Page Turners – November 2021

The Page Turners met in November to discuss ‘Forty Acres’ by Dwayne Alexander Smith. This is a thriller based on an extreme response to the historical experiences of the black American people. It tells of a secret community where the kidnapped descendants of former slave owners are treated as slaves would have been in the past, in order for wealthy black men to feel empowered to take their place in society.  It is very disturbing.

Whilst many members found the book exciting to read, others completely disliked it. We discussed issues of racism and responses to racist behaviour. We acknowledged we were not in a position to fully understand the views of the characters in the book but felt that the situation and views portrayed were too extreme to be believable.

This is the first novel of a writer who normally works as a screenwriter and we felt that this was very evident in the writing style. We agreed that this was a film that was unlikely to be made as the views expressed are too provocative and would promote unnecessary additional controversy.

Our book choices are made from a selection of recommendations put forward by members. At future meetings we will be discussing ‘The Thursday Murder Club‘ by Richard Osman, ‘Golden Hill‘ by Francis Spufford and ‘All the Light We Cannot See‘ by Anthony Doerr.

 Please contact Deborah Wallis via enquiries@u3a.dawlish.info for more details.