The Book Club Bible: The Definitive Guide That Every Book Club Member Needs

Copyright

First published in Great Britain in 2007 by

Michael O’Mara Books Limited

9 Lion Yard

Tremadoc Road

London SW4 7NQ

This electronic edition published in 2011

ISBN: 978-1-84317-761-6 in EPub format

ISBN: 978-1-84317-762-3 in Mobipocket format

ISBN: 978-1-84317-269-7 in paperback print format

Copyright © Michael O’Mara Books Limited 2007

Foreword copyright © Lionel Shriver 2007

Every reasonable effort has been made to acknowledge all copyright holders. Any errors or omissions that may have occurred are inadvertent, and anyone with any copyright queries is invited to write to the publishers, so that a full acknowledgement may be included in subsequent editions of this work.

All rights reserved. You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Designed and typeset by Martin Bristow

www.mombooks.com

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Foreword

Editors’ Notes

Introduction: A Book Club Member Speaks

Things Fall Apart by CHINUA ACHEBE

Half of a Yellow Sun by CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

Brick Lane by MONICA ALI

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by MAYA ANGELOU

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by KATE ATKINSON

The Handmaid’s Tale by MARGARET ATWOOD

The Wasp Factory by IAIN BANKS

Light a Penny Candle by MAEVE BINCHY

Lorna Doone by R. D. BLACKMORE

Midwives by CHRIS BOHJALIAN

Any Human Heart by WILLIAM BOYD

The Thirty-Nine Steps by JOHN BUCHAN

A Clockwork Orange by ANTHONY BURGESS

TOP TEN BRITISH AND AMERICAN CLASSICS

TOP TEN WORLD CLASSICS

Oscar and Lucinda by PETER CAREY

Wise Children by ANGELA CARTER

2001: A Space Odyssey by ARTHUR C. CLARKE

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by SUSANNA CLARKE

What a Carve Up! by JONATHAN COE

The Alchemist by PAULO COELHO

The Woman in White by WILKIE COLLINS

Heart of Darkness by JOSEPH CONRAD

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES

The Inheritance of Loss by KIRAN DESAI

House of Sand and Fog by ANDRE DUBUS III

Rebecca by DAPHNE DU MAURIER

A Spell of Winter by HELEN DUNMORE

TOP TEN QUICK READS

TOP TEN CHALLENGING READS

Middlesex by JEFFREY EUGENIDES

As I Lay Dying by WILLIAM FAULKNER

Birdsong by SEBASTIAN FAULKS

The Great Gatsby by F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

A Room with a View by E. M. FORSTER

The Corrections by JONATHAN FRANZEN

Love in the Time of Cholera by GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ

Mary Barton by ELIZABETH GASKELL

Cold Comfort Farm by STELLA GIBBONS

Lord of the Flies by WILLIAM GOLDING

The Tin Drum by GÜNTER GRASS

The End of the Affair by GRAHAM GREENE

The Secret River by KATE GRENVILLE

TOP TEN MEN’S BOOKS

TOP TEN NON-FICTION BOOKS

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by PATRICK HAMILTON

Five Quarters of the Orange by JOANNE HARRIS

The Go-Between by L. P. HARTLEY

The Scarlet Letter by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Catch-22 by JOSEPH HELLER

Notes on a Scandal by ZOË HELLER

To Have and Have Not by ERNEST HEMINGWAY

This Book Will Save Your Life by A. M. HOMES

The Kite Runner by KHALED HOSSEINI

Atomised by MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ

Brave New World by ALDOUS HUXLEY

A Prayer for Owen Meany by JOHN IRVING

The Remains of the Day by KAZUO ISHIGURO

TOP TEN BOOKS WITH A YOUNGER PERSPECTIVE

TOP TEN HUMOROUS READS

The Turn of the Screw by HENRY JAMES

The Secret Life of Bees by SUE MONK KIDD

The Girls by LORI LANSENS

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. LAWRENCE

To Kill a Mockingbird by HARPER LEE

Small Island by ANDREA LEVY

Atonement by IAN MCEWAN

Life of Pi by YANN MARTEL

Liars and Saints by MAILE MELOY

Cloud Atlas by DAVID MITCHELL

Beloved by TONI MORRISON

Labyrinth by KATE MOSSE

Norwegian Wood by HARUKI MURAKAMI

TOP TEN WAR BOOKS

TOP TEN CRIME BOOKS

The Sea, The Sea by IRIS MURDOCH

Lolita by VLADIMIR NABOKOV

Suite Française by IRÈNE NÉMIROVSKY

The Time Traveler’s Wife by AUDREY NIFFENEGGER

Nineteen Eighty-Four by GEORGE ORWELL

Bel Canto by ANN PATCHETT

The Pact by JODI PICOULT

Woman on the Edge of Time by MARGE PIERCY

Vernon God Little by D. B. C. PIERRE

The Bell Jar by SYLVIA PLATH

Housekeeping by MARILYNNE ROBINSON

The Human Stain by PHILIP ROTH

The God of Small Things by ARUNDHATI ROY

TOP TEN GAY READS

TOP TEN CULT CLASSICS

Midnight’s Children by SALMAN RUSHDIE

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. SALINGER

Drowning Ruth by CHRISTINA SCHWARZ

The Lovely Bones by ALICE SEBOLD

The Bookseller of Kabul by ASNE SEIERSTAD

Fortune’s Rocks by ANITA SHREVE

We Need to Talk About Kevin by LIONEL SHRIVER

On Beauty by ZADIE SMITH

Sophie’s Choice by WILLIAM STYRON

Perfume by PATRICK SÜSKIND

The Secret History by DONNA TARTT

The Colour by ROSE TREMAIN

The Story of Lucy Gault by WILLIAM TREVOR

TOP TEN SCI-FI BOOKS

TOP TEN CHILLING READS

Marrying the Mistress by JOANNA TROLLOPE

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by MARK TWAIN

Rabbit, Run by JOHN UPDIKE

The Color Purple by ALICE WALKER

The Night Watch by SARAH WATERS

Brideshead Revisited by EVELYN WAUGH

Mrs Dalloway by VIRGINIA WOOLF

The Shadow of the Wind by CARLOS RUIZ ZAFÓN

The Book Thief by MARKUS ZUSAK

Acknowledgements

Foreword

I own a threadbare T-shirt that says, ‘Life’s too short to drink bad wine.’ An even savvier T-shirt would say, ‘Life’s too short to read bad books.’ There really should be a word for that particular resentment you feel after ploughing through hundreds of pages that didn’t pay off. A single reliable book recommendation can spare you hours of annoyance, impatience and disgust.

The Book Club Bible is like that one trustworthy friend upon whose taste you can pretty much rely. Dozens of my lifetime favourite reads appear in this guide, too many to itemize – although as a test I did check that one of my very, very favourite novels is indeed included (The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton – see here). Usefully, this reference covers a wide range of both classics and popular fiction; you don’t want to read only one or the other, any more than you’d want to dine day after day on steak alone, or on nothing but summer pudding. While about a third of these entries I haven’t read myself, given the high quality of the selections that I have, I’m now putting the unread third on my private ‘to do’ list.

Though this guide is handy for individuals, it’s obviously aimed at book clubs – about which, among the cultural elite, I sometimes detect a tinge of condescension. Maybe they just feel left out – and, in comparison to regular book club denizens, poorly read. Surely it’s more stimulating to get together and talk about Kazuo Ishiguro’s exquisite paean to servitude and emotional repression, The Remains of the Day, than to discuss kitchen remodelling, football scores or the state of the FTSE 100.

Book clubs often bring disparate people together, of different ages, ethnicities and outlooks. They help members get to know each other – and themselves – with a depth that chit-chat about property prices can’t match. Was Anna Karenina really in love with Vronsky, or merely entranced by a romantic idea? You learn a lot about your own values when you try to reconcile sympathy for Yossarian’s flight from the insanity of air force life with a moral discomfort over any Allied soldier going AWOL in the Second World War. (Catch-22 – hilarious, and if you haven’t devoured it already, a must-read.)

I consider the burgeoning popularity of book clubs one of the most encouraging social developments of recent times. Nothing delights me more in signing queues than when a boisterous cluster of readers declares that they had ‘one of the best book club meetings ever’ when discussing one of my novels. The claim consistently decodes: ‘We got into a huge fight.’ So the most fruitful selections for clubs aren’t necessarily books that everyone loves, but especially the ones about which members violently disagree.

True, I spotted three or four selections included here (I won’t say which) that I couldn’t bear. But that just means that, at a book club meeting, I’d go bug-eyed with denunciation, and meanwhile three other folks would rail that it was one of the finest books they’d ever read. Someone tell Tony Bennett – that’s entertainment.

LIONEL SHRIVER, New York, 2007

Editors’ Notes

•  There’s no wrong or right way to ‘use’ The Book Club Bible: you can skip straight to the books you’ve heard of, work your way through alphabetically, or concentrate on your favourite genre or author.

•  In compiling the title selection, we made a rule that an author could be featured only once, and limited the choice to full-length books, so there are no plays, poetry or short stories.

•  Each entry has been penned by a different writer, which accounts for the variations in style and approach.

•  We’ve tried to include critical comments that go beyond gushing praise to something a little more thought-provoking.

•  The book length provided relates to the edition the reviewer possessed; the number of pages may vary in other editions.

Introduction:

A Book Club Member Speaks

I belong to a book group that meets monthly, and over the last three years I’ve discovered some astonishing writing, made some good friends and quaffed plenty of wine. I’ve also enjoyed some furious debates – we’ve discussed gender politics, parental responsibility, deviant sexuality and the future of society. I have read and loved books I would never have chosen myself and heard fresh perspectives on some of my favourite novels.

Yet there is always a moment of agony at every meeting. What shall we read next? There is always a sinking feeling when you realize that the moment of choice has come round again and you can’t name a single book, let alone suggest one that you would be happy to inflict on your book club and then discuss in detail. Add in the caprices of your group and it’s a minefield.

This, then, is why you need this book. No longer will you flounder when asked to recommend a title. No longer will you propose a book only to find that there’s not much to say about it, or that it simply wasn’t the rapturous read it promised. The 100 entries in this book – and the themed ‘top tens’ – will provide inspiration.

Each featured title is described by a non-spoiler synopsis, so you can consider whether or not to read it without having the ending ruined. Furthermore, there are suggested discussion points to stimulate debate and abolish that dreadful pause at the beginning of every meeting. For those of you dedicated enough to read two books a time, or for those who wish to continue a debate at the next session that draws on a different writer’s perspective, complementary titles are recommended.

This guide was well received by my book group. I wish you the same enjoyment in discovering stories that may change your world.

ANA SAMPSON, LONDON, 2007

Things Fall Apart

CHINUA ACHEBE

Published 1958 / Length 148 pages

Things Fall Apart follows the ambitions and struggles of Okonkwo, a prominent member of a pre-colonial Igbo village in what is now Nigeria, as he strives to maintain his high standing within his community in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Okonkwo has overcome a disadvantaged childhood to become a successful man, but he seems fated to lose the status he cherishes. His blind commitment to traditional values undermines his relationship with his family, particularly his son Nwoye. He is prepared to make great sacrifices in order to preserve his position in the village, yet Okonkwo’s world is changing, as British colonial rule begins to encroach upon the Igbo way of life. Achebe portrays the colonial experience from an African perspective: the European culture promoted by the invading authorities represents a challenge to Okonkwo’s identity, one he must overcome in order to survive. Written in the late 1950s against the backdrop of Nigeria’s journey towards independence, the book raises questions about collective identity, morality and self-alienation, and constitutes the foundation of modern African literature in English.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

‘Achebe is the conscience of African literature because he has consistently insisted on the power of storytellers to appeal to the morality and humanity of their readers and to give their life fuller meaning.’ – SIMON GIKANDI, Professor of Literature, in his introductory essay to the Heinemann Classics in Context edition of the novel

DISCUSSION POINTS

•  Okonkwo has been described as a classic tragic hero, but at times his actions make it difficult for the reader to identify with him. Why do you think Achebe makes his protagonist so morally ambiguous?

•  How do the characters of Ezinma, Nwoye and Ikemefuna reflect the strengths and limitations of Igbo society?

•  Why do you think Achebe includes descriptions of the more troubling Igbo customs, such as the abandoning of twin babies? Isn’t there a danger of alienating Western readers from the society he is depicting?

•  Things Fall Apart repeatedly emphasizes the importance of oral storytelling in Igbo culture. How does the telling of stories affect the way in which Achebe’s novel is narrated?

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

•  Achebe is an internationally renowned Nigerian academic who drew on his own family’s experience of colonization to write this, his first novel. The story of Okonkwo’s family is continued in No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964).

•  The title of the novel is taken from a line of W. B. Yeats’s poem ‘The Second Coming’.

•  Things Fall Apart is the most widely read African novel and has been translated into fifty different languages, leading to Achebe being identified as the man who ‘invented’ modern African literature.

SUGGESTED COMPANION BOOKS

•  A Grain of Wheat by NGUGI WA THIONG’O – detailing the effects of colonization on Kenyan identity during the 1952–60 Emergency.

•  The Tin Drum by GÜNTER GRASS (see here) – exploring cultural alienation and the individual.

•  Baudolino by UMBERTO ECO – the importance of storytelling.

Half of a Yellow Sun

CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

Published 2006 / Length 448 pages

Chilling violence erupted during the Nigeria–Biafra War, between 1967 and 1970, when the Igbo of eastern Nigeria sought to form an independent republic of Biafra; it is this important period of African history that is the focus of Half of a Yellow Sun. Adichie compellingly evokes the personal as well as the political, with three main characters at the heart of the story: Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old houseboy who spends his days scrubbing the floors and polishing the dishes of a university professor; the professor’s beautiful lover Olanna, a young middle-class woman who has abandoned her privileged life in Lagos; and Richard, a shy Englishman who is bewitched by Olanna’s twin sister. The novel depicts these characters’ struggles as they are forced to test their ideals and loyalties under the shadow of the Nigerian troops’ advance. As well as being an exploration of war and related issues such as moral responsibility and allegiance, this is at heart also a powerful love story.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

‘Literary reflections on the Biafra war have a long and distinguished history, from the most famous poet to have died in the war, Christopher Okigbo, to Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi and Flora Nwapa. Born in 1977, Adichie is part