Pageturners March Day Time Group talked about A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville. The book is about truth and fiction and the life of Elizabeth Macarthur.
Comments from Pageturners included “I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. Kate Grenville writes eloquently and she fictionalises Elizabeth Macarthur’s life in shrewd and playful ways, some things haven’t changes in relation to the position of women, women of the time “made do”, it was really interesting, she was the first educated woman in the colony, her husband was unfair to her, I wondered what was true and what wasn’t true, you have to be aware it is historical fiction, she had a fire inside her but didn’t let on, she was skilful in handling her husband, she made him think tings were his idea, women have been doing this for years, Grenville writes well, I enjoyed it, , this is by far the best of all her books, I didn’t understand the review which said “ a toxic appeal of false stories.”
There was a lot of discussion about whether you can use the past to create new fiction and whether descendants would appreciate things in the book being told as true, but may not be so.
The rating for this group ranged from 3..5 to 4 ….so high scores for this book.
Kate Grenville on A Room Made of Leaves: A Room Made of Leaves | Kate Grenville
Guardian Book Review: A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville review – 18th-century struggles | Fiction | The Guardian
Pageturners CWL 