Cranford

"In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazonz; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women." -Cranford (p. 1)

This was the first book in my book club for the year, and let me tell you I think it is a little promising that we are now all looking at the reading list and thinking it can only get better from here.

Cranford is a collection of stories discribing the lives of women located in the town for which the book is named. As the quote I picked for the book states, it is a town made up almost completely of women, or at least all the people in the town that seem to matter are women. And it seems that none of them are married. And they are all older, and very set in their ways. So there is a good deal of gossip going on in each story and a very large number of opinions about everything that is happening. In essence this book reminded most of the members of the book club of a sitcom.

I don't even know where to begin in the list of things that the women in my book club did not like about this book, but I will say that even the one that selected this book was not enthusiastic about reading it! The book was originally published as a sereal, meaning that each week one of the chapter was put in the newspaper for everyone to read. And we debated on if that could have been the reason that the stories in the book seemed to be so broken up. I had difficulty reading it as each chapter seemed to be like a puzzle piece forced to fit with the one beside it even though they didn't belong together. I suppose that in reality that was our only major problem, but it seemed like with an obstacle like that it made the rest of the book so difficult.

I will say that there were a few stories that made me laugh. At one point the story even grew interesting and most of us were eager to continue to see how things worked out. But then the book just ended. Almost as if in mid thought!

All in all the bok was a let down, but as with most books I am glad that I was given the oppurtunity to read it, even if it was just to appreciate the other books in the club more. This is one of the few books that I would not recommend to others. Sorry. Although if someone feels different, please feel free to comment, let me know why you liked it so much! Maybe I will pick up the book again in the future and see it from your point of view! Otherwise I may never read this book again. Sorry.