Edmund de Waal - The Hare with the Amber Eyes

About the Author:Edmund de Waal was born in 1964. He studied English at Cambridge University and ceramics in both England and Japan. He is best known for his large scale installations.  Edmund is also known as a writer. His recent book, The Hare with Amber Eyes, which traces his family history, has been an international bestseller and won many literary prizes

The Hare with the Amber Eyes follows the story of his family the Ephussis. a Jewish family who originally came from Odessa and were a wealthy European Banking dynasty. Story traces their migration from the fashionable Art culture of Paris through to Vienna Society. They build a considerable art collection of contemporary artists of the time, such as Manet and through the years the gather a large collection of Netsuke which they display in a glass cabinet.  

 The Ephussis lost almost everything in 1938 when the Nazis "Aryanized" their property.^[1] Even after the war, the family failed to recover most of its extensive property, including priceless artwork, but an easily hidden collection of 264 Japanese netsuke miniature sculptures was miraculously saved, tucked away inside a mattress by Anna, a loyal maid at Palais de  Ephussis  in Vienna during the war years. The collection has been passed down through five generations of the Ephussis family, providing a common thread for the story of its fortunes from 1871 to 2009.

Mary felt the book developed extremely slowly however enjoyed reading the contextualised historic events and connections that came out as the story progressed. There was a discussion as to why Viktor did not leave until the Nazis raided his house and the group believed that the family and the Jewish Society had integrated and assimilated and no longer saw themselves as Jewish or indeed the Jews that that the Nazis referred to.  This was certainly apparent in Viktor.  There appeared to be be a degree of arrogance within some of the community.  

Rolf knew Vienna well as his wife was Viennese.  He challenged some of the descriptions of the Ringstrasse.  He enjoyed the story but felt that this marred and detracted from its authenticity.

Rob really enjoyed the book and thought it was well written, however he felt that his positioning of himself in the book as a potter was perhaps a bit arrogant and it was irrelevant.   The Proust quote was a element of social commentary.   Karen disagreed that the reference to his being a potter as irrelevant, indeed it was very relevant and made connection and drew parallels when he described book shelves with pots lined up on them. Gaynor said that this was a link to the families love of art in this reference and a connection to his memory of the Netsukes. .

Debra did not finish the book but enjoyed what she read.  

Rolf was irritated by the fact that Edmund's visit to Odessa was not dated and he felt this was distracting and detracted from his enjoyment.

  Overall the group loved this book and were quite surprised by the extent to which Vienna was founded on Jewish wealth and their influence on the intellectual scene. In 1900 Vienna was the cultural centre.  

The books offered by Mike and Lorraine :

Jennifer Egan - A Visit from the Goon Squad

Peter Aughton - The Transit if Venus

David Wroblewsk - The story of Edgar Sawtell 

C S Lewis - That Hideous Strength

Dashiell Hamnett - The Continental Op

Peter James - Dead Tomorrow

William Boyd - Ordinary Thunderstorms

The book chosen is: 

Dashiell Hamnett - The Continental Op

Julian Barnes -Flaubert's Parrot

About the Author: Julian Barnes is the author of ten novels the most recent of which Nothing to be Frightened of was published in 2008.His work has been translated into more than thirty languages. In France he is the only writer to have won both the Prix Medicis for Flaubert's Parrot and the Prix Femina for Talking it over.  In 1993 he was awarded the Shakespeare by the FVS foundation of Hamburg. he lives in London.

The meeting was held at Mary's. There was a discussion as to what genre the book was and there was no conclusion.  Many found the book difficult to read there was no rhythm.  A large part of the book was chronology.  It was felt to be bitty with some moments of intelligence.  Did we want to know he author and who was writing the book? The answer overwhelmingly was 'no' and it was concluded thAt it sounded like to was the Doctor writing the book. The group also felt there were several ' parrots'. Rob in pRticukR felt the prose was horrendous and had to stop to read passages. Ore than once to get an understanding of it. There was a surrealism about the story, Mary enjoyed some of it and after hearing some of the discussions will dip into it again.   The summaries of the reviews on the back of the book referrs to emotions, the writing described looking at the fields of WW1 what emotions, there was no emotion on this section, the group was bemused.  Many if the group did not manage to finish this book, the character Gustav was not endearing and as the prose did not flow it did not engage the reader. 

The books for the next reads are: 

Lionel Shriver - We Need to Talk about Kevin

Rosie Thomas - The Kashmir Shawl

Edmund de Waal - The Hare with the Amber Eyes

The selected book is The Hare with the Amber Eyes

Stephen Kelman - Pigeon English

About the Author: This is a debut novel from Stephen Kelman was shor listed for the Mann Booker prize in 2011.  he was brought up on Marsh  Estate Luton similar to the one that is portrayed in this story. He attended University of Luton where he studied marketing and worked in a factory until he started writing.

Pigeon English is inspired by the death and the circumstances under which Damilola Taylor lived.  The book is written in a Patwa style of Pigeon English.  It portrays the life and innocence of Harri Okapu.  He is the son of an immigrant family from Ghana, an absent father and a mother who is doing her best to raise Harri in a hostile environment of a Peckham Estate.  Everyday Harri observes the activities of gangs and knife crime.  His innocence is overwhelming and at times painful.   He witnesses the murder of his friend and turns detective.  This places him at risk. He is murdered in the stairwell of the block of his flat, an uncomfortable similarity to Damilola Taylor.

One member of the book considered strange that it was written in the first person who was dead! Most of the group thought the book covered some difficult and real issues facing young people today. The book was written in 'street style' dialect which some of the group had difficulty understanding and interpreting the language used.  One member of the group particularly felt that this was an issue book and did not enjoy the read.   The story presented the challenges of young people being brought up in an environment where gangs were prevalent.  In particular the young age at which both girls and boys were groomed, especially the pressure they were under to conform in order to stay safe.  They then sank further and further into their control.  The story offered no answers but hi- lighted the issues and the hopelessness of trying to resist.  There was much discussion as to who was the perpetrator with a couple of suspects. 

Generally the book was well received, although considered to not that well written it covered real issues, whether some of the group believed it or not.

The next book is Julian Barnes Flaubert's Parrot

Katherine Mansfield - The Garden Party

About the Author: Born in New Zealand in1888 she came to England to finish her education. She was a regular contributor to The New Age and her first book In a German Pension was published in 1911, she married the editor of The Rhythm for which she was writing at the time.  She contracted turbuculosis in 1917 and much of her life from this time on was I pursuit of health.  This disease cut her life short and she died I 1923.  

The Garden Party was her final book.  The short stories represent her observations of human behaviours in ordinary circumstances,  especially that of fragile emotions, half understood feelings.  There is great Beauty in her language, no better expressed tha in two of the stories, Miss Brill, a lonely lady who likes nothing better than to go and sit in the Park at the Park Tea Room and imagine others lives from her observations.   On this particular occasions she hears a less than complementary account of herself by a young couple. She is devastated by this and returns heartbroken to her lonely room.  The Garden Party relates a story of privilege and the apparent absurd prioritisation within those echelons.  A young man dies at the gates of their Estate and the priority is to get the Garden Party underway.  Only one member of the family visits the house and is confused by the emotion that is apparent there. 

The group enjoyed the fact that they could dip in to the book and read a complete story.  Between us all the book was read in its entirety with each member taking something fome each of them. It was unanimously agreed that Katherine Mansfield's writing was beautifully descriptive expressing tangible emotion and observations.

The books on offer by Debra and Stepen were;

Jeffrey Eugeneides.   Middlesex

Elizabeth Haynes.  Into the Darkest Corner

Tea Obreht. The  Tigers Wife

Stephen Kelman Pigeon English 

Pigeon English was selected 

Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness

About the Author:  Joseph Conrad was born in the Ukraine in 1857 originally Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski. His parents Polish patriots died when he was a child following their excise. He was brought up by his Uncle. Conrad developed a passion for the sea and he travelled to Marseille where he served on

French merchant vessels before joining a British ship on 1878 and served on these ships for eight years.  He then took up writing, he continued to write until his death in 1924.  Conrad today is regarded S one the greatest writers of English fiction.

The story describes Marlow's search for Mr Kurtz, the company agent and his dealings with the natives of the Belgian Congo.  

The quality of his writing belies the fact that Englilsh is not his birth language.  He has very descriptive style portraying the beauty , the ugliness and the passion of his experience within his prose.  The obsessive persuit by Marlowe of Mr Kurtz  is often merged with his own passion.  The 'Darkness' portrays the Congo and it's apparent savagery.  It must be noted that this writing reflects the time and there are many descriptions and expressions that are very much a reflection of its time, the overt racism ithat much of it is based on is hard to swallow in 2012

Marlow speaks much of the darkness and in some ways the group felt that this  implies that Kurtz's insanity was caused by the knowledge that the natives were naturally subservient or savages.  Because of their perceived lower state of their, Kurtz was led to enact his position of power and that is how he lost his humanity.   Some of the treatment of the natives was brutal and severe with many of the lucid descriptive passages difficult to read because of their vivid description.

The group felt that overall the language of the writing was beautiful, most of the group felt it was dark and depressing and was an example of greed and exploitation which was prevelant at this time.

The books on offer by Karen this month are short stories;

Guy de Maupassant:  The Best Short Stories

Hector Hugo Monro:  The Collected Short Stories of Saki

Jennifer Egan:  A visit from the Goon Squad 

Damon Runya:  Guys and Dolls and Other Stories

PG Wodehouse: What Ho!

Henry James: The Turn of the Screw

Katherine Mansfield:  The Garden Party

Tye book th taw selected was Katherine Mansfield:  The Garden Party