The Promise by Damon Galgut 161

 A hard read, the characters are difficult to like - the story charts and examines the disintegration of a privileged white Swart family, living on a farm outside Pretoria.  The Promise of the story, is a child, Amor Swart, overhears her dying mother make her father promise that her nurse/maid Salome will be given the home that she lives in. This promise is not enacted, reflecting the mess that South Africa now is after the promise of the Nelson Mandela era.  Now all lies, greed, corruption, violence affect everything. The family fractures, promises are not held, and around them the country reflects this.  There is an assumption of knowledge with this book, but interesting writing.  

This book generated an interesting discussion about South Africa, corruption, and families.  

Words used to describe it:  poetic, humbling disheartening, hopeless, grim

Marks out of 10 - between 7 -8 so highly rated.

Next Book

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

Next Meeting

Thursday 4th November at Olivia's 

Thursday 9th December - Christmas at Chelsea Arts Club

Bolder by Carl Honore (Jane)

An interesting book exploring getting older and what it means. What it means now and how people are defying the expectation that it means less.  Less active, less adventurous, less fun, less interesting, just less.  Increases in health and the age of mortality means that many of us will live a lot longer to live.  And many, many people are making the most of these additional years.  The author of this book gives an excellent Ted Talk, which is basically a synopsis of his book.  Ageism is built into our culture, but being older gives us so much more.  We are wiser, we understand the world and our place in it, we have experience and can give so much.  The example of the car production line that adapted their line to suit older people, increasing lighting, having magnifying glasses available, more breaks, allowing people to sit or stand meant that the 'mistakes' on the production line plummeted, especially when the young were able to integrate these working practices into their work as well.  

The book generated an excellent discussion about aging, what we can expect to do, creativity isn't age bound, writers, scientists, artists, mathematicians are not on the slag heap once you reach a certain age.  Some felt the book was a bit 'woman's magazine article'  and didn't have enough depth.  However, if read in snap shots it was an interesting and insightful book.

Words used to describe it:  affirming, rampant ageism, insightful, cause for optimism, pedestrian, inspiring, still thinking

Marks out of 10:  between 6 -10 so a varied mark

Next Book

The Promise by Damien Galgut

Next Meeting

Venue - TBC

Date:  Thursday 2nd September

Beyond Brlliant: Inspired Indian Cooking by Dipna Anand

A departure for the book club, a recipe book.  Dipna's family originally from India via Kenya, ended up in SW London after the exodus from Idi Amin's regime.  Her grandfather and father were restaurateurs, who build their name on good, tasty, Indian cooking.  Dipna, the third generation of chefs was inspired by her father's health condition to change the style of Indian cooking/recipes making them lighter and healthier while keeping the original taste and spice of the dishes.  The prose could have done with some editing, but the recipes themselves were very tasty.  We all made a dish and brought them together for a delicious evening discussing food, flavours, diaspora and what makes a good chef/cook.

Following on from our discussions Cindy found this link:   The Great Indian Kitchen: Serving an unsavoury tale of sexism in the home.

Words used to describe it:  Excellent, encouraging, discovery, educational, brand, delicious

Marks out of 10:  between 8 - 10 so highly marked.

Next Book

Bolder by Carl Honore

Next Meeting

Wednesday 21 July

130 Harbord St meet at 8.15

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Set in Tokyo of the late 1960's this novel follows Toru Watanabe looking back at his college student days and his relationships with two different women.  Naoko, beautiful but emotionally troubled, and the lively and outgoing Midori.  There was an interesting discussion about how books age (this one was written in 1987) and has a detached and juvenile aspect where the sex written about is titillating rather than descriptive.  There is very little Japanese culture although very descriptive.  We on the whole found the book disappointing.

Words used to describe it:  juvenile, of it's time, too wordy, tedious, why, bleak, detached

Marks out of 10:  between 5 - 7

Next Book

Beyond Brilliant by Dipna Anand

Next Meeting

Wednesday 23rd June - 8.00pm

Venue

5 Treadgold St, W11

Cheri by Collette

Cheri, the eponymous 'hero' of the novel, is a weak spoilt individual with too much money and time.  Lia the beautiful but aging courtesan who loves him realizes that this love cannot last but gives her heart none the less.  The characters are well drawn, the harpy friends of Cheri's mother are particularly well crafted. Bitches who's cutting chatter is filled with well aimed barbs and quips aimed to hurt.  

The book generated a good discussion about the Belle Mode of Paris at the turn of the century, and about Collette herself, how her life of a courtesan earned her independence but not a family and the differences between England and UK about women who earned a life at the top of the sex working tree. The very french way of looking at love, sex and relationships. 

If you want to listen to the novel the BBC have serialized it click here to listen

Marks out of 10:  between 6 - 9

Words used to describe it:  spoil, indulgent, bittersweet, vivid impression, harsh

Next book

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Next meeting 

19th May 2021 at Chelsea Arts Club (COVID rules allowing)

An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel

Carmel MacBain, looks back on her school and university years (1970's) with a bleakly comic eye. The friendships - are they friendships or are they rivals/bullies that you keep close.  The book flicks between Carmel s childhood years in a Lancashire town and her University time studying law in London.  Not a polemic, the novel does discuss feminism and class.  Women's relationship with food and friendships. Are they friends or just convenient acquaintances?  A bleak book, but well drawn characters with all their flaws are skillfully drawn.  You may not like the protagonists but they we all know their like.

The book generated an interesting discussion on female friendship and competitive rivalry, class and what it was to be young at that time, and our (women's) relationship with food. 

Marks out of 10:  between 7 - 8

Words used to describe it:  class envy, caustic, cold, stark, dreary, riveting, hungry 

Next book 

Cheri by Collette

Next meeting via Zoom

  Thursday 15th April

Burnt Sugar by Anvi Doshi

Nature or nurture?  Indifferent mothering or even absent mothering what effect does this have on a child.  Antara's mother is suffering from dementia, should she take her into her home and care for her in her declining years. Her 'abusive' childhood is slowly reveled through short glimpses of her upbringing.  The neglect she suffered from her narcissistic mother, who basically forgot her when she wasn't convenient to have around.  Who left her to be brought up by others when she became enthralled with a guru. Despite the two main protagonists being fairly unsympathetic characters, the moral dilemma of looking after your mother when you are not sure that you even like let alone love her..........should you? 

The book generated an interesting discussion about aged parents, guilt and cultural expectations.  Did we like the book, not so much, but we did enjoy the phrasing and language used.

Marks out of 10 - between 5 - 8

Words used to describe it:  ambiguous, multi layered, OK, cruel, painful, evocative, detached.

 Next Book

An Experiment in Love by Hilary Mantel

Next Meeting by Zoom 

Thursday 11th March

 

 

The Butchering Art by Lindsay Fitzharris

The book follows the professional life of Joseph Lister, Quaker, eminent doctor and surgeon of the Victorian era.  Lister diligently, scientifically and systematically worked out how and why wounds became infected.  He may not have understood completely the workings of bacteria, but he did work out that there were microbes that infect wounds and if left to fester killed.  This book, although explicit wasn't gruesome, just factual about medical practices of the time.  It was interesting to understand how medical practice is built on the foundations of previous knowledge.  How difficult it was for Lister to get the egotistical surgeons of London to change their minds about antiseptics, cleanliness and good practice - their egos got in the way of accepting the science.  Obviously written for the layman, an interesting book with a few 'clunky' nuggets of information.  

Despite talking over zoom the book generated a good discussion about history, knowledge, germs and medicine.

Marks out of 10:  between 7 - 9 so highly rated

Words used to describe it:  harrowing, fascinating, very interesting, not for the faint-hearted.

Next Book

Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

Next Meeting

Zoom - Thursday 11th February 2021

Ok, Let's do your stupid idea by Patrick Freyne

 A collection of amusing memories, strung together with humour, insight and pathos.  These essays by Patrick Freyne contain much that resonates with us all even if they don't all make us chuckle with laughter they do evince a smile.  Amongst the fun there are a few essays that are very deep.  The one, Care, about being a carer, how hard and difficult it can be, but also how rewarding "For every day that I drove home from work with scratches and bruises, feeling like I'd earned my wages, there'd be another where I had experienced the simple force of someone else's love and it felt like I had stolen something."  An entertaining read.

Words and marks out of 10 weren't taken this evening but those who read the book enjoyed it. 

Next book

The Butchering Art by Lindsay Fitzharris

Next Meeting

13 January 2021 by Zoom

Frieda by Annabel Abs

Emma Maria Frieda Johanna Freiin (Baroness) von Richthofen, the original Lady Chatterley it says in the blurb, but this woman is so much more than an aristocrat stuck in a stifling marriage attracted to some one of the 'lower classes;. Frieda Weekley, nee  von Richthofen the daughter of a Bavarian down on his luck, gambling count, married to a much older English professor was an intelligent, attractive and vivacious woman.  This book is the fictional biography of the woman who inspired, edited, coped with and married the maverick author DH Lawrence, for him she left her husband and her children.  The harsh  laws of adultery at the time meaning no woman could see or look after her children if she had left her husband. She had no rights at all.  The driving pain in the book is the loss of her children.  She comes out of the novel as an interesting, spiky, sensual, well rounded woman.  This book took pains to separate the woman from the more famous husband, to write her as an individual, precocious, indecisive and interesting.  The Germany of the early 20th Century was so interesting, the many different ideas and philosophy being developed, free love and the embryonic psychiatry were well described.

This book generated an excellent discussion over zoom.  We all enjoyed it even if some of us had reservations about the writing.  

Words used to describe it:

Marks out of 10:  between 6 -8

Next book

Ok, Let's Do Your Stupid Idea

by Patrick Freyne

Next meeting

2 December on Zoom (again) 

unless lock down really has ended, but that's unlikely.