This month's book was How to be Both by Ali Smith.

This is a book of two halves - some copies were printed with one half first and other copies with the other half first....interesting concept.
To add to the challenge Ali Smith doesn't go a bundle on punctuation. Most of us couldn't get beyond the lack of punctuation as it made the 'easier' half quite challenging to get into.

Some of us who managed to overcome that then hit the wall at half time when the switch in the story came.

Two of us, however, loved it....it's a story of past and present and life and death where the two halves of the tale intermingle and characters are slowly and sensitively drawn.

Two of the group had seen Ali Smith speak at events....for one this made her love the book more and the other this made her dislike the book more.

This really was a challenging book....more challenging than abstact art or modern jazz... does this make it literary artform or pretentious twaddle?

How to be Both certainly caused some spirited and wide ranging debate....as ever we eventually left the novel way behind and discussed maths, travel agents and period poverty.

Next month - The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

How to be Both 6 thumbs down out of 9.