We had a brilliant meeting about Brixton Beach, further enhanced by a delicious lamb curry with dhal, and illustrated books, old and new, about Sri Lanka, brought along by Ranmali.
The characterisation is excellent, the different people in the book are well-rounded, convincing characters whom you feel you have actually met. Most striking of all were the descriptions of the beauty of Sri Lanka / Ceylon, especially the sea, with the light and the colours. It didn't come as a surprise that the writer is also a painter. People also liked the descriptions of eating and the different types of food, which Ranmali was able to explain. She herself was very struck by seeing in print, for the first time, things that she had always heard - anay, "men!" for "mate", and others.
What some people really disliked about the book was the fact that it went from one tragedy to another. Every time you thought that there was a chance of things working out well for someone, wham! down came the next disaster. It wasn't at all clear why Tearne had called the different sections of the book 'Bel Canto', 'Paradiso', 'Inferno', 'Purgatorio', and 'Bel Canto' again, because the disasters occur throughout. It is not a book to read if you are feeling down. We discussed the question of the Buddhist world-view, which might have been the reason why the characters seemed to do nothing to try and improve a bad or hopeless situation, when they could have taken action to change things. The saddest part was Alice's marriage - both of them wanted it to succeed but they didn't work at it and the result was the marriage fell apart.
Bee was a general favourite, and his relationship with his wife Kamala was beautiful, based on real understanding, acceptance, and friendship, that had matured into love. Both of them were sincerely good people committed to each other, and to trying to help those in need. Janake too was a realistic, lovely, caring person. A striking thing was the representation of the Sea House as a living person, and then, after the assassinations, as a dead one.
Dec2011 -Feb 2012, William Wilberforce, William Hague
Although I don't think any of us had actually got to the end of the book, everyone had got a lot out of it. One bookclubber asked whether Hague could have reduced the background content by 10 – 20% and without losing the book's significance, so that the book could be read in a reasonable amount of time?
People were really enthused about WW's character: his honesty and integrity first of all, and his charm and gift for friendship, and his persistence: the fact that although he kept on getting beaten, he never even considered giving up. And he didn't do it out of natural stubbornness - he really suffered over the way that people who'd been captured as slaves were being treated, year after year, and was determined to help them. We wondered someone with his gifts, principles and determination could have the same effect on Britain today - what he did was comparable to campaigning for a reversal of the abortion laws now. Today's media, of course, is a factor that didn't exist in his time.
We also liked the bit about how he got swamped with letters and never actually got to the end of answering them because he wasn't business-like about it at all!
A really good thing about the book was that the author is someone who's been in Parliament all his life so he knows exactly what he's talking about - what it's like, what the issues are, how it worked then as well as now.
We needed the historical background filling in to understand the situation WW and Pitt were in - the ongoing state of war against France, the huge amounts being paid by Britain to other countries just to keep them in the fight, and the fear of a revolution in England like the French one.
We had a long and interesting digression about slavery today. Apparently the second largest "business" in the world today in terms of money is slavery and people-trafficking! And unlike the 18th century it is completely invisible. That would be another field for a "modern Wilberforce" to work on.
September-October, The Translator, Daoud Hari
July-September 2011, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows; AND I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
June-July 2011, The House of Special Purpose, John Boyne
March-May 2011, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
February- March 2011Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua
February-March 2011 Silas Marner, George Eliot
Jan-Feb 2011 The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery
