Friday, June 28, 2013

The Passion


How are you going to make sense of all of this? was Elisabeth’s query.

With twilit embers glowing on the deep green ridges in the distance, the Barga Book Club members met in the walled garden of Margaret’s home on the Fornacetta to discuss The Passion by Jeanette Winterson. Retiring inside as the unseasonably cool evening progressed, they enjoyed the sumptuous meal provided by the members before diving into the discussion at hand. 

The selection of this title came as a way to explore more of Winterson’s work after we’d read her intriguing autobiographical novel Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal. 

Many book club members found this novel, in Kerry’s words an overly glib mish mash of historical fiction, frustrating, irritating, even pointless. Salene, just didn’t get it, Bill called it turgid, and said it didn’t hold together. Margaret, who forced herself to 'finish the damned thing!', and reread sections to try to get it, couldn’t see the passion anywhere, deemed it trite and pretentious and passionately hated it.

On the positive side Cynthia praised the, every now and then, luminous writing, and likened it to a surreal landscape of the human condition, but felt that the passion allusion was overdone. Isobel identified strongly with the poignant imagery of instability.

Helen was particularly drawn into the story, and felt the passion imagery and mix of mythology and fantasy related strongly to the author’s driven character. She felt it was skillfully well written and well crafted, written as though it was by a well informed observer of the journey. It was unusual but will be considered a modern classic. Elisabeth cited its novella quality, and mentioned the other criteria by which the novella should be judged, more developed than a short story but less than a novel, the slice of life approach, or that this was like a collection of short stories that came together and that Winterson is to be praised as experimenting with a form of writing. The story was full of eloquent descriptions. The content left Elisabeth  convinced Winterson was obsessed with her sexuality and the book rife with her convictions with lesbianism.

The passionate but always congenial discussion thus made sense, was concluded and they dove into the exquisite desserts.

Thank you very much to everyone who participated and here is the list of upcoming titles:

A Heart So White by Javier Marias, 31 July at Pietro and Marijke's
The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh September date and venue to be announced.
The Deadly Sisterhood by Leonie Frieda October date and venue to be announced

Kerry

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Black Swan Green

Hindsight is 20/20 or, in what is referred to as Black Swan Theory, a surprise eventuality, which had major impact, something which could have been or should have been predicted, but wasn’t, something, in hindsight, one could always refer to as a learning experience, happened, which was the break up of the couple, in this case the parents of Jason Taylor the 13 year old protagonist in Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell.

On a cool May evening numerous members of the Barga Book Club gathered at the now familiar, but nonetheless warm and welcoming 17th C. palazzo around the long narrow splendidly laid table to enjoy a sumptuous meal and discuss what many considered to be an evenly crafted poignant story of stilted communication and hidden messages which led to the inevitable end of a relationship and parting of ways.

The book is a semi-autobiographical coming of age story marking the end of innocence of a boy with a pronounced stammer and his struggles to communicate and be understood as he stumbles through his thirteenth year.  The setting is Worcestershire in the early 80’s and pays shallow lip service to politics and pop culture of the period and the child's game of hang man is the central image. Cruelty and bullying are recurring themes.

Liz, who had recommended the book felt it was a well written story and a good read. Janet felt it was diverting and took one out of oneself and that the emotions and what he was trying to capture were described incredibly well. Others mentioned engaging, Salene loved the poetic language and evocative imagery.  Cynthia and Pietro mentioned that it evoked childhood memories. Helen thought it was brilliantly written and brought to mind her children and well drawn characters such as the pompous drunken uncle, and family relationships. Marijke mentioned it was reminiscent of a particularly loved Dutch story of an 11 year old, but lacked  its subtleties and finesse.

In sharply dissenting opinions Margaret felt it was forced, trite, and thematically overused and reminiscent of  The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Elisabeth cited criticism that no 13 year old would ever have thought like that and that there was a serious dissonance caused by the adult thought processes in a child’s story. 

Thank you to everyone who contributed their very thoughtful comments. Apologies if I have left out any comments. Everyone’s contribution is greatly appreciated.

Here is a recap of the upcoming details, by title, date and venue:

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson, 26 June at Margaret Moore's
A Heart So White by Javier Marias, 31 July at Pietro and Marijke's
The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh September date and venue to be announced.

We look forward to seeing you in June.