Reading Group News

This week it's the turn of the Pontypool Library Reading

Group. They have been reading “The Blazing World” by Siri Hustvedt.

Artist Harriet Burden, consumed by fury at the lack of recognition she has received from the New York art establishment, embarks on an experiment. She hides her identity behind three male fronts who exhibit her work as their own. And yet, even after she has unmasked herself, there are those who refuse to believe she is the woman behind the men. 

Not universally popular with the group, this fictional novel is written as if it is non fiction and the reader can become confused as to what is true and what is not. One member however was very enthusiastic about the book saying that it is “an amazing piece of writing by Hustveldt” and “a book that richly deserves the attention one has to give it to come to terms with its content.”
  
Hard work but worth it? 
What do you think?


For those who enjoy historical fiction another member of the reading group recommends ‘The King’s Curse’ by Philippa Gregory, the sixth book in the Cousins’ War Series.

She says it “gives a picture of the early days of the Tudor monarchy and Henry VIII’s reign in particular, through the eyes of Lady Margaret Pole.  Margaret was a Plantagenet, the daughter of the Duke of Clarence, niece to Edward lV and Richard lll and granddaughter of Warwick ‘The Kingmaker’”.

“I found the style that Philippa Gregory used in having Margaret tell her story in the form of a journal very effective. Not only do we learn of events at Court but we are given an insight into the life of a landowner in Tudor times.  I felt increasingly drawn into Margaret’s life as the book progressed and found the final pages particularly moving.”