Susan Fletcher is British novelist. She won the 2004 Whitbread First Novel Ward for Eve Green.
Her themes deal with loss, loneliness, guilt and the psychic damage caused by the burden of keeping secrets.
EVE GREEN
JO:
She really liked the book. She found it interesting but rather confusing.
PAULINE:
Following the loss of her mother at aged eight, Evie is sent to Wales. She sets out to discover her family secrets. The story is about her remembering as she awaits the birth of her baby. Pauline said the writing was good and descriptive but there was no great plot. It was interesting how the child Evie viewed everything. The writer has attachment to the Welsh landscape. Pauline's only criticism is that the story goes back and forth.
JULIA:
She didn't like the flashbacks. She thought it was a sad book. She like how she dealt with lies and how to survive when love is gone.
KRIS:
She really enjoyed this book. It was difficult to begin with but then she became quite absorbed in the story. She liked the character of Evie as a child. When she is sent away to live with her grandparents in rural Wales, Evie sets out to discover her family's dark secret. Evie is fiery and spirited just like her mother and grandmother before her. She becomes involved in the search for a local girl, Rosie who has disappeared. I liked the characters and the descriptions of the wild Welsh countryside.
A LITTLE IN LOVE
PAMELA:
She didn't like the story and found it very depressing.
JOAN:
33 years ago Cameron McIntosh produced the musical Les Miserables - adpated from the novel by French novelist Victor Hugo (1862). "A Little in Love" is a vignette of Les Miserables. The main character, Eponine lives with her cruel family of thieves in Paris. Cosette comes to live with the family as the kitchen slave. She shows kindness to Eponine. Joan liked the characters as she loved the musical. She said it was an easy read. The backtracking was well done and she was quite
impressed.
DIANN:
She loved it. She said it touched her. The author writes beautifully. Eoponine was a formidable character. The story flowed well and she would highly recommend this book.
ANNE:
She hated this book.
JUDY A:
She didn't like it and only got half way through. The first person narration irritated Judy.
CHARIS:
A little way through this book she thought she was reading something akin to Hans Christian Anderson for teenagers. It was a high school book teaching the morals of good and bad behaviour set against a testing background from being born into a criminal family. Love was vested in the people showing good and living the life envied by the main character, Eponine. Set against the lower classes rising against the King in the French Revolution, it contains stories of brutality and heartlessness.
THE SILVER DARK SEA
CLAURENE:
She tried to skip over things and didn't finish. The story is set on an imaginary small island in Britain. Four years previously one of their men was lost at sea. The islanders are still in mourning. An unclothed man is washed ashore. He has no memory. She didn't like this book.
BEV:
She read for one hour and didn't like the book. "It goes every which way" Bev said. It was too descriptive and Bev thought "why waste my time".
CHARIS:
It's about experiencing grief and only once did it go too far in the grieving process. The characters were engaging. It goes along at a slow rhythmic pace making it a slow read. Charis said it was well written and gives hope in the grieving process. She really liked this book. Charis also read A Little in Love but didn't like it and felt it was more like a High School book.
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT A MAN I KNEW
TAM:
This is a fictional story that begins with a new patient with wild red hair and a savaged ear who comes to an Asylum in the south of France. The doctor's wife ignores her husband's wishes and visits Van Gogh regularly. Her life was pretty boring and he made it more exciting. Tam said she liked this book and would read more.
ED:
She had trouble getting into it at first but things improved. The story is about a husband and wife who grew apart and weren't telling each other things. She relearns things about her husband after getting to know Van Gogh.
CONNIE:
She had a bit of trouble with the use of real names to make a fictitious story but apart from that she enjoyed her descriptions of scenery and people. It didn't explain Van Gogh too much. What the doctor saw in the Crimean war is what affected his relationship with his wife. They were close before the war. Connie felt the author did that part quite well.
LESLEY:
She liked it. It's set in an Asylum in Provence. The story is not about Van Gogh, a poverty stricken artist who has episodes of madness. It's about a relationship with no communication - the doctor and his wife and the change Van Gogh brings to them. Lesley didn't mind it was a blend of real and fictitious. Lesley also spoke about the Mistral - the strong wind that blows two months of the year. It was like another character who created change.
DIANE:
She can't say she enjoyed it. She said Susan Fletcher was a beautiful writer but she wanted more action. She has a way with words that evoke the time and area and creates an atmosphere but nothing really happens. It's more about internal things. A painter wants to come to the institution to be inspired. The doctor's wife becomes obsessed with the painter. As her last birth was very traumatic her husband did not want to have an intimate relationship with her.
JUDY D:
She read it in one day and could not put it down. She knew Van Gogh's story but it wasn't really about Van Gogh. It was about lack of communication in the relationship between the doctor at the asylum and his wife, as well as problems with their sex life. The priest intervened to try to help them.
ROSEMARIE:
She didn't finish it but enjoyed it enough to renew it. She said Van Gogh is not the main character in the book.
OYSTERCATCHERS
PAULINE:
It's the story of two sisters, Moira and Amy. Moira is the much older sister of sixteen year old Amy. The story is told at the bedside of Amy who is in a coma. Pauline wasn't sure she would like it but she loved this book. It was well written. The prose is beautiful. Moira was away at school in Norfolk and always resented her younger sister. In the story you hear about Moira's life - her thoughts and her regrets. Pauline said it was a lovely book to read.
PRUE:
Prue gave an account of the autobiography she read titled SONGS OF A WAR BOY: THE BESTSELLING BIOGRAPHY OF DENG ADUT - a Child Soldier, Refugee and Man of Hope.
Prue already knew a bit about him. Deng was born in Sudan. She said it was very emotional. It is plain talk about himself, as it happened. It's easily written and nothing complicated. He had no education and couldn't speak English but he got educated in university. He discussed how his brother couldn't make it here despite his education but Deng has decided his life will be in Australia.
Next month we will be reading books by Lisa Genova.
Kris
