May meeting and July book
Today we met at Clare's, feasted on lovely food in Clare's elegant dining room and created conversational chaos! Missed Margaret in Canberra, Moy on the Coast, and Pat who is en route to Iran, and Liz  - come next time if you can (Maggie can't I know)!

Today's book was Elizabeth Harrower's The Watch Tower. We found so much to talk about! It wasn't universally liked - Sue Woods loved it enough to read it twice. Jane didn't like it very much at all. We all HATED Felix Shaw, the male protagonist, and wondered where Elizabeth H. found that character - in her life or in her imagination? Our research showed that all her writing seems to focus on controlling men and trapped women - except where women are the controlling characters, ruining the lives of other women. Indeed the mother in The Watch Tower was a pretty awful character. The writing was excellent - 'austere, intelligent, ruthless in its perceptions...'. It was published in 1966 - how did we miss it all this time?  I have the job of writing to Elizabeth Harrower and asking her to a meeting -yes, she is still alive and lives in Sydney.

Next book is The Rosie Project at my place on 30 June - and then on July 28th, we read The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid at Jane's place.