Sweet Caress by William Boyd - March meeting book review

The March meeting was held at Fell's Kitchen, where 9 members met over an enjoyable meal and gave their views on Sweet Caress by WilliamBoyd.

Some of the assembled were still reading it ( Pauline, Sue and Linda ) but commented that they were enjoying it so far. Those who had completed it (Anne Marie, Joan, Joanne C, Jeanette, Emma and Sheila) were also complimentary, with the exception of Jeanette, who really did not like it at all.

The story describes the memorable life of a well-to-do woman from 1908 to 1977. Amory Clay’s racy and well travelled life is shown to the reader through beautiful story telling and the inclusion of photographs. She finds herself caught up in many of the twentieth century’s most dramatic and defining events. Joanne particularly enjoyed the historical aspects and they were woven well into the overall story of a life well lived.

Most of us agreed that the book was well written drawing you in easily and sustaining your interest. However some found the jumping backward and forwards in time rather frustrating. An unusual feature of this novel was the inclusion of old photographs littered throughout the story. Most of the group felt that the photographs did not add to the narrative. Given that Amory Clay was an award winning photographer Jeanette commented that most were badly executed other than the one with the woman in stockings. Emma agreed adding that the two photographs supposedly of Queenie were clearly two different women. The photographs were actually taken from the author’s private collection.

The plot was sweeping and panoramic and tells the whole life story of one woman’s search for success and love and conveyed this very well. There were some issues with the plot. Amory always seemed to be present in the places where the action was happening; in jazz-age Berlin, fighting Fascists in 1930s London, wartime France and Vietnam. Perhaps it could be argued that her presence in these places did stretch your believability, however the author depicted these historical events well and reminded us of the destructive and damaging impact of war on the lives of individuals.

Amory Clay, the novel’s heroine, is not always the most likeable of women, but most of the group felt that she was interesting, Sue felt that Boyd had got into a woman’s mind very well. To steal Amory’s inventive game of describing people in four adjectives, she is irritating, boastful, imperfect and spirited. We also felt that most of the other main characters were well rounded too, even though many had quite absurd names, but at least they were memorable. Several members of our group commented that initially they thought the story was autobiographical, which I feel shows the skill in Boyd’s writing conveying her as a real person, flaws and all.

I feel it is pertinent to include here the main criticism of the story as far as Jeanette was concerned, as it generated a lot of discussion on the night. This was the attempted suicide of Amory’s father, which really does not sit easy with Jeanette. I tend to agree in part with this observation as suicide as a theme in novels does seem to crop up quite a lot. Is it simply a lazy means of portraying drama in literature? Perhaps this is a good dissertation subject for a student of literature or psychology to research more fully?

Overall the group gave Sweet Caress the score of 4. Personally I rated it a 5, as I really loved it from the beginning and would sum it up as accomplished, brilliant, captivating and dazzling.

The book selected for March is The Versions Of Us By LauraBarnett.

The next meeting is Thursday 5^th April - venue to be confirmed.