The Ventnor Reading Group meet on a regular basis to discuss the books they’ve been reading. Last month it was the turn of William Boyd’s Restless.
Here’s what they had to say. If you’ve read it, let us know what you think by leaving a comment at the bottom.
“..a really good read..I engaged with the characters and wanted to know what happened..”
“.. really enjoyed it and will read more of his work..”
“..obviously a man writing about women..made his women very ‘feminine’ – almost cardboard cutouts – perhaps his secret woman., beautiful, intelligent and dangerous?..”
“.. historically interesting – I knew little about the shenanigans of the British Secret Service trying to involve the U.S. in what many Americans felt was a foreign war..”
“… it was published in 2006..does it allude to we shouldn’t have been involved in?..”
“.. the title accurately described the restless/rootless nature of the dispossessed..”
“..Eva is manipulated by her father and Romer. I was disappointed that there was not enough examination of her relationship with her brother which seems so central to the plot…”
“..there was a strange disconnectedness about Eva – is this explained by her experiences of loss of country as a child…or her mother’s death…interesting examination of what makes a good spy..does it help to have almost psychopathic tendencies?..”
“..has a lot of the book ben edited out?..there are two story lines begging to be exploited …her relationship with her brother and the Baader Meinhoff/Iranian connection .. however if he had included them the book would have been enormous! Perhaps he is keeping it for another time!..”
“..Could a woman really display such single-mindedness in defence of something other than her child?..”
We meet again on January 13th and are now reading W. Somerset Maugham – quite a contrast!
If anyone is interested in joining the group please telephone Tess on 852039 or pop in to the Library for more details.
