Woodfield Worms Book Group

Mar 13

Woodfield Worms Book Group verdict: Maurice and Maralyn

This was our March pick, a real life tale from the 70's about couple Maurice and Maralyn Bailey who were shipwrecked when their boat was struck by a whale and survived 118 days at sea before being rescued. They underwent numerous trials and tribulations during their ordeal, a description of which makes up the middle section of the book. The 'first act' is their lives leading up to that point, and the final act is what happened afterwards.

We all agreed that this was a well written book, and indeed, it won the Nero overall non-fiction award (after we'd picked it - who knew the Woodfield was so influential!). Most of us were fascinated by the mental resilience needed to survive on a tiny raft for long almost completely without resources. A lot of us commented on the ways that others have survived in similar circumstances and how we thought we might cope.

The author has framed the book as a love story but in fact many of us felt it was quite a sad book. The two protagonists seemed to have a relationship which was almost co-dependent in that she needed him to give her life purpose and he needed her to compensate for his low self-esteem. The final part of the book dealing with Maurice's life after her death revealed how genuinely 'at sea' he was without her. There was also a certain amount of impatience amongst our group at some of the couple's decisions, which seemed reckless in the extreme given their plan to sail round the world in a small boat.

Another feeling was that we would have liked some illustrations. There are lots of contemporary photographs of the couple which are fascinating to look at (we shared a few during the discussion). Some of us would also have liked to see a map or chart of their voyage and eventual rescue.

Despite all this (or perhaps because of it), we all agreed that this was an excellent book club choice. It was a very easy read and sparked a good hour of vigorous discussion on all sorts of aspects of the story.

Thank you Liz for the suggestion, and to David for the snacks and Barbara for the wine (even if most participants preferred tea!)

If you’d like to join the Book Club, please do. Drop a line to pavilion@thewoodfield.org, or just come along.

The bookclub dates are are listed in the WHATS ON page with the title of the book for that meeting.

Everyone and their dog welcome!