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Socialist Review Book Groups

A Socialist Review book group is currently meeting in London. We meet once a month to discuss novels, biographies, books in the news, socialist classics...

Come Along!
There's no charge, and anyone is welcome to attend. Meetings are informal and friendly. Please bring juice, wine, food!

We meet in the Barbican (easy to get to from Barbican or Moorgate tube). Ring 07938 523249 or 020 7628 6845 for venue details or for more information.

Out of London? Set Up Your Own Group
Why not set up a Socialist Review Book Group in your area? We have some suggestions about how to do it - and we can help by publicising your club on the website.

Future Meetings

7pm, Friday 6 June
Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez

One of Márquez's best-known books, this deals with a love triangle between three characters in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Juvenal Urbino falls to his death attempting to retrieve a parrot. This opens the way for Florentino Ariza to resume his pursuit of Fermina Daza, Juvenal Urbino's widow, whom he has loved for decades. Will he succeed?

7pm, Friday 11 July
The Secret River, Kate Grenville
Note the date - not the usual first Friday of the month

A dramatic and evocative historical novel set between the slums of nineteenth-century London and the convict colonies of Australia. "Grenville's latest, beautifully written novel concerns William Thornhill, a 19th-century convict from London deported to Australia, where he stakes a claim on ancient Aboriginal lands with tragic consequences." Financial Times

7pm, Friday 1 August
Millennium People, JG Ballard

Following a bomb attack at Heathrow's Terminal 2, the inhabitants of Fulham's plush Chelsea Marina begin revolting. The middle class revolutionaries turn on their own class - burning books and Volvos and destroying the National Film Theatre. Cool, surreal and unnerving.

Past Meetings

Sheffield

September 04 - Property
Valerie Martin's novel won the 2003 Orange Prize for Fiction. The story is set in America's Deep South in the 19th century, and the narrator is Manon Gaudet, unhappy wife and slave owner.

More about the book

October 04 - The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver's novel is the story of a suburban American family who emigrate to the Belgian Congo in 1959. Husband and father Nathan Price is a fierce evangelist seeking to convert African villagers to Christianity - the story is told by his wife and daughters.

More about the book

February 05 - Guest Speaker Barry Hines
Barry Hines wrote Kestrel for a Knave, the novel made into the classic film Kes in 1969 by Ken Loach. Yorkshire schoolboy Billy Casper faces a home life of poverty and misery: his only future seems to be a job down the pit. The one element of hope and joy in his life is his relationship with a wild kestrel.

March 05 - God's Bits of Wood
This novel, by Senegalese writer Sembene Ousmane, describes a 1947 railway strike in colonial French West Africa. It's a classic account of how workers are affected by a strike, and in particular it shows the resolve and growing confidence of the women involved in the struggle.

London

May 04 - Purple Hibiscus
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian coming-of-age story set during the military dictatorship of the mid-90s. This first novel by a 25-year-old teacher has been shortlisted for the Orange prize for women's writing. Everyone who had read the book found it moving and easy to read, and a fascinating picture of Nigerian society.

June 04 - Life of Pi
Yann Martel's Life of Pi won the Booker Prize in 2002, and has been described as one of the most extraordinary pieces of literary fiction of recent years.

More about the book

July 04 - A Fine Balance
Rohinton Mistry's prize-winning 1996 novel describes the lives of four characters who come together amid the 'State of Internal Emergency' declared in India in the mid-1970s.

More about the book

August 04 - The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver's novel is the story of a suburban American family who emigrate to the Belgian Congo in 1959. Husband and father Nathan Price is a fierce evangelist seeking to convert African villagers to Christianity - the story is told by his wife and daughters.

More about the book

September 04 - Middlesex
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." So begins the story of three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family.

This novel examines the way identity is shaped. How does the past influence the present? What does nationality mean? What does it mean to be a man or a woman?

More about the book

February 05 - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Mark Haddon's wonderfully readable novel is written from the point of view of Christopher, a teenager with a learning disability which makes it hard for him to understand the world around him. His attempts to emulate his hero Sherlock Holmes and solve a mystery change his life for ever.

March 05 - English Passengers
Matthew Kneale's prize-winning novel tells two parallel stories: one of three eccentric Englishmen who set sail for Tasmania to find the garden of Eden; the other of a young Tasmanian aborigine and his tribe, struggling against the invading British, who prove as lethal in their good intentions as in their cruelty. We all enjoyed the book.

April 05- Light in August
Members of the group took different views of Nobel Prize-winner William Faulkner's grim depiction of the deep south in the 1920s. Some found it skillfully written and psychologically perceptive, while others found it full of racism and hatred of women. It certainly has a strange, mythic force - no-one was sorry to have read it.

May 05 - The God of Small Things
Set against a background of political turbulence in Kerala Southern India, The God of Small Things tells the story of twins Estappen and Rahel. Amongst the vats of banana jam and heaps of peppercorns in their grandmother's factory, they try to craft a childhood for themselves amidst what constitutes their family – their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist and bottom-pincher) and their avowed enemy Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grand-aunt). With language that flows like poetry Arundhati leads the reader from an introduction to the cast through to the novel’s inevitable tragic climax whilst vividly examining the issues of communism, single parent families, mixed-caste relationships and unrequited love.

July 05 - Middlemarch
Several of us had tried to finish this classic novel and failed, so we read its 800-plus pages as a group to spur each other on. We all finished it, and were unanimous in its praise. With great psychological inside and humour, George Eliot examines the middle class of a small country town in the 1830s. She deals with marriage, the social role of women, a changing class system, religion, medicine and much else besides. A truly great novel.

September 05 - We Need to Talk about Kevin
We were all engrossed by Lionel Shriver's novel about Kevin Katchadourian, who killes seven of his fellow US high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher, shortly before his sixteenth birthday. He is visited in prison by his mother, Eva, who narrates the story of Kevin’s upbringing in a series of letters to her estranged husband Franklin. We felt that it addressed real questions about the family and motherhood. But we weren't entirely convinced by what it had to say on those questions - we thought it was slightly formulaic, and rather too clever.

October 05 - The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin's science fiction classic didn't get a good reception from most of us, though some enjoyed it. Everyone found many interesting things in its story of a human visitor to a planet where all the inhabitants are of the same sex, but the majority view was that these didn't come together to make a convincing novel.

November 05 - The Plot against America
Philip Roth imagines an alternative history, with fascist sympathiser Charles Lindbergh elected US president in 1940 on an anti-war ticket. The novel examines the effects of the sinister new government on a Jewish family in New Jersey. We were all gripped by its portrayal of the gradual growth of racism, and how different people respond - by opposing or accommodating to the new regime.

December 05 - God's Bits of Wood
This classic socialist novel describes a strike by African rail workers in pre-independence Senegal. As the bosses try to starve them back, the workers maintain their resolve - with women playing a leading role in the revolt. Sembène himself took part in the rail strike depicted in the book. We were hugely impressed by the book - while it's completely on the side of the strikers and their wives it doesn't idealise them, but shows how different people respond to life-changing events. Apparently it was very popular with miners in the Great Strike of 1984-5, who saw many similarities with their own lives.

January 06 - Family Matters
Rohinton Mistry's family saga, set in a decaying Bombay, centres on elderly widower Nariman Vakeel. Illness forces him to move in with his daughter, her husband and their two young sons. Family tensions and revelations from their past are set against the politics of present day India.

'One of the finest novels that most of us will ever read.' Irish Times

February 06 - Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
Claire Tomalin's award-winning biography of Pepys, the author of the famous diary, brings to life the tumultuous society of 17th century London - including an outbreak of plague, the Great Fire of London, sex, drink, music, marital conflict, the execution of a king, the corrupt excesses of another and an incarceration in the Tower.

March 2006 - Brick Lane
Monica Ali's novel about East London's Bengali community provoked a lively discussion. We thought the book had the odd weakness, but overall we found it hugely interesting and relevant to issues in that part of London. We'll be interested to see what Monica Ali writes next.

April 2006 - Arthur and George
Julian Barnes' novel is a story of wrongful imprisonment in Edwardian London, about guilt, innocence, nationality and race. "Arthur" is Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, while "George" is George Edjali, a Birmingham solicitor victimised because of his Indian ancestry.

May 2006 - Woman on the Edge of Time
Margie Piercy's classic 1979 novel is the story of Mexican American Connie Ramos, incarcerated in a mental hospital - where she begins to have visions of a utopian future which is also fighting for survival. Presents a convincing utopia and also deals with the politics of mental health - a favourite book for some of the group.

June 2006 - Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Saleem Sinai was born at midnight, the midnight of India's independence, one of 1,001 children born at the midnight hour, each of them endowed with an extraordinary talent. Through Saleem's gifts - inner ear and wildly sensitive sense of smell - we are drawn into a fascinating family saga set against the vast, colourful background of the India of the 20th century.

August 2006 - Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope
"Barchester Towers" is the most popular novel of 19th century classic author Trollope. It follows the intrigues of ambition and love in the cathedral town of Barchester. Trollope examines the Church, that pillar of Victorian society - in its susceptibility to corruption, hypocrisy, and blinkered conservatism. It is the behaviour of the individuals within a power structure that interests him.

September 2006 - Mutineers, Jonathan Neale
The story of mutiny in the English Navy at Spithead and The Nore in 1797 and the men and women involved. A moving and inspiring book in the best socialist tradition. A well-attended group liked the book and had a lively discussion.

October 2006 - The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
A modernist masterpiece, a satirical attack on Stalinism and a romance combine in this novel written amid the Soviet terror of the 1930s. Characters include Satan, Pontius Pilate and a giant talking cat. Most of us enjoyed this strange, ambiguous and wonderful book, though some were less enthusiastic.

November 2006 - On Beauty, Zadie Smith
Smith's latest novel describes the lives of two families of Anglo-American academics, and examines issues around sexism, racism and conservatives versus liberals. We were all quite luke-warm about the book - it's well written and sometimes very funny, but we weren't convinced that it really had anything to say, and we felt it takes its own status as a literary novel rather too seriously.

December 2006 - Snow, Orhan Pamuk
Nobel prize-winner Pamuk describes the journey of an emigré Turkish writer called Ka to the remote town of Kars. Here he pursues a long-lost love and becomes involved in political discussions and events. We agreed that the book provided a realistic and engaging picture of society and politics in eastern Turkey, and the appeal of political Islam. Some of us were also drawn in by the characters and writing - but most of us felt that, while it provided a lot of interesting information, the book failed as a novel and left us unmoved.

January 2007 - The Amazing Adventures of
Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon
We enjoyed this novel, which moves from Jewish life in Prague to New York in the 30s, and then to Antarctica and finally back to 50s New York. Though we all found it easy to read, some thought it overly light - but most of us thought it did have things to say, for example about the role of art in society and relationships between men. We're intrigued to see a film is due later this year.

February 2007 - Havoc In Its Third Year, Ronan Bennett
Bennett's novel is set in a North English town in the 1630s. John Brigge, the town coroner, is holding an inquest into the murder of a baby, as his own wife gives birth. These events take place against a background of religious intolerance and scapegoating. Many reviewers have pointed on the contemporary parallels in the book.

March 2007 - All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
We had a lively discussion about this novel about cowboys. Many of us said they would never read such a novel normally, but they had really enjoyed it. Everyone thought McCarthy wrote beautifully, but most felt the women characters were thinly drawn compared with the men. An interesting study of masculinity.

April 2007 - The Night Watch, Sarah Waters

A majority of the group enjoyed this novel, which traces a group of mostly lesbian characters back through their experience of the Second World War in London. There was some discussion about the portrayal of the different characters - some of us found some of them thinly-drawn and unconvincing. We were also interested in how the book was packaged and marketed - is the lesbian content underplayed in the hope of gaining a wider audience?

May 2007 - Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert

This classic novel was prosecuted on publication for its sympathetic portrayal of Emma Bovary, the bored wife of a country doctor who commits adultery. The book sparked a lively discussion - we agreed it was superb, though opinions varied as to how sympathetic a character Emma herself was.

June 2007 - Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Adichie's account of the 60s civil war in Nigeria won the Orange prize just after our meeting. We all enjoyed the book, which portrayed a society and historical events many of us knew little about. Adichie creates a moving and detailed picture of Nigerian society, taking account of differences of sex and class.

July 2007 - Suite Française,
Irène Némirovsky

Suite Française portrays Nazi-occupied France: written during the Second World War itself, it was hailed as a major work of literature after its rediscovery and publication in France in 2004.

Most of us enjoyed the book's portrayal of the complexities and conflicts of French society in the early part of the war.

August 2007 - The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

The group was divided about this account of an Afghan childhood and later immigration to America. Some found it a moving account of a childhood friendship betrayed. But most of us felt that it was badly written, and too close to right-wing clichés in what it had to say about the family, America and Islam.

September 2007 - Northern Lights, Philip Pullman

Our first children's book, this is an adventure set in an alternative universe, moving from Oxford to the Arctic. Pullman uses his story to comment on organised religion, and in particular its contribution to the abuse of children. Most of us loved the book and its feisty main character, 11-year-old Lyra.

October 2007 - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman

This non-fiction book describes a family from the Hmong people – an ethnic minority from Laos – who have migrated to America. When their daughter begins having seizures, conflicts arise between her parents and doctors over how she should be treated. The disagreements reflect the huge differences between Hmong and American societies, and the power that doctors have in Western culture. We all enjoyed the book, which sparked a lively and wide-ranging discussion.

November 2007 - Moby Dick, Herman Melville

We could all see why this is a classic, with its epic descriptions of whaling that constantly shade into wider philosophical questions. Some of us enjoyed reading the book, but others found it very heavy going.

December 2007 - The Yacoubian Building, Alaa Al Aswany

This Egyptian novel was a best-seller throughout the Arabic world, and depicts the different classes of modern Egyptian society, as well as addressing issues like homosexuality and Islamism. Many of us enjoyed the book, but we felt its portrayal of characters and account of the issues it raises were both a bit shallow.

January 2008 - The Crimson Petal and the White, Michel Faber

This account of the social rise of a 19th-century London prostitute divided the group. Some found it a historically accurate and entertaining page-turner with credible characters. Others challenged its accuracy, found its characters unbelievable and argued that the book was full of unpleasant and clichéd male fantasies about prostitution.

February 2008 - Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi

An autobiographical graphic novel, set in Iran during the revolution of 1979 and in the years after, told by the six-year-old daughter of well-to-do liberal-left parents. Few of us had read many graphic novels, but the majority of the group enjoyed this one - though several didn't like the graphic novel format, provoking an interesting discussion. Most of us also felt we had learned something about Iran.

March 2008 - Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee

We had perhaps our best attendance ever at this discussion, with a wide range of views expressed in a lively discussion. Some had a high opinion of this ambiguous portrayal of post-apartheid South Africa, which addresses issues about both race and gender. Others felt this was a profoundly bleak novel full of unlikeable characters.

April 2008 - The Book of Dave, Will Self

Self's novel moves between the story of a Dave, a frustrated cabbie in present-day London, and a future society living in the ruins of England after an ecological disaster. The future society has chanced on Dave's writing to his son, and based their religion on it. Much of the book is written in a future English dialect. We were divided: some of us enjoyed the book, but some found it hard work and the rewards small.

May 2008 - Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Braddon

Does this Victorian bestseller have interesting things to say about the role of women in society, class and madness, with some barely-concealed homoeroticism thrown in? Or is it just, well, pretty badly written? Or maybe both? We disagreed, but most of us found it a gripping read.