I’m calling this book ‘the creeper’. It got under my skin without me noticing it and suddenly I put it down one day and thought, I love this book! It’s strange as nothing really happens as such – it’s certainly not a plot driven book – but I really thought this worked. The book lounged on like you would in the heat that the author so brilliantly described. Despite this, it is not a boring book and you do want to know how it all works out. So much so that one member of the group didn’t come to the meeting as she hadn’t finished reading the book and she didn’t want to find out the end! I give real credit to the author for not to make it another murder/thriller book which it so easily could have ended up being. Instead it was a brilliantly written book based around 5 main characters all of whom had a section in the book.
I will start with Nick as I thought she (yes she not he) was central to the book. One member commented that she was like gravity, everyone pulled towards her even if it was unwillingly. She was like the light bulb and everyone else were like the moths (I liked this description of her as once again it echoes the heat that surrounded everybody). She was at her most happy at the beginning of the book, which was also the earliest part of the book. This was when her husband, Hughes, loved her most or at least Nick thought they were at their happiest. I found her character really sad in some ways as all she wanted was for Hughes to totally love her, for her marriage to be a happy one and although in many ways he did he just didn’t give enough (or could he give enough?). She seemed to desperately crave his love and I think a lot of her actions were driven by this. She could be seen as a bad character and a few in the group thought so, yet Klaussman made it clear that she hadn’t had an affair with Taylor and I think she did this to paint her as a good person deep down just one who was mixed up.
I loved the aspic story and how it summed up in its shining beauty how a perfect wife Nick could be when she tried. This then contrasting with the aspic being dropped and shattering into pieces illustrated that even when she tried hard she couldn’t save it - her marriage. Something so perfect that was beyond repair.
Helena was a bit too wishy washy for me. She needed a man to make her feel complete and when Avery turned out to be a horrible person (and wasn’t he just?) she just melted in to a world of drink and pills. I could understand her hatred towards Nick who had all the money and the lovely husband, she had what Helena wanted. I particularly loved the part where Avery had put a beautiful dress out on the bed for her to wear only for the Hollywood mogul to cuttingly say ‘make sure you return it to the wardrobe department’. She did have a hard life but I just didn’t sympathise with her and in general she was the one I liked the least. Even over Ed
Ed, Helenas child, was an interesting character. Obviously highly disturbed and we talked at some length as to how his upbringing affected him - his fathers obsession with a dead actress and just exactly what did Ed get up to all day whilst Helena was in a drug induced stupor? I really liked the fact that his part of the book was from his point of view whereas the rest of the book was written in third person. To the outside world Ed was a very cold, odd person and I think writing his section from third person just wouldn’t have worked. Seeing inside his head gave him new dimensions that I liked reading. He loved Daisy. Not in an incestuous way but she really seemed to be the one person he genuinely cared for. I think him taking Daisy to see the body that day was his way of trying to share his thoughts with her. She obviously reacted like any young child would have done and to his credit he didn’t then try to draw her into his sordid world any further.
Daisy was such an innocent and I really sympathised with her when she was describing how her mother just had ‘it’ and she didn’t. I loved how obsessed she was with tennis and the whole story with her and Peaches and Taylor. This was probably my favourite part of the book. Although cast as the innocent in many ways she wasn’t – she knew about Taylor deep down but choose not to admit it. Was this because she just wanted to see the good in people? Why? Well look at those around her. A mother who had affairs, a father who wasn’t man enough, an auntie who was an addict and a cousin who was a murderer. Her bubble of innocence was a lot better than the reality she would have found herself in. I think Klaussman described Daisy growing up just right – the stuffed unicorn that once was so important but now not so, the secret hiding places, her first crush all brilliantly captured.
PS anyone notice parallels with The Great Gatsby? Nick, Daisy, Parties, cocktails? It was littered!
Anyway Hughes. His affair made his character a bit more interesting as otherwise he could just have been a background stoic boring character. I wanted to just scream at him and Nick to wake up and realise that they both loved each other but they just couldn’t let go and move on. You can imagine that the pair of them would continue onwards until they ended up very bitter and hateful towards each other. I’m surprised actually that they hadn’t already reached that point by the end of the book yet they still seemed to have their moments of hope.
Overall a really really good book (can you tell I liked it?). One of us gave up after 4 chapters and I think this is a good example of why you should plough on even just a little longer. I couldn’t tell at that stage if it was going to be a thriller or not and I’m sure others at that point could predict how the book would turn out. This is a book I’m sure you could read time and time again and keep getting more out of it. You would keep realising more about the characters and seeing them in different lights, seeing different meanings in actions and words. So I guess I would say don’t just read it once read it twice!
We ended up giving it a 7. It did score quite a lot of 8s and even a few 9s but a 3 dragged the score down a bit (don’t let the 3 put you off, it was from the person who didn’t read it all the way through)
Next months book is The Husbands Secret – Liane Moriarty
Following on from last month here is this months question of the month – We have read 2 books recently where the weather has really mirrored the content of the book or played a crucial part in the writing (The Snow Child and Tigers in Red Weather). Can you name any books that you have read where weather similarly features? Sorry no easy questions here!
Comments to the book and answers to the question always welcome.
I will start with Nick as I thought she (yes she not he) was central to the book. One member commented that she was like gravity, everyone pulled towards her even if it was unwillingly. She was like the light bulb and everyone else were like the moths (I liked this description of her as once again it echoes the heat that surrounded everybody). She was at her most happy at the beginning of the book, which was also the earliest part of the book. This was when her husband, Hughes, loved her most or at least Nick thought they were at their happiest. I found her character really sad in some ways as all she wanted was for Hughes to totally love her, for her marriage to be a happy one and although in many ways he did he just didn’t give enough (or could he give enough?). She seemed to desperately crave his love and I think a lot of her actions were driven by this. She could be seen as a bad character and a few in the group thought so, yet Klaussman made it clear that she hadn’t had an affair with Taylor and I think she did this to paint her as a good person deep down just one who was mixed up.
I loved the aspic story and how it summed up in its shining beauty how a perfect wife Nick could be when she tried. This then contrasting with the aspic being dropped and shattering into pieces illustrated that even when she tried hard she couldn’t save it - her marriage. Something so perfect that was beyond repair.
Helena was a bit too wishy washy for me. She needed a man to make her feel complete and when Avery turned out to be a horrible person (and wasn’t he just?) she just melted in to a world of drink and pills. I could understand her hatred towards Nick who had all the money and the lovely husband, she had what Helena wanted. I particularly loved the part where Avery had put a beautiful dress out on the bed for her to wear only for the Hollywood mogul to cuttingly say ‘make sure you return it to the wardrobe department’. She did have a hard life but I just didn’t sympathise with her and in general she was the one I liked the least. Even over Ed
Ed, Helenas child, was an interesting character. Obviously highly disturbed and we talked at some length as to how his upbringing affected him - his fathers obsession with a dead actress and just exactly what did Ed get up to all day whilst Helena was in a drug induced stupor? I really liked the fact that his part of the book was from his point of view whereas the rest of the book was written in third person. To the outside world Ed was a very cold, odd person and I think writing his section from third person just wouldn’t have worked. Seeing inside his head gave him new dimensions that I liked reading. He loved Daisy. Not in an incestuous way but she really seemed to be the one person he genuinely cared for. I think him taking Daisy to see the body that day was his way of trying to share his thoughts with her. She obviously reacted like any young child would have done and to his credit he didn’t then try to draw her into his sordid world any further.
Daisy was such an innocent and I really sympathised with her when she was describing how her mother just had ‘it’ and she didn’t. I loved how obsessed she was with tennis and the whole story with her and Peaches and Taylor. This was probably my favourite part of the book. Although cast as the innocent in many ways she wasn’t – she knew about Taylor deep down but choose not to admit it. Was this because she just wanted to see the good in people? Why? Well look at those around her. A mother who had affairs, a father who wasn’t man enough, an auntie who was an addict and a cousin who was a murderer. Her bubble of innocence was a lot better than the reality she would have found herself in. I think Klaussman described Daisy growing up just right – the stuffed unicorn that once was so important but now not so, the secret hiding places, her first crush all brilliantly captured.
PS anyone notice parallels with The Great Gatsby? Nick, Daisy, Parties, cocktails? It was littered!
Anyway Hughes. His affair made his character a bit more interesting as otherwise he could just have been a background stoic boring character. I wanted to just scream at him and Nick to wake up and realise that they both loved each other but they just couldn’t let go and move on. You can imagine that the pair of them would continue onwards until they ended up very bitter and hateful towards each other. I’m surprised actually that they hadn’t already reached that point by the end of the book yet they still seemed to have their moments of hope.
Overall a really really good book (can you tell I liked it?). One of us gave up after 4 chapters and I think this is a good example of why you should plough on even just a little longer. I couldn’t tell at that stage if it was going to be a thriller or not and I’m sure others at that point could predict how the book would turn out. This is a book I’m sure you could read time and time again and keep getting more out of it. You would keep realising more about the characters and seeing them in different lights, seeing different meanings in actions and words. So I guess I would say don’t just read it once read it twice!
We ended up giving it a 7. It did score quite a lot of 8s and even a few 9s but a 3 dragged the score down a bit (don’t let the 3 put you off, it was from the person who didn’t read it all the way through)
Next months book is The Husbands Secret – Liane Moriarty
Following on from last month here is this months question of the month – We have read 2 books recently where the weather has really mirrored the content of the book or played a crucial part in the writing (The Snow Child and Tigers in Red Weather). Can you name any books that you have read where weather similarly features? Sorry no easy questions here!
Comments to the book and answers to the question always welcome.
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