Rosie greeted us all at McLassie's gate with a big smile as, after a longer than usual wait, it was a full house on 27th September 2023, with tanned travellers from the deep north and all the southside stayers able to join Margie P and McLassie to talk about their book choices - Best of Friends and Trespasses. The pre-book chat natter took us down a few paths including bodgy car servicing and the benefits of RAA plus membership - which it seems you never have when you need it.
McLassie called order and introduced us to author Louise Kennedy and her first novel, Trespasses. Set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland it was a story of forbidden love between the older, married Protestant lawyer Michael Agnew, and a young Catholic primary school teacher, Cushla - with all the secrecy and survival mechanisms needed for affairs of that kind, at that time, in that place. We were close up and personal with the well drawn characters and the realism jumped off the pages, so there was no getting away from the violence and conflicts - though there were different views about Michael. Some considered he was a sleaze-bag (no apologies - it was the word used) while others thought maybe not so much given his schtick was defending the young Catholic protestors. We weren't surprised by the ending however, which didn't go well for Michael, and left Cushla in a world of no-woman's land. Fortunately Davy appeared in the last chapter set some years later, and helped turn the page for her.
Conversations turned to half eaten meat pies for lunch on Fridays (throwing away the other half when the priest appeared), Ulster Orange men marches, Belfast's no-go areas, and other experiences of the Catholic/Protestant division when growing up in the 1960's-70's - so the book elicited memories from many of us.
Despite the lack of quotation marks for dialogue (yes, a minor problem for a few of us), it was a good read about how difficult normal life can be during troubled times in troubled places.
Margie then sent us off to Pakistan and on to London with her book choice, Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie. Home Fire it wasn't, but it did create a lot of discussion about many things, including
- the time gap between growing up in Karachi and their adult lives in London - for some the cutaway via journalist's articles was too drastic and a big narrative leap, while for others it didn't have much of an impact on the storyline
- who was ultimately responsible for the car ride in Karachi that changed Maryam and Zahra's lives - much less Jimmy's later on (quite some discussion on this question with Maryam, Zahra and Hammad all in the frame, and then there was Jimmy who was actually controlling the situation)
- whose adult moral compass was more askew - Zahra's or Maryam's - or were they not askew but just human and a product of their upbringing
- how were they best of friends when, except for both being successful in later life, they didn't have a lot in common as adults - and
- were they ever besties? (and if not, why the title you can't help but ask?)
Big picture issues (such as the influence of social media, surveillance technology, courting political influence) swirled through the second half of the book but Shamsie seemed to consign them to the back seat. We all agreed on some things - that Hammad was very unlikeable, and that the ending was not so well resolved.
Suddenly, it was time for tea and cake as Rosie made her presence felt again wanting a bit of outside air, and we all thanked Barb and Cherrie for being the 'canaries in the coalmine' by getting over Transient global amnesia in our group - which may mean given its unusual occurrence, statistically speaking, we won't see TGA ever again (👍).
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| Marg's fab icing atop her carrot and walnut cake |
For the dairies, the next meeting is rescheduled to Wednesday 22 November 2023 at 7.00 pm, 1 Fox Street Goodwood - unless something blows up before then. UPDATE UPDATE: Now changed to Wednesday 6 December 2023 at Fox Street.
Books are
Julie: Wifedom - by Anna Funder (Zoe Morrison's sister in law)
Sue: The Secret Hours - by Mick Herron (writer of the TV series, Slow Horses). https://tv.apple.com/au/show/slow-horses/umc.cmc.2szz3fdt71tl1ulnbp8utgq5o (a key character is made for Gary Oldman's performance, and Kristen Scott Thomas is also rivetingly cold hearted).
