Nine members met at Castleton Grill on November 7, 2012 to discuss
the debut novel of British writer Suzanne Joinson entitled "A Lady
Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar", chosen by Carol. These ladies attended...Marsha, Betsy, Carol, Nancy, Julie, Nettie, Donna,
Kathy and Madeleine. Everyone read or listened to the book and enjoyed
except for Julie who had to suffer through a poor reader with fake
accents. She still liked the book.
Carol excelled at being our monitor and everyone had a chance to
make comments and were very respectful of listening while others
spoke.
We discussed the characters of the women in both the old story and
the modern one. Everyone hated Millicent the Evangelist who was
controlling, mean, self serving and over zealous. Lizzie was pitied
as being weak and controlled. Eva was lauded for being at least
honest and caring for both Lizzie and Ai-lien. Freida was adrift and
her mother was deemed crazy as she had abandoned her daughter
at age 7 to pursue her own interests which eventually led to self
mutilation and the inability to speak allegedly to reach Nirvana.
Carol asked if we felt the two stories seamed together successfully
and most of us were satisfied and liked that approach of toggling
back and forth. Some wondered if they could have read just the old
parts then the new parts separately. I personally do not think that would
work. Everyone in general had a preference for the old story of the
1923 adventure over the modern day journey of Freida and Tayeb.
Carol asked a good question of how each person would have written
it differently if she had been the author. We all agreed that she could
have developed Irene Guy's story after she landed in England a bit
more. It seemed like she sort of rushed to the ending.
Carol asked if anyone had ever been to Kashgar. There is a lot of
interesting videos and information about Kashgar online. It is
such a Muslim enclave in China and it's positioning to Russia,
Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan is very strategic to the Chinese. Though
the Muslims in Kashgar have been trying to gain independence the
Chinese have been holding steadfast so there are still uprisings.
The day Joinson went to Kashgar to research there was an uprising
and she had to leave in a hurry.
Marsha chose a book called, "Child 44", a debut novel by
Tom Rob Smith which is a thriller set in Stalin's Soviet Union.
The next meeting will be held at Marsha's home on December 12.
Will send out a reminder.
