It is such a busy time of year that I am unable to report on the South American meeting last week as, along with Ann and Catherine, I missed it. However, I understand that in our absence, serious decisions were made - about not just one book but two, neither of which I have heard of but which no doubt have been well researched and well chosen. The South American theme is present in the form of The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano. The critical reviews on The Omnivore are stunning:
http://www.theomnivore.co.uk/Book/2747-The_Savage_Detectives/default.aspx and it sounds a wonderfully exciting read which will be enjoyed also by "the men" who are, I gather, invited to our September meeting (fond memories of John rushing in whilst reading an Amazon summary!).
However, we have time for one more meeting before the summer and the July book choice is unusual. Who found The Breaking of Eggs, a first novel by Jim Powell and who is Jim Powell? It's all a mystery to me. There are no clues on The Omnivore and the only newspaper reviews I could find on a quick search were in The Times (a "fluent, unusual novel") and The Metro. Jim Powell's website is defunct. Curious and curiouser.
The title phrase, though, has some literary heritage. In God of Small Things (surely this was a book group read ages ago?) Arundhati Roy uses this image to describe the violence in Kerala ("cracking an egg to make an omelette") and the bully boy Comrade Pillai is "
Ayemenem's egg-breaker and professional omletteer”. I wish I could say that my razor sharp literary memory recalled this, but in fact it featured in Celia's AS level English coursework.
No comments:
Post a Comment