Homer & Langley by E. L. Doctorow

Brilliant brothers Langley and Homer Collyer are born into bourgeois New York comfort, their home a mansion on upper Fifth Avenue, their future rosy. But before he is out of his teens Homer begins to lose his sight, Langley returns from the war with his lungs seared by gas, and when both their parents die, they seem perilously ill-equipped to deal with the new era. As the brothers construct a life on the fringes of society, they hold fast to their principle of self-reliance. But they are mocked and spied on, and despite wanting nothing more than to shut out the world, the epic events of the century flow through their housebound lives as they struggle to survive and create meaning for themselves.

To have 12 readers agreeing to the pleasure of one book is no mean feat, but that is exactly what happened this month with Homer and Langley by E. L. Doctorow. Every one of us enjoyed the connectivity that the author created with the two Collyer brothers, even if he took some license with the facts. Denise felt we needed to put the real story of Homer and Langley Collyer away, and simply enjoy Doctorow’s brilliant characterisation of these two extraordinary souls.


The economic writing was a hit with the group, as was McCarthy’s a few years back, and the black humour, descriptive writing and astute observations made us all instant fans.

A few of us felt Doctorow used his characters as a platform for some of his own social and political views, but we are no strangers to this (Coetzee comes to mind) and were more than happy to absorb them within the context of the story.

Langley’s entertaining fight with the authorities was enjoyed by all and our empathy leaned strongly towards the brothers throughout the book. Ann questioned our acceptance of such eccentric individuals today, or if we found them actually living next door. Good point Ann, and it had us contemplating society’s tolerance to mental health.

There was so much to discuss in this small, unassuming book and we were all surprised by its scope and integrity. Should you read Homer and Langley? If you like a book packed with emotion that makes you laugh, cry and think, then yes, get a copy without delay!

The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason

Tom’s friend Paul is similarly obsessed and when a long-lost diary surfaces they finally seem to make a breakthrough. But only hours later, a fellow researcher is murdered and the two friends suddenly find themselves in great danger. Working desperately to expose the book’s secret, they slowly uncover a Renaissance tale of passion and blood, a hidden crypt and a secret worth dying to protect.

This was a tricky one for the end of the year. Some of us were not up to the task of unraveling the puzzle of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili! It may well have been the time of year, or, as someone suggested, the self-indulgence of the two authors. Either way, it was a struggle for most of our group to get through this scholarly mystery.

Ann, who did enjoy the challenge, felt you needed a love of history and accumulating knowledge to get the most from this book, and she loved the ‘mystery within the mystery’ that ran throughout. Viti also found some value within its pages and she loved the historical tidbits that the story supplied.

But the overall opinion was that Rule of Four did not quite make the grade for a good novel. To much work required, tedious, and characters that did not connect were among the majority of views. Would it have been different if we read this book at the beginning of the year? Probably not. Our book club has a well developed sense of what they like, and are not easily convinced otherwise.

So it is on to a new year of reading, which gets everyone excited about what we will discover. Keep an eye on this blog for our latest reviews of 2013.

Women in Black by Madeleine St John

The Women in Black is a fairytale which illuminates the extraordinariness of ordinary lives. The women in black are run off their feet, what with the Christmas rush and the summer sales that follow. But it's Sydney in the 1950s, and there's still just enough time left on a hot and frantic day to dream and scheme ...

By the time the last marked-down frock has been sold, most of the staff of the Ladies' Cocktail section at F.G. Goode's have been launched into slightly different careers. With the lightest touch and the most tender of comic instincts, Madeleine St John conjures a vanished summer of innocence.



The level of enthusiasm for Women in Black turned out to be understandable when we discovered how much personal knowledge of 1950s Sydney, and in particular David Jones, there was amongst our group. Most found this book a nostalgic trip into a past world where things seemed less complicated and there was much more goodwill around. The whole group felt St John captured the era perfectly and her focus on the characters rather than the plot helped to make it the enjoyable read it was.


There were plenty of laughs around the table as memories of fashion shopping and joining the work force were discussed and although we agreed the past is more often than not looked back on through rose-coloured glasses, it was still fun to relive this innocent time through the security of, dare I say it, mature wisdom!

All this praise is not to say there were no negatives. Joan felt the whole story was some what superficial and that the writing style lacked creativity. There were also a few who did not really consider this a 'novel' but more a nostalgic commentary.

Either way, it was an enjoyable read for our group after the heavier content of our last book, and the agreed 3 stars is a good indication that we found it worthwhile.

The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

The Balkans, 1941. As German bombs fall, a tiger escapes from his zoo and heads to a ridge above the village of Galina. His nocturnal visits hold the villagers in terrified thrall. But for one boy, the tiger is a thing of magic – Shere Khan awoken from the pages of Jungle Book.

Natalia is the granddaughter of that boy. Now a doctor, she is visiting orphanages after another war has devastated the Balkans, when she hears of her beloved grandfather’s death.

From fragments of stories told to her as a child, Natalia realises her grandfather may have died searching for the immortal ‘deathless man’. Struggling to understand why a man of science would undertake such a quest, she stumbles upon a clue that will lead her to the extraordinary story of the tiger’s wife.

The Tiger's Wife filled a two month slot for our book club as it was considered a challenging read and it worked well for us not to rush this one. As quite often happens with this style of literature, our scores swung widely from 3 to 8 stars. There will always be someone who finds something where others find nothing. A good motto for a book club!

To break it down ... most enjoyed the writing, language and description, but many also agreed that there were too many words and the continuity was a bit awkward at times. Everyone found the significance in the contrast between medicine and supersition which was very powerful in the cultural identity of the people. A strong theme and important to the overall impact of this book.

The characters did not appeal and they were hardly discussed, but the history thread kept us interested even though the protagonists became lost in the lives of the people and bogged down in their superstition.

As a group we do enjoy a challenge and this young writer's style and effort was appreciated by us.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Enter a vanished world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren’t trusted not to steal the silver …

There’s Aibileen, raising her 17th white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son’s tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from college, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.

Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they’d be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell.

This was always going to be a good meeting. This book has got everything needed for a lively discussion on all the emotional issues close to our hearts. Racism, apartheid, inequality, social standing and women’s rights. The fact that it takes place during the 60s in the southern states, USA did nothing to diminish our enthusiasm and in fact tended to educate some of us more in the ways of this part of the world.

We all loved the characters, found them well-rounded and believable, even if a little stereotypical.

Most of us were aware of the tension running through the story and felt some fear for the blacks as Skeeter continued to meddle in the long standing way of life in Jackson. Ann found it interesting that we, as white people, felt compelled to point an accusing finger at Skeeter, believing she was putting herself first in pushing for the Help’s stories. Did she really care about the danger they were placing themselves in? It was an interesting turn of the table. Would any of us have had the courage to go through with such a plan?

Some wanted a little more history and thought the writing purposely kept light for the popular audience. We touched on the Freedom Rides and Rosie Parks a little, and someone mentioned that the ending seemed a little abrupt. This, we generally considered to be unavoidable, as this story has the possibility to be eternal. How much of this is still going on today we all wondered and were able to admit that America is not the only place one finds such attitudes. South Africa and closer to home, Australia itself, has been guilty of racism and apartheid, so throwing stones was never going to work.

There was much more said and debated, as this book has such a full cast of characters, incidents, and underlying themes that were no doubt written with a screenplay in mind. Some of us have seen the movie, but we were unanimous in finding The Help an extremely readable story. One that we feel confident in placing high on this year’s to read list.

The Report by Jessica Francis Kane

It is an early spring evening in 1943 when the air-raid sirens wail out over the East End of London. From every corner of Bethnal Green, people emerge from pubs, cinemas and houses, and set off for the shelter of the Tube station. At the entrance steps, something goes badly wrong, the crowd panics, and 173 people are crushed to death. When an enquiry is called for, it falls to the local magistrate, Laurence Dunne, to find out what happened during those few, fatally confused minutes.

Based on the true story of the worst civilian disaster of World War Two, this is an evocative, moving and beautifully crafted novel about loss and guilt, and the possibility of redemption.

First and foremost, it was agreed within our group that this novel provided some fascinating reading, in the information it supplied with regard to the actual true story of the Bethnal Green underground crush during the WWII blitz, and also the human story entwined within the facts. Little was known of this civilian disaster by any of us and there were a few who would have liked the novel to travel deeper into the factual history. But overall, we found the read a good one.

There were comments on the dry narrative and its propensity to jump about. Some found it a little repetitive and had a yes/no response to the book’s value.

While these opinions found merit with the group as a whole, the majority loved this book, both for its setting and the moral dilemmas it unearthed. We had a wonderful discussion on the effects of war on the human spirit and we even had some personal experience of London during the war years, which found firm ground with all of us. The discussion humbled us, and gave us renewed respect for those who lived through such a time.

Ann loved the opportunity the book gave for study and could list many ways she would have used it during her teaching career, and finished by remarking that the many “Don’t knows” within the story were its main prize.

Denise felt enlightened after reading it, stating that the insight into the East End community and in particular the underground setup was simply fascinating. The fact that the underground shelters, where everyone had felt safe, had failed them, was yet another human tragedy that needed recognition. Everyone also sensed the thinly disguised veil of anti-Semitism that ran through the community and we had much to say about whether this could have been the case among Brits at the time.

Is this just another World War Two story? Maybe, but the clinical, methodical look into what turned out to be a collective series of unfortunate events gives us yet another look into what we humans are capable of … the good and the bad.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, swindlers and misfits in a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that Jacob meets Marlena, the beautiful equestrienne who is married to August, a charismatic but violently unpredictable animal trainer. Jacob also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems unmanageable until he discovers an unusual way to reach her. Water for Elephants is a story that has it all - warmth, humour, poignancy and passion.

The circus … love them or loathe them, it was unanimously agreed that they make a great background for a novel! We all loved the world of the travelling circus that Water For Elephants took us to, with a few of us remembering the circus coming to town during their childhood and the sights and smells they conjured up.

Although we were all aware that basically this is a romance, coupled with the hardships of the Great Depression and black market days of the prohibition, we mostly found the romantic element of the story a little wanting. In fact, many of us thought the book could have done without Jacob and Marlena’s doleful looks and unrequited love triangle. But never-the-less, it was well received by our group, with the enjoyment level scoring high.

For the better part of an hour we were able to comb through this novel and come up with some stimulating conversation on animal cruelty, loyalty, discrimination, racism and finally ending up at the movies with memories of films such as The Greatest Show on Earth and Trapeze.

Viti never fails to satisfy with her insight into novels and pointed out that the nursing home where Jacob ended up in his later years mirrored the circus in many ways. They were fed and treated much like animals in the zoo, and it contained an atmosphere and smells quite foreign to those on the outside ... much like a circus. Sharp Viti, very sharp!

Finally, we were impressed with Gruen’s research. Even if she didn’t get right down to the nitty gritty of the human condition of these people and their world, the historical pictures helped to take us there and the little facts and fallacies of circus life planted throughout were all we needed. Then of course there was the enividable happy ending. But we were even willing to forgive that. Not always an easy thing for our group!

So, should you read this book? Our recommendation is yes … before you see the movie. It will be one of your more enjoyable reads this year.