Previously home to the PL Book Club - Now....it's all about Reviews!:O)

[happygooner]

Well i'm plodding my way through it reading about 40 pages a day at the moment

[happygooner]

If I could have another week please

Reading it on the bus into work and on the way home which is great apart from the fact that sometimes the motion sends me to sleep and can't keep my eyes open

Getting right into it now though on a positive note

[AJ]

I'm done, wasn't the book I expected from the first 100 pages, but good read never the less

Will discuss more when others are finished

[Pocket Lady]

How we going guys?

[happygooner]

Originally Posted by Pocket Lady

How we going guys?

Finally finished reading it this morning.

While there is no doubt I enjoyed it once I got past the plodding beginning, and after a while it just seemed to flow, I thought the ending lacked something. A little disappointing. Maybe it's cos i'm a sucker for happy endings and this wasn't particularly one. Maybe it's because overall it just didn't seem how you imagined it would end up.

The chemistry between both main characters seemed too strong to effectively fizzle out. And I couldn't entirely see the storyline between Bellarosa and Susan.

[AJ]

I wasn't sure what to make of this book, it started as a story about John and Susan, was a bit Tom wolfe like. It then drifted into a full on Mafia type story.

I didn't find it all that good to be honest, the relationship between Susan and Frank was poorly written.

i'll write up more whne I get home

[Samba_SamPa]

Any chance of joining for the April book? Although I read mainly fiction, mainly crime thrillers, I am open to reading anything at all

[AJ]

sure.

What are we going to read this month ?

I was thinking we should stick with America and consider someone like Brett Easton Ellis / Thomas Pychon / Tom Wolfe ??

[happygooner]

Originally Posted by AJ

sure.

What are we going to read this month ?

I was thinking we should stick with America and consider someone like Brett Easton Ellis / Thomas Pychon / Tom Wolfe ??

No idea but I think we need to discuss the last book a bit first before moving on to the next or it kind of negates the point in this 'club'.

[AJ]

Agreed.

Gold Coast by Nelson De Mille.

Tells the story of wealthy Long Island Lawyer John Sutter and his wife Susan Stanhope Sutter, who live at the tip of New Yorks long island, they are the epitome of old money, in so much as it exsits in America.

They are the scions of the great rich familes of the 20s, and their friends are Vanderbilts and Astors. They live in a safe secure and insular world, the main theme of the book I guess is what happens to their world, when modern day America rears it's ugly head, in the form of new neightbour, Frank Bellarosa, a mafia don. It's about the class system, and how it insulates people from the real world

John gets suckered into acting as Bellarosas lawyer in a murder case, Susan into a (unlikely) affair with him.

Do John and Susan really love each other ? Their seemingly solid marriage cracks far too easily for me. Were they really that bored ?

Whilst the writing was techincally excellent, I grew tired of the main characters, and didn't care what happened to them. Susan in particular was very one dimensional.

I still don't see the point of the couple that lived in the gatehouse, at one point I thought their daughter was going to turn out to be the bastard offspring of Susans father or grandfather, but they never did anything with it.

[Valiant23]

I was disappointed reading this. I chose it because I thought it was an interesting concept and one I remembered as more of a thriller than it actually was.

DeMille portrayed Sutter as a very troubled man from the near outset, insomuch as he saw that his neighbours (not Bellarosa, the Gold Coast elite) were snobbish, foppish and annoying in a lot of ways, but not enough for him to break away completely.

Sutter was growing restless in all area's of his life and it was (as far as I could tell), a classic tale of a man approaching or entering mid life crisis. I think DeMille suggested this by mentioning the way Sutter liked to flirt with danger in 'safer' ways as in the lady at the club (and the seafront bar) and the flirt with the embezzlement of the old ladies fortune, before being pushed into the employ of Bellarosa, and all the dangers that entailed.

I was glad when thinks finally got moving and found the arrest sequence entertaining, and enjoyed the realisation that maybe Bellarosa wasn't being paranoid about the D.A.(?) and he was being sneaky and trying to get him killed.

Overall it wasn't the book I'd remembered. DeMille could have served up a five star fare, but paid too much attention to the presentation and not enough time on the actual taste. I'm disappointed in my choice because I've read about four of DeMille's books and wish I'd chosen Charm School, but I felt it was in too similar a vein to Fatherland.

Roll on April's choice.

[happygooner]

Ok who's next? I think it's you AJ

[AJ]

ok, I'll pick something today

[AJ]

how about catch 22 by Joseph Heller ?

[Valiant23]

Originally Posted by AJ

how about catch 22 by Joseph Heller ?

Sounds good to me.



I'll sort the thread.


P.S. No cheating by watching it on video.

[PAULM03]

woohoo.

Started it on holiday and I'm about two-thirds through. 2nd time I've read it. I think I was too young to really appreciate it 1st time round.

[Pocket Lady]

Originally Posted by PAULM03

2nd time I've read it. I think I was too young to really appreciate it 1st time round.

2nd for me too - we have it here so

[AJ]

I read it about 15 years ago, enjoyed it at the time, but have forgotten most of it

[Samba_SamPa]

Will get myself to the library tomorrow

[Valiant23]

Originally Posted by PAULM03

I think I was too young to really appreciate it 1st time round.

I felt the same.


Nice one Samba! Welcome aboard.