Oranges are not the only fruit?

Image uploaded to Flickr by Moriza

At work, our sort-of reading group is working through the Orange Prize shortlist.

I've steered clear of book clubs somewhat, reading from a list and to a prescribed time smacks of university days a little and can become joyless - reading to complete, not reading for pleasure.

Having struggled through a recent fiction dry spell – starting and abandoning unsatisfying novels and desultorily turning to a rather eccentric selection of non-fiction – I am embracing this structured project with gusto.

The shortlist is:

·         Rosie Alison - The Very Thought of You

·         Barbara Kingsolver - The Lacuna

·         Attica Locke - Black Water Rising

·         Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall

·         Lorrie Moore - A Gate at the Stairs

·         Monique Roffey -The White Woman on the Green Bicycle

The awards ceremony is next week, so we don't stand a chance of completing the list in time – which poses interesting questions about how our judgement of literary value might be affected by the announcement of the prize winner.

So far, I've raced through The Lacuna and dawdled through The Very Thought of You.

The Lacuna was stunning, powerful and passionate, with a strong political message about personal freedoms and public perception, and the morality of public crusades.  It's very thought-provoking on the theme of active participation vs. passive observation in history-making events, proposing, I think, that there is no such thing as passive observations of the times – as an observer, you too are implicated.

The Very Thought of You was nice enough, I suppose, as a historical romance. I felt it was a bit thin, the wartime setting was primarily backdrop and added little to the narrative's drive other than to propel the characters into a sudden conclusion, rather awkwardly, two-thirds of the way through the novel.  The prose style was also a little unsatisfying, relying largely on rhetorical flourish and purplish descriptive passages. There could have been an exploration of the issue of personal morality in wartime, and of the role of the voyeur in the events they observe.

Ah, I've just noticed that observation, of intimate personal catastrophes and sweeping historical events, seems to be a common theme here!

Interestingly, my tweet about the project was picked up by the Orange Prize marketing team:

·         Me: First hand-out of books for new reading group, reading Orange Prize list - I got The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver http://ht.ly/1MxqF

·         Them: Let us know how your reading group gets on with the shortlist :-)

Now that's how to engage your audience and contribute to the conversation.  Basic courtesy, maybe, but I certainly felt all warm and cozy - and appreciated!