Kevin chose My Secret History by Paul Theroux, and hosted superbly as always on a balmy evening with kickass views of the city and Santa Maria.
We welcomed Mary to the group and she is now enjoying our Hans Fritzel style initiation under the floor of Kevin's Victoria Street terrace. See you in 25 years upon your release Mary. Well, how tasteless! .. welcome to the club Mary and see you next time.
My Secret History
Barbara Hoffert of the Library Journal put it thus:
From an early adolescence torn between a call to the priesthood and the call of the flesh, through late-adolescent sexual initiation and a young adult's escapades as a teacher in Africa, to a grown man's crisis in marriage, Theroux recounts the "secret history" of Andy Parent, a writer suspiciously resembling Theroux himself. That the purpose is to show a man "writing for his life," his fragmented self so healed by making "something new of his experience" that his work is seen metaphorically as "going home," is not apparent until the final pages, and though these pages dazzle they hardly seem novelistic. For the reader, Andy's impulse to write is buried in the unending description of his numerous liaisons--there is enough sexual endeavour here to bore the most prurient among us. Indeed, his comment, "My being inarticulate was probably the reason I had become a writer," serves to highlight Theroux's own failure to articulate the connections between Andy's early life and later self-discovery as a writer. A tantalizing novel whose occasional power suggests how much better it could have been.
It was interesting to hear the views of women members who tended to see the female characters as "issue" characters - while I, in my usual naiveté simply saw them simply as well described individuals, belonging to their times ... so there you go. Nevertheless the women voters ranked the work highly, while the overall score was dragged down by a disdainful (but well argued) assessment by Andrew. Mark
The next book is Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaids Tale' chosen by Dennis who will host on Wednesday April 15th.
