The Reading Group

St Just Monday Morning Reading Group 28 December 2020.

The Reading Group. Elizabeth Noble.

The general impression of this book was ‘an easy read’ – a good, enjoyable page-turner, intellectually undemanding and not to be taken too seriously. A ‘holiday read’ or ‘beach book’.

Positive comments were that some readers found the characters believable and engaging; the format was unusual and interesting; the value of women’s friendships was brought out; and some of the problems were well put. Quite a few readers said they enjoyed it when taken as a whole, though they had issues with it whilst reading.

The less positive comments predominated, however. The chief complaint was that, at least in the first half of the book, the characters were insufficiently distinguishable from each other – this did resolve slightly as the book went on. The characters were also criticised as being inconsistent, not properly developed, stereotypical, and particularly as having only one issue each (cheating husband, infertility, mother with dementia, second marriage in later life, unplanned pregnancy, unappreciated husband, family secret). Gender stereotyping of children was also mentioned as being very inappropriate in a book published in 2004 - “ Oh good, plenty of X boxes and snooker for the boys and a room full of Barbies for the girls”.

The other widespread issue mentioned was that the idea of the reading group’s books being tied into the plot, or connected with its readers in some way, failed to materialise. This was an obvious expectation, and so the author was deemed to have fallen short with it. Almost everyone commented on this lost opportunity, observing therefore that ‘the “reading group” format was simply a vehicle for a chick lit novel about the lives of four women and their families’. In fact the phrase ‘soap opera’ was used in several comments.

Lastly, several readers felt that the novel was too long, and occasionally repetitive.

Despite the negative comments, this was said to be an enjoyable book in many ways, about a group of women and some problems in their lives – perhaps the whole ‘reading group’ element of it created a false expectation?

This book was read during December 2020 and the continuing social distancing because of the Covid-19 virus, and so the discussion was not 'live' as usual, but took place via a Facebook group, email and telephone conversations.