brookworms - reviews
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The Red Tent by
Anita Diamant which tells the little-known Biblical story of Dinah, daughter of
the patriarch Jacob and his wife Leah and sister of Joseph - to be found in Chapter 34 of
the Book of Genesis. As we discussed this just before Christmas we met in the pub
and discussion was hampered slightly by the close proximity of a couple out for a romantic
meal. We didn't want to spoil it for them with loud talk of exactly how women manage to
synchronise their periods, and how this system would work in larger groups. "The Red
Tent" was a fascinating and action packed story, though possibly not a literary
masterpiece - and half of us went home to search our bibles for other interesting snippets
to novelise! We felt the characters were a bit two dimensional, but possibly this was a
deliberate ploy to make the tale sound more like one that had been handed down through the
ages. We do rather like the thought of having a few days off each month to drink wine and
have cake fed to us by other people - maybe a (centrally-heated) tent up on the rec.!
read Amazon's review
Juno and Juliet by Julian Gough. This is a romantic
comedy featuring the characters Juno and Juliet, 18 year-old blonde twin sisters, who
arrive at university in Galway from their Tipperary home, who each set off on a romantic
odyssey. This is only the second book we have read at Brookworms that I have felt
more negative about post discussion (the other being "Crucifix Lane). I arrived
at the meeting feeling that it was a rather lightweight, amusing, witty novel; and left
feeling that the author had set up situations that he had not taken advantage of, for
example, the fact that the girls were stunningly beautiful - a fact belaboured in the
first few pages, did not seem relevant to the plot at all, and the fact that they were
twins seemed only a device to link them to the midget twins and to have them at university
at the same time. The plot seemed just a vehicle for witty observations at the
beginning, and then arrived in full strength about three quarters of the way through.
The novel was very visual - we could see it on the big screen, and the fact that
the author is a Jane Austen afficionado was pretty clear.
read Amazon's review
Miss Garnet's Angel by Salley Vickers
"Julia Garnet is a teacher. Just retired,
she is left a legacy which she uses by leaving her orderly life and going to live - in
winter - in an apartment in Venice. Its beauty, its secret corners and treasures, and its
people overwhelm a lifetime of reserve and caution. Above all she's touched by the
all-prevalent spirit of the Angel, Raphael. The ancient tale of Tobias, who travels to
Media unaware he is accompanied by the Archangel Raphael, unfolds alongside Julia Garnet's
contemporary journey. The two stories interweave with parents and landladies, restorers
and priests, American tourists and ancient travellers abounding. The result is an
enormously satisfying journey of the spirit: and Julia Garnet is a character to
treasure".
We were lucky enough to have a series of photos
from one Brookworm who had been whisked off to Venice as a surprise by her husband as she
was reading "Miss Garnet's Angel". She had pictures of the paintings of
the Tobias story in the Guardia church, and of various locations from the book, which were
fascinating. There was a feeling that we would like a Brookworms outing to Venice!
Back to the book, which we thought very well written, and realistic. After
discussion we felt that the characters and actions of Carlo, Sarah and Toby, and the
evolution of Miss Garnet herself, were all believable. We were left feeling that
there was more that we could have gleaned from the book - it is probably one that merits a
re-read, there were obviously parallels between Sara and Tobit, and Sarah and Toby - but
we are not sure we caught them all. It seemed that Carlo was a practising
paedophile, would that be possible in a relatively small and tight knit community?
Was there any significance to Julia Garnet's scraped shins, and aching hips? Who
was the old man on the bridge at the end?
read Amazon's review
English Passengers
by Matthew Kneale
- winner of the 2000 Whitbread Book of the Year - tells two parallel
stories: one of three eccentric Englishmen who set sail for Tasmania to find the garden of
Eden; the other of a young Tasmanian aborigine and his tribe, struggling against the
invading British, who prove as lethal in their good intentions as in their cruelty.
When we got to the meeting not many present had
actually finished the book! I personally would list it as an all time favourite, and
although several of us had found it a little difficult to get going with, by the end it
was unputdownable! All the characters in the book, even minor ones such as Governor's
wives, felt like real people - complete with their own strong convictions - and the fact
that it was written by different characters in turn, added to, rather than detracted from
the story. read Amazon's review
Desert Flower by Waris
Dirie and Cathleen Miller is about how the first named, a Somali nomad, became an
international supermodel and United Nations special ambassador. We had a long
discussion on Female Genital Mutilation - which seems unimaginably awful to all of
us - it is hard to believe that over 130 million women are suffering this at the moment.
The only ray of hope we found was in comparing it to the practice of footbinding in
China, also inflicted on daughters by parents because they loved them and wanted the best
prospects in life for them. Once the education process took hold, and it was realised that
there was an alternative, the practice died out within a generation. Back to the
book - "survival" seemed to be Waris Dirie's watchword, and it seemed that her
nomadic upbringing had a big effect on her adult life. She was very direct, went for
what she wanted, and had some incredible lucky breaks! We would have liked to know
more about her mother and her life in America - and we will look out for her next time
"Living Daylights" comes on TV!
read Amazon's review
Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov is about a lonely obituary writer called Viktor, and
his penguin Misha. Viktor would love to see his work in print but finds himself drawn into
a terrible conspiracy when his subjects start dying. Our first Russian novel!
I enjoyed the discussion so much that I didn't make
many notes - but from what I remember, we all enjoyed the book - and entered philosophical
regions when we discussed existentialism and its place in Russian novels! We felt
that at the beginning of the novel Victor had no connections at all to the outside world,
apart from Misha, and the relationships he did make seemed to happen to him accidentally,
he was not a proactive person! We loved Misha, and were very worried about what
happened to him at the end of the novel - our most memorable scene was Misha's outing to
the seaside! I found an interesting review on the Amazon website saying how Misha
symbolises the people of the Soviet Union, who, without Communism, fall victim to
depression, social apathy and restlessness. Hmmm!
read Amazon's review
Surface Tension by
Russell Celyn Jones is about Mark and his sister Geena. "When Natasha, a
beautiful loner, tries to gatecrash their relationship, Mark is convinced her motive is to
separate them but Geena's behaviour is doing that all by itself. Geena is
hallucinating images from her past, but a past she doesn't recognise. Geena's
neurologist is baffled too, but as Natasha says, the brain has the power to solve its own
mystery. When a family secret is revealed, Geena embarks upon a journey to the other
side of the world and the deadliest of situations".
On the whole, we enjoyed this book, and by the end
of the meeting we had figured out that the picture on the front cover was Cape Town seen
from Robbens Island! A couple of points bothered us. Would Luke's parents have
sunk so completely into inactive suburban life after being wanted activists in South
Africa; and would Luke really consider Geena as a potential lover only seconds after
finding out that she wasn't his true sister? We considered Natasha rather a stooge,
put in to the plot to facilitate the action! We did like the overall idea of surface
tension, running through the book in all its various guises, winding up with the
marvellous last sentence.
read Amazon's review
The Haunt by A.L.
Barker - a novel portraying the eccentricities and deep-seated, incommunicable
fears of a cast of characters who are staying in a decaying hotel in the 'old forest
country' in Cornwall.
I had found various reviews of this on the web,
from the Guardian, The British Council, The Washington Post and the Christian Science
Monitor, all of whom seemed to have gained more from the book than we did. We agreed
with the Guardian, that "plot is almost incidental" - to our minds practically
non-existent! We found the book frustratingly incomplete. Although the
forest/tree theme was evident, we couldn't see the relevance of one set of trees to the
next. The book had no linking thread running through it, and yet we felt that had
A.L. Barker taken any one of the separate stories and expanded it, it would have made a
thumping novel. Gill spotted that the book was summed up by Eashing, the old man in
the wheelchair, when he was looking at the rood screen in the church "There seemed
something schematic about it but the message, if there was one, escaped
him" read Amazon's review
Only Pretending
by Sophia Watson is about a public relations officer married to a polar explorer
whom she adores. When her stepson turns up she is forced to re-examine her
self-assumptions and her marriage.
At the beginning of the evening it was considered
boring, enjoyable, annoying, shallow and easy reading by those attending. However,
one Brookworm had spotted what no-one else had - that the whole book was an amalgam
of two well known stories - that of the Greek Penelope/Odysseus and "Far From the
Madding Crowd" - asking what would have happened if Penelope had not been faithful to
her husband. This gave the book a whole extra dimension and we immediately spotted
many clues - the son 'Tel' (Telemachus), the beautiful friend Helen, and the tapestry
Penny was given. I have since done a little searching on the web and discovered that
Sophia Watson is Auberon Waugh's daughter, and wrote this book shortly after separating
from her own husband. read Amazon's review
La Prisonniere by Malika
Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi is the true story of Malika who was unofficially
"adopted" by the king of Morocco as company for his daughter. She was
released at the age of 17, but was "disappeared" with her family shortly
afterwards, eventually escaping by digging a tunnel with a spoon and a sardine tin!
I think this book generated more discussion than any read so far,
despite a rather childish style of writing and some inconsistencies in the story.
Malika Oufkir's tale was fascinating, gripping and almost unbelievable to those of us
living in a Western democracy! We questioned how politically aware Malika was, given
that her father had been head of the country's secret police as well as holding other
ministerial positions. I found an interesting web site giving a little more
background to the Oufkirs which I circulated at the last meeting. www.washington-report.org/backissues/0491/9104038.htm We also did wonder if the edges of truth had been blurred slightly to
improve the story - but we have no way of knowing. It would have been interesting to
have heard the story from the point of view of one of the other imprisoned Oufkirs.
read Amazon's review
The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman, about "good manners and anti-semitism" in a
hotel in Vermont and the effect this has on the life of the heroine, Natalie Marx, was
enjoyed by everyone, but it did not generate a very long discussion. We found it a
gentle and undemanding story about realistic, nice people. The only unsympathetic
character was the hotel owner, whose anti-semitism was never explained, and which had
seemingly gone unnoticed by the rest of her family. One amongst us found the book
fairly predictable, although the major incidents came as a surprise to the rest of us.
The postscript was interesting.
read Amazon's review
Life
and Death in Eden by Trevor Lummis was our first non-fiction book,
about the mutineers’ life on Pitcairn Island after the Mutiny on the Bounty.
Opinions ranged on this book, from one Brookworm who had found it so
boring she couldn't bring herself to continue with it, to others who found it if not
exactly riveting, then definitely interesting. The story of the Bounty mutineers
itself is fascinating, but most of us found the author's style a tad pedantic and
repetitive, leaving us poor readers to draw our own conclusions from his oral history
accounts, rather than from the facts. We wondered about many things and felt the
women probably played a much more significant part in Pitcairn's history than the male
reporting suggested - possible even so far as engineering the men's deaths. On a
lighter note - did they really wear the type of clothes in the pictures for climbing about
on cliffs collecting eggs? What is a breadfruit and why don't they sell them in our
local supermarket? One Brookworm found the following website about Pitcairn which
you may find interesting: www.lareau.org
read Amazon's review
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