We just read Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys...by total fluke we can lay claim to this being part of Black History Month as Jean
Rhys identified as Creole (we had the same fluke during Pride month). 🙂

Anyway, on with the book. Most of the group loved this book, it's a wonderful novel, beautifully written that transports you to the oppressive heat of the tropics and depicts a dark pervasive sense of doom. Almost all the group had read Jane Eyre too and there was some debate as to whether not having done so was a help or a hindrance.

There were two of us who didn't like it, found it disjointed and confusing and didn't pick up on the vividness of the tropics or the heat
you could almost feel, or the sense of dread that stood the hairs up on the back of your neck. We simply didn't enjoy it or even 'get it'. It was however, we all agreed, worth appreciating from a historical and feminist perspective - who was truly the beast - Mr Rochester or
Antoinette who in Jane Eyre as the mad woman in the attic was depicted as sub human - we discussed the incarceration of women as
chattels...which of course led on to our usual wide ranging discussions on everything from toilets in India to local speed restriction plans.

We were missing our usual lead today and wish Sally a 'Get Well Soon' and thanks to Rosemary for abley standing in.

Haddenham Book Group give Wide Sargasso Sea 6 out of 8 thumbs up.
(and we had one member who didn't manage to read it).