Five friends approach the big 4-0 and look back at their lives. Fun, enjoyable and relatable. Thank you for the opportunity to read.

Sadly not for me. I found myself really unable to bond with the characters. I found it quite difficult to read

An interesting novel about the plights of being female and if a certain age and dealing with the issues that come from being between 38-40: divorce, careers, having children etc, as well as exploring the idea of friendship.

As a middle class, 39 year old woman with small children living in the Home Counties, I am probably the perfect target audience for this novel and I could relate to it in many ways and, as a result, enjoyed reading it.

However I suspect that this might not be the case for everyone as some of the narration felt slightly cold and detached and, therefore, the women could be deemed somewhat unlikeable, or, at least, fail to gain empathy.

This is a contemporary novel written to include the vagaries of life within a group of friends. Life throws different things at people and everyone deals with these things in different and complex ways.

The cover drew me in but not enough to make me want to read it. Sadly I didn't pick this one up and it remains unread.

This book did not meet my expectations unfortunately; I struggled to relate to the characters, which usually is not a dealbreaker. However, the writing was also quite dense and could not keep my interest. Would not really recommend.

Sadly I did not finish this book as the format on Kindle seemed to have an issue (missing lines etc). Having tried to download the book several times through the link sent by the publishers I ultimately had to give up.

Interesting tale of a group of women entering the next stage of their lives after a period of rapid change in history. This book is set at the time when women were starting to recognise the opportunities available, outside the normal stereotypes.

The Group by Lara Feigel

A story of 5 upper-middle class women approaching middle age exploring their current lives and crises.

It takes in all the woman’s view but narrated by one woman .

A really hard read but I stuck with it . If your a thinker and procrastinator this is the book for you. However at the moment it wasn’t the book for me.

To deep for the current climate. Sorry 2.5/5

I feel awful writing this. This was so hard to read. I lost the will to live. I gave up at 25%. I couldn’t relate to the characters, I found the writing style hard to read and follow and really struggled with the plot

Sadly this book wasn’t for me, I really struggled to get into the story and just didn’t really enjoy it. I know others have really enjoyed it so I am sure it is a personal preference and no reflection on the author.

An enjoyable read that I will go on to recommend. I found the characters interesting and the plot line engaging. Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Make a list.
Five women who shared a house at university, they remain friends and meet up as a group or in two's. Their lives are all very different, three women have children whilst the other two start off childless.
I made a list of the women, their partners and children to refer to as the story progresses.
Some feminist content and interesting arguments about motherhood and adultery.
Book was readable but not particularly happy or hopefull.

Unsurprisingly maybe, upon considering her previous historical works and her brilliant memoir/literary analysis of Doris Lessing's life and writing, Lara Feigel's debut novel is a multi-layered, complex, deeply intelligent and accomplished work of art. At the core of its concept, Feigel seems to have undertaken the role of an anthropologist studying (angry) white middle-class middle-aged women in London, the novel's title 'The Group' further emphasising this idea of an experiment. Indeed, just as Feigel used Doris Lessing as a springboard for making sense of personal expeience in 'Free Woman,' here she has used Mary McCarthy's novel 'The Group' as foundation stone for this novel. I have not read McCarthy's novel but now definitely want to. (It's well worth your time to read her essay: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/04/love-beyond-sex-money-and-property-a-case-for-friendship).

The novel is set in March to December 2018, in the wake of the Brexit referendum and the passion of the Me Too movement and during the Christine Blasey Ford hearing. Its a novel told from Stella's POV and from a deeply intimate and perceptive view of four of her friend's experiences. The novel takes place over a series of various social occasions or private conversations between different friendships (in turn displaying the different and complex dynamics within the group) and unravels the contradictory nature of being a women, about divorce/separation, adultery, relationships, motherhood, careers and, of course, female friendship. (As Stella says: “Our own lives make more sense when we compare them to each others.”) Structurally the novel dips in and out of the various character's lives and Feigel uses no speech marks, further emphasing the commoniality of experience/voice and the deep identification (and burden caused by this) that these women feel for one another, using the filter of friendship to deepen their experiences. Stella states: “We characterise ourselves, like characters in novels. But we'd look almost identitcal to most onlookers in our wealth, our privilege, our freedom of choice. And more importantly, these characteristics are so arbitrary: we could swap them between us at will. The real feelings – the love, desire, fear, anger, laughter – are the same, whoever experiences them. There's an ocean of experience and feeling which we just dip into. Yet we insist on each other's otherness, even as we fear it. Because our sameness disturbs us even more.”

However, although the experiences of the characters are similar, Feigel does make sure she cracks the novel open to wider themes and develop their differences; at one point she contrasts self-obsession with wider world issues such as female genital mutilation. The characters aren't particularly likeable, nor are they meant to be since they are rooted in reality. Feigel has written an excellent novel based on the struggles of women as partners, lovers, mothers, daughters, professionals and women on the onset of middle age in the modern world, as they try to find the answer to their predicament: “There's something so peculiar, almost nonexistent about our generation, coming of age before the internet, before the millennials.” An absolutely riveting read with layers of food for thought. I will be re-reading and telling friends to read it for a long time!

Honestly I couldn't even finish reading this - not for me, for the reasons other reviews have detailed already. It was a bit of a slog and I just found myself not caring.

Found this book to be really heavy and difficult to read - it even felt like a slog through. The writing was pedantic and terribly slow, not dynamic at all with hardly any dialogue, which you'd expect in a book about a group of friends. The fact that Stella kept on narrating the parts about her friends, when they would be better having their own POV, made this even more difficult to get through. Unfortunately not for me

This is a very definite type of book. Privileged middle class females naval gazing in a very cool and aloof manner. To be gair to the author, she does declare early on that 'nothing very much happens' and I should have listened.
More disappointingly, a book which prioritises character study over plot, just doesn't have very likeable characters.
Well written, if a little clinical in style.

This is all female, how we strive and form connections in marriage and family. Be it women or men. How we as women can choose whatever path we wish. A great brilliant read.

I really struggled with this one, the synopsis had me hooked but in reality I couldn't be further from the truth. It was a slot, slow and an utter chore to read.
I am trying to think of the audience, maybe I'm not it but I can't actually think of who could or would enjoy this either. I'm sure there are some but unfortunately, that's not me. Great synopsis but not the book for me.

I was not a fan of this book.

Its told as if written as a diary/novel of one character and I found her annoying and whiny and it meant I didn't really sympathise with any of the characters.

Its definitely taught be to be more careful of my book choices in future. Books like this tend to make me a bit paranoid in my own friend circle and generally I just dont like them - sorry!