Oh Anne

The Captive Wife – what Anne said

theemc2 — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 03:20:32 +0000

Hi everyone,

Upon reflection, I quite enjoyed this book – but only after I had to force myself to plough through the first 200 pages or so which I found to be quite tedious. As most interstaters so far have noted, Kidman’s multiple narrator structure really isn’t very successful and this is especially evident towards the end of the book when the narrative gets away from her a little and she is forced to make quick switches of voice within the chapters, with headings such as “John” and “Betty.”

And it also meant that the not-very-suspenseful-at-all confrontation at Parramatta involving most of the characters was awkwardly constructed, confused and lacking the comic effect she was attempting to achieve. I didn’t care for the characters very much, but did not find them unbelievable. I have to admit I skimmed over most of the whaling bits, having had just about enough whaling to last a lifetime with Moby Dick. The book is actually a very good example of the challenges that lurk within the historical novel genre, and I think Kidman addresses these challenges with mixed results. I thought her research was excellent and I certainly felt I learned a few things I did not know (for example, that the Maoris were cannibals – I’m assuming this is true??). I thought John Guard’s diary entries were the least successful device in that the character that emerged from these passages seemed to me to be one that would not have written those thoughts down – a circular argument, I know, but it just didn’t work for me. To be fair to Kidman, though, I think she had researched diary entries and could very well have come across some form of diary from the real John Guard . . . another issue of the historical novel, of course, is the balance of fact and fiction. I think the most successful ones allow the reader not to worry about what is historically “correct” and what is an educated guess on the part of the author. With this book, I was always wondering how much was “real” and how much was Kidman’s imagination. That was an annoying distraction. I did enjoy Betty as a character and liked the development of her love for New Zealand, despite everything.

I’m giving it 3 stars and voting for Ghostwritten.

Have a good meeting.

Anne xxx

The Captive Wife – what Celia said

theemc2 — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 03:17:50 +0000

Hi everyone,

I held high hopes for this book, having only recently learned that my 3 x great grandfather was a convict. Which means I was probably setting myself up for being disappointed – which I was. It’s not that it was badly written, but I wouldn’t be recommending it to anyone as a good read. I think the main problem was that I didn’t like any of the characters – probably the result of not being “inside” any one particular character for any length of time. I wondered why she took this approach – it certainly didn’t make the somewhat fantastic (ie unbelievable) story any easier to swallow. The other issue I have with ”based on a true story” historical fiction is that all of the stuff about feelings, the side plots involving sexual tension/love story are so obviously made up. As this book relied a lot on feelings, sexual tension and love stories to connect with the reader, I found the book particularly difficult to believe.

The story aside, I did find some of the characters humorously portrayed (Maude Percival, Mrs Kentish, Hettie). In sum, an easy read, but not one to keep in the bookshelf. I think I’d probably prefer to read the non-fiction version of this story.\

Take care and have fun at the library that sells beer.

Celia

The Captive Wife – what Aoife said

theemc2 — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 03:15:36 +0000

Hello all

I have to say I was underwhelmed by this month’s book. Any book that promises whales in it immediately makes me think of Moby Dick and I couldn’t help but read those relevant parts and think they were slightly plagarised from Melville or maybe it is that Melville has written the definite account and nothing else will come close. This is not a comforting thought for me as I currently do rewrites on a children’s book which involves a chocolate factory.

But it wasn’t all about whales. I quite enjoyed the first two chapters but by the time the spinster Adie?(name already forgotten) turned up something went a bit wrong for me. The two main things I can pinpoint is that I struggled with were the characters and the research that underpinned. I found the characters on the whole unbelievable. The secondary story of the spinster was the most unbelievable which was a bit problematic as it was supposed to be a counterpoint and also the conduit for the telling of the rather dramatic tale of whalers/ pioneers/Maori interaction and inter racial love while kidnapped (which was a bit Ahab’s Wife even though it was supposedly based on a true story). Also having a narrative told from several people first person in the main, I didn’t find the ‘telling’ or voices to be distinct enough and once again was unconvinced even though I thought she was a reasonable writer.

I also thought that at times the research came through a little too strongly, as opposed to bringing the story alive, even though there was some interesting stuff there about early Sydney.

As a bit of an anecdote to this I reread David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas because the first section is a similar time and places to this book but also how to do multiple voices perfectly. That is a definite 5 star book and really made this book only about a two for me. And being in a David Mitchell frame of mind I vote for Ghostwritten.

How to cook people; it’s just like damper apparently

theemc2 — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 03:09:02 +0000

Greetings bookclubbers, attending, distant and prospective,

We had a bookclub meeting about … um, last Monday I think it was, at our favourite library with beer, The London in Balmain. I was there, and so were Jackie, Yen, Elissa, Andrew and Michelle. After quite a long time discussing the exciting news of Yen’s pregnancy and the equally exciting-but-not -in-a-good-way news of Michelle’s husband’s heart attack (he’s fine now), we talked about The Captive Wife for a while. According to my very cursory and almost illegible notes, we said some things more or less along the following lines.

Andrew claims to hate all historical fiction, especially when it’s comprised of fake letters and fake diary entries – he says it reminds him too much of year 9 projects involving staining paper with tea to make it look ye olde. So faced with a novel which starts with a fake letter before moving on to a fake journal entry, it’s not surprising he didn’t make it past page 68. Everyone else managed to struggle through to the end with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The general consensus was that Ms Kidman’s historical research seemed solid, with Yen and Michelle enjoying the bits about life in colonial Sydney, Jackie being surprised to learn of Maori cannibalism and the culinary tip referred to in the subject line above, and myself, unlike Aoife and Anne, much preferring ‘How to Catch a Sperm Whale in Six Easy Pages’ to its obvious source in the longwindedness of Mr Melville. And theme-wise, Jackie and Elissa in particular opined there was food for thought in the author’s attempts to explore the choices women make/are forced to make in a patriarchal society and you know, stuff like that. Where everyone thought the novel fell down was in the drawing of the characters; fatally for a novel written in several characters’ voices, none of them seemed convincing or even really distinguishable, with the governess in particular seeming like nothing more than a plot device (were she to appear in an Austin Powers film her character would have been called Adeline Exposition). This lead to a wider discussion about why historical fiction works when it does – Wolf Hall, The True History of the Kelly Gang and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet being given as examples – which was really interesting and I bet you wish you had been there because from a distance of six days I can’t really remember any of it and my notes say unhelpful things like ‘ws a levic – dumsy need to?’ so I think I’m going to file that under lost in the mists of time and hope I get my brain back once I stop breastfeeding.

Anyway. Stars:

Elissa: 3
Michelle: 3
Yen: 3.5
Andrew: didn’t make the rigorously applied 150 page cut off
Jackie: 2.5
Elizabeth: 2.5

The next book, which won in a Barry O’Farrellesque landslide from Marg’s shortlist of first novels, is Ghostwritten by David Mitchell. The next meeting is on 2 May. After our traditional discussion of where to meet when it’s an interstater’s choice, we eventually said, as is traditional, sod it, let’s come back to The London. Next to choose is Elissa and I think after that is Wayde.

love and jaffas

Elizabeth

P.S David Mitchell is speaking at the Sydney Literary Festival on 20 May – anyone want to go?

P.P.S This email is being copied to our friends Ruth and Hayley, who have, perhaps foolishly, expressed an interest in joining bookclub. I shall leave the effusive introductions until they actually commit themselves by showing up. They’re nice though. You’ll like them.

The Red Shoes – what Aoife said

theemc2 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:12:19 +0000

Dear All Hello and welcome to this round of book club. JQ being far more organised than me has beat me to the report stage but her snappy summing up is probably similar to my own thoughts. In preparation for the choices of this round I had read two Ursula Dubosarsky’s novels other than this one – Abyssinia and The White Guinea Pig. Both of which I didn’t think much of. The White Guinea Pig, which has won quite a few awards, was fairly straight forward and in some ways covered the same terrain as this one. Whereas Abyssinia I still don’t know what it was about – wierd children kidnappings etc but the blurb on the back said the end was supposed to be uplifting – lucky it told me that or I would have assumed that children taken away never to see their families again would be a little unsettling for those young adults out there. So onto The Red Shoe. In the time that we have chosen this book Ursula has won another major literary prize being the Victorian Premier’s Prize (for another book – but it is her third prize this year) and in her acceptance speech she quoted the Bible – saying, and I’m paraphrasing as can’t find the exact quote, when I was a child I played with the things of a child but now I am an adult I have put those things away, she then said she thought that was the most depressing thought she could think of. I concur with this sentiment as I have spent this morning colouring in hard boiled eggs and then putting them in dye! I thought the Red Shoe was by far the best book of the three I have read. It did catch the idea of childhood well and there was a quote about the feeling of your skin getting sunburnt and your blood being warm that really took me back to my own childhood and summer. It also was an insight for me that really being brought up in the 50s was not that much different to being brought up in the 70s. I thought the writing was lovely and the atmosphere a bit elusive and dream like (a bit like the Virgin Suicides) – terrible things happening but its just not that upsetting which is in some ways a child’s response, and ability, to cope with tragedy. I didn’t really like the newspaper articles being included, which is something that Ursula has done before in books. I appreciate that she read a lot to get a feel for the period but outside the sort of curiousity of them I don’t think they were necessary. I liked the idea of children trying to make sense of the half-truths and half stories they hear eg polio and the Petrovs. I thought the revelation of what had happened at the Basin and the role their Uncle played was very interesting – the only part that I didn’t like about that was the very ending like everything was going to be happy now – Floreal leaving, Elizabeth feeling better – that really didn’t ring true to the rest of the book for me but maybe you’ve got to give young adults some hope that all is well in the end. I did like the Red Shoe ideas running through it being very fond of red shoes myself but what a very gruesome fairy story – can’t say I’ll be desperate to read that one to the kids. But then as a three year old I loved Rapunzel – the blood thirsty one with eyes being put out by thorns and witches falling to their death etc. Some thoughts that occured to me What makes this book fiction for young adults (similar to Wayde’s sentitments)? as opposed to a novella perhaps for adults. Does every young adult book have a young adult as a protagonist – is that the definition? I can’t think that I would have thought this book that fab if I had read it as a young teenager. I suspect that even though I enjoyed it as an adult its a book that adults perhaps wish teenagers would read (though I’m not putting myself into that camp) rather then one that they would choose to read themselves. I was given The Children’s Bach to read as a teenager by Helen Garner and other than some reference to sex which I remember being a bit amazed by I thought it was pretty dumb even though I think its seen as a classic now – I suspect that would be how I would have felt about this one. Whereas Tamar which was the one I had hoped people would choose this round made me feel like I was a teenager as I read it – and a surly one at that – it was excellent and if anyone wished to read more YA fiction that one is highly recommended. Three and a half stars from me.

Aoife

The Red Shoes – what Wayde said

theemc2 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:11:18 +0000

Hello All, I have managed to not only read the book, but also to write a report. … Well, I read it. It didn’t take very long to read. It wasn’t irritating in any way. The revelation of what happened at The Basin was well done, and I thought that the tension over what role Uncle Paul was playing in the family was well done. The trip to the State Theatre was amusing. It is the one at 49? Market street I believe. I went to see alexei sayle there once, and the support act was the scared little weird guys, I think. They made some quip about normally playing at places a bit more ornate. I will steal Marg’s point, (assuming she gets a chance to make it) that I couldn’t quite imagine which age of reader it was aimed at. School librarians perhaps? Teenage girls suffering from a nervous breakdown, interested in stories from the point of view of precocious 6 year old girls? Gifted and talented 6 year old girls with an interest in australian history? The KGB? 3 stars from me. wayde.

The Red Shoes – what Elizabeth said

theemc2 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:10:30 +0000

And I say 4 stars. I thought this was a very well written ‘YA’ novel, in that it covered some big issues but managed to avoid posting any flashing lights saying ‘BIG ISSUE BEING DISCUSSED HERE’. I thought the sense of period and place was very well evoked, and I like the way the world of the principal character (whose name I’ve already forgotten, shame on me) was put in very sensory terms – it was all about smells and sounds and colours, which are the main components of most of my childhood memories. So well done that Ursula woman.

Elizabeth

The Red Shoes – what Jackie said

theemc2 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:08:42 +0000

Hello All,

I don’t think Elizabeth and I will make bookclub tonight, as we’ll be too tired after moving a lot of our house back into place after the painters have all but finished, and then going to our birth centre appointment.

So, I give The Red Shoe 3 stars. It was an enjoyable read – with the sisters being reasonably well drawn characters. It was also an effective way to introduce serious topics of that time to young readers through the impact it had on the family, such as polio, the Petrovs, the after-effects of war on soldiers. I also liked the family dramas to keep you interested - the father’s attempted suicide, the revelation about Uncle Paul, the snail hotel. I especially liked how the author demonstrated the notion that you can try and keep important things from children (the father’s attempted suicide) but they often find out and the secrecy may mean the children suffer anyway.

The next round is an “end of round”. One idea might be to choose one of the shortlisted Booker nominees.

See you all after the baby has arrived.

Jackie

The Red Shoes

theemc2 — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:56:22 +0000

Dear ‘Clubbers

My profound apologies for sending this report so late. My only excuse is that I was struck down ill immediately after book club, confined to bed for a week and then forgot. No excuse, I know.

5 Sydney book club friends met at the Alfred Hotel in Camperdown to discuss the Red Shoe. We soon realised that unless we were discussing the Bowie lyric “put on your Red Shoes and dance the blues” we were not going to be able to talk at the Alfred as we were being drowned out by a Trivia Quiz. We retired to Yen’s house which is conveniently located around the corner from the Alfred. So as not to break a 10 year tradition, we purchased chocolate biscuits, jelly snakes and freckles from the 7/11 on the way to Yen’s house.

Jackie and Elizabeth had called in their apologies. Jackie said she was ‘tired’ and wouldn’t make it to the meeting. It was only at the meeting that Celia asked whether that meant Elizabeth was ‘tired’ too, which was when the penny dropped that ‘tired’ might have been a euphemism for ‘in labour’ (although no doubt they were tired as well).

The general consensus amongst the Sydney readers was that The Red Shoe was engaging and entertaining (except for Michelle who could remember nothing about it). Michelle read the book very quickly and it didn’t stay with her. She thought the newspaper extracts were disjointed Yen thought the characters were believable and the book generally was complex and subtle. She liked the excitement and the intrigue and thought the ending was good.

Andrew also liked the book a lot. He said it was evocative of his childhood – he used to go to the Basin at Christmas time and could remember the feeling waiting for the ferry to arrive. He thought the themes were a bit dark but the writing was very accessible. He liked the way we got into Mathilda’s head but thought the bits where we got into Frances’ and Elizabeth’s head was a distraction. We had a good discussion about the Petrov affair which seemed to serve no other purpose than to anchor the book in the 1950s. We were all of the view that the story would have been better without the Petrovs in it.

Celia thought the book was generally well written, while there were lots of good things about it there were also lots of bad things. She thought it jumped about a bit too much which was distracting. I can’t remember now whether Celia thought that the newspaper clippings were a distraction (although that comment was definitely made) she did think the Petrovs could have been left out.

We established beyond a reasonable doubt that the man shot in the shooting gallery was Uncle Paul and not the girls’ father (in case anyone was wondering). We solved a few other mysteries as well such as “was Easter the first time the father was supposed to come home after Christmas?”, “how long was Elizabeth off school?” and “does anyone use the phrase ‘nervous breakdown’ anymore?”

I can’t remember my comments, but I do remember that I adopted everything Elizabeth said in her email. She’s so clever.

Stars:

Andrew – 4

Michelle – 2

Yen – 4

Celia – 3

Me – 4

Next meeting is an end of the round. We were almost lost for ideas and guidance, with our intrepid leaders busy producing a baby. We settled on a pre-Christmas dinner at my house – the theme is Food Books (could be cook books or just books about food or which feature food). If you are in Sydney, you need to cook a recipe out of your favourite foodie book and bring it to dinner at my place. It will be pot luck so if we all cook dessert, that will be very fitting. We might start the proceedings at 7.30pm to allow for eating to take place.

For the Melb, London and Canberra folks – you have three options: send us your comments on your favourite food book, organise your own food book dinner that night and / or come to Sydney for the night!

Jackie’s turn to choose next.

A few days after book club we received the glorious news of the birth of book club’s 5th girl: Merryn Elizabeth Kirk Quang. An LOTR name if ever I heard one. Hurrah!

Love

Elissa

YSKOV

elissa — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 15:31:24 +0000

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.