Away

by Jane Urquhart
Meeting Date:  May 29, 2009
Hostess:  Stephanie

Discussion:  When we arrived, Stephanie announced that as a special bonus for the night, there would be a door prize at the end of the night ... an original oil painting that she had bought at a silent auction earlier in the week.  The picture depicted a young woman, eyes closed yet wistfully facing out to sea, where a sailboat floated by.  How ironic that in the week that we were reading the book "Away" she would find a painting that virtually depicted the theme of the book!  It was very thoughtful and added a new level to hostess'ing book club!
There was a general consensus that everyone had some struggles with the book - although there were differences in opinion as to whether the writing was beautiful prose or simply just confusing - I believe everyone commented on the fact that they had some difficulty in understanding at least parts of the story.  The concept of "away" and/or being "away" also generated some interesting discussion with some believing that mental illness was at the heart of the characters who experienced it.  We got into a very interesting discussion on the merits of Canadian literature.  And while everyone was glad that we had selected a Canadian author, there was a question as to whether we give Canadian authors and Canadian literature more acclaim than they necessarily deserve.  Several of us struggled to just have the author tell the story rather than getting caught up in the language so much.
There was a wide range of preference in the favourite and least favourite characters.  There was some consensus that Mary/Moira was a least favoured, especially in that she really was one of the primary characters for at least half the book and yet we learned almost nothing about her - what with her being "Away" for most of that time.  Generally people liked Eileen (at least the early years) and Liam.  There were also comments about liking Brian, Exodus Crow and even Osbert and Granville but again, the character development for some of these personalities was somewhat lacking.  Aidan received a lot of votes for least likeable - and yet, almost everyone was able to identify with him (or men like him) and had gone through personal experiences with their own Aidans.  For some, this made us like Eileen less for falling for a man like him while others forgave her knowing we would have done the same thing.
People tended to either prefer the story that took place in Canada over the story in Ireland, but this was not the case for everyone.  Most people would not recommend the book, but there some who would recommend it with a caveat (not sure what the caveat would be though) and some thought it was a good recommendation for a book club book.
On a personal note, "Away" is precisely the type of book that I thought (before joining a book club) that would be read and discussed at book clubs - these ethereal, meaningful books that I don't understand.  And while I certainly do not purport to have understood Away in any real, deep sense, I appreciated the discussion which was both insightful (to help me understand) and reassuring (that I wasn't the only one that didn't really get it!).  I'm glad that this is not the only "type" of book that we read, but also appreciate that I could read it and still enjoy a decent discussion.


Ratings:
Stacey .................2
Joyce .................5.6
Natalie ................7
Dannette .............8
Lynne ..................5
Stephanie ............6
Kellie ...................6
Overall: 5.6