Back when I was routinely picking up books from my company’s book sales, there was a period where Australian stories seemed to be all the rage. I collected The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club, Salt Creek and Skylarking in quick succession. Not only that, it was through reading The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club that I went on to read The Thorn Birds. So my interest in fiction set in Australia is well established, and I remember enjoying The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club first time around — I gave it three stars.
Like All Together Now, The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club is an ensemble story of how the club, and the friendships formed through it, changes the lives of each of the members. The books chosen and the reading aren’t really the point: that’s just an excuse to bring the characters together. (Nonetheless, there is enough reading and discussion of books that Sophie Green doesn’t run into the problem so many books about libraries do.) The stories tread familiar ground: a woman escaping a bad marriage, another dealing with the lost of a husband, a third struggling to conceive and blaming herself. And each of these stories ends much the way you’d expect.
Sallyanne wanted to cry with the horribleness of it all but that would be rude: she would be getting upset because she’d behaved badly and that would make her guest uncomfortable.
The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club, Sophie Green
Nonetheless, the friendship linking the stories together adds something quite special, especially given the setting. Sophie Green effectively conveys just how big and empty this part of Australia was in the 1970s and 80s. For most of her characters, seeing a friend involves a trip that’s numbered in the hours, if not the days, and there’s little opportunity for forging new relationships until the book club comes along. There’s a real theme of women helping other women through the generations, and an acceptance that not every friend is going to follow the same life path.
Sometimes Della thought love affairs in books could never match anything that happened in real life.
The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club, Sophie Green
While Sophie Green’s prose isn’t remarkable (either positively or negatively), it is always interesting to see the way characters react to the Australian landscape, and Sophie Green delivers this from many different perspectives. There are characters who’ve recently moved to Australia from England and America, as well as characters who’ve lived in the same region of Australia all their lives and others who move between different regions. The discussions between characters coming from different backgrounds make this particularly memorable.
Overall, The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club is an enjoyable ensemble piece, and I will definitely come back to it once I’ve read more of the books that the characters discuss.
Chalk Letters Books 