At the last meeting there was a long – and circular – discussion about what the next book would be, the spiral seemed to tighten around a shortlist that included something about Albanian soccer, Ulysses, The Great Gatsby and a few others before the ball finally plunked in the hole with Roddy Doyle’s book.
The Yacoubian Building wasn’t considered a raging success. Most of us found we had to labour our way through it. That said, there was a lot of discussion about the characters and the book's setting in its era (the first gulf war) and the stratified society of Cairo that it’s set in. There was a sameness to the book that left us wondering whether it had lost something in translation. At the end people felt that it was going to come to a cliffhanger finale, instead the cliff just kept going ...
In September, we will be meeting at The All Nations Hotel again. Hopefully the weather will be a bit warmer and/or the heaters will be more reliable.
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