Modern viking saga fascinates book group

In June we all read The Sea Road by Margaret Elphinstone - very timely as this year's midummer Johnsmas Foy celebrations in Shetland had a viking theme. This is a modern viking saga - the story of Gudrid, the most travelled woman of the viking world - who went from Iceland to Greenland to North America and had somehow got herself to Rome near journey's end, where she told her life story to a young scribe.

This was based on several of the old viking sagas, and told in saga style (some of our group had got round to reading the originals). The descriptions of the land and the arduous climate rang true and the astonishingly dangerous sea journeys were thrilling. Some Shetlanders still claim we are a hardy Viking Race, but having to walk to the shops for a pint of milk is too much for most of us nowadays.

Margaret Elphinstone used to stay in Shetland and in fact Morag remembers working with her in the library. They used to discuss the great novels they were writing. We still await Morag's (with every faith it will come) but Margaret has written a great book here which the whole group enjoyed. Apparently her others are good as well.

Not the Orkney Way...

Yes, The Stornoway Way is very real in it's depiction of the downward spiral of alcohol. Here in Shetland we're also unable to handle our drink, or our drugs for that matter. I await the great modern Shetland novel that tackles this dark side of our affluent society.

Kevin MacNeil is a great chap - made himself very popular in the year he stayed in Shetland, and I'm sure we'll see some good results from the creative writing classes he conducted.

But on the subject of books depicting the seamy underside of island life, were you aware of the scandal over this Orkney book? http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/shelved-the-book-that-outraged-the-orkneys-1712238.html
It has now been pulped by the publisher after an 'outcry'. Shame on Alistair Carmichael MP - a Lib Dem - for being instrumental in getting a book banned. OK, edit for any actual libels...but what are those folk scared of? We in Shetland are all dying to read it -as is most of Orkney, I suspect. Anyone got a proof copy?

The Stornoway Way by Kevin MacNeil

I was in the library recently and this jumped out from the shelves - maybe it was because Kevin is on the list of authors for Wordplay. I remember it being one of a pair of books we read nearly two years ago on the subject of teenage island life. I enjoyed Venus as a Boy, but didn't get time to read The Stornoway Way.

Illuminating and entertaining in equal parts - it's not a book to read stone cold sober. The main thrust was how alcohol greases the wheels of social gatherings, blunts the harshness of humdrum life and lessens the cloying effect of net-twitching in a small community still heavily influenced by the church. Booze starts off as a sticking plaster, then becomes a crutch and finally a lethal injection. There's nothing, literally and metaphorically, at the bottom of a bottle.

It also reminded me of The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson - all three using the ruse that they were written by someone "else" with the author a mere conduit... A good pretense when the subject matter is tricky and/or the locale is small such as the Western Isles or Orkney.

Brave New World for the book group

This month's read was Brave New World by Adlous Huxley, chosen by Andy. It was a book that already seemed very familiar because, like Orwell's 1984, there are ideas, images and phrases that have become part of our language and our culture. All the group members enjoyed reading it, even if most wern't entirely satisfied with the story. None of the characters were very strong - because they were just vehicles for the idea. Tellingly, one group member, John, commented that the only person he felt he knew was Linda - poor, imperfect Linda, who'd fallen out of the system and committed the sin of getting ill, fat and unhappy. Everyone else was a slave to ruthless conditioning and predestination, drugged up on soma to keep passions at bay. The way peoples role in life could be formed in the birthing jar was a really strong image. Morag obseved that she'd spotted a few Epsilons on Jerry Springer that very day.

The background to the book - published in 1932 -was eugenics, American consumerism, the Great Depression, and the notion that the problems of society could be cured by a grand Plan. Although a less brutal regime than that of 1984, the 'civilisation' of the Brave New World was repugnant. John pointed out how it sometimes mirrored today's society: the botox/slimming mania to keep folk young forever; ageism; sexualisation of children; disgust at breast feeding in public; the doling out of antideppressant drugs from an early age.

The argument for encouraging promiscuity made a weird kind of sense - chastity breeds passion, and passion causes instabilty. We had a society therefore where everyone was at it like rabbits but it was just yawningly unerotic. The society recognised and admitted the central flaw of our consumerist world, to quote the Controller: "Industrial civilisation is only possible where there's no self-denial. Self-indulgence up to the very limits...otherwise the wheels stop turning."

We loved Helmholtz's plea to be exiled to an island with a bad climate: "I believe one would write better if the climate were bad. If there were a lot of wind and storms, for example..." I thought they were going to send him to Shetland, but it turned out to be the Falklands! Should Shetland Arts use Helmholtz's quote to attract writers here though?

The Perfect Storm

Our last discussion centered on the book The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. As a whole the group felt it was a interesting read and that depiction of the lives and deaths of a sword boat crew had particular resonance for us since we live on an island and see our share of storms. The detailed description of drowning was particularly harrowing.

I felt the need to see an image of the boat and easily found this image on the Internet. This is the style of fishing boat I have seen throughout my life on the shore of New Jersey which lent the story even more poignancy for me. What was more unsettling was finding images of the lost crew. There are more images of life on the Andrea Gail at http://www.andreagailhistory.com/.

The group felt the story arc of the book sagged a bit in the middle after the Andrea Gail went down but that the pace picked up again with the description of the rescue of the crew of the Satori. The lengths that the National Guard and Coast Guard went to rescue the crew from the teeth of the storm were quite extraordinary. Andy insightfully pointed out that the structure of the book mirrors the structure of a storm with the building of tension, violent weather, calm at the eye and more violent weather and finally a survey of the damage done by the storm.

If you liked The Perfect Storm you might want to read The Hungry Ocean by Linda Greenlaw who was the captain of the Hannah Boden, the sister boat to the Andrea Gail. Her book describes life on a a sword fish boat. She is one of the few female boat captains in the sword fish fleet.

Notes from the Underground

For our first Friday night meeting, Karen's choice was Dostoevsky's short novel 'Notes from the Underground'. Apologising for her second choice (after ditching 'Don Quixote') Karen led the discussion off.

In the first third of the novel Dostoevsky's introduces his anti-hero, "I'm a sick man... I'm a malicious man. An unattractive man, I am". No-one disagreed with this statement (and many thought it was tough going and had to skim read the first portion of the book).

The main character is a (very) petite-bourgeoisie official, educated but poorly paid; constantly thinking about himself and his actions, withdrawn and socially inept. The group thought that maybe he was too much of a thinker: "the direct, legitimate, immediate fruit of consciousness is inertia". Anne and Karen thought he was more like someone suffering from mental illness and there was some discussion whether this was Dostoevsky's state of mind at the time the book was written...

Yet the character's ramblings reflected many of the issues of the time. Was he a man or an organ stop? Was he a mere functional creation? Did he have freewill? Were the laws of physics and maths set in stone? Two twos is always four, but it would be nice if two twos were five! Morag and I thought that if Dostoevsky's hadn't based the character on himself, then it was a very accomplished portrayal, setting the scene for the later vignette 'Apropos of the Sleet'.

This second part of the book relates to the dinner-party with his old "friends" (but of course he has no true friends, as he cannot act with spontaneity and without self doubt or paranoia) and what happens when they leave him behind and he goes to a brothel. There are passages of black humour, especially when he believes he has been slighted and cannot bring himself to reply, but paces the room for hours whilst ignored by the other guests. I'll leave the ending a mystery, but he acts dreadfully to type in the final pages and I was speechless with him! Nearly all the group read this part and enjoyed it. As an aside James Joyce said Dostoevsky was the writer who "created modern prose, and intensified it to its present day pitch"...

Finally there was a discussion centered on who could play such a tortured soul on film: a gaunt Hugh Laurie was my vote, a manic Johnny Depp was popular and Christian Bale also received votes from our two newest members.

These are the events of the book group that cold night, yet you may think otherwise. There are those of you that experienced it for what it was and thought nothing more. Yet there maybe others amongst you will think more deeply, belittle my write up and join me in thinking it despicably self-satisfying... :) Notes from the laptop

February read – The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards.

The February meeting of the book group was well attended, with nine keen readers making it to the Old Library Centre, despite the rawness of the weather. We all enjoyed a leisurely discussion of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. Jean, who had selected the book, introduced her choice with an outline of the story.

Questions of morality and responsibility occupied a great deal of the discussion – was David’s decision the night his twins were born simply morally repugnant or was it understandable, forgivable, even, given the prevailing attitude of the time?

We talked a lot about the likeability of the main characters and the extent to which that might affect our judgements of their actions and attitudes. Most of us found merit in Kim Edwards’ writing, especially her descriptive passages and her evocation of a strong sense of place. There was less enthusiasm about the narrative aspects of this novel, some of us admitting that we gave up on the characters and their troubles long before the end of the story. In particular, quite a few were frustrated by David’s sudden death before the issues raised by his actions had been resolved and felt that, although his life had been deeply affected by the snap decision to send Phoebe away, and to lie about it, he had never really had to face what he had done.

As is often the case, our discussions wandered off topic, perfectly enjoyably, onto quite unrelated subjects – New Zealand, emigration from Shetland, what drove people to leave, recent and upcoming films at the Garrison Theatre, Shetland during the Second World War, food security and traditional farming in Shetland (sorry, my fault, but thanks to all for your input).

On the tasty treats front, Marghie saved the day, and my tum from rumbling all the way through, by bringing some delicious biscuits for us all – big thanks!