Book Club 2

GROUP CONVENOR – Christine Wright

We meet on the first Wednesday of the month at 1.00 pm in the Assembly Room at St Austell Arts Centre. If you enjoy reading and discussing the book you have read, come along and join us.

Below are details of our recently read books.

January 2026 – Nocturnes – Kazuo Ishiguro

The Book Group had mixed reactions although there was unanimous agreement on the quality of the writing and the evocative nature of the prose capturing the atmosphere of different places.

Some comments from members:

“I found this book a really good read, a beautifully written set of interesting stories relating to music, travel, fantasy, unrequited love and unfulfilled ambition. I loved being instantly immersed in Venice, a travel destination I have nostalgic memories of thirty years ago. Music in the cafes in St Marks Square to die for, the rolling Malvern Hills which I loved as a child when I rambled to offset my incarceration in a boarding prep school in the area. The book’s characters all had abnormal expectations that involved their strange behaviour with either comical outcomes (blaming a dog creating havoc), or absurd illusion (a women pretending she is a maestro). Great to revisit an author I had forgotten and not fully appreciated years back when I came across the Remains of the Day. A novel I will now reread”

“My favourite of the quintet was “Come Rain or Come Shine”. Charlie invites his friend Raymond to visit at a rocky point in his relationship with his wife Emily who thinks he’s not ambitious enough. Raymond realises that his job is to make Charlie look better in comparison to him which, amazingly and very sweetly, he goes along with. The couple’s insistence that Raymond’s life is terrible and his attempts to blame the neighbour’s dog so that Emily won’t know that he read her diary provide welcome humorous touches to a rather bleak collection of stories.”

“This book is composed of five short stories with a romantic theme. The narrator is a would-be star musician. The characters are very believable making it an easy read. 

In each of the stories there is a great affinity between two musicians each sharing a love of music and in two of the stories it is the narrator who is involved in the friendship. Despite having met their soulmate, the relationship is doomed to failure – heads ruling hearts each time. “

“The author is a good storyteller and I found all the plots interesting but felt frustrated that they weren’t full length stories.  For this reason, I would not have chosen to read this book myself.

(Romance is a tricky ingredient in any relationship which in my own experience men find wearisome and abandon very quickly once a relationship is established.)”

“One of his favourite themes seems to be denial. The way we deny our own mortality, the realities of the life we lead, the disconnect between our own grand perception of ourselves and our lowly stations in the eyes of the world. Fascinating stuff, I think, and aptly realised in these stories yet at the conclusion of each I invariably think, “so what?” Perhaps the problem is that he raises questions but refuses to provide answers, or even the slightest inclination of a hint. Perhaps the problem is that denial and impotence are so omnipresent in the worlds he creates. When every single character seems to be living an unfulfilled life it’s hard to sympathise with anyone. Perhaps the only way I can appreciate Ishiguro is to take his ideas outside of the world of his stories, to leave behind the stories altogether, and consider them in another way that is meaningful to me. But to do that would contradict my belief in what stories, and fiction writers, should do.”

“There are similarities between the stories – we encounter Ageism, wealth and hardship and issues redolent of the modern world such as a performer’s appearance. In the first story, “Crooners”, we meet Janek, a struggling guitarist and Mr Gardner, an ageing singer. The story discusses the way age can be the demise of a star and thus set the stage for new talent to emerge. This theme is repeated in “Nocturne” where the main character, Steve is to have cosmetic surgery to improve his looks and thus the possibility of success.”

“I really like the author’s nostalgic, dreamlike, inconclusive quality of his writing. The first person protagonist is like an observer of both himself and those around him. I enjoyed “Nocturne” the most for the originality of its almost absurd setting in in a Hollywood cosmetic surgery establishment where both Ray and Lindy have neighbouring rooms and find themselves talking about their disappointments in life as almost therapy – plus the excitement of their night time prowls though the hotel corridors like naughty children!” A fascinating read and I wouldn’t mind reading more of his books.”

“These are five stories that can stand alone and all have a similar theme. “The Crooner” was, to me, Tony Bennett. He had become more worried about his public image than his marriage of 27 years. “Come Rain or Shine” – the storyteller gets caught between husband and wife who had been his university friends – “Malvern Hills” – a familiar place and a café run by his sister, Maggie and her husband where he selfishly escapes his duties to roam the hills and play his guitar – “Nocturne”, a strange story about two people undergoing cosmetic surgery in adjoining rooms in the hospital undergoing cosmetic surgery and “Cellists” – a young man’s encounter with an older woman who has an overrated opinion of her musical talent. All the stories were sad and depressing and all ended unresolved.” 

 “Five short stories relating to the love of music and the nostalgia it can create. The stories were interrelated in some way and there were the same character(s) in a couple of the stories and the first and last were set in Venice. I lacked interest in the character and their situations. The stories lacked substance – there was no clear sense of purpose to the book and I quickly forget the main elements of it. However, I did appreciate the strength and power music can have and how it can connect people. All the stories were sad with an air of melancholy, trying to regain times or something lost. 

I wouldn’t recommend this book although I did enjoy Ishiguro’s “Remains of the day!”

“This first story is very odd.  The couple a “famous” singer and his wife have an apparently meaningful moment when they hold hands.  Then when the singer and the narrator are making their way on the gondola to serenade the wife, Tony Gardner is apparently describing his wife in what he thinks are flattering terms but actually make her seem very lightweight and a bit dim.  Uneducated and whose ambition was to marry a star not even to become a star.  It didn’t matter which star.  They had nothing to offer and apparently had shallow and avaricious natures.  You are reading this description which could not be less flattering of Tony Gardner’s wife.  

Then Tony Gardner explains that his wife did fall in love with him but now they have to part as he is going to make a comeback and in the similar way that they met it was to her advantage to marry a famous celebrity it was now advantageous for them to part because ….  I was not clear on this – was he supposed to take up with another gold digger but younger? 

Come Rain or Come Shine

The second story seemed comical farcical almost unbearable.  The narrator is leading a life which he is quite satisfied with but looks forward to visits to the couple Emily and Charlie he has known since his uni days.  It seems the one thing he has in common with Emily is the music that they both loved and used to analyse and compare.  This time his visit does not go well.  His friends direct their dissatisfaction towards him.  Berating him for not sorting out a more permanent job and home.  Telling him basically that he is a failure.  At the same time Emily has been dissatisfied with Charlie and expected him to make even more of a success of his life.  Charlie hopes that in comparison with Raymond his wife will find him to be formidable. 

The Malvern Hills story

The narrator is a self-centred young man who thinks the world owes him a living.  He has dropped out of uni hoping to make an entrance into the music entertainment world but has not succeeded and thinks it is everyone else’s lack of judgement.  He goes to stay with his sister and her husband who are struggling to run and business and the understanding is that he will help in the restaurant which he does grudgingly and when it suits him.  He meets a Swiss couple, Tilo and Sonja who have made their living by performing music and are now older.  The wife seems pessimistic and her husband optimistic and sees even the poor hotel that the narrator sends them to as being wonderful.  His wife is disillusioned and at the end of the story it transpires that she had a disagreement with her husband as he sees the Malvern Hills as inspiring and she feels that Elgar was thinking about mountains not Hills.

Nocturne

Lindy Gardner is his neighbour in the hotel which serves as convalescent hospital.  They have both had plastic surgery on their faces.  Once I realised that Lindy Gardner was a character from the first story.  It is very funny in places.  They are thrown together very different characters.  They squabble and become like an odd couple. “Are they both without real talent?”

December 2025 – The Perfect Golden Circle – Benjamin Myers

Their circles create speculation in the press about aliens and people actually pay some of the farmers to see them. The farmers do not object to the circles as no crops are damaged in the making of them.

Some comments from members of the Group:

“I loved this book mostly because it really caught the human need to be creative, albeit in a quite unusual and mysterious way. Myers’ beautiful way with words describing the English countryside and the way the two men felt this so deeply in their bones made for compelling reading. Their feelings of connection to the earth and the past lives lived there is beautifully conveyed and they become consumed by almost superhuman energy as if driven on by past “battle slain bodies of this wonder – England! The repartee and sparse, compact humour between the two friends sometimes reminded me of Shakespeare’s fools or clowns and jesters”

“It is a story of two very unlikely friends where what is not said is louder than what is said. The idea to centre the novel using the crop circles as the focus was brilliant and Myers’ descriptive prose was so good.  “the night steals their thoughts for a few minutes. It drags each man off in a different direction, their feet trapped in the stirrups of a galloping beast called rumination” Each circle becomes more complicated, culminating in the Honeycomb Double Helix, their final achievement.”

“We learn more about their characters in each chapter. The author uses the story as a platform for his own beliefs. Within the framework of the story there are other stories like the fly-tipping, hare coursing, the old lady searching for her dog for 80 years and the meeting with the very posh, very drunk earl – I liked these “

“Redbone and Calvert have had very different paths in their lives but come together due to their mutual love for nature and their disgust with those who disrespect it. They create ever more complicated circles and are amused at the media attention about who was responsible for them and even experts thought they were the work of aliens which leads us to think how close to the truth of this novel”

“I liked the dynamic between these two very different characters. They are moralistic and respectful of Mother Nature and have a deep connection to the land. Their nightly quests do not always go smoothly and they have interruptions from flytippers, a lady with dementia and drunken aristocrats. I enjoyed the book. It was calm and uplifting with a sense of nostalgia. Cleverly written and quite poignant”

“Beautiful poetic prose re English countryside I was particularly interested in the two characters, both very different backgrounds and upbringings but seemingly very close trusting and admiring of each other, military service, trauma of war in the Falklands, dismissive view of government and commonplace life, almost fanatical approach to pursue secret quest for creating corn circles. These guys live in a separate sub culture, one in an old camper van the other in the second smallest house in England, it defies imagination. They have anarchic energy, crazy encounters with folks ie comic engagement with rich entitled landowners. I first heard about corncircles and associated cults when I met In Australia a couple who travelled to England one summer specially to view them. I have recently heard there is another author Andy Thomas who I am led to believe gives very plausible lectures on the paranormal and corn circles . A fascinating novel to read .

“I found this book quite difficult to describe.  There are only two characters in the story, Calvert and Redbone. The story centres on Calvert a veteran of the Falklands conflict and a member of the SAS who is surely suffering from post traumatic stress disorder spending his time creating beauty in the countryside making corn circles with his friend Redbone trying to shut out the horrors of his past experiences.

I find it hard to understand why a man so dedicated to the beauty of the countryside and nature preservation would ever join the army. Whether the making of the corn circles clears him of his guilt is never made clear. I also find it hard to believe that two grown men can walk through a field of corn for a couple of hours and not damage the crop.

I enjoyed the first few chapters describing the nightly visits to the cornfields. The author’s descriptions were very poetic and took me back to my own childhood in the countryside and the beauty I had enjoyed especially the night skies. However, you could only have so much of a good thing, and I quickly got bored and was disappointed that there was no further major action in the story. I really wanted to pick the pair of them up give them a good shake and tell them to get a life!”

November 2025 – The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle – Stuart Turton

Aiden Bishop relives the same day eight times, each time inhabiting bodies of different guests to solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle at a mysterious manor house called Blackheath. He finds himself trapped in a supernatural loop, forced to relive the same day repeatedly, each day occupying the body of a different guest at Blackheath, a decaying manor in the English countryside where a masked ball takes place each night. He has to try and solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle who is destined to die at 11pm that night. If he fails to uncover the murder within the eight iterations, he will be reset and lose all memories of his previous attempts.

Some comments from members:

“I was intrigued by the premise of this book with its original take on the classic murder mystery. As I read, however, I found myself becoming increasingly disinterested. The dazzling pyrotechnics of the storytelling started to feel repetitive and tiresome and, feeling no emotional connection to any of the characters, I have to confess that I gave up well before the (500+ pages) end.”

“Fortunately, I managed to get an audio copy of this book and so I was able to read it quite quickly. However, I didn’t realise there was a list of the characters at the front of the library book, and I got very confused with the characters. This is not my sort of book, and I didn’t take much interest but wanted to know the outcome. After I had finished, I found the list of characters in the book and decided to read the book again to see if I could make more sense of it. I quite enjoyed the first half of the book but then lost interest as more and more unpleasant scenes unravelled. But I did persevere to the end again. 

This is a very dark story like a bad dream on a loop that you can’t get off. The plot is very complicated and even though I read it twice I couldn’t tell you what really happened to Thomas. I thought the idea of retelling the story in different characters was a clever idea but for me it went on too much. Too many evil characters for my liking too many murders and evil doings. It might be clever writing, but no thank you not for me!”

“This book is an imaginative and challenging portrayal of thriller genre. We are introduced to Blackheath, a country pile in decay and decline, a class structure that is gradually crumbling away, changing the outlook of society.

We are challenged with the protagonist morphing from one character to another every day with the purpose of finding out what happens to Evelyn Hardcastle. This has the suggestion of the ancient pagan belief of Shamanism whereby an animal or ancient witch could shapeshift to another being.

As the book progresses, we learn of the secrets of the different characters. In the end, we find out the purpose of the house – the occupants paying for crimes committed. Aiden and Evelyn are released from Blackheath as a result of finding the murderer.”

“Before starting this book, I read the author’s note where he explains his inspiration for the story was Agatha Christie whose book were introduced to him by a neighbour when he was 8 years old. I started reading Agatha Christie at about the same age – my father used to borrow them from the library, and, like a Christie novel, many clues were not recognisable until the end – like the map and invitation before the story and the ongoing appearance of the chess piece. I loved this book, it pulled me in from the start – the setting, the weather, the dilapidate hall, the masked ball, the characters and jumping though time and people – Groundhog Day meets Quantum leap!

Keeping up with the characters was quite a challenge but added to the interest, not being able to distinguish between the good and bad guys until the very end. The final twist was brilliant. I would read this book again.”

“I wanted to make sense of the story from the time Sebastian Bell wakes up in the forest. I thought perhaps he had been drugged and kidnapped. When we are told about the child who had died many years before I thought perhaps, he was implicated and the purpose of gathering the guests was to find out who was guilty. I realised it was going to be difficult when Sebastian woke up in the body of Roger Collins! There were limited ways this could be explained – a nightmare? When it became clear this was not likely to be the case, I lost much interest in the story as it seemed to be slipping into the world of the supernatural or fantasy. I found it rather nightmarish when he woke up in the body of Lord Ravenscroft and his horror of being too fat to manage the stairs or get in and out of the bath unaided.

He doesn’t become another person; he just looks like them and is treated as the “other person”. How many other people are not in their “original” body? He has lost his memory so doesn’t know who he really is – are the others the same? So many questions! If I woke up as someone else, would I co-operate and be that person? Seems unlikely. Is it rather like a computer game…………?”

“I thought the story was an interesting and slightly macabre concept.    

I found the characters and setting to be old fashioned.

It was like an old fashioned ‘who did it’ or a Cluedo game.

Lots of different characters and ‘hosts’ and I sort of lost track to be honest and a little bit of my will to carry on with it! 

It was quite a long read too which added to the angst of it but I did want to know how it would turn out and I thought the ending was good. 

All in all, an OK book for me but too long winded and dragged on. Was complicated and hard to keep up with who was who.”

Previous Reviews can be seen HERE

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