To Capture What We Cannot Keep

St Just Thursday Evening Reading Group 3rd October 2024.

To capture what we cannot keep. Beatrice Colin.

We all agreed that the historical background to this book was very well put together and must have been carefully researched. The atmosphere of Paris in the 1890s, and that of Glasgow as well, came across very convincingly: the descriptions of the sights, sounds and smells of the two cities took the reader back in time very nicely. The history of the construction of the Eiffel Tower and the Panama Canal, also, came vividly off the page. The details about the characters’ clothing and the daily life of the period had evidently been studied closely too. We all felt that we had learned something from reading this book.

The characters were ‘well balanced’, one reader said – smart, stupid, kind, or crafty. Cait was obviously a terrible chaperone, her charges getting into all sorts of trouble (debt, pregnancy, bad relationships and so on), and Cait’s relationship with Emile was a rocky and frustrating one. Alice was irritatingly empty-headed, Gabrielle an interesting character but her relationship with Emile was problematic. The book’s plot was considered to be ‘a bit thin’ and unconvincing in parts, such as Alice’s miscarriage saving her reputation, and her finding a member of the aristocracy to marry on her way home. The dialogue, everyone in this group agreed, was a weak point, being very inappropriate to the era. Some thought the positive ending, after Cait’s sacrifices and disappointments, was a nice thing; others found it too ‘pat’. An enjoyable book for the most part.