The Bay Of Contented Men – by Robert Drewe

More like the bay of self satisfied men I’d say – however I stand corrected by all reviews I’ve seen, as well as the response from the BBC members. The Bay of Contented Men was generally accepted at face value, as an insight into the world of a contemporary upper middle class Australian man. The ordinary male perspective is surprisingly unrepresented in Australian literature, so Drewe does provide an unusual insight, with little competition.

Thanks so much to Dennis for hosting, and it was a pleasure to help christen the new abode (in one respect at least!)

Scores were as follows

Ewan 5
Raj 7
Mark 5
Kevin 7
Leanne 7
Dennis 5

Average: 6

Here is a little commentary from bookworm.com.au

Witty and seductive, inventive and disturbing, The Bay of Contented Men ranges in location from east to west coast Australia, to the United States, Japan, and Hong Kong. This is the neighbourhood of edgy suburbanite Australians whose desires and misadventures are conjured here into intriguing fictions. Robert Drewe's characters face the confrontation of gender, race and generation with an ironic desperation born of love, lust and wistful memory.

http://www.bookworm.com.au/shop/scditem.asp?ProdID=35772


The next book is:

'Stones from the River' by Ursula Hegi.

Mark Gordon

Atonement by Ian McEwan

This work generated most stimulating discussion on the psychological front. While generally positive, readers saw the book from surprisingly different angles, mirroring the structure of the book itself.

Even the word atonement itself was of interest. Generally defined in religious terms, such as from Wiki:

“In Christian theology the atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ which made possible the reconciliation between God and creation.”

Or by dictionary definition:

1. compensation for a wrong
2. expiation: the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing (especially appeasing a deity)

Scores were as follows (a little surprisingly low I feel)

Dennis 8
Mark 9.5
Kevin 7
Leanne 9
Ewan 7
Helen 8.5
Andrew 8
Raj 9
Natalie 8.5

Average: 8.3

This potted information from Wikipedia is of interest, particularly the accusation of plagiarism! Note McEwan’s response in The Guardian (see link below).

“Atonement (2001) is a novel by British writer Ian McEwan. It is widely regarded as one of McEwan's best works and was shortlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize for fiction, an award he had already won for his previous novel Amsterdam. In addition, Time magazine named it the best fiction novel of the year and included it in its All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels.

McEwan utilises several stylistic techniques in the novel including metafiction and psychological realism.

Atonement contains intertextual references to a number of other literary works including Henry James' The Golden Bowl, Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, and Shakespeare's The Tempest and Twelfth Night.

In late 2006 Lucilla Andrews' autobiography No Time for Romance became the focus of a posthumous controversy when it was alleged that McEwan plagiarised from this work while writing his novel Atonement. McEwan professed his innocence.

A film adaptation directed by Joe Wright from a screenplay by Christopher Hampton was released in September 2007 by Working Title Films.”

McEwan’s response:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1957845,00.html

All in all a terrific book and a great BBC evening.

The next book is Bay of Contented Men by Robert Drewe and the club will be held at Dennis’s new abode and we look forward to that christening.