Literary Ch Ch Changes • September 2018

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Help select what we'll read next!


The topic is Ch Ch Changes

As September marks the change of the seasons, this lit club month revolves around change. It's very open to interpretation, but could allow us to get in some recommendations that haven't fit here or in other clubs.


Detailed nominating and voting guidelines can be found here. Basically, nominations are open for four days and each person may nominate up to three literary selections which will go automatically to the vote. Voting by post then opens for four days, and a voter may give each nomination either one or two votes but only has a limited number of votes to use which is equal to the number of nominations minus one. Any questions, feel free to ask.

We hope that you will read the selection with us and join in the discussion.

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Nominations and voting are complete. Final results-

• Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
  Post . Goodreads . 326 Pages . Votes 1 . Run-off – . 2017 . Bermuda & England
  
  
• The Judge by Rebecca West
  Post . Goodreads . 426 Pages . Votes 5 . Run-off 0 . 1922 . England
  
  
• The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
  Post . Goodreads . 292 Pages . Votes 5 . Run-off 2 . 1952 . United States
  
  
• The Shooting Party by Isabel Colegate
  Post . Goodreads . 195 Pages . Votes 2 . Run-off – . 1980 . England
  
  
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
  Post . Goodreads . 324 Pages . Votes 2 . Run-off – . 2006 . France

[Bookworm_Girl]

My first nomination is Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor which was the 2017 Costa Novel Award winner and also long-listed for the 2017 Man Booker Prize. I read this book earlier this year and really enjoyed the unique perspective on following the changes in the people and the village through the seasons and years following the disappearance of a teenage girl.

From Goodreads:

Midwinter in an English village. A teenage girl has gone missing. Everyone is called upon to join the search. The villagers fan out across the moors as the police set up roadblocks and a crowd of news reporters descends on what is usually a place of peace. Meanwhile, there is work that must still be done: cows milked, fences repaired, stone cut, pints poured, beds made, sermons written, a pantomime rehearsed. As the seasons unfold and the search for the missing girl goes on, there are those who leave the village and those who are pulled back; those who come together and those who break apart. There are births and deaths; secrets kept and exposed; livelihoods made and lost; small kindnesses and unanticipated betrayals. An extraordinary novel of cumulative power and grace, RESERVOIR 13 explores the rhythms of the natural world and the repeated human gift for violence, unfolding over thirteen years as the aftershocks of a tragedy refuse to subside.

[Bookworm_Girl]

My second nomination is The Judge by Rebecca West. It is about "the different ways that love can change the course of our lives, for better or worse."

From Amazon US:

A brilliant romantic novel that traces the generational pulls of love and fidelity

At seventeen, Ellen Melville’s life is filled with passion for the suffrage movement, her mother, and Edinburgh, if not romance. Then Richard Yaverland, a successful older man, enters her life. Haunted by his own illegitimacy, Richard wants to avert the pain that left his mother a bitter woman even as he kindles a passionate romance. As Ellen and Richard tentatively try on the roles of lovers, the spark of a new relationship will inspire the people around them to consider their own connections.

As West’s clever and enchanting heroine falls in love, she inspires the reader to reflect on the different ways that love can change the course of our lives, for better or worse.

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There's a little less than half a day left for nominations.

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I recently watched Carol and thought it was fantastic. It's based on the semi-autobiographical book The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (which in some editions is now retroactively titled Carol after the film). I think this fits the topic because it's a bit of a change from many of our selections and also because the main characters go through some profound change. It was first published under a pseudonym to protect Highsmith's career. I also thought it could be interesting for our club because it is rumoured that a previous lit club selection, Lolita, included a certain plot element (I don't want to spoil it so I won't name it here) because Nabokov was inspired by The Price of Salt. Also, I must say, the film doesn't mention salt anywhere that I noticed, so I'm curious to find out why the origin of the title in the book. It's 292 pages, from the U.S. and first published in 1952.

Patricia Highsmith's story of romantic obsession may be one of the most important, but still largely unrecognized, novels of the twentieth century. First published in 1952 and touted as "the novel of a love that society forbids," the book soon became a cult classic.

Based on a true story plucked from Highsmith's own life, Carol tells the riveting drama of Therese Belivet, a stage designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose routine is forever shattered by a gorgeous epiphany—the appearance of Carol Aird, a customer who comes in to buy her daughter a Christmas toy. Therese begins to gravitate toward the alluring suburban housewife, who is trapped in a marriage as stultifying as Therese's job...

[sun surfer]

For my second offering I nominate The Shooting Party by Isabel Colegate. This may be more in line with the sorts of selections we've had before but I like that it's about the autumn, a season we (in the northern hemisphere) are gearing up for (coinciding with the changing of seasons mentioned in the topic description), and that in the description it's of a gathering with change in the air in the Edwardian England of 1913 as an era was at an end and a war was about to begin. It's 195 pages, from England and first published in 1980. Goodreads

It is the autumn of 1913. Sir Randolph Nettleby has assembled a brilliant array of guests at his Oxfordshire estate for the biggest hunt of the season. An army of gamekeepers, beaters, and servants has rehearsed the intricate age-old ritual; the gentlemen are falling into the prescribed mode of fellowship and sporting rivalry, the ladies intrigued by the latest gossip and fashion. Everything about this splendid weekend would seem a perfect consummation of the pleasures afforded the privileged in Edwardian England. And yet it is not: the moral and social code of this group is not so secure as it appears. Competition beyond the bounds of sportsmanship, revulsion at the slaughter of the animals, anger at the inequities of class--these forces are about to rise up and engulf the assured social peace, a peace that can last only a brief while longer. In imagining Sir Randolph's shooting party, wrote The Spectator, "Miss Colegate has found a perfect metaphor for the passing of a way of life."

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Lastly I'll nominate The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. This has to do with an apartment building in Paris, and in particular two different people inside of it. They're both living lives with secretive passions underneath their accepted facades, leading to resignation or ennui, but a sudden change caused by a resident's death upends them both. It seems quite different than our previous lit club selections and so stretches the boundaries of the club a bit for a change in perspective and I think still fits... and I also wanted to throw in at least one non-U.K./U.S. nomination this month! It's 324 pages, from France and published in 2006. Goodreads

Renée is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building, home to members of the great and the good. Over the years she has maintained her carefully constructed persona as someone reliable but totally uncultivated, in keeping, she feels, with society's expectations of what a concierge should be. But beneath this facade lies the real Renée passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives.

Down in her lodge, apart from weekly visits by her one friend Manuela, Renée lives resigned to her lonely lot with only her cat for company. Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the pampered and vacuous future laid out for her, and decides to end her life on her thirteenth birthday. But unknown to them both, the sudden death of one of their privileged neighbours will dramatically alter their lives forever.

By turn moving and hilarious, this unusual novel became the French publishing phenomenon of 2007: from an initial print run of 3,000 to sales of over 2 million in hardback.

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Nominations are closed and voting is now open!

Voting will close exactly four days from this post.

Each person has FOUR votes to use.

[astrangerhere]

I am in fits of celebration here... I nominated The Price of Salt in the new leaf club in January and it got precisely two votes - mine and one other person's.

As such, I will drop two votes on Highsmith and two on Rebecca West, who I discovered this year and really enjoy already.

[Bookworm_Girl]

It’s a good list. I’ll be happy with any of the options.

[bfisher]

Wow, a great list again this month.

I've wanted to read something of Rebecca West's fiction for a while, so 1 vote for The Judge.

1 vote for Salt. (I voted for it previously, and hoped that it would be reincarnated. I think it came a close third in the New Leaf vote.)

The Elegance of the Hedgehog sounds interesting - 1 vote.

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Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I am in fits of celebration here... I nominated The Price of Salt in the new leaf club in January and it got precisely two votes - mine and one other person's.

Glad you like the nomination! I'll be happy with whatever wins this month but just now it's looking like a close contest.

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

It’s a good list. I’ll be happy with any of the options.

I agree. I don't know if I'm softening in my dotage or what, but many centuries ago I feel like I was more opinionated on which books I wanted to win each month, whereas more recently with these last few years I feel like I'm generally close to equally interested in all the nominations.

But I must make some sort of decision, so I'm giving one vote each to-

Reservoir 13
The Judge
The Price of Salt
The Shooting Party

[Bookworm_Girl]

I will give my votes to:

The Judge
The Price of Salt
The Shooting Party
The Elegance of the Hedgehog

[sun surfer]

Initial voting is complete and we have a tie! This means we'll have a run-off between:

-The Judge
-The Price of Salt

As with the last run-off and to give a bit more time for voting, this run-off will last two days instead of the customary one.

Voting will close exactly TWO DAYS from this post.

Each person has ONE vote to use.

[sun surfer]

This is difficult because I like both, but I'm going to vote for The Price of Salt solely because it's shorter. I hate that to be my deciding factor but since I'm about equally interested in both that's what I'm using to pick one. However, if The Judge wins I'll be happy, and I like that it's at least partly set in Scotland and we haven't had many (if any?) lit club selections set in Scotland compared to the many set in England, Ireland, the U.S. and even Australia.