On Chesil Beach

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

This book is my Book Group's April read. Given I only started it on Sunday, I figure I'm way ahead on last month's (The Poisonwood Bible) which seemed to take forever!

I approached the book with mixed feelings. The only other Ian McEwan book I have attempted to read was Atonement and I just couldn't do it. However, the premise of this book sounded interesting, a friend had read it and said it was good, and it was only 166 pages long - surely easier than Poisonwood's almost 550!

I was pleasantly surprised. I quite enjoyed the book and was eager to continue reading it within the first few pages.

On Chesil Beach tells the story of Lionel and Florence, newly wed, virgins and both worried about the upcoming wedding night for different reasons. It switched from the present time - the wedding night, to their courtship seamlessly.

McEwan's characters were believable, their fears palpatiable and their reactions understandable. Given it is such a short book, I developed rather strong feelings for and against the characters and their way of handling the situation.

If you want to know my further thoughts on the book, highlight the area below. I will "hide" the text as it will contain spoilers.

Florence annoyed me. While her reticence is acceptable, I believe everything that happens could have been avoided if she had only spoken up sooner. It is hinted that there is a possiblilty of abuse in her childhood, it also suggested that she is capable of reacting to his touch and not all is lost in terms of sex. It is obvious they love each other - in his willingness to wait, not push and hers to want to please him, to be willing to try and subject herself to what she considers a terribly abhorrent act. She herself admits she should have spoken up earlier and it really would have been better if she had.


Lionel I felt sorry for. Really, the man did every thing he could. He had no idea that what he was taking as signs of excitement - shortness of breath, flushed cheeks - were actually signs of panic. His anger after she fled the room is understandable and his feelings of  being duped and led on, while incorrected, well it's easy to see how he got there. What I found intersting is that in the end, after they have parted, the divorce has been taken care of quietly and cleanly, it is his life that is followed. His sadness, his lack of relationships, his never finding anyone else. It appears that Florence returns to her life, her music with nary a backward glance. And in this I find total sadness for Lionel.

he had never met anyone he loved as much, that he had never found anyone, man or woman, who matched her seriousness

And despite everything, in the end, the blame is placed on Lionel - for he didn't go after her, let her go and didn't chase her down Chesil Beach.

Headgames

Headgames by Nick Earls.

So I am slowly making my way through Nick Earls' back catalogue. This is book number four and is a collection of short stories. And can I just say, Nick Earls has some really twisted ideas!

Short enough to read in a 15-20 minute settings, Headgames covers everything from the start of uni, trying to talk to girls, dying, mental illness and some other stuff I'm not really sure about!  What I will say is that I don't think I will ever look at Creme de Menthe, travelators or unicorns the same way again!

Three Letter Plague

Three Letter Plague by Jonny Steinberg

When I picked this up at the library, I thought it was about Jonny Steinberg's struggle with HIV. As I started to read it though, I realised it was research he had done into HIV in South African villages.

 In 2008, 5.5 million (about 18.8%) of adult South Africans were HIV positive. This is partly due to the Mbeki government denial that HIV could be fought using antiretroviral drugs (ARV). Mbeki claimed that AIDS was a collapse of the immune system, but that it wasn't caused by a virus. Instead, he said it was caused poverty, poor nutrition and ill health that caused the disease and the answer laid in alleviating that poverty, not in drugs.
(Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/26/aids-south-africa)

Medecins Sans Frontires (MSF) started a treatment program using ARVs despite the government policy. It set out to show you could effectively treat HIV positive people in the villages, but they had to be able to access the drugs via clinics that were within walking distance, not through hospitals which were harder to get to.

Steinberg went to one of these villages and ended up following one young man, gauging his reaction to AIDS, treatment and using him as an interpreter to talk to others. Sizwe is afraid to get tested. He is afraid of the stigma that could be attached to him if he is positive. He is afraid of the impact in will have on his chances of marrying and really, he's not so sure these white westerners are not just trying to poison him, that maybe Mbeki is right.

Sizwe describes a testing day when MSF came to his village to administer HIV tests. He says everyone knew who was positive and who wasn't, because those who weren't were kept longer for counselling. Those who were negative left straight away. However, as he followed Steinberg around, spoke to those who were infected, went to clinics, he had to admit, the ARV's helped.

This book made me think. Things that are so obvious to our media saturated, scientific focussed world just don't cut it in South Africa. The people aren't stupid. They have their own belief systems, and quite understandably, they have problems trusting white medicine. Mbeki's resistance to ARV's have affected SA in so many ways - not just in the number of deaths that could have been prevented, but ongoing issues with fighting for acceptance.

The Sugar Camp Quilt

The Sugar Camp Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

The seventh book in the Elm Creek Quilt series. Once again Chiaverini took us away from Elm Creek Quilts and expanded on earlier characters.

This book centres around Dorothea who we were first introduced to in The Runaway Quilt as one of Sylvia's ancestors friends and a stop on the underground railway. Sugar Camp is set just before the American Civil War and explains how Dorothea marries Mr Nelson, how they become part of the underground railway and why quilts were so important to the movement.

It's interesting reading a book where you know the ending! Chiaverini keeps you guessing. Dorothea originally detests Mr Nelson (whose first name I can't remember and I am too lazy to get up and find the book!) and is courted by someone you know supports the Southern cause. Their introduction into the underground railway is surprising it makes you realise how hard stations on the railway worked to stay as secret as possible.

I'm glad to say I am still enjoying these books and am looking forward to the next one!

The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton

The Secret Life of Evie Hamilton by Catherine Alliott

After Poisonwood Bible I needed something a bit lighter and this fit the bill perfectly! Evie Hamilton has the perfect life, a loving husband, a wonderful daughter, a comfortable lifestyle, but a secret is about to come out and it is going to complicate things!

Evie Hamilton is chick lit. And I love it! I can't say too much, or I will give the book away, but the secret is something that could destroy her family and keeps getting more complicated as more bits of it are revealed.

I found the characters and the resolutions believable. As with any book of this nature, everything was finished with a tidy bow and you left the book feeling good. A lovely, fluffy read!

The Poisonwood Bible

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

From Goodreads:

The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement: "We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," says Leah, one of Nathan's daughters. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse?

 I read Poisonwood Bible for our book group. I must say I found it challenging to start with. Many in our group struggled with the changing narrator, which I surprisingly didn't. I think my problem was more with the fact it was our third book in a row that dealt with colonisation type issues. (The first two being Every Secret Thing and Mr Pip) I started to enjoy it more towards the end and was glad I persevered.

Kingsolver gave each of her narrators (5 in all) a clear voice. It was easy to identify each of them simply by the style of speech. This also made it easy to like or dislike certain characters and their views or treatment of situations. I also liked how each character was followed through to the end, you knew what had happened to each of them and it wasn't always what you thought it would be.

Overall I enjoyed the book, I would recommend it, but would warn you need to read it, you can't skim! It took me over two weeks to read which is unusual, but it was worth the effort.

A Tale of Two Families

A Tale of Two Families by Jenny Pausacker.

I picked this up out of a pile of books I was covering for my son's school library. I've read and quite enjoyed some of the My Australian Story Series before so thought I would give this a go.

Set in Melbourne in 1974, Jan is 15 and a typical suburban Australian girl. Her family has bbq's with the neighbours, her mother stays at home and, despite the fact she has a pretty good kick, Jan isn't allowed to join the footie team.

The book covers several issues - women's liberation, the Vietnam War, draft dodgers, returning servicemen and sexism. Whie each of these subjects is dealt with fairly simplistically and everything works out in the end, the book provides a good jumping off point for discussions about these issues.