First of all, thank you Ashley for hosting at the last screaming minute to save us all from the flu - that was so nice of you! And we had a lovely time, although the discussion on the book was fairly short and sweet: We really liked it, some loved it. It was reminiscent of Jane Eyre with less subtlety, even more precipitous coincidences and the obligatory happy ending that we all saw coming. What could be wrong with that?
It was a costume drama on the page, starting with a ball in Brussels given by the Duchess of Richmond on the night before Napoleon was defeated and ending with a family reunited, having lost 25 years of familial happiness to the fear of their position not so unusual then or even now.
Of course, the women characters are the heart of the story and all the character development as the men more or less fulfill their plot function as clear cut functionaries. Societal norms are a rigid taskmaster and in this story particularly costly. Still, happy endings make up for a lot and I expect to see this story on the screen sometime soon. I for one, loved it for all its flaws and it took me a few days to shake off the few well developed characters, as by the time the story was over, I felt they were friends.
Lucky me, I dove right into Last Stories by William Trevor, a masterpiece. Needless to say, the complexities and subtleties of his last collection of short stories erased the froth of Belgravia pretty quickly. Trevor, who died in 2016, has left us a treasure in this last collection and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
And so on to the next book, or selection as the case may be. Our next author is Charles Frazier, your choice of Cold Mountain or Varina. I don't think anyone would complain if you tried one of his other books - he has four novels out now. We are lucky to be going back to Rene's beautiful town house in Short Pump and the date is July 17, 6:30 pm. See you then!
