Still Alice by Lisa Genova

This is a novel about early onset Alzheimer's and was a great read.  The novel is written from the perspective of the patient and you see her deterioration with each subsequent visit to the doctor.

We felt that this is a must read to get an understanding of this frightening disease.  The author deliberately chose a heroine who dispels our preconceived notions of a "typical" Alzheimer's patient.  Alice is intelligent, articulate, fit and young!  

It can happen to anyone and Alice had the unlucky gene and has passed on this gene onto some of her children.

Would you like to know if you have that gene?  If not, why?  Is it because there is no cure?  All these are very relevant questions.

We found several scenes in this novel particularly confronting : being totally disorientated on her normal everyday run, finding herself in her neighbour's kitchen thinking it was her own and not realising she had just said the exact same thing to her colleagues in a meeting....

It is also very realistic how everyone around Alice is not sure how to treat her once they find out--it is almost like a taboo subject.  Her husband's reactions deserve a mention here.  He is portrayed as quite selfish and cannot even stand watching her take her medications!

We highly recommend this book as it made us all think seriously about Alzheimer's and examine our own attitude towards dementia in general.  We rate this book 9/10.

Our next novel is Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi and our meeting will take place on Nov 2 at Robyn's.  That will leave us with just one more meeting this year where we will discuss the novel chosen by Patricia : Bel Canto by Ann Patchett.  That meeting will take place at Sharon's on Nov 30.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

This is a first novel from Marina Lewycka.  She was born in a refugee camp in Germany in 1946 and moved to the UK when she was one. Short History turned out to be quite successful, winning and being short listed for prizes and her subsequent novels are Two Caravans (released as Strawberry Fields in USA and Canada) and We Are All Made Of Glue.
This is an often humorous book about what happens when an 84 year old widower marries a young Ukrainian bombshell wanting to settle in the UK. Much of our discussion was prompted by Jane asking a list of questions about the characters in the book which I believe was taken from the author's own website.  If you are interested to hear Marina discuss her book and think about the list of the questions, this is the link : http://marinalewycka.com/tractors.html

The book is very much about the relationships in families--between an elderly parent and his grown daughters, between the two sisters, and how these relationships are threatened or transformed by the introduction of the young wife Valentina and her "genius" son into the picture.
Despite Valentina being portrayed as a "gold-digger", there were sympathies for her wanting a "better" future for her son.
We rate the book 7 out of 10.

Our next book is Still Alice by Lisa Genova (another debut novel) and our meeting will take place at Megan's on September 21.

The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson

Our meeting on "The Year of Magical Thinking" did not unfortunately take place, again due to last minute cancellations.
Luckily we had a big enough forum to discuss the work of Jacobson.  It was a most enjoyable evening (thank you Sally) despite the fact that most members of the group struggled to finish the book!  Our impression was that this is very much a "blokes'" book and we found the characters and their voices hard to relate to.
We thought that the author was clever using "Finkler" to be synonymous with "Jew" in this novel.  He was then able to freely play around with this word and all it's connotations and variations.  We generally felt that we needed more of an insight into Jewish customs and vocabulary to fully appreciate the author's cleverness and humour.
We give this book a rating of 5/10.

Our next book is A Short History of Tractors in the Ukraine by Marina Lewycka and our meeting is now postponed to August 31st at Jane's.

Hand Me Down World

Our book chosen by Sarah was Hand Me Down World but unfortunately, our meeting was cancelled due to poor attendance.  We have decided to let our book group members post their comments about this novel on the blog instead.

Our next meeting is June 22 at Sharon's and the book chosen is The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

Thanks!

The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This is a clever story about a little girl Liesel Meminger and her foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann during the Second World War, told from an unusual point of view, that of the voice of Death.

Some found it hard going at first but for those of us who finished this tome of some 580 pages, we loved it!! We thought the author did a good job bringing all these characters to life and had us interested in their intertwining stories.  One just can't help loving papa and mama and feeling the terrible sacrifices they were willing to pay to hide Max.  The Word Shaker Story was particularly clever. And the bread incident for the starving Jewish man was actually a story that the author's parents told him about the war.  We feel that no one is too old for this story as it is really about humanity.

This author has written other books which are quite different to The Book Thief and this may be his best work yet.  

I'd like to note that there was however a dissenting voice in our group who felt that the characters could not carry the story.

If you should want to listen to this book, it is available at Audible.com and the narrator Allan Corduner is superb.

We rate this book 9-9.5 out of 10.

Our next book is Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones and will be at Sarah's on April 27 at 7:30pm.--news flash : meeting postponed to May 10th.

Island Beneath The Sea

This is the latest novel by Isabel Allende and is a historical novel set in the 1700s in Haiti, formerly known as  Saint-Domingue, a French colony.  We felt that even though there were some surprises, this novel was a bit disappointing as it failed to grab its audience.  We found that the narrative of one of the main characters, Zarité, was not too believable as she is meant to be illiterate.  Even though this novel did give the reader a good background to Haiti's past, we do question how historically accurate the author was to this period in Haiti's history.

The ending was a bit of a let-down as it was quite rushed for a novel of this length and we found that the magical realism doesn't quite come through for this novel, unlike some of Allende's earlier works.

For those who have read her previous works, they much preferred The House of The Spirits or Sum of Our Days instead.

We rate this book 6 ½ to 7 out of 10.

Our next book is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and will be at Marny's place on March 23 at 7:30pm.

Xmas Party! and The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Our end-of-the-year party was held at Jane's.  Thank you Jane for a lovely evening sitting out on your patio sipping bubbly and munching nibbles!  We would also like to welcome new friends Rosemaree and Megan to join our group next year.

First things first.  Let's get to a brief discussion of the Elegance of the Hedgehog.

A few of us found it a bit difficult to get going because of the many diversions into branches of philosophy, Tolstoy and other references.  But on the second reading, or once you get into the story line, this novel is captivating.  The story of Renée, the lowly concierge, is delicate and touching.  Her double life demonstrates that the humblest person can have the most beautiful life.  It is a timely reminder not to judge someone by their appearance.

Her friendship with Paloma develops over the story as does her friendship with the new Japanese tenant, Mr Ozu.  We do wonder whether there isn't a bit of inverse snobbery going on.  There is something devious about hiding her true self--like having two televisions, one as a front and one for real.  This novel has been made into a film and very cleverly, Paloma is seen using a camera instead of writing in a diary.  

We rate the book 8 ½ to 9/10 and for those who saw the movie, 7/10.

Some suggested holiday reading from the group are :

Ice by Louis Nowra

The Confession by John Grisham

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Wait for Me: Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister by Deborah Devonshire

No Sugar by Jack Davis

Must You Go by Antonia Fraser

Sotah by Naomi Ragen

My Life So Far by Jane Fonda

Our next meeting is at Patricia's on Wednesday February 9th.  The book we will discuss is "Island Beneath The Sea" by Isabelle Allende.  Please also bring along your book selection for 2011.

Have a safe and restful holiday everyone!  See you in the New Year and happy reading!!

Loving Frank

This is Nancy Horan's first novel and it is an amazing story based on historical figures and events about the romance of the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney at the turn of the century.

At the beginning of the 1900s, the affair between Frank Lloyd Wright, a married man of 20 years with 6 children, and Mamah Cheney who is herself a married woman with 2 young children created quite a scandal. Mamah was a highly educated woman and an advocate for women's rights.  She found an intellectual "equal" in Frank and together they pursued their love for each other despite social conventions.

Our discussion centred around whether we should condemn Mamah for her choice.  Would we have abandoned two young children and left them to be raised by someone else?  If it were not for Mamah's sister Lizzie who put her own life on hold to look after Mamah's children, could Mamah have left her husband?  How selfish was her choice when it is the expense of someone who had sacrificed so much for her already?

Also, would we have been more forgiving of Mamah if she had done something more with herself?  That is, beyond "attaching herself to two colossal personalities", Frank Lloyd Wright and Ellen Key, the Swedish feminist writer.

Nancy Horan grew up in the same street as Mamah Borthwick Cheney in Oak Park, a suburb near Chicago.  Although much is known about Wright, little is known of his mistress. Horan said she was very excited when she discovered some of Mamah's correspondence and decided to base her story from Mamah's point of view. Without giving away the ending, we found the passage with Frank and Edward Cheney on the train to Taliesin very moving.  And the editorial letter that Wright wrote in 1914, which happened to be real, we found very touching and gives us a glimpse of Mamah's courage at a time when "a wife still is 'property'"and how she follows her belief that "only true love is free love".

We rate Loving Frank 8 ½ to 9 out of 10.

Our next book is The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (changed from Ice, Louis Nowra) and is taking place on Wednesday November 3rd.