OCTOBER ~ Rose Tremain, an English novelist and short story writer

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

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