"The Rules of Inheritance" does not inspire

Claire Bidwell Smith's memoir which traces her self-destructive lifestyle following the loss of both of her parents at a relatively early age failed to inspire most of our readers. One of our readers tuned into her compassion and was able to empathise with Claire as she wisely concluded that never having been in Claire's shoes she could not predict what her grieving process would have been in a similar situation. Most of our readers found the length, self-destructive and repetitive nature of Claire's grieving quite frustrating and irritating.

Some found the non-linear structure confusing while others kindly pointed out that the book was structured according to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's five stages of grief: denial, anger,bargaining, depression and acceptance. Some found it difficult to differentiate between the supposedly different stages as it seemed to be just more and more of the same. Kubler-Ross herself is keen to point out that there are no rules for grief and that the five stages are just a cognitive skeletal framework which is prescriptive for neither time endured nor sequence.

Overall, it seemed that the most positive thing most could say was that it was printed in a manner that encouraged efficient reading. It was not the most pleasurable foray into non-fiction.

Despite a mostly negative reaction to this book, our members are still pleased to be reading outside of their comfort zone and experimenting with different authors and genres.

We return to fiction with our next novel "All the Light We Cannot See"" by Anthony Doerr.

 



We'll meet to discuss this title on Thursday 29 January, 2015 at Gordon White Library.

Don't forget our MRCL Book Club Christmas get together at Gordon White Library Community Meeting Room from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm on Thursday 18 December. Don't forget to bring along some finger food to share and some beverages to suit your personal taste!

Looking forward to seeing you there and have the chance to talk more about books!