"Defending Jacob" by William Landay

7th September 2017

Members met in the snug at “The Aletaster” in Low Fell. 

“Defending Jacob” by William Landay 

As discussion got under way, we soon realised how difficult it would be to write a blog without mentioning, or even hinting “what happens at the end” (one of our group hadn’t completed the novel). But be assured dear reader it is hoped that there will be no spoiler alert here. 

So here goes…

Andy is an Assistant District Attorney (so was the author it appears!) who finds his professional position challenged because his son is being tried for the murder of a school peer, Ben Rifkin. Andy’s protégé, Neil Logiudice, is prosecuting his son, Jacob, for the rather nasty murder of Ben.

Andy’s suspension from the case prevents him from further investigation of a probable suspect, a known paedophile.

Andy is our narrator throughout and he takes us on a rollercoaster journey through courtroom intrigue and machinations, interwoven with scenes from his home life where fear and doubt devastates their unity; where  bitterly cruel social ostracisation cuts down their defences. Meanwhile, Jacob, accused of being an evil and pathological murderer, remains removed and opaque throughout.

Throughout the developing court case we learn of Andy’s historic secret which impacts on the case and offers the reader another chance to debate the theory of “nature versus nurture” 

As a result, we watch his wife Laurie’s gradual but inevitable decline, which Andy feels powerless to prevent. Enormous sympathy was felt for this character and, indeed, for others drawn into the case like Jacob’s friend, Derek, a sympathetic and well-intentioned young informant. And there’s Ben Rifkin, the victim of a hateful and callous murder…..

Andy’s character grows as his pain increases and his torment drives him to protect his family. Landay’s well-observed depiction of modern-day adolescence takes us through the daily angst of peer pressure and bullying in the school yard and on social media with absolute understanding. However, he excels at convincing the reader of what it’s like to be a parent, struggling to believe in a child whose introvert behaviour excludes them. How much of their child’s life goes unnoticed… until there is a reason to investigate it…

But, has Andy violated professional ethics? Probably, for the sake of his son. We participate in this legal thriller but we are also drawn into the resulting family implosion.

Everyone enjoyed the book without exception. It was suggested that the novel might not compare to the literary genius of Scott Turow (“Presumed Innocent”) but we all agreed it was an exceptionally clever, tense and engrossing story which doesn’t abate, but ony heightens the adrenalin level at every turn of the page.

We awarded the book 4/5

*NB  Please vote for our October read from our Modern Classics list: “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” by Muriel Spark , “Cider with Rosie” by Laurie Lee or ”Painted Veil” by Somerset Maugham. Put it out on FB!!

August meeting - I Found You by Lisa Jewell

Our August meeting was kindly hosted by Sue (and husband Neil) at their home. 11 people attended; 10 having read the book. Sue served excellent food and Emma provided a delicious dessert. We reviewed the book I Found You by Lisa Jewell.

We found this book easy to read. Jeanette gave a detailed review as she wasn't sure she would make the meeting. Some of her views are as follows: "I quite enjoyed the book, and did find it the 'page turner' it promised to be on the cover of my copy. I don't think I would say it was a 'must read' which was also stated. 

"I felt a bit sad that the character of Derry Dynes didn't play a bigger role in the story. I was also a bit disappointed that the seaside village of Ridinghouse Bay didn't play a bigger role. I quite liked the local references to Robin Hood's Bay. I bounced between being intrigued by (and a little envious of) Alice and her bohemian lifestyle and really very annoyed by her.

"I wasn't so keen on the fact that the children had been involved with social services more than once - and that seemed OK - and when 'Frank' said 'I think I've killed someone' she didn't change her view of him."

Jeanette goes on to comment about the female characters in the book and comes to the conclusion that they all need a good shake! "I did enjoy reading it. I like that it drew me in and I wanted to know what happened - but the number of rather silly women wafting through life really annoyed me"

Many agreed with these views and thought that Alice was a good character but seemed to take too many risks with social services and then allowed a strange man into her home. Gray's mum also took risks allowing her children to go off with a stranger. The book got sillier and a bit far fetched. People were desperate for love.

Sue said she felt no character had depth and thought the author couldn't follow through. We all thought it was a book you can read quickly; a good holiday read. Near the end of the book it was a bit boring. We thought the map would reveal more. Jeanette was pleased it turned out not to be about a mental health issue.

Overall we rated it 3/5 although Sue hated it and gave it a 1!

A thoroughly enjoyable evening with fantastic hosting and yummy food! Sue put together a list of classics for us to choose and we found that many of us had read quite a few from the list. Emma suggested Swallows and Amazons as it is her dad's favourite book. This will be our September read. 

Our next book is Defending Jacob by William Landay. Happy reading!

July meeting - This Book Will Save Your Life by AM Homes

We met at The Victoria in Low Fell in the library room. At the beginning of the meeting there were 8 of us and this number rose to 10. Only Anne Marie and Joan had read the book. Joan had read the book on audio. Anne Marie said she would not recommend it to anyone!!

Joan said it was OK but she certainly didn't love it. Anne Marie said it got better as it went on. Set in LA with wacky characters and one or two funny one-liners. Pauline could not attend the meeting so she emailed her comments to Joan - "I've read the book and enjoyed it: a daft bit and unrealistic fantasy, but fun! I found the characters mostly quite appealing (though not particularly memorable!) and I looked forward to reading it each evening. Altogether I think probably a 4/5!"

Anne Marie and Joan gave the book a score of 3.

We talked about the Essex Serpent, which was last month's book and Joan said she had read a podcast about the author. Joan said that This Book Will Save Your Life went on about donuts too much but there were some nice bits about his son.

Some other books were recommended - Island of Secrets and The Japanese Lover.

Viki chose 5 books for us to choose from and we decided to give it a week before making our choice. 

We also talked about a cinema visit to see A Man Called Ove, which we arranged for the following Wednesday. Six of us, along with Emma's friend went to see it at The Tyneside Cinema and loved it. Emotional but true to the book. 

Our August meeting has been arranged for Thursday 3rd August. Sue has kindly offered to have the meeting at her home. Looking forward to meeting up and discussing our July book, I Found You by Lisa Jewell.

Written by Joanne Crilly 

June meeting - The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

A small and elite(!) group gathered for our Book Club meeting at Joan’s house, to review The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, to choose the next two months' books and enjoy a Mediterranean-style meal together. It was a great evening and we couldn’t believe how the time flew, it was 11pm before we said our goodbyes.

Not everyone had finished The Essex Serpent, but interesting discussion took place on it, and although Jeanette thought she may not bother to read it she had changed her mind by the end of the review. All agreed the Victorian writing style took a while to get used to, but once they did the readers enjoyed well-developed memorable characters, and excellent descriptive writing, conjuring up the smell and mud of the Essex marshes.

The story revolved around a mythical beast The Essex Serpent, and the rumours and superstition of the parishioners of Aldwinter; rather than an actual beast, it was felt this could have been a metaphor for the characters' own demons and that they were looking for answers to their own particular problems. The book is described as a romance, and there is a love interest, but we felt it was more a book about friendship. Those who actually finished the book were very happy with the conclusion and gave it a score of 4.

As a number of our group are finding it difficult some months to get a hard copy of the chosen book, it has been decided to choose the books for reading a month in advance. This month we made two choices. Jeanette brought a selection of books for us to select the June book and Joanne did a list online for the July choice.

This Book Will Save Your Life by AM Homes - June

I Found You by Lisa Jewell - July

The next meeting will be on Thursday 6th July 2017, venue TBC

May meeting - Undercurrent by JA Baker

May's meeting of the Low Fell Book Group was held in the cosy little room we like at The Aletaster. Undercurrent by JA Baker had been put forward as one of the suggestions by Joan and was chosen in part due to its local setting in County Durham. It was a departure from our usual genres and was generally well-received by most of the group.

Some members were somewhat perturbed by the number of mistakes that had managed to get through the editing process, but this only really put Emma off. Anne Marie thought the author was in need of a thesaurus due to the number of times she used the word detritus, but despite this, it was an easy read and one most people enjoyed.

Having not read many thrillers before, I was keen to know if it was fairly typical of the genre and was informed that it was pretty representative. Phoebe's first person narrative really drew many people in. Despite not being able to make the meeting, Jeanette provided us with her opinions via Facebook. She spent her holiday in the Yorkshire Dales looking for bodies in rivers, which means it was certainly on her mind!

Jeanette and others found some issues with aspects of the plot, but a little bit of artistic license was granted, as these elements were required to allow events to move on. Not having too many characters made it easy enough for us all to follow and Joan particularly enjoyed how pacy it was.

Undercurrent was given a total of four stars.

Next month's meeting will discuss The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry and will be held at Joan's house.

April meeting - The Versions of Us

For the April meeting, we met in the book-lined surroundings of the library at The Vic for a chat about The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett. Described as a combination of One Day and Sliding Doors, the novel centres around the relationship between Eva and Jim and the possible different ways their lives could have taken shape depending on their actions.

Opinions were mixed, with Anne Marie stating that she wouldn't recommend it to anyone and Pauline and Linda saying they enjoyed it. Joan went so far to say that the author had a fairly boring story and it was only the structure of splitting it into three alternative tales that gave it interest.

One of the key areas of debate for our group was whether or not more should have been the same in each version of the tale. Joanne C suggested that it might have been better if Eva had done wildly different things, such as travelling the world. As it stood, the type of life Eva had was fairly similar in each incarnation. Specific characters and events were also consistent throughout, providing markers in the text to tie scenarios to.

Another topic of discussion was how confusing it was to follow. Several of us had intended to make notes of the defining features of each story to help us through, but nobody actually got round to it. This meant a few paragraphs of readjustment at the beginning of each chapter, which was not too much of a problem in the end. Joanne B read seven pages and was so confused she decided to give it a miss for this month!

As a group, we awarded The Versions of Us three stars.

The next meeting will take place at The Aletaster on May 4th to discuss Undercurrent by J A Baker.

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.