July 2019: Milkman by Anna Burns

Not an easy read, but well worthwhile. What a brilliant narrative voice - and superb depiction of place and time (Northern Ireland in the 1970s) to explore the complexity of allegiance. Not to mention the way Burns captures the idea of oppressive, unwanted male attention. 

A great choice to round off the academic year for book club!

June 2019: Circe by Madeline Miller

Miller's reimagining of part of The Odyssey - from a female perspective - tackles childbirth, rape, sexism, vulnerability and the search for identity in a world of powerful men. And includes what is, surely, one of the most fabulous inventions of all time: a house where dust cannot cross the threshold. 

Miller's exploration of spurned first love and its pleasing jealousy that makes one do stupid things rang uncomfortably true.

Circe herself seems to embody 'earthly' womanhood, in spite of her goddess status; while the world of the Titans and Zeus himself provides a suitable background of disempowerment that easily translates from the ancient mythical world to a contemporary one. The masterful stroke is that Circe's true adversaries are all female, and the narrative explores the ways that she is able to make them allies. 

December 2016 Longbourn by Jo Baker

This meeting was our tenth anniversary, and took place in Billingshurst with a celebratory Christmas meal.

Generally members enjoyed the connections with Pride and Prejudice, and felt that after a not very engaging start the plot picked up and added some interesting new dimensions to interpretations of Austen, particularly in relation to Mr and Mrs Bennett.

November 2016: The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

We all agreed that The Miniaturist lacked something and the plot became a bit preposterous – but we liked the setting in 17^th century Amsterdam. Thanks to Dawn for hosting the November meeting.

Compiled by Jessie Burton and Francesca Main, Editorial Director at Picador

1. How would you describe the sense of place in The Miniaturist, and how
does the novel present seventeenth century Amsterdam?
2. What does the gift of the cabinet house symbolise to Nella in terms of her
marriage to Johannes and her own status?
3. The Brandt household is full of secrets. Which made the biggest
impression on you and why?
4. Did your attitude to the characters remain consistent throughout the
novel, or did your loyalties shift as you kept reading? Which character
provoked the strongest reaction from you?
5. How would you describe Nella’s relationship with Marin? In what ways do
they con􀏐lict, and are they more alike than they think?
6. What do you think was the most signi􀏐icant cause of the Brandt’s downfall?
7. Do you think the miniaturist is a magical force or a human one? What is
the most important thing that Nella learns from her?
8. To what extent do you think Nella was in control of her own fate, or was
she at the mercy of those around her?
9. How did seventeenth century Dutch society view women, and how

different is life for women today?

Restoration by Rose Tremain September 2016

As the summer holiday draws to a close, at least book club is on the horizon - and an interesting character, Merivel, in Restoration by Rose Tremain is up for discussion. This month's meeting will be in Horsham on Monday September 12th; thank you to Hazel for sourcing the questions.

1. Merivel says that he “no longer lives in an honourable age. What has dawned instead is the Age of Possibility.” What does he mean by this?
2. Merivel’s discovery that the human heart itself does not have any feeling troubles him throughout the book. How does this idea of the heart as unfeeling influence him? How do his thoughts about the heart change?
3. Why does Merivel start his story five times? What is the effect?
4. Merivel claims to be “a man of his time,” but in many ways he seems ahead of his time—from his idea of evolution to his impressionist style of painting. What do you make of this?
5. There are multiple cases where Merivel compares the King to God. In what ways is the King a god-figure for Merivel? Do his ideas about the King change?
6. Merivel prays to “no longer be Merivel, the Fool, but to be Merivel, the proper man.” What is his definition of a proper man? What inspires this change of heart?
7. In his quest to be “useful,” Merivel tries many different occupations, from artist to Overseer of the poor to physician at Whittlesea. What does he gain from each of these occupations?
8. Why does Merivel pursue Katherine? Does he truly love her? How do his feelings for her change as the relationship progresses?
9. Merivel is a committed womanizer, but in a twist of fate he is given a daughter instead of the son he thought he would have. Do you think Margaret will change his ways?
10. Rosie Pierpont warns Merivel of seeing the King again, lest he live his life in a circle. Yet at the end of the novel he is again installed at Bidnold, back in the King’s graces. Has he made any progress or has he fulfilled Rosie’s fears?
11. Merivel believes himself to be in love with Celia, but might we argue that perhaps the deep loves of his heart are in fact for Pearce and the King? What set of values does each of these two men represent for Merivel, and in what ways does he find himself caught between them?

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Thank you to Dawn for hosting this month's meeting and to June for sourcing the questions:

1. All of the characters in this novel have their failings and as a result they are all fully human. Are you surprised by the secrets Elinor and Michael Mompellion each reveal to Anna about their marriage? How do they change your feelings about each character? Do they make either seem weaker in a way?

2. The Bradford family bears the brunt of Mompellion's rage when they leave town to save themselves. However, weren't they only doing what every other noble family did in those days: run because they had the means to run? Setting aside the events near the end of the novel (which make it clear that one would be hard-pressed to find a redeeming quality in any of them), can you really blame the Bradfords for running?

3. How much of Mompellion's push for the quarantine had to do with the secrets he shared with Elinor? Did his own dark side and self-loathing push him to sacrifice the town or was he really acting out of everyone's best interests?

4, Keeping in mind that this story takes place a good twenty-five years before the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts, what is the role of the Gowdie women in the novel? What is it about these women that drives their neighbors to murderous rage? How does their nonconformity lead to their becoming scapegoats?

5. How would you explain Anna's mental and spiritual unraveling? What are the pivotal experiences leading up to her breakdown and her eventual rebirth?

6. Discuss the feminist undertones of the story. How does each female character—Anna, Elinor, the Gowdies, and even Anna's stepmother—exhibit strengths that the male characters do not?

7. In a story where the outcome is already known from the very beginning—most of the villagers will die—discuss the ways in which the author manages to create suspense.

8. The author creates an incredible sense of time and place with richly textured language and thoughtful details—of both the ordinary (everyday life in Eyam) and the extraordinary (the gruesome deaths of the villagers). Discuss some of the most vivid images and their importance to the story and to your own experience reading it.

9. Can we relate the story of this town's extraordinary sacrifice to our own time? Is it unrealistic to expect a village facing a similar threat to make the same decision nowadays? What lessons might we learn from the villagers of Eyam?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

And some others which might be interesting:
In what ways did Elinor and Michael Mompellion become parental figures to Anna?

How and why did the people become divided as the plague devastated the village?

What supernatural beliefs surfaced as a result of the plague, and how did those beliefs conflict with religion?

What about Anys Gowdie appealed to Anna?

How did women in the novel show greater strength than the men possessed?

Lust is one of the sins explored in this novel through Elinor, Jane Martin, Anys Gowdie and Anna. What was the motivation and result of lust for these women?

Anna and Michael Mompellion experienced a loss of faith by the end of the novel. How did they each cope with this loss?

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

February's book was by Anthony Doerr:

We unanimously loved All the Light We Cannot See and it provoked much discussion about the compelling narrative structure.  Definitely one we’ll all be recommending. 

Thanks to Rosanna for hosting.

Miss Carter's War by Sheila Hancock

This month's meeting takes place in Crawley to discuss Miss Carter's War by Sheila Hancock.

I really enjoyed the dance through the decades, the Forrest Gump-like way that Marguerite seems to be at every major event of the twentieth century, and the teacher's 'reward' in the closing stages of the novel.

The flashbacks from the war years are also satisfyingly resolved and reflected in interesting ways in the contemporary narrative.  I found the early teaching descriptions a little naive and idealistic, but then I suppose that was intended to reflect the protagonist at that point in her life.

The whole novel was ambitious in its scope since as well as containing a 'life' in almost its entirety, the narrative also seemed to incorporate every major issue since the war - including AIDS, dementia, social injustice, 9-11, the education system, drugs, teenage pregnancy - as well as being a meditation on the ageing process and the meaning of life.

It was not what I expected at all; and it has made me want to rethink tomorrow's wardrobe as we return from the Easter holidays!

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

This month's book is The Postmistress by Sarah Blake, telling parallel stories of lives in London, in America, and across Europe in the grip of World War II. I have enjoyed parts of the book and some of the characters, but also found aspects of it strangely unsatisfying at times - so it will be interesting to see what everyone else thought of it.

The questions for tomorrow night's meeting in Horsham have been sourced by Hazel. There are quite a few of them! Don't forget that we have also introduced a scoring system as from last month...

1. Much of The Postmistress is centred on Frankie’s radio broadcasts. How do you think the experience of listening to the news via radio in the 1940s differs from getting news from the television or the internet? Do you think there is something that the human voice conveys that the printed word cannot?

2. “Get in. Get the story. Get out.” That is Murrow’s charge to Frankie. Does The Postmistress make you question whether it’s possible to ever really get the whole story?

3. Seek Truth. Report it. Minimize Harm. That is the journalist’s code. And it haunts Frankie during the book. Why wasn’t Frankie able to deliver the letter or tell Emma about meeting Will? For someone whose job was to deliver the news, did she fail?

4. If you were Iris, would you have delivered the letter? Why or why not? Was she wrong not to deliver it? What good, if any, grew up in the gap of time Emma didn’t know the news? What was taken from Emma in not knowing immediately what happened?

5. In the funk hole, Will says that “everything adds up”, but Frankie disagrees, saying that life is a series of “random, incomprehensible accidents”. Which philosophy do you believe? Which theory does The Postmistress make a better case for?

6. After Thomas tells his story of escape, the old woman in the train compartment says “There was God looking out for you at every turn.” Thomas disagrees. “People looked out. Not God.” He adds, “There is no God. Only us.” How does The Postmistress raise the questions of faith in wartime? How does this connect to the decisions Iris and Frankie make with regard to Emma?

7. Why do you think Maggie’s death compels Will to leave for England?

8. The novel deals with the last summer of innocence for the United States before it was drawn into WWII and before the United States was attacked. Do you see any modern-day parallels?

9. What are the pleasures and drawbacks of historical novels? Is there a case to be made that The Postmistress is not about the 1940’s so much as it uses the comfortable distance of that time and place in order to ask questions about war? About accident? Are all novels historical?

11. We know that Emma was orphaned, that Will’s father had drinking problems, that Iris’s brother was killed in the First War, and that Frankie grew up in a brownstone in Washington Square. How do these characters’ backgrounds shape the decisions that they make?

12. Early in the novel, Frankie reflects on the fact that most people believed that “women shouldn’t be reporting the war.” Do you think that Frankie’s gender influences her reporting? How does Frankie deal with being a female in a male-dominated field?

13. Why does Otto refuse to tell the townspeople that he’s Jewish? Do you think he’s right not to do so?

14. Why is the certificate of virginity so important to Iris? What does it tell us about her character?

15. When Frankie returns to America, she finds it impossible to grasp that people are calmly going about their lives while war rages in Europe. What part does complacency play in The Postmistress?

16. Discuss the significance of the Martha Gellhorn quote at the beginning of the book, “War happens to people, one by one. That is really all I have to say, and it seems to me I have been saying it forever.” What stance towards war, and to telling a war story, does this reveal?

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

I'm looking forward to discussing this book in Littlehampton next Wednesday, particularly since it is not what I thought it was at all.  There I was, judging a book by its cover again.  In fact, I was totally unprepared for this historical 'saga' with a twist, caught off guard by suddenly meeting Leon Trotsky, and bowled over by the captivating start and exotic settings. I loved the ending, which I can't really talk about in advance of our discussion and whilst some people are still reading; but, since we shall be on the coast for our next book club meeting - swim, anyone?

Here are the discussion questions:

1. What does Shepherd mean when he says, "The most important part of the story is the piece of it you don't know." And how does this oft stated remark relate to the book's title?

2. What is the significance of the book's title? What does it mean within the context of the novel?

3. Do Shepherd's diaries feel realistic to you? Does he sound like a 12-year old at the beginning...and later a mature man?

4. What prompts Harrison to begin his journals? Why does he write? What does he mean by referring to his notebook as "prisoner's plan for escape"?

5. Describe Shepherd, first as a 12-year-old and, later, as a mature adult. What kind of character is he? How does he change over the course of the novel?

6. How about Shepherd's mother? In what way does her profligate life affect how Shepherd decides to lead his own life?

7. Describe the Riviera/Kahlo household. How does Shepherd see Riviera's influence over Kahlo? Have you seen the movie Frieda? If so, does that film influence your reading of The Lacuana?

8. How does Kingsolver portray Leon Trotsky in this work? Were you aware of his background and the history of the Russian Revolution before you read the novel? If so, did your prior knowledge color your reading—or did your reading affect your knowledge?

9. Do you find the second-half of the novel, in the US, evocative of a time and place that no longer exists? If so, is that a good or bad thing? If not, what has remained the same? How does Kingsolver present those years?

10. What is Shepherd's relationship with his secretary, Violet Brown? What kind of character is she? Why does she want to preserve Shepherd's memory?

11. What role do the media play in this novel? Is it a fair or realistic portrait? What are the benefits of fame...and what are its costs?

12. Does this book enlighten you about the era of the Red Scare and the McCarthy hearings? Or do you feel this ground has been well tread by many others?

March by Geraldine Brooks

This is our second book by Geraldine Brooks; the first, People of the Book from way back in October 2010 was a popular choice, so it was with eager anticipation that I began reading this one. It is far too long since I last read 'Little Women' by Louisa May Alcott, the novel which provides the protagonist in March, Mr March, the father, so I have had a dip in to that too. I'm not entirely sure it was necessary since the book was an enjoyable stand-alone read, but it was a nice prompt to do so.

I particularly enjoyed the exposure of flaws in the character of Mr March, in spite of his generally good intentions, and this is something that I think is also there in Alcott's orginal. We meet this month in Horsham, and here are the discussion questions:

1.Throughout the novel, March and Marmee, although devoted to one another, seem to misunderstand each other quite a bit and often do not tell each other the complete truth. Discuss examples of where this happens and how things may have turned out differently, for better or worse, had they been completely honest. Are there times when it is best not to tell our loved ones the truth?

2.The causes of the American Civil War were multiple and overlapping. What was your opinion of the war when you first came to the novel, and has it changed at all since reading March?

3.March's relationships with both Marmee and Grace are pivotal in his life. Discuss the differences between these two relationships and how they help to shape March, his worldview, and his future. What other people and events were pivotal in shaping March's beliefs?

4.Do you think it was the right decision for March to have supported, financially or morally, the northern abolitionist John Brown? Brown's tactics were controversial, but did the ends justify the means?

5."If war can ever be said to be just, then this war is so; it is action for a moral cause, with the most rigorous of intellectual underpinnings. And yet everywhere I turn, I see injustice done in the waging of it," says March (p. 65). Do you think that March still believes the war is just by the end of the novel? Why or why not?

6.What is your opinion of March's enlisting? Should he have stayed home with his family? How do we decide when to put our principles ahead of our personal obligations?

7.When Marmee is speaking of her husband's enlisting in the army, she makes a very eloquent statement: "A sacrifice such as his is called noble by the world. But the world will not help me put back together what war has broken apart" (p. 210). Do her words have resonance in today's world? How are the people who fight our wars today perceived? Do you think we pay enough attention to the families of those in the military? Have our opinions been influenced at all by the inclusion of women in the military?

8.The war raged on for several years after March's return home. How do you imagine he spent those remaining years of the war? How do you think his relationship with Marmee changed? How might it have stayed the same?

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

This month's book is Arthur & George by Julian Barnes, and, as the book was handed out at the end of last month's meeting, we all seemed to know something about it: it was on the Booker Prize shortlist; one of the characters was famous, the other not; it was a historical novel.  It was a little while, I have to confess, before I quite realised which character was the notorious one - although in  a sense, both were in their day.  I had no idea about the 'Great Wyrley Outrages', but found the dual parallel narratives compelling, and the moment at which the two stories collide (the first chapter entitled Arther & George) intriguing.  The central protagonists were rounded, appealingly flawed, and engaging and I enjoyed the conceit of bringing 'real' characters to life in this way.  Like The Sense of an Ending however, this novel didn't seem to have one, or not a satisfactory one, at any rate. Perhaps that is the inevitability of being in the hands of such a masterful storyteller: the conclusion will necessarily prove disappointing. 

Our meeting takes place in Worthing, and here are this month's questions for discussion:

1.    One of the first things we learn about George is that "For a start, he lacks imagination". George is deeply attached to the facts, while early in life Arthur discovers the "essential connection between narrative and reward" . How does this temperamental difference determine their approaches to life? Does Barnes use Arthur and George to explore the very different attractions of truth telling and storytelling?

2.    To what degree do George's parents try to overlook or deny the social difficulties their mixed marriage has produced for themselves and their children? Are they admirable in their determination to ignore the racial prejudice to which they are subjected?

3.    Critic Peter Kemp has commented on Julian Barnes's interest in fiction that "openly colonises actuality—especially the lives of creative prodigies" (London Times, 26 June 2005). In Arthur & George, the details we read about Arthur's life are largely true. While the story of George Edalji is an obscure chapter of Doyle's life, its details as presented here are also based on the historical record. What is the effect, for the reader, when an author blurs the line between fiction and biography, or fiction and history?

4.    From early on in a life shaped by stories, Arthur has identified with tales of knights: "If life was a chivalric quest, then he had rescued the fair Touie, he had conquered the city, and been rewarded with gold. . . . What did a knight errant do when he came home to a wife and two children in South Norwood?" (60). Is it common to find characters like Arthur in our own day? How have the ideas of masculinity changed between Edwardian times and the present?

5.    George has trouble believing that he was a victim of race prejudice (235). Why is this difficult for him to believe? Is it difficult for him to imagine that others don't see him as he sees himself? Does George's misfortune seem to be juxtaposed ironically with his family's firm belief in the Christian faith?

6.    Inspector Campbell tells Captain Anson that the man who did the mutilations would be someone who was "accustomed to handling animals" (84); this assumption would clearly rule out George. Yet George is pursued as the single suspect. Campbell also notes that Sergeant Upton is neither intelligent nor competent at his job (86). What motivates Campbell as he examines George's clothing and his knife, and proceeds to have George arrested (102–7)?

7.    George's arrest for committing "the Great Wyrley Outrages" (153) causes a sensation in England just a few years following the sensational killing spree of Jack the Ripper that sold millions of newspapers throughout England. Are the newspapers, and the public appetite for sensational stories, partly responsible for the crime against George Edalji?

8.    For nine years, Arthur carries on a chaste love affair with Jean Leckie. Yet he feels miserable after the death of his wife Touie, particularly when he learns from his daughter Mary that Touie assumed that Arthur would remarry (215–17). Why is Arthur thrown into "the great Grimpen Mire" by his freedom to marry Jean (220)? Why does he believe that "if Touie knew, then he was destroyed" (267)? Has he, as he fears, behaved dishonourably to both women? What does the dilemma do to his sense of personal honour?

9.    Why is the real perpetrator of the animal killings never identified? In a Sherlock Holmes story the criminal is always caught and convicted, but Doyle gets no such satisfaction with this real world case. How disturbing is the fact that Edalji is never truly vindicated and never compensated for the injustice he suffered? Does Barnes's fictional enlargement of George Edalji's life act as a kind of compensation?

10. Arthur & George presents a world that seems less evolved than our own in its assumptions about race and human nature, and justice and evidence, as well as in its examples of human innocence and idealism. Does this world seem so remote in time as to be, in a sense, unbelievable? Or might American readers recognise a similar situation in a story like Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, or more recent news stories about racial injustice?

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This month's meeting was in Billingshurst.

1. Our narrator goes through a lengthy (and frankly painful) description of the Custom’s House where he finds the actual Scarlet letter cloth and ‘unravels’ the story.  Is this frame device necessary?  Does it make an engaging start to the story?
2. What about the 3^rd person narrator?  How do you feel about him?  Is he self-conscious?  Does he create a tale you can engage with?
3. The text was published in 1850 but is set in Puritanical Boston between 1642 and 1649.  There are some very interesting colonial statements made.  Does this isolate readers outside of the US?
4. The text cannot be divorced from its Puritanical ideology.  Is that ideology so archaic that we can no longer engage with the narrative?
5. As a modern feminist, I have often struggled with this text.  Yet the text is about bringing a man to justice for his actions  (or at least torturing him for refusing to confess…).  Is the struggle again against the very ideology or the double standard through which women are judged?
6. To what extent are the characters merely stock players in a typical narrative format that develops no depth of feeling in the reader?
7. Can the reader feel any sympathy at all for Chillingworth?
8. The moralistic ending is to be expected; is it satisfying for a modern reader?
9. Does moralistic literature still find a place in modern fiction?

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? 

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Please find below discussion questions for next Tuesday's meeting in Horsham.

1. What does Holbein's portrait capture about Thomas Cromwell's character that even Cromwell, himself, recognizes? What kind of man is Cromwell? In the rapacious world of Wolf Hall, do you find him a sympathetic character, or not?

2. What effect did Cromwell's upbringing have on his character and his later views about the privileged society that permeates the court? How does he feel about the aristocracy and its insistence on ancient rights?

3. What does Cromwell mean when he tells his son that "it's all very well planning what you will do in six months, what you will do in a year, but it's no good at all if you don't have a plan for tomorrow"?

4. Comment on Cromwell's observation regarding an earl that "The world is not run from where he thinks. Not from his border fortresses, not even from Whitehall. The world is run from Antwerp, from Florence, from places he never imagined." What does Cromwell mean...and in what sense is his statement a very modern view of the world?

5. Why does Cromwell dislike the Catholic clergy? What are his motives for helping Henry marry Anne Boleyn and sever ties to the Pope? What larger goals does he hope to achieve in helping ? Are they selfless...or selfish?

6. If you are familiar with Thomas More, especially through A Man for All Seasons, were you surprised by this book's treatment of him?

7. How does Cromwell perceive Anne Boleyn? How does she come across in this book? Consider his observation when she is in the presence of the king's friends: "Anne is brittle in their company, and as ruthless with their compliments as a house-wife snapping the necks of larks for the table." Also talk about the danger he sees for Anne as he thinks, "Any little girl can hold the key to the future."

8. Do you know the fate of Cromwell, some years after the book's ending? If you don't know, can you surmise? If you do, how does it colour your reading of Wolf Hall?

9. Mantel is writing a sequel to Wolf Hall—The Mirror and the Light. Do you think you'll want to read it when published?