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About 3 minutes after 8, I started to wonder if maybe I got bookclub night all wrong (I boiled water for nothing!) and before I had time to finish that thought, luckily the front gate creaked (my doorbell substitute) and Michelle was at my doorstep, Elizabeth and Jackie turned up soon after. We were also joined by Elissa and Liz. I’m not sure if this is a bookclub first, but there was no chocolate in any form on offer. We had fresh bagels, salmon dip, crackers, cheese, hummus and chips. And we were down to business.

When Elizabeth opens the meeting with a shout out of "Hands up if you hate the book!” you know you’re in for an interesting time. Everyone had their hand up but me, I shall explain why shortly. Eggers/YSKOV got a beating worse than Will at the storage unit in Oconomowoc. If this book was a person, it would be blue-black, its face pummelled beyond recognition and quite possibly paralysed by the two-by-four beatings after we’ve kicked it to the ground.

Now I can’t remember who said what and I’m sorry if I misrepresent what you said, or worse, what was said, and in no particular order but things that riled up attendees ranged from the self-absorb / self-conscious voice, which readers of HWOSG (Jackie, Elissa, Elizabeth, and someone else?) thought was effective and that was further amplified in YSKOV, which everyone found annoying; the over the top reaction to Jack’s death; the assemblage of ideas that didn’t quite work or was unconvincing; Elissa made the point that even as a road trip book, it didn’t quite work because they did not meet anyone interesting or memorable, the people they met were too familiar (at least this is what I thought you said Elissa, I’m sorry if I’m wrong); the irritating, naive characters even though some of us might recognise Will/Hand in people/relations we know; the high jinks (jumping from a moving car to cart); the story starting on the front cover (hardcover version); the declaration at the beginning of the end that Will died; how Will was overwhelmed with love for the Mexican girl/child and her family (what is the point of this?) and signs over the remaining $900 traveller’s cheques to her AND THEN THERE WAS THE MAYHEM when everyone present discovered that some of the paperback editions contained an addendum (about 50 pages) shoehorned into the middle of the story. "An Interruption" is a reflection written by Hand and calls into question the reliability of the narrator (Will) and truth of the story being told (ie. death of Jack, Will and Hand’s adventure), and Michelle who read this copy, noted the indistinguishable voice of Hand to Will’s. Oh boy. Elizabeth withdrew her half stars she was going to give YSKOV because as we all know, once a book is published, it should not be tampered with.

Bravely, I attempted to defend the book, as seen through the eyes of a friend who gave this book to me. Said friend, who’s a little more than a friend, is a big fan of Eggers. I tried to relay Tom’s view but failed as his mouthpiece and I did not convince anyone. Elissa and I enjoyed some of the writing/language and I thought that there were parts that were well written, that it was apparent Eggers is a talented writer even though I did not like the book as a whole. Jackie disagreed and said Eggers’ talent was not apparent at all in YSKOV, and the book was a disappointing follow-up to HWOSG compared to Jonathan Safran Foer’s "Extremely Late and Incredibly Vague", which was far better than his first book according to Jackie and Elissa.

For those who’ve been traumatised by YSKOV, fear not, we’ve been reliably informed by Elizabeth, who read the book some two years ago and hated it then, that she’d actually forgotten all about it and it wasn’t until she started reading it again that the memories came flooding back. Your trauma too will recede.

Stars
Yen – 1
Elizabeth, Jackie, Michelle, Liz, Elissa, Wayde, Andrew – None
Celia, Marg, Mardi, Aoife – n/a
Anne – ?

And that was bookclub. Michelle gave a lovely introduction to each of the books she’d selected for the next round. We’re reading "If on a winter’s night a traveller" by Italo Calvino for the next bookclub meeting.

Yen

* As the book was about premature loss (if Will’s story is right) you guys might be interested to know that Eggers’ older sister, Beth, committed suicide in 2001 from overdose of anti-depressant and OTC pain reliever. YSKOV was dedicated to Beth.

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