Book Club

7:25 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
Great wine, good appetizers and FANTASTIC cupcakes were eaten at Shauna Foster's Book Club on Wednesday when we went to discuss Sharon Butala's Girl In Saskatoon. All of us ladies had very high hopes for this book and sought it out after the one and only major book store sold out of it two times, and other stores were also selling out. I ended up getting my copy off Amazon. I was excited to get into this piece of historical fiction placed in the city I am currently living, but after only a few pages what I thought the book was about and what the book was really about it became a chore to finish it.

Most of us in book club tried to push through and finish it, hoping that it would pull together in the end, but it did not happen. The disappointment and some anger came from many of the ladies at the book club including myself.

There were gaps in the narrative, which really parallel Butala's connection with the main character of her story Alex. They were never really friends, just simply went to the same school. She had never really hung out with her or remembered anything really specific. Her book really isn't about Alex, but more about the connections between Sharon and Alex's similar origin, they were both in drama club and Sharon had a summer job where Alex would have a future job as a nurse. The story seemed to be more about Sharon and her life, comparing her life to that of Alex's along the way.

The part of the book that is really wonderful was the description of the time about living in Saskatoon, and all the description of how life was for girls/women in that time. The book left many ties still undone and so many unanswered questions. I thought that this story would have better been told as a fiction story, take the idea of Alex's death and make it a fiction story rather then filling a true story with maybes and assumptions.


Shauna picked the next book: Marley and Me by John Gorgan. I picked it up that night and
have had a hard time putting it down and in the first 5 chapters I have already shed some tears. I'm looking forward to this book much more, something fun and heartwarming.


I can't wait till the next meeting to see what the rest of the ladies have to say!

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