Felicia's Journey

The group met on the 21st of September to discuss Felicia's Journey by William Trevor. Janet had chosen this book because it is by an excellent writer who provides great attention to detail i.e. Hilditch's small childish hands say a lot about his character.This is a novel of betrayal -Felicia is let down by her family,by her lover and ultimately by Hilditch, whom she initially trusts implicitly. Hilditch lives his life in constant denial -his fantasy life is as real to the reader as his mundane day-to-day existence, which is a life of lost and wasted opportunities. At the end of the book,Felicia achieves a degree of contol over her own life for the first time.
Karen felt that Felicia's father could be kind and caring as well as strict and that he sought only the best for his family.
June found the book creepy and almost unreadable at the start -the unhappy main character seemed one dimentional -but she was pleased that she persevered with it.
Margaret wished that the ending of the book had been more positive, and that Felicia had found a better life than the one she ends up with.
Janet commented that her lack of self esteem made the ending inevitable.
Morag found Hilditch's character fascinating and believable -it made her think of real life characters who were in denial over their actions.
Several of the group commented on the food theme which runs through the book.
Marghie felt this was one of the best books she had read and liked being drawn into the story.
The character of Miss Calligary is essentail to the plot, as she ultimately proves to be Hilditch's undoing,and also provides some much needed humour.
The plot break where the reader is left not knowing Felicia's fate also added to the tension in the story.
Marghie commented on the name Felicia,meaning happiness -were the other characters determined to destroy this?
The group agreed that this was a cleverly written book which had held everyones attention right to the final page.

A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust and Lunacy

August's book, chosen by Anne, was the travelogue-cum-investigative "Orchid Fever" by Eric Hansen. It explored the fascination and beauty of these rare flowers together with the world of growers, collectors and exhibitors.
A major part of the book was the role of CITES (the worldwide organisation controlling the movement of rare species of plants and animals) and how they regulate the once free-for-all trade in orchids. Hansen portrays their role as inept, aggressive or obfuscating and there was an air of poacher turned game keeper with many former collectors turning turtle and chasing their partners of old.
Anne hadn't read the book before and although she enjoyed it she felt slightly let down by the quote on the cover claiming it to be laugh out loud funny. The group felt the book did have its humorous moments peppered as it was with interesting, oddball or even extreme characters and I certainly chuckled at a couple of their antics.
Marghie thought that the book was more like a series of articles for a magazine (which was the general consensus), many of us enjoyed different chapters as we felt an empathy with its subject. Karen thought colour plates might have brought the orchids to life a bit more for the reader. The black and white line drawings used for the chapter pages didn't set anyone's pulse racing - as Hansen suggested the form of particular orchids could do to enthusiasts!
Jean brought in Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach, a fictional book set in 1630s Amsterdam where fortunes were made and lost speculating on tulip bulbs. She felt that the books were similar in many ways. I thought that Eric Hansen's literary style would have suited many different hobbies or interests and each would have thrown up its fair share of characters and interesting stories.
"Stamp Fever" - now there's a title to whet your interest....

Colin Cotterill - recommended read

This year, I got the chance to be a judge again for the Crime Writers Association Dagger in the Library Award. This involved reading an awful lot of crime books throughout the Spring, then meeting my fellow judges for a long lunch in London, where we thrashed out our shortlist. Writers for this Dagger are nominated by libraries and book groups, and all the judges are librarians. It's a good category to read as it's for writers who have already produced a few books, but are still 'up and coming', and every year we discover some gems.

This year's winner was the wonderful Colin Cotterill, who has set a series of books in Laos, 1975. His hero is a 75-year old state coroner. Not the usual recipe for a crime book, but the setting is very interesting and the main character's sardonic wit really makes the books special. Me and some of the other judges went to the awards ceremony in London in July. We wern't expecting our winner to be there, as he lives in Thailand, so we were thrilled when he appeared from the back of the room to pick up his prize. And he turned out to we an all-round nice guy into the bargain - here's a picture of me and my fellow judges mobbing him. (He's the one at the back holding his award).

The Book Group met on the 23rd of July to discuss Siri Hustvedt's What I Loved. This was Laura's choice, which she picked up on her travels a couple of years ago and really enjoyed.
She felt it was a good comment on social relationships. Janet found it a book of two halves and felt that the relationships lacked raw emotion. She also found some of the descriptive art passages tedious, but enjoyed the intensity of the book's latter half, as did Margaret.
Andy found himself liking certain parts of the book more than others, preferring certain characters to others.
June was fascinated by the lives of the artists referred to in the book, and identified with the book's historical perspective. Morag also enjoyed the descriptive passages on art.
Laura felt that the female characters in the book were cold and that the reader could identify more with feelings of the male characters, and June agreed, although she liked Violet.
Andy pointed out how the characters ultimately end up on their own, and Janet saw the book as a study of human imperfection. Kathleen was the only member who had not read the book, due to a delay with her order, but following the discussion she said that she was looking forward to reading it.

Modern viking saga fascinates book group

In June we all read The Sea Road by Margaret Elphinstone - very timely as this year's midummer Johnsmas Foy celebrations in Shetland had a viking theme. This is a modern viking saga - the story of Gudrid, the most travelled woman of the viking world - who went from Iceland to Greenland to North America and had somehow got herself to Rome near journey's end, where she told her life story to a young scribe.

This was based on several of the old viking sagas, and told in saga style (some of our group had got round to reading the originals). The descriptions of the land and the arduous climate rang true and the astonishingly dangerous sea journeys were thrilling. Some Shetlanders still claim we are a hardy Viking Race, but having to walk to the shops for a pint of milk is too much for most of us nowadays.

Margaret Elphinstone used to stay in Shetland and in fact Morag remembers working with her in the library. They used to discuss the great novels they were writing. We still await Morag's (with every faith it will come) but Margaret has written a great book here which the whole group enjoyed. Apparently her others are good as well.

Not the Orkney Way...

Yes, The Stornoway Way is very real in it's depiction of the downward spiral of alcohol. Here in Shetland we're also unable to handle our drink, or our drugs for that matter. I await the great modern Shetland novel that tackles this dark side of our affluent society.

Kevin MacNeil is a great chap - made himself very popular in the year he stayed in Shetland, and I'm sure we'll see some good results from the creative writing classes he conducted.

But on the subject of books depicting the seamy underside of island life, were you aware of the scandal over this Orkney book? http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/shelved-the-book-that-outraged-the-orkneys-1712238.html
Chucking It All: How Downshifting To A Windswept Scottish Island Did Absolutely Nothing to Improve My Life has now been pulped by the publisher after an 'outcry'. Shame on Alistair Carmichael MP - a Lib Dem - for being instrumental in getting a book banned. OK, edit for any actual libels...but what are those folk scared of? We in Shetland are all dying to read it -as is most of Orkney, I suspect. Anyone got a proof copy?

The Stornoway Way by Kevin MacNeil

I was in the library recently and this jumped out from the shelves - maybe it was because Kevin is on the list of authors for Wordplay. I remember it being one of a pair of books we read nearly two years ago on the subject of teenage island life. I enjoyed Venus as a Boy, but didn't get time to read The Stornoway Way.
Illuminating and entertaining in equal parts - it's not a book to read stone cold sober. The main thrust was how alcohol greases the wheels of social gatherings, blunts the harshness of humdrum life and lessens the cloying effect of net-twitching in a small community still heavily influenced by the church. Booze starts off as a sticking plaster, then becomes a crutch and finally a lethal injection. There's nothing, literally and metaphorically, at the bottom of a bottle.
It also reminded me of The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson - all three using the ruse that they were written by someone "else" with the author a mere conduit... A good pretense when the subject matter is tricky and/or the locale is small such as the Western Isles or Orkney.