The Gloucestershire Lit Lovers and Yummy Scrummy Pudding Club
were lucky enough to take part in the Baileys Prize book club conversation. We
have loved being part of this great competition and felt privileged to blog and
tweet about our experience. Making good
women’s literature accessible to more women is an ambition we share.
We were allocated A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shansie, and
we met this week to discuss it. We have to be honest and say it was not everyone’s
cup of tea. This was mostly due to our own ignorance of the era and the
history. Those of us who have been to India and knew a bit about the time and about
colonialism found it fascinating and compelling. There was a moment in the discussion
when one of the Lit Lovers said ‘it’s not her, it’s me’ which made us all
laugh. But that summed it up. I guess we are just not a very classy bunch, and
this is one hell of a classy book.
Kamila Shamsie took on a big project by covering 3 time frames,
one of them 1500 years ago. And to enjoy the book you have to have a certain
amount of knowledge or passion for history. A couple of the group said they
felt the book was missing a glossary and a map. Some people didn’t understand a
lot of the Indian terminology which made the book hard work. The time invested
in doing some research around the book was well spent however and most of us
felt pleased we persevered. Those of us who read it in a big session rather
than over a number of weeks found it more fulfilling, and everyone learned
something new.
A couple of the group who had read the back cover expected
more of a love story, and felt disappointed that this was not pursued. Others
felt that Viv’s love for Tahsin Bey was at the core of the book. We all had a
favourite part, and there were so many highlights. The descriptions of the
trenches in WW1 were as powerful as any war poetry, and the descriptions of Peshawar
made the sights, sounds and smells come to life. We liked the statement that
being young and beautiful at the same time deranged the mind – so true.
So basically we had very differing opinions about the book.
Everyone wanted to love it, but just a few of us did. Those that did will carry
it with us for some time, and will insist that all our friends read it. It made all of us want to learn more about the
era and about India, which is a good thing. One of the group’s had a Grandfather
who had been in WW1 with a group of Indian soldiers and she brought an amazing
photo along. This helped us feel a connection with the era
and the storyline.
Thank you for allowing us the chance of reading and
commenting on the book. It has been a great experience. We also made good use
of the bottle of Baileys. For our puddings we had Baileys and chocolate cheesecake,
Baileys ice cream and Baileys & raspberry bread and butter pudding. All
were rather delicious. Recipes available on request.
