Seven Cityside Book Clubbers met to discuss Sofie Laguna's 2015 Miles Franklin Literary Award Winner
The Eye of the Sheep.
The title evoked much discussion. Some thought the book would attract a bigger audience with a more attractive title while others thought a title like this intrigued and encouraged readers. Most of our readers would like to know why the author came up with this title and deduced that it had special meaning to the author and, being curious, they were aching to know more detail. Some of our readers were glad that our Book Club Set sticker covered the book cover image of Jimmy Flick and they were able to develop their own version of him.
Some of our readers had had much experience, in some cases personal involvement with children on the autism spectrum and therefore found this book difficult and rather emotional to read. Other readers appreciated and were fascinated by the way the author endeavoured to portray Jimmy Flick's thought processes and concepts of the world. Other readers had great difficulty with the notion of an adult writing from a child's perpective and felt this lack of authenticity. There was much curiosity about how the author came to write this book. Our readers were very interested in whether it was personal experience of a Jimmy or was it extensive empathetic research?
Our readers generally found all of the characters believable. There was much sympathy for Paula and much discussion ensued about how caring for a child like Jimmy Flick usually fell to the mother and how exhausting this reponsibility was. Most of our readers loved the way Paula was portrayed and how Jimmy conceptualised his mother.There was much discussion about why Paula just gave up when Gavin left after beating both Paula and Jimmy. There was talk about how denial of the domestic violence by the victim effectively stymied any possibility of assistance from medical authorities. There was much conversation about the community's role as silent witness to family violence and the way family violence travels down the generations.
The relationship between Jimmy and his father and the longing Liam had for his father fostered much discussion about the need for connection between sons and fathers. In Liam's case the loss of this much yearned-for connection and the denial of this loss did not bode well for his future. His psychopathic behaviour was portrayed in such an understated but nevertheless unsettling manner. The pressure in the foster family furthered discussion about the exhaustion involved in caring for children with behavioural difficulties.
Our readers generally enjoyed the actual expression and style of writing in
The Eye of the Sheep even though they found the content and story distressing and difficult. Most of our readers agreed it was a worthwhile read and some were considering re-reading it at a later date because they thought a slower read would do it more justice.
There was much excitement when next month's book was revealed: Harper Lee's second novel
Go Set A Watchman. It should be a very interesting meeting when we discuss this much anticipated novel on Thursday 1 October at Mackay City Library at 6.00 pm.
