January 2016: Our next book

Image credit: https://www.penguin.com.au

 

Frog, Mo Yan

The next meeting of the Reading Group will take place on Wednesday, 13 January 2016. At 7.30pm on this date, we will all gather in Plommer A to discuss Mo Yan’s Frog. First published in Chinese in 2009, the novel was published in its English translation earlier this year. Mo Yan, which means ‘Don’t speak’, is the pen name of Guan Moye and his curiously titled novel is set in his real-life home county of Gaomi in China. The novel is based on the life story of the author’s aunt, Gugu, and is told through a series of letters between the narrator and an unidentified Japanese writer.

Quoting Isabel Hilton in the Guardian newspaper, 18 December 2014: ‘Gugu is 70 when the story opens with the first letter. The daughter of a famous doctor, her life spans the Japanese occupation of China, the victory of the Communist party in 1949, the hunger and violent political upheavals of the first 30 years of communist rule and, finally, the lurch to a peculiarly rampant form of state-directed capitalism and the social forces it unleashes. Some villagers grow rich; others sink into destitution. Gugu trains as a midwife while still a charismatic and heroic teenager, and begins her career by dispatching the ignorant and superstitious old women who, with fatal effects, have hitherto attended village births. Gugu’s reputation spreads quickly as she delivers children through the ravages of famine and political upheaval. […]

Her golden career falters, however, when her glamorous fiance, an airforce pilot, defects to Taiwan. Narrowly escaping disgrace as a conspirator in his treason, Gugu throws herself with renewed and implacable zeal into the state’s one-child policy. The beloved midwife becomes hated state abortionist, hunting down and forcibly terminating unlicensed pregnancies. Many expectant mothers and thousands of unborn children die horribly. When China begins its economic transformation, only the poor remain caught by the rules. The rich can afford to pay the fines; the poor have to cheat. The policy stays in place, one character explains, because it allows the state to collect fines.’

The book is available in paperback and Kindle edition from Amazon* and from a number of bookshops. It promises to be a source of interesting and meaningful discussion, and we hope that you will join us to celebrate our first meeting of the New Year. Refreshments, as always, will be provided at the meeting. If you are unable to attend, please consider emailing your comments and your score in advance of the meeting.

*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 book review: 'The Newlyweds', by Nell Freudenberger

Book: The Newlyweds, Nell Freudenberger


Publication date: 2012


WCRG Meeting: 23 September, 2015


Group rating: 5



The Reading Group met on Wednesday 23rd September to discuss The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger. Everyone present agreed that this was a novel where tendrils of a good to great novel were being offered, but never really taken up. There was a sense that something would happen but it never did. Characterisation was flat and the writing style was a little bland, even slightly confusing. It never really became ‘gritty’.

Many felt that the scenes in Bangladesh were more interesting than the American scenes. Different expectations of behaviour because of cultural differences were also found to be interesting; such as Kim expecting her apology to be instantly accepted by Amina because that was the American way of doing things. Or the linguistic trifles when George alarms Amina by calling the local teenagers who knock over their mailbox "thugs", a word she associates with violent bandits.

Amina and her family were looking for freedom from economic hardship by searching for an American husband via internet dating. Some felt this initial premise was slightly unbelievable and were confused as to why Amina and her family did not choose a candidate of their own nationality and religious upbringing. Was Amina being pushed into this by her parents, who viewed the American dream as their only possibility of improving their own position?

Amina desperately wants an education, but upon her return to Bangladesh, she discovers that her true love is for her cousin Nasir, whose earlier religious extremism made a union between them impossible. George, the American husband, is running away from a broken heart; disappointed in love by his cousin Kim, who aborted his child.

At the end of the novel, as Amina brings her parents to the USA (and it did appear to be a relatively easy passage to get their visas in the end) one felt that there was probably a more interesting story to tell of how they all survive in a two-bedroom house in a world very different from that to which Amina's parents are accustomed. Perhaps there is a sequel in the works?

Overall, people were disappointed with the follow-through of this novel and this was reflected in the middling mark of 5 out of 10.

September 2015: Our next book

The Newlyweds, Nell Freudenberger

The WCRG next meets on Wednesday, 23 September at 7:30pm in the Combination Room. We will be discussing The Newlyweds - the latest work from Nell Freudenberger, one of America’s most acclaimed young writers. It is a story of love and marriage, secrets and betrayals, that takes us from the backyards of America to the back alleys and villages of Bangladesh.

In The Newlyweds, we follow the story of Amina Mazid, who at age twenty-four moves from Bangladesh to Rochester, New York, for love. A hundred years ago, Amina would have been called a mail-order bride. But this is an arranged marriage for the twenty-first century: Amina is wooed by—and woos—George Stillman online.

For Amina, George offers a chance for a new life and a different kind of happiness than she might find back home. For George, Amina is a woman who doesn’t play games. But each of them is hiding something: someone from the past they thought they could leave behind. It is only when they put an ocean between them—and Amina returns to Bangladesh—that she and George find out if their secrets will tear them apart, or if they can build a future together.

We hope to see you at our next meeting, but, if you are unable to be with us, please do email me your comments and scores, to be shared with the group.

We understand there may be some difficulty obtaining this book - it is available for just under £6.00 at the Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/. A Kindle edition is available from Amazon*, which also provides links to alternative third-party sellers.


*Do remember to use the link on the Wolfson Alumni & Development website if you choose to buy from Amazon, as the College will benefit from the sale.