Our next book

 

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The Sympathiser

 

 

The Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group will next meet on Wednesday, 13 December 2016 at the usual time of 7:30pm in Plommer A. We will be discussing Viet Thanh Nguyen's debut novel, The Sympathiser, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2016.

 
It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. 'The Sympathizer' is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause.

 

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We really hope that you will join us at this last meeting of 2017 and to share in wine and mince pies. However, if you are unable to be with us, please email your comments and scores so that they can be shared with the group.

The book is available in local libraries, and in paperback and Kindle edition from Amazon* and other booksellers.

*Please remember to use the link on the Wolfson Alumni & Development website if you choose to buy from Amazon, as College will benefit from the sale: http://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/alumni/amazon/ 

November review: 'The Essex Serpent'

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Book: The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry

Publication date: 2016

WCRG meeting: 1 November 2017

Rating: 6.8


Thank you to all who either attended in person, or submitted their reviews in advance of our meeting on 1 November where we discussed ‘The Essex Serpent’ by Sarah Perry.
Set in Victorian times the novel follows a wide range of characters. Many members of the group commented on how very well drawn and interesting each character in the book was.. A stand out character was of course Cora Seaborne, a rich London society widow, who goes hunting for fossils and the mythical ‘Essex Serpent’ in the Essex countryside; and her son Francis inspired a wide discussion on how children who are ‘a bit different’ are treated then and now.

Some were disappointed by ‘the Imp’, after expecting a much more interesting character when he was first introduced. It was surprising how little conversation the Reverend Will Ransome generated, supposedly being a main character, but he was overshadowed by the characterisation of other characters such as Stella Ransome, Martha and Charles Amrose.

We discussed what the main themes of the book were and many saw it drawing on the theme of ‘What is sin?’ by touching on topics such as Adam & Eve, temptation and the Seven Deadly Sins. Another big theme of the book was the confrontation between Reason & Faith, or Religion & Science, during this time. Both Darwin and Mary Anning found numerous mentions as did several cutting-edge medical innovations, and also how the Reverend Will Ransome deals with them.

The novel seemed to aspire to be Dickensian with many subplots, but it was widely felt that it did not quite get there, a view also held by our resident Victorian expert; other critics felt this book was in part a gothic novel, however, overall the group disagreed.

Although almost everyone enjoyed reading the book, many were baffled why exactly it won so many prizes. The overall feeling was that the book was a bit too long and could have done with some tightening up, mainly in its middle part. Even a new subtitle was suggested: ‘The Essex Serpent: or Much Ado about Nothing’. The neat ending left many a bit disappointed.

Overall score: 6.8

Our next book

Image may be subject to copyright

The Essex Serpent

 

The Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group will next meet on Wednesday, 1 November at the usual time of 7:30pm in Plommer A. We will be discussing Sarah Perry's award-winning novel, The Essex Serpent.


Set in Victorian London and an Essex village in the 1890's, and enlivened by the debates on scientific and medical discovery which defined the era, The Essex Serpent has at its heart the story of two extraordinary people who fall for each other, but not in the usual way. They are Cora Seaborne and Will Ransome. Cora is a well-to-do London widow who moves to the Essex parish of Aldwinter, and Will is the local vicar. They meet as their village is engulfed by rumours that the mythical Essex Serpent, once said to roam the marshes claiming human lives, has returned. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist is enthralled, convinced the beast may be a real undiscovered species. But Will sees his parishioners' agitation as a moral panic, a deviation from true faith. Although they can agree on absolutely nothing, as the seasons turn around them in this quiet corner of England, they find themselves inexorably drawn together and torn apart. Told with exquisite grace and intelligence, this novel is most of all a celebration of love, and the many different guises it can take.

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We really hope that you will join us at this meeting. However, if you are unable to be with us, please email your comments and scores so that they can be shared with the group.

The book is available in local libraries, and in paperback and Kindle edition from Amazon* and other booksellers.

*Please remember to use the link on the Wolfson Alumni & Development website if you choose to buy from Amazon, as College will benefit from the sale: http://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/alumni/amazon/ 

September review: 'God of Small Things'

Book: The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

Publication date: 1997

WCRG meeting: 13 September 2017

Rating: 7.7



Thank you for all who managed to attend our meeting last week, and to all who sent in reviews and kind regards to Christine attending her last ‘formal’ meeting with us. Our discussions, as always, were varied and interesting, exploring the issues and characters of The God of Small Things, (1997) by Arundhati Roy.

Several members of the group had started this novel some years ago and had given up; a couple of our readers also almost gave up this time, but they fortunately persevered and, in the end, were not disappointed.

It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" that lay down "who should be loved, and how. And how much." The book explores how the small things affect people's behaviour and their lives. 

Nearly all felt the use of language was wonderfully descriptive with a wealth of rich metaphors and similes. Several readers did not like the structure of the novel, the constant jumping around in time, but they kept going as they wanted to find out how the pieces of the seemingly individual stories fitted together. The characters were engaging and all had a part to play in the novel, from the lowly Velutha, an untouchable in the service of the wealthy Mammachi. (Paradise Pickles and Preserves). The language of the twins as children was delightful and fun to read, even their game of spelling words backwards.

The story starts with the funeral of Sophie Mol. The narrative then slowly unwinds with the twins’ story shaped by events that they do not understand, and they do not have anyone to ask. The relationships and romantic involvements of the characters show a consistency of what is deemed socially as the ‘wrong type’ of love and therefore doomed to failure and tragic endings.

The group discussed the sense of the village being claustrophobic and closed – even when characters escape to other characters they almost all returned; the colonial influence on the area was evident in the politics discussed in the novel. Seen as a fractured society, this still seems relevant today where many people in small communities are still imprisoned by their background and gender. The death of Velutha at the hands of the police was seen as an act of prejudice and was shocking in its violence. 

The final average score from thirteen readers was 7.7.