Riverbend Readers Feedback - The Island of Missing Trees

Praise for The Island of Missing Trees was plentiful in this month's sessions, with a large majority of readers claiming to have fallen in love, quite unexpectedly, with a Fig Tree. Though most readers were a bit taken aback by the unusual narrator to begin with, they quickly warmed to her voice and her wealth of knowledge.

There were, however, a few readers who simply could not get past the talking tree. Though some pushed through and managed to get to the end, despite not liking the book at all, others gave up and put this book in the 'did not finish' pile. There were a few readers who thought it focused too much on the ‘hot’ topics of the day - migrants, trauma, mental health, the environment, and our careless treatment of it– and not enough on the heart and soul of the characters.

For most readers, however, this was a story that had everything they could ask for in a novel. They felt that the use of the tree as narrator was a clever way to impart knowledge about the natural world, and a way to give the reader a full picture of the story as it unfolded. The fact that the tree is neither Greek nor Turkish, (indeed, not even human), made it a truly bi-partisan observer.

Several readers mentioned that they now have a new appreciation of trees, and spoke about how much they loved reading about the natural world and the interconnection between plants and animals. A few even felt guilty pruning trees and bushes in their gardens after reading the book. Everyone agreed that the book made them think deeply about the parallels between humans and the plants and animals we live side by side with. A plant’s ability to sense encroaching dangers and to change their growth habits accordingly reminded us of our own tendency to protect ourselves by turning inward or shutting down when we are threatened physically or emotionally. The comparison led to a discussion of our various reactions to trauma. Often our worst habits, compulsions and avoidances are simply protective responses that keep the pain of being human at bay, but which ultimately make things worse.

We loved the analogy of families being like trees with entangled roots and individual branches jutting out at awkward angles and of family traumas being like the resin that drips from cuts in the bark, trickling down generations and settling and coagulating in cracks. The visual image of trauma flowing past some cracks and settling in others was a graphic illustration of the fact that some family members seem deeply affected by generational traumas while others remain unmarked by it.

On a more hopeful note, we were grateful to learn that resilience could also be passed on and that descendants of trees scorched in bushfires developed ways to withstand future blazes. Some readers had examples of families who had been through hard times and who produced many members who were made of tough stuff.

The efforts Kostas made to keep his fig tree alive in an unfamiliar and unsuitable habitat made us think of the extra protection and support migrants need to settle in a new environment. Most of us had never heard of burying a fig tree and were fascinated by the process. We loved how the author drew parallels between the burying and unburying of the tree, and the burying of secrets, and the unburying of bones. We talked about the difficulties of uprooting yourself and planting a new life in a different culture, about how the first generation struggle with the loss of leaving everything behind and the second generation take on the trauma. The tree itself took on its own migration.

A few readers knew about the history of Cyprus but for most of us this part of the book was very illuminating. Many found it hard to relate to the hatred that existed between the Greeks and the Turks and that people who were once friendly neighbours could never be spoken to again. That Defne’s mother would cut off her own daughter and threaten another one with the same fate if she ever saw her sister was unimaginable to us. We concluded that we were very lucky to live in a country that had not ever been torn apart by civil war but understood that first nations people might feel similar unresolved trauma to the Greeks and Turks.

Most readers loved Yusuf and Yiorgos and wished we had heard more of their story – how they had met and how they had overcome the prejudice to become lovers. Their murder was shocking, and some readers were moved to tears, however others felt somewhat removed from it because we knew so little about them as characters. We all wanted to visit the tavern and sample the delicious food in the beautiful environment they had created.

All in all, most groups loved the book finding it educational and thought provoking.

We look forward to next month’s sessions.
Happy Reading!

Britt, Laura, Vicky & The Riverbend Team

Riverbend Readers - 'Sea of Tranquility'

by Britt, Laura, and Vicky

Once again our book club book divided readers. Some, (a largish majority - much to Chloe's delight) were fascinated by the idea of time travel, impressed with how deftly the author dealt with so many themes and stories in such an intelligent and cohesive way, were seduced by the beauty of the writing and found it a compelling novel that they couldn’t put down. Many readers did not expect to enjoy a novel about time travel, and were surprised by how easily they were drawn in to the future Mandel had imagined. However, others, despite conceding that the book was beautifully written and very clever in parts could not make sense of the story lines or the time changes, did not find the characters relatable and didn’t get the point of the book.

For those in the latter category the changes from era to era were a big impediment. They couldn’t keep track of whether we were in 2200 or 2400 and what moon colony we were on. They thought there was just too much back and forth and they didn’t understand the significance of the anomaly in the space time continuum that was the narrative spine of the story. Not many readers truly understood what happened in the last chapter even after reading it twice.

However, despite the confusion at the end of the novel, most readers were happy to let go, suspend belief, and just trust that things worked out as they should. As Mandel herself said in an interview, she does not focus on mechanics and science, and trusts her readers intelligence to fill in the gaps.

Most readers agreed that the very first sentence - “Edwin St.John St.Andrew, eighteen years old, hauling the weight of his double-sainted name across the Atlantic by steamship” - beautifully showcased Mandel's writing style from the outset. It was Edwin's story that led us in to the narrative, and for many readers his was their favourite thread in the novel.

Being a novel of speculative fiction, Sea of Tranquility raised a number of hypothetical questions which we posed to our readers this week. Would we be able to go back in time and not mess with the past? Could we look someone in the eye and not tell them they were fated to die imminently unless they changed course? The response was a unanimous "no". The question did raise an interesting point with one reader, who felt the simple answer would be for the Time Institute to change its policies. Why did the Time Institute simply not tell its agents what would befall the people they were visiting? Had Gaspery been unaware that Olive would die in three days, he would not have had to try (and fail) to resist telling Olive to leave the book tour, thus breaking the rules and ending up as a 'prisoner' lost to time.

What would happen if we suddenly realised we were in a simulation? The answer, for the most part, was nothing much. Readers felt incredulous as to who would want to simulate our human lives with all the tedium of our day to day ritual - and what kind of sadistic overlords would create a simulation which subjected us to flood, fire, famine and war? Some readers felt the realisation that our free will was an illusion would result in bouts of depression, and others felt perhaps there would be a period of chaos, and then we would just get on with it. As Gaspery says, “So What? A life lived in a simulation is still a life.”

We spoke about the simulation hypothesis and observed the similarities between this theory and organised religion (an all-powerful God creating and controlling us from on high), movies we have seen (The Truman Show, The Matrix), other more eastern ideas of spirituality and psychology (that the world as we know it is not real but a mere projection that we create in our own minds), and also video games from our past (Sims). Most readers were pretty sure we do not live in a simulation, and figured we should leave that hypothesis to Elon Musk.

Despite our regrets most readers did not wish for a world where time travel was available since the idea that we only have one go at our lives is what makes them so precious, and learning to live with our mistakes rather than go back and correct them is how we evolve as human beings.

Thank you all, once again, for another week of great discussions!

Riverbend Readers - 'Lessons in Chemistry'

by Britt, Laura, and Vicky

Most readers thoroughly enjoyed reading Lessons in Chemistry, finding it an easy read with an interesting cast of characters. Some were unreserved in their praise, saying it was just the sort of light, upbeat read they needed after a string of more serious books. Others said that they had to suspend their sense of reality and just ‘go with it’ in order to enjoy the ride. However, for a small minority, the book’s cliches, happy resolutions and unrealistic aspects made it quite irritating.

Opinions on Elizabeth ran the full gamut with some readers finding her very real and fully fleshed out and others thinking that her talents as a chemist, cook, rower and charismatic TV personality gave her and the book a cartoonish quality. Her background was truly heartbreaking, and not unlike many heroes/heroines in literature, she had only herself to rely on. We wondered how her life would have panned out if she was not strikingly beautiful. Would Calvin have been attracted to her, would the rowers have accepted her and would she have made it on to TV?

Many readers thought she made things a bit hard for herself with her black and white thinking and refusal to compromise. This led to discussions about how women use their femininity and hide more masculine traits in the workforce. While many were appalled that this still happened, others felt that while it shouldn’t be necessary it was a legitimate weapon in a woman’s arsenal to smooth the path forward in their careers. Legitimate or not, using feminine wiles and not upsetting the status quo were not tools available to Elizabeth and we wondered whether her ‘bull at a gate’ approach was a product of her tough upbringing and need to survive in her ‘dog eat dog’ profession or whether she was born on the autistic spectrum. Much of the dialogue consisted of Elizabeth puzzling over how others made conclusions, which made for highly amusing encounters, and as readers we were impressed by Elizabeth’s clearheaded thinking.

While some loved her ‘take no prisoners’ approach, others thought she would have been difficult to be around. Despite this, we all thought she was highly resilient, moral to a fault, intellectually honest and a good mother - although some questioned her reading choices for her daughter thinking Hemingway and Faulkner a bit much for a five-year-old!

We talked about the role religion played in keeping many wives married to abusive husbands. Some readers loved the fact that the book highlighted the hypocrisy of the church in so many ways. Others thought it got unbalanced treatment in that there was no mention of the social services that organised religion has provided or examples of religious faith helping people through tough times.

Other than a bent towards atheism (which we didn't necessarily mind), we felt that Garmus wrote the novel with a fairly even hand, balancing out the benevolent characters (Harriet, Dr.Mason, Walter Pine etc) with the nasty (the college professor, her boss at Hastings, Frask and Mudford), and having both male and female heroes and villains. We love that Elizabeth, though ambitious, never belittled other women for staying home, but rather acknowledged the hard work they did by saying "Children, set the table. Your mother needs a rest."

Riverbend Readers shared personal experiences of having been sidelined as a professional, of endless mansplaining, of the unspoken expectations heaped on women, and of the excess mental labour carried out by wives, mothers and caregivers. We shared stories of past generations of clever and capable women who were denied education and professional work because of the objections of family, institutions and even the law. It was perhaps because of this that Elizabeth Zott captivated us, as she showed us how far we have come from the 1950s, and how far we have to go.

To sum up Lessons in Chemistry was a firm favourite and although we all agreed it was a book to be enjoyed rather than dissected, we somewhat surprisingly found plenty to talk about in all of our meetings.

Thank you all, once again, for another week of great discussions!

Riverbend Readers - 'The Sorrow Stone' by Kári Gíslason

by Vicky, Laura, and Britt

There was a mixed response to The Sorrow Stone at bookclub this month. Those who liked it enjoyed the fact that it drew them into a time, place, and culture that they knew nothing or very little about. They appreciated the way a woman was central to the story and that it was based on an ancient tale that had been handed down over centuries and enjoyed the book as a refreshing change of pace. However, many readers found that the story was hard to follow, the prose was clunky and the characters were underdeveloped and as a result unrelatable. A few readers didn’t persist to the end.

Despite or perhaps because of these differences of opinion we had great discussions all week.

The Vikings and their reputedly violent and merciless sacking, pillaging and invading had been present in much of our knowledge of history and this book afforded us an opportunity to look at the world from their point of view. We talked about the harshness of the Nordic climate and the effect that would have on the inhabitants’ approach to life. The book made us understand that most of their day was spent simply growing and raising enough food to live on and creating sufficient shelter to protect them from the icy wind and cold. There was not much time to spend on chivalry and fancy manners when simply surviving took all their energy. In such a society reliance on family ties for strength and protection was a necessity and this in turn led to frequent violent acts of vengeance whenever anybody from outside the family group threatened those ties. Loyalty to blood relations took precedence over marital ties.

While most readers agreed that the story itself was a good one, the writing style divided readers with many wishing that more of the gaps in the plot and in the characters thought processes had been filled in. We wondered if perhaps a prologue providing more context would have been helpful. Though some were unsympathetic to the author’s stated intention of telling the story in the simple and unadorned style of the Sagas, saying that he should have made it clearer and more relatable to modern readers, others embraced the simple punchy prose and felt it took them straight into the harsh, no-frills life of the Vikings. They were happy to fill in the gaps from their own imagination and looked at the book as a gateway into further research about a fascinating part of history.

We thank the Riverbend Readers for another week of great discussions!

Riverbend Readers - 'The Promise' by Damon Galgut

by Vicky, Laura, and Britt

We had an overwhelmingly positive response to this month’s book, The Promise by Damon Galgut, with many readers saying that they were engaged and incredibly moved by the book from start to finish. For the most part, readers loved the unique “movie camera” narrative style of the novel and found that this bird’s eye view allowed the reader to gain a more complete picture as the story moved forward. Though it took some readers a little while to get into the flow of the novel, they were intrigued by the narrative shifts and found it compelling to read. Galgut’s use of language, his mastery of metaphor, dark humour and sense of the absurd made this deeply sad and layered story a joy to read for may of our book clubbers.

However, the book was not without its critics, and some bookclubbers loathed the chopping and changing narrative voice, the multiple perspectives, and most especially, the lack of punctuation. They found the story a chore to follow, the subject matter bleak and lacking in hope, and the characters unlikable and unrelatable. Some readers felt that this book was quite inaccessible to the reader who was not prepared to research and dig around into the ugly history of the race divide in South Africa.

Others who liked the book admitted that their appreciation was a rather intellectual one in that they could see the writing was brilliant and unique and that the story line was important but that it failed to engage them on an emotional level. We talked about Prize winners - particularly Booker Prize winners - and what expectations we brought to a book that had won one. For some it lowered expectations since they often disliked the books chosen and for others it made them persist with a book and look for brilliance that was not immediately apparent to them.

We spoke about our limited experience in reading novels from South Africa. Apart from a few authors, Including J.M Coetzee, Bryce Courtney, Wilbur Smith and Alan Paton, most readers had not read South African literature widely. We discussed Galgut’s claim that South African writers are almost always expected to place their novels against the changing backdrop of South African politics, and thought he had managed this quite cleverly by using the Swart family’s troubles as an allegory for what was happening in the country.

The structure of the book around the four funerals of four different religious denominations was a clever device and showed that divisions were not just between blacks and whites. To readdress their moral failings, the characters sought absolution or relief in religion. Most of the characters had a connection to a faith-based community, all of them non-African religions. The author has a lot to say about religion and the blind following of various faiths, and each of the spiritual leaders depicted appeared either corrupt or comical.

Overall, The Promise was well received by our Riverbend Readers!