this affect Mary's judgements?
5. How did you react to the revelation from Mary herself that she was not fond of her three sons, had an ‘unnatural dislike’ of her eldest son, and favoured her daughters? Or her four abortion attempts whilst in the ‘adulterous’ relationship with Gray?
6. How was Andrew Robinson Stoney represented by the biographer? What of his first marriage to Hannah Newton?
7. The changing views of marriage in the 19th century as outlined by Moore are attributed to the rise of the novel, and the representation of an unrealistic emotional ideal to replace the ‘marketplace’ imperative for marriage. Is this a fair historical depiction?
8. Is the portrayal of Mary Eleanor Bowes ultimately a sympathetic one? Or did she bring her misfortunes on herself?
9. How do Mary Eleanor’s connections with our royal family influence your reading?
10. How significant was the biography's context, within the Age of Enlightenment, to your reading of the text?
11. Mary Eleanor endured eight years of almost unspeakable abuse and torment at the hands of her second husband. Why did she not confide in anyone until Mary Morgan?
12. During the eighteenth century, women met in literary salons like the famous blue-stocking club and some women enjoyed success in writing poetry and especially novels. How does literature play a role—then and now—in empowering women? Can literary gatherings or reading groups help in emancipating—or subverting—women?
Saturday 14 May 2011
Blood River by Tim Butcher
Here are the discussion questions for May's meeting in Horsham:
1. How did you feel about Tim Butcher’s venture as a Daily Telegraph journalist to follow the Congo River, just like Henry Stanley did when he was correspondent for the same newspaper in 1876? Did the personal connection justify the undertaking?
2. How much did you know about the Congo prior to reading?
3. Blood River might have been conceived as a travelogue but maybe results in a history. By making the connections between those earlier travellers' tales and his own experiences, Butcher finds himself considering The Congo's biography and tries to understand the dark heart of the continent. How effective is the genre, and his examination of what has happened?
4. Which aspects of the journey did you find most disturbing?
5. Does the narrative structure of the journey make compelling drama?
6. Does Butcher successfully distil the causes of Africa's 'broken heart'?
7. Perhaps an idea that remains at the end of reading is that The Congo is a country that is 'not just undeveloped but undeveloping'. How do you respond to this?
8. Was the journey productive in any way?
9. Butcher observes that,'The world seems to view the Congo as a lost cause without hope of ever being put right'. Does he offer solutions?
10. Butcher’s descriptions reflect the product of an age when the world could not penetrate the depths or hope to influence what went on in the remoteness of the Congo. Should we, the richer world, be prepared to allow that to continue, or do the people that Butcher met on his travels deserve a better future?
11. Do you share Butcher's 'grudging respect' for Stanley by the end?
12. Our other non-fiction reads thus far have included Stasiland and The Bookseller of Kabul. How does this compare in terms of research and execution?
1. How did you feel about Tim Butcher’s venture as a Daily Telegraph journalist to follow the Congo River, just like Henry Stanley did when he was correspondent for the same newspaper in 1876? Did the personal connection justify the undertaking?
2. How much did you know about the Congo prior to reading?
3. Blood River might have been conceived as a travelogue but maybe results in a history. By making the connections between those earlier travellers' tales and his own experiences, Butcher finds himself considering The Congo's biography and tries to understand the dark heart of the continent. How effective is the genre, and his examination of what has happened?
4. Which aspects of the journey did you find most disturbing?
5. Does the narrative structure of the journey make compelling drama?
6. Does Butcher successfully distil the causes of Africa's 'broken heart'?
7. Perhaps an idea that remains at the end of reading is that The Congo is a country that is 'not just undeveloped but undeveloping'. How do you respond to this?
8. Was the journey productive in any way?
9. Butcher observes that,'The world seems to view the Congo as a lost cause without hope of ever being put right'. Does he offer solutions?
10. Butcher’s descriptions reflect the product of an age when the world could not penetrate the depths or hope to influence what went on in the remoteness of the Congo. Should we, the richer world, be prepared to allow that to continue, or do the people that Butcher met on his travels deserve a better future?
11. Do you share Butcher's 'grudging respect' for Stanley by the end?
12. Our other non-fiction reads thus far have included Stasiland and The Bookseller of Kabul. How does this compare in terms of research and execution?
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