Thank you Sue.  I did receive the invitation to join FnB's blog and will presumably now be able to post.  One just needs to have a gmail or Google account to be able to log in.

The reason I probably missed it when you invited me the last time was that it went straight into the server's spam collection.

Cheers,
Kathy

Kathy's report - 10 July 2019

Present:  Barb, Cherilyn, Cherrie, Julie, Kathy and Marg

Apologies:  Megan (contributed her report), Mog and Sue (contributed to the blog)

  

White Houses by Amy Bloom – Megan’s selection

This ‘fictional’ story was based on real-life characters in real relationships gleaned from several hundred ‘love’ letters to which the author had access. These letters were written by the two main characters in the book, Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok (Hick).

The book outlined Hick’s horrendous early life of abuse and poverty and the courageous way she journeyed out of that to gain an education and become a well-regarded newspaper journalist.  She was given the heady assignment of covering FDR’s first Presidential campaign and it was during this time, Hick established a very close relationship with the soon-to-be First Lady.

For the four-month period between FDR’s election and inauguration, Eleanor and Hick spent a great deal of time together.  Eleanor asked Hick to accompany her to the funeral of the mother of Franklin’s secretary, Missy LeHand.  They spent the long train ride talking and beginning a long friendship. By the time of the inauguration, Hick had become Eleanor’s closest friend.  They made frequent trips together and spent nearly every day in each other’s company.  Hick joined the Roosevelts every Sunday night for dinner, while on other nights, Eleanor joined Hick at the theatre or opera or at dinners alone in Hick’s apartment.

This love story painted Franklin Roosevelt as a fairly selfish, cold-hearted philanderer, used to having his own way.  At the same time, he seemed open to his wife’s predilections and gave her the freedom to do what she liked, and he was always welcoming when it came to Hick.

Our group discussions demonstrated that there tended to be confusion around the way in which the chapters of the book were dated (more like frequent writing in a journal than telling a story as it progressed through time).  A few also discussed the difficulty they had in reading the story as a book of fiction BECAUSE it was based on certain fact and the lives of real people.  Overall, most enjoyed the read and it was given an overall score of 6½.

Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido – Kathy’s selection

In Brother of the More Famous Jack, the story is narrated by the main character, Katherine. She is a young and impressionable university student who is taken under the wing of her philosophy lecturer, Jacob Goldman.  She is invited to Professor Goldman’s home by way of a prospective lover and there begins her love affair with the Goldman family.  Jane, Jacob’s wife, is sharp-witted, wise and beautiful, calls a spade a spade, and loves her family dearly, whilst recognising the strengths and weaknesses in them all. Her two sons, Roger (beautiful, moody, intelligent) and the younger Jonathan (also smart, but volatile) are strong and precocious, yet strangely likeable in different ways.  Katherine becomes involved with the darker Roger, which leads to heartbreak and a trip to Rome to deal with her heartache.

She manages to move on with her life facing considerable obstacles including language barriers, a fraught relationship, and the birth and loss of a baby daughter.  After 10 years, she returns to London and resumes her connection with the Goldman family – including falling in love with Jonathon. The family bond was incredibly strong despite the members of the family being so different from one another, and they swept Katherine up in that inclusion and acceptance as one of their own.

Group discussions on this book were very mixed.  Those who enjoyed the story and its characters found it an easy ‘fireside’ read, but at least half the group really struggled with the Katherine’s incredible naivety and found the whole Goldman family atmosphere to be overwhelmingly clichéd.

There were some 4’s and some 7’s so an overall score of about 6.

NEXT BOOK CLUB MEETING:

Wee McLassie's place; 11 September 2019.  Selections are:

The Electric Hotel: Dominic Smith

Alice to Prague: Tanya Heaslip

Weatherbeaten

Hi all FnB clubbers - sorry to say that the weather has beaten me today so I'm a very late scratching for the meeting tonight.   Checked the radar at 5.30 and a big rain front was hitting VH (which I knew) with more behind it, and it was all moving up to Adelaide.   Hope you have a good night and discussion - my take on the books is as follows.

I didn't get that far into 'Brother of the more famous Jack'.  Maybe there was a lot more to it in the last two thirds of the book, but I found I wasn't really interested enough in any of the characters to continue.  I'm sure there are family units like the good Professor's (Jacob), especially in UK, but I didn't find them very attractive - and I thought it was a bit stereotypical of the oddball professorial type.  Perhaps I'm a bit too old for a 'coming of age' novel!! which is why I didn't go on to find if Katherine found true love.

I really enjoyed Amy Bloom's White Houses however.  I thought the writing was fabulous - there was a lot of wit and irony, and I really enjoyed the voice of Hick.  The time changes unsettled me to start with but once I found the rhythm of the novel I got in to it.  There were many interesting characters and much insight into the Franklin/Eleanor partnership - though it was clearly a novel, there has always been innuendo surrounding the Roosevelts.  I expect Amy Bloom took some license with it, but I also expect there was an undercurrent.  Some of the other characters were fascinating - Parker whatsisname for example - a really interesting scene when Hick when to visit him for lunch (eggs!) at White Horse.  And then later when he arrived a mess on the doorstep - I wondered who the black author who was with him was based on and thought maybe it was James Baldwin.  But who knows!!  In any case, the book made its way to its inevitable end (we always knew that was where it was going) and the last chapter was so sensitively written - it could have hovered on melodrama but didn't cross that line.

Hopefully you're all well and warm.   Its pasta, and a glass of wine by the fire for me now with Moj.    See you next time.