Lucca English Book Club

Wednesday 30 July  - " The Heart in Winter" by Kevin Barry.   Irish humour, doomed lovers, and bounty hunters, all set in 1890s Montana.  Variously described as "Exhilarating" and "a bad version of Dead Man." August - no meeting, to allow time to prepare for September's book (656 pp) Late September (date to be confirmed) - " Caledonia n 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.

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...

Our book for June is   " Creation   Lake " by Rachel Kushner,  a contemporary tale of a female undercover agent who infiltrates a radical ecocommunity in France. Our meeting will be a little later than usual, on  Wednesday 2 July . 

Dear Friends, an admirably orderly discussion last night, given that there were 21 of us around the table, ready to dissect "Night Watch" by Jayne Anne Phillips.  Historical fiction, with maybe a dash of magic realism, the novel blends a series of inter-related stories of characters caught up in the aftermath of the US Civil War. Raw, often unsparing, and unafraid to reflect the racism, misogyny and violence of the times, it also offered a glimmer of hope in the empathy and enlightenment to be found in surprising places. While specific to a time and place, it was hard not to recognise the universal themes common to any conflict, especially among fellow citizens. "When the killing ends, the grief goes on." While the author's writing style had its detractors (overwritten?) the majority of the group were impressed by its overall quality. Many felt however a falling-off when the ending appeared to wrap up too many loose ends unconvincingly. Our overall average sco...

  Title Author Pages Comments James Percival Everett 336 A re-imagining of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, told from the standpoint of the enslaved Jim. Dazzling and very humorous. Orbital (READ) Samantha Harvey 138 A team of astronauts in the International Space Station observes the planet Earth and each other. Their communications dwell on the fragility of human life and of the planet itself. Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize. The Sunday Times described is as “Stunning, an uplifting book.” Victim Andrew Boryga 288 A young man in the Bronx learns to use his tragic background as the perfect route to fame and fortune, and to enhance his growing reputation as a writer. Praised for its exceptional character development, the novel draws the reader into the protagonist’s psyche, involving a blend of fear, rationalisation and occasionally guilt. The Safekeep Yale van der Wouden 288 Isabel is an uptight, controlled and humourless figure living in her family’s countryside ...

  Looking ahead to our May meeting, we are turning cross the Atlantic to read the 2024 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by  Jayne Anne Phillips, "Night Watch",   historical story-telling in the aftermath of the American Civil War.    Our meeting will be on  Wednesday 28 May.

Dear Readers, award-winning British author  Kate Atkinson  is reported as having asserted, "I live to entertain. I don't live to teach or preach, or be political".  And after reading her latest novel  "Death at the Sign of the Rook" , it would be fair to say that our 18 (!) attendees at last night's meeting were in the main entertained. We had reservations about the book's structure and plot, and whether it was mere pastiche Agatha Christie or genuine satire, but most had found it a witty and skilfully written fun read and a welcome antidote to some of our recent choices. For those familiar with the author, there was a sense of disappointment that this book did not bear comparison with the best of her earlier titles, but new readers were intrigued and open to exploring more of her work. Overall, a vote of 6, Recommended. Looking ahead to our May meeting, we are turning cross the Atlantic to read the 2024 Pulitzer Priz...

Our book for April 2025 will be "Death At The Sign Of The Rook" by Kate Atkinson, an English writer who has achieved considerable success not only in the UK, particularly since her 2013 novel, "Life After Life". In her latest work, "Death at the Sign of the Rook" we are reintroduced to her favourite detective Jackson Brodie, in what sounds like Agatha Christie pastiche.  Etta's Bookshop already has copies.

Our choice of Zadie Smith's "The Fraud" was perhaps high risk given how much it was steeped in 19th century British history, literary and actual, which was bound to be unfamiliar territory for some. And so  much stuff - feminism, old age & decline, slavery, social justice & class, truth, literary ambition, perhaps too much, but nevertheless a great book for discussion, held together by Zadie Smith's descriptive gifts and sharp characterisation.  So many possible frauds over and above the  Claimant  -  Ainsworth, Bogle, Dickens,  even Eliza  who at least had honest self doubt,  And we had our own  - did Bogle  quietly mastermind the whole claimant case?  And how about  kinky Victorians with their hidden  whips?  On average, despite dissenters, we gave it a score of 7. We're heading into less demanding territory hopefully with our choice for April  - Kate Atkinson is again an English writer who has achieved...

Our book for March 2025 will be The Fraud by Zadie Smith. From acclaimed and bestselling novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story—and who gets to be believed.  Description from Goodreads . Our meeting will be on March 27th.   Check us out on Facebook for more details https://www.facebook.com/groups/116095441736716/ Enjoy your reading!

Dear Readers,  Samantha Harvey's "Orbital"  is an account of a day in the life of six astronauts of different nationalities, four men and two women, in the International Space Station as it completes 16 orbits of the Earth. There is no plot to speak of, and we learn little of their individual personalities and backgrounds. The mundanity of their tasks and routines in their contained micro world contrasts with the awesomeness of the real world visible through their windows and the extraordinary beauty of the constantly changing Earth viewed from space, where national boundaries have no significance and wars are invisible. Samantha Harvey has said that her objective was to write "a kind of space pastoral", a meditation on our precious planet, and that the six humans are simply "part of the image, not the lens". The book (novel?) combines luminous descriptions with impressive research, and we thought she just a...

Our book for February 2025 is Orbital by Samantha Harvey:  A team of astronauts in the International Space Station observes the planet Earth and each other. Their communications dwell on the fragility of human life and of the planet itself. Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize. The Sunday Times described is as “Stunning, an uplifting book.” Reviews range from "Ravishingly Beautiful" to "Mind-numbingly Boring", so it will be sure to lead to some interesting discussion when we meet on Wednesday February 26th. Check us out on Facebook for more details  https://www.facebook.com/groups/116095441736716/

Dear Readers, our bookclub does not shrink from a challenge. Our choice was to  boldly go  into 2025 with Italo Calvino's experimental novel "If on a Winter's Night a Traveller", published in 1979 and now considered a classic. Our votes varied widely, before settling on an average score of 7, Recommended.  The book examines what it is to write a novel, or read it or interpret it, through a series of episodes based on a journey through different loosely connected stories. . The reader has just time to absorb a new set of characters and a new plot when it ends in suspense and leads to another title. Inevitably one tries to find a logic binding the various episodes together when perhaps simply going with the flow would be a better option. Too many beginnings, not enough conclusions? A tiresome behind the scenes documentary of interest only to other writers? But through it all runs Calvino's masterful writing, his sense of fun and remarkable narrative...