The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

My main concern in the last twenty-five years has been to go back and find members of my own family who were not talked about for various reasons, forgotten, quietly erased. Sebastian Barry

The central character of The Secret Scripture is Roseanne McNulty a lady nearing her 100th birthday who has lived in an Irish psychiatric hospital for over 60 years. The hospital is about to close down and director Dr Grene has to assess patients for their suitability to either move to the new hospital or be placed back into society. Dr Grene is curious as to why Mrs McNulty was admitted to the hospital and is suspicious of the motives to admit her in the first place.

So begins a book consisting of two narratives. The narrative of 100 yo Roseanne who is recalling her younger life and the narrative of Dr Grene as he tries to piece together Roseanne's life from records and interviews with those close to her.

With any narrative we must first consider the reliability of the narrator. Is the narrator telling the truth? Does the narrator have the whole story? In this novel we have to balance the reliability of the memory of a centenarian with the subjective interviews conducted by Dr Grene in order to piece together Roseanne's life.

Sebastian Barry based the Roseanne's character loosely on that of one of his great aunts who was reputedly placed in the Sligo Mental Asylum for being 'no good' in some fashion. Perhaps for being outside the bounds of society's mores at the time or for the crime of being beautiful.

Sligo is a location that is linked to Sebastian Barry's own history but also serves as a bleak little visited outpost of an Ireland close to the border with Northern Ireland. The character Roseanne is a protestant in a catholic town and grew up during "the troubles" and civil war of the 1920s. This book is as much about the impact of the civil war on Ireland and the relationship between the catholic and protestant churches as it is about the plight of Roseanne herself.

Sebastian Barry sees his novels as 'a family' and the character of Roseanne in fact appeared in his previous novel The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty. In turn characters from other books appear in The Secret Scripture, thereby creating an interwoven family of stories across a number of novels.

The Secret Scripture was on the shortlist for the 2008 Man Booker Prize and won the Costa Prize in 2008 (formerly called the Whitbread prize). It is rumoured that despite being the favourite to win the Booker, the novel's ending was the reason it was looked over.

Seven people attended this bookgroup discussion with the scores ranging from 7.5 to 8.5 and an average of 8/10 across the group.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

"My idea of good company, Mr Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company"

"You are mistaken,' said he gently, 'that is not good company, that is the best. Good company requires only birth, education and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice."

Jane Austen novels are unashamedly romances where the girl always gets the guy, in the end. But first she, and he, must endure tortuous twists of fate through which Ms Austen takes us on a journey through the social mores of early 19th century England.

Persuasion was published in 1818 one year after Ms Austen's death in 1817 and is perhaps the book where she takes the independence of her heroine to new heights.

The main character, Anne Elliot, is the sensible second daughter of three in an aristocratic family. Since the death of her mother when she was young her father has become increasingly pompous in his position as Baronet, preferring to read the Peerage over any other book and only interested in making acquaintance with those of equal or greater social standing. His spending habits and poor investments have left them needing to quit their family home and rent it out to an Admiral Croft who has recently returned from the Napoleonic wars, wealthy from his exploits.

Meanwhile Anne is pining for the memory of love lost eight years earlier when she was persuaded not to marry Federick Wentworth, a young naval officer, because he had no position, no money and no prospects. At 27 she is considered 'on the shelf' and unlikely to marry.

It turns out that Admiral Croft's wife is the sister of the now wealthy Captain Wentworth and so we embark on a journey around south-east England (Lyme, Bath and the surrounding countryside) and experience the tortuous twists which bring Anne and Captain Wentworth back together again.

Jane Austen is a master observer of English society at this time managing to be abreast not only of the aristocratic sensibilities but also those of the middle class, the merchant class and those who have 'fallen'. This fabulous book observes the gradual decline of the wealth of the aristocratic class following the Napoleonic wars and the rise of the wealthy merchants and Naval officers which start to question the social balance in England.

Mr Elliot at first objected to renting his house to a Naval man

"... as being the means of bringing persons of obscure birth into undue distinction..."

but then realised he had no option or he would have to 'retrench' (sell off his lands).

This book also raises questions about whether it was sensible to persuade a young 19 year old girl not to marry a man who had not made his fortune. At the time, and perhaps still now, it would have been imprudent to marry someone without an income because there were limited ways of earning an income, and still remain in 'good society', at the time. Anne Elliot's family and contemporaries came into money through inheritance.

All those present scored this book highly, with scores ranging from 7 to 9 for an average of 8/10.

We noted that there are two recent movie adaptations: A 1995 version with Amanda Root and a 2007 version with Sally Hawkins as Anne. Having watched both I think the 1995 version is a grittier closer approximation of the book.

The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman

When discussing the horrors of the Holocaust there is a fundamental question that should be asked of everyone

What would you do?

If you were faced with life in the Warsaw Ghetto - Would you have risen up against your captors? Would you have joined the Jewish Police and bought yourself extra time? Would you have lived in hope that you would survive by obeying every command of the Gestapo?

If you were a German officer or an 'Aryan' living outside the Ghetto - would you have hidden a Jewish man? Would you have let someone escape? Would you have risen up against National Socialism? Knowing that to do so you risked not only your life but the lives of your whole family.

This question then defines how you discuss a book written by Wladyslaw Szpilman, a pianist and minor Polish celebrity of the time, who survived not only the Jewish Ghetto but the death of Warsaw between 1939-1945. It is a tale of survival written in 1945 when the memory was fresh and painful, written in an unemotional just.the.facts way of a person who has been through unmentionable horror.

Szpilman's war started as he was playing Chopin's Nocturne in C Sharp Minor at Polish Radio with shelling all around, it was the last live music played on Polish Radio until after the war when the first live music played was again Chopin's Nocturne in C Sharp Minor, and again played by Szpilman. The tale of his survival is contained between these two playings. His status as a well known pianist raised another question in the book:

What is the role of an artist in times of profound crisis?

The relatively unemotional writing in this book has been off-putting to some. For other readers this detached style of writing only serves to intensify the experiences of the author and allows the reader to fill in the emotional gaps (to the extent that they want to or can stomach).

The actions of the German officer - Willem Hosenfeld - are critical to the book as it comes to its conclusion. His actions save Szpilman's life and it was documented that his was not the only Jewish life saved by this man. His role in the story again raises the question - what would you do in the same situation? Particularly as his actions contributed to his eventual death at the hands of the Russians as a POW some years later.

Our bookgroup has now read three books that deal with the Holocaust, all from different angles. Suite Francaise looks at the life of Jews in Occupied France, The Book Thief examines the fate of the Jewish people from the point of view of a young German girl and The Pianist gives full detail of the horrors of the fall of Warsaw. Each book shows how each person had a different war and how there are so many ways in which people were forced to grasp for their survival.

This book was first printed in Poland in 1946 but quickly banned from further publication by the Stalinist regime of the time, perhaps because Russians were not painted in a positive light. Only in 2000 was it translated into English and published to popular acclaim - including the production of an award-winning movie of the same name.

We also talked about the affect of unemployment and difficult times on the rise of hate groups. When jobs are scarce we seek to narrow the criteria for getting them. Certainly the US has tracked a recent increase in the activity of hate groups during our current financial crisis.

We discussed whether this would be a good high school text as compared to the Diary of Anne Frank. How much can we ever hope to understand of the plight of the Jewish people during WWII. How much could a high school student really understand? Did those of us who read Diary of Anne Frank as teenagers really understand how precarious their predicament was and the risk taken by those who hid her family?

Seven members attended this meeting. Eight members submitted scores:

7, 7,7, 7.5,7.5, 8, 8.5 and 9 for an average of 7.7

Our April book is Persuasion by Jane Austen.

A Confederacy of Dunces

When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him.

Jonathan Swift - Thoughts on various subjects, moral and diverting

And so lies the premise of this book. The central character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is an obese socially inept and out of work college graduate who specialised in medieval history and despises everything of the modern world. He truly believes in his genius and derives great pleasure from raging against the immorality of the modern world. Others view him as socially inept and just one foot from insanity. In this story he lumbers his obese body from situation to situation coming across a range of characters who, like him, fall short of social acceptance - the policeman who is despised by his precinct, the octogenarian accounts assistant of a failing men's pants manufacturer, the exotic dancer who reads 'Life' magazine to improve herself, his own suffering mother and Mr Robichaux who is always on the look out for 'Communiss' to name just a few.

LJ chose this book after seeing it on the First Tuesday Bookclub on ABC1. In a first for our bookclub LJ brought along the vidcast of the show when the book was discussed by Jennifer Byrne, Augusten Burroughs, Germaine Greer, Jason Steger and Marieke Hardy. This was a great way to start off our discussion, especially as the panellists were very divided on the book.

A Confederacy of Dunces was written by John Kennedy Toole and published in 1980, 11 years after the author's suicide. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 and is now regarded as a literary classic. Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans it is regarded as having one of the best depictions of that city's particular dialect - largely reflected in the language of Burma Jones, the black worker at The Night of Joy bar and strip joint.

The book, however, is difficult to read. The three of us who finished reading the book all agreed it was a slog and perhaps the low attendance figures at bookclub also reflected this. Despite this the book resulted in lively discussion about the characters, the themes, the (lack of) plot.

On the basis of pure reading enjoyment we each gave the book a low score but discussed how we were glad to have read it. The book contains extraordinary characters, a lot of rage and extreme complexity but it is also rambling and would have benefited from a good edit. The character of Ignatius J. Reilly is repugnant and while we agreed that one doesn't have to like a character to enjoy a book we also felt that the extremity of his repugnance never abated and made for a difficult relationship between reader and book.

Our scores were low: 5/10, 6/10 and 6/10 however we recommend that if you are the sort of reader who wants to understand the books that have become cult and mainstream classics then you should set aside the time to read A Confederacy of Dunces. But don't expect it to be easy.

Next month's book: The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman

Discussion: My Year of Meat by Ruth Ozeki

Meeting held: Monday 10th November

Location: Mosman

Thankfully, none of the meat products from the book were offered! We were on a vegetarian diet...

About the Author:

From her website:

Ozeki was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, by an American father and a Japanese mother. She studied English and Asian Studies at Smith College and traveled extensively in Asia. She received a Japanese Ministry of Education Fellowship to do graduate work in classical Japanese literature at Nara University. During her years in Japan, she worked in Kyoto's entertainment or "water" district as a bar hostess, studied flower arrangement as well as Noh drama and mask carving, founded a language school, and taught in the English Department at Kyoto Sangyo University. Ozeki returned to New York in 1985 and began a film career as an art director, designing sets and props for low budget horror movies. She switched to television production, and after several years directing documentary-style programs for a Japanese company, she started making her own films.

Synopsis:

Japanese-American documentary filmmaker works for meat export company to make a TV show for Japanese audiences which highlights the lives of American wives, with each show culminating with the wife cooking a meat dish. So ensues a journey which changes the lives of many women and highlights the less savoury aspects of the American meat industry.

What we talked about:

• Authenticity as a concept is questioned in the book. We discussed what is authenticity?
• The cinematic style of the novel and the influence of the author's documentary-maker background on this.
• Experiences of mixed-nationality marriages in our own lives and the extent to which they face the same issues as those in the book.
• That the enjoyment of a particular book depends on the context of your life at the time of reading.
• That some stereotypes were challenged in the book - particularly that of the Texan Mama.
• The incidence of precocious puberty and whether anyone we knew had a child who has been through this.

We also chatted about:

• Trying a pre-rating system like the No1MelbourneLadiesBookclub. We did it and no-one altered their rating before and after the discussion.
• Buying meat in Australia. Whether or not poultry is our danger meat.
• Buying meat in the US.
• Walmart
• The printer now available in one Sydney shop that lets you print off out of print copies of books.
• The location of our Christmas dinner.
• One husband has suggested setting up a bookgroup for the other husbands: Blokes at the Oaks. We agree it would be great but they can't meet on the same night as us!

Ratings

"Loved the first half. Give it a 9 for the first half but didn't laugh in the last few chapters. Should've stuck to the story about making the TV show [and not digressed]. 7/10"

"Loved it. Laughed. Cried. Liked the Characters. 8/10"

"I thought it was going to be different than this, but I enjoyed it. 7/10"

"This was my second try at reading this. This time I enjoyed it. 8/10"

"A page-turner. It jammed so much in in relation to Japanese culture. A bit too neat at the end. 8 1/2 out of 10"

"Loved the humour. Was quirky. Wasn't sure what it was going to be about. A little chaotic. Needs a tighter edit. 7 1/2 out of 10"

"Read before. Scored it higher last time. Starts more coherently than it finishes. Perhaps too many characters? 8/10"

Average score: 7.7/10

November book: My Year of Meat by Ruth Ozeki

Our November choice is: My Year of Meat by Ruth Ozeki

Meeting date: Monday 10 November

Pre-Reading:

• Ruth Ozeki's website: http://www.ruthozeki.com/meats/conversation.html
• Amazon entry: http://www.amazon.com/My-Year-Meat-Ruth-Ozeki/dp/0330490443
• Penguin reading guides: http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/my_year_of_meats.html
• Australian feedlot peak body: http://www.feedlots.com.au/
• The Australian animal lib view: http://www.animal-lib.org.au/lists/feedlots/feedlots.shtml

Discussion: Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul

Book chosen by: Fe

Meeting date: Monday 13th October 2008

Meeting location: Newtown

About the author:

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born in 1932 Trinidad and has both Hindu and East Indian heritage. He now lives in the UK.

Knighted in 1990 for his contribution to literature.

Has won the Booker Prize in 1971, Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 and the David Cohen Prize in 1993.

Comes from a family of published authors.

Book synopsis:

From wikipedia:

Willie Somerset Chandran is the son of a Brahmin father and a Dalit mother. His father gave him his middle name as a homage to the English writer Somerset Maugham who had visited him in the temple where he was living under a vow of silence. Having come to despise his father, Willie leaves India to go to 1950s London to study. There he leads a life as poor immigrant and later he writes a book of short stories and manages to publish it.

Willie gets a call from Ana, a mixed Portuguese and black African girl and admirer of his book, one day and they arrange to meet. They fall in love and Willie follows her to her country (an unnamed Portuguese colony in Africa, presumably Mozambique). Meanwhile Willie's sister Sarojini marries a German and moves to Berlin. The novel ends with Willie having moved to his sister's place in Berlin after his 18 year stay in Africa.

What we said about the book:

• Poetic
• Lovely language but it stopped and started.
• Many readers experienced a level of discomfort with the book. Was it the sudden stop/starts in the narrative or the jumps in time, or the gaps in time not filled in?
• Despite discomfort many would like to read more of V.S.Naipaul for the quality of the writing.
• Some felt there was quite a negative spin on women and that men were more "vividly described" in the book.
• Some readers wondered was there something they didn't get about the book, the author, the story? He is so highly regarded yet many of those present didn't enjoy the read.
• There is a sequel to this book: Magic Seeds which starts from when Willie returns to Berlin.

Then we got sidetracked onto the following:

• Bad drivers.
• That E-tags make travelling over the 'great divide' (the harbour) so much easier. As we get older it is too hard to remember to ring and pay each time we use the bridge.
• Where to have our Christmas dinner this year - to BYO or to not BYO that is the question.
• The importance of Font choice in different formats: news vs novels vs internet
• What will be in the London Olympics opening ceremony... our guesses.

Overall rating: 6.5/10 (8 reviewers. Highest score: 9 Lowest score: 5)