Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome

A blast from the past.

This book was a real delight, funny, thought provoking and as relevant today as it was when it was written in 1889. The story follows the highs and lows of three friends, J, the narrator, Harris,  George and a dog called Montmorency. After spending an evening obsessing about their imagined ill health the men decide to go on a   two week boating holiday on the Thames. Having spent time in Kingston upon Thames it was fascinating to read an account of a trip made 130 years ago. In many ways little had changed, but it is poignant to remember the dreadful events that have occurred in the intervening years.

The story serves as a travel guide peppered with interesting historical facts and re-enactments of  events that unfolded on the river centuries ago, Henry VIII 's Hampton Court, Queen Elizabeth's frequent visits to local hostelries and  the signing of  Magna Carter on Magna Charter Island. The author refers to the need to escape the hustle and bustle of late nineteenth century life, the nostalgia for past times is clearly not a new phenomenon. 

The reader is treated to a string of anecdotes that still hold true today, the over reliance on weather forecasts that turn out to be inaccurate, stop checking the weather, just get out there and do it! The overwhelming desire for something you're not really keen on but the lack of it makes you crave it, many a true word in this book. There were some laugh out loud moments such as the tale of the enormous fish, a mystery only resolved when the fish turns out to be made of plaster of paris. The farce in the shared bed was the stuff of Laurel and Hardy, perhaps an inspiration to them!. No spoilers in this blog, read the book. Definitely a novel to lift the spirits and to remind us that our ancestors were living breathing individuals with whom we can still relate. 

We all thoroughly enjoyed this book, well written, funny, informative, a timeless classic. 

In keeping with our newly created tradition The Boatside Inn at Warden seemed an appropriately named venue for our meeting and we were not disappointed. The menu offered good old fashioned pub grub which was very tasty and reasonably priced. Unfortunately there were no chops on offer so we contented ourselves with a good old gammon steak, some mince and dumplings and a fish pie. 

Our new read is an altogether different proposition... p.s I love by Cecelia Ahern

Our House by Louise Candlish

Our House - A Bit More Than The Holiday Read We Envisaged  .

..

Masterly Plotted - Guardian. Terrifically Twisty - Sunday Times. Ah, but this time The Critical Readers actually agreed. Not just a holiday read after all. A carefully constructed plot with lots of twists and turns told in an interesting way through husband and wife.

Fiona returns from a few days away to her rapidly increasing in value suburban London home Only to find it sold from under her. And so the story unfolds.  The deceit, blackmail, fraud, affair, naivety, stupidity, all shine through to make this a bit if a page-turner. All the elements individually are quite believable and wouldn’t look out of place on Watchdog or Crime Watch, however, when lumped together, like with any soap, it does feel a little stretched, but this did not detract from the enjoyment. The writing style was witty and easy to read and we were all pleasantly surprised how much we enjoyed the reluctant read.

Because Bram (weak, pathetic, no balls, cheating husband) spent much of his time in the Two Brewers, the Critical Readers met at Twice Brewed (nearest connotation) and what a pleasant surprise that was too. Good Old Fashioned Pub with Good Old Fashioned Pub Grub. Good value.  Old Pub with a contemporary extension to cater for all the Hadrian Wall Walkers and exceptional views on a light summer evening.

All in all a successful evening to discuss an enjoyable book ....

Catch up with us next month, mid August, where we will be discussing a humorous classic.

Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome.     🛥

Happy Reading.

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

Not as good as we had expected !

We had high hopes for this novel having fallen in love with “The gift of rain” by the same author . It has also won numerous awards and was listed for the Booker Prize and so we opened the pages confident that we were in the hands of a master.

The writing was the hero in this novel. Masterful, sensory, and powerful, it transported us to the Cameron Highlands, so effectively that the damp mountain air was almost palpable.

The pace was gentle and slow and felt like an intentional attempt to reflect the meditative themes covered throughout the story. These include gardening, archery and body art.

All of the characters were well developed with admirable qualities offset by fundamental flaws and complex backstories which emerged as the plot developed.

The plot, which included plenty of twists and turns dotting around over time, covered an array of events relating to family relationships, war crimes, hidden treasure, mysterious disappearances, and kamikaze pilots, all set in Malaysia during the period around and after the 2^nd world war.

The narrative provided some fascinating insights into zen practices, tattoo preservation, and colonialism and multiculturalism in Malaysia.

And so, with all of these strengths, we can recommend this novel. But the recommendation comes with a caveat - it was not as good as we had expected. The pacing was, perhaps, too slow? The climax somewhat attenuated? The overall read, rather - well – misty?

We drew our conclusions about the book over dinner at Artisam (link here http://artisam-corbridge.co.uk) . This was the closest thing to Malaysian or Japanese cuisine which we could find in the Tyne Valley. Having dined there previously we - again – had high expectations. Sadly, the ownership has since changed and the new management clearly have a different culinary offer. We did go for the early bird option and it seemed that all of our fellow diners did the same. Perhaps later diners (although we saw none that evening) can enjoy some better fare. However, on the basis of our own experience we agreed that, as with The Garden of Mists, it was not as good as we had expected!

Our next read is a more modern thriller, Our House by Louise Candlish.