2025 Meeting Notes

James

by Percival Everett

Meeting on Tuesday, 19th August 2025

Meeting Notes by Fiona

Eleven members met in the garden at the Alexandra Arms public house.  It was a warm but overcast day and not as hot as the previous week.

We welcomed Alison back to the group following Bernadette’s resignation.

We agreed to move the December meeting from 16th December to Tuesday, 9th December and to hold it in the garden room of The Alexandra Arms.  Irene has booked the garden room for our Christmas Party and also for the meeting in September.

Anne had nominated the book and very kindly lead the meeting.

Irene shared with us a comic of Huckleberry Finn from 1964.

VOTING (eleven in person and one via email)

10 x 2

9.5 x 1

9 x 6

8 x 3

Average 8.96

Goodreads 4.46

Amazon 4.6

LITERARY AWARDS

The Sunday Times Bestseller

Winner of the Kirkus Prize for Fiction 2024
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2025
Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction 2024
Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction 2025
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024

Shortlisted for the Foyles Book of the Year 2024
Shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2025
Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2024

Shortlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction 2025

AUTHOR

Percival Everett was born in 1956 at a military post in Georgia USA.  Not long after he was born, his family moved to South Carolina where his father opened a dentistry practice.  He attended the University of Miami and earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy with a minor in biochemistry.  In college he played jazz and blues guitar in clubs to help pay his tuition.

In 1978, Percival Everett began a doctoral program in philosophy at the University of Oregon but he left after two years and enrolled in a master’s program in creative writing.

Everett currently works as a professor of English at the University of Southern California.

His book Erasure was published in 2001 and found a new audience in 2023 after the release of an acclaimed film adapation, American Fiction.  The New York Times included the novel on its list of 100 best books of the 21st century.

He has described himself as "pathologically ironic" and has explored numerous genres such as western fiction, mysteries, thrillers, satire and philosophical fiction.  His books are often satirical, aimed at exploring race and identity issues in the United States.

Everett lives on a ranch in Moreno Valley (about 65 miles east of Los Angeles) with his wife, the novelist Danzy Senna, and their children.

Everett's great-grandmother was at one point enslaved.

SYNOPSIS

A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view.

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan.  Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father.  As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.  As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise.  And, together, the unlikely pair embark on the most life-changing odyssey of them all…

Brimming with nuanced humour and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before.  James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

GROUP DISCUSSIONS

Some members of the group were acquainted with the story of Huckleberry Finn and others didn’t know the story at all.  In the USA most children grow up with the story of Huckleberry and his friend Tom Sawyer.  This book is written for a US audience.  There is the erosion of the black character of Jim in US society and in James he is given a character and narrative.  Jim is seen as a minor character in the original story but in James it is all about him and his sense of himself.  The story is flipped from depicting Jim as stupid into an intelligent and resourceful man.  In the original story, Huck saves Jim from a lynch mob but in James, Jim rescues all the slaves from the Graham Farm (the breeder) and the same when Jim teaches Huck to fish.  Jim is the most humane and adult person in the book.

We discussed the concept of freedom in the book.  Jim flees when he realises he is to be sold but even if he reaches Illinois he will never be free.  In Huckleberry Finn, Jim is freed when Miss Watson dies so has no agency over his own freedom.  Sammy was lucky to die free.

It is not a retelling of the book but more of a sequel; setting it during the start of the American civil war.  At one point, Huck wants to join the war and fight in a battle but he doesn’t care which side he would be fighting on.  Jim said, one side is the same as the other to me.

It can be read as a straightforward adventure book but there is a lot more in it.  It is an adventure story, a story about male companionship, trust and friendship   For Huckleberry it is an adventure but for Jim it is life or death, especially if he is caught with a white child and at one point with the body of a white man.  It is about black identity.  There are quite a few symbolisms in the book, in particular the river which symbolises life.

The horrors of slavery and the treatment of slaves.  It gets across to the reader the trauma of being a slave.  The dehumanising of people is such a feature of that society.  When you have already made the moral decision to enslave someone your humanity towards that person has gone.  Naming the slaves such as the name Doris given to a man.  Some white people liked to think they were more liberal but still want their money back when Jim escapes.  Why were valuable slaves shot at by the white men: are they hated or feared?

Brock, the slave on the boat, was completely dehumanised.

There were further discussions on the treatment of black people in Australia and South Africa.  The results of colonialisation.

A lot of discussion was about Jim’s ability to read and write and his use of the spoken language.  The slaves are able to weaponise their language – Jim teaches the children how to speak to their white slave owners.  The slaves use patois to ‘perform race’ so the white people think they are more superior but the slaves are just laughing at them.  How would a black person learn to speak English if they only heard commands by the overseers and also how do they communicate with each other if they speak different African languages.  Agency of being able to read and write.

The importance of the pencil that someone was willing to steal and lose their life in order for Jim to be able to write his story: with my pencil, I wrote myself into being…

The flipping of the narrative when Jim reveals himself as the father to Huckleberry.  Huck having to make the decision whether to be black or white.  It is not a believable part of the book but is that prejudice?  How often is a book character thought to be white?  It is a reversal of black women becoming pregnant by their white owners. 

It is not so much dark humour but wry humour; finding humour in dark subjects (M*A*S*H).  It is also very atmospheric with the picture of the river and journey.  A harrowing read.  Very shocking and violent.  A very powerful ending to the book.  Though James killing the old white man at the end was disappointing as he should have been better than that.

Percival Everett doesn’t feel much has changed even now.  There are very deeply flawed white characters.  It challenges a white view of black people.  Racism is inherent in American society.  It took until the Vietnam War to change the social structures.  White guilt and black lives matter in American society are more visible than in the UK.

The writing is outstanding and a masterful use of language.  As a reader you don’t feel that you are being taught.  Incredibly intelligent.  It is a page-turner and the short chapters speed the story along.  It is incredibly well written and well-paced.  Hooked after just a few pages.

Those that had read the book more than once felt it does show up its flaws and was a bit repetitive.

The Trees by Percival Everett is just as good as, if not better than, James.

The 1939 film of Huckleberry Finn is good, though of its time.

The next three books for discussion are:

Tuesday, 16th September 2025       Clear by Carys Davies (Irene)

Tuesday, 21st October 2025            Question 7 by Richard Flanagan (Mary)

Tuesday, 18th November 2025       North Woods by Daniel Mason (Kevin)

Tuesday, 9th December 2025 (not the 16th) for our Christmas Party.

The following books are on the current suggestions list:

New books yet to go through a round of voting:

The Safekeep by Yale van Dee Wouden (suggested by Kevin 27.07.25)

Held by Anne Michaels (suggested by Kevin 04.06.25)

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout (suggested by Anne 01.07.25)

Book which has survived one round of voting:

Small Boat by Vincent Delacroix (suggested by Kevin on 26.04.25)

Book which has survived two rounds of voting:

Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan (suggested by Kevin on 26.02.25)

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon 

Meeting on Tuesday 15th July 2025

Meeting Notes by Sharon ...

Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd

Meeting on Tuesday, 17th June 2025

Twelve members met in the garden at the Alexandra Arms public house.  It was a warm and sunny day so we were able to sit in the garden for the first time.

Before the meeting we had voted on the next books to read which are listed at the end of the notes.  

The next meeting on 15th July will be the Glittering Prizes 15th birthday.  The Alexandra Arms will allow us to bring in some cake to celebrate this fantastic achievement.  Thank you in advance to Sarah for making the cake.

Irene had nominated the book and very kindly lead the meeting.

Irene showed us a photo of Blaise Metreweli who will become the head of MI6 later this year.  

VOTING (twelve in person)

9 x 1

8 x 3

7 x 3

6 x 1

5 x 1

4 x 2

3 x 1

Average 6.33

Goodreads 4.05

Amazon 4.3

LITERARY AWARDS

Amazon Best Book of the Month (Mystery Thriller)

Quizlit Book of the Month 2025

AUTHOR

William Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana in 1952 and grew up there and in Nigeria.  He was educated at Gordonstoun School and attended the universities of Nice (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow (MA Hons in English and Philosophy) and Jesus College, Oxford, where he studied for a D.Phil in English Literature.  

William Boyd is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, and an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.  He has been presented with honorary Doctorates in Literature from the universities of St Andrews, Stirling, Glasgow and Dundee.  In 2005 he was awarded the CBE.

He has many screenwriting credits including television adaptations of his novels Armadillo (BBC1 2001), Restless (BBC1 2012) and Any Human Heart (Channel4 2010 which won a BAFTA for “Best Series”).

He is married and divides his time between London and South West France.

SYNOPSIS

An accidental spy. A web of betrayals.

A mystery that will take you around the world…

Gabriel Dax is a young man haunted by the memories of a tragedy: every night, when sleep finally comes, he dreams about his childhood home in flames.  His days are spent on the move as an acclaimed travel writer, capturing the changing landscapes in the grip of the Cold War.  When he’s offered the chance to interview a political figure, his ambition leads him unwittingly into the shadows of espionage.

As Gabriel’s reluctant initiation takes hold, he is drawn deeper into duplicity and deception.  Falling under the spell of Faith Green, an enigmatic and ruthless MI6 handler, he becomes ‘her spy’, unable to resist her demands.  But amid the peril, paranoia and passion consuming Gabriel’s new covert life, it will be the revelations closer to home that change the rest of his story…

GROUP DISCUSSIONS

As a holiday read it works well as the novel is not ‘hard work’.  It is enjoyable, undemanding and a good romp and has all the plot points for a spy novel.  William Boyd writes quite well but the book is not terribly profound.  Gabriel’s development as an unwilling spy is interesting.  The main character is not unbelievable and it has an intriguing plot.  There were parts of the book which didn’t work for most people such as when Gabriel goes to Southwold.  It is reminiscent of spy thrillers such as John Le Carre and Ian Fleming.  It is set in the 1960s and is quite an ‘old fashioned’ tale.  There is a real sense of time and place.  It is like reading a book written in the 1960s.  It comes across as jolly japes from another era and a little Boys Own.  To read it you have to suspend all disbelief.  As entertainment the plotting is fun and not to be deeply analysed.  Can any character be trusted?  It is corny and cliched but fun to read.

However, as a book of literary merit it seems to fall short.  The main character is vivid and sort of credible but he is also well resourced and doesn’t seem to have to worry about finances.  Gabriel is a wealthy bachelor and the women are all glamorous apart from his working-class girlfriend.  He comes across as pompous, privileged and misogynistic.  There is no plot and Gabriel seems to be a naïve man dropped into various places and scenarios such as Patrice Lumumba and the horrors of the Congo, Warsaw during the Cold War and Freud was mentioned.  There is a lot of detail but it is not very interesting or significant and somewhat underdeveloped.

There was a fair amount of alcohol consumed in the book.  It made the drunks appear glamorous such as Uncle Aldous and Kit Caldwell.  In addition, Gabriel was brought up by his uncle and it feels as though it is a writer’s ruse to portray him as a damaged dysfunctional man.

Faith Green was an interesting character.  Is she some sort of mother figure to Gabriel?

At points Gabriel Dax appears to be older than 30 perhaps because he is with older men.  Then at other times he seems immature possibly the result of his childhood trauma meaning he can come across as quite childish.

The childhood trauma leading to insomnia.  Dr Katerina Haas and her treatment of Gabriel Dax’s insomnia with anamnesis “Anamnesis, in psychoanalysis, is an attempt to recollect happenings – facts – that have preceded the symptom’s you are experiencing.  I like to think of it as, quote-unquote, a memory that you don’t know you have.  If you can locate it – if you can re-remember these facts, these events – then it’s extremely important and useful when it comes to healing mind disorders.  In your case that’s your insomnia.”  It is not impressive that people think that to do this will make the trauma all better as it can be extremely hard work.  Interestingly, we later find out that Dr Haas is not a real psychologist.  However, it was good that Gabriel found out that the burning down of his house when he was 6 years old was not his fault.  The storyline of his childhood house burning down seemed to fizzle out.  

The mouse was mentioned quite a bit in the book.  Is there a deeper meaning?  Or just William Boyd’s frustration with his own rodent problem.  When William Boyd was asked if the mouse was a symbol of anything, he replied “could be”.  At one point Gabriel manages to catch the mouse but then he lets it go, showing that he is not a cruel man.

It might be that the unfinished plotlines will be resolved when the trilogy of books have been published.

One member didn’t like the book and didn’t finish reading it.

Other points of discussion which Irene shared with the group:

In William Boyd's Gabriel's Moon, the recurring mouse infestation in Gabriel's London flat serves as a powerful symbol for his own entrapment and manipulation within the world of espionage. Just as the mice skilfully evade Gabriel's traps, Gabriel himself gets drawn into a complex web of deceit and double-crosses, struggling to navigate the dangerous world of espionage.

Here's a more detailed breakdown of the symbolism:

Gabriel as the Mouse:

Gabriel, like the elusive mice, finds himself caught in a situation he didn't fully anticipate, gradually becoming entangled in a game of espionage. He is pursued, manipulated, and must use his wits to survive, mirroring the mice's struggle for survival in his home.

The Traps:

The traps set for the mice represent the various schemes and plots orchestrated by the individuals involved in espionage. Gabriel, like the mice, must learn to recognize these traps and avoid falling victim to them.

The Endless Battle:

The never-ending war between mice and men, as Boyd describes it, parallels the constant tension and uncertainty inherent in the world of espionage. There is always another plot, another deception to uncover, another danger to avoid.

Autobiographical Element:

Boyd also mentioned that the mouse problem in the novel was inspired by a real-life rodent issue he was facing while writing the book. This adds another layer of realism and relatability to the symbolic use of the mice.

In psychology, anamnesis refers to the process of gathering a patient's past experiences and history, often including their developmental, family, medical, and social background, to understand their current psychological state and potential causes of a disorder. It's a crucial part of the diagnostic process, helping clinicians build a comprehensive picture of the individual.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

Recollection of the past:

The term "anamnesis" itself means "recollection" or "reminiscence" psychology, it refers to the process of bringing to mind and recounting past events, experiences, and significant life occurrences.

Building a case history:

Psychologists use anamnesis to construct a detailed case history, which includes information about the patient's developmental stages, family dynamics, medical history, social interactions, and past psychological experiences.

Understanding the individual:

By gathering this information, clinicians aim to understand the individual's unique background, identify potential contributing factors to their current issues, and develop a targeted treatment plan.

Beyond the immediate:

Anamnesis goes beyond just the immediate symptoms a person is experiencing. It delves into their past to uncover potential roots of their present difficulties.

The next five books for discussion are:

Tuesday, 15th July 2025                      Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (Sharon)

Tuesday, 19th August 2025                 James by Percival Everett (Anne)

Tuesday, 16th September 2025          Clear by Carys Davies (Irene)

Tuesday, 21st October 2025               Question 7 by Richard Flanagan (Mary)

Tuesday, 18th November 2025           North Woods by Daniel Mason (Kevin)

The following books are on the current suggestions list:

Book which has survived one round of voting:

“Small Boat” by Vincent Delacroix (suggested by Kevin on 26.04.25)

Book which has survived two rounds of voting:

“Caledonian Road” by Andrew O’Hagan (suggested by Kevin on 26.02.25)

Books which have been through three rounds of voting but have not received enough votes and will now be removed from the current suggestions list:

“The Whalebone Theatre” by Joanna Quinn (suggested by Irene on 17.10.24)

“In Memoriam” by Alice Winn (suggested by Fiona on 06.09.24)

...

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Notes by Fiona 

Meeting on Tuesday, 20th May 2025

Nine members met in the garden room at the Alexandra Arms public house.  It was a sunny day but a little chilly so we stayed in the garden room.  Irene has booked the room for the meeting in June.

Two books were added to the suggestions list: ‘Clear’ by Carys Davies and ‘James’ by Percival Everett.

Anne had nominated the book and very kindly lead the meeting.

VOTING (nine in person and two by email)

10 x 1

9 x 3

8 x 1

7 x 4

6 x 1

5 x 1

Average 7.64

Goodreads 3.64

Amazon 3.7

LITERARY AWARDS

Man Booker International Prize 2016 winner 

In July 2024, the novel was placed 49th in The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

AUTHOR

Han Kang was born in 1970 in Gwangju, South Korea.  Her family is noted for its literary background.  Her father quit his teaching job to become a full-time writer when Han Kang was nine years old.  He struggled to make ends meet with his writing career, which negatively impacted his family.  Han Kang’s older brother is a novelist and her younger brother is a novelist and cartoonist.  Han has a son, and together they had run a bookstore in Seoul from 2018 until November 2024, when she stepped down from its management.

In her college years Han became obsessed with a line of poetry by the Yi Sang (a Korean poet): “I believe that humans should be plants.”  She understood Yi’s line to imply a defensive stance against the violence of Korea’s colonial history under Japanese occupation and took it as an inspiration to write her most successful work, The Vegetarian.  The second part of the three-part novel, ‘Mongolian Mark’ won the Yi Sang Literary Award.  The rest of the series (The Vegetarian and Flaming Trees (aka Fire Tree)) was delayed by contractual problems.

The Vegetarian was Han’s first novel translated into English, although she had already attracted worldwide attention by the time Deborah Smith translated it.  The translated work won the International Booker Prize 2016 for both Han and Smith.  Han was the first Korean writer to be nominated for the award, and The Vegetarian was the first Korean language novel to win the International Booker Prize for fiction.  The Vegetarian was also chosen as one of The 10 Best Books of 2016 by The New York Times Book Review.

Han was elected a Royal Society of Literature International Writer in 2023.

In 2024, Han Kang was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”.  This made her the first Korean writer and the first female Asian writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.  The awarding was widely celebrated in South Korea, while international reactions were mixed.  Han herself said she was surprised but honoured by the recognition.  Han delivered her Nobel lecture, titled Light and Thread on the 7th December 2024 at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.  Han’s Banquet speech is included at the end of these notes and her Nobel Prize lecture is attached as a pdf.

TRANSLATOR

Deborah Smith was born in 1987 and is a British translator of Korean fiction.  She translated The Vegetarian and was a co-winner of the Man Booker International Prize in 2016.

After graduating from the University of Cambridge, Smith began learning Korean in 2009, after discovering that there were few English translations of Korean literature.  In 2015, Smith founded Tilted Axis Press, a non-profit publishing house devoted to books that “might not otherwise make it into English.”

There were criticisms in the Korean media of the English translation because of its omissions, embellishments and mistranslations.  One translator felt the context and style were so different that it was more reasonable to speak of Smith’s work as an adaptation, not a translation.  

Han Kang has stood by Smith’s translation.

SYNOPSIS

The Vegetarian tells the story of Yeong-hye who, one day, suddenly decides to stop eating meat after a series of dreams involving images of animal slaughter.  This abstention leads her to become distanced from her family and from society.  The story is told in three parts: The Vegetarian, Mongolian Mark and Flaming Trees. The first section is narrated by Yeong-hye’s husband, Mr Cheong, in the first person.  The second section is narrated in the third person focusing on Yeong-hye’s brother-in-law; and the third section remains in the third-person but focuses on her sister, In-hye, while sporadically speaking in present tense.

GROUP DISCUSSIONS

Most of the group felt it was a very interesting book but not certain what it was about.  What is the author’s goal?  There are so many elements in the book.  Those in the group who had read the book more than once got much more out of it on a re-read.  It is arty but easy to read with moments of dark humour.

Deeply shocking, moving, dystopian, compelling, magnetic, pithy, raw, bleak, horrifying, harrowing, beautifully written.  It has an emotional response on nearly every page and despite that it was horrible you have to keep reading.  Can’t say why its really good!

It is difficult to connect with the book and with anyone in the book.  The male characters in particular are awful.

The husband is cold and a mysognist

The brother-in-law is exploitative 

The father is cruel

The casual cruelty with tying the dog to the back of the motorbike (was this the start of Yeong-hye’s trauma).  

It is difficult to remember the book but various scenes in the book remain with the reader such as the painting of flowers on Yeong-hye.

There are many different threads throughout the book.  It can be seen as a probe into human nature. A critique of Korean society and social attitudes.  Maybe it is a commentary on a sick society.  Individual freedom and pressures of society.  There is pressure in Korean society to look very beautiful even In-hye has her eyes done to look more feminine

There are upsetting depictions of how little women are thought of as fully human.  The rape scenes (by both husbands) are deeply unpleasant.  How women blame themselves and punish themselves for what happens around them.  The unnamed perpetrators of violence. 

“Though the ostensible reason for her not having wanted Yeong-hye to be discharged, the reason that she gave the doctor, was this worry about a possible relapse, now she was able to admit to herself what had really been going on.  She was no longer able to cope with all that her sister reminded her of.  She’d been unable to forgive her for soaring alone over a boundary she herself could never bring herself to cross, unable to forgive that magnificent irresponsibility that had enabled Yeong-hye to shuck off societal constraints and leave her behind, still a prisoner.  And before Yeong-hye had broken those bars, she’d never even known they were there.”

“’I’m tired… I said I’m really tired.’

’Just put up with it for a minute,’ he said.

She remembered how it had been.  Those words had run through her semi-conscious mind again and again.  Still half asleep, she managed to get through it by thinking to herself that it was all right, it would just be this one time, it would be over soon, she could put up with it.  The pain and shame had been washed away by the deep, exhausted sleep she slipped into immediately afterwards.  And yet later, at the breakfast table, she would all of a sudden find herself wanting to stab herself in the eyes with her chopsticks, or pour the boiling water from the kettle over her head.”

Yeong-hye is very ill and the book is a good description of psychosis leading to death.  Yeong-hye’s past trauma connects her to her present.  She seems to look forward to death.  The doctors just seem to deal with her symptoms and not the underlying reason for her current mental state.  Her father force feeds her as well as the medical team at the hospital.  Is she mentally ill (schizophrenic and anorexic) or is this a protest to her treatment by her husband and family? 

We don’t hear Yeong-hye’s voice in the book.  We can only understand her from what everyone else thinks about her.

Can a state of purity be reached?

EMAILED REVIEWS

I thought this book would be about male/domestic violence, but it feel about a lot more.  We know little about Yeong-hye and it felt like for large swaths of the book her voice was not heard - other people were telling her story.   Her sister’s story towards the end hints at a despair she has carried for a long time.  It was an intriguing and thought provoking read even if it was uncomfortable. [edited]

This was an extraordinary book, a very uncomfortable read, violent, pornographic, grotesque - and yet I didn't want to give up on it and felt it was an important read.  It's not about vegetarianism or feminism in any regular way - it's extreme.  We know very little about Yeong Hye; all we know is what she doesn't want -  and ultimately all she wants is sun and rain, to be as a tree is.  We know more about her tormentors' inner lives - and yet she is a strong presence throughout.  We understand that in her mind violence and oppression towards the animal world and towards herself are connected, her resistance though is self obliteration - again not the "normal" sort of resistance.   

The character who tries to understand her is her sister in law, who recognizes her own oppression in Yeong Hye's - she knows she herself is hanging by a thread - one that Yeong Hye wants to sever. 

I found it useful to read the book as a fable, an allegory rather than a real life narrative.  A very powerful one.  I read it in the context of eco feminism -an approach which sees the connectedness of violence and oppression towards women as linked to exploitation and violence towards the natural world - a desire to conquer and control.  I have come across the positive side of eco feminism in art - and I found it therapeutic to look at some of Jean Simmons beautiful eco feminist imagery to lift myself out of the sadness and hopelessness of the novel.  I hope you like these pictures too!

The next two books for discussion are:

Tuesday, 17th June 2025         Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd (suggested by Irene)

Tuesday, 15th July 2025          Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (suggested by Sharon)

The following books are on the current suggestions list:

New books yet to go through a round of voting

“Clear” by Carys Davies (suggested by Irene on 20.05.25)

“James” by Percival Everett (suggested by Anne on 20.05.25)

“Question 7” by Richard Flanagan (suggested by Mary on 05.05.25)

“Small Boat” by Vincent Delacroix (suggested by Kevin on 26.04.25)

Book which has survived one round of voting

“Caledonian Road” by Andrew O’Hagan (suggested by Kevin on 26.02.25)

Books which have survived two rounds of voting

“The Whalebone Theatre” by Joanna Quinn (suggested by Irene on 17.10.24)

“In Memoriam” by Alice Winn (suggested by Fiona on 06.09.24)

“North Woods” by Daniel Mason (suggested by Kevin on 01.09.24)

Han Kang’s speech at the Nobel Prize banquet, 10 December 2024.

Your majesties, your royal highnesses, ladies and gentlemen.

I remember the day when I was eight years old. As I was leaving my afternoon abacus lesson, the skies opened in a sudden downpour. This rain was so fierce that two dozen children wound up huddled under the eaves of the building. Across the street was a similar building, and under those eaves I could see another small crowd – almost like looking into a mirror. Watching that streaming rain, the damp soaking my arms and calves, I suddenly understood. All these people standing with me, shoulder to shoulder, and all those people across the way – were living as an “I” in their own right. Each one was seeing this rain, just as I was. This damp on my face, they felt it as well. It was a moment of wonder, this experience of so many first-person perspectives. 

Looking back over the time I have spent reading and writing, I have re-lived this moment of wonder, again and again. Following the thread of language into the depths of another heart, an encounter with another interior. Taking my most vital, and most urgent questions, trusting them to that thread, and sending them out to other selves.

Ever since I was a child, I have wanted to know. The reason we are born. The reason suffering and love exist. These questions have been asked by literature for thousands of years, and continue to be asked today. What is the meaning of our brief stay in this world? How difficult is it for us to remain human, come what may? In the darkest night, there is language that asks what we are made of, that insists on imagining into the first person perspectives of the people and living beings that inhabit this planet; language that connects us to one another. Literature that deals in this language inevitably holds a kind of body heat. Just as inevitably, the work of reading and writing literature stands in opposition to all acts that destroy life. I would like to share the meaning of this award, which is for literature, with you – standing here in opposition to violence together. Thank you.

Translated from Korean by Maya West

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 2024

...

My Friends by Hisham Matar

Notes by Fiona 

Meeting on Tuesday, 15th April 2025

Ten members met in the back room at the Alexandra Arms public house since the garden room had already been booked (Irene has booked the garden room for next month).  It had rained heavily in the morning and was still overcast at the time of the meeting so we were not able to sit outside.  The back room was quite noisy but the music had been turned off and we were a small group so it was fairly easy to hear the discussion. 

Unfortunately, one member is no longer able to commit to the group and has resigned.  We are now back to 15 members.

Sharon had nominated the book and very kindly lead the meeting.

VOTING (ten in person and two by email)

10 x 1

9.5 x 1

9 x 6

8 x 2

6 x 2

Average 8.46

Goodreads 4.31

Amazon 4.3

LITERARY AWARDS

National Book Award for Fiction 2024 – finalist

Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2024 - winner 

National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction 2024 – winner

Booker Prize 2024 – longlisted

Jhalak Prize 2025 - longlisted

AUTHOR

Hisham Matar was born 1970 in New York City.  His parents had moved from Tripoli due to his father’s opinions on Colonel Gaddafi.  The family moved back to Tripoli in 1973 but fled the country again in 1979 and moved to Cairo where his father became more vocal against the Gaddafi’s regime.  In 1986, Matar enrolled in a school in England where he had to pretend his mother was Egyptian and his father American.  Matar studied architecture at Goldsmiths in London and while he was there in 1990 his father was abducted in Cairo.  He has been reported missing ever since.

Matar ran his own architectural practice in London during his 20s.  He started writing poetry before moving to prose.  He left his architectural practice and worked in a variety of jobs until his first novel was published in 2006.

As of October 2024, Matar is a professor of English and Asian and Middle Eastern cultures at Columbia University but continues to live in London.

SYNOPSIS

Khaled and Mustafa meet at university in Edinburgh: two Libyan eighteen year olds expecting to return home after their studies.  In a moment of recklessness and courage, they travel to London to join a demonstration in front of the Libyan embassy.  When government officials open fire on protestors in broad daylight, both friends are wounded, and their lives forever changed.

Over the years that follow, Khaled, Mustafa and their friend Hosam, a writer, are bound together by their shared history.  If friendship is a space to inhabit, theirs becomes small and inhospitable when a revolution in Libya forces them to choose between the lives they have created in London and the lives they left behind.

GROUP DISCUSSIONS

Hisham Matar’s memoir ‘The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between’ was read by the group in October 2017 and given a vote of 6.9.  It centres on Matar’s return to Libya in 2012 to search for the truth behind the disappearance of his father.  It won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, the inaugural 2017 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and the 2017 Folio Prize becoming the first nonfiction book to do so.

Some members of the group had also read Matar’s debut novel ‘In the Country of Men’ which was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award and awarded the 2007 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize.

It is great writing and although a long book it has short chapters which makes it easy to read in small manageable sections.  The use of language is poetic and engaging.  The framework of the book is of a long evening/night walk by Khaled looking back at his life.  The book has a gentle pace reflecting the pace of walking in London.  It has a ‘Greek Tragedy’ format of the events happening over a day.  The short chapters also indicate how we look back at events in our lives in snippets and as a stream of consciousness.  It has beautiful phrases and some nice vignettes.  We are told everyone lives at the beginning of the book and it would have been nice to have had some jeopardy to the story.

It is a political book but not a political crusade.  Religion and politics are in the background.  The characters are not political but it is forced upon them because of where they are born.  It might have been nice to have some more understanding of the real life historical events in the book but that’s not what this story is about.  Perhaps the idea is for readers to do their own research behind the main events in the book.  Some of the real life context such as the shooting of PC Yvonne Fletcher and Gaddafi being found in a pipe.  Sometimes these images last longer than the facts.

Khaled is deeply traumatised by being shot at the embassy.  He was there only by the innocence of his youth.  While he is there he is not worried about being in danger of his life but only by being seen.  Khaled doesn’t appear to have been able to move on with his life after the shooting as the scars from bullet wound also means he is not able to return to Libya as he could put his family in danger as well as himself.  Although it may have been an excuse not to go back home.  There is also a tremendous amount of guilt that Khaled carries with him.  Khaled is the narrator of the book and it is very much focused on what goes on in his own head to the extent that it is difficult to know how he connects with other people and he doesn’t appear to be very self aware.

There is an underlining tension and unease throughout the book not knowing which characters can be trusted.  The book starts with Khaled aware not to trust anyone and so it takes time for him to gain friends to the extent that he has very few close friends he is able to talk with and discuss political issues.  At first, Hosam is suspicious of Khaled and has to check his story before they meet the next day.

It is a story about the loneliness of exile.  About the deep friendships that are formed by people with vastly different lives who have been exiled from the same homeland.  The grief and loss of their lives in Libya.  The story is also about relationships of those in exile from their families.  When Khaled’s family comes to visit after many years he is still unable to speak to them about what has happened.  The parts of the book where Khaled shows his father and Hannah his bullet wound and how they explore the scars on his body are very moving.  All the three main characters in the book are uprooted and Khaled in particular is unable to commit to where he lives now.  Exile from your homeland is terribly sad and even if Khaled does go home so much has happened to him that he is a very different person to the one who left all those years ago.  It is a book about male friendships.  It is emotionally tender how a man is able to write about a friend.  Most men don’t discuss emotions and relationships to other men, more likely to enjoy a discussion/argument.

“No one has ever been a nearer neighbour to my heart.”

London becomes a friend to Khaled as do his books.  Other authors have also lived in London as exiles.  He is a passive exile whereas his other friends return to Libya to fight.

We discussed whether they may have been closeted homosexuals.  Some middle eastern men are very tactile with their friends and show affection with hugs also there is no hint of homosexuality throughout the book.  That said, there is also the issue that there is homophobia within some middle eastern cultures.

This book was described as alien by some readers as it is about a very different way of life to us.  It focuses on friendships between Libyan men and how they interact with each other and their emotional relationships.  At the demonstration Khaled mentions that all the students smelled the same as their mothers had all packed the same scent.  There was also the gathering of men at the funeral reciting poetry.

The women are wonderful characters and are very supportive of the three main characters but are sidelined in the story.  Rana becomes a friend but is she only mentioned so that Khaled goes to Paris and meets Hosam?  Hannah and Claire are two girlfriends mentioned in the book and are culturally very different to the Khaled and Hosam.  Hannah is not a threat to Khaled but he is still not able to disclose everything to her.  Claire is in a long-term relationship with Hosam but he doesn’t end up marrying her.  The relationships with the women seem very patchy.  An emotional reaction with the women who did form relationships with these men.  It seems they were duped as the men they were with would never commit to them.  

The book starts detailing where the three friends are in their lives at the time, one being a politician and the other a soldier and Khaled still in limbo in London without having returned home like his friends.  Khaled is not willing for his friends to meet each other.  However, in the end Hosam and Mustafa become close to each other and end up fighting side by side (brothers in arms).  Trust is the key to friendship especially for Khaled as it is difficult for him to know who is a ‘friend’.  They are good friends as the years apart haven’t broken down the friendship.  The three friends have different responses to their political attraction.

Each character finds peace with their situations by the end of the book.  Hosam is the future, Khaled the present and Mustafa is the past.

A majority of the group found the book too long.  The start of the book was very engaging and the shooting at the beginning gave a very strong visceral reaction especially as Khaled becomes utterly displaced and at 18 years old and finds himself so alone.  Because of that beginning the rest of the book was a little disappointing. It seemed to lose itself in the middle as nothing much happens (a bit like wading through treacle).  It felt as though the author wasn’t sure how to finish the story and crammed a lot into the last part of the book.  Parts of the ending jarred with the emails and letters from family which seemed too detailed to be realistic.  Did Hosam and Mustafa have to be with Gaddafi at the end?  

What sort of book is this?  It is not a memoir but it is very personal.  It is not a very political book either.  It is quite elusive.

The audible version of the book is narrated by Hisham Matar and he has a very soft, slow voice which made it a pleasure to listen.  It is 13 hours and 24 minutes long though!

____

The next books for discussion are: 

Tuesday, 20th May 2025         The Vegetarian by Han Kang (suggested by Anne)

Tuesday, 17th June 2025         Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd (suggested by Irene)

Tuesday, 15th July 2025          Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (suggested by Sharon)

The following books are on the current suggestions list:

“Caledonian Road” by Andrew O’Hagan (suggested by Kevin on 26.02.25)             Round 1

“The Whalebone Theatre” by Joanna Quinn (suggested by Irene on 17.10.24)       Round 2

“In Memoriam” by Alice Winn (suggested by Fiona on 06.09.24)                             Round 2

“North Woods” by Daniel Mason (suggested by Kevin on 01.09.24)                        Round 2

...
Thunderclap

A memoir of art and life & Sudden Death

by Laura Cumming

Meeting on Tuesday, 18th March 2025

Notes by Fiona

Fourteen members met in the garden room at the Alexandra Arms public house.  It was a sunny but cold day and we were wonderfully warm in the heated garden room.  We also celebrated the birthday of one of our founding members.  Many happy returns!

Kevin had nominated the book and very kindly lead the meeting.

VOTING (in person only)

10 x 3

9 x 5

8 x 3

7 x 1

6 x 2

Average 8.429

Goodreads 4.18

Amazon 4.4

LITERARY AWARDS

Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist 2024

The Writers’ Prize Non-Fiction winner 2024

The Saltire Society – Scotland’s National Book Awards winner 2024

AUTHOR

Laura Cumming is the daughter of the Scottish artists James Cumming and Betty Elston.  She initially studied literature, came to London in her early twenties, and worked there in publishing in the 1980s, though she found her 'sense of life' came 'through streams of pictures' rather than sentences.

Cumming is a British journalist who is the art critic of The Observer newspaper, a position she has held since 1999.  Before that she worked for The Guardian, the New Statesman and the BBC.  In addition to her career in journalism, Cumming has written well-received books on self-portraits in art and the discovery of a lost portrait by Diego Velázquez in 1845.

SYNOPSIS

On the morning of 12 October 1654, a gunpowder explosion devastated the Dutch city of Delft.  Among the fatalities was the painter Carel Fabritius, dead at thirty-two, leaving behind his haunting masterpiece The Goldfinch.

Thunderclap explores what happened to Fabritius before and after the disaster whilst interweaving the lives of Laura Cumming, her painter father and the great artists of the Dutch Golden Age.  It takes the reader from seventeenth-century Delft to twentieth-century Scottish islands, from Rembrandt’s studio to wartime America and contemporary London.  This is a book about what a picture may come to mean, how it can enter your life and change your thinking in a thunderclap.

A beautifully illustrated new memoir of a life in art, a father and daughter, and what a shared love of a painting can come to mean.

(The blurb on the back of the book is a little misleading)

GROUP DISCUSSIONS

A few members mentioned The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt which was read by the group in September 2014 and was voted 9.3.  This book is about a young boy who survives a terrorist bombing of an art museum and takes with him a small Dutch painting called The Goldfinch. 

We had also read Laura Cumming’s book On Chapel Sands: My Mother and Other Missing Persons in March 2021 and had rated it 7.7.  This was a memoir about the author’s mother and in particular about the five days she went missing when she was very young.

We all agreed we learned a lot from the book about art.  Most of us thoroughly enjoyed the book and liked the snippets of details about history, art and artists of the Dutch Golden Age.  It makes you want to look at the art again.  Learned so much of the art of the Golden Age and the interiors, exteriors and landscapes which tell us about the society at the time.  Had dismissed still life in the past but will look at it now with different eyes.  Sometimes we feel we know nothing about art but we have been absorbing art throughout our lives and are able to appreciate and recognise various artists.  We probably know more about art than we think we do.  We bring our own life experiences when we view art.

The book tells us some of the history of the life of Carel Fabritius and of his fourteen known artworks.  In addition, it was very interesting to read about the explosion and how it impacted the art world at that time.  We read that the art produced during that time was hung all over the walls of various houses and it was very popular (although the artists themselves were not far from poverty).  It was mentioned how various Dutch artists’ overlap: Rembrandt, Fabritius and Vermeer.  Also, how originally the paintings were not given a title so you are able to have a different perspective of them within your own imagination.  Also a painting of Delft was not accurate but more a representation of real life.  There were women artists of the era which the author mentions that they were able to produce art while having many children.  Their paintings tended to be still life but that even a bunch of flowers had insects and snails on them.  How people were able to become artists without previous knowledge or experience.  Liked the details of the interiors, with lots of paintings hanging on all the walls in the house.  The story weaves in and out of the lives of various artists and seemed to lose touch with Fabritius’s life story.  

Love the author’s insight to the art.  It is quite philosophical in parts: “Fabritius is thirty-two, and I was the same age when I first wrote about his self-portrait.  He and I remain the same age whenever we meet.  He is dead, I am alive, so the existential maths in now absurd.  But a person in a portrait does not age, even if the painting does.  The picture removes the person from time’s harm and fixes them in the moment; and so it does for me.  The painting fuses the person in the moment and that moment somehow includes me, and you, and everyone to come.  Here he is now, Carel Fabritius, and so he will remain; the artist appearing in and as his own painting.” (page 220)

There isn’t much known about Fabritius and Laura Cumming didn’t try to make up a story about his life but allowed his story to be developed from the art he left behind.  The author mentions the absence of his art for a period following the death of his wife and children.  

Laura Cumming writes that people cannot get enough of Dutch masters but some people prefer later painting styles and more abstract works of art.  She is very passionate about art and art history and most liked the descriptions she gives to the paintings in the book.  Some of the group would prefer to interpret paintings in their own way rather than being given details of what they should be looking for.  Some prefer to have information on how to interpret the symbolism in a painting, such as the symbolism of the flowers used in a painting to mean different things.  Liked having someone saying what they see.  There can be hidden meanings in paintings but Laura Cumming dismisses the moralising depictions in the art.

The author also uses a lot of speculation of where and how the art was made, who bought it, where it was hung on the wall in the house and where it was when the explosion happened.  Page 61 “I have wondered whether Fabritius also painted a posthumous portrait of his wife…” and page 62 “The angel is a Rembrandt; the woman, to my mind, belongs entirely to the advanced art of Fabritius.”

It was a very good read and a captivating story with only a couple of lulls.  Liked her writing style incorporating the personal and the expert.  She writes extremely well but this book can be a bit clunky.  It took a while to read as you need to look up the artwork.  It is a bit bitty but it’s a book which can be picked up and read in small chapters.  It is not a gripping story but can be seduced into the book by reading the details of various artists lives and the culture they were living and working in.  It is quite a woven memoir not linear (the author’s mother was a quilter and perhaps that is why the book seems to reflect a patchwork of thoughts and memories).  It has a meditative quality to the writing with luminous descriptions of art.  Some of the histories felt very surface level and would have liked more detail especially about her father.  The author tried to bring different types of “thunderclap” into the book which didn’t always work.  Would recommend the book even though it meanders although it is probably well constructed.  A bit pretentious in parts.

The book also was about the author’s father and his life and art.  He had learned how to read braille should he eventually lose his sight.  How childhood experiences of art are carried with you into adulthood.  The author has managed to weave in the history of her father, Fabritius and the Dutch masters into one book.  It is not a life story of Fabritius but also the author’s own life and her father’s.

“For pictures can shore you up, remind you who you are and what you stand for.  The relationship we have with them is so singular and unique that nobody can gainsay our experience.  What you see is what you see, yours alone and always true to you, no matter what anyone else contends.” (page 5)

“We see pictures in time and place.  We cannot see them otherwise.  They are fragments of our lives, moments of existence that may be as unremarkable as rain or as startling as a clap of thunder.  Whatever we are that day, whatever is going on behind our eyes, or in the forest of our lives, is present in what we see.  We see with everything that we are.” (page 7)

Laura Cumming has synthesia which means she thinks in terms of pictures. 

A criticism and frustration of the book is the quality of the pictures of the paintings.  It may be that it is costly to make plates of the paintings, or that we have the ability to look these paintings up on the internet or possibly there may have been copyright issues.

We also discussed the painting of asparagus which is owned by the Fitzwilliam Museum.  Also that the National Gallery has recently changed the galleries and some of the paintings in the book are no longer hanging there.

The kindle version of the book had very poor images of the paintings.  Laura Cumming narrated her own book for the audible version.  She has a lovely slight Scottish lilt to her voice however another member of the group found her voice to be very annoying.

Quite a few said they would recommend this book to other people.

____

We voted on the next books for discussion as follows:

            9 votes for “Glorious Exploits” by Ferdia Lennon (suggested by Sharon)

            6 votes for “Gabriel’s Moon” by William Boyd (suggested by Irene)

            1 vote for “Caledonian Road” by Andrew O’Hagan (suggested by Kevin)

            7 votes for “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang (suggested by Anne)

            1 vote for “The Whalebone Theatre” by Joanna Quinn (suggested by Irene)

            2 votes for “North Woods” by Daniel Mason (suggested by Kevin)

            2 votes for “In Memoriam” by Alice Winn (suggested by Fiona)

The next books for discussion are: 

Tuesday, 15th April 2025         My Friends by Hisham Matar (suggested by Sharon)

Tuesday, 20th May 2025         The Vegetarian by Han Kang (suggested by Anne)

Tuesday, 17th June 2025         Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd (suggested by Irene)

Tuesday, 15th July 2025          Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon (suggested by Sharon)

The following books are on the current suggestions list:

“Caledonian Road” by Andrew O’Hagan (suggested by Kevin on 26.02.25)             Round 1

“The Whalebone Theatre” by Joanna Quinn (suggested by Irene on 17.10.24)       Round 2

“In Memoriam” by Alice Winn (suggested by Fiona on 06.09.24)                             Round 2

“North Woods” by Daniel Mason (suggested by Kevin on 01.09.24)                        Round 2

...

Meeting on Tuesday, 18th January 2025 notes by Fiona

River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure

Ten members met in the garden room at the Alexandra Arms public house (our new regular venue).  It was a beautiful sunny but very cold day and we were wonderfully warm in the heated garden room.  Thank you Anne for sorting that for us.

Sarah had nominated the book and very kindly lead the meeting.

VOTING (ten in person and three by email)

10 x 1

9 x 1

8.5 x 3

8 x 2

7 x 6

Average 7.88

Goodreads 4.02

Amazon 4.3

LITERARY AWARDS

Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist 2024

The Maya Angelou Book Award shortlist 2024

International Dublin Literary Award longlist 2025

AUTHOR

Aube Rey Lescure grew up in northern China, Shanghai and southern France with her French expatriate mother.  Her father and Chinese family are from Liaoning province in northeastern China.  She moved to the United States when she was 16.   She attended Phillips Academy Andover and graduated from Yale University in 2015. She currently lives in Boston.

Rey Lescure's debut novel River East, River West, was shortlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction.  It was the only debut novel on the 2024 shortlist.  In 2025, it was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award (shortlist announced on 25th March 2025).

SYNOPSIS

Set against the backdrop of developing modern China, this mesmerizing literary debut is part coming-of-age tale, part family and social drama, as it follows two generations searching for belonging and opportunity in a rapidly changing world - perfect for readers of Behold the Dreamers, White Ivy, and The Leavers.

Shanghai, 2007: Fourteen-year-old Alva has always longed for more. Raised by her American expat mother, she’s never known her Chinese father, and is certain a better life awaits them in America. But when her mother announces her engagement to their wealthy Chinese landlord, Lu Fang, Alva’s hopes are dashed, and so she plots for the next best thing: the American School in Shanghai. Upon admission, though, Alva is surprised to discover an institution run by an exclusive community of expats and the ever-wilder thrills of a city where foreigners can ostensibly act as they please.

1985: In the seaside city of Qingdao, Lu Fang is a young, married man and a lowly clerk in a shipping yard. Though he once dreamed of a bright future, he is one of many casualties in his country’s harsh political reforms. So when China opens its doors to the first wave of foreigners in decades, Lu Fang’s world is split wide open after he meets an American woman who makes him confront difficult questions about his current status in life, and how much will ever be enough.

In a stunning reversal of the east-to-west immigrant narrative and set against China’s political history and economic rise, River East, River West is an intimate family drama and a sharp social novel. Alternating between Alva and Lu Fang’s points of view, this is a profoundly moving exploration of race and class, cultural identity and belonging, and the often-false promise of the American Dream.

GROUP DISCUSSIONS

The majority of the group enjoyed the book and some found it one of the best books they have read for some time.  We found it easy to read though not great literature (no depth of description).  It is a very good debut novel.  It also felt quite autobiographical.  The author seemed to use a lot of her experiences in the novel.  It was interesting to read about an American in China rather than the other way round.

Parts of the book were a little disjointed.  When the author had finished the book she was encouraged to add some more background to Lu Fang and so slotted these parts into the story.

Quite a few also liked the story arc focusing on just three main characters!  Some were so invested in the characters that they would like to know what happens to them in New Jersey.  A few didn’t like the characters and it made a difference to their reading experience.  Also, it was difficult to identify with any of them.  Would our perspective be different if we were Chinese reading this book?

We discussed whether the ending was uplifting as the story felt redemptive at the end.  Alva and Lu Fang are going to America which is what they always wanted but Lu Fang is also of retirement age and may find it difficult to get a job on the other hand he has an entrepreneurial spirit so may be successful there.  Alva and Lu Fang are misfits in Shanghai so it would be no different in USA.  The three of them are going as a group and perhaps their love of each other will support them through the difficulties they may encounter.

This is a book about identity, belonging and acceptance: 

-       Alva is in both camps and neither 

-       Lu Fang feels like his country has abandoned him

-       Sloan is about inventing and reinventing herself

It was interesting to see China and Shanghai through the different characters and through different timelines.  There is a part of the book when Lu Fang goes to visit his mother which shows how different the way of life is between the city and rural China.  The simple customs and way of life is preserved in rural communities.  

Two members of our group lived as expats in Hong Kong.  They both said the book was very relatable and the descriptions of the street scenes felt very familiar: the general shop and the pirate DVD van and the drive for education. 

It was a very interesting political book with regard to the Cultural Revolution and recent Chinese history which quite a few of us had very little knowledge.  It isn’t quite Wild Swans though.  There is the contrast between the effects of communism and capitalism on the people of China.  China was impacted by the 2008 financial crash but was less affected by the crisis than the United States and Europe.

In Alva’s state school they are still wearing red scarves and quoting Mao Zedong.  All the children in the school would feel under a lot of pressure as they are single children and their parents expect them to be high achievers.  There is the alienation from their parents of the children who are not academic.  There are few options for children in China and so it is important for them to be the best at something.  The rise of the “Tiger Mothers”.  This is in stark contrast with the life of the teenagers of expats with maids and private pools and the excesses of having too much money with parties, shopping and drug taking.

As a new author, did she feel the need to shock her readers by adding in the suicide and rape?

There was an evolution in the characters throughout the book, especially with Alva and Lu Fang.  

The story moved along with wanting to know the mystery behind Sloan and Lu Fang’s past and their relationship.

The use of Chinese symbols was a very clever devise.  In particular, the symbol Lu Fang uses which means prisoner as he is a prisoner of his own circumstances

Alva

Some felt the character of Alva was bratty, annoying and unlikeable but not everyone disliked her.  She comes across as quite shallow and makes terrible decisions however she is a teenager.  Some felt she could be forgiven in the end as she gives the money from Daniel to Girlie.  She also has had a difficult upbringing with her mother who lied about so much even down to the death of her parents and her name.  She is a product of her circumstances.

She has an artificial view of the US and is disillusioned when she is at the international school.

She is a mixed-race child and unusually her mother is a white American and her father Chinese.

It would have been difficult for a teenager who had spent her life with just her mother to have a stepfather move in with them.

We feel optimistic towards Alva as she grows up in the story.

Lu Fang

We discussed the cultural revolution and its impact on Lu Fang and the rest of the Chinese society in the book.  He is made to be a bit older than Sloan so that we can see the political situation in China in the 1960/70s.  When it starts Lu Fang has to give up university and be re-educated and go to work in the countryside.  Later on in the book he is not able to progress in his job as he doesn’t have a degree.  He has an arranged marriage.  There is the forced sterilisation of Ciyi due to the one child policy.  

He is the most sympathetic character in the book.  He always tried his best for his family and in turn for Sloan and Alva.

Lu Fang has to live with the knowledge that his actions lead to the death of his son.  He is told his son is depressed but keeps pushing him until Minmin has enough.

Lu Fang has the soul of the book.

Sloan (Sally)

Some members of the group had been to the Far East and understood the attraction of someone like Sloan feeling like a movie star there.

Some felt Sloan the least likeable character and a few found her to be dreadful.

Sloan lives a fabricated life.  

We don’t get to know Sloan as we don’t have her narrative.  She can be admired as she still keeps going despite her setbacks.  She is also quite sad as she deep down she is just Sally with brown hair.  She leaves her ordinary life in rural America, goes to LA to be an actor and finds her looks are nothing special so she goes to China.

Minmin

Minmin’s inability to live up to his father’s expectation of him going to university.  The fact that he had to carry his father’s secret about Sloan and keep it from his mother.  Minmin suffers with depression and the pressure he is under from his father to do well at school.  Lu Fang will have to live with the knowledge that his behaviour at the New Year’s Eve party lead to Minmin committing suicide. 

Zoey, Daniel and Julia Cruise

Does Daniel have form for grooming young friends of Zoey or perhaps his staff?  There is a slight undercurrent of something going to happen with Alva and Daniel.  When Alva confides in her mother, Sloan asks her “what have you done?”.  It is possible this is something Sloan was asked when something similar happened to her.

Julia is very distant from Zoey and Daniel.  It later transpires that she works for a charity who send Chinese girl babies to parents in the US.  She used to have a very important job at home in New Jersey.  Most white women do not work in China as they are there as spouses of headhunted husbands.

Girlie doesn’t need to worry about working once the Cruises left China as Alva had given her the money from Daniel.

A few members of the group had been to China and some had lived in the Far East and so understood the culture of the China and of being an ex-pat.

EMAILED REVIEWS

I loved this book and would even go to say this is the best book I have read.  Having said that I did listen to it and the narrator was excellent which added to the enjoyment.  As there weren’t a lot of characters, the author did a splendid job of drawing out each character.  They were all very engaging.  Apart from the story which was simply written, the picture painted of Shanghai was vivid, and the history of the two periods of China was educational.  I am looking forward to a sequel of how the family manage resettlement in America.

I’m enjoying the book and its different perspectives and themes…

I enjoyed it a lot. It took me to a world I did not know much about and at the same time brought back memories of my visit to the beautiful city of Shanghai.  I found the book well written, it kept my interest. I enjoyed the few poems and proverbs and the hopeful ending. 

I've always been interested in the clash of cultures brought about by colonialism, migration and trading relations, whether historical or in fiction, so I approached the book positively.  Overall it didn't disappoint too much. The setting in a rapidly changing China, moving away from the isolation of the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in Shanghai but also northern China in Lu Feng and Sloan/Sally's backstory, was well used. The premature ending of Lu Fang's education university education, so that he could be 're-educated' in the countryside, had left him with a feeling of under-achievement and a desire for something more. Hence his relationship with Sally, who herself, rather less believably, had abandoned her upbringing in the U.S., and re-invented herself as Sloan, living a lie - telling everyone including her lover and her daughter that her parents were dead and of her career in films.

All three main characters - Alva, Lu Fang and Sloan - are seeking something other than the life that they have and, as so often, the cost of achieving their dream is high. So high, in fact, that although my interest was always held, I found the book depressing, at times very much so, especially with Lu Fang son's suicide, Alva's rape by her friend's father and Gao Xiaofan's death in search of internet fame. Nevertheless, the flawed characters, the dealing with difficult family relationships, the generational clashes and prejudices displayed by, for example, the American businessmen and the Chinese schoolchildren, and particularly Alva's reality of belonging to neither culture despite her understandable wish to fit in somewhere, were well portrayed. The least convincing part of the book, although I'm glad that it happened, was that these issues, along with Sloan's drinking and Alva's treatment of Lu Fang, were apparently resolved so rapidly at the end of the book by a move to the United States. It seemed wildly optimistic that, in the last line of the book 'Facing the outside world, they would be a family. That she knew was true.'

...

Meeting on Tuesday, 21st January 2025 notes by Fiona

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Twelve members met in the garden room at the Alexandra Arms public house due to a power cut at the Cambridge Blue.  We have decided to use the new venue (or previous venue for those long standing members of the book group) for our meeting in February as we were able to hear each other and also order food!!  It was a cold, grey day and the garden room was not heated but should be for our next meeting.  Thank you Anne for having a chat with the barman who will arrange that for us.

We had a discussion about the Prize Lists criteria:

It was agreed to add the Nero Book Award (started in 2023) and remove the Costa Book Awards which stopped in February 2022.

We all agreed not to include the GoodReads Choice Awards.  

It was also agreed to add the Nobel Prize in Literature and remove the two years restriction for this award.

We also discussed whether we should only read fiction books but it was agreed that since we all vote on the books we read as a group to keep non-fiction book suggestions.  

If anyone knows of any other book awards we can add to the lists please mention it at future meetings.  The current list of Prize Lists is at the end of these notes.

Irene had nominated the book and Richard very kindly lead the meeting.

VOTING (eleven in person, two by email and one abstention)

8 x 3

7 x 4

6 x 3

5 x 2

3 x 1

Average 6.38

Goodreads 3.96

Amazon 4.2

LITERARY AWARDS

Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for October 2024

Barack Obama’s Book of the Year

Kirkus Prize for Fiction

2024 Jewish Fiction Award

AUTHOR

James McBride was born in 1957 and is an American writer and musician.  His father, Rev. Andrew D McBride died at the age of 45 of cancer just before James was born.  His mother, Ruchel Dwajra Zylska (name changed to Rachel Deborah Shilsky and later to Ruth McBride) was born in 1921 and was a Jewish immigrant from Poland.  James was raised in a Brooklyn housing project until he was 7 years old.  His mother had eight children from her first marriage to James’ father and a further four children from her second marriage.

McBride states:

I'm proud of my Jewish history....Technically I guess you could say I'm Jewish since my mother was Jewish...but she converted (to Christianity). So the question is for theologians to answer. ... I just get up in the morning happy to be living."

McBride is a Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at New York University <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_University>.  He has three children with his ex-wife and lives in New York City and Lambertville, New Jersey <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambertville,_New_Jersey>.

SYNOPSIS

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighbourhood where Jewish immigrants and African Americans lived side by side through the 1920s and '30s.

In this novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them, James McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community - heaven and earth - that sustain us.

GROUP DISCUSSIONS

The dedication at the front of the novel: “To Sy Friend, who taught all of us the meaning of Tikkun Olam” which means ‘world repair.’

The main discussion point was the number of characters introduced into the story.  It might have been some help to make a list of them and how they interact with each other.  In all communities there are many people and this story shows how they are all linked with each other.  Quite a few have a back story which is there to help the reader understand why they act the way they do but there are also quite a few who just flit in and out.  Sometimes there are too many characters but they are not overwhelming.  They are interesting and all have something to contribute to the story.  It is a community based book and has a big sense of community.  There was an interesting paragraph after the death of Chona about the future “…a device that children of the future would clamour for and become addicted to, a device that fed them their oppression disguised as free thought.” (Page 225/6)

It is interesting that a black American is writing about a Jewish community but he is writing about the history of his parents/grandparents and hoping to give them a better story than the one they had actually lived.  It is also a difficult read as a white person reading about black and Jewish communities.

It is a plot driven story and the characters are there only to push the story forward.  There were some great characters which were well liked by the readers but some felt Chona was too good.  It takes a while to get into the story and this makes it quite a frustrating read (two members didn’t finish the book and another two had yet to finish reading it at the time of the meeting).  It may have been the ‘loveable characters’ and American shmaltzy theme which put people off the book.  Some readers didn’t particularly like the book but did get into it and others read it but didn’t enjoy it.  It has a complex and layered plot and is well put together.  It had a real plot all the way through.  A few people felt the story and plot were too broad and shallow and the characters were not plausible.  All the different characters, their back stories and events which happen in the book come together at the end and the loose ends are tied up.  Others found the ending was hurried as though the author needed to wind up the story or didn’t know how to end it so the ending felt unsatisfying.  Some were sad to leave the characters behind at the end of the story and felt uplifted by the ending.

We discussed the themes within the book such as heaven and earth: Chona lifting everyone up with her kindness and the earthy people such as Nate.  There is tension within the character of Nate which is related to his previous trauma.  There are also characters who have their trauma bottled up inside (Fatty and Bernice).  There are convoluted back stories which informs how the characters react to various scenarios due to their past traumas.  At one point Nate sees Son of Man as a product of his upbringing.  Nate believes that Addie saved him from the poison running through his body.  How some people are able to emerge from their past and rise above it and others are brought down by it. There was an oversimplification of good (Chona) and bad (Doctor Roberts) characters.

It is similar to Middlemarch with trying to look at a community and all the strands which interweave between the characters.

There was a device of marbles throughout the book.

There was also a good representation of people with disabilities.

The giving of gifts to cement bonds within communities not united by blood

There are also very real divisions within the various communities in the book.  All the characters living in Chicken Hill are in poverty and how they deal with the lack of money and the others in their community shows their true characters.  It is interesting to have two minorities living in the same place and how the author tries to bring them together.  It was mentioned that in the 1920/30s there was no Israel so all the Jewish characters are from the old country such as German jews and Polish jews and how they see the hierarchies within the different Jewish communities.  It is not an idealistic picture of a community as they are not integrated.

The book could have been magical realism but the characters and how they act is very real

Most people felt the depiction of the asylum was very real and disturbing.

It is funny and sad.  There were some emotional parts of the book such as Chona dying and Dodo’s rescue.  It is also very funny.  Not a political book.

The language used in the book is of its time in 1920’s/30’s America but the book was written by a black American.

Dodo is the pivotal character in the story and the whole plot revolves around him.

James McBride has set out to do something very ambitious and the reader can admire that but it is very hard to read.  It is a quick and easy read but it is not a great American novel.  The book didn’t leave a lasting impression.  It was a good effort.  It is beautifully written.  Enjoyable but flawed.  It could do with some editing to stop the story being diverted from the main plot.  The structure was terrible.  It is not a murder mystery

It would make a good film or TV series.  

EMAILED REVIEWS

I found the writing long-winded – McBride is the master of saying in a page (or two) what could be said in a sentence.  And don’t get me started on the constant introduction of characters with little or no relevance to the story!  So many times I found myself putting the book down and not wanting to pick it up again, and 100 pages in it stayed shut.  The setting and social history were interesting but it wasn’t enough reason for me to want to continue.

I’m afraid I didn’t really enjoy The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, even though I’d had it recommended by people I trust.  To be honest, I got a bit bored with it (I’m about seven eighths of the way through) and got frustrated at the amount of characters being introduced in every new chapter.  That said, I’m really looking forward to reading the notes.

Being American and from southern Virginia, I am not sure how I feel about this book . The details were daunting and it made me think about how things have and have not changed,  The election drama in the last month could is part of my grimace .  It is good to be exposed to this book but I feel it is fragrant in my memory of growing up in the 70´s and 80’s where segregation was present and even now mixed raced couples in Virginia only live areas where it’s safe to be.

What decides the pace of change?

The next three books for discussion are:

Tuesday, 18th February 2025  River East, River West

                                                by Aube Rey Lescure (suggested by Sarah)

Tuesday, 18th March 2025      Thunderclap: The Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death

                                                by Laura Cumming (suggested by Kevin)

Tuesday, 15th April 2025         My Friends

                                                by Hisham Matar (suggested by Sharon)

The following books are on the current suggestions list:

            “The Vegetarian” by Han Kang

            “The Whalebone Theatre” by Joanna Quinn (suggested by Irene)

            “North Woods” by Daniel Mason (suggested by Kevin)

            “In Memoriam” by Alice Winn (suggested by Fiona)

Current Prize Lists

Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

A British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language.  It covers all non-fiction in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.

Booker Prize

A high-profile literary award for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

Crime Writers Association (CWA) Dagger Awards

These are the UK's top crime writing awards.  Some of the Daggers awarded annually by the CWA:

·       The CWA Gold Dagger <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CWA_Gold_Dagger> - best crime novel by an author of any nationality, originally written in English and first published in the UK.

·       The CWA Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CWA_International_Dagger> - crime novels for a book not originally written in English and has been translated into English for UK publication.

·       The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CWA_Ian_Fleming_Steel_Dagger> - best thriller novel first published in the UK.

·       The CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CWA_Gold_Dagger_for_Non-Fiction> - any non-fiction work on a crime-related theme by an author of any nationality, on condition that the book was first published in the UK in English.

·       The John Creasy (New Blood) Dagger <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CWA_New_Blood_Dagger> - for the best crime novel by a first-time author of any nationality first published in the UK in English.

·       The CWA Historical Dagger <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CWA_Historical_Dagger> - best historical crime fiction novel, first published in the UK in English, set in any period up to 50 years prior to the year in which the award will be made.

EBRD Literature Prize

The prize champions the literary richness of almost forty countries.  It aims to illustrate the importance of literary translation and to introduce the depth and variety of the voices and creativity from these regions to the English-speaking public and a wider global audience.

English Pen Award

PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize - a non-fiction book of historical content, not primarily written for the academic market and can cover all historical periods up to and including the Second World War.

PEN Ackerley Prize - a literary autobiography, written by an author of British nationality, for which it is felt that J.R. Ackerley would have expressed enthusiasm.

Goldsmiths Prize

A British literary prize awarded to a piece of fiction that “breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form.”  It is limited to citizens and residents of the United Kingdom and Ireland, and to novels published by presses based in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

International Booker Prize

A sister prize, to the Booker Prize, is awarded for a book translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

International Dublin Literary Award

This is awarded for a novel written or translated into English and promotes excellence in world literature.

James Tait Black Memorial Prize

A literary prize awarded for literature written in the English language.  One of Britain's oldest literary awards.  Prizes are awarded in three categories: Fiction, Biography and Drama.

Miles Franklin Award

A literary award to a novel which is of the highest literary merit and presents Australian life in any of its phases.

Nero Book Awards

The Awards' feature shortlists and winners across four categories, and culminates with one book being crowned overall winner of the Gold Prize Book of the Year. The four categories are: Children’s Fiction, Fiction, Debut Fiction and Non-Fiction, written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.

Pulitzer Prize

Awarded for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature and musical composition with the United States of America.

Rathbones Folio Prize

The prize is open to all works of literature written in English and published in the UK.  All genres and all forms of literature are eligible, except work written primarily for children.

Rubery Book Award

A prestigious international book award seeking the best books by indie writers, self-published authors and books published by independent presses.

Wainwright Prize

The prize is awarded for a work about the general outdoors, nature and UK based travel writing.

Waterstones Book of the Year

Books are nominated by Waterstones booksellers who then vote to determine the winners and finalists for the prize.

Women’s Prize for Fiction

One of the UK's most prestigious literary prizes.  It is awarded to a female author of any age, race, nationality or background for the best original full-length novel <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel> written in English and published in the United Kingdom.

Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction

            Celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in non-fiction written by women writers from across the globe who are published in the UK and writing in        English.