The Free-Range Bookclub
Bookclubbers without boundaries in Nelson, New Zealand
A Tale For The Time Being – Ruth Ozeki
READ FOR BOOKERTHON
A Canadian novelist finds a diary of a 16-year-old girl from Tokyo washed up on shore after the 2011 Japanese tsunami
❖ “A Tale For the Time Being is a multi-era, multi-genre, multi-themed, multi-culture, multi-plot book. In it you will find World War II, origami, fetish cafes, the Japanese tsunami, quantum physics, Hello Kitty and ecological collapse. The story is told of nuns, Buddhist priests, writers and readers, teenagers, anarachists and people of various race. They talk about memories, death, philosophy, what it means to be female, depression and writing.
Phew!
This sounds suffocating but actually what it’s about is a 16 year old Japanese girl called Nao who wishes to end her life but decides to write the story of her ancestor first. Years later the diary, inside a Hello Kitty lunchbox, washes up on the shores of Canada where it is discovered by a writer named Ruth. The writer is intrigued to know what happened to the girl and begins a search, as she reads the diary, investigating and developing the relationship between reader and writer.
Ruth’s quiet sensible life on the Canadian shores contrasts with Nao’s more philosophical nature, questioning existence and time. In her diary she details her life with her unemployed, depressed father and emotionally absent mother. Nao is cruelly bullied at school and finally breaks free by moving to live with her great-grandmother, Jiko, an elderly feminist nun living in a mountain temple observing Zen qualities of life.
I helped Jiko to her feet and we walked back to the bus stop together, holding hands again. I was still thinking about what she said about waves, and it made me sad because I knew that her little wave was not going to last and soon she would join the sea again, and even though I know you can’t hold on to water , still I gripped her fingers a little more tightly to keep her from leaking away.
The scope of the story is like the giant flotsam that washed the lunch box ashore, so very vast and made up of a milieu of things and ideas. Somehow all that stuff resulted in one simple item being carefully deposited upon land to be discovered.
Or you could say that this is simply the story of a writer reading the diary of a girl who has captured her great-grandmother’s life. How much of that flotsam you gather up and take on board is up to the individual reader, but be aware, the content has the potential to sail you along on the tide or drag you under.
In our cases it was close. Suzy gave it 4 stars, Rachel 4.5.
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Published 2013
Viking
432 pages
The Lowland – Jhumpa Lahiri
READ FOR BOOKERTHON
The story of two brothers living in 1960s Calcutta. One becomes an oceanographer, the other a political activist
❖ The Lowland features two Bengali brothers Subhash and Udayan who follow different paths as they grow up in Calcutta during the 50s and 60s. Subhash is the older sibling and is drawn to the natural world, choosing to become an oceanographer and moving to the States to do so. Udayan is an energised activist who joins the Naxalite movement and opposes anyone and any thing that seems a threat to what he sees as his right.
Udayan gets involved in several illegal activities in pursuit of his moral and ethical standards, and marries a woman whose political beliefs match his own, to the distain of his family.
Bit of spoiler alert, but has to be said: soon after this Udayan is killed in a skirmish. His new wife Gauri is pregnant and lost. Her brother in-law, the sensible Subhash takes her as his own wife in order to provide a life for her and the child and heads back to the States, wife in tow. It’s unsurprising to learn Gauri is unhappy with her new life, and how she copes is the subject matter of the rest of the book.
He felt his presence on earth being denied, even as he stood there. He was forbidden access; the past refused to admit him. It only reminded him that this arbitrary place, where he’d landed and made his life, was not his.
The characters are exceptionally well drawn and what kept us both glued to the pages. The setting and plot and therefore the pace, drastically change once Subhash and Gauri head back to the United States to live. This is a bit of a shock after the energy and fervour of the opening chapters but the strength of the characters keeps the story interesting.
From Bengali culture and politics to oceanography to philosophy, this is a book that covers a range of topics and themes in a personable way. Both Suzy and Rachel said they would recommend it.
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Published 2013
Alfred A Knopf
340 pages
We Need New Names – NoViolet Bulawayo
READ FOR BOOKERTHON
This is a coming-of-age story about Darling, a ten year old living in Zimbabwe. She is orphaned after her mother leaves to work at the border and her father abandons the family for a life in South Africa, and later contracts AIDS.
On her own she has the usual teenage drama to deal with along with the adversity of living in poverty without anyone to care for her. She struggles with the aftermath of the country’s unrest and this forces her to question what path her own life will take.
There is a cast of unique characters alongside Darling, including Chipo, (a ten year old pregnant to her grandfather), Godknows, Shbo & Stina. The group get up to various antics and have situations forced upon them, such as when they come across a body hanging from a tree.
Mid way through the book Darling has had enough of the struggles of poverty and conflict and she escapes to America, living with her Aunt Fostalina in Michigan. To adapt to life in the US, she distances herself from her connections and memories of Zimbabwe, but does experience guilt for abandoning her country. This is the books main premise, about the cultural differences between the two countries, their daily lives, their traditions, their beliefs and how no two people have the same experience when undergoing a cultural change.
Look at the children of the land leaving in droves, leaving their own land with bleeding wounds on their bodies and shock on their faces and blood in their hearts and hunger in their stomachs and grief in their footsteps. Leaving their mothers and fathers and children behind, leaving their umbilical cords underneath the soil, leaving the bones of their ancestors in the earth, leaving everything that makes them who and what they are, leaving because it is no longer possible to stay. They will never be the same again because you cannot be the same once you leave behind who and what you are, you just cannot be the same.
“Despite being a story of Zimbabwe’s trauma and desperation, and believe us there are some harrowing accounts in these pages – it is the cast of loveable characters that offsets the sorrow and at the end of the day what makes it so powerful. We both really enjoyed this but do warn, be prepared to go on an emotional rollercoaster.
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Published 2013
Vintage
304 pages
Harvest – Jim Crace
READ FOR BOOKERTHON
In a remote English village economic progress disrupts the pastoral idyll
❖ Set in a rural village Harvest‘s pages open with the community harvesting their crops. They are joyous and spirited, sustained by their hard work for another season.
However at the feast that evening, there is news that the land is to be repurposed for sheep and wool production. This is a real piece of English history where sustenance farmers were dispossessed and displaced in favour of sheep farming many centuries ago.
As this announcement is made, three strangers wander in to the village, displaced from other lands. One lays claim to the land and intends to measure and prepare it for his use. The villagers are displeased and what eventuates is a series of violent events, everyone thinking their connection to the earth is most important. That theme of displacement from land is as relevant today as it ever was.
I am excused, I think, for wondering if I am the only one alive this afternoon with no other living soul who wants to cling to me, no other soul who’ll let me dampen her. The day has ended and the light has snuffed. I’m left to trudge into the final evening with nobody to loop their soaking hands through mine.
Suzy enjoyed the fact that the narrator Walter Thirsk could be trusted to provide a grounded, realistic account of people and events, and did so in a voice that is both old-worldly but also contemporary.
Rachel praised the intelligent prose and acknowledged it as work of art, but said the book as a whole lacked a level of excitement for her.
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Published 2013
Picador
288 pages
Flowers In The Attic – Virginia Andrews
READ FOR BOOKCLUB
Chosen by Suzy
Four siblings are locked in an attic in the childhood home of their mother after the death of their father. The children are told they will only have to remain there until their estranged grandfather forgives his daughter for running away to marry their father. He is ailing and she tells the children when he dies he will leave his sprawling estate to her.
However, years pass and the children begin to doubt their mother’s story and begin searching for a way to escape. The older two, Cathy and Chris take on the role of parents to the younger twins. However this role playing takes a sinister turn and Flowers in the Attic becomes a dark story of greed, incest and abuse.
“I love you,” was his reply. “I make myself keep on loving you, despite what you do. I’ve got to love you. We all have to love you, and believe in you, and think you are looking out for our best interests. But look at us, Momma, and really see us.”
❖ “I can’t believe I put everyone through reading this book. LADIES, I APOLOGISE. I chose it for bookclub as a throwback to high school where we all loved it. Re-reading it as an adult I can only say this book is really quite horrible. There are three other books that follow on from it, and having read the synopsis of those I can assure people that things don’t get better. We were so starved as teenagers for information about sex that we coveted a book about incest and abuse?? Bloody hell.” – Suzy
❖ “I read this as a teenager and thought it was great. But re-reading at this stage of my life, I struggle to think how anyone could stomach this story. It is a horrific tale of abuse. Yes sure there have been other stories of abuse that are still good reads, but I feel like this book had a reputation as a romantic, forbidden love type tale rather than a redemptive story about surviving abuse. This narrative seems to relish the fact the brother was forcing himself on his sister. Ugh. Disgusting. But also I read to the very end and then googled the plot for the sequel! (hoping to find they were all living a normal life but no there is just more abuse and incest.) It does make me wonder what is it with this book that has been so grotesquely appealing over the years.” – Rachel
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Published 1979
Simon & Schuster
400 pages
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
READ FOR BOOKCLUB
Chosen by Rachel
Set toward the end of World War II in 1944, on an island off the coast of Italy, Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 is a satirical anti-war novel. It features extensive use of black humour, a non-linear structure, surrealism and an anti-hero protagonist who struggles to deal with the insanity of war. He decides that the only sane response to it is not to participate in it.
That anti-hero is American army pilot John Yossarian, who is aghast at his commander who keeps raising the number of missions men must complete before being rotated out. He spends most of his time trying to get out of active flight duty by asking to be declared insane. However, the mysterious Catch-22 states that only an insane man would fly this dangerous missions so asking to be grounded proves he is sane. The circular reasoning of this “catch” is the central metaphor for the absurdity of war and the military bureaucracy.
The book and its many characters and plot lines drive home the author’s point that institutions such as the military, big business, government, and religion are corrupt and individuals must find their own responses to this corruption. Heller’s questioning of these institutions, and of war in general, reflect the social protests and anti-war movements of the late 1960s.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was.
“This is one of those hilarious but desperately sad books that makes you laugh but want to cry at the same time. The story is strange and convoluted and it drags you into the chaos, no matter how many times you’ve re-read it. Additionally, there’s a cast of characters who range from anti-heroes, to well-crafted protagonists to cliched war-story clowns, reminding us how real but how ridiculous war is. You cannot help but be moved and entertained with this book. One of my all time favourites.” – Rachel
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Published 1961
Simon & Schuster
543 pages
The Member Of The Wedding – Carson McCullers
READ FOR BOOKCLUB
Chosen by Sophia
Troubled teen and tomboy Frankie Addams becomes obsessed with her brother’s wedding plans as she seeks to become a member of something important.
Frankie Addams is an awkward twelve year old out of school for the summer. She lives with her widowed father and a housekeeper named Berenice. Her father is a jeweller and often not home. As a result, Frankie is closer to Berenice and often looking for belonging. What’s more she is tall, has cropped hair, and is a tomboy, so is no longer included in the group of neighbourhood girls. She struggles with her identity and self-esteem.
Frankie reads about the events of World War II and imagines it as an adventure, of being part of something that is easily defined. When her brother Jarvis announces his upcoming wedding, Frankie is elated. Through a combination of wishful thinking and youthful naiveté, she becomes convinced that she will go with her brother and his bride on their honeymoon, and live with them wherever they go afterward. Believing that she has solved the problem of not belonging anywhere, she begins planning for her new life.
Parts of The Member of the Wedding are autobiographical. McCullers lived in a small home town, had a jeweller father and African-American servants. Frankie’s feelings of awkwardness are drawn from McCullers who said she felt like a gangly misfit and whose tomboyish ways made it difficult to fit in with boys or girls her age.
She stood in the corner of the bride’s room, wanting to say: I love the two of you so much and you are the we of me. Please take me with you from the wedding, for we belong to be together.
❖ “There is a kind of awkwardness to this book which makes it uncomfortable but distinctive. Frankie IS the story and she is a perfect character. She embodies the need to belong and I’m sure everyone could relate to her because of this. Exceptionally well written and enjoyable.” – Rachel
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Published 1946
Houghton Mifflin Publishing
176 pages
The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters
READ FOR BOOKCLUB
Chosen by Jo
The Little Stranger is a mixed genre story set in a dilapidated mansion in Warwickshire, England in the 1940s. It features a country doctor who calls on an old family of declining fortunes who own the old estate that is crumbling around them.Though attending in a professional manner at first, the doctor becomes entwined in the family’s plight and the ghoulish goings on. The historical/gothic novel also delves into many societal interactions of the time: class systems, repression, gender roles and the British way of life.
It was simply that, in admiring the house, I wanted to possess a piece of it — or rather, as if the admiration itself, which I suspected a more ordinary child would not have felt, entitled me to it.
❖ “A very cleverly written ghost story … but is it a ghost story? Nothing is as it seems and with the tension gradually building between the two main characters and the strange happenings at the mansion, you are in for a stimulating read. One of my favourites, and I loved the re-read.” – Jo
❖ “The re-read is even more riveting than the first and I thought I might pick up a little more about the goings-on, but alas. In saying that, I love how everything is not completely spelled out. The story is engrossing, melding historical fiction and supernatural genres. The characters are troubled but charismatic and offer both sides of the argument, with the mysterious goings on first considered by the insular family and then the doctor’s scientific mind. It really is a wonderful read.” – Rachel
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Published 2009
Virago
510 pages
The Catcher In The Rye – J D Salinger
READ FOR BOOKCLUB
Chosen by Suzy
The Catcher in the Rye tells the story of two days in the life of Holden Caulfield, a 16 year old who, days before his expulsion, leaves school to mill about in New York City.
Published in 1951, the book created a character the likes of which was not really seen in this time period and who instantly became a hit with teenagers and young adults for his carefree and rebellious nature.
An underachiever, Holden drops out of school three times and is about to flunk school for the fourth time. He ends up getting so annoyed with his school and his school mates that he leaves in the middle of the night on the next train home to New York City. Arriving a few days earlier than his parents expect him, he hangs out in the city to delay the inevitable confrontation with his parents.
In a period of time that seems to last days, Holden mingles with all sorts of people and glides through all sorts of interesting encounters some of which were slightly taboo in 1951. His brief period out in the world on his own represents many of the emotions and considerations associated with growing up and moving out of adolescence and into manhood such as considering the future, guilt about family and fear of failure.
I keep picturing an these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around-nobody big, I mean-except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to eaten everybody if they start to go over the cliff I mean if they’re running and they don’ I look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy.
❖ “This is my all-time favourite book, I rarely re-read but I have read this every 2-3 years since high school. Holden’s observations about people, his surroundings, life in general are perfect. He is literature’s best slacker & cynic – I heart you Holden.” – Suzy
❖ “A book which is ideal for reading and reading again. Holden is uber cool and easy to connect with, despite, or because of, his rebellious nature. It’s easy for any person on the cusp of adulthood to see a part of themselves reflected in Holden, especially that desire to just run away from all the responsibility. Love him. Love his world.” – Rachel
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Published 1951
Little, Brown & Co
210 pages
Perfume – Patrick Suskind
READ FOR BOOKCLUB
Chosen by Nicole
Perfume is a a cross-genre novel about Jen-Baptiste Grenouille, a Frenchman born into eighteenth-century France. Abandoned by his mother, he has a superior sense of smell and no personal odour of his own. In order to both create a scent for himself and create the prefect scent, he turns into a cold and calculating murderer. He is motivated in particular by one young woman whose scent he desires to possess. Jean-Baptiste becomes an apprentice and then a master perfumer in order to fulfill his desires.
This scent had a freshness, but not the freshness of limes or pomegranates, not the freshness of myrrh or cinnamon bark or curly mint or birch or camphor or pine needles, not that of a May rain or a frosty wind or of well water… and at the same time it had warmth, but not as bergamot, cypress, or musk has, or jasmine or daffodils, not as rosewood has or iris… This scent was a blend of both, of evanescence and substance, not a blend, but a unity, although slight and frail as well, and yet solid and sustaining, like a piece of thin, shimmering silk… and yet again not like silk, but like pastry soaked in honey-sweet milk – and try as he would he couldn’t fit those two together: milk and silk! This scent was inconceivable, indescribable, could not be categorised in any way – it really ought not to exist at all. And yet there it was as plain and splendid as day.
The beauty and skill of perfumery is portrayed in such an intoxicating and romantic manner it is a joy to learn about the creation of each and every scent and infact often side tracked us readers from remembering Jean-Baptiste is a murderer and a psychopath.
It sounds gruesome but the story is so well developed we kind of fell into it without realising how obscene it actually was. When you find yourself not only accepting the deeds of a psychopath but seeing the beauty in their skill, you know the book is well written!
Described by the bookclubbers as “totally riveting”, “obscene”, “beautiful” and “gruesome”. Often all at once!
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Published 1985
Hamish Hamilton (UK)
263 pages
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