'The Sound of Our Steps' fails to resonate

Ronit Matalon's The Sound of  Our Steps has won the 2009 Bernstein Prize for Best Original Novel and the 2013 Prix Alberto-Benveniste but failed to win the hearts or minds of our book clubbers.

Most of our readers had found its structure difficult to read. A sign of their struggles was that most had resorted to reading the book's concluding chapter during their read to see whether it was worth continuing the battle. Most also found that this did not necessarily help so they plodded on in the hope of further enlightenment. Some mentioned that the shortness of some of the chapters was considered a bonus but found the lack of linear plot line very confusing. They observed that the jumping around might have been more tolerable if there was some indicator of where the vignette belonged in relation to the other chapters.

As so many folk had experienced difficulty with the book, we resorted to looking at reviews (one by David Cooper for Amazon and one by Dinah Assouline Stillman for World Literature Today) to see if any more light could be shed on the novel.

From these reviews we found it was considered a largely autobiographical novel with a novelistic twist and some of our readers felt it might have been more successful if it was presented as an unadulterated autobiography.

According to David Cooper, this novel conveyed Ronit Matalon's family story 'via a non-linear plot' with often quite short chapters utilising a variety of forms including 'direct conventional realist narration, anaphora, poetic prose, dense multipage paragraphs comprising a single compound sentence, magical realism,....and....found texts ... presented verbatim in italics' thus combining 'western and middle eastern narrative styles'. This led to discussion about the influence of culture (both the writer's and the reader's) on the experience of a novel and how one's pre-conceived expectations could colour the enjoyment of a book, especially when these expectations and experience are found to be out of step with each other.

Dinah Assouline Stillman's interview with Ronit Matalon revealed that the author had intended most of all 'for this book ....to be a witness'. She wanted to 'show this diversity of viewpoints about our stories'. This intent guided the book's structure. 'Far from being a traditional novel with a central, imaginary plot...it is composed of a multitude of anecdotes and vignettes, fragmented like the memories you are drawing from.'

Some of our readers commented that these reviews helped them appreciate and understand the book more while others were not quite so convinced. Our readers found the diversity of forms used confusing. They were never quite sure whether what they were reading was intended as a memory of an event or a dream and to follow on from this they were often lost as to why something was included and what was the purpose of its inclusion.

Our readers are quite an inventive group and there were many different approaches made by individuals to endeavour to make sense of this book. One desperate, creative reader decided to take the title of the novel literally and so tried to read the book as they walked to the rhythm of the prose. What they found was the pace picked up to the extent that they could not keep up. This approach generated much discussion and hilarity.

The characters, especially Lucette and Maurice,produced much discussion. Most considered the family as dysfunctional but others argued there was sufficient evidence to refute this. Many found Lucette's erratic behaviour made it difficult to sympathise with her plight despite her difficult life. Some argued that she was better off than many in her predicament. There was a little confusion as to the family's background, but group discussion helped sort out the details to everyone's satisfaction.

Some of our readers had felt that their inability to come to grips with this novel was a personal failing and therefore, despite their travails were determined to finish this book, especially as our last book club selection had proved unreadable for all but one of our group. Therefore it came as a great relief  that everyone had struggled with this novel also. Book club certainly provides a place where people can share their individual reactions to a book in a social environment and thus the individual experience contributes to a collective one which seems to enhance everyone's understanding.

After the experience of our last two book club selections our readers were facing the reveal of our next book club selection with a little trepidation. The Travels of Daniel Ascher by Deborah Levy-Bertherat is a much smaller book and is peppered with delightful drawings. Hopefully folk will enjoy this lighter read more. After the challenge of our last two reads it may prove too light for our enhanced 'reading muscles'. As always, our next book club will certainly prove interesting!

I'll investigate some reviews of this novel and post them to our next blog.

Happy reading.........

This Thursday it's time for Between The Lines Book Club!

Discussion on The Sound of our Steps by Ronit Matalon will echo off the walls of the Community Meeting Room at the Gordon White Library.

Looking forward to hearing how you made your way through this novel!

See you on Thursday at 6.00pm at the Community Meeting Room at the Gordon White Library!

Happy reading!!!!

'The Sound of our Steps' accompanies our February read

Ronit Matalon set this novel in a thorny, sandy Israeli migrant camp and some of its characters are just as dry and prickly.

In May 2015 this review was written by Kirkus Review while Ranen Omer-Sherman wrote this about Ronit Matalon's largely autobiographical novel.

I certainly found this a difficult book to read quickly. Looking forward to hearing other readers' views when we meet on Thursday 25 February at Gordon White Library.

Josh Cohen's 'Book of Numbers' numbs most

This huge tome was to keep folk busy over the Christmas two month break. With a couple of exceptions what kept most people busy were the emails about how they were struggling with the book to the point that most gave up. One avid reader was intending to keep reading on but unfortunately became discouraged by the email traffic.

One enthusiastic reader was thoroughly enjoying the novel and finding it a 'laugh out loud' experience. She had not finished the novel but was very keen to do so.She could not wait to see how everything turned out. Most had read and then even flicked through, trying to see if the novel improved but usually without further encouragement. They found the style very difficult and Joshua Cohen's fondness for creating new words and his own vocabulary created confusion rather than clarity. The vast majority came to the conclusion that life was too short to spend time with these characters. One of our readers hopes to return to the novel at a later date but most were keen to toss it aside and leave it behind.

We move to the migrant camps of Israel for our next read, Ronit Matalon's The Sound of our Steps.

I'll include more information on this novel in the next post. It'll be interesting to  hear folks' experience of this next novel.

Keep on reading........

A hefty tome for Christmas reading

Our keen readers wanted something to keep them busy over the Christmas break. Joshua Cohen's The Book of Numbers: a novel appears to fit the bill.

It certainly has an intriguing cover.  Steven Poole reviewing for The Guardian does not appear to be a great fan. Mark Sarvas from The New York Times wrote this lengthy review.

It appears this novel will give many of us an opportunity to read outside of our comfort zone and that's one of the reasons book clubs exist. If one reads in bed this novel will certainly help build the biceps and maybe even assist counteract Christmas calories.

We'll meet to recount our experience of this novel on the last Thursday in January, 2016.

End of year Book Club Chatathon goes well

Fourteen people from the three Mackay Regional Council Libraries Book Clubs met to share delicious food and delightful conversation on all things books. It was a wonderful way to round off another successful year of book clubbing. Closing time came long before topics had been spent so it was a bit of a rush to wash up, tidy and pack up.

Both BTLBC and CBC have opted to have a book selected for the Christmas break so we'll be able to hit the ground running in 2016.

Wishing all book clubbers a wonderful Christmas and looking forward to much animated discussion about books in 2016!

Buzzing about Jimmy Flick

Chat about Sophie Laguna's The Eye of the Sheep ebbed and flowed. There was discussion about the way the author used pace to accentuate Jimmy Flick's thought processes. Most of our readers really enjoyed the way she told the story from Jimmy's perspective. Some thought the younger Jimmy was more authentic than the older Jimmy though. Some of our readers commented on the way the reader was left guessing as to defining what Jimmy's difficulties actually were. He just summed it up himself when he talks about sometimes being too fast and other times being too slow. The author really let the reader into Jimmy's head though which most of our readers found really intriguing.

Most of our readers enjoyed the descriptions of Jimmy's relationship with his big cuddly mother and the way the relationship between his father and the Cutty Sark bottle was portrayed. The way Jimmy's perception of his father's relationship with alcohol was written was also appreciated by our readers.

There was much discussion about the plight of  children who lose their single parent. The pressures on foster carers was spoken about and some of our readers had had personal experience of the system and how because of under-resourcing there was a lot of duress exerted on active foster carers to continue beyond their ability to perform effectively. Jimmy Flick's foster carers were so exhausted by their long term custody of difficult children that they were unable to effectively cope with the plight of Jimmy Flick. There were comparisons drawn between Liam in The Eye of the Sheep and Garrick in Golden Boys and how they were the victims of unsupportive family lives and the way this anger was transferred from generation to generation.

Our readers were divided as to whether there were grounds for an optimistic outlook for Jimmy's future. Some thought that Jimmy's dad's addiction to alcohol and his reliance on it when times became tough did not bode well for Jimmy's future. Others were more confident that Jimmy's own resilience would win through despite adversity. There was general agreement that despite its greyness, this novel had a more positive essence than our last novel, Sonya Hartnett's Golden Boys.

Between the Lines Book Club will now take a break over the Christmas holiday period. We meet next year on Thursday 28 January. Some folks were happy to take a break from selected reading and enjoy their own choices over the holidays while others were enthusiastic about sampling Josh Cohen's tome, Book of Numbers. We agreed that it would probably take the two months to get through. It certainly gives us an experience of a genre that we have not dipped into previously.

Summer is shaping up to be a hot one so hopefully you'll be able to find a cool spot to enjoy reading whatever you fancy.

Wishing all BTLBCers and their families a safe happy Christmas and an exciting 2016 crammed chock-a-block with fulfilling reads!