Didsbury book group

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Set in the infamous Salem, The Lace Reader concerns an admittedly insane protagonist and her return to her childhood home.

Amidst a tale of death, magic, lies and, for some reason, lace, she tells the reader about her past and why she’s been damaged so badly. (continue reading…)

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I always feel a certain amount of trepidation before reading books like this. Best seller in 2005, on the New York Times list for 21 weeks and a finalist for the Michael L. Printz Award in 2007. Not to mention all the hype on the net and from people who’ve read it; the build up gets so big it gets harder to appreciate the story.

So, does this book deliver? Well, nearly. To extend the metaphor, I think it’s been delivered to a house a couple of doors down from me and now Amazon won’t give me a refund.
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I have vague recollections of seeing one of the many dramatisations inspired by this novel. I think I found it quite dry and pointless, as well as far from the ‘Horror’ it poported to be. I thought I’d give the book a chance though as, with very few exceptions, ‘the book’ is generally better than ‘the film’.

Blimey.
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Just in case any of the three people in the western world that aren’t aware of this story are reading this, here’s a brief sum-up.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a well known and much despised miser living in Victorian London. He hordes his wealth and seldom has a good word to say about anyone or anything.
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Translated into over 50 languages and selling over 40 million copies worldwide, Paulo Coelho’s best known work really has a lot to live up to.
The work is clearly an allegorical novel; though the author does state in the foreword that he tried to put as much ‘Truth’ as possible into the story.
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Let me just preface this by saying that I really, really like this book. This was my sixth or seventh time through and I’m still finding things I’ve missed before or understanding some scenes in new ways.

That said, the discourse last night did highlight some of the issues with such an ambitious project that I’ve missed for some reason. (continue reading…)