The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The choice for our Christmas Book Club meeting was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (hereinafter “Guernsey”). (This book was recommended by Marnie when we last met at Georgia’s as an interesting read to discuss at our restaurant meeting on 13^th of December).  It was held at Circus Circus in Mt Eden.  We had originally booked a private function room for our Circus Circus night, but due to a mix up in the Book Club date, we had to rebook.  Our rebooking meant that we were in the general restaurant area, which on a normal night would have been fine, but on this particular evening we were placed immediately adjacent to a large gaggle of geese who honked loudly and excessively most of the evening.  (For our Christmas meeting in 2011, we must remember to book a restaurant private function room early to avoid a similar situation again.) Despite this, we had a lively and enjoyable discussion.  Present were: Anne, Marnie, Rebekah, Lona, Daniel, Laura, Nicole, Georgia, John, Chez, and Greg.

Book Club achieved a new level as our absentee member Paul provided detailed notes on all the discussion points.  It was unanimously agreed that Paul’s notes should receive an A+ grade.  (Again, a member of the Paul-Maite team excelling at Book Club.) 

Guernsey is written in an unusual style, that of the correspondences of the various characters in the book.  The book is not restricted by its form; for example plot and character development are achieved well.  Also, considering it was written by two authors (due to the untimely death of the original author), it maintains remarkable consistency. 

There was a diverse response to Guernsey, with scores ranging from 6.5 to 10!  Our lowest scorers were, Greg, Daniel and Georgia.  Georgia thought the book was ‘nice, but not riveting’, that she “didn’t engage with the characters”, and thought that the book could have benefited from the inclusion of prose.  She was tempted to categorise the book as “fluffy chick-lit”.  Greg thought that the book was “glorified gossip” and that it suffered from having “no events”.  Greg also considered the book needed some prose.  Daniel agreed with Greg in terms of the book needing prose, as otherwise, he felt the “information is diluted”.  Our second lowest scorer, at 7 was Nicole who considered that Guernsey lacked intensity, though she “enjoyed it, against her will”.  (In posting this blog, Nicole (in a revisionist mood) has decided that on further reflection, the book deserves a higher score than what she gave it on the night.) 

Lona enjoyed the historical aspect of the book, but otherwise tended to agree with Greg’s viewpoint, nevertheless giving the book an 8 for overall enjoyment.  John gave it an 8.5, particularly enjoying the development of the characters.  Rebekah gave the book a score of 9.  She found it easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable.  Paul also gave Guernsey a mark of 9 – his highest score yet.  He found the book accessible and well researched.  Marnie gave the book a 9.5, purely for enjoyment level and the clever contrast between the two parts of the book.  Laura, Chez and Anne all gave it the perfect score of 10; finding it easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable.  For Anne, it had a special relevance, having grown up in post-War England and having recently travelled to Guernsey where she had seen many of the sights mentioned in the book.

Part of the discussion involved a new Book Club question of who we would cast as particular characters for a movie based on the book.  (What a great cross reference in such a visually obsessed world!) 

Administrative matters: we agreed at our December meeting that Book Club night for 2011 will vary between Wednesday and Thursday night, depending on suitability for members each month.  

The Alchemist

Georgia chose The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.  It was held at Georgia’s home in Papakura.  Present were: Laura, Nicole, Greg, Chez, Rebekah, Georgia, Marnie, Anne, John and Paul.  Food included an exciting array of cakes and cookies.

On the whole, The Alchemist was found to be an enjoyable read.  Georgia chaired a pleasant discussion of the book.  Many had enjoyed its fable-like characteristics and the positive feeling that ensued.  Although Coelho’s narrative style in the book is simple, most agreed that nevertheless he poignantly told Santiago’s story.  Many comments were made about the beautiful portrayals of many scenes in the book.  Rebekah was our lowest scorer for The Alchemist giving a 6.5. Paul and Marnie scored at 7; Nicole and Chez scored at 7.5; Greg, Georgia, John and Anne all gave the book an 8; with Laura our highest scorer giving an 8.5. 

This book club highlighted our current ability to consume books through different media.  Greg and Chez had downloaded the audio book and listened to the story that way.  They played a snippet of the story, with the familiar voice of Jeremy Irons as the reader. 

Thanks Georgia for introducing us to such an uplifting book and for hosting a thoroughly enjoyable night.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Chez’ novel of choice was Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.  This Book Club night was held on 11 October out at Chez’ home in Karaka.  Present were: Chez (of course), Laura, Jonathan, Greg, Nicole, Marnie, Anne, and Georgia.  Food included petites pastries and a fruit salad.

It was a great night, though regrettably, Chez was not particularly taken by her own book choice!  Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde’s only novel, published in 1890.  The book follows the fortunes of Dorian Gray, who trades his soul for eternal youth/beauty.  The novel develops themes of the human relationship with the soul and provides a commentary of society at the time.  Most members found that Lord Harry was a charismatic and entertaining character; extremely articulate and a lover of all things fine.  One gets the feeling that Lord Harry was closely modelled on Oscar Wilde himself.  Everyone scored the book highly, aside from Chez, giving an all time low score of 3.5/10!  Laura loved Dorian and gave the novel the perfect score of 10/10.  Nicole and Anne also loved the book, giving the very high score of 9/10.  Jonathan and Greg gave scores of 8.5/10; with Marnie and Georgia giving a score of 8/10.  Chez found the book frivolous and did not enjoy the characters that Oscar Wilde had created in this novel.

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!