The Narrow Road to the Deep North

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

Blog written by Lee


A novel about love or a novel about war?  Flanagan combines both themes into a compelling poetic work.   

His characters, whether Australian or Japanese, men or women, all suffer from an self awareness of their own personal flaws.   

Poetry helps some to cope with the trials they face, Dorrigo Evans remembers Tennyson and the Roman poets and Nakamura and Kota come face to face with the beauty of nature and their personal frailties in the haiku of Issa and Basho.  

The title of the novel is taken from a book of haiku by Matsuo Basho a 17th century Japanese teacher and wandering poet.

 

Dorrigo’s love affair with Amy, the wife of his uncle, begins his journey into the war, his ‘narrow road’ takes him to the war in Cyprus and then to South East Asia where his platoon is surrendered to the Japanese in the fiasco that is the capture of British Singapore.   

The novel follows the fortunes of Dorrigo and his men during the horrors of the building the Burma Railroad and the hell of the jungle POW camps.  

Some die horrific deaths, others survive to return to alienated lives in Australia.  None will ever be the same.  

Flanagan’s writing is astonishing in it’s poetic beauty, whether he is describing a meeting in a book shop, a beach scene,  the tropical rain in the Thai jungles, or the hell of an Australian bushfire.  Each character’s story is given it’s full due and no story remains untold.  

There is no great fanfare in the telling of each of the character’s stories and their conclusions can be unexpectedly shocking but always poignant.  

Everyone in our group praised the novel and ratings ranged from an 8 to several giving a 10.

Our rating averaged 9.2 out of 10 and described as " compelling".

Our next book is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and will take place on Oct 9th Thursday at Melissa's.

The Chemistry of Tears

The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey

Blog to be posted by Sally





















We rated the book 7 out of 10.  Descriptions : curious; curiouser and curiouser; confusing; intriguing layers; frustrating.

Our next book will be The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan and the meeting will be at Lee's on Thursday August 28th.

Beautiful Ruins

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Comments below by Melissa :

I really enjoyed the theme of the book and its amusing and ironic commentary on the crass commercialisation of creative work (particularly literary, dramatic and cinematic writing) and the extent to which even people's lives can be 'optioned' and 'tweaked' to make a buck.

I especially loved the juxtapositions - eg. Plastic people (Deane) beside genuine people (Pasquale). The Hollywood Pitching room beside the early authentic war torn coast of then unpopulated Italy.  The brash efforts of some to sell anything at any cost (Reality Tv show with a house full of anorexics) beside the innocent efforts of others (Hotel Adequate View). The has-beens beside the Hopefuls, the past beside the present, the sincere beside the false, the 'Failures' beside the 'Successes' and who actually defines these…

I enjoyed the focus on the whole world of 'selling stories', given the whole world is telling stories (as history, as art, as memoir etc.) and how we all have our own and how some people view theirs with celebration and others with regret.  How people try to matter, in more or less meaningful ways. How beautiful things can be destroyed...ruined by greed, war, denial… and how some things ruined can still somehow be beautiful (people's mistakes, a love never consummated, an ageing face, death…)

I think people who have worked for some time in the literary/performing arts industries are most likely to connect with the book's themes. I'm not surprised it was a New York Times bestseller. I'm sure it also did well in LA.

Yes, I thought it was a clever, fun, lightly tragic, ironically tongue-in-cheek look at life as art and the art of life.

Our rating for Beautiful Ruins is 7 out of 10.

Our next book is The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey and the meeting will be at Sally's on July 24th.

The Casual Vacancy

The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling

Blog to be posted by Sarah





















Our next book is Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter and the meeting will be at Megan's on June 24th.

Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Blog to be posted by Jane





















Our rating for Gone Girl is 7 out of 10.  It is "clever, entertaining, readable and speedy".

Our next book is The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling and the meeting will be at Sarah's on Thursday May 29th.

Under the Wide and Starry Sky

Under The Wide And Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
Blog written by Sharon

I selected this novel because we had so enjoyed Nancy Horan's first novel about Frank Lloyd Wright called "Loving Frank" ( refer to our blog in Sept 2010).  Unfortunately only about half of us had finished the book by the group's meeting.

This is a novel once again based on historical people and facts -- that of the lives of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne.  It is about their amazing love story from around the end of the 19th century.

Fanny is portrayed as a strong, brave and talented woman whose ambition to be a writer herself had to take a back seat to the renowned writer, RLS, in the family.  It is astonishing how a woman in the 1800s had the courage to flee an unhappy first marriage and take her children with her half way round the world to enrol in an art school!

Throughout the novel, we see how doggedly Fanny nurses Robert's weak health and sacrifices her own need to put down roots and ignores her terrible sea sickness just so that Robert L Stevenson can thrive in the sea air and strengthen his lungs.  I personally warmed to Fanny more than Robert as I found him cruel at times ( calling Fanny a "peasant") and he was often swayed by his friends who were actually feeling threatened by Fanny.  She never really got over the death of her son Hervey and both of them were really hurt by the plagiarism slur. Fanny's mental breakdown was nicely handled by the author and showed how it brought Robert's love for Fanny back.

Nancy Horan was interviewed by Today's Bookclub and here is the link Patricia shared with us :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyV9hs5Q15M

There was a lot of admiration from us for the writing of Robert Louis Stevenson.  Personally I loved the poem he penned for Fanny on page 338:

Trusty, dusky, vivid, true,
With eyes of gold and bramble-dew,
Steel-true and blade-straight,
The great artificer
Made my mate.

Honour, anger, valour, fire;
A love that life could never tire,
Death quench or evil stir,
The mighty master
Gave to her.

Teacher, tender, comrade, wife,
A fellow-farer true through life,
Heart-whole and soul-free
The august father
Gave to me.


There is a general consensus that perhaps the novel rambled on and didn't need to be this long.  The ending was so moving though if the reader can get through all the cruises around the South Pacific!
That may explain the rather low rating we have given this novel, averaging a 6 out of 10.
Few descriptive words : Could do better, Tedious, Too long, Loved it, in Awe of them.

Our next novel is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and will be on Tuesday April 8th at Jane's.

Please note that Robyn's book choice this year is "I Don't Know How She Does It" by Allison Pearson.

Burial Rites

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
Blog written by Meredith 

The members were united in their praise and enjoyment of Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites.

Amidst the harsh conditions of 1800 Iceland, Agnes’s story came to life, giving the reader an entirely plausible and fascinating account of the events leading up to the last execution in Iceland.

A brilliant first novel by this aspiring writer whose depth of research and subject matter marks this a most unusual and unique book.  One reader felt Agnes had brought togetherness to the host family, as they listened in on her conversations with the priest.  The priest was not a popular character, perhaps his youth and inexperience giving the impression of being weak.  Another reader didn’t like the way Agnes kept returning to Natan.  Was Agnes obsessed with him?  Was Agnes guilty of murder? Perhaps she had a psychotic episode?  Some readers felt that she could have had good reason to kill Natan.  When is a murder justified?  And is capital punishment justified?

Research shows that over 60 countries in today’s world still have capital punishment, China being the bigger offender, with public executions still happening in places like Saudi Arabia.

Overall, Burial Rites was found to be sad, haunting and grim yet, beautiful, fascinating and intriguing.

Recommended reading with an average rating of 8.

Our next book is Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
The meeting will be at Sharon's on Thursday March 13th, 2014.

The Moment

The Moment by Douglas Kennedy

Blog written by Marty C

"The main character, Thomas Nesbit, after divorcing his wife chooses to move to a small town in USA.
His daughter forwards to him a box sent to him with the name of his former lover in Berlin 25 years previous.

Thus begins his story of his sojourn in Berlin during the Cold War at the time of the Berlin Wall.
Thomas recounts his meeting and instant attraction (mutual) with Petra Dussman.
The box which he subsequently opens reveals her perspective of their love affair and time spent together in West Berlin.
As well as these two main characters we meet a colourful Gay Brit Alistair Fitzsimons-Ross from whom Thomas Nesbit rents the upper floor of his premises.
The backdrop of Berlin in the the 80s with the presence of Stasi in East Berlin reveals what a police state it was. The Wall in a way also becomes a character to me.
Discussion ensued as to what The Moment referred.

As it was the last book of the year perhaps there was not a representative view as some had not read or started the book.

Following our meeting Meredeth felt she may have been somewhat harsh and  commented on The Moment  that it was a "great setting in Berlin and compelling at times" which I feel is probably a fair comment..
I actually felt it quite compelling reading especially Petra's story.

I do recommend as a follow up read Anna Funda's
"Stasiland" She is a wonderful researcher.

Happy New Year

Looking forward to book club 2014"


We rated the book 7 out of 10.

Our next meeting will be on Jan 30th, 2014 at Meredith's and the book chosen is Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.
Happy New Year everyone and happy reading over the holidays!