Daylight savings time begins on this gloriously
nearly-balmy morning, as the weather seems to have turned from bone-chilling
cold to more seasonal temperatures. I
know this makes most people happy, and I will admit that it’s been a bit too
cold for too long even for me, and I actually like the winter! But it's still chilly enough to enjoy a steaming cup of chai tea, and with my Vanilla Scone as a treat, it's practically a perfect morning.
My book group met yesterday to discuss Before
I Go To Sleep by S J Watson. If you recall from last week’s post, this
debut novel, which was written between shifts while the
author worked as an audiologist, tells the story of Christine Lucas, a women who
wakes up each morning with no memories from the past 25 years. Due to an accident when she was in her 20s,
she has not been able to form new memories, although in her most recent phase,
she is now able to retain new memories for approximately 24 hours, but these
are erased once she goes to sleep. Her
husband Ben has been taking care of her for the past few months, since she has
been released from the care home where she had been residing for about seven
years. She has no recollection of Ben,
or her life, or even most of her early memories from before the accident,
although these sometimes come back in flashes.
She has been seeing a neurologist, Dr Nash, for treatment, and upon his
suggestion, has begun keeping a journal. Christine has been keeping these meetings and
the journal secret from Ben, again upon Dr Nash’s recommendation. As more memories from her past come back to
her and she tries to piece her life together, she begins to suspect everyone
and doesn’t know who to trust. We as
readers, too, are unsure who to trust as we get drawn into the complex web of
lies and deceit that form the backdrop for Christine’s search for the truth. Two of my ladies had read this book before
but forgot the ending, and two had not read it.
The ones for whom this was a second reading enjoyed it less than the
ones for whom this was their first time.
This very much echoes my own experience - I really enjoyed it the first
time, and don’t recall having a problem with the ending then, but the second
time was a bit more of a flat reading experience. In fact, I first read this book and wrote
about it in a post from February 2012, concluding with “What a fabulous
first novel by this British writer”. I
included it on my Top 10 Books for 2012, too.
So maybe this is not a good choice of book to reread, as so much depends
on the suspense created in the story, the sense of not knowing what is true or
who to trust. Even though my two ladies
who have read it before said they didn’t remember the ending, I think having
previous knowledge of the story takes away from the reading experience. We all felt that it was confusing and
difficult to follow, and that it was somewhat repetitive. After talking about this, we agreed that this
was likely done intentionally to mirror Christine’s experiences and to put the
reader “inside the mind” of the main character.
We thought the author did a good job of creating a complex plot with a
myriad of minute details of which he was somehow able to keep track and
explain. We discussed Dr Nash’s
character, his actions and motivations.
Despite being a fairly minor character, his character is interesting to dissect
and discuss. As an aside, in the book,
his name is spelled Nash, but in the film version is it spelled Nasch. We discussed this, and decided that this was
done to make him sound more German, and so align him with Freud. Seems like a rather silly thing to do, but I
haven’t seen the film yet so maybe there’s another reason. Anyway, we discussed memory, and the
importance of memory in terms of one's identity. We talked about Christine’s affair, and her
role in the events that occurred because of her actions. We discussed the ending, and wondered why the
final act was planned and executed, what the character had intended (I’m being specifically
vague here so I don’t spoil it for anyone).
When this book was originally published in 2011, it received high praise
from most reviewers, but the main criticism was about the ending. All of my ladies also felt that it wasn’t the
best ending, that it was a bit too quick and contrived, but we felt that this
did not ruin the overall reading experience.
So the book generated good discussion and was fairly well-received by
everyone (one member said she couldn’t put it down!), so it turned out to be a
good book club choice. For anyone who
has not read this book before, here is some information to help you keep track of
the story: Christine’s accident happened
more than 20 years ago, when she was in her 20s; she was in a hospital for a number
of years, then in an institution for another seven years or so, and finally at Waring House for another seven or so years, before she was well enough for Ben to
bring her home, but she has only been home with Ben for a few months; the whole
book takes place over less than a month.
If you keep these things in mind when you are reading, you may find it a
less confusing story.
And I’m nearly finished listening to The Maze-Runner,
a Young Adult novel by James Dashner, read by one of my favourite narrators,
Mark Deakin. This novel, the first in a
trilogy, tells the story of a group of boys who find themselves in a compound
they call the Glade, surrounded by a maze of stone walls on all sides. These stone walls move each night, closing
off the entrances until dawn, and the walls within the maze shift and move each
day, too, making the maze, and thus the escape route, nearly impossible to
solve. In addition to shifting walls,
there are the nasty Grievers with their squishy bodies, metal spikes and countless
stingers who live in the maze. One new
boy each month arrives in the Glade, and the novel opens with Thomas arriving
in the box, which delivers him unceremoniously one day, equipped with no memory
of what his life was like before and no knowledge of what his future holds
(hmmm… I sense a theme in my reading choices here!). As Thomas tries to fit into the group of boys
already in the Glade, he does not experience flashes of memories from before,
but rather he senses things that were part of his earlier life, as well as what
he should be doing to work with the others to help escape this new
reality. I’m not a huge fan of Young
Adult novels, but this is one I’ve been interested in reading for quite some
time. It was also recently released as a
film, which I haven’t seen. I have just
one more Part to listen to, and hope to finish it today. So far it is an interesting listening
experience, but I’m not sure I want to listen to the next two books in the
trilogy. One of my library helpers
really enjoyed this book and is now reading the second one, The Scorch
Trials, which he said is not as good.
That’s all for today - time to get outside and
enjoy the mild sunny day!
Bye for now…
Julie
Julie
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