A Good Read
Convenor Penny Thomas thomaspennyida@gmail.com
'Good Read' (formally Exploring Literature) by a member of 'A Good Read'
T'he group started in October 2012, and we have just finished reading our 27th book - 'Remember Me' by Trezza Azzopardi. I found the book fascinating, but it begins in very sad circumstances in the upstairs room of a derelict shop, when a sleeping squatter has all of her scant possessions stolen by a stranger.
The main character is a woman in her early seventies, who was born in the 1930's. The story centres around the search for her possessions, which were all contained within a shabby suitcase, and her life story with all it's ups and downs. The narrative is conveyed through the main character now known as Winifred Foy, but she had been called a variety of names, starting life as Lilian Patricia Richards. She has difficulty in engaging in normal social intercourse, but none at all in imagining and internally describing her life and history. Two worlds, the spoken and the unspoken.
The authors method of switching between parts of her life in a seemingly random manner was disconcerting, and needed a lot of concentration by the reader!. The book had 54 'parts', not chapters, fragments of a complex life which began it's downward spiral when her mother died in mysterious circumstances when she was a little girl. There was a glimmer of hope at the end of the book, but it was not an easy path to travel.
I found it amazing that Trezza Azzopardi was able to tell the story from within the mind of a very disturbed person in such a convincing manner. I would recommend this book as a very worthwhile read. By Graeme Thomas
T'he group started in October 2012, and we have just finished reading our 27th book - 'Remember Me' by Trezza Azzopardi. I found the book fascinating, but it begins in very sad circumstances in the upstairs room of a derelict shop, when a sleeping squatter has all of her scant possessions stolen by a stranger.
The main character is a woman in her early seventies, who was born in the 1930's. The story centres around the search for her possessions, which were all contained within a shabby suitcase, and her life story with all it's ups and downs. The narrative is conveyed through the main character now known as Winifred Foy, but she had been called a variety of names, starting life as Lilian Patricia Richards. She has difficulty in engaging in normal social intercourse, but none at all in imagining and internally describing her life and history. Two worlds, the spoken and the unspoken.
The authors method of switching between parts of her life in a seemingly random manner was disconcerting, and needed a lot of concentration by the reader!. The book had 54 'parts', not chapters, fragments of a complex life which began it's downward spiral when her mother died in mysterious circumstances when she was a little girl. There was a glimmer of hope at the end of the book, but it was not an easy path to travel.
I found it amazing that Trezza Azzopardi was able to tell the story from within the mind of a very disturbed person in such a convincing manner. I would recommend this book as a very worthwhile read. By Graeme Thomas
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