The traveling library has been out of action for months and when you take a look at our sagging bookshelves you will understand why we sometimes order books on Kindle. I far prefer to hold a real book in my hands, to know where I am in the tale, to flick back at will. If it is a hardback with good quality paper and a suitable/clever cover (ever the picky illustrator) then so much the better. But our shelves are laden to the point of sagging, so when we are to read a book chosen by one of our reading group and know nothing about it we resort to Kindle. I think it lessens my enjoyment. In December we discussed Walter Kempowski's, 'All for Nothing', a bleak tale about everyday Germans in the 2nd World War. It engendered a good discussion but was a depressing book to read in troubled times.
It was followed in January by Daniel Kehlmann's 'Tyll', a book of magical realism mixing folktale, wonderful imagery and historical figures, all set in a romp through the thirty years war. Does that sound a hotch-potch? Yes, it is, but delightfully so.
I had recently read Muriel Spark's 'Symposium' but completely forgotten what it was about. After watching a programme about her on Sky Arts I picked the book up again. What a tricky character she was, and yes, you can see it in her writing. The book is quite wicked, she obviously had a lot of fun writing it. It is set around the members of a dinner party, and what a bunch they are. Biting satire. This writer can bump people off without a care!
I used to love Margaret Atwood's writing, especially her poetry but am left absolutely cold by her more recent work. 'The Testaments' is a follow-on to 'The Handmaid's Tale', written after a gap of thirty-five years. (I read it in a good quality hardback but even that didn't help!) I found it mannered and clunky. It actually made me cross. In her acknowledgement Atwood states that no event was allowed into the book that does not have a precedent in history and while this is always clear it feels very heavy-handed. It is coming up for discussion with my women's lit group later this month and I'm interested to find out what others think of it.
I'm still on the look-out for a REALLY FUNNY BOOK!
