The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith

Most people at the meeting had finished this month’s book and everyone had enjoyed it.  However, two people had not finished it and therefore we tried to keep the discussion spoiler-free.  This was a difficult task but we managed it!

Everyone was aware that Robert Galbraith was a pen name for JK Rowling, which we found more off-putting than encouraging, as we weren’t sure how a children’s writer would tackle an adult book. But we needn’t have worried.  Many of the group had read the Harry Potter books and felt that, although there are similarities in the writing, (for example the strong character description) this book was quite different in style and content.

We thought that the characters were very well drawn and really liked the relationship between Strike and Robin.  Matthew was seen as a bit of a wimp, a boring person who was very different to Strike, with his military background.  We thought that Matthew was jealous of Strike and felt threatened by him, although he would never admit it.  Robin was originally very happy to be newly engaged and the centre of attention, but that slips away later in the book.  Matthew has very definite ideas of what a relationship should be, and Robin is originally happy to fit into this.  But working for Strike, and enjoying doing something that she has always been interested in, she begins to fell constrained by Matthew’s rather old-fashioned views.  We liked Robin and thought that she should definitely go for what would make her happy, but we did also discuss how she would feel if things were the other way round and Matthew had suddenly started a job he loved with a woman boss that he greatly admired – that helped us to better appreciate his point of view! 

We thought the plot was intricate, but that the clues were there to be found amongst the red herrings, so the finale made sense. The facts and motivations behind the murder are summarised towards the end of the book and some people found this useful (as an aide-memoire) while others thought it a little contrived, a bit like the TV programme “Death in Paradise”.

We discussed what impact the fact that Strike is an amputee had on our feeling towards the character, and we decided that it leant him an air of vulnerability but that although we did feel sorry for him we also respected him more for his determination not to let his injury define him.

Fame is a recurrent theme in the novel.  Strike is the son of a famous rock star but chooses not to capitalise on his father’s name.  However, it is clear that fame opens doors and other characters are much more susceptible to its allure.  We wondered if the characters are based on real people – for example, we felt that Evan Duffield was like Pete Doherty, and his need for the attention that fame brings was very obvious.  There are references to social injustice in the book and we thought that reflected the two halves of JK Rowling’s own life – the difficult years when she was trying to make it as a writer, and the sudden change to being in a position where everybody knows who she is and wants to be her friend.

Some of the group had lived in London and said that the descriptions of the city were very accurate.  Also, the cover was very atmospheric and gave a sense of place.  The things that we didn’t like were minor.  We wondered why the book was called the Cuckoo’s Calling, when the only person that called Lula Cuckoo was Guy.  This felt forced, as if it had only been written that way to justify the book title.  Also the use of the Latin aphorisms at the beginning of the chapters was felt by some to be rather pretentious.

Overall we thought this was a well-written book, with well-described characters who drove the plot, and written in an “old-school” detective style.  We gave the book 8.5 out of 10, with 8 being the lowest score.

The Cuckoo's Calling - Questions

Hello everyone,

I hope you’ve all been enjoying this months book and that you’ve all replied to me to let me know whether you’re coming to the meal after book club this month.

Here are some questions for you to think about while you’re reading:

-    Good mystery writing leads readers astray with red-herrings. Who were you first suspicious of?
-    Were you surprised by the ending or did you figure it out ahead of time? If you figured it out ahead of time what was your biggest clue? If you were surprised who did you think was the murderer and why?
-    Using a hard-bitten investigator assisted by an young, ambitious "Girl Friday" is a classic detective-story trope. What do you think of Robin Ellacott? What does her character bring to the story?
-    JK Rowling is most known for the Harry Potter series. Some writers venture outside their notable genre and do not do as well while others have wild success. Which do you think this was for JK Rowling? Did this book live up to your expectation? Would you read other mysteries by her?

The Shock Of The Fall

Most of the people who attend the book club had finished the book but some found it a very confusing read, others felt that it was a bit boring and didn't hold their attention. This may have been because they felt that the characters weren't very well developed, this may have been as a consequence of the narrator and his mental health issues. Having said that everyone loved the character of Nanny Noo, we felt that she was very accepting of Matt's mental health issues and how he choses to act things out. She doesn't seem to judge him which we felt that a lot of the other characters seem to do.

As we are a hospital based book club some of the members work with people in mental health departments which allowed us some insight into how the drugs that Matt would have to take would affect him. This gave us an added depth of understanding of why he might chose not to take the drugs as they make people feel sick, and foggy. This is compared to how they might feel when they aren't taking the drugs, which may mean that they do things they don't mean to but at least they feel well while doing them.

We discussed why we thought he may have developed schizophrenia, maybe it was due to the shock of the fall, or perhaps it was a genetic influence. During the course of the book we see that Matt's mother has definite problems with regards depression, possible Munchausen syndrome by proxy when she takes Matt repeatedly to the doctor for trivial or even no reason.

As we have already read a book recently about a fictional mental health department in the US for children who harm themselves and others which treated each child individually and with great care we found it depressing to read about Matts experience. He seemed to be left to his own devices a great deal of the time and merely spent it smoking and sleeping. We weren't sure if this was simply his remembrances of this situation which are tainted by his issues or whether the department was trying to give him as little stimulation as possible to stop him having any adverse reactions. This wasn't made clear.

The ending felt very optimistic, we think that Matt may have gained some control over his issues by accepting them and accepting the fact that he needs to take medication and be watched over for his own safety. We also felt that he had accepted his brothers death and now knows that he wasn't entirely responsible for the things that happened. This means that he will have to let go of his schizophrenic connection to his dead brother, but he seems to be able to do this at the end of the book. As with a lot of mental health issues this may not be the case permenantly.

Overall we gave this book 5 out of 10.

The Shock of the Fall - Questions

Hello everyone,

Please don’t forget that it’s book club tomorrow, and also don’t forget to bring along your allotted pot-luck item. If you weren’t given an item to bring and will be coming along tomorrow let me know what you would like to bring along.
Here are some questions for you to have a think about:

•    Why does Matthew need to tell his story? Is the act of writing a cathartic process?
•    How does Matthew portray life in the psychiatric ward? Were you shocked by any of the descriptions?
•    In Matthew’s invitation to Aaron and Jenny, he writes ‘I’m really sorry if I’ve got your name wrong. Part of me thinks it’s Gemma. Please forgive me if I got it wrong. Not making excuses, but I am a schizophrenic.’ Is this an indication that Matthew hascome to terms with his illness? Why does he joke about it?

See you all tomorrow!

The Book Thief

Most of the people at this meeting had finished the book but some were struggling with it. Interestingly two people at the meeting had also watched the film so were able to add this viewpoint to the discussion.

We discussed the fact that Death narrates the book, we felt that this gave it an interesting angle rather than seeing things through say Rudy or Leisels viewpoint. It was interesting that Death gave large hints about when people might be dying, often quite far in advance of the event. Some people liked this as it meant they could focus on the rest of the book rather than just the deaths. Other people didn't enjoy this as they liked the element of not knowing and having surprises through the book. Interestingly some people took a while to realise that Death was narrating rather than any of the other characters.

There is a lot of imagery in the book, especially from Death regards the colours he sees when collecting souls. Some of the book club really enjoyed this and felt it really added to the book. Others felt that while some of the imagery was interesting it did have a tendency to become a little too much at some points, causing confusion as to what Death meant.

We had a quick discussion as to how we saw Death managing to collect all the hundreds and thousands of souls during this particularly death ridden time. Some saw him as growing slowly larger and carrying more and more souls, others felt that he must move incredibly fast collecting one or two at a time. Interestingly we never find out where the souls eventually end up, just that Death pulls them from the dead bodies and collects them.

Some of the characters in this book really spoke to some of the book group, especially Mama and Papa. We felt that Mama, despite her gruff exterior, really loved both Papa and Leisel with all her heart, she just happened to have built a wall around her heart to protect it a little. We liked that this book showed the quieter ways that the German people tried to help the Jewish people rather than the big brash heroic ways that other books try to show. This felt more realistic to us. We also talked about how the people in the book felt different kinds of guilt, mostly to do with surviving when others had died, often in order to save them. They all reacted differently to their feelings of guilt, either trying to do good things because that must be the reason they survived, or wanting to do bad things to the people who caused their guilt, or simply trying to live a normal life.

One thing that we felt was missing was more information about the books mentioned in this story. Given that this is called The Book Thief we felt that it would have been nice to be given more background on the significance of the books, or even references at the end so the reader could also share the books that Leisel stole.

Overall we gave this book 8 out of 10.

The Book Thief - Questions

Hello,

Sorry this is incredibly late coming to you. Here are some questions about this months book club that you might like to consider while finishing your copy of the book:

-    Abandonment is a central theme in the novel. The reader knows that Liesel feels abandoned by her mother and by the death of her brother. How does she equate love with abandonment? At what point does she understand why she was abandoned by her mother? Who else abandons Liesel in the novel? Decide whether she was abandoned by circumstance or by the heart.
-    Guilt is another recurring theme in the novel. Hans Hubermann’s life was spared in France during World War I, and Erik Vandenburg’s life was taken. Explain why Hans feels guilty about Erik’s death. Guilt is a powerful emotion that may cause a person to become unhappy and despondent. Discuss how Hans channels his guilt into helping others. Explain Max Vandenburg’s thought, “Living was living. The price was guilt and shame.” (p. 208) Why does he feel guilt and shame?
-    The Grave Digger’s Handbook is the first book Liesel steals. Why did she take the book? What is significant about the titles of the books she steals? Discuss why she hides The Grave Digger’s Handbook under her mattress. Describe Hans Hubermann’s reaction when he discovers the book. What does the act of book thievery teach Liesel about life and death? Explain Rudy’s reaction when he discovers that Liesel is a book thief. How does stealing books from the mayor’s house lead to a friendship with the mayor’s wife? Explain how Liesel’s own attempt to write a book saves her life.

Live To Tell

Everyone had finished the book and most people said they would like to read more by Lisa Gardner.

One thing that caused some confusion was the use of multiple different voices, each voice then having a chapter before the next voice came back. Some people felt that this was confusing as they weren't sure who was who and also how each of the voices linked to the others. It also took a little while to get used to each of the voices when starting each chapter.

 We felt that it was very interesting given that it was based on the story of a young boy who has these same mental health issues as the children in the book. This brought it home that this could have happened to any one of our families. We wondered how we would cope with it, would we have been like the mother who was determined to look after her son due to the guilt she felt that she had caused his problems. Or would we have been like the father who left his wife and son to take his daughter to a safer place for her sake.

Interestingly the real child this story is based on was actually healed by a spiritual healer who used similar techniques to the healer in the book. At first this sounds unbelievable but when you look at the methods used they are basically cognitive behavioural therapies to do with breathing techniques, thinking positive etc. We also really loved the centre that the children were housed in, although we felt that it probably couldn't really exist in real life as it would be really expensive to run and some of the kids there had little or no funds behind them. It was also odd to have the unit on a top floor in a general hospital rather than in a separate unit maybe within the grounds of the hospital given the tendencies of the kids towards violent behaviour.

We were a little annoyed by the main character of D.D. as she seemed to be able to eat everything she wanted and still stayed skinny, this grated on the book club possibly as most of us are women and know that this just does not happen in real life.

The ending of the story felt a little bit rushed to us, and some elements were a little weird and far-fetched.

 Overall we gave this book 7.5 out of 10.