A good turnout for our first meetup of the new year saw lots of interesting talk on two very well received books; The Shining scored 79 while Butter came in at 69. It was great, as always to welcome new faces and very nice to welcome back some who haven’t been for a while.
For February we have two works of fiction, one takes us on a journey in time in a tenement in Edinburgh the other maintains a loose food theme based in the far east but this time in South Korea.
Happy Reading.
The Ghost Cat: 12 Decades, 9 Lives, 1 Cat by Alex Howard (nominated by Jenn)
Early morning, 1902. At 7/7 Marchmont Crescent, Eilidh the charlady tips coal into a fire grate and sets it alight. Overhearing, Grimalkin the cat ambles over to curl up against the welcome heat and lick his favourite human's hand. But this is to be his last day on earth ... before he becomes the Ghost Cat.
Follow Grimalkin as he witnesses the changes of the next 120 years, prowling unseen among the inhabitants of an Edinburgh tenement, while unearthing some startling revelations about the mystery of existence, the unstoppable march of time and the true meaning of feline companionship.
The Vegetarian: by Han Kang (nominated by Leah)
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more 'plant-like' existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares.
In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism. His cruelties drive her towards attempted suicide and hospitalisation.
She unknowingly captivates her sister's husband, a video artist. She becomes the focus of his increasingly erotic and unhinged artworks, while spiralling further and further into her fantasies of abandoning her fleshly prison and becoming - impossibly, ecstatically - a tree.
Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.
Other books nominated were:
Maid by Stephanie Land
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
The Awakened Brain by Lisa J. Miller
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell,
