I almost dreaded turning up to my reading group today as I had chosen this novel for us to read and had found it boring beyond belief. Every 353 pages had been a struggle. Normally, I like character driven books and Carol Shields (another author who writes books about ordinary peoples' lives) is a personal favourite of mine, but this book took the genre to its limit. The characters are unlikeable, way too self analytical and quite frankly I didn't care what happened to them. Brenda was insensitive to her husand Daniel's problems, Jake was rude and I couldn't even like the mother Ellen. Probably the only character I had any sympathy for was the father. Having said that, I do think this author has great potential and if she had got a better sense of her characters and made us feel more for them, it could have been a great read.
So as I say, I thought my reading group were going to hate it. What a surprise - about half agreed with me but the other half had really got into it. We had a fantastic discussion about the characters and why they were how they are and in fact, the discussion left me thinking there was more to the novel than I'd originally read into it. Most of us agreed it needed more editing but it wasn't disliked in the way I thought it would be. It will be interesting to see what Pitlor produces next...

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thanks for you, it's really a nice novel

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When we discussed this it dawned on us that when we started to read it we didn’t realise this was a collection of short stories. We approached the book as a novel and this explained much of our confusion when wending our way through (those of us who actually managed to finish it).

The view from Castle Rock is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories based on Munro’s explorations of her family tree. The book starts in the 18th Century with a Scottish ancestor, and each story moves forward a generation chronicling the family’s emigration to Canada and the building of their lives in a new land. But don’t expect stories of epic proportions; each story is a vignette, a homage to a minor observation or episode that may have happened. This is where fact and fiction blur.

The second half of the book is told from the perspective of a young woman we assume to be loosely based on Alice Munro herself. Her ‘coming of age’ stories detail first love, friendship and the discovery of a lump in a breast.

Whilst wonderfully written, not all the stories were successful; by far the most engaging was the second one ‘The view from Castle Rock’. This tells the story of the sometimes hellish sea voyage to Canada when the Laidlaw family decided to emigrate. The visceral smells, sights and behaviours of these poor people crammed onto a ship in order to better their lives are powerfully moving and often humorous as well.

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The group were much more critical of this novel than I was expecting. I myself struggled to get into the book, and then found it a real page turner and thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns, waiting to see if Louis would awaken from his coma and who was responsible for his fall. Most of the group however, except one, found it flawed. They liked the way Louis talks and found his voice in the narrative the most credible and said it really sounded like a 9 year old boy. They found the other characters however, annoying, improbable and poorly written. Dr Dannachet didn't get much sympathy from the group who found his sudden infatuation with Natalie unbelievable. One member said she'd loved the opening section of the novel, then found the rest of it a disappointment and in fact got bored of it as she'd guessed Natalie was responsible. Some said they almost didn't care how it ended.
However, having said that we did have a really vigorous discussion about this novel and why it had been a disappointment to so many. We did all agree that the ending was satisfactory and we could appreciate why Louis preffered to remain in his coma.

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The little stranger is set in post-war England. The protagonist, Dr Faraday, is a GP and confirmed bachelor. The centre of his life used to be a grand stately home, Hundreds Hall, where his mother worked as a servant. This estate has now fallen on hard times and the once wealthy family now lives in near poverty, grubbing a living through their farm. The sharp contrast between the family's straitened circumstances and their semi-opulent surroundings (albeit now very much in disrepair) is played out through much of the novel and the reader even manages to feel sorry for them.

Faraday enters their lives again unexpectedly when he's called to attend to a medical call-out there. What he finds is upsetting for him when he bears in mind his rather more glamorous memories of the place. Mrs Ayres, the widowed lady of the house, is well groomed yet deluded, Roddy (the heir to the crumbling estate) suffers from 'nerves' and his sister Caroline is frumpy, sensible and plain with no chance of marrying a catch.

As he inveigles his way into their lives, becoming increasingly indispensable, a ghost story soon emerges. A phantom 'something' is plaguing Roddy, literally driving him mad. Hundreds house is haunted and the family are keen to find an explanation. The ultra-rational Faraday soon becomes an annoyance to the reader as his refusal to accept what's staring him in the face has you screaming in frustration at the pages. The atmosphere is spooky, yet understated. You soon come to understand you can't trust Faraday's narration of events, his assumptions (that you initially accept) are cleverly turned on their head later into the novel when you realise just what a twit he really is.

For fans of Sarah Waters, this book is a treat. It's also an insightful look into a period of social upheaval in Britain.

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try studying it for school

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Well done on getting your degree Joyce. Hopefully we can look forward to some more reviews!

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This book was very 'Brothers Grimmish' so I liked it a lot. I have always enjoyed the bizarre Grimm's tales and this modern version of the stories was no exception - presumably the two animals at the end are supposed to be Portimo and Huttunon or at least, to represent them, fancy free and wreaking their revenge vicariously on the villagers?

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This strange little book is Finnish and tells the story of a miller in rural Finland in the 1950's. The blurb on the back of the book pigeon holes this is a fable and it did indeed have some elements in terms of being a moral story with animal characters that has a supernatural feel. Some of the characters in this comic story were straight out of Grimm's fairy tale so as you were reading you had to suspend belief and try to uncover the author's true intention.

What was this book about? It was about society's treatment and reaction to anyone who is different or refuses to join the charade of being respectable. It was about society's methods of controlling the eccentric or mentally ill. It was about the weirdo finally triumphing over small town mentalities.

For some of us it was a step too far. We enjoyed the humour but didn't like the improbabilities of the story or its fairytale format.

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Most of us found this novel a bit of a struggle and although we found the plot interesting and the ending in particular thought provoking and shocking, we struggled to work out why the novel had not moved us in the way it should have. The book's themes were sad- loss of homeland, poverty, lack of understanding between people- and the plot itself had real promise- so why did we feel it had somehow failed us?
Some felt the characters were not 'alive' enough on the page, some of us just didn't like plot driven books and some of us just didn't find the author's style- although admirable- very engaging. The novel has received countless very positive reviews in the press but it just didn't do it for us.
That said, one member absolutely loved the novel, completely disagreed with the rest of us and is going on to read more Kate Grenville novels. She found the characters entirely engaging and the plot exciting.

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