On December 9th, we had a Christmas gathering and book club
meeting at Nettie's home. It was a pitch in and we had 9 people
present including Julie, Madeleine, Betsy, Sue, Janet, Kathy, Sarah,
Doug and Nettie.
Julie had done her homework and led a very good discussion
on Kate Atkinson's book "A God In Ruins".
It was a story of a British family spanning four generations.
The time periods went back and forth but that is a very
common writing technique now and was not a problem.
The book centers around Teddy Todd who was in the Royal
Air Force and was a heroic pilot during the second world war.
The author actually took us on some bombing raids over
Germany with Teddy where civilians may have perished though
not targeted.
Teddy was a great husband, father, grandfather and we see him
adjust to a changing world after the war in a life he did not
expect to have. In fact at the end of the book we find out
he actually died during the war. This left some of us readers feeling
cheated, short changed and confused. So we have to suspend
reality. Julie saw it coming as several "walls" would break
down one by one.
This was one man's struggle to exist in a world in a future he
did not expect to have. Did anyone really exist?
The author's first book Life After Life also explores the
same idea of infinite chances and the power of choices.
We all had some thoughts on crossroads of our own lives
that may have drastically changed our lives if we had made
different decisions.
We discussed the idea that God made us in his image with
God within us but due to choices humans make we are ruined.
We are ruined by war and the author had some staggering
figures on all the lives lost in all the wars...yet we persist.
Doug regaled us with a few war stories about his Dad and some
funny ones about his Meditteranean tour paid for by the Navy.
We agreed Kate atkinson was an excellent writer and a very educated
woman as she had used many literary allusions
and many foreign phrases that those with electronic readers had to praise the ease of the electronic dictionary usage.
Nancy chose a book entitled "The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah
which is another world war two epic.
January 21 is the tentative date for our next meeting.
