2016 reviews
NOVEMBER: SKY BURIAL by XINRAN
This is the story of a young Chinese women, Sue Wen, who went to Tibet in the late 1950s to search for her husband of a few weeks. He had joined the 'liberation' army which invaded Tibet believing that, as a doctor, he would do some good. Sue Wen was not satisfied with the explanation given for his disappearance. She joined the army as doctor as the only way to get into Tibet, escaped an attack, was rescued and finally taken in by a Tibetan family. She spent 30 years with this nomadic family and eventually came back to her home town and a very changed China.
The major part of the book has the huge expanse of the remote area of Tibet beyond the Chinese influence as its main theme. The group thought this was very well drawn and all felt the emptiness and the vastness. The family Sue Wen was with lived without modern possessions, not even knowing of their existence, relying entirely on the land and their animals. The struggle of Sue Wen to come to terms with this life and learn the language were beautifully described as was the spirituality and inner strength of these nomadic people.
The book was generally enjoyed by everyone. There was a range of opinions on whether it was based on a true story. We all wanted it to be true. It was an epic tale.
OCTOBER: H IS FOR HAWK BY HELEN McDONALD
“H is for Hawk” was a challenging read but a choice that met the criteria for a book club choice. It made us all think.
It is a popular read and widely recommended and, this month, it was Joan’s choice. We were in good company as Barack Obama had also chosen this for his summer read!
This is a biography by Helen McDonald written after the death of her father. She is wracked by grief and becomes obsessed with the idea of taming a goshawk. This obsession springs from the closeness she had with her father as a child, when she was determined to become a falconer.
Having bought Mabel for £800 on a Scottish quayside, she took her home to Cambridge and began the strange business of trying to tame this most wildest of animals. The memoir continues taking the reader through the almost impossible process of training Mabel whilst coming to terms with her grief. The theme of the book - memory, nature and reconciling death with life and love was not an easy read and the members’ opinion ranged from “a good read” to “too difficult to tackle”.
It was generally agreed that the descriptive parts were brilliant and that the information about training hawks and hawks in general was fascinating. But it was thought by some to be rather an academic book and that the author's profound grief made her irrational and that she had a complete disregard for the feelings of those close to her. This did not make her a likeable person. There was some aversion to the training of birds in principle and it was felt that there was too much emphasis on “little fluffy things” and the brutality of the natural world, especially when the author joined in the killing.