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? 

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Next week's meeting is in Crawley. Thank you very much to Dawn for sourcing our discussion questions.

1. Do you think Dr. Faraday is a reliable narrator? Why? Or why not?

2.What do you think is responsible for the disturbances at Hundreds Hall? Is it something supernatural or the effects of mental illness?

3.What do you think about Dr. Faraday’s relationship with Caroline? Are his feelings for her genuine? What about hers for him?

4.The Ayres family had land, wealth, and power for generations--while their neighbors lived in relative destitution-- before their post-war decline. Given this history, did you sympathize with them when it became clear they were passing out of favor?

5.How does Mrs. Ayres’ attitude toward Dr. Faraday change over the course of the novel? Why?

6.What you think of the decision to commit Roderick to an institution? Is it justified? Do you think it spared his life?

7.Were the Baker-Hydes correct in insisting that Gyp be put down? Or was their reaction to their daughter’s injury unjustified?

8.It is Betty’s unease living at Hundreds that causes her to feign illness and bring Dr. Faraday back to Hundreds for the first time since his youth? Do you think she was unusually prescient, sensing something ominous was about to take place at Hundreds?

9.How is Dr. Faraday's role as a country doctor in the 1940’s different from practicing medicine now? Given these changes, do you think a story like his could take place today?

10.Caroline’s decision to sell off her family’s land so that council houses could be built is just one of the ways The Little Stranger speaks to the changes happening in Britain at the time. How else does the book reflect the reconfiguration of post World War II British society?

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?

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Happy New Year to all Book Worms! Here are the discussion questions for the first book of 2012, Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest: the final novel in his Millenium Trilogy. Our meeting is in Crawley on 10th January.

1. To what do you attribute the literary sensation surrounding this trilogy?
2. What is the “hornet’s nest” of the title?
3. Each part of Hornet’s Nest begins with a brief history lesson about women warriors. What was Larsson trying to say? Is Salander a modern-day equivalent of these women? Is Berger?
4. What is the appeal of Salander as the protagonist?
5. Many characters in Larsson’s trilogy have some good and some bad in them. Can you name a few? What makes them different from the clear heroes or villains?
6. Can you imagine a group like the Section operating in this country? Why/not?
7. On page 168, Larsson writes about Salander, “She wondered what she thought of herself, and came to the realization that she felt mostly indifference towards her entire life.” What has made her feel this way? Do her feelings change by the end?
8. Again and again, men underestimate Salander because of her size. Why do they make these assumptions? How does she turn this into an advantage?
9. On page 295, Salander discovers a gruesome fact about Teleborian. “She should have dealt with Teleborian years ago. But she had repressed the memory of him. She had chosen to ignore his existence.” When did she decide to stop letting people get away with things?
10. Discuss the notion of revenge in this novel, and throughout the trilogy. Who, besides Salander, exacts revenge? What motivates them?
11. What role does Annika play in the novel? And Ekström?
12. On page 359, Salander reaches out to Berger and offers to help. Why?
13. What is the significance of the subplot about Berger’s stalker?
14. During his interview with She, Blomkvist agrees with the host’s suggestion that the Section’s behavior is akin to mental illness. Do you agree with that idea? How are accusations of mental illness wielded elsewhere in the trilogy?
15. “When it comes down to it, this story is not primarily about spies and secret government agencies; it’s about violence against women, and the men who enable it.” So says Blomkvist on page 514. What else is it about?
16. If she’s not in love with Miriam, why does Salander go to Paris?
17. When deciding what to do about Niedermann, Salander thinks of Harriet Vanger. Where do their stories diverge?
18. The very last sentence of the trilogy is, “She opened the door wide and let him into her life again.” How do you imagine things proceed from here for Salander? For Blomvkist?

Five Years On

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

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?

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?