Reading Group - What Was Lost

This is quite a slim first novel by Catherine O'Flynn.  It was obviously critically quite acclaimed on release.  There was some discussion of the quoted book reviews when the books were handed out.  Obviously they were all intended to be positive but they elicited quite a mixed response from the group.  It almost seemed that they were reviews of different books.

I found it quite easy to read at first.  It seemed quite a straightforward story of Kate, a young girl struggling to cope with the fact that her mother had abandoned the family and then her father had died.  I had slightly mixed feelings as it seemed that the reader was invited to adopt a slightly smug superiority over the naive central character.

Then the book moved into a second section nineteen years after the events of the first section.  At first it wasn't clear that there was any connection between the two sections other than the geographical setting, or to be more precise the Green Oaks shopping centre.  Gradually it became clear that one of the new characters was the sister of Kate's friend from the first section.  Later it became apparent that Kate had mysteriously disappeared shortly after the events of the first section of the book.

The narrative of this second section was interspersed with italicised monologues from various users of the shopping centre.  For the most part these seems unconnected with the main story line and I found them rather irritating.

The mystery of Kate's disappearance is eventually resolved.  Without wishing to give anything away it was quite unexpected but nevertheless made sense.  I felt that the quotes plastered all over the book were rather over-hyped; perhaps not surprisingly.  As a first novel it wasn't bad, I'd read her again but I wouldn't say I'm a fan.

There were only five of us at the group this morning but nevertheless we had quite an interesting discussion.  One of the readers was thoroughly unimpressed.  The rest of us all found bits and pieces that we had enjoyed but also many things that were dissatisfying.  The general consesnus was 'not bad for a first novel'.