Thanks to everyone for coming to our second meeting, 10 people in all! Even though we choose the busiest mid-week night of the year (Thursday before Good Friday), we managed to have a very interesting and thorough discussion on 'The White Tiger' by Aravind Adiga.
It was decided that this was a really thought provoking insight into the dual world of India, the poorest of the poor alongside the richness of Delhi. We couldn't decide whether Balram was insane (he seemed happy to justify the brutal muder of his boss) or did what he needed to do (to get out of the 'darkness'). One member had found that his Indian workmates thought the book rather realistic which surprised a few of us who had assumed that this view was rather polarised. We also discussed whether we would read another of his books or whether he would be a one-book-wonder and also how representative book awards are of how good a book actually is.
Result: 9 people liked this book, 1 person was undecided.
We chose our next book from the following:
- When Will There Be Good News - Kate Atkinson
- The Story of Forgetting - Stefan Merrill Block
- Brodeck's Report - Philippe Claudel
- The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite - Beatrice Colin
- The 19th Wife - David Ebershoff
- The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
- The Outcast - Sadie Jones
- The Warrior's Princess - Barbara Erskine
Our next meeting will be on Thursday 14th May, 7:30pm at Back of Beyond pub on Kings Road. This venue will hopefully be quieter and have a big table we can all sit around.
Other things decided were:
- The person who proposed the chosen book would bring a list of questions (your own or from the internet) to prompt the discussion.
- I will bring a list of bookclub books which my local library (Lower Earley) has in stock. We will see if any books take our fancy and include those in our list for choosing the next book. This would mean we don't have to buy the book instead I would borrow all the copies, hand them out at the meeting and gather them back at the next meeting.
