Jean Cocteau's cat looks less than chuffed but how did his novel go down?
March saw the Tyneside Book Club delve into 1920s France, with Jean Cocteau's Les Enfants Terribles.
This dark and acid tale of extreme sibling rivalry wasn't to everyone's taste. For some, the brother and sister protagonists Paul and Elisabeth were in dire need of "a good slap". Good parenting was certainly absent, as indeed for much of the book was any parenting given the untimely deaths of the siblings' mother and father.
The unpleasantness of the main characters was a barrier to some members who found it hard to care about such unsympathetic people. There was also little solace to be had in its bleak conclusion.
But even those who took against the characters appreciated the quality of the writing and of the English translation by Rosamond Lehmann. All agreed there was a lot going on under the surface of this complex novel, even if it was hard to discern all the themes.
And for some members there was a fascination in the slow car crash of the siblings' lives. There was also a macabre appeal to "The Game" - the competitive and ultimately destructive sniping that obsessed Paul and Elisabeth. For those with siblings, there were echoes of the rivalry that can cause tension in family relationships - albeit taken to a much greater extreme.
Perhaps in the end Les Enfants Terribles was more admired than loved by the group, but there was still plenty of power and points for discussion packed into a slim volume.
Next month the Tyneside Book Club tackles Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant - a novel that divided literary critics.
This dark and acid tale of extreme sibling rivalry wasn't to everyone's taste. For some, the brother and sister protagonists Paul and Elisabeth were in dire need of "a good slap". Good parenting was certainly absent, as indeed for much of the book was any parenting given the untimely deaths of the siblings' mother and father.
The unpleasantness of the main characters was a barrier to some members who found it hard to care about such unsympathetic people. There was also little solace to be had in its bleak conclusion.
But even those who took against the characters appreciated the quality of the writing and of the English translation by Rosamond Lehmann. All agreed there was a lot going on under the surface of this complex novel, even if it was hard to discern all the themes.
And for some members there was a fascination in the slow car crash of the siblings' lives. There was also a macabre appeal to "The Game" - the competitive and ultimately destructive sniping that obsessed Paul and Elisabeth. For those with siblings, there were echoes of the rivalry that can cause tension in family relationships - albeit taken to a much greater extreme.
Perhaps in the end Les Enfants Terribles was more admired than loved by the group, but there was still plenty of power and points for discussion packed into a slim volume.
Next month the Tyneside Book Club tackles Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant - a novel that divided literary critics.
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