Daughters of the Dragon by William Andrews

Anna Carlson adopted Koren daughter of an American couple, returns to Korea after the death of her adoptive mother to search for her birth mother.  On leaving the orphanage an old woman presses into her hand an elaborate double headed dragon hair comb with the urgent request that she come and visit her.

The story told from the old woman is of the 'Comfort Women' of Korea, kidnapped and forced into prostitution for the Japanese army.  Jae-hee tells this story, how her life was under Communist rule in North Korea, her fiancees arrest, her escape and her success in S Korea and her plunge into poverty once her secret comes out - she was once was a comfort women.  The horror and degradation of her time as a comfort woman is not easy reading, and more importantly an aspect of history that should not be ignored.

In the discussion afterwards what struck people most was the 'deus ex machina maquina' device of furthering the action - using the story of the Empress/Goddess who is supposed to unify Korea. 

Words used to describe it:
harrowing, informed, enlightening, compelling, factual

Marks out of 10 - between 5 - 8

Next Book

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Next Meeting

20th June - Mandy's

Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig

Like many people now, Quentin and Lottie Bredin can't afford to divorce and can't afford to live in London.  So they decide to downsize and move their family to Devon.  A darkly harsh black comedy, of middle class issues of money and marriage.  The book delves into the issues of zero hour contracts, infidelity and relationships.

Having said that this book club didn't really like the book, people found it lecturing, excructiating and in places ludicrous.  

Marks out of 10 - between 1 & 5

Words used to describe it:
disappointing, oversold, hectoring, disjointed.

Next Book

Daughters of the Dragon by William Andrews

Next Meeting 

May 24th at Carolyn's

Black Water by Louise Doughty

Last night, Louise Doughty came to The Haven at Fulham Broadway where some of this book club and a number of other book clubs heard her talk about the book and a little about her previous book Appletree Yard.  There is something refreshing about hearing an author talk about the process - admit that writing is hard and hearing how considered the small stuff is.  For instance, where the main character goes into town early on in the book, Louise had originally written he wanted to go in for 'some bits and pieces' but considered this too feminine, so opted for the line 'a bit of shopping'.  I'd never really considered the gender status of some of our normal phrases.  Or even how culture and country affect they way that we use phrases.  It was also interesting to hear how a flash of inspiration, in this instance, the idea of a man, lying in a hut, listening to the sounds of the jungle wildlife, at night and expecting the worst to happen...the question is why, how did he get there and who is he......

To answer some of those questions: the protagonist is Harper an Indonesian/Dutch man, partly brought up in America and Holland,  haunted by his past and the massacres of in Indonesia in 1965. Complex in its breath this book explores relationships, guilt, race and colonialism, along with that grey area of the security personnel who do the work government and their agencies don't want to be seen to be doing. 

A fascinating book that I recommend reading.  As this was an event we don't have our usual word to describe it or marks out of 10 from the group.  But personally I would say slow to start, but riveting and give it 7.

Next Book

Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig

Date

12th April, Thursday at 126 Harbord St

I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing by Maya Angelou

This is the now famous book by the poet Maya Angelou, her 1965 autobiography, the first of 7 books.  The book describes Maya and her older brothers early life, her rape at 8 and becoming a mother at 16.  How she over came rape, racism, and a disjointed childhood to graduate from high school.  Subsequent books cover her later life, but this is her most famous.  Not all of us had finished reading it, it's funny how the story is so well known but we hadn't read the book, it seems that the themes have leached into popular culture and we know the story.  As you would expect from a poet the prose is lyrical and descriptive, but at times feels dated,

Words used to describe it:
Illuminating, not what I thought, expecting more, beautifully written but

Marks out of 10
Between 6 - 7

Next Book

Black Water by Louise Doughty

Next Meeting

Tuesday 13 March at the Haven, Effie Rd, Fulham, London SW6 1TB

Berlin Poplars by Anne B Radge

"Just before Christmas on a farm in Northern Norway, 80-year-old Anna Neshov, matriarch of a troubled family, is taken gravely ill. Her three sons have been quietly immersed in their work: one an undertaker, one a window-dresser, and the eldest running the family farm, but now they are forced to reunite for the first time in many years. Their personalities are as disparate as their careers, and tensions mount from the second they meet, climaxing over Christmas dinner when the matter of inheritance prompts the revelation of disturbing family secrets," - from Goodread A good synopsis of the story.

The book generated an interesting discussion about the nature of family, sexuality, the scars of war,  and prejudice.   

Words used to describe it:  clunky, ghoulish, macabre, well drawn characters, bleak, sad, no redeeming features

Marks out of 10:   between 2 & 7

Next Book 

I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing - Maya Angelou

All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville West

Running on from A Handmaid's Tale, this book is a nice counter point  of a woman bound by convention, who on the death of her conservative husband begins to live the life she had always wanted, much to the horror of her 'awfully' conservative humdrum children.  A break of the social bonds and conventions.  It is a book with subtle comedic play of the characters, the sly digs at the social mores of the time and the affect that money or the thought of inheritance can engender in a family  makes for an entertaining read.  

Words used to describe it:  elegiac, comedic, self absorbed, unexpected, fabulous
Marks out of 10:  between 5 - 8 (mostly 8)

Next book

Berlin Poplars by Anne B Rogde

Next Event

Friday 15th December  - Book Club Christmas Do 

Details TBC

Next Meeting

Saturday 13th January

A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Set in the near future this book is the antipathy of The Power, in this book a Christian theonamy has overthrown the democratic system in America, subjugating women to misogyny in a patriarchal society where individualism and independence are crushed.  Class is denoted in the colour of your clothes and the 'job' that is subscribed to you.  Ofred, the protagonist of the story is a Handmaid, a woman designated as a chattel for the baring of children for the elite of the new order.  Fertility is declining and this orchestrated way of increasing birth rates of the 'right kind' of people is also a way of subjugating women.  

Someone said that all of the instruments of torture, with holding of rights, subjugation that Atwood uses in the novel have all been used in the last 150 years by different regimes.  Nothing was fiction in that regard.  Something to ponder on - nothing we currently enjoy is forever, and we must be vigilant with regards to changes of our democracy's.  This book generated a great discussion especially when compared with The Power.

Words used to describe it:  chilling, prophetic, Orwellian, elegant, insightful
Marks out of 10:   between 7 - 9  so highly marked

Next Book

All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville West

Next Meeting

115 Harbord St - Monday 20th November

The Adversary by Emmauel Carrere

Rather like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, the journalist Carrere becomes fascinated by the story of a man who lived a completely false life and then on the verge of his lies unraveling he kills his family - his wife, children, parents and tried to kill his lover.  How did he manage to maintain this lie for so long; why was he not found out, why kill, why, why, and how?  These questions are at the heart of this true story.  
Carrere tries to keep speculation and imagination to a minimum, How did Jean-Claude Romand manage to keep up the pretense that 
1) he had managed to graduate from medical school (without ever taking an exam) 
2) he worked for the World Health Organization (he never worked, he spent his days in cafes and laybys) what a waste of a life and time 
3) why did people trusted him so much they gave him their money to invest without any questions 
4) and how at the end, once convicted, he became the darling of the prison visitors with his conversion to religion, acceptance of his sins therefore his forgiveness and redemption is assured. 

This creepy book generated a good discussion on the nature of man, do we really know people, how much people will accept or ignore, just because you are 'normal, ordinary'.  

Words used to describe it:  
Profoundly drepressing, cold, shocking, disturbing, intriguing

Marks out of 10 - between 5 - 8

Next Book

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Next Meeting 

117 Harbord St - Mandy's

Strumpet City by James Plunkett

'A classic story of Dublin during the Lockout' so says the Irish Times.  The book doesn't deal in isolated lives but in the way large events connect disparate people.  From Rashers Tierney  marginalized and precariously positioned one penny from starvation, to the upper-class world of the Yearling and Bradshaw's.  The 5 years of increasingly bitter dispute between Dublin's unskilled workers, organized by James Larkin's Irish Transport & General Workers' Union and the city's employers, led by William Martin Murphy.   Murphy demanded that workers renounce the ITGWU or be 'locked out' of their jobs.  The six months it took to effectively starve the work force into submission are graphically depicte.   It was the slow violence of hunger much of it directed against children, that ws most telling.  The characters are carefully drawn and accurately crafted.

Many didn't finish this book as it was long and detailed.  It is worth the read, if you manage it. Despite only a few reading it - it generated an interesting discussion about class, poverty, and the Irishness of the characters.

Next book

The Adversary by Emmanuel Carrere

Next Meeting

14th September at Carolyn's

The Power by Naomi Alderman

If women had power - physical power, the power to zap someone with a bolt of electricity generated from their own body how would the dynamics between the sexes change?  This happens suddenly, one day young women/girls are able to zap someone, their power emerging with their nascent sexuality.  They are able to ignite it in older women through touch.  Dynamics change, women turn against their oppressors, sexual, religious, physical and life for men is no longer the same.  Drugs are developed that enhances the power and porn created to fetishise it.  

Through the lives of various characters, Allie, the abused America foster child who reinvents herself as Mother Eve, seeking to develop a community away from men, who joins forces with Roxy the daughter of a London crime boss,  Tunde a Nigerian journalist reporting on the global changes taking place, and discovering what it's like to be an attractive young man in a woman's world.  And Margot the middle aged politician who sees that power comes from strength not authority, and now she has that strength.

It's a bleak book - the descriptions of sexual violence are horrifying, the abuse of power as with men depraved.  Are we (women) just going to succumb to the same power imbalance as men, would we really?  The book did engender a good discussion about the nature of power, is it just physical or can we achieve power in other ways.  

Words used to describe it:  thought provoking, unlike-ably interesting, harsh, 

Marks out of 10 - a consistent 7

Next Book

Strumpet City  by James Plunkett

Next Meeting

Friday 14th July venue either Carolyn or Mandy  TBC

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian: A Novel by Marina Lewycka

Review to come

Next Book

The Power by Niaomi Alderman

Next meeting

Friday 9 June

at 

72 Kingwood Road

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Hard to describe a book where the terseness of prose  is mixed with fantasy.  Flitting from place to place through amorphous black doors enable refugees to 'arrive' in another country.  This book cleverly and clearly brings alive to the reader the slowly emerging  horror of watching your country dissolve into war, fractions and wanton violence that you are little able to comprehend or avoid.  The necessity of flight from your country becomes imperative.  Saeed and Nadia the protagonists of this book take one of these 'black doors' arriving in Mykonos, then onto Germany, to London a city rapidly filling with other refugees creating it's own political crisis.  Forced to live their lives outside of their previous culture, makes them question some of their cultural assumptions and their relationship with each other.  Crisis in London makes them feel uncertain of their ability to make a home in a city which doesn't want them.  An interesting discussion on the nature of being a refugee, what is home is people, place or culture?

Words used to describe it:
Pithy, bares reading twice, first half best, profound, disturbing, beguiling, enlightening, melancholic, crystallizing

Marks out of 10:  between 7 - 9 so highly marked,

Next Book

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

Next meeting 

4 May 2017

At

126 Harbord St

House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Lily Bart, a well born, beautiful, educated but impoverished woman, living in New York's high society around the turn of the century, where the one aim in a woman's life is to 'snare' a husband, preferably a rich one.  As her 29th year approaches her prospects become slimmer.  The book highlights the gender gap, where women were not expected to 'do' anything to ensure their future except to marry and if this didn't happen - what then?  If you had no family or money to support you -  a slow decent from privilege to a tragic, lonely existence on the margin of society.  

Ms Wharton's beady, critical eye scythes through high society where petty infractions of perceived rules were ruthlessly judged, exclusion and expunction from the social circle where the consequences.  If you don't fit, aren't rich enough or make a social mistake, that's it you're out.  Especially if you are a woman. Men or rich people could flout the rules as much as they wish.  Lily colludes in her downfall by falling into debt, playing cards for money (and losing) and flouting convention by meeting  a man alone.  All which play into her downfall.
Slow to get going many didn't finish this book.

Words used to describe it:   overwritten, snobby, overt antisemitism, cruel, frustrating 

Marks out of 10:  between 6 - 8

Next Book

Exit West by Moshim Hamid

Cindy can get copies of the book from Nomad Books

Next Meeting 

5 April 12 Lysia St - hosted by Moira

Rabbit by John Updike

Not an American dystopian novel but and American dystopian life.  The book depicts 3 months in the life of a 26 year old former high school basketball player, Harry 'Rabbit' Angstrom, in a loveless marriage, boring job and his attempts to escape this life of mundanity.  On the spur of the moment he leaves his wife and drives south to his home town trying to regain some of his high school glory days and find the spark in life that has left.  The novel goes on to describe the vicissitudes of Harry's life, how he changes it, the people and women.  
Updike says of his book that "My subject is the American Protestant small-town middle class.  I like middles. It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules".  He goes on to say that when he "looked around in 1959 he saw a number of scared dodgy men who could not make commitments, men who peaked in high school and existed in a downward spiral.  Their idea of happiness was to be young.  Thus Rabbit, Run was born".
This book was found by many to be 'boring' by others to be beautifully descriptive and others just middling.  It wasn't an easy read, but did generate some interesting discussions about mid America , the cultural changes that were going on.

Words used to describe it:  Groundhog Day, depressing, wanting to portray something dismal in beautiful writing, great characterization, of it's era, forensically detailed,

Marks out of 10:  between 5 - 9 so very varied

Next Book

House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous

Written in diary form our author simply describes the events as Berlin falls to the Russians nearing the end of the war.  The impact on the civilian population left in the city (mainly women, children and older people).  In this harsh environment where food is a scarce resource, one must do what is necessary to survive.  The Russians arrive and rape and pillage, those two pillars  of a marauding army on a civilian population, becomes the norm. You do what you have to - if by finding a 'protector' you get an extra ration of food, is that so wrong?  You survive however you must.  To categorize the horrors that people survived and went through is not the purpose of this review, but as an eyewitness account of the degradation of a city and the inhumanity of man it is a profound and dispassionate book.

A number hadn't read the book in time for the meeting, I do urge you to do so.  Also Cindy mentioned that another book closely related to this that should be read:  The Past is Myself by Cristabel Bielenberg (obit)

Words used to describe it:
crisp, dispassionate, must read, 

Marks out of 10 -   8 - 10

Next Book

Rabbit Run by John Updike

Next Meeting

Wed 1 February at 115 Harbord St

Dissolution by CJ Samson

A medieval who dun'it.  Set during the dissolution of the monasteries, after Henry VIII split the English Church from Rome.  The historical detail is fascinating and in the light of Brexit shows that nothing is forever and everything can be broken down and changed, even those institutions that had stood for 100's of years.  Part of the Shadlake series of books, this is the first one, introducing the hunchback lawyer to us, his analytical thought process the political intrigue and how even then, the fingers of power stretched far and wide.  One of Cromwell's Commissioners has been murdered at a monastery set for dissolution - it looks like witchcraft but is it really?  The cold, wet, fetid atmosphere of medieval England is well described and a lot of historical detail is carefully inserted into the story - like a lot of crime fiction, the story is interesting but some of the characters lack depth.

Words used to describe it:
exploding myth (Anne Boleyn), Shadlake doesn't ask enough questions, long winded, chilling, atmospheric

Marks out of 10:  between 5 - 7

Next Book

A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous

Next Meeting

Wed 30th November

117 Harbord St

Christmas Party

3 December 2016

208 Munster Road then onto The Southern Bell

The Chevalier by Mike Hobbs

We were lucky enough to have the author of this book, Mike Hobbs at our meeting, who answered our questions about this character and the book:   Le Chevalier (Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont (5 October 1728 – 21 May 1810) was a real person, a transvestite or perhaps an hermaphrodite who was co opted to spy for Louis XV.  The charming and feminine Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont has popped up in history and historical fiction before, but this book lays down a family and reason that he did what he did.  

Below a few of the questions we asked: 

Q Where did you get your inspiration from?
A While browsing the book shops of Hay on Wye I came across an old biography called Royal Spy, which outlined her fascinating story.   I became intrigued and wanted to write about her.

Q How many drafts/outlines do you do of the story?
A This was the 3 or 4th draft, I always had a good idea of what the story was going to be in my mind, so it was just a matter of writing it!

Q What happened to Le Chavalier?
A He died in Lambeth, London, having lived the last 16 years of his life as a woman, although when his body was inspected she was found to have full male genitalia as well as the rounded limbs of a woman including breasts.The real Chevalier died in abject poverty  at the age of 81.

Q How much research did you do for the historical detail?
A I try to do enough to make the details accurate, but not so much that it impedes the story.  You can get bogged down in detail if you aren't careful.

Q Which part did you agonize over most?
A The Introduction and the second journey.  The intro lays down the foundation of the story and is the most important chapter, the second journey as it links so many details together. 

Words used to describe the book:
wonderful, imaginative, pleasurably detailed, enthralling, excellent for reading about France, informative, amusing

Marks out of 10 between 6 - 9

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

A detailed novel set initially in the 1950, which focuses on two girls in a deprived, claustrophobic, over populated suburb of Naples.  The two girls meet at school where the tough and bright Lila bullies and befriends the writer Elena.  Lila taught herself to read at the age of three and despite her family continues to shine at school and yet, financial hardship and the lack of understanding of what an advantage an education could be to a girl of that time, her family fail to push her toward or into further education.  Elena, works at her education, seeing it as a way out of her life, she has the tentative support of her family and that makes all the difference.   The novel follows their lives as they change and move in different directions.

This book has been lauded, praised and adored on TV, paper and radio........So what did we think?  We couldn't see what all the fuss is about, yes it was detailed and the characters deeply drawn, but the story line failed to interest many of us in the group and a number found it dull, having said that a few loved it!  It did generate an interestingly wide discussion about womanhood, expectations and translations. 

Words used to describe it:  boring, compelling, interesting womanhood, febrile, poverty, underwhelming, over rated, puzzling popular, bland

Marks out of 10:  between 4 - 7

Next Book

The Chevalier by Mike Hobbs

The author of this book will be at the next meeting

I have a few hardback copies of the book at my house.  

Mike will sign them when he comes. Price £15.00 

Or download a digital copy.

Venue

Date: to be confirmed either 21 or 22 September.

Venue:  126 Harbord St

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

I haven't time this week to write the review on the book but I thought I'd publish details of the next two books.  Yes two books:

The book for August is 

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante translated by Ann Goldstein  

Next Meeting

3rd August

Venue TBC

and the book for September is 

The Chevalier by Mike Hobbs, 

the author will come to our meeting in September.

The book is published by World's End Bookshop.  

Collect opies of the book here at 126 Harbord St, price £TBC

Do No Harm by Henry Marsh

"What could be finer, I thought, than to be a neurosurgeon?" writes Henry Marsh after seeing his first brain surgery. "The operation involved the brain, the mysterious substrate of all thought and feeling, of all that was important in human life – a mystery, it seemed to me, as great as the stars at night and the universe around us."  

In this clinical and terse memoir Mr Marsh writes about the single mindedness required to be an excellent technician/brain surgeon - his obvious entrancement with the brain, its beautiful construction, the mystery of many of its functions and its inherent softness and fragility, with only the cocoon of the skull to keep safe.  He brilliant describes the craft and beauty of the brain, the surgery and the implications of various treatments.   Mr Marsh takes us through his career, from the heady early days,  various operations, his dilemmas with and sometimes not treating people, his failures and the guilt he still bears and his recent issues with the various restructuring that has gone on in the NHS and the consequences for those doing the 'work'.  

For those of us with an interest in medical matters we loved this side of the book.  What many of us took issue with was the more 'me' side, the personal, the man which we felt could have done with some good editing - less of the person came through or maybe too much of the clinician? 
Very mixed reviews for this book. some liked it but on the whole, many found it too dry and un-engaging.

Words used to describe it:
enlightening, fascinating, clinical, instructive (twice), dry memoir

Marks out of 10:  between 4 and 8

Next Book

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

Next Meeting

Thursday 2 June at 72 Kingwood Road

The other books we briefly discussed that Cindy had recommended - not all of us had read them were:

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift

Comment from Carolyn - Not enough sex

and 

The Body Keeps Score