"Stasiland" by Anna Funder (4 Dec [Changed to Dec 11])

[I accidentally deleted this post]

See you at the All Nations next year on December 4!

“Burial Rites" by Hannah Kent (5 Feb 2020)

I really enjoyed reading Stasiland by Anna Funder.  I found that in spite of the grey, oppressive and desperately sad stories in the book, it was beautifully written and compelling.  Not long before the meeting I found a link to an article by Anna Funder talking about thirty years after the fall of the Berlin wall which was absolutely fascinating and raised even more topics for thought and discussion. The on-going influence of the Stasi, the feeling of resentment towards those who did speak against the regime because it raises the question of why hadn't they too.  It's a very powerful article following on from a very powerful book.

The discussion at book group though was very fragmented and it was difficult to keep people on track without diverging off to explore Richard's recent trip to Clayton or famous soccer goals.  I'd been feeling really crook so I wasn't in good shape to keep people on track.  Quite a few people had read the book a long time ago and their memories while favourable, lacked that bit of freshness.

The next book, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, was picked in a bit of a rush and I'm sorry to say, breaks two of the book club rules: rule 1 (no long books) and rule 9 (no referrals from other book groups, specifically, the women's book group has already read this book).  My irresistible need to get home and get to bed made me drop my guard for which I apologise [Okay, this is mollified but the fact it's not that long (355pp) and it's over the summer break and my wife, Monica, assures me it's a great book].

See you at the All Nations next year on February 5!

"Slaughterhouse 5" by Kurt Vonnegut (6 Nov 2019)

A smaller group turned up to talk about Regeneration by Pat Barker.  Tom and Mark loved it and while I though the writing was excellent and the characters well-drawn, I didn't find myself as involved in the story a would have liked. To me, it seemed like a series of vignettes rather than an overarching story.

I was really surprised and delighted to read in the epilogue that Rivers was a real person and his work treating soldiers with PTSD was well recognised.  The contrast in his method of treatment with that of another doctor in the book, Yealland, whose methods seem callous and hurtful.

We were also interested to note that while the bulk of the book was men speaking to men, the few women that did appear had their own agendas and sexual agency and saved it from being completely male-centric.  The talk about how the war had taken away their men – to the delight of some of them – and given them employment opportunities really added another dimension to the book.

The selection of a new book prompted its own wide-ranging discussion before we eventually decided on Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5. I've read this book a few times and just love it so I'm happy to be going back again.

Can I also put in a good word for the movie which is a rare instance where the film is as good as the book, I have heard it said that it's better.

Our next meeting will be at The All Nations hotel on November 6 because of school holidays in October.  I expect there will be an extraordinary meeting on September 2.

"Regeneration" by Pat Barker (4 Sep, 2019)

We had a nice turnout to discuss last month's book, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I'd read the book while I was at school and had really enjoyed it then and I was very pleased to find it just as good reading it again now.  The dystopian world that he describes in the book with a population mesmerised by content-free reality shows and a world dominated by screens is eerily prophetic, as was the description of the fake news showing Montag's death.

That said, we thought that there were really very few characters in the book, and even those were of no great depth.  Perhaps that's a reflection of how the book was assembled from a set of four short stories (as described in the postscript of the version I read), or maybe it's true to the cultivated lack of depth of the society the the characters live in.  The end of the book does seem to come to an abrupt halt.

We had a new member, Chris, join us which is great and he didn't seem too dissuaded by the beer-fuelled political rants that came award the end of the evening.

We also stopped for a few moments to remember my mother who had died recently and many book group members had attended the funeral the day before.  I was very touched by the turnout there and it made me feel the book group is something a bit special.  Thanks.

I think were had the fastest ever adoption of the new book for next month, Pat Barker's Regeneration,  the first (and allegedly the best) of her Regeneration trilogy.

Our next meeting to discuss the book will be on September 4 at the All Nations.

"Fahreheit 451" by Ray Bradbury (7 Aug, 2019)

A good turnout to talk about last month’s book, Spies by Michael Frayn   I just loved it: it got off to a slow start with the central character revisiting the street where he grew up.  Once he’d started telling the story as a boy though, the story became really compelling. Set during WW2, a boy, Stephen, is told by his friend Keith that Keith’s mother is a German spy so they start spying on her.  Unwittingly they reveal that she’s having an affair which they are blind to and don’t realise the complications that they are unleashing on the families.  I couldn’t put it down – it was a great book, and really well written.

We had a bit of a long discussion about which book to do next and there were a lot of great suggestions made.  We settled on Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  I remember enjoying the book when I read it at school so it’ll be interesting to revisit it after so long.

There’ll be an extraordinary meeting on July 3 at the All Nations, and then we’ll discuss the book on August 7 at the All Nations.  See you there!

"Spies" by Michael Frayn (5 June, 2019)

Last month's book, When The Night Comes by Favel Parrett, was very well recieved.  It's really something of a paean to the Antarctic research ship, the Nella Dan, skipping in its telling between a young girl, Isla, and one of the crew Bo.  I found the jumps to be a little difficult to follow at time but the vignettes in the book were very engaging.  There were a couple of places where we though that the writer had taken things a bit too far but they didn't detract too much.

Our next book is Spies by Michael Frayn which Mark suggested and – somewhat uncharacteristically – was accepted without much fuss.

See you all at The All Nations on June 5!

"When The Night Comes" by Favel Parrett (1 May, 2019)

There wasn't a lot of love for last month's book, Wildlife by Richard Ford.  People thought that the book relied on clumsy symbolism of the wildfire lurking over the horizon as a metaphor for the problems in boy's parents' relationship.  I agree but I thought the way that the author talked about the boy's feelings as he started to realise that his parents had their own failings and agendas was really evocative for me and reminded me of my own experience growing up.

Our next book is When The Night Comes by Favel Parrett who has been a nominee for the Miles Franklin award (for her book Past The Shallows, not this one).  She's a new Tasmanian writer and that seemed enough to get that book over the line.

See you at the All Nations on May 1!

"Wildlife" by Richard Ford (3 April, 2019)

It was a rather less sodden evening in every sense of the word than the last book club meeting and a small but animated and vocal turnout to talk about Entertaining Mr Sloane by Joe Orton.  The play is set in England and details Mr Sloane who moves in to share a house with Kath and her father.  Kath's brother, Ed, appears regularly as the story unfolds and heads towards its sordid ending where Sloane winds up as Kath and Ed's shared plaything in sexual servitude.  It was considered outrageous at the time because of the explicit homosexual content during a time when homosexuality was illegal in Britain.

The discussion was lively and jumped around between talking about the motivations of the characters, the language used in the play and the play's reception.  It was a very good choice. I thought.

At one stage one of the club's rules was broken when I (Ben) mentioned a certain jug-eared leader of the (then) opposition.  When we quite amused as we read back over the book club's rules.

Next month we're reading Wildlife by Richard Ford.  I haven't heard of the book or its author so I'm keen to see what it holds.  It's also a film for those who might care to watch that (as well as reading the book of course ...).  See you at The All Nations again on April 3.

"Entertaining Mr Sloane" by Joe Orton (Mar 6, 2019)

It was a sultry night at the All Nations when we met to talk about The Sellout by Paul Beatty.  We shouted over the sound of the rain about what an interesting book it was with a really lovely turn of phrase and quite a thoughtful (and meandering) exploration of race politics in America.  I noted that while there's usually there's a bit of catching up and chit chat at the start of our meetings, people couldn't wait to get started talking about the book.

Next month's book is Entertaining Mr Sloane by Joe Orton.  It was written in 1964 and was considered scandalous at the time. I'm interested to see what we make of it 50+ years later.

See you at the All Nations Hotel on March 6!