Wide Sargasso Sea

Maite, the Mexico division of our Book Club chose Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.  It was great to have Maite here for one of our book club nights.  It was held at Paul and Maite’s place in Glendowie.  Maite and Paul provided a delicious spread of Jewish delicacies including a chopped liver pate and the traditional plaited bread.  Sweets included a fabulous chocolate mousse, which Greg enjoyed (to excess).

Maite took Book Club to a new level, in that she had prepared a PowerPoint presentation, which truly did add to our experience.  (Maite, you must be a very engaging Philosophy lecturer).  Present at Wide Sargasso Sea night were Marnie, Lona, Rebekah, Maite, Paul, Nicole, John, and Greg.  This was Lona’s first night at Book Club…hopefully the first of many.

Discussion was lively and at times almost heated; the main point in issue being the mental state of the protagonist Antoinette.  Jean Rhys herself became a topic of fascination as we learnt more about her life, personality and antics.  Learning about these elements of Rhys’ life gave the novel more poignancy and relevance.  She was originally from the Caribbean and her knowledge of the Creole experience and the physical surroundings gave an authenticity to her writing.  It also helped craft a distinct new perspective on the classic Jane Eyre.  On the whole, the members found that the book was a powerful piece of literature but sometimes a harrowing read.
 

Almost everyone agreed that it was a cleverly written book but there was some variation in scores given.  Maite and Greg scored highly, both with a 9/10; followed by Lona, Paul and Nicole, each giving a score of 8.5/10; Rebekah gave 7.5, with Jon and Marnie providing the lowest scores, 7/10.

The Beach

Greg chose The Beach by Alex Garland. Book club night was again held out in Papakura at the Pryor residence. Present: Greg, Laura, Rebekah, Paul, Marnie, Georgia, Chez, Anne, Nicole and Jonathan.

The Beach evening was thoroughly enjoyable. Conversation was thorough and lively due to the contrasting feelings held toward the novel. Everyone had read the book too, which was conducive to engaging discussion. Unfortunately, Paul had not quite finished it – so the rest of the group took great pleasure in spoiling the ending for him! Members more critical of the book were Marnie, Jonathan and Paul. They felt that the novel exemplified a typical ‘first novel’ of a young talented writer. Others such as Georgia, Rebekah and Laura were wholeheartedly backing the book – all who gave the book an A+ grade. Marnie, Jonathan and Paul only gave it a ‘B range’ grade. Paul and Marnie believed that Garland had focussed on a few literary techniques and over-extended them.

Most people found Jed to be their favourite character. The character with most influence was Sal. This highlighted to us how none of the female characters were particularly appealing. The members noted that many of the authors we have read were mildly misogynistic!

Overall, this to be one of our best book club nights.

The English Teacher

Laura chose The English Teacher by R.K Narayan.  Book club night was held at Laura’s house in Papakura.  Present: Laura, Rebekah, Nicole, John, Marnie, Georgia, Chez, Greg, Andy, Trina, Daniel and Jonathan.  Laura had prepared some bruschetta; together with other snacks.  The buttery Montana Chardonnay was enjoyed by many.

Notably, several members had failed to read the book.  This made discussion stilted at times.  Because of this, small splinter groups formed and discussed other things, which was disappointing. (Even with the greatest stretch of the imagination, Narayan’s themes did not extend to useless Japanese inventions.)  A major point of discussion was spirituality in the novel.  Some members considered this reduced enjoyment levels – others were comfortable to experience the spiritual journey with the protagonist, Krishna.  On one end of the spectrum were Marnie and Jonathan who clearly felt uncomfortable with the flagrant spirituality in the novel.  On the other end were Laura and John who were quite taken by the spiritual journey.  Fence sitters included Nicole and Chez who could understand how people used spirituality as a tool to manage hard times but failed to personally connect with Krishna’s experience.  The other members seemed to be perhaps, not well acquainted enough with the story to comment.

The favourite character was varied; there was an equal division between Krishna, Leela and Susila.  More unanimous was the expression of distaste at the actions of the headmaster of Leela’s school – aside from Georgia who was pleasantly bemused by his bold decision to leave his family.

Daniel, our resident Narayan expert (he had just completed Cambridge exams on The English Teacher) shared some critical perspectives on the novel.  It is widely held that The English Teacher is seen to be a book of two halves – something that our readers related to.  For this reason, it is not considered to be Narayan’s piece de resistance.  Our readers seemed to feel differently upon learning that the book was largely autobiographical – although they were happy to read about spirituality in a work of fiction, it was more difficult to digest when put into an autobiographical context.

All in all, it was an interesting night.  It showed us how important it is for everyone to have read the book for us to have an in-depth and engaging discussion.  Furthermore, it highlighted the importance of our absent members - Kirsten, Paul and Anne who always add depth to our discussions.

Film club?

A few of the members have mentioned starting a film club. Who would be interested in this? Let's discuss this at our next meeting!

Came a Hot Friday - Ronald Hugh Morrieson

John chose Came A Hot Friday by Ronald Hugh Morrieson.  Book club night was held at John's place 'out West'.  Present: John, Anne, Chez, Nicole, Georgia, Kirsten, Andrew and Marnie.  (Numbers were somewhat down – especially due to University exams being on.)  We still had a great discussion of the book (and of a certain judge, in the warm-up part of the evening).  John (aided by Kirsten who had made a glorious lime cake) excelled on the food front; the emphasis being on dessert.  It was a freezing night and many were amused by the antics of John's cat.  The funniest part was the cat's rendition of the dunce.

Everyone had read the book, but there was divided opinion on enjoyment level.  We had a lengthy discussion about provincial New Zealand  at that time.  There was reference to there being a certain Kiwi cringe element; others enjoyed it for what it was; some didn’t like it at all.  The response to reading distinctly Kiwi literature was fascinating.  While some were comfortable with (and amused by) this part of New Zealand culture, some felt very uncomfortable about it.  This strongly correlated with reading enjoyment level.  Our reactions to New Zealand small town culture portrayed in literature were varied.  It reflected how although New Zealand is 'growing up' culturally, there is still a sense of 'looking up' to European and North American culture.  Andrew strongly identified with this perspective, seeing such Kiwi 'hick' towns as reaching extreme heights on the 'hickness' barometer. John however, raised the important point that these isolated, hick communities exist all over the world.  

The most popular favourite character was Don's father.  Andrew's favourite was Sel Bishop. Most found Sel Bishop an extremely unsavory character.  Several found the Te Whakinga Kid annoying/implausible; and many thought that Wes Pennington was an unlikeable character due to him being highly egotistical. 

Chez found the alcohol abuse shocking. Others, particularly the criminal lawyers amongst us, found this a sad but realistic portrayal of many New Zealand families and an accurate representation of New Zealands' drinking culture.  (Perhaps this is an extension of Morrieson's own relationship with alcohol.  It is popularly understood that Morrieson had alcohol issues.)  Kirsten and Marnie thought that The Scarecrow was his better book of the two.  Some said they would now read The Scarecrow though RHM won't benefit from the royalties!

Although on one level, the book is comedic and indeed in parts hilarious, Morrieson had cleverly juxtaposed this quality (intentionally or otherwise) against a level of sadness in the community.  Kirsten strongly related to this idea, in relation to the portrayal of women in the novel.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

Nicole chose One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. We held it at Marnie's again on the 10/05/10. Munchies included - a cold roast vegetable salad with pita bread. A lot of people struggled to 'get into' Cuckoo's Nest and everybody seemed slightly depressed by what they had read. Nicole, Anne and John had soldiered on and completed the book. Marnie had got within 20 pages of the finish line. Others got to various parts through the book.

Present: Anne, Marnie, Daniel, Nicole, Georgia, Laura, Jonathan, Greg, Chez, Paul and John. (It was great to have Greg and Chez able to join us!)

Although many hadn't finished the book, everyone had read enough to appreciate Kesey's text and the atmosphere of psychiatric care in the US in the 1960s, and we had a great discussion about the book, characters and subject matter within the historical context.

As members of a new book club, we agreed that we need to think carefully about the placement of books, and the fact that we had chosen two classic American novels with serious themes side-by-side was perhaps not, in retrospect, ideal.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Marnie's To Kill a Mockingbird night was held on 14/04/10 at her place.

Present: Nicole, Laura, Georgia, Daniel, Jonathan, Paul, John, Anne, Kirsten and Marnie.

This was the inaugural book club night and it seemed that everyone had a great time! Curry aplenty was available. We enthusiastically discussed the prescribed questions (used as a guide only for discussion) and it was cool to see that this seemed to be a 'universally' enjoyed choice. It was also exciting to see our younger members go head-to-head with more experienced members (eg. Kirsten, our resident Atticus Finch expert).

Mockingbird, though published in 1960, still has an appeal and a relevance today.

All in all, a very successful first meet!