the five thirty show

Book Club

Book Club: Joanna Trollope’s ‘Friday Nights’

27 March 2009, 16:14

In the latest edition of STV’s five thirty show ‘Book Club’, a group from Glasgow’s Royal College of Nursing got together to review Joanna Trollope’s Friday Nights.

Trollope’s latest book tells the tale of six female friends who, despite being of differing ages and circumstances, share a common love of their Friday nights. However when a man enters the mix, the dynamics of the group begin to change.

For the Glasgow nurses, the way the introduction of a man altered their relationship played up to a perception of women that is none too welcome.

“I thought it was a little bit on the depressing side to think that when a man came on to the scene all the women’s relationships with each other changed,” said one nurse.

Another of the book group women continued: “It’s all the texting, when’s he going to call back, we all know people who have done that at the start of a new relationship. The new shoes, the new underwear, that kind of thing does happen but I do think it was very stereotypical.”

However other aspects of the book were subject to praise such as the portrayal of relationships between a mother and her children.

“I think one of the things I particularly liked about the book was the author showed quite good observation of how children react to situations where they feel vulnerable,” said another of the nurses.

“As a mum myself, we often see that your children’s unsettled by things; if there’s a new teacher in nursery or whatever. The book showed quite a lot of examples of the author understanding how children operate.”

But in the end Trollope’s work was summarised as thus: “It’s a beach book, nothing more complicated than that at all.”

Last updated: 31 March 2009, 12:06