Quiet and Noisy Women

Confession time.  Your poster girl feels like an imposter while posting this record of the FnB Club meeting, because I didn't get to read Restless Dolly Maunder and I'm still making my way through Stone Yard Devotional.  But I'll plough on and make it up if needed - as they did some of the time in Mog's original but discarded book choice 'The Rest is History'.

Cherilyn was away in sunny Queensland but everyone else turned up at Cherrie's townhouse on 22 May 2024 to talk about Cherrie and Moggie's book selections.   

Charlotte Wood and book

We all settled in around the dining table  as Cherrie served up her book choice, Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood, chosen after hearing her interviewed by Beejay Silcox (2024 Chair of the Stella Prize and who also claims to have driven a car to Timbuktu held together with a bra strap - but from where is one question?) at Writers Week earlier in the year.  Beejay explored why CW had written the book at this time and you can hear it first hand here

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/adelaide-writers/aww24-stone-yard-devotional-H8bq1wKl9O_/  

or read about it in Cherrie's thoughtful homework on the book and author (hint - Beejay didn't come out well as interviewer). 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kTYDxpPy69Sh35av3Jd_7wye4iIA-LwLbTTLhlb2nXQ/edit?usp=sharing

Perhaps because of Charlotte's exotic haircut, the book created quite a lot of discussion about many things including

• how the 'retreat' or convent actually worked.  Kathy provided first hand info about retreats, convents and nuns, and the chat around the table about the book suggested retreats are very silent without offering redemption for anyone - at least not in our story
• the narrator - whose ambiguity throughout the novel presumably was designed to suggest this could be anyone's story (thinking here of loneliness, desolation, introspection, depression at the state of the world - phew, quite a jolting list)
• the mice plague - a double entendre reminding the reader of climate change and (if you're a believer) the wrath of some almighty somewhere - but McLassie gave us a great tip from her father about putting bed legs in bowls of water to stop the mice from running over you at night
• bones and the other visitation from Helen Parry - now a Sister and climate activist oozing confidence.  This visitation also had the double whammy of reminding the narrator of her past political activist life in Sydney about which she was so disillusioned - and the shared schoolyard where the young Helen was a victim of bullying.  So this opened another road
  to remorse for the narrator because she didn't stand up for Helen in the schoolyard.

We all sank a bit with the weight of the novel and reflected on our own schoolyard groupie histories, but most readers agreed with Cherrie - it was a quiet and profound read.

Kate and Dolly

Moggy stepped into the breach to deliver us from the silence of retreats to the noise of Restless Dolly Maunder - by Kate Grenville -  a part fictional account of her grandmother (Dolly Maunderer) making a go of life from the 1900's and beyond.  From the comments around the table, the book certainly had a different tone to Stone Yard Devotional and perhaps was less engaging - or at least the character of Dolly was divisive and so created more animated conversation about her.

The readers followed Dolly through her disappointing realisation that cleverness at school didn't mean you could escape farm life and head out into the world in the late 19th/early 20th century - but you could escape via a less than satisfactory marriage.   So there was the move off the land with Bert to an outer suburban shop, then boarding houses, hotels and flats - then there was the great depression and son Frank's death during the war.  Voices around the table were puzzled by Dolly's mix of character traits in being able to put up with her philandering (though congenial) husband, her domineering attitude and her inability to relate well to her children.  And why didn't she sell the flats during the depression years?  

Perhaps, from the table conversations, several ways of looking at this book emerged.  One is that Dolly was always looking for the greener pastures over the hill (a product of her early hard life on the farm maybe): another is that she always felt trapped and needed to find a way out: another is that she was an entrepreneur and had she been of a different sex she would have been applauded for her 'can do' capacity and upward mobility; and another less favourable gendered view could probably be found in her inability to nurture her children and grandchildren.   All options are not mutually exclusive of course, and there may be more -  so I'm leaving all this 'on the table' in the expectation that it is really Kate G's take that is probably the most important (although having said that she is relying on book sales for a living).   

Observing the chat around the table it was interesting that the contrast in the 2 books appeared to be quite deep.    While one was about the narrator's quiet introspection in a disintegrating world, the others main character stepped out into the world and just took it on - injustice, frustration and all. 

Everyone could agree that the 2 books were good choices and created lots of discussion - and even more somehow they also prompted chat about very different subjects including teenage teeth and bands, older ears and cochlea implants, and even more strangely, fairy penguins (note to self: don't get close when Cherrie is around).  And as Cherrie brought out her fabulous almond pastry strawberry tart, we all wondered if there will be strawberries in June this year?? - and learnt that the grey leaf plant in Mog's bunch of flowers is Dusty Miller Jacobaea Maritime (thanks to Cherrie who sent that information through later). 

Next meeting was rescheduled to 17 July 2024, at Kathy's place (I think - stay tuned) - when 2 more books about women will be dissected

Kathy - The Women by Kristen Hannah

Megan - The Last Girl by Nadia Murad (suggest you wrap yourself in a warm blanket by the fire with hot chocolate while reading this one).