Reviews5

brookworms - reviews (5)

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgeral Penelope Fitzgerald had her first novel published when she was 60, in 1977, and has published another 8 since. Her second novel, "The Bookshop" was shortlisted for the Booker Prize which she won in 1979 with "Offshore". It is set in 1959 in Suffolk where middle aged widow Florence Green "had recently come to wonder whether she hadn't a duty to make it clear to herself, and possibly to others, that she existed in her own right" and so opens a bookshop. There is probably not one unnecessary word in the book. Some of us felt it rather slight, but after discussion we realised that it was even more concise than we had first thought. Others thought it "a gem of a book"! All the characters seemed real, despite being only sparingly described, and the whole book seemed to show that the heroine, a woman of not unreasonable ambition, was fighting against the past, present and future of a town that was gradually losing all forms of communication with the outside world. I personally can't wait to find another Penelope Fitzgerald!
read Amazon's review

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen What can we say that hasn't been said before? Much of the discussion about Mansfield Park centred on Fanny Price (an idealist INFP personality in the Myers-Briggs classification). The words, wet, feeble and sanctimonious were used - but she wasn't totally unlikeable. As it was the first classic many of us had read for some time, we found the language and length somewhat difficult and the length of description about, for example, the play, contrasted with the ending of the book where everything was wrapped up extremely fast. Jane Austen herself said that this was a book about ordination - symbolising truth, honour and integrity in the service of God and man - which leads to a book more concerned with morality than action. I don't think any of us regretted reading it. For Jane Austen afficionados, I recommend www.pemberley.com read Amazon's review

When They Lay Bare by Andrew Greig a novel based on the 16th century Scottish Ballad "The Twa Corbies"Quite a few of us thought it the best book we've read for ages and I would certainly like to read more books by Andrew Greig. If you are looking for straightforward relationships, however, this is not the book for you! The scenery was beautifully described - we could visualise the setting though there seemed to be an unrealistic lack of midges! We did think the death at the end unnecessary despite the strong grip that destiny had on the characters, given that Marnie wasn't who we thought she was. (I'm trying not to give away too much in case you haven't read it yet!) Of all the characters, we found Jinny the most sympathetic - despite the fact that she wasn't actually there.
read Amazon's review

Underground by Tobias Hill a thriller starting with a series of murders at Camden Town Tube Station. We all felt it a worthwhile read and very realistic, though not a happy book. Those of us who read it the fastest seemed to enjoy it more. Possibly the changes of pace and place came too often and lasted too long, so that you were just getting really involved when the time and location changed again. We found it hard to connect the story of Casimir's Polish childhood with the excitement of the whodunnit, although both were interesting in their own right - but kept being interrupted by the other. We wished we knew more of the reasons why Casimir was sending money back home. Blood and burning eggs featured strongly! Casimir was very childlike, even as an adult he saw the world in black and white and much was made of the contrasts between good and bad, light and dark. The ending was good - and unpredicted! read Amazon's review

Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach - To quote "The Times" "rakish painter Jan van Loos finds himself falling for his latest subject, the beautiful, married Sophia. Desperate and broke, the lovers are drawn into ... the hysterical speculation on tulip bulbs that grips the nation". We found this gripping - a real page turner and a quick read, although our sympathies were mainly with the minor characters. We did feel that it was not as lightweight as it first appeared and there was quite a discussion about truth, love, the value of things, and whether WYSIWYG (Willem thought Sophia in disguise was Maria, the best tulips actually had a virus). All the loose ends were tied up very neatly and there were tulip (and onion) references throughout the book that had passed many of us by - even down toe the picture on the cover - the face had a definite tulip shape (and could have even been a nun). read Amazon's review

Trumpet by Jackie Kay - a book about a legendary jazz trumpet player who everyone thinks is a man which was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2000 - one of the world's richest literary prizes at Ł85,000! We thought this a very well-crafted book - more so than we had realised as it had a musical "shape". Should Joss and Millie have adopted a child at all? Was Millie a ? Was Joss? What defines a "man"? Were they true to themselves or were they perpetuating a lie? What did Colman and his grandmother talk about? There was plenty of food for discussion. We agreed on two things - that we all thought of Joss as a man, and that we couldn't empathise with the sex and shopping type journalist, although we could feel some sympathy for her rivalry with her sister. read Amazon's review

England, England by Julian Barnes - a funny/serious/philosophical novel about an English theme park on the Isle of Wight. A short but intense discussion. We found the characters rather two dimensional, more caricature than character. We felt that Julian Barnes had started out with a rather clever essay on the respective merits of replica versus reality, and had then bulked it out into a novel. We did find it surprisingly easy to read, especially those of us who had attempted "A History of the World in 101 Chapters", less disjointed and less termites! Finally, we wished that the most memorable scene in the book was less so!
read Amazon's review

The Lie of the Land by Sam North - a conflict between urban and rural characters set on Dartmoor. Heated discussion - some of us really liked the heroine, she really irritated another, and one of us so disliked the style of writing that she gave up reading the book! Most of us were surprised how absorbing the book was, as it was set on a lonely farm, the heroine was a very insular woman, and the plot (and we managed to disagree on this too) did not have many ramifications. It was interesting to compare Jane's life to that of "The Egg Woman" by Linda D. Cirino.
read Amazon's review

The Prayer of the Bone by Paul Bryers - a murder mystery set in Maine. We had another brief discussion as, once again, we had quite similar views about the book. It was considered definitely worth reading, easy to read but containing rather immemorable characters. We all found the American History side of the book fascinating, but thought there were rather a lot of dead ends/space fillers/red herrings. read Amazon's review

Identity by Milan Kundera where, in a moment of confused identify a man mistakes another woman for his beloved with far reaching consequences! We had a brief discussion on this. It was considered rather disappointing - especially the ending; a quick read, but difficult to work out which parts were a dream and which reality. read Amazon's review

Previous page (4) Next page (6)