Tuesday Intros.

 

It's Bibliophile by the sea's day to host Tuesday Intros, where we share the opening sentence or so of the book that we are currently reading. I selected this Margaret Drabble book from the mobile library that stops outside our house every fortnight. Although they regularly replenish the stock from the central library the choice on offer is not very great - sometimes I choose a book and then realise that I've read it before! Not the case this time.

The book was first published in 2000 and has a prologue set in the present 

 

before the novel proper starts back in the past.

I'm interested in this book because the writer and I are of a similar age and background and I'm looking forward to learning how much of her territory I may recognise.  The novel is about her mother and is a work of 'faction' - a mixture of fact and fiction. Sometimes faction worries me, taking me outside the story to query the 'truth' of the writing.

At the weekend our book group discussed, 'We Are Not Ourselves', my Tuesday Intro choice of last week. I learned that it also is a work of faction, the writer Matthew Thomas' life being closely described in his novel by the son, Connor. 

Someone in our book group (called 'FAB" for food and books!) always gives an introduction and background to the book and we all bring a contribution to the sit-down supper so that it's never too much work for whoever is hosting. Friends, food and a good old jaw about books make for a great evening. We all thought that the book was well-written and moving, if a tad too long! It prompted a lively discussion, praise for the NHS and the relief that, as yet, we are all compos mentis!