The Free-Range Bookclub
Bookclubbers without boundaries in Nelson, New Zealand
The Train – Georges Simenon
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Chosen by Becks
On May 10, 1940, as Nazi tanks approach, Marcel Feron abandons his home and, separated from his wife, joins a freight car of refugees hurtling southward ahead of the pursuing invaders.
❍”Marcel, a timid, happy man must abandon his home and confront the fate he has been secretly awaiting for years. A poignant, believable love affair that deals with an aspect of war we don’t often hear about. An interesting and troubling insight into human behaviour in the face of a traumatic experience, and the bonds that we create with individuals out of the instinctual need to grasp at life. An easy read that was deeply thought provoking and hard to put down.” – Becks
❍”Georges Simenon created a story that I fell straight into, I could imagine the scene or situation vividly and felt an understanding for most of the characters. It took some time to understand the main character, Marcel, and his dissociation from his regular life. The tension of potential danger physically, mentally and emotionally is expertly created. A wonderful story of a normal, vulnerable man stepping outside of his life comforts and enjoying all that ‘fate’ has to offer.” – Jo
❍”I read this book over one night – it is truly unputdownable. Marcel’s momentary detachment to the real world and acceptance of (almost dependance on) fate makes for a fascinating character study. The paired-back writing style creates an appropriate war-setting atmosphere, yet reveals so much in a minimum of words. I can’t stop thinking about this book.” – Rachel
Published in French 1961
Translated into English by Robert Baldick 2011
Melville House
144 pages
The Happiness Project – Gretchen Rubin
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Chosen by Sonya
A non-fiction book detailing the year the New York author spent dedicated to becoming happier.
❍ “I used to have a (slightly embarrassing!) soft spot for ‘self help’ and personal development type books! So The Happiness Project appealed to me. I was drawn in by ideas about what makes us happy, the philosophy and thinking behind bringing more joy to our daily lives. And so I read it from this viewpoint, less affected than others by questions around the author’s authenticity. In this way I did enjoy aspects of it, and I found myself making small positive adjustments to little things I do. However, I lost interest towards the end. Perhaps, like others, it felt somewhat contrived and I lost the initial connection I felt for the author.” – Sonya
❍ “Gretchen Rubin is an admirable woman; her ability to achieve her targets set during ‘the happiness project’ year of her life is astounding. However the sheer number of goals set for each month during the book is overwhelming and perhaps the reason for a superficial examination of each task rather than a longed for depth of analysis with a greater emotional content. I was left feeling unable to relate to her as it lacked legitimacy for me – why would a happy person commit to completing a happiness project? How on earth did she do what she said she did with a young family? Although her goals or resolutions had merit the book generally seemed like an opportunity to grandstand to me and ultimately was a disappointing read.” – Jo
❍ “I wondered how much of this book was fiction, ie a ‘self-help’ book written for a niche market, as it all seemed a bit unrealistic and quite narcissistic. There were a few ideas I picked up on for maximising time in a busy day, but ultimately this was neither a believable self-help book nor reputable fiction. I fail to see where it lies in the market.” – Rachel
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Published 2010
Harper Collins
320 pages
Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton
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Chosen by Jo
Through the eyes of a visitor, the reader observes Ethan Frome falling in love with his wife’s niece while stuck on a desolate farm in a harsh setting.
The niece is Mattie Silver. She arrives in the mountain village of Starkfield to help with housekeeping for her cousin Zeena, the sickly, cantankerous wife of Ethan. Ethan has long been resigned to caring for his ailing wife but is drawn to Mattie’s youthful beauty and energy. As the story progresses, Ethan’s vitality and hopes are refocused but a little bit obsessive.
The books talks of loneliness, frustration and moral responsibility in an economical and unsentimental style to represent the frigidity of the Massachusetts winter.
He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of it’s frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface; but there was nothing nothing unfriendly in his silence. I simply felt that he lived in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access, and I had the sense that his loneliness was not merely the result of his personal plight, tragic as I guessed that to be, but had in it, as Harmon Gow had hinted, the profound accumulated cold of many Starkfield winters.
❍ “Thwarted dreams, transformation and confinement are some of the themes that run through this tragic love story. Ethan Frome could have had a very different life if he had escaped the land of broken dreams – Starkfield, Massachusetts. There is a strong sense of dread and the final twisted truth is shockingly satisfying. I loved the doomed love story and the slow build up of tension. A very enjoyable read.” – Jo
❍ “A seemingly simple story full of descriptive imagery and character studies. The language is efficient and meaningful and as such built the story using all the senses. I connected with Ethan Frome and the women in his life, despite their misgivings, and was captivated by their twisted love stories.” – Rachel
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Published 1911
Scribner’s
195 pages
The Picture Of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
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Chosen by Rachel
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about.
This 1891 novel focuses on Dorian Gray, a young man of great beauty. An artist friend paints his portrait and Dorian is so taken by the artwork, he declares that he would give his soul if he could remain eternally young while the portrait grows old.
In this gothic, magical novel Dorian gets his wish. His image in the painting gradually degrades while Dorian himself stays youthful and handsome. His soul, as he announced, is lost and he becomes selfish, ill-behaved and callous towards those in his life.
You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.
As an examination of the relationship between art and life, there have been many interpretations of the book over the years.
❍ “Talk about the book with a thousand morals – this is it. With impressive characterisation in a minimum of words, Wilde had produced a cast of characters that cross the spectrum of humanness, and who befriend and shock you in equal measure. There is so much to think about here: the purpose of art, the superficiality of society, the secrecy of homosexuality and then to learn about the aestethicisim movement … this book is a life changer.” – Rachel
I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.
❍ “The prose is beautiful if sometimes hard to follow (for me anyway!) in this incredible study of hedonism, vanity and selfishness. Dorian’s character deteriorates rapidly and the terrible consequences of the trading of his soul is revealed at the horrifying end. Interestingly this book served as evidence against Oscar Wilde during his trials as it contains homosexual references and themes. There is an obvious disdain for women throughout which can be tedious however the witty exchanges between the characters more than makes up for this. A moral tale that I would love to re-read again and again – if only to be able to remember more of his quotable quotes!” – Jo
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
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Published 1891
Ward, Lock & Company
176 pages
Sydney Bridge Upside Down – David Ballentyne
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Chosen by Sophia
A dark story set in the sleepy coastal town of Calliope Bay where the children play in the abandoned slaughterhouse and welcome the allure of their city cousin. David Ballantyne (Ngati Uenukukopako, Ngati Hinepare) helped shape the characteristics of the NZ Gothic genre in writing this book.
❍ “Many of us were required to read New Zealand fiction as teenagers as an exercise in social studies. The upholstery of the New Zealand setting (pioneers, pungas and sheep) and our tradition of social realism in fiction can seem familiar and perhaps a bit dull. Sydney Bridge Upside Down is a novel that completely unsettles this familiar landscape. Not for a long time have I been so thoroughly unnerved by but also enamoured with a novel. A fantastic summer read because it evokes the long hot summers of childhood and then infuses them with a New Zealand-ish kind of horror that was never mentioned in your social studies textbook.” – Sophia
❍ “A beautiful sinister book set “on the edge of the world” in Calliope Bay. A thrilling book which highlights dark issues that we would rather not talk about. I loved the pace of this book and once finished I had to re-read immediately for clues I had missed along the way. This book is a must read but may not be for the faint hearted.” – Becks
❍ “How had I not heard about this book before now?! I feel like I have missed out on something wonderful for too long. I was totally riveted by Sydney Bridge Upside Down. Ballantyne manages to tactfully capture issues that weren’t talked about when the book was published in 1968 and unfolds the tension layer by enigmatic layer. The characters are expertly built and then their relationships deconstructed piece by piece leaving the bare bones of the truth. This is a masterpiece and should be compulsory high school reading as far as I’m concerned.” – Rachel
❍ “I found this book strangely foreboding with the omnipresence of the old man and his horse watching and knowing what is really going on and the old meat works as a dangerous playground. Our narrator is unreliable and my understanding of Harry changes as does my feelings for him. The uncomfortable mischief that goes on with the children, Harry and his cousin as well as the local rogue built tension and kept it tight the whole way through until the dark truth is slowly and delightfully revealed. A very enjoyable book with buckets of expertly crafted tension. Surprising that it is not more widely know.” – Jo
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First published 1968 by Whitcombe & Tombs
Reprinted 2013 by Text Publishing
304 pages
2015 – Unexpected Twist
Where would we be without an unexpected twist or two to add to proceedings? Let’s face it, surprise events and out-of-the-blue announcements are what make a reader’s day. Whether shocking or pleasing they grab us by the shoulders and shake us about a bit, until we can accept, absorb and continue.
Such was the case at the conclusion to 2014 when founding member Suzy announced her departure from Nelson. Pause, gasp, then hugs, well-wishes and questions! Turns out she and family decided to head back to the North Island and we are all very happy for her with the exciting change, but sad for us 😦
But as in every good book, with change brings an open door and a gap in the character list, and through the door to carve out their own place in the story were two new lovely bookclubbers, Becks and Sonya. I think both were a bit apprehensive at first!, but after bookclub Day One it was like they had always been there – welcome ladies!
As far as reading lists go, we’ve opted to theme again this year. Sophia is focussing on Trans Tasman Authors, Jo has gone with Edith Wharton, Rachel favours The Philosophical Novel, Becks is going with Big Names In Literature and Sonya has chosen Non-Fiction, and so the reading schedule looks like this:
Sydney Bridge Upside Down – David Ballentyne
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton
The Happiness Project – Gretchen Rubin
The Train – George Simenon
The Harp In The South – Ruth Park
Sophie’s World – Jostein Gaarder
The Age Of Innocence – Edith Wharton
The Colour of Water – James McBride
Go Set A Watchman – Harper Lee
The Buried Giant – Kazuo Ishiguro
2014 – End Of Year Thoughts
NZ’s literary world was thrown into the headlines this year with the war of words between one of our most recognised authors Eleanor Catton and Prime Minister John Key.
Catton slung about superlatives announcing the Government’s lack of culture; Key said The Luminaries was “pretty good” but he’d “read better”.
And on it went. Like an extravagant, character-driven plot in a quickly hashed out novel. Support characters jumped on board, over-analysing the comments in social media, and hack journalists half reported the comments of each, inciting further debate.
The two antagonists walked away mainly unscathed, though NZ’s international reputation slumped a little with the dagger in it’s side. 😦
As well as this blockbuster, there was a lot of drama in the books we’ve read and reviewed this year. For a start, like NZ, there were many beautiful and memorable settings: the cemetery of forgotten books in The Shadow of the Wind; the English manor in Howard’s End, the lake house in Crossing to Safety, the convent in Holy Days, the old house, Bly, in The Turn Of The Screw.
And like Catton and Key, many brilliant, intelligent and controversial characters graced the pages of our reading this year, too.
Off to Ford’s Restaurant we went, to enjoy dinner and drinks and discuss this all in depth.
Book of the year:
Rachel: Crossing To Safety
Jo: The Shadow Of The Wind
Suzy: Under The Mountain
Sophia: Crossing to Safety
Runner up:
Rachel: The Turn Of The Screw
Jo: Holy Days
Suzy: The Turn of The Screw
Sophia: Howards End
Best character:
Rachel: Charity Lang from Crossing To Safety
Jo: Daniel Sempere from The Shadow Of The Wind
Suzy: Brian from Holy Days
Sophia: Helen Schlegel from Howards End
On Beauty – Zadie Smith
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Chosen by Sophia
Based on E M Forster’s Howards End, this book follows the lives of a mixed heritage US family, addressing ethnic and cultural issues
✎ Howard Belsey is one of the central characters in On Beauty. He is a professor, and an Englishman living and working in New England. He has been married for thirty years to Kiki, an American woman, and they have three teenage children: Levi, Zora and Jerome.
Howard is undergoing a mid life crisis of sorts and can’t see what there is to look forward to in the second half of his life. However, when his oldest son finds himself a love interest, Howard and his family are thrown together with her family, the Kipps. The two patriarchs are academic rivals and do not see eye to eye morally, intellectually or otherwise and a series of events result which will definitely change the course of Howard’s future.
Set on both sides of the Atlantic, Zadie Smith’s third novel is an honest analysis of family life, the institution of marriage, intersections of the personal and political, and a study of the deceptions that loved ones can act out upon one another. It also has an interesting blend of humour, too.
Stop worrying about your identity and concern yourself with the people you care about, ideas that matter to you, beliefs you can stand by, tickets you can run on. Intelligent humans make those choices with their brain and hearts and they make them alone. The world does not deliver meaning to you.
✎ “While a fantastic book in its own regard, On Beauty‘s nod to E M Forster’s classic provides an additional layer of appreciation. It is a modern classic written in a contemporary vernacular with a bevy of characters who all have a distinct voice. Everything in the book is beautifully described, from the people, to the locations to the execution of everyday events. A thoroughly enjoyable read.” – Rachel
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Published 2006
Penguin Books
464 pages
2014 Bookerthon
This year marks a big change in the Man Booker Prize. The prize is now open to any novel written in English, published in the UK. This makes a chunk of new US fiction eligible for the honour of being named best book of the year.
The wider net creates more of a global prize but many Brits have voiced their contentment with the prize’s focus being on UK and Commonwealth writers. But the change is made, the brand is growing and the first inclusive longlist was announced with four Americans on it, two of whom made the shortlist.
One of those is We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, which details the life of an average American family, average in all ways but one that concerns the narrator’s sister, Fern. It’s hard to detail the plot without giving everything away, but it was a plot that we both really enjoyed. Its pacing and reveals and emotional pull was great and we both admitted to shedding a tear or two.
The other is To Rise Again At A Decent Hour, which has a very America protagonist. Paul O’Rourke is a dentist, an atheist, a man who has bad habits and loves baseball. When someone begins to impersonate him on the internet, he wonders if online Paul might be a better version of himself. Sounds intriguing but we both admitted that the very American vernacular and humour was not appealing to us.
The other four to make the shorlist are:
How To Be Both by Ali Smith which is a literary response to the influence of art, with two main characters and two ways in which to read the story – it’s luck of the draw on what version you pick up. It was beautiful and clever but an intense read.
The Narrow Road To The Deep North is from Australian Richard Flanagan. It is based on the true story of POWs being used as slave labour on the Burma Railway. It is harrowing and beautiful all at once.
The Lives Of Others is an historical saga set in 1960s Calcutta detailing the lives and shifting hierarchal sands with the Ghosh family. Likely historically accurate, it required more time than we were able to give it to map the people and places and events that were intricately detailed.
J (the year of the longest and shortest titles!) is a well-constructed, dystopian story set in a time where people refer to a catastrophe of the past as “What Happened, If It Happened”. Innovative and moral, but the synopsis made it sound more exciting than it is.
Rachel: This year I’m picking The Narrow Road To The Deep North by Richard Flanagan. It has everything on its side: readability, emotivity, stunning prose, as well as being plot heavy and character driven – the whole package! I couldn’t put this down and felt like I learnt a lot.
Suzy: Despite struggling with How To Be Both, it quickly became apparent to me that this is a work of pure genius – sigh. Strongly recommended for people with high IQs! This is my pick for winner this year. Though, The Narrow Road to the Deep North would also be a deserving winner in my opinion.
Best book 1st-6th: Rachel:
The Narrow Road To The Deep North
How To Be Both
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
J
The Lives Of Others
To Rise Again At A Decent Hour
Best book 1st-6th: Suzy:
How To Be Both
The Narrow Road To The Deep North
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
J
The Lives Of Others
To Rise Again At A Decent Hour
To Rise Again At A Decent Hour – Joshua Harris
READ FOR BOOKERTHON
A New York dentist has his identity stolen via social media
✎ Paul O’Rourke is a New York dentist with a troubled mind. Stemming from the suicide of his father, he constantly questions himself, his actions, the state of the world, his religious beliefs. His ability to interact with others is lacking and his relationships with women are superficial and lust-orientated. His life lacks meaning.
When he creates a website for his business, a stranger steals his identity and engages online as him. At first he is enraged, then saddened to think the online Paul O’Rourke is more interesting and valid than himself, the real Paul O’Rourke.
His investigations lead him to a group called the Ulms, whose history traces back to the Israelites and whose identifying feature is their ability to doubt everything. Unsurprisingly, O’Rourke ends up discovering he is one of them.
Thematically the book is strong, focusing on the power of the internet; the effects of religious belief and the interplay between private and public personas.
Freedom of religion in America is all fine and good until you start believing in nothing, and then it is a crime to be punished.
✎ “This is one of two American novels shortlisted, now that writers from the US are eligible for the award. The plot sounded good, but turned out to be only mildly interesting. For a book that has been compared to one my of my all time favourites, Catch-22, it didn’t raise a single smile from me. I found the humour inconsistent, jumping between satire and pie-in-the-face humour. Some American fiction I love, and some, like this, which are touted as hilarious, just don’t appeal to me. – Rachel
✎ “I felt like I read this book with a fixed & determined grin awaiting the moment where the genuine funnies would start. It was promoted as being hilarious and perhaps my expectations were too high. Yes it was enjoyable and an interesting enough story, but for me it was a lowlight of the Man Booker reads this year.” – Suzy
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Published 2015
Back Bay Books
352 pages
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