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The Crossing Reading Group

BOOKWORM

The Thoughts of The Crossing Reading Group (2008)

APRIL - THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON by Kate Morton

Were you a fan of 'Upstairs Downstairs', Gosford Park or Atonement? If so, you may enjoy this book set at the beginning of the 20th century, in a large country house. Although, the story at first seems to tell the story of two groups, an upper class family and their servants, inevitably the groups overlap and intertwine. What unfolds is  delicious family saga which opens up like a Terry's chocolate orange at the end. Some of the 'secrets' contained in the plot are not so subtle, more like lumbering great elephants hurtling towards you over the hill, but that is OK, it helps the poor reader to think smugly, "oh I saw that one coming."

Reading the opening 30 or 40 pages several reading group members thought they had picked up Atonement again...set in a large country house, with a lake, in the early 20th century, a group of children rehearsing a play, a visitor who becomes pivotal to the story...This book is more of a beach book than a weighty tome (more of that in June!), but it's familiarity brings a certain pleasure.

The House at Riverton is  story about the secrets of the past and how they affect the future. Can we ever 'escape' our past?  Should we want to? Does our past haunt us, or shape who we are? Whether our past is remembered with pleasure or pain, God calls us to leave our past at the foot of the cross and look towards a new future with him.

What a God we have!And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus!Because Jesus was raised from the dead,we've been give a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven- and the future starts now! 1 Peter 1:3 The Message 

Reading Group Verdict - Enjoyable but predictable 7.5/10

Join us in the Crossing Cafe on Friday 2nd May at 7.30pm to discuss The Shadow of the Wind. In June we are looking at the classic Jane Eyre.

MARCH - SUITE FRANCAISE by Irene Nemirovsky

FEBRUARY  - A SPOT OF BOTHER by Mark Haddon

Where would our entertainment industry be without families, the more dysfunctional the better?  Take the Simpsons…

Marge: This is the worst thing you've ever done.
Homer: You say that so often that it lost its meaning.

What is ‘A Spot of Bother’ about? Well, it has as many themes, as readers - some will say ‘love’ others will say, ‘aging’, others ‘fear’, but the one overarching theme that links them together is family. George, the patriarch is about to begin his retirement. Around him, the lives of his family members are careering out of control, but George doesn’t like to talk about feelings. ‘The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.’ (p. 5) But, when facing his own ‘spot of bother’, George quietly begins to lose his mind. The book reads like a soap opera, in brief but poignant chapters, enticing you to read on. At times painful, often uncomfortably familiar, and occasionally with laugh out loud humour, Mark Haddon’s writing, has again captured the ordinariness of family life in a searingly realistic way.

Are we normal? Do we have normal families? Perhaps after reading this book, we realise that 'normal family life' is full of the idiosyncrasies, pain and downright weirdness that we all experience. The Simpsons, the Ewings (for those of you who can remember that far back), the Duckworths - all great entertainment. Not because they are the perfect family, but because they aren’t. We let out a self satisfied sigh when we see Marge trying to cope patiently with a drunken husband, irresponsible son and a know-it-all daughter and think ‘it could be worse’.

At times George loses all hope and finds that beneath the surface of his life there is -just more surface. When following the Christian life we are not promised an easy path and there will be times when all hope seems to be gone, but, at the heart of our faith is the constant security of our loving heavenly Father and so we can sing;

All my hope on God is founded;
he doth still my trust renew,
me through change and chance he guideth,
only good and only true.
God unknown,
he alone
calls my heart to be his own.  Joachim Neander 

Paige Turner      Reading Group Verdict 7/10
 

December: A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar

Early in December a small but determined group of readers met in the cosiest of settings (thankyou Leon!), with the tastiest of morsels (thankyou Sue and Brenda) to discuss 'A Beautiful Mind'. Not, as you may be thinking the mind of our esteemed and learned minister, but the biography of mathematician and Nobel prize-winner John Nash, by Sylvia Nasar.

We all agreed it had been a challenge, much like the great mathematical theorems that Nash himself had faced. Whilst the style of the narrative was straightforward, the density of the detail from the author made it feel like there was just too much information. However, there was reward to those who fel able to persist.

Nash's story is a complex one. Early on, he was recognised as a gifted mathematician, but a 'difficult' personality, nevertheless he had more than one obsessive relationship. Nash faced his greatest challenge however, when he became ill with schizophrenia, and Nasar writes about this in an informing and unsetimental manner, giving the reader a valuable insight into mental illness of this kind. Nasar is obviously writing about one of her heroes, and whilst we may admire the genius of Nash's mind, she does not flinch from showing his darker side.

The book evokes the words from the Psalms that we are 'wonderfully and fearfully made'. Should we try to understand God and his ways? Perhaps the answer can be found in Ecclesiastes 3:11. 'He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Reading Group verdict 6/10

by Paige Turner

Join us on February 1st 2008, 7.30pm in The Crossing Cafe to chat about Mark Haddon's book 'A Spot of Bother'.

November: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

The term ‘must-see, or must-read’ may be over-used in the pages of magazines and newspapers, however, it can be used authentically about this literary treasure. John Boyne tells of the story of Bruno, a 9 year old boy who lives in Berlin in the 1930’s. One day his happy world is shattered when his Father tells the family that they must leave their home and friends and go to live at ‘Outwith’. Bruno’s story unfolds as we follow him on his new adventures.

To tell you any more about the plot would be to deny you the pleasure of unpicking Bruno’s story for yourself, as I would recommend you to do. The story is simply written, its target audience being younger teens, but it sits happily on the crossover shelf for adults and children that the works of J.K. Rowling have done so much to promote. Boyne opens a window on a period of history which will seem familiar to many, but from a viewpoint few of us have scarcely considered. In the brevity of the story, Boyne captures a moment from the past in a way which is not sentimental or preachy. The tale gently unfolds, leaving the reader to make their own judgements.

Boyne describes the book as a fable, a story with a moral or lesson, and the lessons are many. He captures perfectly the way in which a 9 year old will accept what he or she is told by adults, without question, reminding those of us who read it as adults, of our responsibility to be honest with those children in our care. For those children a book such as this will become increasingly important as generations are raised without a direct link to this episode in history. Above all, it reminds us of the love of God for all people, including those whose actions we abhor. Jesus died for them too.

The members of The Crossing Reading Group would thoroughly recommend this book to you, and anyone you know who is 12 years plus. It will take only a couple of hours of your time to read, but will remain with you for the rest of your life.
“Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”George Santayana

Crossing Reading Group Rating 9/10

By Paige Turner

October 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan

If I may borrow from the words of the 1980's one hit wonder Adrian Gurvitz, Ian McEwan certainly set out to 'write a classic' when he penned 'Atonement', a tale of an upper middle class family in 1930's England. The book's subject matter and style both assume the classic description but, our cunning critics at The Crossing Reading Group were not so quick to laud praise upon Mr. McEwan's prose, despite the fact that it was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2001.

In brief, the story features 3 main characters, with a number of supporting cast members. Cecilia is the eldest daughter of the Tallis family, and in love with Robbie Turner, the housekeeper's son who has recently graduated from Cambridge. Their 'happy ever after' is thwarted by Cecilia's younger sister Briony, not by fair means, but foul. Later, Briony regrets her actions and McEwan claims that the book is the story of Briony's struggle to atone for her mistake.

McEwan is, without doubt an accomplished writer, and in this novel, his best work is illustrated by his most moving retelling of the suffering of human beings in war. However, the reading group felt that some of the characters behaved in a way contrived by the author to fit his plot rather than as living, breathing players in the story with human reactions. From a Christian perspective, it was thought-provoking to watch Briony handling her failure in miserable solitude. Her struggle to redeem herself was a reminder that this is the way in which 'the world' handles right and wrong. How blessed we are as Christians to know that whatever our mistakes, our atonement has already been earned by Jesus on the cross.

Overall, a book that we would recommend that you should read, but never assume that a Booker prize nomination means a 'great' book.

Our verdict 7/10

by Paige Turner