BB FANS

I finished this book and thought it was abslutley suberb. Brilliantly written. I'm happy to discuss it but not sure if others are reading it. Did you get it pikey? Its hard to talk without spoilers but we can try ellie.

Oh I will need to have a flick through it first HC to recap. When I first read it I made loads of notes at the side of the pages (sad person that I am). So I will have a read through of them later.

oh I've done the same re making notes

HC will always give a book with blood and guts in it a good review

The Bible has loads of blood and guts and thats great.

There is no blood and guts in this book anyway it starts two years after he has been in prison


well maybe a little

warning may contain spoilers from here on


every so often you read a book that you find is streets ahead of the others and for me this was one of them. I thought it was a brave plot and unputdownable. It kept you going right the way through and I never guessed the ending until I got there. That doesn't always happen. It was disturbing to read in parts especially the last part. I admired the mums honesty though when I got to the end I can see why she was being so honest if that makes sense. its easier to be honest in that situation. I thought the dad needed a bit of back bone. he struck me as a bit weak and the sister I couldn't quite get my head around. She sounded a bit.... um...simple, sort of not quite a real person but maybe that was the point. Do you believe all that the mum put about Kevin or do you think she was trying to justify her attitude towards him by exagerating?

I think the characters of the mum and Kevin were not fully explored but of course you can't put every single little detail into a book like this. The characters of the Dad and the sister were pretty one-dimensionable. The Dad I thought was largely responsible for Kevin getting away with his wildness for so long. He never checked him, never seemed to realise the seriousness of the situation and never backed the mum up. Perhaps she would have been more pro-active if he was on her side. I found the relationship between the mum and dad to be quite distant. I don't want to go to much further at the moment as I think it will give the twists away to those who haven't finished it yet. But like you HC I didn't guess the ending until it happened. There were clues but I didn't see them on the first reading so was totally shocked. I thought the mum was a very incisive person. She knew there were problems with Kevin from early on and maybe was so frightened about facing them that instead she just distanced herself from him. Initially I thought she wasn't maternal but the relationship she had with her daughter seemed to contradict this.

I was shocked too ellie about the ending I just didn't see it coming at all. The bit where he was ill and more vulnerable seemed to bring her maternal side out which to me shows was really there. I think she knew what he was really like (for instance the bit about the teacher) but had almost resigned herself to it rather than being horrified by it. She knew she wouldnt get the support of her husband so therefore almost gave up even bothering to comment.

I know we have discussed this book at length HC on msn. I'm not sure if anyone else has read it, but I have been re-reading this book over the last week and a few new things struck me.

First I have only just realised that the author is a woman. I presumed that it was written by a man, because of the name Lionel, ( a strange choice to name a girl). I was struck when I first read the book, how clever the author was to write from a woman's point of view and to get it right. (I had similar thoughts years ago about Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors). I wonder because of this how much prejudice we greet books with. Do we generally expect men to write about certain subjects, such as war and spies etc and for women authors to contain themselves to writing about emotions, family life and everyday dilemas? Likewise it is men who seem to win most of the literary prizes (so much so that there are now specific separate prizes for women) Why is this?

Secondly how important is the political background of the novel. Honestly, I skimmed over these parts of the book on the first reading, but now wonder if there wasn't some kind of subliminal message with the backdrop of the 2000 US election and the fact that Eva and Franklin would have (if it weren't for the main event of the book), be on opposite sides of the political spectrum. I wondered if this was not just about the fact that they were poles apart in many ways, not least of all their views on parenting, but that the author was also trying to make a point by setting the book in a pre 9/11 period, almost as if to say the events in the book would not happen now because as a country, we are now united and even if it did happen our attitudes would be very different.

I keep forgetting to say ellie my copy of the book is doing the rounds at work. (it is currently on person number four) so when I finally get it back I will need to re read it and get back.

I wouldn't normally bother but you did threaten to kill me

Well only because you threatened to rip of all my clothes, and put me in a kimono if I didn't re-read Memoirs of a Geisha Girl.

erm I don't recall saying that but I can see you're itching to.....