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.
