Wednesday 27th March

 I didn't get round to posting last night - it was book club night, which I join on zoom. Another member of the group was also zooming so I had company on the screen, as it were.

I'd rather be there in person, joining in with the delicious bring and share food. Last night they had a cheese platter with grapes, someone usually brings quiche, and there was also a pasta salad made with radiatori pasta. That's a new shape to me!

 

 The other zoomer and I googled it; the shape really is based on a type of heating radiator which a metal tube with fins sticking out of it. The pasta shape is like sections of the tube cut lengthwise, so that there is a sort of channel to collect the sauce. It looked fascinating.

In fact I find the design of the contraptions which make the pasta shapes fascinating. There are some kinds of machines that are just mesmerising to watch.

The The Book;

In the end I plucked up my courage and read 'Wandering Souls' by Cecile Pin, the book under discussion. Why did I need courage? 

I was apprehensive in case it was 'gut-wrenching', 'harrowing', 'heart-rending'. Oddly it was and wan't in that the writer didn't extract every last drop of the horrors endured by the Vietnamese Boat People - and the the horrors were horrific. It was as though the three children, separated by events from the rest of the family, were emotionally distanced from everything, with their main focus on getting through each stage of the journey to England, through the camps and finally (plot spoiler?) making it through, each in their own way.

I was also struck by the fact that the eldest sibling, the girl, caring for the two younger brothers, was a similar age to me. Maybe a year or two younger... That did make it feel more personal. 

Interspersed with the fictional story were facts and reports, which gave the background to the times. I would recommend the book to anyone (like me) wanting 'something different' and in a sense more relevant than well - my usual reading is moderately 'cosy' detective fiction, and gentle old-fashioned romance by Elizabeth Fair, D E Stevenson, Molly Clavering and so on. Although Elli Griffiths' Norfolk books are a new find, and I haven't finished the Donna Leon 'Inspector Brunetti' series set in Venice, which are all anything BUT cosy.

This month's book is 'The Places Inbetween' by Rory Stewart. I'm looking forward to this. I haven't decided whether to go for Kindle or Audible yet...