Book Club Report - A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman
A Year of Marvellous Ways is a book I loved even more the second time I read it. That said, I’ve discovered I may have interpreted it differently than the author intended. In looking at the discussion questions provided in the paperback, I realized the story is meant to taken as magical realism, whereas I interpreted it as a comment on how revisionist our memories can be. Any “magical realism” I took to be a representation of the various characters fancies.
Several of the other attendees loved the book as well, but the discussion was kept piquant by one new member, a local author who has both feet firmly planted in the realism camp, who called it meandering and unstructured. He’s not wrong, it’s just that I happen to like meandering and unstructured stories. As another attendee put it: reading this book is like being swept away by a river. The prose flows so beautifully, with elegant turns of phrase blossoming among the gorse that grows alongside Marvellous’s home.
This is a staff pick of mine, and will continue to be, but I may tweak my “sales pitch” to be sure the anti-spec crowd knows what their taking on.
We likes it. To be read...