For our latest book, we chose a Quick Read by Clare Mackintosh called The Donor. At a scant 80 pages, it was the shortest title we’ve tackled, and it made a pleasant change from some of the more weighty tomes we’ve tackled in the past.
Despite it’s slight nature, this book dealt with a significant topic, that of organ donation and its after effects. Telling the story of Lizzie and her teenaged daughter Meg, who has recently had a heart transplant after years of illness. Enter Karen, who introduces herself as the mother of the young man whose heart now beats in Meg’s chest.
A story of guilt, gratitude, empathy, manipulation and hope, our group all enjoyed reading it.
Some of the things we enjoyed about the book were the emotional punch it delivered, the excellent twist at the end (we didn’t guess it correctly, but some of us felt there would be one!), and the believable characters. We were aware of the limitations of the short nature of the book, which meant that some of the characters actions felt a little implausible without the chapters explaining their changes of opinion or what led to their actions.
We felt an emotional connection to Lizzie, the mother, and understood how protective she felt about her child. We recognised that her “survivor’s guilt” paved the way for her to be easily manipulated by Karen, the grieving donor parent. We didn’t warm to Karen, but then we weren’t supposed to, but our group tried to empathise with her grief. The word our readers felt described Meg’s father was disappointing- which really tells all you need to know about him!
Although we almost all would recommend the book to others, no-one felt compelled to pick up another book by this author. We did enjoy the shorter format though, (one of our regulars read it in one sitting on their holiday plane trip, and still had time to spare) and we’ll be including another in our reading list book choices.
We will be holding a joint Wellbeing Reading Group for Pride, where both SWFT and GEH will be reading Colm Tóibín’s The Magician, a fictionalised account of the life of the author Thomas Mann.
“The Magician opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the twentieth century, where the boy, Thomas Mann, grows up with a conservative father, bound by propriety, and a Brazilian mother, alluring and unpredictable. Young Mann hides his artistic aspirations from his father and his homosexual desires from everyone. He is infatuated with one of the richest, most cultured Jewish families in Munich, and marries the daughter Katia. They have six children. On a holiday in Italy, he longs for a boy he sees on a beach and writes the story Death in Venice. He is the most successful novelist of his time, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, a public man whose private life remains secret. He is expected to lead the condemnation of Hitler, whom he underestimates. His oldest daughter and son, leaders of Bohemianism and of the anti-Nazi movement, share lovers. He flees Germany for Switzerland, France and, ultimately, America, living first in Princeton and then in Los Angeles.” (Simon and Schuster summary)
We will be meeting 2nd July at 1pm. Visit either GEH or SWFT for your copy of the Magician, and if you haven’t signed up yet, contact either library for your Teams invitation
Find out more about our reading groups here
Take a look at the blog posts for our previous reads here.