The Last Family In England - Book Group discussion thread

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postieboy Jan 2019 6:22am, 8 Jan 2019 5,661 posts	0 postieboy Matt Haig obviously loves Shakespeare. He had him as an actual character in How to Stop Time!
McGoohan Jan 2019 8:49am, 8 Jan 2019 37,696 posts	0 McGoohan I suppose he must. What confused me was that several reviewers described TLFIE as a retelling of Henry V (or IV part 2) but it isn't really. There are some names borrowed: Falstaff, Hal, Hotspur, even Prince I suppose, but they don't really represent the characters from Shakespeare nor do they do the same things. Thought it was a bit of an odd distraction, especially Simon being called Simon Hotspur.
Serendippily Jan 2019 11:31am, 8 Jan 2019 10,842 posts	0 Serendippily I believe falstaff and Hal both describe their relationship to each other in doggy terms. So it appears to be a vague play on who is the responsible influence and who is the rogue. With Labradors attempting to redress the poor rep Shakespeare gives them. It’s a bit loose though
Columba Jan 2019 10:36am, 9 Jan 2019 17,139 posts	0 Columba As always, writing first and seeing what others have thought afterwards. Extremely unimpressed by this book. For a start, I didn't like the style. Short sentences, short paragraphs, short chapters... It was like reading Enid Blyton. I found the characters totally unconvincing, both human and dog; the only one that seemed moderately real to me was Lapsang, the cat, and that was probably because she hardly appears. The plot was disjointed, and had items in it that were introduced and then just petered out; the early Grandpa Bill / Grandma Margaret, for example; Bill's death and Margaret's moving in were presented as a situation which was likely to put the family under extreme strain, and then that simply didn't happen, Margaret just faded into the general family background. Maybe the intention was to see family breakdown from a new angle. Not the individual family breakdown, I don't mean, but the more general breakdown of family units as a feature of society. Children whose parents separate often blame themselves, thinking "if only I'd been good, Daddy (or Mummy) wouldn't have left". Wondered if the book was presenting a variation on that theme, with the dog thinking he was ultimately responsible. But doubt if that was the author's intention, otherwise he would at least have hinted at it in some way.
Columba Jan 2019 10:45am, 9 Jan 2019 17,140 posts	0 Columba Having read back, - Seren has reminded me, I did like the conversation between Hal and Prince when Hal is under the influence of something probably illegal. That was a nice touch. This can't be the first example of a story being told from the dog's point of view. The only other one I can think of is Rudyard Kipling's "Thy Servant a Dog", and I read that so long ago I can't remember anything about it.
Diogenes Jan 2019 11:07am, 9 Jan 2019 33,666 posts	0 Diogenes James Herbert’s Fluke comes to mind, though I can’t recal anything else about it.
Serendippily Jan 2019 11:16am, 9 Jan 2019 10,867 posts	0 Serendippily C9 is reading Shadow by Micheal Morpurgo at moment it’s getting a thumbs up
Serendippily Jan 2019 12:31pm, 9 Jan 2019 10,870 posts	0 Serendippily Also 101 Dalmatians and my life as a dog ...
LindsD Jan 2019 5:38pm, 12 Jan 2019 25,939 posts	0 LindsD Thought I had watched the thread and you were all slackers. Oops. Generally agree and will probably not bother with Matt Haig again.
westmoors Jan 2019 7:06am, 28 Jan 2019 3,035 posts	0 westmoors Before I read back... An interesting concept writing from the dogs perspective, but I didn't find it very convincing. This is now the 2nd Haig I've read and I don't think I will read anymore.