by Audrey Magee
Superb evening last Wednesday. I for one truly appreciated the great discussion on the nature of ‘The Undertaking’ and all and sundry.
There was no consensus on the book itself and that certainly is what gives us the fine discussion. As I made well known I did appreciate the book, but it seems that on the average it achieved about a 6 according to my recollection. There was concern around the rather abrupt beginning where the ‘Undertaking’ itself seems to have already happened and some sense of how this pact was reached and arrived at would have be aided in appreciating how the protagonists moved from strangers to lovers as quickly as they did. The additional jump from incarceration and rape in 1944 to the reuniting of husband and wife 8 years later was also commented on as seeming laziness on the part of the author. There also seemed to be a sense that the evolution of many characters in the novel also seemed to be unexplained by the events as they are related in the storyline.
The strengths of the book seemed to be in previously untapped perspectives delineated by the choice of characters outside of mere pawns in a larger narrative – in contrast to the big story presentation of Beevor’s Stalingrad.
Altogether though a seeming good addition to our library.
So, onward to ‘How Music Works’ by David Byrne – a very intriguing and unique addition to our reading list.