RESTORATION
KRIS:
Robert Merivel, son of a glove maker,
gives up his medical studies to take a position at the court of King Charles
11 as the keeper of his dogs. He easily takes to the life of luxury and idleness, enjoying the women and
the wine so much a part of these times.
When the king asks him to marry one of his
young mistresses in return for an estate and a generous income, his life seems
perfect. The one proviso was not to fall in love.
When this occurs and his love is
rebuffed, all he has known is taken from him.
Up until now, Merivel has seemed like a
very weak character, and his new situation will test this.
Kris loved the story, and especially
the descriptions of the countryside.
CHARIS:
Charis thought it a good story and
although it petered out at the end, it all seemed to end well.
She thought Tremaine was a good writer,
but couldn’t bring herself to like the character Merivel due to his
bawdiness and lustiness.
JUDY J:
Judy found the first part of the book
difficult to get into because of the lack of much storyline. But once Merivel’s
downward slide had begun, she found it much more interesting.
Merivel eventually falls and loses everything. He ends up
working in a Quaker madhouse as a physician in the Fens. He also moves back to
London and experiences the plague of 1665 and the fire of 1666. Along the way,
there are moving and funny experiences, and many other interesting and well-described
characters that he comes across.
JOAN:
Joan’s initial
comment was that she ‘couldn’t put it down’. She loved the characterization,
describing Merivel as a man of his time and such an interesting character.
Charles11 was the much-loved king in power and the story takes place during his
reign including the time of the fire and plague.
The author has
written a sequel called Merivel; a Man of his Time.
NATALIE:
Natalie thought it
was quite interesting going back into that time in history. Many great
descriptions of people and places.
JUDY DE:
She also took awhile
to get into it, but once she did, she loved it! She enjoyed it enough to go on
and read the sequel.
JO:
In the beginning
Merivel was a horrible character. But he grew when he lost everything and found
himself working in the mental hospital.
She enjoyed reading
about society of this time.
AMERICAN LOVER
LESLIE:
This is a book of
short stories all with very different subject matter. They cover a variety of emotions and characters, some
flawed and some with major issues. But there is a gentleness in many people and
the author writes in a gentle way about them.
Some stories bring in
true characters from history in a very clever way.
She thoroughly
enjoyed them!
JULIA:
There are 13 stories
in this book, published in 2014. The first 3 were sad, but very soon she was
‘hooked’ on her writing. There were stories in different formats, eg a diary
and some tackled modern issues and contemporary settings while others were told
with a wry sense of humour.
Julia thought they
were a really good read.
THE ROAD HOME
ROSEMARY:
Rosemary described
the book as a ‘hugely enjoyable read’. She thought the characters were quirky
and individual. Although it was published in 2008 the story is still relevant
to the current situation of refugee immigrants. She felt she could identify
with the struggles they faced to come to a foreign land. For her, the ending
may have been a bit abrupt.
TAM:
The book tells the
migrant experience of one man, coming from an undisclosed Communist country,
his wife has died and his child is sick. He heads off to London with the hope
of a better life there to support his family. He befriends people and along the
way, people help each other.
Tam found it really
interesting to try to understand the modern migrant, the endless mindless jobs
they are prepared to do and what it takes to succeed.
She couldn’t put it
down.
WENDY L:
Wendy also was very
enthusiastic about the book, describing Rosie Tremain as a terrific writer.
Even her minor characters were
interesting. The emotions she described were so authentic, you really felt for
him. She writes so well about the harshness of the environment, finding places
to stay, some people were helpful while others were so hard.
PRUE:
Like several others before her, Prue
commented that she was a new author to her. She thought she had fantastic
characters and language, and you really could understand the difficulties he
had with the language and accents.
She thought it was very clever the way
in this book also she had introduced a character from history, this time
being Hamlet.
CONNIE:
Connie felt as though she really knew
the people. She particularly appreciated how the author described London, the
city, the dingy cafes, the river, the suburbs and no mention of major landmark
buildings that were irrelevant to the story.
She ended up liking all the characters.
JOAN:
Joan identified themes of loss,
separation, mourning and melancholy through the book. She thought it really
described what it was like to be a foreigner in a big city. He had a dream and
knew how to achieve it through hard work. A wonderful story.
WENDY J
She enjoyed the writer’s style and was
fascinated by her characters.
GUSTAV SONATA
PAULINE:
Set in Switzerland after the war, a
young Jewish and a gentile boy begin a friendship. The story of their lives is
told in 3 parts, their time at school, during the war and in old age.
Flashbacks, sometimes in the form of
dreams are used to fill in the background details.
Pauline found it quite melancholy at
times, and maybe this was why she didn’t enjoy it as much as some other books
she had read by this author.
BEV:
She really enjoyed reading this,
especially with the very happy ending.
ANNE:
Anne also loved it. Although the main
story revolves around Gustav and Anton, there were many other interesting
characters in their lives, young and old, men and women.
The flashbacks to fill in details of
their lives were integral to the story.
THE COLOUR
DIANE:
Set in New Zealand in the nineteenth
century, it is the story of an emigrant from the UK who finds gold. From that
time on, everything that happens is bad. There is not one nice or good
character you could sympathize with. Everything in the story, literally and
emotionally collapses.
Not a book she enjoyed!
MUSIC AND SILENCE
PAT:
Pat found the book hard to get into
with so much chopping and changing. But by half way through things were
starting to connect.
She didn’t love it or hate it, it just
didn’t grab her. The frivolity of the court also annoyed her.
She too thought she would read another
book by Rose Tremain, one that had been more favourably reviewed.
SHEILA:
She loathed it, even though she only
read 15 pages. It was depressing and she found it difficult to stomach some
attitudes of the times, particularly the treatment of ordinary people as scum.
Sheila likes to read for enjoyment, so
would not bother with this book.
VAL:
Val also didn’t enjoy it. She found the
writing style difficult to understand in places. The story was depressing and
every character was ‘over the top’. They had problems and many flaws. The story
hopped from one character to the next.
After listening to comments by others,
she would like to read another more favoured book by this author.
THE CUPBOARD
Diann:
An 87 year old lady climbs into a
cupboard to die on her mother’s old clothes. The story goes back to the
beginning of her life to explain how she came to be in this situation.
Diann found it gory, hard to read, too
descriptive and with no flow. She certainly wouldn’t recommend it.
NOVEMBER BOOK CLUB ~ Australian author Nevil Shute
DECEMBER BOOK CLUB ~ The best book you’ve read this year!
