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.