We are a group of friends who love to read. We
get together over breakfast once a month to talk about a book that
we've all read. Sometimes we agree, sometimes we disagree, but we
usually have a lively discussion, whether it's about the book or
the latest gossip.
Last month's book
Last month we read The Birthday
Present by Barbara Vine. Most of us enjoyed this readable thriller
although none of the characters were sympathetic or likeable. We
were also a bit disappointed with the ending which seemed to tie
off loose ends too nicely.
This month's book
This month we are reading The
Mistress's Daughter by A M Homes. The next meeting is at Sarah's
house on 17th June 2009 at 8pm.
"The
right book annihilates time."
HOLBROOK JACKSON, The Anatomy of Bibliomania (1930)
THE MISTRESS'S DAUGHTER
by
A M Homes
On the day that Homes was born in 1961, she was given up
for adoption. Her birth parents were a twenty-two year old
woman and an older married man with whom she was having
an affair. Thirty years later, out of the blue, Homes was
contacted by a lawyer on behalf of her birth mother, and
they began to correspond; her biological father contacted
her soon after. These two individuals and their effect on
the adult Homes are strange and unexpected, and the story
spirals into something utterly raw and hilarious, heartbreaking
and absurd. Along the way, Homes describes the clash between
her childhood fantasies of her birth parents and the disappointing
reality.
