#68 - The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles (Choice: Mark's)(Venue: Soif, Battersea)

Date: Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

Present: Gill, Shubha, Jen, Nic

"Here's my message.  Everything gets worse."

That's what Paul Bowles said was the message of the book.  Well, it certainly did get worse for the characters in this book.  But, we didn't love the them or, honestly, particularly care.  

This meeting combined discussions of Revolutionary Road and Sheltering Sky.  Gill summed up the view of the four present brilliantly and succinctly as follows:

"So, Revolutionary Road: Thumbs up; Sheltering Sky: Thumbs down."

I wouldn't read this again but I'd go back to Soif any time.  We had three delicious bottles of red from Languedoc a succession of delicious small and medium sized dishes and, for me Jen and Shubha, glasses of delicious liquor too - though Shubha's walnut one was the surprise winner.  Big thumbs up for Soif.

#67 - Revolutionary Road - Richard Yates (Choice: Shubha's)(Venue: Soif, Battersea)

Date: 24th October, 2012 (postponed from 7th September)

Present: Jen, Gill, Shubha, Nic.

"If my work has a theme, I suspect it is a simple one: that most human beings are inescapably alone, and therein lies their tragedy."

Thus said Richard Yates about this novel in 1999: a happy chap, obviously.

There's no denying it is a depressing tale. However, the four of us present tonight enjoyed this book immensely. It may be a contender for the BoOkSCARS book of the year if some of us (well, ok, me) are to be believed.

Richard Yates prose was simple but graceful with not a wasted word and his insight into human beings, their relationships and their motivations was extraordinary. Unlike The Confederacy of Dunces, this novel was populated with characters we all recognised and to some extent identified with. The central couple had drifted, without specific plans, in to a life that disappointed them. The thought they were better than others (but who doesn't sometimes judge others and find them wanting) and they thought they deserved better (and who doesn't sometimes think they deserve more recognition, better pay, a lottery win or some other life-changing good luck). It didn't make them nice people but it made them unfailingly human and definitely not monsters. It was impossible not to care about what happened them and essential to get to the end.  If you've missed this one, I urge you buy it, read it and let's talk about it again at another meeting.

#66 - A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole (Choice: Jane's)(Venue: Bincho Soho)

Date: August 2nd, 2012

Present: Jane, Shubha, Jen, Nic

"I'm back", Shubha announced prior to this meeting, meaning "get ready to drink".  Sadly, Jen and I rather let the side down: after drinking two bottles of Prosecco the night before, it was more luck than judgment that we'd made it at all.  Fortunately, Jane was a much better friend!

Jane changed the venue several times in the half hour before we met but this final choice was a goodie, with skewer after delicious skewer of yakitori goodness, miso soup and daikon salad, washed down with grapefruit or lemon sours, so it seemed like the evening might follow Shubha's intention.  And, with the best of intentions, after dinner, we proceeded to a lovely wine bar of Shubha's choice.  Sadly, despite the undoubtedly charming surrounds, the vast wine list and the delicious wine, after one glass Jen and I admitted hung-over defeat, hair-of-the-dog having failed to revive us, and gave up and walked slowly home while Jane and Shubha partied on.

Meanwhile, the book deserves a word.  And, for me, that word would be "tedious".  Ignatious was a monstrous character - deliberately so, undoubtedly, but too much so to enable me to care what happened to him.  The other characters (at least those introduced before I gave up) were also unpleasant.   Jen found parts of the book very funny.   Jane enjoyed it: having a theory that there was something "North American" about it that she could identify with.  Certainly, Jane "knew" (of rather than personally) people such as those depicted.  The rest of us?  Not so much.  Maybe those people exist but I'm glad I don't know them.

Whilst there's a tragic back story to this novel of an author who committed suicide as a result of depression , which it is at least speculated was contributed to, if not caused by his failure to find a publisher for his book in his life time, personally, I think the agents and publishers who originally turned it down were right.  However, it won him a posthumous Pulitzer in 1981 so what do I know?

P.S. Sept. 13 2023 from Carl: Brilliant! I loved it! Of course it was full of characters to hate but it was just so wonderfully silly. Like the policeman being forced to wear random costumes and the detectives later getting complaints about a man in a sombrero. 

P.P.S Set. 13 2023 from Jen, moments before Carl's comments: Oh yeah! I remember that book, although not the evening which from the blog is not all that surprising.