'Air and Angels' set in Cambridge and India, at around (what appears to be) the end of the nineteenth century - a time of parasols, punting, tennis parties and tea on the lawn or verandah. Its title, we considered was a reference to the 'weather' that features on many occasions throughout the book in a powerful and very atmospheric way; from the searing heat of India to the rain and wind marauding across the bare Fens of East Anglia, Eustace walking through the chill, early morning mist to the spring sun shining on the buildings and bridges of Cambridge.
Thomas Cavendish, in his middle fifties, a Cambridge Don of significant reputation lives a quiet, celibate and orderly life with his sister. Thomas, a keen bird enthusiast, enjoys his teaching and, at the end of the day, he is happy to return to his home with his purpose-built aviary adjoining his study. Georgiana, several years younger than Thomas, idolises her brother and for years has been content to housekeep for him and engage in good works. Her close friend, Florence, is desperate to marry Thomas. Florence, lives at home with her aged mother, fantasizes about being Thomas' wife and when she discovers that Thomas is in line for the Master's position at his college, she convinces herself that he will now definitely need a wife.
Meanwhile, in India, Kitty, a cousin of Florence, aged fifteen years and on the verge of womanhood, decides she would like to spread her wings and go to England. Her heartbroken parents, only wanting the best for their daughter, arrange for Kitty to travel back to England with her governess. The plan is for her to live with Florence whilst she completes her education. On the trip she meets an elderly missionary with whom she developed a close and important relationship, someone in whom she could confide but who dies during the voyage.
Sometime later, whilst walking along the river on a beautiful May afternoon, Thomas sees a young girl standing on a bridge and is transfixed, and when he sees her again in the company of Florence, he realizes the young woman who has had such an effect on him is Kitty. And before he knows it, has fallen deeply in love for the first time in his life. Confused/ by the depth of these feelings he compromises everything he has.
There is a sense of melancholy, sacrifice and death/loss running through this book. Status plays a significant part in the characters of the India and Cambridge of the day. There seemed to be several flawed characters, unable to see how their behaviour and their unfulfilled ambitions cast shadows over their own and others lives at the same time believing they could assist others in theirs. At first reading there appeared to be several female characters whose roles were undeveloped but the discussion brought us to see that might be pointing to the relatively few options women had at this time; jobs such as maid, governess, house keeper for an elderly parent or sibling for the single female or for the married woman to follow and do whatever was necessary to fit into their husbands' lives. And just how important marriage was for women and their place in the world.
The caged birds, so loved by Thomas felt to be a metaphor for the trapped lives they were leading; tied by convention, restricted by opportunities and confined by their own limitations. Thomas's transgression with Kitty whilst seemingly innocent resulted in the remainder of his life being lived out in a suspended way in Cambridge where people seemed to forgive but not forget and from which his reputation would never recover, whilst we can only speculate on what impact it had on the remainder of her life.
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
Sunday, 17 March 2013
A Perfectly Good Man
This month's book was "A Perfectly Good Man" by Patrick Gale. It is the story of Barnaby Johnson, a Cornish parish priest, and spans his life from aged 8 to late middle age. It is written in a series of chapters from the point of view of different characters: Barnaby, his wife, his children, his lover, and the son he has by his lover. Gale is such a clever writer - the chapters jump back and forth in time, in no apparent order, and the reader is kept wondering how all the twists and turns will be reconciled. However, all the loose ends are neatly tidied away most satisfactorily at the end.
The story opens with the suicide of Lenny, who has been crippled in an accident on the rugby field. He decides at aged 20 that he wishes to commit suicide. He obtains the necessary drugs, and asks to Barnaby to go and see him at the time he plans to take the drugs, so that he has a witness. Spoiler alert coming up! Lennie does not know that Barnaby is his father, and nor does the reader till much later in the book. The book is the back story of Barnaby and Lennie.
Another contributing character is the extremely unpleasant Modest Carlsson, a second-hand book seller and dealer in pornography. He meets Barnaby when the latter is a young curate, and becomes obsessed with him to the extent that he follows him to Cornwall. He is the complete antithesis to the 'perfectly good man' that Barnaby is.
I think the characterisations are marvellous, all the characters seem to leap off the page, well rounded and quite believable. We all liked Barnaby, though one or two of our readers responded to him in the same way as does his adopted Vietnamese boat-boy son, Phuc or Jim, finding him too diffident, and wishing he would be less accepting of everything, even the awful Modest. He is even asked by an uncle at aged 8, 'Please don't feel you always have to be good. Sometimes you are so good it hurts to watch you.'
Being set in Cornwall, the cake was Cornish heavy cake, which is actually mentioned in the book. Probably the fault of the cook, but it was possibly the most boring cake ever made, though the birds enjoyed it very much!
The story opens with the suicide of Lenny, who has been crippled in an accident on the rugby field. He decides at aged 20 that he wishes to commit suicide. He obtains the necessary drugs, and asks to Barnaby to go and see him at the time he plans to take the drugs, so that he has a witness. Spoiler alert coming up! Lennie does not know that Barnaby is his father, and nor does the reader till much later in the book. The book is the back story of Barnaby and Lennie.
Another contributing character is the extremely unpleasant Modest Carlsson, a second-hand book seller and dealer in pornography. He meets Barnaby when the latter is a young curate, and becomes obsessed with him to the extent that he follows him to Cornwall. He is the complete antithesis to the 'perfectly good man' that Barnaby is.
I think the characterisations are marvellous, all the characters seem to leap off the page, well rounded and quite believable. We all liked Barnaby, though one or two of our readers responded to him in the same way as does his adopted Vietnamese boat-boy son, Phuc or Jim, finding him too diffident, and wishing he would be less accepting of everything, even the awful Modest. He is even asked by an uncle at aged 8, 'Please don't feel you always have to be good. Sometimes you are so good it hurts to watch you.'
Being set in Cornwall, the cake was Cornish heavy cake, which is actually mentioned in the book. Probably the fault of the cook, but it was possibly the most boring cake ever made, though the birds enjoyed it very much!
Three Cups of Tea
In Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time , Greg Mortenson, and journalist David Oliver Relin, recount the journey that led Mortenson from a failed 1993 attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to successfully establish schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Views of the group were mixed and there was some debate about whether it is such an inspiring story in the light of facts discovered about Mortenson after publication: facts that suggest his so called adventure wasn’t quite as altruistic as it seemed. In 1993 Mortenson was descending from a failed attempt to reach the peak of K2 when he wandered away from his group, got lost and subsequently into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher so, grateful the villagers had saved his life, when he left the village he promised that he would return to build them a school. And the book is the story of how he did it. The difficult process of getting funding, his armed kidnapping, fatwas issued by mullahs, repeated death threats and separation from his wife and family. He built the Braldu Bridge, the Korphe School and since then has established 78 schools. An apparently astounding story of success in the face of hardship and opposition. The bridge and the schools do exist but the story behind them could be quite different.
There are alleged inaccuracies in the story as well as financial improprieties in the operation of the Central Asia Institute. Also in dispute is Mortenson's claim that he got lost near K2 and ended up in Korphe; that he was captured by the Taliban in 1996; whether the number of schools built and supported by CAI is accurate; and the propriety in the use of CAI funds for Mortenson's book tours. Despite the controversy there were those of us who found it an uplifting read and thought there should be some recognition of the fact that there are now schools where there weren’t before. However, balanced against this was argument about the purpose of the schools and the kind of education being offered in them. Simply constructing schools is not enough. What kind of identity is being constructed in the process of schooling, which role models are being presented, what outlooks of the world and sense of purpose in life are being imparted. A particularly strong message in the book is to build schools before madrassas get them and so turn students into "Good Muslims" (defined as modern, progressive, tolerant and pro-West) and remove their misunderstandings and apparent ignorance about America – which is characteristic of "Bad Muslims" (defined in the dominant cultural discourse as backward, fundamentalist, violent and anti-West).
It was a reasonably easy read although generally agreed that parts could have been left out to move the narrative on a bit faster.
There are alleged inaccuracies in the story as well as financial improprieties in the operation of the Central Asia Institute. Also in dispute is Mortenson's claim that he got lost near K2 and ended up in Korphe; that he was captured by the Taliban in 1996; whether the number of schools built and supported by CAI is accurate; and the propriety in the use of CAI funds for Mortenson's book tours. Despite the controversy there were those of us who found it an uplifting read and thought there should be some recognition of the fact that there are now schools where there weren’t before. However, balanced against this was argument about the purpose of the schools and the kind of education being offered in them. Simply constructing schools is not enough. What kind of identity is being constructed in the process of schooling, which role models are being presented, what outlooks of the world and sense of purpose in life are being imparted. A particularly strong message in the book is to build schools before madrassas get them and so turn students into "Good Muslims" (defined as modern, progressive, tolerant and pro-West) and remove their misunderstandings and apparent ignorance about America – which is characteristic of "Bad Muslims" (defined in the dominant cultural discourse as backward, fundamentalist, violent and anti-West).
It was a reasonably easy read although generally agreed that parts could have been left out to move the narrative on a bit faster.
Monday, 4 March 2013
The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
A lively discussion ensued after reading this book, and although we ended the evening agreeing to differ, we all agreed we enjoyed the discussion!
Some felt they could connect with the early part of this book, the glimpses into the school life of a group of young men growing up in the sixties with no experience of relationships with girls, and the in jokes and insecurities that prevail.
As the book develops through the eye of the narrator, Tony, there was a feeling from some that there was not enough development of character and story, that the sparse anecdotal style was not enough to maintain interest. Others felt that this was an honest depiction of how memories are laid down and recollected, and how the recording of history “accurately” is necessarily flawed and subjective.
We all expressed some irritation (as a group of women at a certain age!) with the narrator’s lack of emotional intelligence, and agreed that he was not particularly likeable, but at the same time his honesty was disarming.
The book takes on a new energy with the advent of the legacy from Tony’s erstwhile girlfriend’s mother, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding this prompted an interesting divergence of opinion within the group. Theories as to why the legacy was left to Tony, what may have prompted the suicide of Adrian, the “too clever” and intense member of the friendship group, took us well into cake-and-coffee time. One of us expressed that she didn’t care enough about the characters, who were all so unpleasant, to hypothesise at all!
Others of us could identify with the angst ridden feelings evoked particularly in the early part of the book, vividly expressed. Whereas the gaps and lack of background narrative irritated some but engaged others in our group, the outcome was an interesting debate about how we remembered our own history, many of us recalling different experiences of a similar era , how we might have recorded it then and with hindsight now.
As the chooser of this book, I agree very much with the opinion that this is a book that changes on re-reading, and that having read it again my empathy with the characters changed. Julian Barnes economy of style and lack of description made me experience his “snapshot” characterisations from different perspectives, which I found both stimulating and salutory. It is one of those books that has, for me, a lasting impact on how I consider both personal recollections and received historical accounts.
Some felt they could connect with the early part of this book, the glimpses into the school life of a group of young men growing up in the sixties with no experience of relationships with girls, and the in jokes and insecurities that prevail.
As the book develops through the eye of the narrator, Tony, there was a feeling from some that there was not enough development of character and story, that the sparse anecdotal style was not enough to maintain interest. Others felt that this was an honest depiction of how memories are laid down and recollected, and how the recording of history “accurately” is necessarily flawed and subjective.
We all expressed some irritation (as a group of women at a certain age!) with the narrator’s lack of emotional intelligence, and agreed that he was not particularly likeable, but at the same time his honesty was disarming.
The book takes on a new energy with the advent of the legacy from Tony’s erstwhile girlfriend’s mother, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding this prompted an interesting divergence of opinion within the group. Theories as to why the legacy was left to Tony, what may have prompted the suicide of Adrian, the “too clever” and intense member of the friendship group, took us well into cake-and-coffee time. One of us expressed that she didn’t care enough about the characters, who were all so unpleasant, to hypothesise at all!
Others of us could identify with the angst ridden feelings evoked particularly in the early part of the book, vividly expressed. Whereas the gaps and lack of background narrative irritated some but engaged others in our group, the outcome was an interesting debate about how we remembered our own history, many of us recalling different experiences of a similar era , how we might have recorded it then and with hindsight now.
As the chooser of this book, I agree very much with the opinion that this is a book that changes on re-reading, and that having read it again my empathy with the characters changed. Julian Barnes economy of style and lack of description made me experience his “snapshot” characterisations from different perspectives, which I found both stimulating and salutory. It is one of those books that has, for me, a lasting impact on how I consider both personal recollections and received historical accounts.
Saturday, 16 February 2013
Xmas 2012
On the evening of Tuesday 11th December 2012 the Newland book club met for the book club “Bring & Share” Christmas dinner. Better late than never we thought - the brief was to read something written by a woman that would be appropriate for the time of the year.
This evening was marked by the excellence of the food (of which there was more than sufficient), the seasonal appropriateness of the readings given by each of the club members and the liveliness of the conversation.
Bridget Jones Diary - Christmas Day
Extract from Edna O'Brien - Mother Ireland
Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
George Elliot - Silas Marner
Cranford = Mrs Gaskell
Katherine Swift - The Morville Hours
The evening was deemed a huge success by all and proved yet once again that the members of the Newland book club know how to enjoy themselves.
The menu
• canapés (chicken liver pate, smoked salmon blinis, tomato, basil & mozzarella, melon balls).
• pistachio soup.• trout in vermouth with tomatoes and almonds.
• partridge stuffed with chantrelles & smoked French sausage.
• carrots, brussells, pomme dauphinoise and roasted beetroot & sour cream.
• cinnamon parfait with orange segmets in orange blossom sauce and a ganache filled sponge.
• a wonderful selection of petit four (the pretty daisy decorated chocolate brownies were a triumph).
• a variety of cheeses, grapes and crackers.
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
Raymond Chandler
For a change instead of all reading the same novel we could choose one of his 7. We watched the 1946 film of The Big Sleep with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart which did indeed put someone to sleep and some of us were very confused as to what was going on. There are at least 6 deaths and the linkage between each is at times rather tenuous.
Unfortunately because the film was in black and white the colours Chandler so carefuly describes lost out. The film also changed a rather crucial point of the story - that of the relationship of the missing Rusty Regan to General Sternwood's daughter Vivian. She was somehow married to a Mr Routledge and Rusty's name was changed to Sean. Perhaps due to the Hollywood Code or some sensibilities now lost in the mist of time the fact that Geiger was a dealer in pornography, took photos of the naked Carmen Sternwood, and was gay was all ignored. No wonder those who had not read the book wondered what on earth all the killing was about.
We discussed Chandler's style in some depth. His sense of colour, his humour and his almost obsessive use of figures of speech particularly similes. Brought up to believe that short sentences with a minimum Fogg Factor are the easiest to read and comprehend Chandler is a master of this. His one-liners and his imagary are timeless and would be wonderful examples for school children - to encourage them to think in unusual ways. Between us we had read most of his novels (the person who went to sleep hadn't read any!) so we were able to compare his work written over a period of 20 years from 1939 to his final book Playback in 1958 shortly before he died. Much seems autobiographical - the outsider, the loner, the drinker and the man always a little detached from the mainstream - both Marlowe and Chandler.
Many reviewers describe the novels as 'hard-boiled detective' but I didn't recognise this - in fact they seemed rather tame in some ways but that is comparing them to today's works. Marlowe is honourable, honest and does not 'go it alone' but soon brings in the 'Law'. The books also set scenes of gambling, deceit, blackmail and contract killings and the dark underbelly of the rich in California, and of course of the times in which they are written - between 1939 and 1958 the world changed a lot particularly in the US where war was but a dot on a ladybird's back. (that's a very poor attempt isn't it).
I would recommend reading one of the novels if only for the astonishing imagery - take the man who's neck was like a celery stalk or the fakeness of the usherette's eyelashes - could you think of that? I certainly couldn't.
Unfortunately because the film was in black and white the colours Chandler so carefuly describes lost out. The film also changed a rather crucial point of the story - that of the relationship of the missing Rusty Regan to General Sternwood's daughter Vivian. She was somehow married to a Mr Routledge and Rusty's name was changed to Sean. Perhaps due to the Hollywood Code or some sensibilities now lost in the mist of time the fact that Geiger was a dealer in pornography, took photos of the naked Carmen Sternwood, and was gay was all ignored. No wonder those who had not read the book wondered what on earth all the killing was about.
We discussed Chandler's style in some depth. His sense of colour, his humour and his almost obsessive use of figures of speech particularly similes. Brought up to believe that short sentences with a minimum Fogg Factor are the easiest to read and comprehend Chandler is a master of this. His one-liners and his imagary are timeless and would be wonderful examples for school children - to encourage them to think in unusual ways. Between us we had read most of his novels (the person who went to sleep hadn't read any!) so we were able to compare his work written over a period of 20 years from 1939 to his final book Playback in 1958 shortly before he died. Much seems autobiographical - the outsider, the loner, the drinker and the man always a little detached from the mainstream - both Marlowe and Chandler.
Many reviewers describe the novels as 'hard-boiled detective' but I didn't recognise this - in fact they seemed rather tame in some ways but that is comparing them to today's works. Marlowe is honourable, honest and does not 'go it alone' but soon brings in the 'Law'. The books also set scenes of gambling, deceit, blackmail and contract killings and the dark underbelly of the rich in California, and of course of the times in which they are written - between 1939 and 1958 the world changed a lot particularly in the US where war was but a dot on a ladybird's back. (that's a very poor attempt isn't it).
I would recommend reading one of the novels if only for the astonishing imagery - take the man who's neck was like a celery stalk or the fakeness of the usherette's eyelashes - could you think of that? I certainly couldn't.
Friday, 12 October 2012
The Sisters Brothers
Patrick de Witt's The Sisters Brothers
Basically we liked this book. The Sisters Brothers is a Western, set in the 1850s during the San Francisco gold rush. It highlights the lawlessness and precariousness of travellers and prospectors in the new territories at this time. Spoken in the first person by Eli, he and his brother Charlie, both hired killers, are on a mission to find, torture and kill Hermann Warm; torture him to discover his chemical secret of extracting gold from earth.
Eli narrates with a homespun philosophy, explaining/justifying their lives. As their travels progress, their story is punctuated with bouts of extreme violence, as well as surreal sequences such as the description of San Francisco, the recurring crying man and a witch (they are surprisingly superstitious). The story does not end happily, and they end, chastened, going back to mother.
In all we thought they were psychopaths, Eli killing with uncontrollable anger and Charlie with some cold steel calculation, there was no emotional pathos here. But basically they were quite stupid and eventually get their comeuppance. But the book was really about violence and the greed for money, and the unfairness of society where there is no established justice system; everyone is out for themselves, and if you are not strong enough you fall by the wayside. Even these two feared gangsters become vulnerable.
De Witt writes fluently and with humour. This is of the dark variety, De Witt has the knack of turning a solemn sequence on it’s head in the space of a sentence, and changes the mood altogether. The English is refreshingly un-American (De Witt was born in Canada) and it makes for an easy read. It was also the only book we’ve read so far where comments were made about the design, the font, kerning and leading being finely done. We liked the cover design, as well as the unusual section dividers - smoking guns illustrated in black and white.
Basically we liked this book. The Sisters Brothers is a Western, set in the 1850s during the San Francisco gold rush. It highlights the lawlessness and precariousness of travellers and prospectors in the new territories at this time. Spoken in the first person by Eli, he and his brother Charlie, both hired killers, are on a mission to find, torture and kill Hermann Warm; torture him to discover his chemical secret of extracting gold from earth.
Eli narrates with a homespun philosophy, explaining/justifying their lives. As their travels progress, their story is punctuated with bouts of extreme violence, as well as surreal sequences such as the description of San Francisco, the recurring crying man and a witch (they are surprisingly superstitious). The story does not end happily, and they end, chastened, going back to mother.
In all we thought they were psychopaths, Eli killing with uncontrollable anger and Charlie with some cold steel calculation, there was no emotional pathos here. But basically they were quite stupid and eventually get their comeuppance. But the book was really about violence and the greed for money, and the unfairness of society where there is no established justice system; everyone is out for themselves, and if you are not strong enough you fall by the wayside. Even these two feared gangsters become vulnerable.
De Witt writes fluently and with humour. This is of the dark variety, De Witt has the knack of turning a solemn sequence on it’s head in the space of a sentence, and changes the mood altogether. The English is refreshingly un-American (De Witt was born in Canada) and it makes for an easy read. It was also the only book we’ve read so far where comments were made about the design, the font, kerning and leading being finely done. We liked the cover design, as well as the unusual section dividers - smoking guns illustrated in black and white.
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