2012 Titles

2012 was another triumphant year for the South Down Book Worms.  Thank you to all who suggested titles, contributed to discussion, opened up their homes.  There were some surprise hits alongside a number of Booker prize winners in our eleven titles for the year. My stand out favourite was June's Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, which has made it on to my list of top ten books of all time!  I also really enjoyed Love and Summer in September.

January - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson

February - Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel

March - The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

April - Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen

May - Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

June - Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

July - Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

August - SUMMER BREAK - NO MEETING

September - Love and Summer by William Trevor

October - A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks

November - Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

December - Possession by AS Byatt

The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

Meetings have continued...even if the blogposts have not!  This month's meeting takes place in Horsham where we will be discussing Alan Hollinghurst's epic, generation-crossing novel, The Stranger's Child. This seems to me to be a novel about World War I, even though the narrative action spans 1913-2008 and no part is set during the war.

1. What is the significance of the title?
   
   
2. In what ways does World War I cast a shadow over the entire novel? Several characters are said to have had "a bad war". How has the war affected Dudley Valence and Leslie Keeping in particular?
   
   
3. Discuss the narrative structure and the interplay between the different parts of the novel. What important generational changes in English life does the novel trace?
   
   
4. What role does keeping secrets play in the The Stranger's Child? Why do so many characters feel compelled to lead secret lives?
   
   
5. "He was asking for memories, too young himself to know that memories were only memories of memories". In what ways does the novel suggest that memory, of both facts and feelings, is an extremely unreliable method of recovering the truth?
   
   
6. “What do you think, Ralph?" said George. "For or against the egregious grotesqueries of the Victorians?" How are divergent attitudes towards Victorianism, manifest in the discussions of architecture, explored in the novel?
   
   
7. How do English attitudes towards homosexuality change over the period the novel covers, from 1913 to 2008? Is it important that Cecil’s sexuality and the true recipient of his famous poem "Two Acres," be revealed?
   
   
8. The Stranger's Child is, among many other things, a wonderfully comic novel. What are some of its funniest moments and most amusing observations?
   
   
9. What is the effect of mixing real and fictional characters?
   
   
10. Is Paul a sympathetic character? How does Paul's own secret past shed light on his motivations and tactics as a biographer?
    
    
11. In what ways does A Stranger's Child critique English manners and morals? In what ways might it be said to celebrate them - if at all?
    
    
12. What is Hollinghurst suggesting by bookending his novel with different readings of Tennyson?
    
    
13. What does the novel say about how literary reputations are created, preserved, revised? How does it compare with Possession in this?
    
    
14. Why do you think Hollinghurst ends the novel with Rob's unsuccessful attempt to recover Cecil's letters to Hewitt before they go up in smoke? Is this conclusion satisfying?