Discussion date: January 12, 2003

What we thought:

The Bedfordshire book group is rarely at a loss for words, but Julia Glass's novel sparked a discussion even livelier than usual. Everyone had opinions about this book and its diverse cast of characters, and although we didn't all love the book, we agreed that it had given us the impetus for one of our best conversations. Some of us, in fact, left the meeting feeling more positive about the book than when we'd started, just because it was such a rich source for sharing our thoughts and ideas.

We talked about the structure of the book — sometimes difficult to follow because there was no strong narrative thread — with its profusion of characters, incidents, unanswered questions, and jumping about in time. Some of us had trouble relating to the characters, found the recurring death theme overly depressing, or got lost in the flashbacks. But most of us felt that if we stuck with the book, its rewards (including superb writing) outweighed its drawbacks. Some of the topics we explored were

• the role of Tony as a strangely appealing exploiter of others
• our thoughts about the mother (Maureen)
• motherhood in general throughout the book
• the meaning of this quote: "When it comes to life, we spin our own yarn, and where we end up is really, in fact, where we always intended to be."

And Karen is still looking for those three women named June!

Rating: Although one person rated the book 5 stars as a reading experience, and four gave it 4, others felt it wasn't worth more than 2 or 3 and pulled the average down to just under 3.5. But because everyone agreed on what a wonderful evening we'd had talking about it, I'm giving it a bottom-line score of 4 stars.

Links of interest:

Biography of the author
Reading group guide