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Product Description
Marion Hunt is a 29-year-old single civil servant who has just bought a brand-new apartment is Dublin s Smithfield and needs something to while away the long cold winter nights. So she decides to start a book club. She quickly gathers around her a group of disparate individuals. There is Nick Barry, a young writer who has been mauled by the media but is determined to produce a critically-acclaimed novel. There is Liz Broderick a young widow of 33 whose husband Tim has been killed in a tragic road accident and whose friends are telling her she has to get out and meet new people. There is Robbie Gray a 45-year-old accountant whose wife has just left him for another man after 16 years of marriage. There is Christy Grimes a pensioner from Phibsboro and his wife Ellie who is recovering from a stroke but is determined to recover. And then there is Alan McMillan, a successful lawyer and an old boyfriend of Marion's who will stop at nothing to get her back. As the book club gets under way, strange things begin to happen...
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This story was a great page-turner. The only thing missing (and thus, four stars instead of five) was a good writer to pass it along. The pages are stuffed with overused words like "dreamy," "ruefully," and "wailed." It is as if Miss McCabe didn't know that there are other words out there that describe these same things. Then there are the misplaced modifiers (a particular bugaboo of mine). Didn't this writer have an editor?
One phrase that particularly annoyed me was a criticism of a character's poetry - "it was shallow, derivative, and lacked depth." Now, could it possibly be that "shallow" and "lacking depth" are precisely the same thing? Frustrating.
However, the story lurking in the pedestrian authorship is a clever one. In order to give herself something to do during a grey Dublin winter, Marion Hunt starts a book club. She wants to meet new people and discuss her favorite pastime - reading. Every bibliophile will understand this inclination. The collection of people drawn to these literary soirees is great fun. My favorite character was that of Christy, an older, essentially non-reading gent who joins along with his wife in order to keep her company and make her happy. He is quite entertaining and during the first difficult pages of the book, I stayed with it because I wanted to know what he would do next.
There are intrigues and twists, and people are thrown together in a way that I didn't expect. The ending, though I wasn't sure until the last forty pages or so how it would go, was pat, and the strings tied up a bit too neatly (and implausibly). Having said that, I enjoyed the story itself, and the characters were interesting for me to get to know.
One phrase that particularly annoyed me was a criticism of a character's poetry - "it was shallow, derivative, and lacked depth." Now, could it possibly be that "shallow" and "lacking depth" are precisely the same thing? Frustrating.
However, the story lurking in the pedestrian authorship is a clever one. In order to give herself something to do during a grey Dublin winter, Marion Hunt starts a book club. She wants to meet new people and discuss her favorite pastime - reading. Every bibliophile will understand this inclination. The collection of people drawn to these literary soirees is great fun. My favorite character was that of Christy, an older, essentially non-reading gent who joins along with his wife in order to keep her company and make her happy. He is quite entertaining and during the first difficult pages of the book, I stayed with it because I wanted to know what he would do next.
There are intrigues and twists, and people are thrown together in a way that I didn't expect. The ending, though I wasn't sure until the last forty pages or so how it would go, was pat, and the strings tied up a bit too neatly (and implausibly). Having said that, I enjoyed the story itself, and the characters were interesting for me to get to know.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm surprised that somebody wrote such a negative review about this book. As an huge book lover I tend to read a lot but it's not too often I come across a book that can hold my attention as much as The Book Club did. I flew threw it and was interested in all the different characters who form relationships/friendships through joining a city centre book club. I especially liked Marion, the main character in the story. I particularly disliked Alan, the lawyer who had treated her badly during their courtship and was then desperately trying to get her back. He was such a devious scheming man but it was entertaining reading about him and seeing him having a kind of a breakdown towards the end of the book because he deserved all that was coming to him. Initially I did wonder whether I was going to enjoy this bok at all because one of the reasons I enjoyed Ms McCabe's earlier two novels is because they were set in sunny climates and had a good holiday feel about them, and this book was set in the heart of Dublin. However I found I enjoyed it as much if not more than the other books. Okay there may be more sophisticated writers out there but for sheer enjoyment and a good read for those winter evenings, I'd put this writer up there with the likes of Maeve Binchy.
Format:Paperback
I finished 'The Book Club' this afternoon, it was a joy to read. The second of her books that I have enjoyed and I'm looking forward to reading the others.
Kate McCabe is another excellent female Irish writer, I'd say she is similar in style to Patricia Scanlan and Maeve Binchy - sort of chick lit, but older characters than the norm and her stories have real substance.
I really enjoyed the concept of bringing the characters together as part of a book club. Each character was fully formed and had their own back story, and as the story progressed they gradually became more intwined in each other's lives. I liked that she had male members of the book club too and older members which added a different dimension to the story. I loved reading about what the characters thought of the books they choose to read too.
Kate McCabe is another excellent female Irish writer, I'd say she is similar in style to Patricia Scanlan and Maeve Binchy - sort of chick lit, but older characters than the norm and her stories have real substance.
I really enjoyed the concept of bringing the characters together as part of a book club. Each character was fully formed and had their own back story, and as the story progressed they gradually became more intwined in each other's lives. I liked that she had male members of the book club too and older members which added a different dimension to the story. I loved reading about what the characters thought of the books they choose to read too.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Worst book I ever read
I cannot believe such rubbish was published. The plot is predictable from the start. The characters are uninteresting and badly drawn. The language resembled that of a teenager.
Published on 23 Nov 2009 by amarach
Don't waste your time
This is one of the worst books I have ever read!
I think the author, Kate McCabe, must be quite elderly as the language is very odd and old-fashioned; a pc/laptop is a... Read more
I think the author, Kate McCabe, must be quite elderly as the language is very odd and old-fashioned; a pc/laptop is a... Read more
Published on 29 Oct 2008 by F. Mulcahy
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