Discussion date: April 11, 2005

What we thought:
Most of us found Pompeii a fascinating learning experience, but not high in literary quality. One person was so disgusted with what she felt was the completely implausible love story that she wanted to give it a minus 2! But the prevailing rating was about 3.5, with a few 4s.

We were impressed by the depth of research and especially liked the characterization of Pliny. The book did a good job of dramatizing the amazing engineering prowess of the Romans, though in places it was overly technical for some tastes. Although we felt the romance helped to hold our interest in the plot, we all agreed that was the weakest part of the novel.

The author said he wanted to draw parallels between Roman society and modern times, and from our discussion, he must have succeeded, since we spent more time talking about current issues than ancient ones.

Reading group guide