Another book lent by a friend. This is another one that I probably would never have picked up, it looks too un-adult to me. But: It is a brilliant book. Heart-wrenching but beautiful. An alcoholic mother is so depressed that she leaves her teenage son and his six year old brother alone. No address, nobody who would look after them, no money, nothing.
I am not sure whether I could like the mother or the little brother. Laurence, the poor guy, first has to take care of an alcoholic mother as well as a little brother who is anything but easy. When the mother disappears, he doesn't want them to end up in different care facilities, so he pretends everything is alright in the family.
As I said, people like the mother make me mad! She has two children but doesn't look after them (already while she's there). No matter what an excuse you have, no matter how depressed you are, you don't leave your children. What if Laurence had been one of those kids who can't take any responsibility, either? Quite believable with a mother like that. Luckily he isn't. I do feel sorry for him and all those kids in similar situations. The mother doesn't deserve them. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
There were quite a few funny scenes in the book which made it bearable at times. Just as an example, the diary gives the days of the week as follows:
"Fifteen-year-old Laurence Roach just wants a normal life, but it's not easy when your mum is a depressed alcoholic, and your six-year-old brother thinks he's a dog.
When Mum fails to come home one night, Laurence tells nobody, terrified he and his brother will be taken into care if anyone finds out. Instead, he attempts to keep up the pretence that Mum is still around: dressing up in her clothes to trick the neighbours and spinning an increasingly complicated tangle of lies. After two weeks on their own, running out of food and money, and with suspicious adults closing in, Laurence finally discovers what happened to his mother. And that's when the trouble really starts . . .
A compelling thriller filled with some hilarious and surreal moments. Fifteen Days Without a Head is a tender, honest story about family, forgiveness and hope."
Honeyman, Gail "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine" - 2017
Eleanor Oliphant is definitely not fine. Saying that she struggles with social skills as they do in the description is quite an understatement. I am sure she has some sort of mental illness or suffers from an event that happened earlier in her life.
I had some trouble getting into the story or into Eleanor. I am very sociable, I always like to have lots of people around me and can talk to anyone who is only lightly inclined to respond. I am sure Eleanor would not appreciate me. And I don't want to intrude, so I guess I would speak a sentence with her and that would be it. I am sorry about that but that's just it. She doesn't really want to talk to anyone, right?
The story itself was quite interesting, though, how she meets this colleague who helps her getting acquainted with this world, the writing wasn't bad, either. But I couldn't warm to this story.
Two quotes that I completely agree with:
"... the front door of the hospital ... a woman in a wheelchair – she’d brought her drip out with her, on wheels, so that she could destroy her health at the same time as taxpayers’ money was being used to try and restore it."
I always get mad when I see people smoking in front of a hospital, especially just right outside a hospital where everyone has to pass, sick people, visitors ... Hospitals and its surroundings should be a smoke-free zone.
and
"Sport is a mystery to me. In primary school, sports day was the one day of the year when the less academically gifted students could triumph, winning prizes for jumping fastest in a sack, or running from Point A to Point B more quickly than their classmates. How they loved to wear those badges on their blazers the next day! As if a silver in the egg-and-spoon race was some sort of compensation for not understanding how to use an apostrophe."
... or get your times-tables right or do anything that will get you somewhere in this life!
"Our book club had a very positive discussion about the book. Most members rated it highly, and one of the strongest shared reactions was how much our view of Eleanor changed as the novel progressed. She may initially seem rigid, socially awkward, overly formal, or emotionally distant, but by the end we felt genuine warmth toward her, were invested in her future, and sincerely wished her well.
A major part of the conversation focused on Eleanor’s neurodivergent traits and how they were portrayed. Given the nature of our group, this aspect of her character was immediately recognizable rather than speculative. Her literal thinking, reliance on routine, difficulty reading unspoken social norms, and unusual communication style all felt authentic to many readers. What interested us more was how these traits intersected with trauma, loneliness, and years of isolation. The novel was praised for allowing that complexity without reducing her to any single label.
Loneliness was another central theme in the discussion. Many readers felt the book captured a particularly modern kind of isolation: someone who is intelligent, employed, capable, and outwardly functioning, yet profoundly disconnected from other people. Eleanor is not excluded from society in any obvious sense, but instead seems to exist beside it, unable to fully participate. This subtle portrayal of loneliness resonated strongly with the group.
We also talked extensively about trauma, addiction, and coping mechanisms. Eleanor’s drinking was generally seen not as recklessness, but as a form of self-medication and emotional numbing. Her routines, detachment, and narrow life structure felt less like random dysfunction and more like survival strategies that had become fixed over time. Several members noted how realistically the novel shows pain becoming embedded in everyday habits.
Spoiler:
The revelation of the dead mother led to one of the most engaged parts of the conversation. Readers saw this as a powerful representation of how abuse can continue internally long after the abuser is gone. The mother’s voice remains active through criticism, shame, and control, shaping Eleanor’s life even in death. Many felt this was one of the novel’s strongest psychological insights.
* * *
Relationships were another important topic. We appreciated that the story avoids a simplistic romantic rescue arc. Raymond was especially valued because his everyday kindness, patience, and consistency give Eleanor a model of safe human connection. Rather than dramatically 'saving' her, he helps create the conditions in which she can slowly begin to emerge from isolation and reconnect with life. Many readers felt this understated portrayal of friendship was one of the book’s greatest strengths. (I do agree there.)
Language and translation also became a particularly interesting part of the discussion. Some members read the novel in English, some in Finnish, and one in Russian, which allowed for direct comparison. Eleanor’s character is strongly shaped through voice: her formal diction, blunt literalism, unusual phrasing, and emotional reserve. We discussed how each translation inevitably influences how readers perceive her. The portrayal of the mother was especially interesting here, since tone, cruelty, manipulation, and emotional pressure can shift subtly depending on language.
We also discussed the novel’s balance of humour and pain. Eleanor’s voice often creates comedy through precision, bluntness, and social mismatch, yet beneath that humour lies real emotional suffering. Many readers felt the book handled this contrast skilfully, allowing warmth and sadness to coexist without either feeling forced.
Overall, the group agreed that Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is an intelligent, humane, and emotionally perceptive novel. It succeeds not only as a story of trauma and recovery, but as a reminder that people who seem merely difficult, odd, or distant are often carrying far more complexity than others realise. The fact that Eleanor ended as someone we genuinely cared about was, for many of us, the clearest sign of the book’s success."
Book Description:
"Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.
Soon to be a major motion picture produced by Reese Witherspoon, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the smart, warm, and uplifting story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . ."
Godfrey, Jennie "The List of Suspicious Things" - 2024
This book was chosen unanimously by our local German book club for our discussion in March 2026. An interesting story about two girls who want to find a killer. A serial killer. What they mainly do is "investigating" the people around them, i.e. nosing around. Of course, as we can imagine, they cause more evil than good with that.
I might never have picked up this book in the book shop, it looked more like chick lit than anything else. And it being a Sunday Times bestseller doesn't really recommend it to me, either. But, the member who suggested it, had read it and said it was good. And I know she has a great taste.
Besides the story of the "Yorkshire Ripper", there are many different subjects in this book, growing up, first love, mental illness, racism, almost any topic that can come up.
While I quite liked the book overall, I was not too keen on the ending. Maybe the author wanted to get away from something too cozy but it could have been different. It should have been different.
We had a wonderful conversation about this book. So many fates were touched upon.
We also found out that "the cover features a raven to symbolize the themes of curiosity, intelligence, and the menacing atmosphere and the milk bottle represents British school life from the time. The bird is the dark, dangerous intrusion of the outside world, reflecting the fear felt in Yorkshire during the time of the murders." (AI)
From the Back cover:
"Maggie Thatcher is prime minister, drainpipe jeans are in, and Miv is convinced that her dad wants to move their family Down South.
Because of the murders.
Leaving Yorkshire and her best friend Sharon simply isn’t an option. So, Miv and Sharon decide to make a list: a list of all the suspicious people and things down their street. People they know. People they don’t.
But their search for the truth reveals more secrets in their neighbourhood, within their families - and between each other - than they ever thought possible.
What if the real mystery Miv needs to solve is the one that lies much closer to home?"
For the Classics Spin #42, we received #17 and this was my novel. When I revealed this to the other bloggers, I got a lot of comments that people did not like the book at all. But I was determined to like it. After all, I loved "Light in August" by the same author.
However, this is not comparable to the first of his books that I read. I think I agree with most of the other readers.
But let's get to the book.
In one of the reviews (see here), I read "I appreciated the writer's skill a lot more than I enjoyed reading the novel." I think that hits the nail on its head. Another one compared it with "Look Homeward, Angel" which I could also agree on. Another Southern US writer whom you might only want to follow, if you are a Southerner yourself.
I'm sure you guessed it, this wasn't my favourite book of the year. But I appreciated having read it.
They mention "Ulysses" in the description. As you can see, I read that and said at the time "this is the most difficult book I have ever read". It still belongs on that list but I understood that better than this one. I also said "the longer I distance myself from this novel, the more it makes sense and the bigger an impact does it have on me." I doubt this will ever happen here but one can always hope.
I did understand the actions in the book but really didn't like a single character and couldn't follow any of their decisions.
It is also says in the description that "... in the next two sections ... the novel begins to reveal itself."
Nope, not really, it was still as confusing as before. If you're not a huge fan of stream of consciousness books, I wouldn't recommend it.
From the back cover:
"Ever since the first furore was created on its publication in 1929, The Sound and the Fury has been considered one of the key novels of this century. Although it is difficult, in the same way that Ulysses is difficult, it is rewarding. Few readers can fail to become absorbed in this imaginative creation of the degenerate und disintegrating Compson family.
Faulkner does not use characters as pawns in a plot: he is interested in minds and emotions, in the interaction of characters and the way incidents and events affect individuals and their relationships. This is done by dividing the novel into four sections: the first is 'told by an idiot' - Benjy, for whom time does not exist. It is in the next two sections, when the reader hears the tale told by Benjy's two brothers, that the novel begins to reveal itself.
In essence this is a novel about lovelessness - 'only an idiot has no grief; only a fool would forget it. What else is there in this world sharp enough to stick to your guts?' It is a novel about intense and passionate family relationships wherein there is no love, only self-centredness.
The cover shows a detail from 'The Scarecrow'by Andrew Wyeth in the National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington."
William Faulkner received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949 "for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel."
I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.
An interesting book. Yes, it introduces us to existentialism. I gives us ideas for thoughts about our lives. But it's not really a novel, nothing much happens. At the beginning, I was quite bored. It picks up a little but it doesn't catch you.
I heard Sartre compared to Camus. I absolutely love Camus. Sartre doesn't come over as well, the story is not a real story. You don't know where they are going. There isn't a flow to his writing.
At the beginning, when the protagonist talks about his nausea, it reminded me of depression, the big black dog, as people also call it. I thought it might go that way. But it didn't.
All in all, not an exciting book. I would have expected more. Maybe I read this too late.
Comments by other members:
"It was described very accurately by a funny Finnish word 'pitkäpiimäinen' = like rubbery sour milk, longwinded, boring.
We thought it was much more like a complete philosophy textbook than a story.
It was a very anxious story about a depressed and lonely person
It reminded us of many similar stories we have read over the years about loneliness and mental illness, for example: Steppenwolf, The Stranger, plus many more all with their own variety on the subject."
From the back cover:
"Jean-Paul Sartre's first published novel, Nausea is both an extended essay on existentialist ideals, and a profound fictional exploration of a man struggling to restore a sense of meaning to his life. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is translated from the French by Robert Baldick with an introduction by James Wood.
Nausea is both the story of the troubled life of an introspective historian, Antoine Roquentin, and an exposition of one of the most influential and significant philosophical attitudes of modern times - existentialism. The book chronicles his struggle with the realisation that he is an entirely free agent in a world devoid of meaning; a world in which he must find his own purpose and then take total responsibility for his choices. A seminal work of contemporary literary philosophy, Nausea evokes and examines the dizzying angst that can come from simply trying to live."
Jean-Paul Sartre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964 "for his work, which rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age". He was awarded the prize even though he refused it.
I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.
We read this in our international online book club in December 2024. And before I begin, let me tell you, this was my favourite of our selection this year, besides "Morning and Evening". And I did not think I would like it at all because this is so not my genre.
Have you ever wondered what your life might have been if something had or hadn't happened? If you hadn't visited that school you went to, if you had decided to get another profession, if you had met another partner in life? Well, here you can find how it might be if you could explore your life in different circumstances.
Imagine a library on the way between life and death. Nora, our protagonist, finds herself just there and tries quite a few different alternatives.
It's so wonderful to see what choices she could have made and where they would have led. Brilliant story.
From the back cover:
"Between life and death there is a library.
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.
The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.
Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?"
I find it hard to write this review. I love books by Joyce Carol Oates, I think she deserves the Nobel Prize. I am intrigued by the figure of Marilyn Monroe, I read the book "Marilyn" (Goodreads) by Norman Mailer ages ago. I think I was expecting something along that line.
What I got was a description of a child who didn't stand a chance in the world. How she became one of the greatest icons in the film industry? That was a long and arduous way and it didn't bring her any joy.
I had to remind myself often that this was just a book based on the real life story of the film star, even though most of the facts were true.
It was a long and heavy read. Did I enjoy it as much as the other JCO books? I'm not sure but I'm glad I read it.
From the back cover:
"In 'Blonde' we are given an intimate, unsparing vision of the woman who became Marilyn Monroe like no other: the child who visits the cinema with her mother; the orphan whose mother is declared mad; the woman who changes her name to become an actress; the fated celebrity, lover, comedienne, muse and icon. Joyce Carol Oates tells an epic American story of how a fragile, gifted young woman makes and remakes her identity, surviving against crushing odds, perpetually in conflict and intensely driven. Here is the very essence of the individual hungry and needy for love: from an elusive mother; from a mysterious, distant father and from a succession of lovers and husbands. Joyce Carol Oates sympathetically explores the inner life of the woman destined to become Hollywood’s most compelling legend. 'Blonde' is a brilliant and deeply moving portrait of a culture hypnotised by its own myths and the shattering reality of the personal effects it had on the woman who became Marilyn Monroe."
I wasn't really keen on reading this, you know how much I dislike science fiction. But this is a different one, yes, it's about science and it's about fictional science but it's got nothing to do with aliens or made-up planets, it wouldn't be an action movie with loud noises if the turned it into a film. Actually, they did turn it into one and it doesn't look like an action movie.
This is an interesting story about a young man who can hardly write his name let alone a decent sentence without any mistakes. They perform an operation on him and his IQ increases to astronomical heights. We see the change in Charlie. Phenomenal. As he understands more and more what they have done to him, the story reaches a different perspective.
Quite a good read.
From the back cover:
"Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.
Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence - a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.
As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?"
Daniel Keyes has received both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for this novel.
I think I expected something different from this book. Something typical for Northern Ireland, I guess. Well, this could have taken place anywhere. The story was not especially well told or exciting in any way.
A boy with some kind of mental illness is left orphaned and inherits his parents' farm. The village wants him to sell it because then they all can make a large profit. There are some bullies in the village but he also makes a friend. That's it in a nutshell. However, I couldn't get any interesting access to the story, it was way too boring for me.
Just not my thing.
Comments from the group:
I did not like it.
I kept having this bad feeling, waiting for the other shoe to drop. I had hoped I would somehow end up rooting for the protagonist, but because of his attitude I couldn't even properly do that.
What I did enjoy about the book was the picture it painted of a particular place and time in Ireland, and can definitely see why it won a fair amount of local prizes.
If this book were written with the exact same story, but placed for example in Africa, it would be hauling in big international literary prizes, because this type of stories of the unfortunate seems to me like flypaper to flies for people from the first world, while I feel "we" get uncomfortable when reading about poverty and unfortunate events and people closer to home.
In Finland there has been a fair amount of these types of times, that are just not reported on much, with extreme high suicide rates and starvation (for example the economy crash in the 90s and after WWII when russia was pretty much blackmailing Finland for "retribution payments" to get an excuse to invade if we couldnt keep paying, and the infighting and murdering after WWI.) So there is a fair amount of Finnish literature on similar topic, that I personally avoid.
There is a sub-genre of literature called "looser literature" in Finland, where the protagonist like in this book are victims of their circumstance in life and a difficult character to like because of learned attitudes, while at the same time causing one to feel sorry for him. One member has read a lot of this type of books, so had a lot of comparison points and thoughts about society's stance on these kinds of individuals.
From the back cover:
"While the Celtic Tiger rages, and greed becomes the norm, Johnsey Cunliffe desperately tries to hold on to the familiar, even as he loses those who all his life have protected him from a harsh world. Village bullies and scheming land-grabbers stand in his way, no matter where he turns.
Set over the course of one year of Johnsey’s life, The Thing About December breathes with his grief, bewilderment, humour and agonizing self-doubt. This is a heart-twisting tale of a lonely man struggling to make sense of a world moving faster than he is."
I received this book from a friend who had read and loved it. Thank you, Lisbeth.
And I loved it just as much. We all have reading lists with books that are special to us. They might have helped us through a hard time, inspired us, taught us, informed us, reminded us of something or someone, or just made us feel good afterwards.
Here we have a reading list that has been compiled by somebody anonymous and turns up at several places. It helps a widower get over the death of his wife, a teenage girl who finds a lot of examples to get through a tough time in her life, a little girl to take her first steps into a more "grown up" thinking.
This is what the Reading List says:
Just in case you need it: To Kill A Mockingbird Rebecca The Kite Runner Life Of Pi Pride And Prejudice Little Women Beloved A Suitable Boy
I think most of us have a feeling where the reading list might come from. I discovered that my idea was right from the beginning. Which made the book even more special.
At the end, the author adds more books that she would have liked to include in the list, had it been "hers". She mentioned that they found her at just the right time in her life.
Lahiri, Jhumpa"The Namesake" - 2003 Roy, Arundhati "The God of Small Things" - 1997 Smith, Zadie "White Teeth" - 1999 Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi "Americanah" - 2013 Heiny, Katherine "Standard Deviation" - 2017 Mistry, Rohinton "A Fine Balance" - 1995 Kawakami, Hiromi "Strange Weather in Tokyo" (センセイの鞄/Sensei no kaban) - 2001 Carter, Angela "The Magic Toyshop" - 1987 Angelou, Maya "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" - 1969 Hosain, Attia "Sunlight on a Broken Column" - 1961 Smith, Ali "There But For The" - 2011
As you can see, I have read most of those books, as well, I might have to check out those that I didn't. I noticed that all but one of the books have been written in English. I bet that my list would have had books from more than just two countries. There are so many great authors out there in this world.
From the back cover:
"When Aleisha discovers a crumpled reading list tucked into a tattered library book, it sparks an extraordinary journey.
For the list finds Aleisha just when she needs it most, the stories transporting her away from everything - her loneliness, her troubles at home - one page at a time. And when widower Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to connect with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha introduces him to the magic of the reading list. An anxious teenager and a lonely grandfather forming an unlikely book club of two. Some stories never leave you.
Agus, Milena "From the Land of the Moon" or: The House in Via Manno (Italian: Mal di pietre) - 2006
An
interesting tale about the life of a woman who cannot break out of the
prescribed path. One would like to leave immediately for Sardinia. Or at
least to Milan. Definitely to Italy.
This is a short but very powerful story about family history, told by the granddaughter of the woman in question.
The original title is
"Kidney Stones". The unnamed married woman is sent away to treat her
kidney stones and then she meets the love of her life. They even turned it into a film in the meantime, see here.
From the back cover:
"But
what do we really know about other people? In this international
bestselling novel, a young unnamed Sardinian woman explores the life of
her grandmother, a romantic, bewitching, eccentric figure, and a
memorable literary creation. Her life has been characterized by honor
and fierce passion, and above all by an abiding search for perfect love
that has spanned much of the twentieth century. Ever in the background
of this remarkable woman's story is the stunning Sardinian landscape,
the deep blues of the Mediterranean, the rugged mountains of the
Sardinian back-country dotted with charming villages lost in time.
With
warmth, great humor, and deep insight Milena Agus writes about the
customs and the beauty of her native Sardinia, about love, family,
immigration, war, and peace. From the Land of the Moon is the moving
English debut of one of Italy s most important new literary talents."
I don't know when and why I bought this book; I just know that I had a list with books with "summer in the title" and this one came up. Since I hadn't read it, and summer was on the doorstep, I decided this needed to be one of my next reads.
It didn't exactly bring any to storms of enthusiasm from my side. I wouldn't exactly call it a difficult read, just a jumbled up one. At times, she reminded me of Sylvia Plath or Virginia Wolf, and not in a good way. It was philosophical but you often couldn't follow her train of thoughts, she drifted off.
The story is easy enough, Mia is left by her husband, at least for the time-being, and she falls into a deep hole, has to go to a mental hospital for a while and then goes to see her mother for the summer. All her mother's friends seem to have problems, as well. She teaches young girls in literature in a summer course, there are problems, too, of course. Oh, oh, and then there's the neighbour who has problems with her husband. Is there any problem a woman could have that doesn't get dragged into this book? The biggest trouble is, I couldn't really feel it, the characters were not real. It just seemed like one problem written down after another without given it too much depth.
And then there was too much poetry in this novel for my liking.
I know Siri Hustvedt is a renowned author. Maybe this is one of her weaker novels. Or - she's just not my thing. I still have "The Sorrows of an American" on my TBR pile, don't know whether I'll tackle that any time soon.
I did like the cover of the book, though.
From the back cover:
"Out of the blue, your husband of thirty years asks you for a pause in your marriage to indulge his infatuation with a young Frenchwoman. Do you: a) assume it's a passing affair and play along b) angrily declare the marriage over c) crack up d) retreat to a safe haven and regroup? Mia Fredricksen cracks up first, then decamps for the summer to the prairie town of her childhood, where she rages, fumes, and bemoans her sorry fate as abandoned spouse. But little by little, she is drawn into the lives of those around her: her mother and her circle of feisty widows; her young neighbour, with two small children and a loud, angry husband; and the diabolical pubescent girls in her poetry class. By the end of the summer without men, wiser though definitely not sadder, Mia knows what she wants to fight for and on whose terms. Provocative, mordant, and fiercely intelligent, The Summer Without Men is a gloriously vivacious tragi-comedy about women and girls, love and marriage, and the age-old war between the sexes - a novel for our times by one of the most acclaimed American writers."
There is a lot of talks about books in this novel but only one is mentioned: "Persuasion" by Jane Austen which is read by the protaganist's mother and her book club "The Rolling Meadows".
Han, Kang "The Vegetarian" (Korean: 채식주의자/Ch'angbi) - 2007
When I found this book, I thought it might be about a woman who became a vegetarian. And it was. But also, it wasn't. This book has been described as dark and that is correct. But it is also weird. It is hard to follow the thoughts of the protagonists, I always try to empathize with any problem they encounter but I had a hard time doing it in this case.
This story is about two sisters and their husbands, about love and lust. There are three stories about Yeong-hye, the woman who turns vegetarian and whose life takes a strange turn and nobody's life will ever be the same again. The first story is told by her husband, the second by her brother-in-law, the third and last by her sister.
I would have loved to like this book. But I didn't, really.
From the back cover:
"A beautiful, unsettling novel about rebellion and taboo, violence and eroticism, and the twisting metamorphosis of a soul. Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the dreams—invasive images of blood and brutality—torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It’s a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home. As her husband, her brother-in-law and sister each fight to reassert their control, Yeong-hye obsessively defends the choice that’s become sacred to her. Soon their attempts turn desperate, subjecting first her mind, and then her body, to ever more intrusive and perverse violations, sending Yeong-hye spiraling into a dangerous, bizarre estrangement, not only from those closest to her, but also from herself."
Kang Han received the Booker International Prize in 2016 for "The Vegetarian".
Kang Han received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2024 "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life".
I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.
I read Elizabeth Kostava's first book "The Historian" a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, when I came upon this novel, I had to read it.
Even though this book was totally different from her first one, I was not disappointed. Same as in her old book, she brings history into her novel, and art. One of my favourite eras in the history of art, French Impressionism. Béatrice de Clerval who features in the story, was not a real person but many painters mentioned were. Just listing their names feels like going through one of the great museums of Paris: Manet, Morisot, Monet, Sisley, Pissarro.
I did enjoy this novel just as much as her first one and am looking forward to her next which is announced to be published next year, "The Shadow Land".
From the back cover:
"Dr Andrew Marlowe has a perfectly ordered life, full of devotion to his work and the painting hobby he loves. This order is destroyed when renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery and becomes his patient.
As Oliver refuses to speak, Marlow's only clue is the beautiful, haunted woman Oliver paints obsessively, day after day. Who is she, and what strange hold does she have over this tormented genius? Desperate to help, Marlowe embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and to a dark story at the heart of French Impressionism - a tragedy that ripples out to touch present-day lives.
Kostova's masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy; from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth, from young love to last love. The Swan Thievesis a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve hope."
What an interesting read. I am not the biggest poetry reader, so I only ever heard of Sylvia Plath but never actually read anything by her. So, I was not unhappy when one of our book club members suggested this as our next read.
And what a book it is. I think everyone who thinks depression is not an illness and that people should just "snap out of it", "get busier so they don't think so much" etc., should read this. Although, I doubt that will ever happen.
Sylvia Plath manages to show us the inside of a young girl who goes from being an ordinary student who wants to become a writer to being possessed by the dark dog who doesn't want to leave her.
You can tell the author spoke from experience, She suffered from depression herself, committed suicide in the end, You can really understand, follow her way, her debilitating condition, her struggles, her tragedy. I am sorry she only wrote this one novel, she could have given the world so much more.
If you are interested in this topic, suffer from depression yourself or know someone who does, watch this video by the World Health Organization. "I had a black dog, his name was depression." And don't hesitate to look for professional help.
"At last Sylvia Plath's only published novel is available in her own country, eight years after it was published in England under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. This extraordinary work chronicles the crackup of Ester Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, successful--but slowly going under, and maybe for the last time. Step by careful step, Sylvia Plath takes us with Ester through a painful month in New York as a contest-winning junior editor on a magazine, her increasingly strained relationships with her mother and the boy she dated in college, and eventually devastatingly, into the madness itself. The reader is drawn into her breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is rare in any novel. In this case, the work reveals so much about the sources of Sylvia Plath's own tragedy that is publication must be considered a landmark in contemporary literature."
In 1982, Sylvia Plath won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for "The Collected Poems".
Coory, Kasey "Pious Evil. Condemn not my Children. A mother's journey to insanity" - 2014
If you don't like to read about other people's misery, don't read this book. The Coory family has had more than their fair share of misery. I already read the book written by the authors sister, Anne Frandi-Coory "Whatever Happened to Ishtar?", and wanted to hear the voice of another family member when I heard her brother had written a book, as well. A lot of the family circumstances were already known to me but I am sure I would have understood them even without reading the other book first. What I want to say, it doesn't matter which one you read first, they both tell their part of a story, a story of a malfunctioning "family", a story of a miserable childhood but also of miserable adults. Why is it that people who already live in more than bad circumstances, always find other people just like that. Couldn't they find just one normal functioning person to help them to start a better life?
The book tells us a lot about the hardships in a big family that hasn't learned how to deal with their life in a new culture but especially about the tragic life children have to lead in these kind of families. It makes you want to go out and help them, in any way possible. That the author and his siblings have found their way into an ordinary life is more a miracle and certainly the exception rather than the rule. It can't have been easy. It also tells us about the church and their misgivings that were certainly responsible for a lot of the misery of the children.
Same as in "Whatever Happened to Ishtar?", one tragedy follows another, they slither from one bad situation into a worse one.
What I would have loved in this book though is a sort of family tree because there are many many members in that family and sometimes it is hard to find the connections. Luckily, you can find one online on Anne Frandi-Coory's page "A Life in Two Halves". It helps checking the situation from time to time.
As I said above, don't read this book if you cannot bear to hear about other people's misery but if you think you might want to do something to make this world a better place, to understand the background of tragedy, this is the book for you.
From the back cover:
"Based on a true story, Pious Evil is an historical narrative of prejudice and intrigue. A revealing chronicle of a manic depressive mother, who is deprived of her children, as seen through the eyes of a disparaged and vulnerable child. A deviant priest rapes a nun. She is sworn to silence in a cover up by the Church to avoid scandal. She is then ostracized and married off to the deviant's older brother, with unforeseen consequences. A mother is propositioned to sell her baby daughter, who is blessed with beautiful auburn hair. She is eager to execute a betrayal in an endeavour to gain freedom from her despised husband. Pious Evil is an autobiographical saga of two families who immigrate to New Zealand at the turn of the twentieth century. The Patriarchs and their wives weave a tapestry of Piousness and Evil, which is revealed in the machinations of the following generations."
Hesse, Hermann "Steppenwolf" (German: Der Steppenwolf) - 1927
I like Hesse. However, I had a hard time getting through this one. Apparently, Hesse was going through a very tough time in his life. And it shows. It's not the writing that makes it hard, it's the content. Trying to follow this guy's life is hard and probably shouldn't be attempted if you are in a tough spot yourself.
Is it possible at all to understand someone in such a mental state if you are not in the same one (or have never been in it)? Or is it better to read it if you're not in that state? Because I can imagine that it won't improve exactly if you are feeling down yourself at the moment.
"Harry Haller is the Steppenwolf: wild, strange,
shy and alienated from society. His despair and desire for death draw
him into a dark, enchanted underworld. Through a series of shadowy
encounters – romantic, freakish and savage by turn – the misanthropic
Haller gradually begins to rediscover the lost dreams of his youth. This
blistering portrayal of a man who feels himself to be half-human and
half-wolf was the bible of the 1960s counterculture, capturing the mood
of a disaffected generation, and remains a haunting story of
estrangement and redemption."
Hermann Hesse received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964 "for
his inspired writings which, while growing in boldness and penetration,
exemplify the classical humanitarian ideals and high qualities of
style".
Green, Hannah (Joanne Greenberg) "I Never Promised you a Rose Garden" 1964
Joanne Greenberg wrote this semi-autobiographical novel under the pen name Hannah Green.
What a fascinating book. A teenager suffering from schizophrenia. What is going on inside such a person?
Hannah Green tries to explain this mental illness through the view of different people, first of all the sufferer herself, her time before, in and after the hospital, her parents, family, friends, doctors, therapists.
I think this book is helpful to anybody who wants to understand mental illness and what it can do to everybody involved.
From the back cover:
"Enveloped in the dark inner kingdom of her schizophrenia, sixteen-year-old Deborah is haunted by private tormentors that isolate her from the outside world. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a mental hospital where she will spend the next three years battling to regain her sanity with the help of a gifted psychiatrist. As Deborah struggles toward the possibility of the “normal” life she and her family hope for, the reader is inexorably drawn into her private suffering and deep determination to confront her demons. A modern classic, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden remains every bit as poignant, gripping, and relevant today as when it was first published."
Frandi-Coory, Anne "Whatever Happened to Ishtar?: A Passionate Quest To Find Answers For Generations Of Defeated Mothers" - 2010
How much can a person endure, especially a little child? This heart-rendering account of Anne-Frandi Coory's life is a proof that we can live through a lot of hardship and still turn out to be passionate and affectionate people, in this case a wonderful woman and mother of four children even though she was an abandoned and abused child herself.
The author goes back to the history of her Lebanese-Italian family and all the troubles her ancestors went through before reaching New Zealand. All these generations, one tragedy after another, which results in the family Frandi-Coory where nobody had learned to love or take care of children. The story makes us follow the tragic lives of almost every single one of them but it teaches us so much. Despite the hardships and partly terrible stories Anne tells us, this book is still full of love.
"A Passionate Quest to Find Answers for Generations of Defeated Mothers. Anne's story is one of lost generations. She was abandoned by her mother at ten months of age, and from then on she lived a life of abuse and gross neglect in the Mercy Orphanage for the Poor, and at the hands of her Lebanese father's extended family. In the Coory family's mind, Anne's greatest shortcoming was her demonised Italian mother, Doreen Frandi, and for this reason she was treated as an imbecile and sexually harassed from childhood to her teens. Added to that, Anne was separated from her two brothers while living in the orphanage according to strict rules of gender segregation when boys turned five. After marrying in her teens and giving birth to four children in quick succession, Anne struggled to come to terms with her tormented past while at the same time making a vain attempt at living a normal life. Eventually Anne's marriage failed and she barely managed to avoid a mental breakdown. Two decades later, Anne embarked on what would be fifteen years of research and travel to find her Italian relatives and in the process tried to make some sense of why so many women in her Lebanese and Italian families became defeated mothers."
Haddon, Mark "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" - 2003
This was one of our most discussed books - because of its contents. We all agreed that we liked the book, it was well written, the style technique was very good, you could really feel with them, understand the issue now, some shed a tear at the end. The author tries to highlight that autistic figure/feel and accomplishes it very well. The book was written very discreetly, you could notice that he worked with children.
One would have thought Mark Haddon had the syndrome himself. Someone read it twice and noticed different things as the first time.
We also admired the ability the British have to take these families and put that into perspective, make a dysfunctional family seem funny at times and so make them look "normal". The author made it easier to read about these problems with his comical side.
It was interesting to discuss this with people looking at the situation from so many different levels, members with experience or no experience with autism, social workers, nurses and members who never worked with children. One of our members studied early childhood education and could explain a lot to us.
Some of us were surprised that we liked it because we didn't anticipate that. Someone said she wasn't prepared to enjoy it. But we all did.
We agreed that every child is so unique and has different needs. It's rewarding when they trust you and so disturbing if they can't get close. If there was a solution to heal autism, should we use it? These people see the world with other eyes and can contribute a lot if we let them.
We agreed that it is a fantastic and engaging book. Even though the story is told from the perspective of a teenage boy, the narrative voice feels clear and focused rather than simplistic.
We talked about the writing style and how the use of lists, diagrams, and logical explanations reflects Christopher’s way of thinking. Instead of explaining autism directly, the book shows how he experiences the world, which led to reflections on psychology and different ways of understanding reality.
There was also some recognition in smaller details, such as a preference for structure, sensitivity to noise or disorder, and the use of logic to manage emotions. This supported the idea that ways of thinking often exist on a spectrum.
While the novel begins as a mystery, it develops into a story about trust, family relationships, fear, and independence. Christopher’s journey was seen as meaningful and emotionally effective, despite the restrained and factual tone.
Overall, the book was experienced as both thought-provoking and enjoyable, and it gave us plenty to reflect on beyond the story itself.
Our leader tried looking through our previous reading list if we might have read some books related to autism, and Flowers for Algernon is one. Have you read other novels related to autism or do you know some to recommend to the group?
From the back cover:
"'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's Syndrome. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down."
