Our Next Book

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The Girls of Slender Means

 

 

The Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group will next meet on Wednesday, 21 March 2018 at the usual time of 7:30pm in Plommer A. We will be discussing Muriel Spark's 1963 novella, The Girls of Slender Means.

The novel is set in London in 1945 at the end of the war in a shabby/genteel boarding house for young ladies called the May of Teck Club. We meet the titular girls of slender means and follow their lives and love affairs over a few weeks until a shocking event transforms the wry comedy of their existence into something suddenly tragic and baleful.

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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/ 

February Review: 'The Night Circus'

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Book: The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern

Publication date: 2011

WCRG meeting: 21 February 2018

Rating: 4


Thank you to all who either attended in person, or submitted their reviews in advance of our meeting on 21 February where we discussed The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

I’m afraid the group could not find much to commend/recommend the book so most of our comments are rather bleak.

The group struggled to find out what the book was actually about, most had come along to find the answers, to which there were none! Several found it long and going nowhere. There was little development of the main characters and plot. It was suggested it was more targeted at the young adult audience, and would appeal to Harry Potter readers. Interestingly the 2016 edition of the book has an appendix with descriptions and more details of the characters.

The descriptions of the circus and the illusions (magic?) were more detailed but repetitive. The circus colours were black and white, names were unimportant – just labels. (all very confusing)! However, we all enjoyed the lavish meals and the food descriptions were good, if repetitive. Clothes were described in great detail and all the characters seemed to enjoy reading.

The story plot as described on the advertisements “a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.” This was misleading as again this theme was not developed in any cohesive way. Celia’s father was cruel and remained a ‘ghost/shadow’ constantly criticizing her efforts; whilst Marco was much loved but his character was less developed, so the reader didn’t identify with either of them.

One reader noted that the author had entered a writing challenge which formed a basis for her novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Novel_Writing_Month This is the National Novel Writing Month (often shortened to NaNoWriMo)), an annual, Internet-based creative writing project that takes place during the month of November. Participants attempt to write a 50,000 word manuscript between November 1 and November 30.

The group did enjoy the originality of the title of the book and the potential the novel presented but didn’t achieve. All felt it could be developed into a visually stunning film. The scoring definitely reflected the 'Marmite' analogy as we received votes of 9 and 1.

The final mark was a disappointing 4.

Our Next Book

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The Night Circus

 

 

The Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group will next meet on Wednesday, 21 February 2018 at the usual time of 7:30pm in Plommer A. We will be discussing Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus.



The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.

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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/ 

December Review: 'The Sympathiser'

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Book: The Sympathiser, by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Publication date: 2015

WCRG meeting: 13 December 2017

Rating: 7.5


Thank you to all who either attended in person, or submitted their reviews in advance of our meeting on 13 December 2017. We met to discuss this novel about the struggles of the divided mind to find a way of believing in something when the answer that he seems to find is ‘nothing’. As usual the group was divided too but not passionately. Most of us had found something worthwhile in the mixture of philosophy, humour and history and we had the patience to learn something about a country that only one of us had seen at first hand.

The discussion began by considering the way in which the first person narrator whom we know as the Captain described himself from the beginning as being divided, in two minds. He begins and ends with this division and the whole novel shows all sorts of divisions. We spoke about the problems of the expatriate as the narrator is one of the Vietnamese who leaves Saigon when the Americans abandon the country to its fate. He spends some of the narrative describing the ways in which he both wishes to be Vietnamese and yet finds himself needing to live in a foreign country which is alien to him. Doctors and lawyers are janitors and work in supermarkets.

The theme of homelessness and displacement plays out in many ways, and we noted the way in which sexuality is introduced but is not allowed to develop into satisfying love. He himself is illegitimate and blamed for this. In spite of the conclusion that it all comes to ‘Nothing’ this book was satisfying in a way to most of us. We noticed the alienation of the writer being a communist not long after the McCarthy era in the United States and the way in which history, in the form of his film is written so that he and his fellow /sympathizers’ are written out. He is not named, but nor is anyone else. All have nick-names given to them such as the ‘Crapulent Major’ but have no names of their own apart from Madame Mori.

One of our group asked us to consider how we would describe the kind of fiction that the book represents and we found that an illuminating question as it was difficult to answer. Is it history? Well not really and yet it makes us think about the way in which the west fights wars that it thinks are in its interest and then walks away leaving ‘nothing’ We were shown of course that there is a bleak wasteland of the places where the forest and the natural habitats of the land were flattened and destroyed. Yet it is not sentimental in any way. He even points out that they didn’t need the Americans to spoil the country, they were perfectly capable of doing that for themselves. Still, crammed into a boat his final thought is ‘We will live’. The revolution has still to be found but they will go on seeking it. We enjoyed the humour and the philosophy: ‘life is a suicide mission’ as well.

Overall score given was 7.5.

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

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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.

Our next book

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The God of Small Things

The Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group will next meet on Wednesday, 13 September at the usual time of 7:30pm in Plommer A. We will be discussing Arundhati Roy's Booker Prize winning (and debut) novel, The God of Small Things (1997).

In her first novel, award-winning Indian screenwriter Arundhati Roy conjures a whoosh of wordplay that rises from the pages like a brilliant jazz improvisation. The God of Small Things is nominally the story of young twins Rahel and Estha and the rest of their family, but the book feels like a million stories spinning out indefinitely; it is the product of a genius child-mind that takes everything in and transforms it in an alchemy of poetry. The God of Small Things is at once exotic and familiar to the Western reader, written in an English that's completely new and invigorated by the Asian Indian influences of culture and language.

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We really hope that you will join us in September, especially as it will be Christine's last meeting with us. 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/ 

July Review: 'The Tobacconist'

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Book: The Tobacconist, Robert Seethaler

Publication date: 2012

WCRG meeting: 5 July 2017

Rating: 6.4

Thank you to all who either attended in person, or submitted their reviews in advance of our last meeting on 5 July where we discussed The Tobacconist, by Robert Seethaler. The views of the Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group on this slim novel were very mixed and curiously split between the age ranges, with our younger readers feeling a greater affinity for Franz than some of our older readers.

Franz, a young 17-year-old arriving in Vienna from a rural community, is initially upset by his mother’s decision to send him to be an apprentice to the elderly tobacconist (Uncle (sic!)) Otto Trsnyek, a man his mother says owes her a favour (“It was a hot summer that year, and we were young and foolish…”) 

However, he quickly settles to a life of reading the daily papers and greeting customers - the most famous being Professor Sigmund Freud. Several in the group felt the historical use of a real character has been manipulated to fit the novel.

Franz has fallen madly in love with Anezka, but finds that her erratic behaviour leaves him confused regarding his relationship with this bohemian young woman; he pursues Freud to ask for advice on his love life and generally on women!

Seethaler’s description of the tobacconist shop was felt to be well-drawn and several members reminisced with personal experiences of tobacconist’s of their youth. The group also commented that his use of descriptive language was incredibly beautiful especially in his descriptions of the natural world. Franz and his mother write regularly, starting with postcards and brief updates, these were humorous and the group identified with the changing relationship of son and mother. The change of relationship cleverly signified as they begin to exchange letters feeling that there was more to discuss than could be fitted on to a postcard size.

The book was an easy read with the story developing quickly, some felt it tried to too hard and as a historical story did not represent the suffering of the people under the Nazi regime as it should have done, although this is all conveyed through the eyes of a 17-year-old youth who is more concerned with his emerging sexual feelings.

Parallels were drawn between Franz’s mother and Anezka, both women finding pragmatic ways of surviving, in a world ruled by men. Franz’s naivety leads him to misread most of the events/relationships he experiences and his actions could be considered extreme/foolish.

The final score was a reputable 6.4 which signifies the extreme range of marks given.