So...that was a bit different! Having a sensitive 'constitiution' - I had to read this book on an empty stomach (there were times when I found myself feeling quite nauseous!) However - a strong reaction is a good reaction when it comes to fiction I think - and I did find
Under the Skin very unputdownable.
It will be interesting to hear all of your thoughts on it. So to kick things off in the usual way, here are some questions to have a mull over before our discussion at 9...
What do you think
Michel Faber was trying to say with this book?
- Is he making a point about prejudice...judging others on external looks?
- what's he saying about animal cruelty/ how we rear animals for food?
- Is the book about the breakdown of human (vodsel!) society? How we can let some people slip through the net/ not notice when they are missing? And on privilege and the underclass?
When we contacted David Mitchell to ask him to choose this month's book - he was very passionate about his choice. This is what he said...
I've come up with 4 reasons to nominate Under the Skin by Michel Faber as my International Book Club choice. Firstly, and obviously, I loved it, loved it, loved it. When I was reading this novel I would fib to family members in order to be left undisturbed for a few more pages.
Secondly, it haunts me still, 3 or 4 years later. I think about Under the Skin several times a week: whenever I look at car upholstery, when I visit my butchers, whenever I see a hitch-hiker or a crooked farmer strolling his land. Thirdly, it hovers over a genre ('belongs to' a genre isn't quite right) whose quality of writing is rarely this masterly and so may act as a Trojan horse for some readers who tend to stick to mainstream literary fiction. Fourthly, one way for me to exorcize my professional jealousy of Faber's gifts is to do what I can to increase the number of his readers: I don't know why this is so, but it is. His other books are wonderful, too, notably THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE, but Under the Skin is an artform.
Don't know about you, but I can hardly wait to read it now!
Here's a bit about
Michel Faber...
It is fair to say that
Michel Faber has had a very varied life and that has continued into his writing. Faber is Dutch by birth, but grew up in Australia and now lives in the Scottish Highlands. He has worked as a nurse, a pickle-packer, a cleaner and a guinea pig for medical research. He has studied English Literature and can read Anglo-Saxon.
All these different experiences have obviously made him willing to experiment with different types of writing. His first published work was an award selling book of short stories, “Some Rain Must Fall and Other Stories”, 1998. This was followed by his first novel, “
Under the Skin” in 2000. “
Under the Skin” was short-listed for the Whitbread First Novel Award and was also nominated for the Dublin Impac Award. These two books were followed by the best-selling, critically acclaimed and hugely successful and ambitious Victorian novel, “The Crimson Petal and the White” in October 2002. This enormous success was followed by “The Apple”, a collection of stories featured around the characters of his best-selling novel, two novellas and another novel, “The Fahrenheit Twins” in 2005.
“
Under the Skin” introduces Isserley, a woman obsessed with picking up male hitchhikers – as long as they are well-muscled and alone. But what is her motive? Small clues lead us to discover something bizarre is happening and we are led into a terrifying world.
Come and discover what the story is about and then join in with our discussion –
last Wednesday of the month at 9pm as usual. You are, of course, welcome to leave comments at any time before that.
