August 2016- H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Only a small group of readers met this month to discuss Helen Macdonald's critically acclaimed 'grief memoir' H is for Hawk. Annette picked this one based on its popularity at the library- it seemed to be borrowed frequently by various book club groups. She hadn't even read the blurb on the back cover.

One word seemed to sum up the book for us all- boring! Megan called it all "self indulgent twaddle". We all struggled to empathise with Helen as she pushed humankind away and locked herself into the house with Mabel (her baby Goshawk). Helen isolated herself from the world and from us, the readers. Apparently the book is based on her diary entries, and was written years later. We agreed that her diary was a suitable place to express her crippling sadness whilst she was struggling with her grief, but felt that It ultimately wasn't really for public consumption. It got in the way of us feeling any personal connection with Macdonald- her only personality trait seemed to be grief.

On the plus side, we all learned something about hawks and falconry! I didn't even know what a goshawk was prior to reading this book and found her descriptions of Mabel quite endearing. Most of us didn't understand or enjoy the constant references to TH White and his similar struggle to tame a hawk, although Anna has since emailed in her reactions and did enjoy those sections of the book. Annette didn't end up finishing, but those of us who did found the ending anticlimactic.

Scores:

Anna- 6

Annette- 2

Carmel- 3

Kristy- 3

Megan- 3

Average- 3.4

July 2016- The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

Megan's choice was picked out of the hat for this month. Last year we read about Hemingway's life as a poor starving writer living in 1920s Paris with his first wife, Hadley (see the blog post for The Paris Wife/Paris Without End). She was keen to read some of his writing and we do like to include a 'classic' each year.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro was first published in the 1930s. It is a short story about a man named Harry following a truck breakdown in Africa. Actually it is the shortest read we have ever had for book club at a whopping 20-something pages! The story was a bit hard to follow at first, but all credit to the power of Hemingway's writing- the reader quickly picks up on what is going on. His writing is quite sparse and concise. Megan loved the character's self-awareness and thought the writing was beautifully rendered as death approached.

Those of us who had read the biographies last year didn't have a particularly high opinion of Ernest as a person. One of the things we noticed whilst reading this short story was that we picked up on a lot of things that we had earlier read about. Hemingway writes of Harry: "Now he would never write the things that he had saved to write until he knew enough to write them well." His life experiences really did seem to influence his writing, something that often led to tension with his friends and associates in real life.

Many commented that rating this was particularly difficult due to it being a short story. I don't think that anyone loved the story or the character of Harry, but we tried to view the writing objectively. Carmel was glad that she had read it as she has had Hemingway on her list of things to read for a long time.

Scores:
Carmel- 7
Cheryl- 5
Glenda- 7
Kirrily- 5
Kristy- 7
Megan- 8

Average- 6.5

June 2016- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

June's read was The Goldfinch, nominated by Alison. This won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014. For a book that is a brick (at almost 800 pages) surprisingly quite a few of us finished it. Some reviewers have called the novel 'Dickensian': Megan said that it was because Tartt used too many words, and they were all the same words! Phil thought that there was not enough variety in the storyline and/or characters. There needed to be a bit more light to balance out the unremitting darkness and misery. Carmel loved it, particularly the constant thread running throughout of Theo's grief at losing his mother and the impact that had on the rest of his life. Alison enjoyed it so much she has now read it twice- what an achievement! Kristy enjoyed it at the beginning, particularly the early scenes in New York, but grew frustrated by the lack of redeeming features in almost every single character once they headed off to Vegas. She also felt that it dragged on way too long.

All of us were fascinated by the actual artwork The Goldfinch and wanted to know more about the Dutch painter Fabritius. This book was polarising- we either loved it or found it incredibly frustrating. You have to love a book club pick which does that and generates so much debate and discussion!

Scores:

Alison- 9

Carmel- 10

Kristy- 5

Megan- 5

Phil- 7

Average- 7.2

May 2016- Island Home by Tim Winton

Our May read was Tim Winton's Island Home- a landscape memoir.

This was one of Anna's suggestions and was the first book to be picked out of the hat. This is a new system we are trialling- each member suggests 2 books, which are drawn out at random. We had a bit of a chuckle because Anna's daughter did the first draw and Anna's book was the one picked out.

Phil loved the book and Megan read it in one day. Anna loves pretty much all of Winton's work, particularly his affinity with water and the landscape, and his 'non-gushy' descriptions. Carmel is quite the opposite- she isn't a Winton fan at all! Kristy started out enjoying it immensely, particularly the description of growing up in a new housing development in suburban Perth. However, she thought it tended to drag on a bit too much towards the end of the book and needed an editor to tell him when to call time.

Here are the scores:

Anna- 9
Carmel- 5

Kristy- 7
Megan- 9

Phil- 8

Average score- 7.6