It’s sunny and clear, with blue skies and not much wind, making the very cold temperatures bearable. I read a couple of books over the past two weeks that I can tell you about, along with a few Silver Birch books, which must remain secret on pain of death!
The first was very good, The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey. Set in England in 1979 in an alternate world where no one won WWII, three brothers are the last remaining children in an unusual orphanage that is part of the Sycamore Scheme, a project begun in 1945 that the government is winding down. These boys know almost nothing of the outside world, and yet they are happy where they are, supervised by their three “mothers”, only wishing to one day go to the Big House in Margate once they are well enough. One of their mothers reveals that they will eventually leave the boys’ home and hopefully get adopted by families in a town or city, and that they will have Socialization Days with girls from a sister orphanage. One of the girls reveals that all is not what it seems and that the things they are being told are not really true. Layer by layer, the true history of the orphanage and the nature of the Scheme are revealed, and the future of these boys is called into question. I don’t want to give anything else away, but it was a very good dystopian novel that kept me reading late into the evening. I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys dystopian fiction, particularly pertaining to children.
And I read Emma Donoghue’s historical novel, The Paris Express, for my book club meeting yesterday. This novel has been well-reviewed and nominated for at least one major literary award, which was the reason one of the book club members recommended having it on the list. This novel explores a little-known train wreck in Montparnasse in 1895, and the lives and interactions of the various characters, some real and some fictional, who are on board. At the meeting, we all agreed that there were too many characters to keep track of and not enough plot, but that once they started interacting (too far into the book for our liking), it got interesting. We also all felt that the notes at the end of the book were probably the most interesting part, and we felt that we learned a lot about life at that time as well as how a train functioned. Most of us would not recommend it, and were surprised that it garnered so much acclaim, but it was very well researched and was an interesting premise. Too bad it had so much backstory for everyone and not enough plot.
Anyway, that’s all for today. Stay warm and deep reading!
Bye for now... Julie
