The Book Club by Roisin Meaney

 Intriguing, Emotional, Predictable

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Family Drama
The Book Club by Roisin Meaney๐Ÿ›–
Tom decides that he needs a clean break, he has been staying with his brother and sister-in-law, but feels that he has imposed on them long enough and that he must start rebuilding his life, but also, that he must put some distance between him and his home town of Dublin. Being in London, where Joel and Sarah lived, reminded him too much of his old life. He needed to choose somewhere no one knew him and were unlikely to recall the events of last year, although the media hadn’t wasted anytime in picking up the story. He figures returning to the place of his birth, Ireland will give him the peace he needs and he settles on a cottage rental somewhere out in the sticks, the nearest town being a place called Fairweather. He could recall of neither hearing of this seaside village previously, or visiting it. Upon his first meeting with his landlady Beth who seems subdued as she was surprised when they spoke on the phone to hear that someone had seen her advert, she seems oddly keen to share the history of his new home, which leaves him curious and with an uneasy feeling. As Tom gets to know the residents, he learns more about what happened, but still volunteers nothing about himself. When he is asked about his family sometime into his stay, he lies and feels guilty. However, he can’t risk them finding out and becoming an outcast somewhere else too soon.๐Ÿ“ฐ๐Ÿ€
Myself and my partner subscribe to Postscript and receive it monthly, and that is where I spotted this book. Its a bit of a mission of mine to buy books with the words ‘library’, ‘book/s’ or ‘book club’ in the title, not that I’ve got very far with it so far. The title of this book (I didn’t read the blurb) lead me to believe that it would be the standard, friends/sisters/women in a village start a book club etc and that it would be a nice, light narrative. However, after the first page, I got the feeling that this wasn’t going to be the case as it immediately starts with a much darker feeling to the story. It begins with Tom, clearly running from something connected with his past. The story of which is told in intermittent chapters. The chapters are written in italics, a style which can be a challenge if your eyesight isn’t the best, but it did its job, dividing the past and the present. I quickly picked up what had happened, but not how it had led to what it did. There were some quite obvious clues dropped in regards to the first part. ๐Ÿ“–
There is, inevitably always a library, and I thought it was a clever quirk that the library in this story wasn’t situated where you would normally expect it to be or come about in the usual way. The inside of the library was described, but due to it being of unusual placing and structure, I found it hard to imagine, not so with any of the other scenes though, or indeed the characters.
The author has brought some delightful and diverse characters to her novel. Tom had clearly been devastated by events and despite his reticence about getting to know people he quickly makes acquaintances leading to friendships. Having left his job in I.T, he carves out (pun intended...you will need to read the book) a new trade for himself and learns skills that he exceeds at, that he never imagined he had. I related to that, having done office work for the majority of my life, and found a talent in the written word. What he makes and how he works in conjunction with another business owner in the town, together with her generosity and friendship, was one of the main relationships I enjoyed in this book. Lil’s and Beth’s situation, I found an emotional one and Beth had obviously emotionally closed herself off as a coping mechanism, more so than she already might have been. When it is explained why Lil had chosen to communicate in the way she had since that fateful day, I did in a funny way understand it. I think that that was a very clever trait to give her character but also must have been very difficult for Beth, having her granddaughter there physically but not being able to have a fully emotional connection with her as they should have had in the circumstances. Mark’s introduction by way friendship with a young Olive, was something that, to begin with, I had my reservations about where it was going. However, when they meet again a few years down the line and another character related to Mark is introduced, the story takes a new turn, creating room for other characters and a renewed bond between Olive and Mark. Olive’s quest to have children leant an interesting thread to the story, one that frustrated me slightly when Olive cannot understand why Nancy is playing up. I did feel that that was staring her in the face frankly! Olive’s gesture of permitting Nancy to choose something of such importance was very touching. Beth’s absolution to show no softness or emotion, and therefore putting Olive in an awkward position when she asks her best friend’s mother for help, regarding her father-in-law’s birthday are maddening, especially having known the man for the time that she has. Particularly when, having gone to pains to ensure that no one suspects anything untoward between herself and Fred’s father, she lets herself relent to the idea that there may be more between them fairly willingly after all that tusslling with her conscience and what people will think. ⚖๐Ÿ‘ฉ‍๐Ÿณ๐Ÿ—’✏
The last twist is very intense and emotional with Olive terrified as to the whereabouts of her daughter and her father-in-law, and when the huddled crowd turn towards the cliffs to see part of it falling into the sea, taking with it the beloved structure that Beth had spent so much of her time maintaining, and especially as they do not realise at the time, what it is until Beth sees the remnants of it floating in the water, is heart-breaking. That last twist is told four times from the perspective of different key characters, a brilliant way of discovering the stories of those people in that distressing period of time.⛵⛈⚡
I really enjoyed this novel and am very glad that I took a chance on it. I will be seeing what other novels the author has written.

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