Last night the South Knighton Book Group met to discuss Jenn Ashworth's A Kind of Intimacy. In an ironic 'homage' to Annie we were served with a cheese and pickled onion porcupine, fairy cakes and toffee popcorn. If you haven't read the book, you won't know how deliciously funny that was. It was a reflection of the complexity of the novel that we had one of our longest discussions, as we have an ill-deserved reputation for not being sensible and concentrating more on the wine than the book. One of our group said that A Kind of Intimacy was a study of anger and this thought has stayed with me and grown and I now think this judgement is perceptive and answers many of the questions I have had about Annie's personality. I was a student with Jenn at Manchester University, on the same creative writing course, so I felt I had some personal connection with the novel having heard some early drafts in our critique seminars.
This is the second 'first' novel we have read as a group. The previous novel was The Ghosts of Eden by Andrew Sharp, who is married to one of our members and is my former next door neighbour. Andrew came to part of the meeting and it certainly focused our discussion to have the author there, to answer our questions and discuss the writing process. Unlike a fictional account of this situation, Andrew didn't have to stay upstairs in a bedroom and listen to the discussion on a baby monitor.
I have since learned that both Jenn and Andrew are short listed for the Waverton Good Read Award, hosted by Waverton Village in Cheshire and sponsored by Borders. Jenn has recently read to the group and Andrew is reading in November. Small world!
If you haven't read these novels yet, they're very different but both outstanding. Jenn and Andrew are on their way...to Cheshire?
No comments:
Post a Comment