It is safe to say that not many bookclub members enjoyed this book. It was something which stretched a lot of us beyond our book reading ability. This is not to say that it's a bad book, it's just very different to our usual reads. We found it to be too literary for our bookclub. It may also be more enjoyable had the reader seen the film, or the stage show.
We all found it very tricky to keep up with who was speaking as each line spoken just started with not indication of speaker. We also got the two prisoners confused a great deal of the time which didn't help with the flow of the book. We also found the footnotes to be very distracting and didn't add much to the actual story. Although they did offer an interesting insight into how people thought about certain things in the time period this book is from.
Overall we gave this book 2 out of 10, although because many people hadn't finished it not everyone voted.
During this meeting we also decided to change the way we choose books. We have decided that for the months March - June we will do the following. The librarian will create a list of 10(ish) books from other bookclub suggestions such as Richard and Judy etc. This will be sent out to the group who will each choose 4 books from the list. The 4 books with the most votes will be the next 4 months books.
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Better late than never but as I wasn't able to get to this meeting here are my thoughts about a book I feel responsible for inflicting on the others as it was my suggestion although of course they all voted for it!! I had seen both the film and the stage play both of which I loved but I agree that the format of the book might have made it quite inaccessible or at least difficult to read for those who hadn't. I found it a very beautifully nuanced and touching story about love, loyalty, conflicting emotions, betrayal and a good reflection of humanity in general. I would give it a 6 for the content - it would have been more if it had been easier to actually read.
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