This month’s reading group book was what you might call a Marmite book. Some of us loved it, some of us hated it. Well, hated is a strong term, but we had a number of DNFs (Did Not Finish). It’s great for our reading group meeting as polarising books tend to generate the best discussions.
So what’s The Wager all about? It’s a true story set in the 1730s and 40s of a British naval vessel that is shipwrecked whilst on a secret mission to capture a Spanish galleon laden with treasure. Months later thirty survivors make it to the coast of Brazil and are hailed as heroes. A further six months on, another set of three survivors wash up, including the Captain and Lord Byron’s grandfather (then still a teenager). They tell a tale of mutiny involving the other shipwreck survivors.
The book takes us through from the Wager being equipped and setting sail with it’s crew including some difficult and unwilling sailors, to the shipwreck and ensuing challenges to the Captain’s command, to their eventual escape and return to England. A number of our DNF readers would have liked a less linear book structure, perhaps starting with the excitement of the shipwreck to entice them further into the book. The main complaint was that it was slow to get going, and for some of our number it simply wasn’t their thing!
For those who enjoyed the book, there was a sense of the author writing a non-fiction book with a strong narrative, and that story line driving through the book. We enjoyed that he didn’t succumb to caricature, and that the people were shown as nuanced figures. Essentially it wasn’t black and white, good or bad, in fact no-one came out of this adventure well, including the British government.
We appreciated the amount of research that underpins the book’s narrative, and it’s telling that there are 60+ pages of references, acknowledgements and index. Grann drops a significant amount of circumstantial details into his writing, settling it into it’s time and using quotes from other works as a commentary. Our verdict was that if this is your thing, it’s a brilliant read. If it’s not your thing, it’s worth a try- at least one of our number admitted that this really wasn’t their bag, but they enjoyed it anyway- but there’s no shame in not finishing a book you’re not enjoying. Life is way too short for that!
Our next read is Samantha Harvey’s The western wind. Billed as a “wise, wild and beautiful book” it promises a mystery set in the 15th Century. If you’d like to join in, pick up a copy from the Library! All are welcome.
Previous book reviews are now up on the Library Blog
