Dubliners discussion

Well after some gentle prodding by Karen….here are my recollections of the discussion of James Joyce’s Dubliners. (I am sure my memory is imperfect now that the holidays have taken their toll…so chime in folks and add to or correct me.)

I choose Dubliners because it is a book I have read several times. I also like to re-read the story The Dead during the Christmas holidays because it seems to me to capture the melancholic but also sweet memories of the passing of one year into another.

As I re-read the stories this time I noticed that they seemed inter-linked with similar characters appearing on several stories. (Andy compared them to a book of stories by Will Self where characters from one story crop up in another.) I can see that there is a sort of narrative arc moving through the stories depicting youth through middle to old age. Joyce wrote in a letter about seeking to describe a Dublin that he saw as the “centre of paralysis” and indeed many of the characters of Dubliners are trapped by their circumstances, fears or belief.

Several people in the groups mentioned that Joyce’s language made them fell they could really “hear” the characters. Others felt his descriptions are “dead on”. For instance the description of Maria in the story “Clay” as a “very, very small person indeed but she had a very long nose and a very long chin,” allows us a clear picture of her physical character.

We discussed the fact that Joyce had difficulty in getting the stories published and that there were elements, particularly about the church and sex, which would have riled the average Irish reader of his time.

I also quite clearly remember someone mentioning that the stories “didn’t go anywhere” and indeed the stories are less concerned with describing an event or series of events than describing an interaction between people or describing a situation. Many of the stories seem to trail away and come to no real resolution…I imagine this is another way to indicate Dublin’s “paralysis”.

Update from the Book Group

Many thanks to Andy, for reviving our badly neglected blog. We had a good discussion about Madame Bovary - I think everyone had very much appreciated it, and would enjoy Andy's comments. We talked a lot around how Emma was really a selfish and horrible person, but yes, we couldn't help rooting for her a bit too. We also appreciated the humour in the book. I particularly liked Flaubert's delicious sarcasm about the pompous bore Homais.

Other things we discussed at the November meeting: a promo by Mira publishers offering us free books! They sent us 5 sample novels and we had to choose one. We picked what we hope is a jolly historical crime romp called Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn. Copies have now arrived so we'll have them as light reading in tandem with our other choices.

We also decided to try and choose books a couple of months ahead. So January is Morag's choice: Mr Pip, and February will be Jean's choice The Memory Keeper's Daughter. March will be my choice but I've still not decided...

For our December meeting we are having Secret Santa, and maybe I shall concoct some mulled wine. I am also going to try and persuade a different member each month to write up a meeting report for this blog, so that it doesn't slip back into the doldrums.

Madame Bovary 2

I'm reading Alexander McCall Smith's "Love Over Scotland" between books and came across this nugget:

"...it's so refreshing to see a male writer having a go at a truely nasty woman; male writers don't dare do that these days... You wouldn't get a modern day Flaubert punishing Madame Bovary as the real Flaubert did. Oh no. By the way, did you know that Flaubert wrote terribly slowly? He managed five words an hour, which meant that on a good day he wrote about thirty words. Now they were good words, of course, but even so..."

Madame Bovary

Missed the meeting due to a serious dose of man flu... I had even read Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary well in advance. So thought I would try this blog thing.

Well, I really enjoyed it! The story built and built, and I couldn't put it down once I had got into the last third. I found the book true to it's times, but with gloriously readable passages of descriptive prose that gave it a more contemporary feel than a classic nineteenth century text. The theme of self-destructive pursuit of happiness is one that resonates with us now; but no matter how we view Madame Bovary's sad demise I wonder how many of us hoped for a miraculous cure or a rising from the dead as she slipped away...

More hob-nobbing

Sorry for neglecting you, blog. Realised I have opportunities for much more name dropping since Wordplay, our splendid Shetland book festival. Met the rather dashing young writer Alan Bisset in the pub and he likened me to Scarlet O'Hara! (we were out on a henny party in our ball gowns- shall try to source a photo from somewhere). Three really good sessions I went to: John Hegley - extremely entertaining, great at working a crowd; Adrian Mitchell - lovely, touching, personal poetry; Will Self - very clever & witty. Heard him on the radio talking about how our book festival was all good and real and locally-grounded etc whereas in most other places they were just 'Nuremberg rallies of the bourgeoisie'. Have just read an excellent couple of short stories by him, bit grim but enthralling, I think I'll make more effort to get into some of his writing.

Book group's been interesting since we started a democratic dictatorship scheme where one member wins a draw to dictate the book we'll read. Jean's choice last month was Peacocks Dancing by Sharon Maas - enjoyable, exotic and melodramatic tale set in Guyana and India. This month is my choice and something totally different - the misery of 1930s England through Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell. I've really enjoyed re-reading it, but not sure what the rest of the group will make of it!

Just a bit of gentle name dropping....

I am doggedly ploughing through C.J. Sansom's Winter in Madrid, a tale set against the backdrop of WW2 and the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. I thought I'd really like this but it's failing to set me alight. Historically interesting - and this author's a pretty serious historian - but it just seems to be plodding a bit too slowly and ponderously along. Or maybe it's just me, not in the right frame of mind for it.

C.J. Sansom (who really is a great writer notwithstanding my slight whinge) was our runner-up in the Dagger in the Library Award, which I need to name-drop here since I'm just back from the swanky awards dinner in London. Guest of honour was Gyles Brandreth, who gave a faintly insane but entertaining speech. I think he's writing something where Sherlock Holmes and Oscar Wilde form a crime-busting duo, if I understood right?! Our winner was Craig Russell, an author I'd never read before the Dagger. He's Scottish but sets his books in Hamburg. The setting is really interesting, the characters good and the stories gory, so I commend him to this blog! And he was a nice man, and let us hold his Dagger. This is him in the middle, with me and my fellow judges.

book group choice

Have just finished reading The Second Husband and don't want to say too much about it here because I am hoping to be at the next book group meeting to discusss it. Just want to say,though,that this is another of these books (remember Housewife Down)? that had I been writing it I would have taken a completely different and less predictable approach! Perhaps I should start writing my alternative versions of popular fiction!
I am also reading Russell Brand's My Booky Wook and a self help book callled the Four Day Win which Aileen recommended -I can't seem to get the hang of this book though -I understood the message to be that if you can be good for four days you can treat yourself with lots of chocolate,but Aileen says this is not the case unfortunately! Must read beyond the twenty pages I've covered so far....