Member Profile
| Name : | Sally G. |
| Gender : | Female |
My Reviews
I enjoyed the reading the book and had forgotten a lot of the incidents, many of which involved drinking. It tells the story of Chris and Ana making a new life in Spain. Chris had bought El Valero (a remote farm) before Ana had seen it! and on moving out to Spain Chris and Ana lived with the company of the previous owner Pedro who sadly took advantage of their kind nature. Once they had found their feet they met and were helped by neighbours, especially Domingo.
We felt that they had integrated into the way of life and were accepted; they had not tried to live as expats abroad. The book was light reading after TTSS and everyone seemed to have enjoyed it but would not rush read the two follow up books.
We met on Wednesday and I think I can say that
there was unanimous enthusiasm for Tinker, Tailor...
I remember the classic BBC dramatisation from the 70s, with Alec
Guinness. I was in the sixth form and it was the kind of drama that
everyone talked about.
I read it then as well, and have never read anything else by Le Carre.
When the recent film came out it made me think about reading it again
and hence choosing it as my book this month.
I was not disappointed. It’s a thoroughly good read, a story very well
told. We all felt Le Carre must have inside knowledge to be able to
create that world so vividly. Only Jane has finished it so far, it
needs savouring and concentration. You just know that nothing is in
there without a reason and there are alot of names and details to hold
onto. It’s a bit strange as well to be reading this time knowing who
the mole is, but I’m still enjoying it.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was a resounding success. Everyone had read or is about to read it and we agreed it was just a lovely, poignant, heart-warming tale and one that was very hard to put down. We really cared about our hero and his wife Maureen and no-one guessed the twist which explains how they come to be as they are. It is Rachel Joyce's first novel and will be a hard act to follow.
For the first time in our book club history, all members agreed this was a great read! It kept everyone hooked and the twists were not blatantly obvious, which kept us intrigued. We liked the references to the classics and the descriptions. The book group questions were discussed at the end of the session and the answers were so different and interesting, such as the historical point in time that the book was set. We all eagerly await the sequel!
The feedback was very positive and those who read the book thought it was a good read, well written, very sad in parts but well worth it.
I think I can safely say there wasnt much enthusisam for Even the Dogs, I really wanted to love it as it had an award and looked at challenging issues whichI thought would provoke a debate. However, despite that I along with everyone else found it a toil and had to force myself to finish it (it was my choice afterall).
The drudgery and shambolic lifestyles of the characters (not to mention the writing style) led me to feel frustrated and not at all "in" their thought pattern as it became boring (and even more of an irritation) through overuse of the same
(technique).
The constant flitting about between character made it difficult to develop a relationship with any of them. In fact to some extent I thought they all kind of rolled into one (or maybe that was me not caring to look properly?!)
The realistic portrayal in creating the scenes and backdrop did lead our group to wonder about the authors background; the detailing was graphic in places although he never states which city is featured - it was somehow familiar to us all though. This led to an interesting discussion about helping this section of society, which as he is saying exists everywhere in a way which is actually helpful and how lucky we really are to have so much when some have so little.
A small selection made up the group, but on the whole the book was well received. It was basic in the writing and we did not feel an affinity with the main character. We discussed the emotions surrounding grief and his reaction. One member had read it in Frenxh at College, which would be an interestign prospect for those with the associated skill of the French language.
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