Reading Groups

Jenny Hartley, who wrote the Persephone Preface to Few Eggs and No Oranges, has written Reading Groups (OUP £5.99). In order to assemble the material for the book she and her colleague Sarah Turvey sent questionnaires to 350 groups. Here are some of their responses, prefaced by Jenny Hartley's comments:

Groups develop a sense of what they won't get on with: 'We have learnt to steer clear of magic realism.' 'We find non-fiction difficult to discuss... J.D.Bauby's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - not much to say after admiring the human spirit.'

Personal enthusiasms can rock the boat: 'E.Annie Proulx's Shipping News went badly. The American lady who recommended it loved it and wanted to reread it with the group. She was disappointed by our lukewarm response.'

Groups approve of books which can extend their knowledge base: 'We learnt a lot of history from Birdsong and Captain Corelli's Mandolin.' 'Eugenie Fraser's The House on the Dvina was such an eye-opener into a very unknown part of the world.' 'Memoirs of a Geisha and The God of Small Things introduced us to worlds we knew nothing about.'

Productive conundrums include: 'Bernard Schlink's The Reader - what would I do?' 'A.S.Byatt's Possession - very meaty.'

But too much agreement can sink a book: 'When everyone loves a book the discussion peters out early.' 'We all enjoyed Pride and Prejudice so it didn't provoke a lot of discussion.'

Even classics can wilt: 'Tristram Shandy is a notorious black spot: 'Try reading it and see what you think!' 'George Eliot's Felix Holt - inaccessible.' Balzac's Eugenie Grandet - none of us really cared about it.' 'Dante's La Vita Nuova - too neurotic for some - but a hit with another group.'

But even though classics might not go well in discussion, groups will still pick one every now and again and can surprise themselves agreeably: 'With Margaret Oliphant's Miss Marjoribanks we felt we had discovered an amusing unappreciated minor masterpiece. Everyone enthused.'

Some books are thought too lightweight: 'Books like The Horse-Whisperer which aren't substantial mean that we can't get our teeth into discussion.'

It is the differences which are for most people the joy of the group: 'What is interesting is that we rarely all agree about the book.' 'People's thoughts on a book are never predictable, even after fourteen years.' 'I was worried that the discussion about Cranford [by Mrs Gaskell] would not take off, but as soon as the first person had said something, which happened to be fairly contentious, everyone piled in and we were hammer and tongs for an hour and a half. Who would have thought Cranford would have aroused such passions? Or triggered off such a broad discussion ranging over political, social and moral themes?' 'Almost everyone had read Madame Bovary in the past and now brought a very different sensibility to it. It became one of everyone's favourite evenings.'

[Experience has shown that the half-dozen Persephone books most stimulating for reading groups to discuss are William - an Englishman, Someone at a Distance, Fidelity, The HomeMaker, Saplings and Reuben Sachs.]

© Oxford University Press

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