Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving 'a great gentleman'. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington's greatness and graver doubts about his own faith in the man he served.

A profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world in postwar England.

Variety goes a long way to creating a satisfying reading experience and we do love our variety! Pulled from the depths of the multicultural contemporary Australian suburb, this month we found ourselves up to our stiffened high collars of England's post-war aristocracy with Ishiguro's fabulous Remains of the Day. Other than the fact that a few of us found it a little slow, it was enthusiastically considered a great read with praise coming across the table on everything from writing style and characterisation to remarkable witticism and humour.
It is interesting that a pedantic, formal, and let's face it, boring character such as Stevens could produce so many opinions and intense scrutiny as he did with our group. Everyone had ideas as to how and why this loyal, stuffy butler marched through his life with blinkers the size of tennis rackets on! His childhood, society, the class system, his birth right, the upstairs/downstairs effect, personality dysfunction ... they were all thrown in and tossed around until poor Stevens had been psychologically studied to death ... What fun!

Viti faithfully (as always) brought us a wonderfully feasible explanation of the title, being the reflections of a day's work (Stevens work was his life), so casting a look back on the remains of his life. Remains could also be considered the wreck of his life. Very profound, we all thought.

There was plenty more to discover in this small but truly enjoyable book, with new insights into a very political time in England between the two World Wars. We all enjoyed the humour of the 'bantering problem' and came to the conclusion that Lord Darlington was probably not anti-Semitic but did cave into the pressures of the time. Not totally forgivable within our group!

We scored it high with nothing under a 7/10, so if you would like a beautifully written, leisurely read with great characterisation and thought provoking themes, Remains of the Day gets our approval this month.

The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own. This event has a shocking ricochet effect on a group of people, mostly friends, who are directly or indirectly influenced by the event.

In this remarkable novel, Christos Tsiolkas turns his unflinching and all-seeing eye onto that which connects us all; the modern family and domestic life in the 21st century. The Slap and its consequences force them all to question their own families and the way they live, their expectations, beliefs and desires.

Nine out of 10 times, a book club discussion will serve up surprises. And not necessarily through opinions alone ... at times the surprise comes from whom those opinions are expressed.

Our March book The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas was always going to prove somewhat of a challenge. The language, violence and sex content were more than what we usually indulge in, and yes, all these issues were included in our discussion. But the acceptance level from some of our readers was amazing. Jeanette in particular thought it to be a remarkable book. She found all the characters believable and especially enjoyed the Monolis chapter, in which we see the goings-on through the eyes of Greek immigrant grandparents.

Nancy found the story to be a very good depiction of our society; with our main motivation being greed and the belief that we are entitled to whatever we want. Something I think we were all generally in agreement with.

There was much talk about the male characters (not surprising in an all female group!) with comments such as despicable, morons and ugly. Not exactly endearing descriptions, but they were spooned out along side comments including clever, well drawn, gritty and honest.

It certainly proved to be a challenging read for our group. Some believed the author took on too much here, but whether you love or hate these characters, they are sure to produce a strong and emotional opinion in all but the most faint-hearted of readers.