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The Gift of Stones - Jan 2020 - Book Group discussion thread

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McGoohan Jan 2020 11:08pm, 2 Jan 2020 42,782 posts	Quote Pin McGoohan 'WTF are these?' I said on Christmas morning, emptying the contents of my festive stocking. 'Stones,' Dad said.
Little Nemo Jan 2020 10:18am, 3 Jan 2020 10,021 posts	Quote Pin Little Nemo
Diogenes Jan 2020 12:41pm, 8 Jan 2020 44,123 posts	Quote Pin Diogenes As the Choosinator, I am enjoying re-reading TGOS, a book I first read about 20 years ago when I was on something of a Crace splurge. I chose this rather than Continent because I felt it was more different, and not Being Dead or Continent because they are both better known. My feeling is , even if you are not won over by the idea or the telling of it, you can't help but enjoy the writing.
Diogenes Jan 2020 6:36am, 10 Jan 2020 44,176 posts	Quote Pin Diogenes [The second ‘Continent’ in the previous post should be ‘Quarantine’.
Little Nemo Jan 2020 1:40pm, 11 Jan 2020 10,036 posts	Quote Pin Little Nemo I liked the style of this book. Straightforwardly told but with a nice mix of poetic landscape descriptions and funny story-telling from the main character. I appreciate that the author didn't do anything odd with how people spoke! I'm not sure how accurate it is as a description of how stone-age people lived but it mostly seemed plausible. Life seemed short and sometimes brutal but there was still room for stories and entertainment. I loved the idea that geese bring summer The only thing that didn't quite work for me was the speed that the bronze-age took over. I had always imagined that it would have been much more gradual, maybe over a generation or two. I don't read much of this ancient historical genre but I enjoyed this and I'll look out for more of his books at the library. I gave this book a 7.
Little Nemo Jan 2020 1:41pm, 11 Jan 2020 10,037 posts	Quote Pin Little Nemo 1st person to vote properly! fist pump :-B
Little Nemo Jan 2020 1:42pm, 11 Jan 2020 10,038 posts	Quote Pin Little Nemo Damn!
McGoohan Jan 2020 3:53pm, 11 Jan 2020 42,897 posts	Quote Pin McGoohan I think :-B would be a Bugs Bunny emoji
Little Nemo Jan 2020 6:56pm, 11 Jan 2020 10,041 posts	Quote Pin Little Nemo =:-B
Diogenes Jan 2020 8:25pm, 11 Jan 2020 44,213 posts	Quote Pin Diogenes I finished my reread last night. It’s strange, I didn’t remember much about it from the first read and not much came back. I think I’d confused it with Continent which I read at the same time. But, as I’ve said before, I love Crace’s writing, and the story is simple but affecting in its telling. I like his imagining of how the different societies lived in sporadic isolation, how the horseman descended like geese then flew away again, how skills became outdated. C’est plus ça change.