The Melbourne Athenaeum Book Club

Bernhard Schlink – The Reader

The Reader is a compelling meditation on the connections between Germany’s past and its present, dramatised with extreme emotional intelligence as the story of a relationship between the narrator and an older woman. It has won deserved praise across Europe for the tact and power with which it handles its material, both erotic and philosophical.

Ath Book Club comments:

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Chris Cleave – The Other Hand

We don’t want to tell you too much about this book. It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this: It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book More…doesn’t. And it’s what happens afterwards that is most important. Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

Ath Book Club comments:

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Jon Doust – Boy on a Wire

IN THE BOARDING HOUSE IT DOESN’T MATTER who hit you first, or if they miss-hit, you have to get them back. It’s kid against kid, dog against dog. We all have rabies. We all have pinks disease. We’re all foaming at the mouth. Tit for tat, the strong rule the weak, the weak cry. Only those who can find the mean steak in them survive. I’m a survivor. Briggsy taught me that. If you’re weak, unspeakable things happen to you. The bastards won’t get me.

It is the 1960s in Perth, Western Australia. For Thomas Muir – cool and steady – life is a thing that goes on outside him. But for his brother, hot-headed Jack – believer in honesty and justice – life must be wrestled to be understood.

Jack Muir’s years of survival and his coming of age in a boys’ boarding school are sharply revealed in this dislocated memoir. Jack’s story is funny and raw. It will strike a nerve in those who were there – and in anyone who has ever asked how it is that one becomes a man.

Ath Book Club comments:

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Peter Hoeg – Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow (Rating: 4)

One snowy day in Copenhagen, six-year-old Isaiah falls to his death from a city rooftop. The police pronounce it an accident. But Isaiah’s neighbour, Smilla, suspects murder. She embarks on a dangerous quest to find the truth, following a path of clues as clear to her as footsteps in the snow.

Ath Book Club comments:
The Ath Book Club gave special praise for the detailed descriptions of landscapes, the social/historical aspects of Denmark vs. Greenland and also the detailed technical knowledge. Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow is a fast moving story where the author maintained the suspension. It is also a very dark story with an unresolved ending. The characters are interesting but all of them have a mysterious side that doesn’t clearly come to the open – Nordic depression perhaps.
The action and violence was raw and fast moving – as if the author didn’t quite know how to write it, being such an interesting and skilled writer in all other aspects. The high rating from the Ath Book Club is for the “feeling for snow” and not that much for Miss Smilla and her actions.

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Richard Yates – Revolutionary Road (Rating: 4)

Hailed as a masterpiece from its first publication, Revolutionary Road is the story of Frank and April Wheeler, a bright young couple who are bored by the banalities of suburban life and long to be extraordinary. With heartbreaking compassion and clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April’s decision to change their lives for the better leads to betrayal and tragedy.

Ath Book Club comments:
Revolutionary Road is an exposé of American marriage in the 50s and also a shattering of the American dream. The main characters are not very likeable: Frank is weak, self absorbed misogynist and his wife April is irritating, manipulative and unrealistic. Frank and April’s purpose in life was to be an “extraordinary couple”, a goal they didn’t reach that well. The other characters are well depicted.
Yates has managed to write an utterly gripping novel about nobody and nothing. The character building is intricate; Yates builds and dissects their motivations and relationships and skilfully increases a sense of dread. Revolutionary Road is a wonderfully written, relentlessly depressive novel. The Ath Book Club simply loved it!

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Peter Klein – Punter’s Turf (Rating: 3.5)

Peter Klein’s first book was his racing world memoir, A Strapper’s Tale. He now works in the media as racing manager for Australian Associated Press and, having spent his working life in horseracing and working for some of the top horse trainers, his credentials are good for this crime mystery set in and around the racetrack. John Punter, in his second outing, is a gambler and amateur private investigator who, right from the start, is drawn into an actioncharged scenario when the daughter of a bookmaker friend is abducted in Melbourne. When a young jockey dies under suspicious circumstances, and a local trainer hits a run of rare bad luck, Punter finds himself drawn further into a web of underworld crimes, which prove to be more personally dangerous than he could have anticipated. The book is full of colourful characters, and the realistic racing jargon will appeal to those who keenly follow the form guides. If you enjoy a Dick Francis-style thriller with a healthy dose of the Robert G Barrett style Aussie larrikin hero thrown in, this will do just fine for some light-hearted entertainment.

Ath Book Club comments:
Punter’s Turf is a page turner. The main character, Punter, seems to be almost too smart to be a professional punter. He is also very lucky and sensitive with his investments and almost too reasonable and restrained. If this is believable, none of the Ath Book Club members could say. Oakie, however, was one of the favourite characters as well as the Melbourne setting.
Klein’s writing is straightforward and easily readable. There is some nice humour and affectionate descriptions of racing life identities are done in an enthusiastic manner. Punter’s Turf also gave an insight to a world that is not very familiar to most of the Ath Book Club members.

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