Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group

Sunday, 25 November 2018

Our Next Book

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Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

The Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group will next meet on Wednesday, 5 December 2018 at the usual time of 7:30pm in Plommer A. We will be discussing Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende.

Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends at school. By chance all of their names contained a colour. The two boys were called Akamatsu, meaning ‘red pine’, and Oumi, ‘blue sea’, while the girls’ names were Shirane, ‘white root’, and Kurono, ‘black field’. Tazaki was the only last name with no colour in it. One day Tsukuru Tazaki’s friends announced that they didn't want to see him, or talk to him, ever again.

Since that day Tsukuru has been floating through life, unable to form intimate connections with anyone. But then he meets Sara, who tells him that the time has come to find out what happened all those years ago.

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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/

October Review: Ines of My Soul

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Book: Ines of My Soul, Isabel Allende

Publication date: 2006

WCRG meeting: 31 October 2018

Rating: 7.3

Thank you to all who meet, or submitted their observations, to our meeting this Wednesday, where we discussed our latest choice, Isabel Allende's Ines of my soul.

Our regular member Olga, from Peru, had recommended this book to the group, and introduced it at our meeting. It was wonderful to have someone who knows the country and culture to give the book extra vitality and poignancy.

Historically correct the style is a good mix of real and imaginary characters. The group noted the development and growth of Ines through the book, as she leaves home and Spain, innocent and naïve, to travel to the New World accompanied by her niece, at the time, this was a hugely brave thing to do. She goes in search of her husband, but finds so much more…….adventure, war and love.

The descriptions of the battles between the Conquistadors’ and the Mapuche, the indigenous people, were graphic and some members found these passages difficult to get through. These was a sense of guilt by some of the group around these acts of European domination.

The romantic story that runs alongside these acts of aggression helped keep some readers attention. The everyday lives and the struggle to survive was evident in the natives needing to protect their land and animals, as this meant they were feed and had a level of freedom. Several other female characters played an important role in the story, including Catalina, a native servant with a great knowledge of herbs and their healing powers, and who became Ines best friend.

The structure of the language was sometimes confusing; written only from Ines' perspective/views, her speech would periodically shift to talking to Isabel, her daughter.

One reader summed the book up as: “Powerful. Gruesome. Compelling.”

The group gave this book a well deserved 7.3 out of 10

Our Next Book

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Ines of My Soul

The Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group will next meet on Wednesday, 31 October 2018 at the usual time of 7:30pm in Plommer A. We will be discussing Ines of My Soul by Isabel Allende.

The vibrant novel from Isabel Allende takes her back to her homeland of Chile, and tells the story of the first Spanish woman to arrive on its shores with the Conquistadors in the 1500s.

A real historical figure, Ines Suarez came to Chile with the Conquistadors in 1540, helping to claim the territory for Spain and to found the first Spanish settlement in Santiago. In this remarkable novel, Isabel Allende one of the world's most spellbinding storytellers re-imagines Ines's life and that of the two men who become her lover and husband respectively.

Ines of My Soul’ evokes the conflict and drama of the Conquistadors' arrival in Chile, as well as helping restore the reputation of Ines, a powerful woman long neglected by history and a patriarchal society. It also finds Allende returning to territory beloved of her and her readers imaginative historical fiction, evocatively told and to the familiar landscape of her native country.

The novel gives Ines the recognition and glory that are rightfully hers; but more than that it is an epic tale of love and conquest, lyrically written and enchantingly told by a writer at the peak of her powers.

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September Review: 'All the Light We Cannot See'

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Book: All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr

Publication date: 2014

WCRG meeting: 19 September 2018

Rating: 8.3

Thank you for those of you who turned up to our meeting in September, where there was a lively discussion on the novel All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr:

The book was very well received by our reading group. The beautiful, lyrical language was what many found most appealing and outstanding. Great imagery was created on the page. One member who sent in his review via e-mail, could hardly stop himself from just quoting passages from the book.

Some would have preferred a chronological narrative, and others found the short chapters to be tedious and making the book feel too long. Many were also disappointed by the ending, having preferred a shorter more poignant ending than the drawn out ending over decades.

We enjoyed how the different stories intertwined, however some found it a bit frustrating that we knew all along that Marie-Laure and Werner would meet, and we were just waiting for the when and how.

The title was a play on words, showing how much there is to see in life. The book was felt to be also very effective to show the effects war has on people caught up in it, showing the waste of life, skill etc., which made the book basically an anti-war book.

Interestingly, many members read the book previously after the book was recommended to them, a couple of our book club member even discussed the book at other bookclubs.

The book received an impressive score of 8.3 out of 10.

Our Next Book

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All the Light We Cannot See

The Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group will next meet on Wednesday, 19 September 2018 at the usual time of 7:30pm in Plommer A. We will be discussing All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. ‘Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.’

For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History. The walled city by the sea, where father and daughter take refuge when the Nazis invade Paris. And a future which draws her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility and brings him to the notice of the Hitler Youth.

In this magnificent, deeply moving novel, the stories of Marie-Laure and Werner illuminate the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another

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June Review: 'The Heart's Invisible Furies'

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Book: The Heart's Invisible Furies, John Boyne

Publication date: 2017

WCRG meeting: 27 June 2018

Rating: 7.8

It is a long novel encompassing the life of a homosexual man in Dublin from the 1930’s. It is very much an Irish story and conveys a great deal about the life of a gay man in a very restrictive society dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. Several members of the group had themselves experienced life in Dublin and one at least had considerable feeling for the experience of being gay in that environment.

The group thought that the main theme of the book was the sadness and frustration of the gay man who, for much of his life, could not acknowledge what he felt and what he wanted. As a result he had short sexual encounters in back alleys but found the experience of love for a man very difficult to fulfil. When he found some of the experience of being a father with Ignac, even that was full of violence and loss

The other main theme was Ireland itself and in particular the suffering caused by the Roman Catholic Church both to women and to gay men. The way in which girls were driven from their homes by the cruelty of priests, was echoed by the general population. Smoot in Amsterdam gives a very fierce condemnation of Ireland or at least of this aspect at this time and by that stage we know some of the reasons for it.

Several of us were critical of the coincidences in the plot although we also recognised that some of the very best writers eg Shakespeare have also made free use of coincidence. One person found the way in which the characters were revealed and the action developed slowly was satisfying because that enabled greater understanding. We thought that the characters were well drawn and were set into a believable context. Dublin was made vivid through Mary Margaret and the Avery couple but Amsterdam perhaps less so. The language was discussed and we liked the way in which Irish was suggested but not intrusive.

Overall, there was appreciation and no-one had a very negative response to the book.

The score given to it was 7.8 out of 10.

Monday, 28 May 2018

Our Next Book

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The Heart's Invisible Furies

The Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group will next meet on Wednesday, 27 June 2018 at the usual time of 7:30pm in Plommer A. We will be discussing John Boyne's latest novel, The Heart's Invisible Furies.

The novel opens in the small west Cork village of Goleen, in 1945, during mass in the parish church. Instead of giving a sermon, Father James Monroe rises to denounce 16-year-old Catherine Goggin, recently discovered to be pregnant. The priest calls her up to the altar to shame her before family and congregation, before kicking her out of the church and banishing her from the parish. Boyne introduces this scene by informing us that it will be known later that this priest has himself fathered two children in the area, and his brutality is inflamed rather than tempered by hypocrisy.

Catherine’s journey to Dublin is the beginning of a picaresque, lolloping odyssey for the individual characters and for the nation that confines them. As the novel begins, Ireland is a young republic and effectively a theocracy. The church writes and enforces the laws controlling sexuality and social behaviour. The opening episode is narrated by the child in Catherine’s womb. He grows up as Cyril Avery, adopted child of a famous Irish female novelist, and tells the story of his life up to 2015. By then the permanent, unquestionable structure of Catholic Ireland will have all but vanished, as the power of the church dissolves in scandal and shame.

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May Review: 'A Gentleman in Moscow'

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Book: A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

Publication date: 2016

WCRG meeting: 16 May 2018

Rating: 7.4

The vast majority of our book club members loved this book. They especially liked the main character (‘a real gent’) and found it charming and whimsical. Members described the book as very elegant, humorous and a clever book, well written. A lot of what was mentioned during the book, and especially in the first chapter, was later picked up again and became meaningful, “the first chapter contained basically the whole book”. Readers also liked the many different characters and the description of them. We also liked the referencing of classic books and movies.

Some criticisms were that the book was a bit long and a slow read, however it still managed to keep the readers curious as to what would happen next. Although everyone liked the count and found him an endearing character, some felt that he did not really develop as a character during the book; especially considering for how long the book followed him.

All chapter titles began with an ‘A’, but because we couldn’t really find a reason for this, it felt more gimmicky than clever.

Some questions about the book remained. Did it give readers an insight into Russia and Russians, or was it a bit too detached from the real world outside the hotel? The awareness of the difficult times in the background was very subtly depicted - perhaps too subtly. Also, some episodes did feel quite unrealistic and left readers wondering.

Overall, the book was a very nice read, albeit some readers were left somewhat bored and wanting some darkness or tension to enter the narrative. However, these members were in the minority and most loved reading it.

The final score was 7.4 out of 10.

Thursday, 17 May 2018

Our Next Book

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A Gentleman in Moscow

The Wolfson Contemporary Reading Group will next meet on Wednesday, 16 May 2018 at the usual time of 7:30pm in Plommer A. We will be discussing Amor Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow.

In 1922 Count Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal. He is sentenced to house arrest in The Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin.

Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

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*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/

March Review: 'The Girls of Slender Means'

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Book: The Girls of Slender Means, by Muriel Spark

Publication date: 1963

WCRG meeting: 21 March 2018

Rating: 7

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 various 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.

The book is just a small volume, and Spark’s writing style is very sparse, but very dense with lots of layers behind it. Her dry way of writing was acknowledged and compared to be “almost like a very crisp Chardonnay”. Members enjoyed the irony and fun with tongue-in-cheek humour and play on words, for example the many meanings of ‘slender’ which were touched upon in the novel.

One question raised a few times was if, and how, the quotes of poetry Spark selected were relevant to the story, and maybe even a foreshadowing. A special shout out here to anyone who did look them all up. One example was the ‘Wreck of the Deutschland’ that appeared numerous times.

Some criticism involved the slow pace of Spark’s writing, and some members said that it was difficult to connect with the book and some of the character, but they still appreciated the quality of the writing. Others said that they either struggled with Spark before or felt it was a hard slog to get into this book.

Many enjoyed the description of publishing and “the world of books”, and the description of the immediate post-war period. “Spot on” was the comment from members who lived through the time.

Another member, who did read several of Muriel Spark’s books, sensed something dark in her books. One member commented that he found it a thing of its time: “twee”.

There was much about the status between women, between their looks, size, men. As well as the role of women: two possible futures for women, either to become spinsters or to get married. Another recurring theme was that of religion.

One participant became rather impatient with the book, as there was also a lot of repetition of themes and topics. Although he seemed to be one of the major characters in the book, Nicholas didn’t quite get explained, nor how and when he gets killed.

Many found it interesting how the focus shifted from one character to another and there is no clear main character throughout the book.

Overall, the book was well received and book club members were impressed with how Muriel Spark created a whole world with very few words. A very simple novel on the surface, but very complex underneath.

It received a score of 7.