Oblomov

The story is full of such innovations that the trapped women use to overcome their situation. Considering that they all start out as spoilt, ultra-rich wives who never did a day's work in their lives, the title is very appropriate.

Good review FA. I have put this down as the best book that I have read in 2007. As a piece of alternative history, it does not match Robert Harris' masterpiece Fatherland but is nevertheless a great read. I particularly liked the excellent characterisation of the Roth brothers. I often have wondered about the apparently awful title for such a literary work. I discussed this in my "What's in a title?" thread last month. I think Roth named the book in that way because of some parallels with a possible inspiration - The Diary of Anne Frank. Since the entire book is written from a 7 going on 8 year old boy's perspective, Roth must have delibrately given it that immature sounding title.

Very much so. Only yesterday, I was browsing through some chapters in A A Hoehling's excellent book The Hindenburg, a well researched work of non-fiction on the disaster. Afterwards, I felt tempted to watch the fictionalised film of that event, starring George C Scott. Likewise, I have a historical interest in WW2 and often follow-up a bit of research with a relaxing work of fiction on the same subject. For example, after reading J McGovern's well researched book Matin Bormann, I went and read The Bormann Brief, a very well written, but completely fictionalised account about the enigmatic Nazi.

No, Janet they were not. 'They' was in fact my foster-mother, one of the nastiest pieces of work that ever lived....I mean it. The only reason she bought me that book was because it was supposed to be a status symbol. I had just started Summer holidays (April & May in India. I recall now that it was not, in fact, a birthday present as I mentioned earlier) and was busy classifying my large comic collection. Some equally catty friend of my FM remarked that her daughter only read classics during the holidays - I clearly recall that she mentioned Vanity Fair & The Moonstone at the time. My FM thought that this implied comparison was terrible and before I knew it had thrown out all my carefully collected comics and bought me the biggest classic that she could find - the Collins Library Giant edition of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. This was over 40 years ago and I was 11 years old at the time. Still think 'they' were being kind? I think Jean val Jean might have disagreed too.

I asked a few of my lady friends who also had read the book at the time which particular character of the 5 marooned women they identified with most. Almost exclusively, the answer was the relatively calm, level-headed (but also the most unadventurous of the lot) Carey. That was 20 years ago; I bet people will think differently now. Carey's character in the book is interesting. She gets the most lines of the five women and comes closest to being the 'leader' although they never agree on any one person's decision. Still Carey actually contributes relatively few ideas to their survival & escape plan; her main role seems to be to keep the more volatile other four calm and together.

Swindon? Why do you need a book if you're going there? Swindon is one of the most vibrant and exciting cities in the world - sort of Paris, New York & Rio rolled into one with a bit of the South Pacific added to boot. Colourful traffic cameras flashing at you, the exciting Magic Roundabout, quaint narrow roads where you rub shoulders (or fenders) with the local saplings and so on. You'll have so many things to do that you'll forget all about books and probably extend your stay by 2 weeks. I should know, I live in Wootton Bassett nearby.

I thought no one else had even heard of it! Odd that it was never made into a film - it certainly had material for it. Aromaannie, did you think that the plot was implausible or OTT?

Yes, something like that happened to me in the late 1970s, soon after I qualified as a doctor. I had no problem with academic reading, but for some reason I went through a patch that lasted almost 2 years during which I could not keep up with and finish any work of fiction. I have still no idea why and even though I eventually conquered the problem, I feel that the experience slowed down my pace of reading permanently.

A book that I bought almost 20 years ago, read, liked but lost soon afterwards was an unlikely thriller called Savages by Shirley Conran. I was certain that I had lost it while on a trip to the Lake District in 1988 but I found the same copy yesterday while clearing out some boxes in the attic. It is quite an unusual story and I wondered if any of you had read it?

Wow! Thanks very much.

Apart from Abe books or e-bay, does someone know useful sites (UK or otherwise) to get hold of rare and out of print books? (Not the mainstream sellers like Amazon or Play). Thanks.

I have only glanced through The Truth about Chickamauga by Col. Archibald Gracie, but know from reports that it is one of the most pointless, boring books ever written. Among classics, I found the Collins Library Giant edition of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables impossible to read. Some busybody who had nothing better to do gave me a beautiful copy of this book on my 12th birthday in 1967 and despite several attempts, could not maintain my concentration beyond the Fantine chapter. By the mid-70s I could no longer stand the sight of the big book on my bookshelf and so simply gave it away one fine day. Among modern thrillers, I found the grossly overhyped The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown very disappointing. Poorly plotted and written about a subject that has been speculated for decades.

OK, I know that this sounds a bit far-fetched, but one of my various interests is the era of the "Clipper" type passenger Flying Boats that were around from the mid-1930s till the late 40s. They never became as popular as they should have done because of WW2. I am after descriptive books (non-fiction) that highlight the era of the clipper from a passenger's perspective. The only one that I have found so far is called Wings to the Orient by Stan Cohen, but it is not as good as the reviews suggest. Any other suggestions would be welcome.

True. But as long as the nasty side of human nature is recognised as such, I can enjoy the story....after all, very few of us are really "good" . But when the nastiness becomes collective and pervades the entire atmosphere of the story and involving most of the characters, it also seems to become the "norm". IMO, Wuthering Heights edges towards that trend and that is what I find a bit disturbing. I always try to put myself 'inside' a story that I am reading - not necessarily as an important character but often as an invisible bystander - and like to have a soothing corner to retreat into. I don't enjoy stories where I cannot find that corner and I'm afraid WH was one of those. Sorry, it is a personal thing (might be bacause I grew up in a nasty atmosphere myself and always struggled to find that sanctuary corner).

You'll realise that yourself as you go along.

I know what you mean and that's what I find disturbing. At the time it was written and for sometime afterwards, it might have seemed refreshingly different from the mainstream. But looked at from the modern perspective, Wuthering Heights almost revels in latent uncaring selfishness of people....something that is becoming all too obvious in modern society, particularly British society.

One suggestion. Don't let your spouse read it on your honeymoon!

I have never liked Wuthering Heights (the wife is crazy about it) for reasons that I cannot fathom myself. The book left a bad taste in my mouth because of the unpleasant lead. I find Heathcliffe's character almost sadomasochist and his relationship with Cathy delibrately perverse. The story looks a bit too much at the negative and unredeemable aspects of humans.

By "reading" I would take it to mean that one has to be able to read and understand what was being said. To be honest, I first did that in July 1960, when I was 4 years and 8 months old. It was a children's story - a Chinese folklore one translated to English and called "The Thief".

All of us readers own one or more books which we enthusiastically bought "to go along with the flow" but never got down to seriously reading. In my case, it is Future Shock by Alvin Toffler that I bought in 1973 but have not been able to go beyond the first 2 pages despite several attempts. In those days (and I was 18 at the time) the book was very 'in'...if you know what I mean. But it seems very silly and meandering these days. How about you?

BTW, the above 5 are my favourite modern books. I have to classify classics separately. They are: 1. Nostromo by Joseph Conrad (I am currently re-reading this one) 2. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 4. Orlando by Virginia Woolf 5. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

I do parallel reading of two or three books, but never the same format. If I am reading a thriller, it would be the only one of that genre; but I might be reading a classic or biography at the same time. I also have a large collection of non-fiction books related to my various subjects of interest, eg: Titanic, Unsolved Mysteries, JFK Assassination, WW2, Astronomy, Aviation and so on. I use those books mainly for reference and can look them up at any time, irrespective of what else I am reading at the time.

As I said before, that perspective is one area where the movie fails to match the book. Milos Foreman does his best, as does the award winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler (who had done Medium Cool a few years earlier) by often keeping the camera in the Chief's viewpoint as it follows McMurphy around, but it does not quite work the same way as in the book. Having said that, the one scene where Foreman & Wexler pulled it off brilliantly - even better than the book - was the chewing gum "thank you" sequence.

One of the most remarkable First Person books has to be Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The story is written from the perspective of the Native American inmate Chief Bromden, who is little more than an obscure bystander when looked at from the other character's perspective. Still, his presence and unique narration in the story is what gives it such poignance and power at the same time.

Brilliant book. I read it back in 1977 and saw the movie around the same time. Great though the movie was, it cannot match the characterisation in the book. It was a touch of brilliance by Kesey to have written the story in First Person but from the perspective of the low-key character Chief Bromden. That is where the movie loses to the book; the FP narrative of the book made it possible for the Chief to get the necessary importance in the story even when he was just a bystander (which he was, almost throughout the story), that impression was impossible to recreate on the screen.