Bookclub News June 2025

Dear Friends, in a first for the bookclub, the fourteen of us who met last night were serenaded from the garden by talented young musicians singing Mozart. Quite what Sadie Smith, the cynical unlikeable narrator of Rachel Kushner's latest novel " Creation Lake" would have made of it is hard to say. Another example of  ineffectual European dilettanti at play? It certainly added brio to our discussion

Our final average score of 7, 'Recommended' masks a widely varied response. General appreciation of Kushner's  impressive research, fluid writing skill, powerful ideas and choice of subject matter,  but reservations about her scatter-gun approach. Were we really wiser in having quite so much information about Neanderthal society, mixed up with local ancient and modern French history, and did it add up to the "gripping philosophical thriller" promised by her publishers? Too many lengthy emails, not enough character development of the large cast of extras, but an impressive grasp of rural life in France, and a real build-up of suspense when it was required.  And genuinely funny in places, too. 

We then proceeded to work out our progrmme for the rest of the summer. Here's how it looks - 

Wednesday 30 July - "The Heart in Winter" by Kevin Barry. Irish humour, doomed lovers, and bounty hunters, all set in 1890s Montana.

August - no meeting, to allow time to prepare for September's book (656 pp)

Late September (date to be confirmed) - "Caledonian Road" by Andrew O'Hagan.  A portrait of London society both dazzling and disgusting. The Guardian described it as "addictively enjoyable".

Stay cool, and enjoy your reading.

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