Review- The Book Club by Kate Mc Cabe

“Looking for a way to pass the cold winter nights... Marian Hunt decides to start a book club,” reads the back cover of Kate Mc Cabe's latest novel, and this could just as well have been the writer's intention with this, her third novel. It takes a while to catch its stride, with a detailed life-story for each character, but once the cast is assembled, 'The Book Club' proves an easy way to pass a few hours.

Against a backdrop of Celtic Tiger Dublin, a disparate group assemble in response to Marian's book club ad. A disgraced poet wants inspiration for the novel he hopes will redeem him in the eyes of Dublin's literary critics, while a recently bereaved young widow wants a gentle way to emerge from her grief. An older couple are looking for a new interest as the wife recovers from a stroke, and a dishy downstairs neighbour hopes to distract Marian from the boredom of her solitary evenings.

But it is Marian's ex, the scheming, solicitor Alan Mc Millan who provides most of the excitement as he insinuates himself into the book club to try and get her back. And, unusually for this genre, it is the male characters who are the most interesting, especially when it seems the author is taking a little dig at her male contemporaries: On discovering that the first book club book is to be Rebecca, Nick the aspiring novelist, dreams of emulating Du Maurier's combined critical and popular success. With his first novel. That he hasn't actually started writing yet...

The Book Club - By Kate Mc Cabe
Poolbeg Press 390 pp, €15.99

Review first published in Irish Times Saturday March 8th 2008