In the final years of the seventeenth century in a small town in New England, the venerable Colonel Pyncheon decides to erect a ponderously oak-framed and spacious family mansion. It occupies the spot where Matthew Maule, ‘an obscure man’, had lived in a log hut, until his execution for witchcraft. From the scaffold, Maule cries to the presiding Colonel ‘God will give him blood to drink!’

The fate of Pyncheon exerts a heavy influence on his descendants in the crumbling mansion for the next century and a half.

But although a distant family sin appears to have populated the old house with unhappy ghosts, held tenuously between life and death, the arrival of young Phoebe Pyncheon from the country breathes fresh air and sunshine into mouldering lives and rooms, and the novel begins to work against the crushing weight of history.

 

The dark and suppressive nature of a Hawthorne novel is not new to our group. We read The Scarlet Letter a few years ago, so there were no big surprises this month with our return visit to this American classic writer.

It could be the time of year, but most struggled to complete this (what some described as tedious) novel and were at odds to comprehend exactly where Hawthorne meant to go with it. The plot seemed non-existent, which didn’t help getting you through the monotonous rambling descriptions Hawthorne so loves.

We discussed the style that seemed so popular in the day and compared its likeness to Dickens and Bronte. In a time when there was little in the way of visual entertainment, novels of this sort would have been an important diversion from everyday life. So Hawthorne’s long and illustrative narrative may well be daunting to us modern readers, but we can see how it worked in a time of romance novels (when in fact all novels were considered ‘romance’).

The term ‘gothic’ was also bantered around and Cathy, who did not think she would take to this book, found herself quite enjoying this dark, boding tale and believes she could be reading one of the first gothic novels written.

In the end, we decided Hawthorne was able to weave an exemplary kind of magic with his words (his many, many words) and that alone is worthy of consideration, and a read.

From the civil rights struggle in the United States to the Nazi crimes against humanity in Europe, there are more stories than people passing each other every day on the bustling streets of every crowded city. Only some survive to become history.

 As two men – recently released from prison, Lamont Williams and Australian historian Adam Zignelik, try to survive in early twenty-first century New York, history comes to life in ways neither of them could have foreseen. Two very different paths lead to one greater story as The Street Sweeper, in dealing with memory, love, guilt, heroism, the extremes of racism and unexpected kindness, spans the twentieth century to the present and spans the globe from New York to Melbourne, Chicago to Auschwitz.

 

We have tackled some big books this year and Perlman’s The Street Sweeper is the last of them. A sweeping (sorry about the pun) novel of over 500 pages, its story content is dense and at times harrowing, but was given huge praise from the majority of our group.

Some of us did find its volume too daunting and at best ‘just another holocaust story’, but of those that read to the end, it was thought unanimously a well-written, emotional story that horrified yet moved us.

We found Lamont an endearing character and quickly jumped on his bandwagon for the duration of the ride. Adam was intriguing and contained many characteristics of Perlman’s other protagonists, particularly from Three Dollars and Seven Types of Ambiguity.

And then there was the ‘memory’ theme that wove strong throughout the book …

 Memory is a willful dog. It won’t be summoned or dismissed but it cannot survive without you. It can sustain you or feed on you. It visits when it is hungry, not when you are. It has a schedule all its own that you can never know, It can capture you, corner you or liberate you. It can leave you howling and it can make you smile.

This paragraph was sighted by a few of us as being very poignant to the storyline, as there were many aspects and views that needed to come together. And in the end history is written by memories … what they contain and what they miss.

Overall The Street Sweeper scored high with our group. An indication that this novel promises a high quality read for those looking for such. 

Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Store by Robin Sloan

 

 

 

 

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything—instead, they “check out” large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele’s behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends. But when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the bookstore’s secrets extend far beyond its walls.

‘Dan Brown meets Enid Blyton’, as summed up by one of our members. 

It may be over simplifying this modern take on fantasy-realism (nothing simple about that tag), but it does encapsulate what Mr Penumbra’s Bookstore held in literary terms for our group.

An interesting aspect of reading fresh young authors is our tendency to identify them within our already read literature. Finding something completely new in fiction does not happen often, but this one comes close. Sloan’s blend of today’s cutting edge technology coupled with theological presence, not to mention that fabulous bookstore, had the majority of us compelled to read on. It certainly took us away to somewhere entirely new.

The scores stayed high, 7-8 and it was generally considered to be an entertaining book with simple language and a well thought out plot.

No prizes for guessing what the main topic of discussion was … books, books, books!!

 

In understanding successful people, we have come to focus far too much on their intelligence and ambition and personality traits. Instead, Malcolm Gladwell argues in Outliers, we should look at the world that surrounds the successful – their culture, their family, their generation and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing, Along the way, Gladwell reveals what the Beatles and Bill Gates have in common, the reason you’ve never heard of the smartest man in the world, why almost no star hockey players are born in the fall, and why, when it comes to plane crashes, where the pilots are born matters as much as how well they are trained.

The lives of outliers – people whose achievements fall outside normal experiences – follow a peculiar and unexpected logic, and in uncovering that logic, Gladwell presents a fascinating and provocative blueprint for making the most of human potential.

 

Up until recently our group has not read a lot of non-fiction, but this year we decided to make a concerted effort to do so. The question is … what should we read? Our interests are wide and varied so it shouldn’t be too hard to find something. The problem is, as readers we have already read most of the non-fiction that appeals to us.

Here is where an author like Malcolm Gladwell comes in. His books tend to be written as a social commentary (backed with studies and statistics) on a combination of universally significant, and yet at times seemingly banal topics. In the Outliers he talks us through the circumstances which result in everything from star hockey players and award winning airlines, to software magnets and multi-millionaire entrepreneurs. His statistics can bring on a slight case of the ‘glazed eye’ syndrome, but his research is sound and generally he argues his case in a very entertaining and informative way.

On the whole we found the read to be serious food for thought with an amazing amount of information fired out at a fast pace. Certainly fast enough to keep those pages turning!

Everyone had their favourite  chapter … some liked the idea of the magic 10,000 hours of practice, others the close look at cultural differences, and then Gladwell’s last chapter outlining his own family background we all found extremely interesting, adding a real human touch to an author so consumed with facts and figures.

Whichever, they all culminated in a great discussion on a huge range of topics. A perfect book for a group interested in a constantly changing and puzzling world.  Highly recommended!

 It is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.

 

This year’s most challenging read would have to be Booker winner, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Not a group to easily shy away from a challenge, everyone made a concerted effort to tackle this 800+ page door stop!

From a discussion perspective, this novel delivered an abundance of material. We found the author’s use of astrological charts to define her characters intriguing. Their circular synergy was captivating, releasing piece by piece everything needed to form a full picture of this literary jigsaw puzzle.

Although clearly a mystery set within the Victorian backwater of New Zealand’s south island, the multitude of layers formed by the different character viewpoints made this more than just a whodunit novel (Dickens came to mind for most of us). Keeping track of the various cast members was not easy, but for those of us who persevered, the awards were great. The plot, setting and description were all brilliantly combined and none of us could say we were not literally picked up and placed on the muddy streets of a colonial goldfield!

Alas, it was a little too much for some of us, who simply found the volume of pages a stumbling block too big to get over. But if you love a large chunk of well researched and brilliantly constructed literature, then The Luminaries must be your next big read!

 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Our meeting was very sad this month as we said goodbye to our dear friend and fellow book cluber Carol Clancy. Carol joined us some 10 years ago and her lovely smile and pleasant disposition is going to be missed by us all. Carol would have been the first of us to rail against the hatred that has resulted in the MH17 disaster, so for her sake we did not dwell on that but recalled some of our more enjoyable moments with her. In her own quiet way she will always be there, at our meetings.

 What did we think of Gone Girl? Well, it scored high with most of the group (a 10 in Nancy’s case) but as low as 6 with others. There was no argument concerning the creepy factor of Amy. Her sociopathic character inspired great discussion, mostly about whether her extremely well-thought out scheme was plausible. It was decided that realistic or not, the storyline, although somewhat disturbing, was well constructed, compelling and kept you coming back for more. In fact, a few of us believed that the constant ‘whodunit’ interchange was a key element in the story’s appeal.

 

Cathy and Denise both enjoyed its contemporary setting, ignoring the crude language, but were curious about what message the author was looking for. Ann found too much background padding and wanted the story to get moving. Within the group there was little to no love for any of the characters, but it was unanimous that Nick was nothing more than an average male (no better, no worse than most) and that Amy needed to be caught and held to account! The role of the media was also touched on, along with Amy’s parents and their lapse of parental duty heavily underlined.

 

The book’s conclusion also gained much interest in our group. Some thought it weak, others clever. We all had an idea of how we thought it would play out, and apparently the movie has its own ending … so with the film placed firmly on our ‘to see’ list, we will all be waiting to see what they have come up with!

 

In the summer of 1914, the Empress Alexandra, a magnificent transatlantic liner, suffers a mysterious explosion en route to New York. On board are Henry Winter, a rich banker, and his young new wife, Grace. Somehow, Henry manages to secure a place in a lifeboat for Grace. But the survivors quickly realize it is overloaded and could sink at any moment. For any to live, some must die.

As the castaways battle the elements, and each other, Grace watches and waits. She has learned the value of patience – her journey to a life of glittering privilege has been far from straightforward. Now she knows that life is in jeopardy, and her very survival is at stake.

As a rule, the underlying theme of your typical novel is not hard to determine. In fact, it tends to be one of the first observations our group will make and agree upon. Then along comes The Lifeboat. The title alone cries out ‘survival’ as its focus. But as our discussion moved along it became clear that Grace was hiding more than a callous need to survive.

It was Anne who suggested that Rogan’s main character was in fact even lying to us and that as readers we only have her version of what happened in the lifeboat. Can we believe her? In learning how she purposefully manufactured her life (before the shipwreck) and those in it, we think not!

So, now our thread of thought seems to be moving into the realm of manipulation and falsification and how one person uses others to advance their own ends. Some argue that this is a form of survival, but this cut little ice with most of us.

In fact, there was no sympathy for Grace within our group, or for anyone else for that matter. We all conceded that the story was well written, but there was a certain lack of connectivity to the passengers and their predicament, where we thought we should be feeling a great deal of sympathy and compassion.

Much was left to speculation, which in turn left us wondering what we would have done and begs that big question any story of this sort asks … is it worth sacrificing a few for the many?

This novel provides no whys … only whats, so if you’re looking for a read that will give you all the answers, we suggest steering clear (pun intended) of The Lifeboat!