With Sense of an Ending, it sounded like it had potential but hadn't captured the reader's engagement and was in fact read a second time a few months later as it hadn't left much of an impression. I must admit, when I looked at the cover blurb, I wasn't tempted (which is why an alternative was offered!) and it would seem was reflected in the group.
Much more time was spent discussing Snowdrops, perhaps because more had read it, or because it was a more engaging book? We all agreed that the narrator was a bit of a fool, some of us liked him and could empathise whilst others weren't so sympathetic to how he ended up in the situation he did. We all agreed that Snowdrops was a real page turner, we all wanted to see what would happen to our (anti-)hero and some were still a bit worried about what happened to the 'grandmother'. Some reflection was given to the setting of the book, in that the narrator was in fact writing to his fiance, why was he recounting this part of his personal history, to what gain?
A D Miller's portrayal of Moscow made you feel as if you were getting to know the city - and for those that had been a chance to revisit their own experiences. Funnily enough, most in the reading group weren't now tempted to book their summer holiday in Moscow.
"At one point Nicholas says of Masha that she believed 'people and their actions were somehow separate – as if you could just bury whatever you did and forget about it'. Snowdrops is a properly moral riposte to that attitude; a powerful warning of the dangers of staring at something so long that you stop noticing what you're seeing."(John O'Connell, The Guardian 1 January 2011)
Full article can be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/01/snowdrops-a-d-miller-review
Other books:
Painted House by John Grisham
Before I Go to Sleep by S J Watson
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Journey and The Island by Victoria Hislop
Next time:
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
8 May 2012
