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Heaven: December Book Club - Winter Solstice
December's book of the month is Rosamunde Pilcher's long but easy-reading "Winter Solstice."
Characters from various walks of life gather, for different reasons, to spend Christmas in a "quite large, solid, Victorian" house in Scotland.
This is one of my annual December reads and I look forward to our discussion. Happy reading!
Characters from various walks of life gather, for different reasons, to spend Christmas in a "quite large, solid, Victorian" house in Scotland.
This is one of my annual December reads and I look forward to our discussion. Happy reading!
Comments
Did anyone reading the book not particularly enjoy it, and why?
The book has various points of view. Which ones did you enjoy most, and least? Were there any characters we don't hear from that you wish we did?
Did you find the characters and situations believable?
Your favourite characters, and least favourite?
If you know Scotland, did the descriptions evoke it well?
What might happen in a sequel?
Any other comments or things you'd like to discuss?
This book is one of my annual pre-Christmas reads. Do you have some? If so, what are they?
Have at it.
I loved reading this book, thank you for the suggestion. The characters, countryside, interior decoration and houses were so well described they were easily to imagine. And I revelled in the cosy atmosphere.
Books with different character’s stories really appeal to me and this was no exception. My only criticism is that Lucy’s diary entries didn’t give much insight into the plot, mainly repeating events that we knew about.
I enjoyed this collection of characters coming together and forming a family. So much change happened to each of them in a very short time, so the situations are condensed but believable.
It annoyed me that Elfrida and Oscar were portrayed, and even described themselves as old, while they’re in their early 60s, as least Elfrida is. Younger than me!
I particularly liked Carrie for her independence, resilience and kindness. She reminds me of my elder daughter. I didn’t have a least favourite character.
Unlike films, I don’t repeat Christmas books. I loved the feeling of this though with its gentle themes of growth, change and reconciliation.
I liked the way the point of view changed, it meant the story rattled along in a very satisfactory manner. I would have liked more about the sad major stuck in the infirmary. He seemed one of the better drawn characters
I thought the characters on the whole were quite well drawn, if from a very narrow social range, but the situation was the stuff of fairy tales. But its a Christmas read and that's what I expect.
I liked Gloria best I think. I thought we could have done without Elfrida's trip to Cornwall, though I did like the description of the house. In fact all the dwellings were well described, and I wouldn't mind living in any of them.
I don't know Scotland well, but I could imagine it from the one holiday I did have up in that area.
I think a sequel could focus on Lucy and her disappointment when Roly (?) comes back from Nepal with a serious girlfriend.
A few years ago the Ship did A Christmas Carol as its Christmas read. I said at the time I would re-read it every year. I haven't but I think I ought to. 'Are there not workhouses' has stuck with me.
I don't think I'd read it again, but it was an ideal read a week or two ago when I was feeling ill and just wanted to curl up with a nice book. I might try out some of her others. I know I've read at least one, but I can't remember which.
The Shell Seekers is the best known one of hers, and a lovely book. September is a sort of sequel and I didn't enjoy it as much but think I should revisit it.
I think there's more to your spoiler than just cavalier convenience. The tragedy is an ongoing part of the book, particularly affecting Oscar of course but with ramifications into his relationship with Lucy and a vehicle for some sensitive insights from Peter Kennedy.
It hadn't occurred to me that the dinner party was patronising.
Two thoughts for the moment: first, I do think that a more proactive editor would have culled the whole Cornwall episode; and second I do wish that the author had understood that Sentences should always have a main verb!
With my Writer's Hat on, I can entirely see why it's there; it provides the stable basis which the traffic accident so completely disrupts, and which is meant to come to us as a shocking surprise.
That it in fact doesn't do so is down to the chump who wrote the blurb at the back of the book, which acts as a massive spoiler. If I were the author I'd be calling for his guts to be served up on a plate.
That's a perceptive comment. I did think you were being a bit hard on the Cornwall episode! My inside cover blurb just mentions "an unforeseen tragedy" which doesn't give a great deal away, but maybe other editions are different.
Regarding one of my own questions, I confess that on rereading now I skip Sam's sections. He provides a useful role as home-facilitator for Oscar and Elfrida and love interest for Carrie but I'm not that interested in him otherwise. I find Lucy's contributions some of the most enjoyable although I skim over the Horace episode as I find it upsetting. Poor little dog.
Did anyone ever see the TV version of the book some years ago? If not, avoid it like the plague. It was utterly dreadful.
I haven't seen the TV version, I'm pleased to say.
The Scottish atmosphere is well-caught, I think. I spent a very happy Christmas Eve / Christmas morning in the parish kirk in Glamis a few years ago (organ, fiddle and accordion provided the music, and we all ended up eating mince pies and drinking copious quantities of mulled wine) so although the book is set much further north, the mood seems very familiar to me.
But I do wonder why Oscar plays the Ode to Joy at a Christmas service.
Egad, that's terrible. The blurb writer should have been shot.
It was a very enjoyable read, even with the sad parts, which did bring tears to my eyes.
The book has various points of view. Which ones did you enjoy most, and least? Were there any characters we don't hear from that you wish we did?
I think I liked Lucy's pov best. Even though her home life has been less than ideal, I really liked her sweetness, maturity and thoughtfulness.
All the different narrators were interesting. There were none that I really didn't want to read.
Did you find the characters and situations believable?
Mostly. As a (former) organist, I don't think Oscar's actions were recognizable to me. But then again, it might be because I'm female. Not sure about that, though.
Your favourite characters, and least favourite?
Lucy's mom and grandma were definitely not favorites! There wasn't a lot of detail, but enough (and written well enough!) that I felt they needed to be dressed down!
Any other comments or things you'd like to discuss?
Like Andras, I wondered why Oscar was playing Ode to Joy on Christmas Eve. I know it's been a while since he practiced the organ, but gosh! Why not a simple expansion on Mendelssohn, or Adeste Fideles?
There has not been a typical Christmas read for me, and my books at this time of the year don't necessarily relate to Christmas, but I really enjoyed having roughly the same dates in real life and in the book. It was very different from my reality here with all the descriptions of the cold and snow, but that was a nice aspect to think about.
I guess I'm just annoyed that Pilcher had created to quite believable characters in Gloria and Francesca jus to bump them off to move the story on.
Unexpected deaths are the very devil to fit into a plot: either they are somehow signalled beforehand (Gloria's love of a little drinkie or two or three, perhaps) or they stick out like a sore thumb - a sort of diabolus ex machina, if you like. But yes, the speed of the new romance, bedding and marriage is a little reminscent of Hamlet.
The fact that such events happen in real life is neither here nor there. Real life, as Barbara Cartland once observed, is sadly lacking in useful plots.
I wasn't happy with the speed of Elfrida and Oscar's relationship and am not sure that that speed is healthy (it mirrored that of Nicola and Randall whatever, the American who whisked Lucy's inconvenient mother away). I have known of people being evicted from their homes fast after being widowed: three months was granted to a clergy wife in tied accommodation. I doubt very much probate had been granted within a month to allow the house to be sold. The usual time is 6 to 8 months and the rules are that contracts cannot be exchanged before probate is granted.
For something I read in a fairly fast undigested gulp, I still picked up other details that were wrong:
I'm coming late to this as I've been travelling and a bit sporadic in my shipboard time. But it was a little odd to start the book in cold (though not snowy) London in December, and finish it in 38 degree heat in Australia!