Book Reviews (archive) 2023

The tale is set (and written) in the 1930s in Depression-era California. The two key characters, George and Lennie have known each other since birth. Lennie is large and strong, but he is simple and not quite right in the head. As the two men drift from job to job on farms in California, George looks out for Lennie and keeps him safe.

Lennie is quite tactile and likes soft things but can’t manage his strength. He is fond of mice and likes to stroke them, but ends up killing them - accidentally. He likes the feel of a piece of velvet his aunt gave him, but he loses it. He gets himself into trouble when he touches a lady’s dress and likes the feel of it. He can’t let go. Though innocent, he is accused of rape. So, Lennie and George have to run. They leave the area quickly to make a new start. That brings them to the farm where most of the action of the short story takes place. Here Lennie, predictably, gets himself into more trouble.

Discussion amongst our group was lively and ranged across a number of issues including race, disability, gender, friendship, responsibility, mercy killing and even whether dreams for the future can sustain us and whether they are a positive or a negative for us. We talked about the lines between euthanasia, mercy killing and murder. We noted that the few women in the tale fell into one of three categories; caregiver, whore or temptress. And we wondered about that representation. We examined several of the characters and pondered the morality and possible consequences of George's actions at the close of the story. 

Steinbeck himself worked for a period as an itinerant labourer. The language and circumstances he wrote about were very familiar to him and the character of Lennie was based on a person Steinbeck had worked with. The tale was told simply. In a 1938 journal entry, Steinbeck claimed that at the base of his writing there was always the desire to understand people. He believed that if we understood one another, we could be kind to each other.

The book is on the list of the most banned books in history due to accusations of racism, profanity, anti-business attitudes, promotion of racial stereotypes and promotion of euthanasia. Even in the 2000s it has made the list of the top 5 most banned books.

Did we enjoy it? Yes, mostly. It was a short, easy read. 

Melinda, Discussion Leader

“South of Darkness” by John Marsden was published in 2014.  It is the story of a young orphan, Barnaby Fletch, living on the streets of London in the late 1700s.  To escape a murdering crook to whom he owes money, Barnaby develops a plan which involves committing a relatively minor crime, so that he is transported to the penal colony in New South Wales, which he believes to be a paradise.

Cindi led the discussion and had asked us to choose a character who influenced Barnaby’s life and say how and why.  Most of the members chose “good” characters, with Carmichael Lance as the top pick.  He befriended Barnaby when they were in prison and was Barnaby’s main protector and educator during much of the story, particularly during the voyage to Australia.  A couple of members chose a “bad” person, Isaiah Ogwell who, through his evil doings, lies and accusations was the instigator of the irrevocable change in Barnaby’s life which ultimately resulted in his transportation.  This difference between group members in choosing “good” and “bad” characters reflected broader opinions about the book, in terms of both the narrative and the writing.  As we often find with the books we read, a couple of people loved it and found it an absolute page-turner and a few found it boring and unconvincing, and loathed it!

John Marsden is the author of children’s books and one member had done some research and told us that after 40 other books, this was Marsden’s first foray into adult fiction.  The general opinion was that he’d not completely made the transition, with “South of Darkness” coming across as a “young adult” book.

The group appreciated the extensive research that Marsden had done for the book and generally agreed that it packed-in a huge amount of information and was a good portrayal of life on the streets, the judicial system and the treatment of convicts before, during and after transportation.  These “facts”, however, were mixed with unbelievable coincidences which, for most of us, gave the plot an overwhelming feel of being contrived, and detracted from the ‘true’ information.  Many of us found the language used, and the philosophical, spiritual and theological contemplations made by Barnaby when he told his story, apparently as a 13-year-old, to be completely unconvincing. In addition, although religion was likely a prominent aspect of life during those times, many of the group also found the constant referral to it jarring and tedious.

The differences in opinion about the book were reflected in the scores we gave it, which ranged from 3 to 10 and was probably one of the largest ranges we've had. 

Carol, Book Club coordinator

This tender story is set in the mid-1950s in a Perth Polio convalescent home for children.  This Golden Age home is a micro world of love and desire, music and poetry, isolation and death.  The main character, Frank Gold, contracted polio at the age of 13 and soon learnt that he now lived in a world “where children must learn they’re alone, even within their families…He felt like a pirate landing on an island of little maimed animals…dumped…stranded...wanting to go home.”

Woven throughout Frank’s story, his parents, Ida and Meyer Gold, share their horrific experiences living in Budapest during WW2 before escaping as refugees and finding their way to Australia.  A strange land with many different customs with which to contend. And of course, their lives were again turned upside down when Frank was struck with the dreadful, life-threatening disease, polio.

Elsa, a frail young 12-year-old girl lives in the Golden Age Home and also feels terribly isolated from her home and family.  Frank is drawn to her and they form a special friendship, supporting each other in their shared loneliness.

A plethora of minor characters are included in this tale and Joan London skilfully fills out the story with details from their often difficult and challenging lives.  Sister Olive Penny, Lidja, Julia and Hedwiga, Sullivan to name just a few – all have a significant impact on the lives and experiences of the main characters.

Frank sees himself as a poet from an early age and this theme is important in the development of the story, right up to the final Epilogue when he is “an old man with a cane, living in New York.”  Elsa remains his main inspiration. His favourite, yet unfinished poem, was titled “On My Last Day on Earth”. 

I have to find myself              

A place where I can breathe

That’s where poetry lives     

In the oldest part of me…

The author effectively employs various literary techniques like simile, imagery, personification to clearly portray not only her characters but also the physical beauty of Western Australia. Her precise, graceful prose is certainly “subtle, moving and remarkably lovely... evoking a time past and a yearning for connection.”

While one or two Book club members did not completely enjoy reading The Golden Age, most loved the story and it was scored at 8.3 (range 5-10), in the top 3 of those read to date.

Cate, Discussion Leader 

Some online reviews of this book use phrases like ‘a sparkling comedy’ and ‘a charmingly witty and literate style.’ However, many of us didn’t agree. Though several commented positively on the literary style, some of us didn’t appreciate or didn’t see the ‘wit’ or ‘comedy.’ Our group was quite divided in the ratings for this one with scores ranging between 4 and 8.

The story is set in the 1930s and is told by Fanny, a young girl newly of marriageable age. It centres around her friend Polly, Polly’s mother and her social group. Polly is an exceedingly attractive girl whose parents are well-connected. It is expected that Polly will make her family proud by securing a good marriage for herself. However, Polly has other ideas; and she has a secret love. When the object of her love becomes a widower, she quickly snaps him up and they are wed; much to the dismay of her family who respond by disinheriting her. The story is largely set in London’s glittering social scene of balls, eight-course dinners, servants and astounding opulence.

A few book club members enjoyed the story from start to finish, others disliked it all the way through. Several of us commented that the writing was engaging, but the story was not. Another common thought was that the story picked up mid-way through when the rather eccentric character, Cedric, appeared.

Love it or hate it, it is interesting as an historical document of a time in England's past. 

Melinda

“Boy Swallows Universe” by Trent Dalton, was much-awarded and acclaimed when it was published in 2018.  Trent Dalton has received multiple awards for his journalism and “Boy Swallows Universe” is his first novel.  It is reported to be based on his boyhood, growing up in Brisbane in the 1980s. 

I had asked members to come prepared to talk about the role of two aspects of the book, to which there are multiple references: (1) the red telephone and (2) the dead blue wren; indeed, the first words in the book are “Your end is a dead blue wren”.

Eli and his brother August are the main characters of the story and we watch them, in their teens, growing-up and caught-up in the world of drug users, dealers and gangs.  There is corruption, kidnapping, cruelty and murder which are concealed by a veneer of generosity and respectability of another key character, the drug-baron, Tytus Broz.  The brothers, whilst deeply scarred and traumatised by their experiences in this world, survive and achieve better things through their close relationship, and the support they receive from a few remarkable family members and friends.

Being a multi-award-winning book and one for which many of us had heard favourable reports, we had high hopes for an entertaining and engaging read.  For the most part, we were not disappointed, but (there’s always a “but”, isn’t there?) there was a great deal of symbolism (such as the red telephone and the dead blue wren, which actually turned out not to be dead!) that we found confusing and distracting because we took the narrative at face value.  Most of us didn’t work-out (a) that there was symbolism and (b) what the symbols were all about, and it was only through reading online reviews of the book that we found out what they supposedly meant.  That begs the question “why add symbolism that is so obscure?”  We didn’t find an answer to that.

Several of us found the writing quality and narrative to be of rather mixed quality.  At times, the story was overcomplicated, confusing and dragged-out.  At other times, it was gripping, fast-paced and we became totally caught up emotionally.  There were wonderful descriptions and details of scenarios that were often peripheral to the plot, which we felt must have been ‘true’ recollections.  Other sections and characters were so extreme that, in our minds, they had to be pure fabrication.  Whatever, on almost every page, a literary ‘gem’ could be found.

I asked members to score the book prior to our discussions and then asked at the end of the discussion whether they felt their score had changed; most said they felt the same way about it.  Overall, the score was 7.9 (range 6-10) and we felt it was a satisfying read.

Carol, Book Club Coordinator

“The Time We Have Taken” by Steven Carroll was published in 2018.  Valda led the discussion by asking each of us, in turn, to give short answers to 4 questions:

·       Did you enjoy the book?

·       Did you feel from the 1st page that you had to keep going?

·       Was there a “hook” (to keep you going)?

·       What rating would you give the book?

Unfortunately, most, if not all of us answered “No” to the first 3 questions and gave low scores to the book. 

The story was set in the Melbourne suburb of Glenroy in 1970 at the time of its 100th anniversary; the timing being determined by the opening of the first shop there.  It seems that this book was actually the final in a trilogy about this suburb and its residents, with the first set in the 1950s and the second in the 1960s.  One point we discussed was whether we thought we’d have got more from this book had we read the previous two; the consensus was “probably not”.

The story appeared to be about progress and change, but had no plot as such, and was more of a collection of tenuously-linked vignettes about a number of the main characters trying to understand others with whom they have/had intimate relationships.  Several of us said that the prose was beautiful, with wonderful descriptions, but the enjoyment of these wore off as the book progressed.  The lack of storyline and action (even dialogue was sparse), together with pages of description about minutia resulted in something that, frankly, evolved into a boring read.

How members felt about the book was in close agreement (scores ranged from 4 to 6), and the overall score of 5.1 reflected our disappointment with it.

Carol, Book Club Coordinator - with thanks to Valda for her notes

At June’s meeting we discussed “The Nowhere Child” by Christian White which was published in 2018.  At that time, it was reported to be one of the best-selling debut novels ever in Australia.  So, we had high hopes.

The story switched between Melbourne, Australia and Manson, Kentucky, and in the current time and 28 years ago when a 2-year-old girl (Sally Went) disappeared from her home in Manson.  Is the 30-year-old Melbourne photographer, Kim Leamy, the 2-year-old who went missing?  It’s not a spoiler to say “yes” to that question, because this fact is revealed early in the book.  The main narrative is about who abducted Sally, why and how she ended up in Australia with a different identity. 

Peter led the discussions and there were plenty of them, although many of them were due to the complexity of the plot, the huge number of characters, and individuals having different identities.  I don’t think any of us got all aspects of the story ‘correct’ and we all contributed to setting each other straight on various parts of it.

Most of us agreed that this was a book full of clichés and stereotypes, with some characters and events that were extreme to the point of being unbelievable; one member thought the book was supposed to be funny, as it was such a parody.  Another member summarised the plot as “lurching from one improbable situation to the next”.  Several aspects of the plot seemed particularly contrived; we even questioned the surname “Went” for a person who disappeared!  Having said all that, we also recognised that this is a novel and the author wanted it to appeal and, despite the negative comments, most of us agreed that it hit the target and we enjoyed it.  Great literature it certainly wasn’t, but it was a “page-turner”; the language was easy to read and follow (even if the plot was complicated), the story was intriguing and it moved along at a good pace.  Most of us found that we were trapped within the first few pages and had to keep reading to find out what happened to the various characters; a great recipe for selling a lot of books and one which was clearly successful!  Another of the group’s members appreciated the following quote in the Author’s Note: "the relationship between the author and reader is like a sacred pact. The reader gives the author a dozen or so hours of their time, and in return, hopefully, the author gives them a story worth their time."

The mix of positives and negatives of the book were reflected in the scores given, which ranged from 4 to 8.5.

Carol, Book Club Coordinator

The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna elicited varying experiences and responses amongst the Book club members this month.  Most enjoyed the novel while one or two found it rather unpalatable!

The story, mainly set in Melbourne and Brisbane, is told from the perspective of the main character, Jimmy Flick.  Jimmy is certainly not your average 6-year-old and to survive in life; he is almost totally reliant on his mum, Paula, who seems to be one of the few folks in young Jimmy’s life able to understand and empathise with him. Mum is the only one who can stop his “cells spinning…because he’s just too fast or too slow.”  Jimmy’s understanding of his own life and the lives of those in his world is limited by his inability to calm the inner workings of his own over-active brain patterns.

He was “mum’s second miracle”.  Brother Robby, 6 years older, was “mum’s first miracle” and the brothers actually relate well together, despite the age gap and Jimmy’s unique personality.  Paula tends to focus her time on Jimmy and put all her energy into his ever-present needs, to the detriment, it seems, of the relationship with her husband.

Gavin, a factory worker, is the boys’ father and doesn’t cope at all well with his needy, noisy son.  He causes Jimmy’s “cells to speed up” whenever he’s close by. Gav has regular heavy drinking sessions and becomes abusive.  Paula bears the brunt of this abuse and the boys must make themselves scarce. These violent drunken binges occur on a 4 to 5-week cycle.

And this is the basis of Laguna’s insightful and heartfelt tale of a sadly-dysfunctional, working-class family living in a fairly typical inner-city suburban home.

The rather unusual title relates to Jimmy’s incessant insomnia.  Mum counts sheep with him each night …..  “If you look deep into the eye of a sheep you can see a light.  It burns right at the back of the head and it never goes out, no matter what happens to the sheep.”  This vital link between Jimmy and the eye of the sheep is a recurring theme in the story.  And when mum is unable to be with him, Jimmy struggles to find the light.

The novel is structured in 6 Parts with an Epilogue to conclude.  Each section involves a shift forward in time, a new stage in Jimmy’s life and events that alter the family’s life cycle.

Not everyone loved this story.  Some readers found the content unnecessarily distressing, main characters too stereotypical and the vocabulary attributed to young Jimmy often far too sophisticated.  Others, however, thoroughly enjoyed reading about the ups-and-downs, swings-and-roundabouts that made up the lives of Jimmy, his family and those who came in contact with his very special world.

Without giving away any more details, it is definitely worth persevering to the end!

Cate, Discussion Leader

This month the discussion was led by Cindi.  “The Illuminations” by Scottish writer, Andrew O’Hagan, was published in 2015 and appears, from the author’s notes, to have taken him 5 years to research and write. 

There are two major characters and two main locations in this story.  Anne Quirk is 82 years-old and lives in sheltered accommodation in Ayrshire, Scotland.  She was a successful documentary photographer in her younger days, but is now sliding into dementia.  Luke Campbell is her 29-year-old, beloved grandson and a Captain with the British Army fighting in Afghanistan.  Anne’s past life is glimpsed through her muddled memories.  It is clear, from these reminiscences, that Harry was her great love and kindred spirit, and Blackpool (England) was a special place for them.  We see Luke’s life and career fall apart as he tries to deal with the constant threat of ambushes, his commitment to his men and a mentally unstable senior officer.  The final section of the book, when Luke takes Anne back to Blackpool, makes a mixture of predictable and surprising revelations that help explain Anne’s relationships with the people around her.

The thing that really stood out in the discussion about this book was the extreme opinions it evoked.  Usually, there is a difference in how members regard different aspects of a book, but there is a lot of common, middle-ground.  Not so with this book; the opinions were, in many cases, polar opposites, with the minority of the group finding positive aspects to the book.  As examples: the obscenities and slang used by the soldiers were regarded as being over-the-top and unbelievable by some, but absolutely true to life by others; some thought the title was the only one possible, because it encapsulated so many aspects of the story, but others thought it “cheap” and contrived; a few thought that some characters should have been reduced or eliminated, whilst others thought those characters were integral to the story; most of us found it was difficult to engage with the narrative at the start, but whereas some of us felt persevering was well worthwhile, others wished they’d not bothered persisting.

The extreme opinions were clear when it came to giving a score to the book.  I don’t think we have ever had such a range (3 “for the paper it was on”) to 8 (“the research the author did was clearly incredibly thorough and I felt I was there with those soldiers in Afghanistan”).  Interestingly, those members who gave the higher scores were mainly those who had a UK “connection”.  Certainly, as an ex-pom, I found it very refreshing to read a British writer and, having spent many years in Scotland, I could relate well to the characters and places.  As Cindi said, we bring-in our own histories and experiences when reading a book; how these influence our perceptions of a book is one of things that makes the Book Club stimulating.

Carol, Book Club Coordinator – with thanks to Cindi for her thoughts and notes which provided the basis of this review

I (Carol) led the discussion and asked members to share their thoughts on whether or not the book was “a story of the bond of brotherhood and the fragility of youth”, as was stated on the book’s cover; so often we find that the books we read bear little resemblance to the comments and summaries that appear on the covers.  This book was an exception, at least partially.  There was general agreement that it was very much about brotherhood, but there was debate about the “fragility of youth” aspect, as the young boys in the story were highly resilient in the face of extreme pressures and adversity.  I wondered if “fragility of life” would have been a better description given that, in the space of 250 pages, we learned of six tragic and untimely deaths.

The narrative is set on the south-east coast of Tasmania, with the main characters being three young boys, Joe, Miles and Harry, and the story is told from their perspectives.  Their mother is dead, killed in a ‘mysterious’ car accident, and their father is a cruel, unpredictable and hard-drinking abalone fisherman who abuses the boys.  Joe left home because of the abuse and went to live with his grandfather, but Harry and Miles, because of their ages, are forced to live and cope with their father the best they can.  Harry, the youngest, is the most sensitive and vulnerable and is the main target of their father’s anger.

We all agreed that the writing was beautiful and the descriptions, particularly of the coast and sea, were outstanding; it was clear that the author drew on her personal experience and knowledge of the seas in the region to write such vivid descriptions.  There were aspects of the story, however, that some of us found frustrating. We had to wait until p. 138 to discover that Joe is 19 years-old, and we had to calculate the ages of the others when it was eventually revealed that there is 6 years between Joe and Miles and 4 years between Miles and Harry. It’s hard to understand why the author did so much to conceal the boys’ ages.  Similarly, it took until p. 124 for the father’s and family name to be revealed and the mother’s name never was.  Someone suggested that this was because the story was written from the boys’ view and children do not call their parents by their first names.  I wonder if it was to emphasise the mother’s absence and the “remoteness” of the father.

The plot was the aspect of the book that really stood out and, possibly, not in a good way.  During the discussion it became clear that there was little agreement amongst us about the storyline; we came up with very different interpretations of the roles of the characters, what actually took place and the outcomes of key aspects of the plot.  This appeared not to concern most of the group, but I felt the author must have had a clear idea of the story and that she failed to relate this.  I thought the obfuscation was overdone and a more obvious storyline would have created a better reading experience; intrigue in a narrative is good, but surely not to the point where each reader creates their own version of the story.

Overall, the majority of the group enjoyed the book and rated it highly.

Carol, Book Club Coordinator

Twelve people gathered in February to discuss Clock Dance by Anne Tyler, which was published in 2018.  Generally, readers were disappointed with the book, particularly as the author is a prolific writer who has won several prestigious awards.

The book was divided into two parts and concentrated on a limited number of events in the life of the main character, Willa.  Willa had been brought up in a dysfunctional family and seemed to be constantly searching for someone who “needed” her.  Having been largely neglected by her own family, she turns to another dysfunctional family in the hope that she will find a purpose for her life.

Discussion centred mainly on the frustrations many felt, as the book left a number of themes only partly explored.  We felt that this was disappointing as the novel could have been developed into an interesting and enjoyable book.

These sentiments were reflected in the rating given by readers.  At 3.4 this was by far the lowest score given by the group since we started this informal poll.

Helen P., Discussion Leader

The responses to this book were somewhat unusual. As a group we rated it an overall 8.4, but the range was tiny, from 8 to 9. Previous books also came out at around an 8, but the votes were in a wider range from 5 to 10. So, there was a lot of unanimity of opinion on this book.

Many in the group talked about their initial impressions which were that the coarse language was confronting and at first, they weren’t sure that they’d be able to finish it. Of course, there were a few dissenters who loved the language. One thing was clear, that without the language, it would not have been possible to portray the main character, Jaxie.

We watch Jaxie as he journeys from an angry, frustrated young teenager to a much more mature version of himself. He starts as a boy who is frequently beaten, and who knows what it is like to feel that the “whole town was laughing at you.” He seems destined to follow in his deadbeat father’s footsteps.

However, his life soon changes. After discovering his father’s dead body in grisly circumstances, and fearing he might be a murder suspect, Jaxie flees and finds himself hiking alone through the rough salt country of Western Australia; with a destination 300 kms hence. Jaxie keeps off the beaten track and driven by injury and hunger, young Jaxie soon finds his way to The Shepherd’s Hut of the title. This leads to a surprising friendship with an older man who is an exiled priest. We don’t know why the priest is hiding in the bush, except that it involved a misadventure and a great deal of money. These two characters have little in common in terms of education and background, but they both have bush smarts and a need for human contact. The priest, Fintan, proves to be a patient mentor who understands something of Jaxie’s psychology and helps him to develop a modicum of trust and vulnerability. While the friendship between them grows, the world outside begins to swirl into their lives - leading to tragedy.

A few in our book group mentioned the tension in the closing pages. They had to put down the book several times because the emotion was overwhelming. Discussion about the end of the story evoked different views of what might lie in Jaxie’s future. It seems that we all enjoyed the landscapes and relationships in the story, and we all took something a little different from it. Definitely a good read!

Melinda, Discussion Leader

We had about 12 people at December’s Book Club gathering when we discussed "The Great Gatsby" by F Scott Fitzgerald.  This book is now considered an American classic, and the author one of America’s greatest writers, although at the time it was written (1926) the quality of the writing wasn't recognised.

The story is set in New York and Long Island, most of the characters are wealthy, living in luxurious houses. Jay Gatsby, Daisy and Tom Buchanan and Nick Carraway (the narrator) have all recently moved to the area and are intricately entwined with each other until the dramatic ending when everything goes wrong and the true unpleasant personalities of the characters are shown. 

Some questions were asked of the group, e.g., was Gatsby great, who was the most interesting character? It was an interesting book to discuss and the club members had plenty to say and, of course, opinions differed, making the discussion even better.

Libby, Discussion Leader

We met on Monday (21 November) to discuss “Reckoning”, a memoir by Magda Szubanski. Many of us said that when we saw who the book’s author was, we were rather reluctant to read it, based on our perceptions of Magda Szubanski and her comedy. However, most of us were very pleased indeed that we did! When we cast a bit of a straw poll, “Reckoning” was given an overall score of around 8 out of 10.

The book was easy to read, in terms of structure and language, even if some of the content addressed confronting and difficult topics; as one member said, the book provided them with a greater understanding of how people can be driven to take their own lives. Certainly, Magda did not shy away from revealing the clearly, very difficult life she has had. Life-long battles with anxiety and depression which seem to stem mainly from her relationship with her father who demanded so much of her and gave so little, and her “secret” (being gay) that she felt compelled to hide out of fear that her parents would condemn and abandon her, and her career be destroyed. She showed immense bravery in writing this book.

Magda’s creative use of various literary techniques considerably enhanced the telling of her story. Short punchy sentences, colourful imagery, repetition, simile, metaphor and personification were all used to great effect. She writes eruditely, with flair and grammatical skill:

“Poles sailing into the church like a fleet of old tall ships...” describing friends arriving at her father’s funeral.

“I was no longer an outsider, flailing on the periphery of life. I was standing right at its red-hot centre. This was the birth of my creative self...” after involvement during Year 12 in the school musical.

I was “a nervous hostage who’s been held captive for 50 years...I felt hyper-visible. The weight started piling back...Fat. My trusted companion. I crawled back into the thick folds of it, grateful for its constancy....” after losing enormous amounts of weight, then coming out.

Cate, who led the discussion, had asked the members to select phrases or sentences with which we “connected” (for whatever reason) and the sharing of these created discussion around these points. They related to, for example, the importance of laughter in our lives; whether the words “I love you” are used too casually; how we judge people and treat them according to their appearance (in relation, specifically, to being fat); and whether it is appropriate for people to actively confront others with their opinions and beliefs, particularly in relation to their sexuality. Some of the parts of Magda’s story that resonated with some also raised personal issues, leading one member to research aspects of a family story about the horrendous treatment of the Poles by the Russians in WWII. 

Carol, Book Club Coordinator and Cate, Discussion Leader