Review of Lean Fall Stand

All that ice and snow and sea and sky. Glaciers and ridges and icebergs and scree. Weathering and wind-form and shear. The air so clear that distances shrank, and all the colours shone

Robert (Doc) is a technical assistant who’s spent much of the past thirty years in Antarctica, providing backup for scientists. He’s almost at the end of his stint with Luke and Thomas who have been updating the maps he remembers being drawn. He’s an old hand, eager to share his stories; they’re slightly disparaging but fully aware that it’s Robert’s skills that will keep them alive. In the final few days, Thomas decides to record the landscape using the camera his girlfriend gave him. It’s an outing which will end disastrously, something Anna has been expecting for her entire marriage to Robert. Summoned to Santiago, she knows her husband has had a stroke but not the extent of its damage. Theirs is a marriage based on an ‘anomaly’ as she likes to call it, one which accommodates her career and affords her an independence she almost takes for granted. Robert’s return upends all that. Their children can’t seem to grasp what’s happened, bombarding her with unrealistic suggestions, her employers are concerned yet still expect her to meet deadlines. Only Bridget, the widow of Robert’s best friend and colleague, grasps the situation, perhaps more so than Anna, herself. When Robert is persuaded to attend a support group, he’s reluctant but it proves to be the saving of him, and perhaps of Anna, too.

He always had to reach for the words. As though they’d been put on a high shelf in the stores

The title of McGregor’s novel follows the trajectory of Robert’s stroke, from the storm-hit expedition to the rehabilitation which sees him become a very different man from the one who accompanied Thomas and Luke to Station K. While Lean breathlessly captures the disorientation and disorder of both the storm and Robert’s stroke, Fall and Stand are remarkable for their empathetic depiction of its aftermath. Robert’s loss of language is a hard blow – he’s a proud man who likes nothing more than to tell a story, robbed of that pleasure by aphasia and its frustrations. The support group scenes are particularly skilfully drawn, each member’s speech tic different, some profane others almost poetic, depicted with a gentle compassionate humour, a compassion which extends to the portrayal of Anna’s ambivalence about her new role as carer. It ends with what reads almost like a prose poem, a description of what happened to Robert in Antarctica, in quiet contrast to the frantic passage as he struggles for comprehension when the stroke felled him. A quietly powerful book, unafraid to explore the boundaries of language.

Monday’s club scores ranging between 4 and 8 leading to an average score of 6.13 and Tuesday’s scores ranged from 3 to 10 giving a score of 6.8. Definitely a marmite book which produced a lot of discussion. The book is split between 3 very different stories and interesting different people enjoyed different parts of the book. The first part set in Antarctica, was almost a thriller described the storm in a fascinating way, with the end of the storm description being very disjointed in line with how Doc’s brain was capturing it. There were many aspects the readers enjoyed, the scenery, the description of the struggle for survival. The trouble was that it was so well described that many were waiting for a turn of events that simply never happened, and this led to disappointment for them. e.g. what happened to Thomas once he lost contact was never explained except, he died. Which might have been a good thing as the group had often made up their own minds about how he died.

Despite the excellent descriptive work, the members found it hard to ever fully invest in the characters, something that resonated throughout the book. The storm invoked a feeling of fear and apprehension amongst many, and it was clear the author had been to the region to allow themselves to see what they were writing about. A big discussion on many tables was trying to decide when Doc’s stroke took place. Some thought it was when the blow to the head was mentioned, whether the blow was just a description of when his blood vessel burst whilst others thought it was possibly before the storm as he seemed to be breaking certain rules that didn’t fit with his character

The second part was considered the least enjoyable by many, boring was an opinion expressed, and it was suggested it only served as a link between the first and third parts it was very much accepted as that It did introduce u to Doc’s wife, Anna and her troubles when she had to drop everything and head to South America. Many found the descriptive writing enjoyable, and it highlighted how quickly life can change for not only the sufferer but also the loved ones of a person having a stroke As the story panned out many thought Anna was resentful of the changes she knew were coming and they did hold some level of sympathy because she never really had her husband around during much of married life. She had a good level of independence, and this had now disappeared altogether. This absence was noted as being like service personnel returning from overseas deployment to find life had changed during their absence and that is often a tough challenge to overcome. People felt that the son and daughter were harsh on their mother and were not sympathetic characters.

The third part involving rehab after a stroke had a mixed review with many finding it repetitive Others found the rehab interesting and were not surprised that the author had attended a group to get their facts. The group work intrigued many but those that have seen rehab work from one point or another said the power of music as an aid is astonishing. It was during this discussion that one member mentioned that she had noticed the underlying story throughout the whole book was the importance of communication.

Poor or lack of communications during the storm led to things going wrong with devastating results. In part two, the difficulty in languages and Doc trying to communicate was backed up by the university not communicating how things were playing out and this added to Anna’s frustrations. The play and the action of the actors in rehab made the big breakthrough in good or at least better communication and this led to another disappointment for many. They thought the play might reveal the true events of the storm, but it didn’t.

One event that many couldn’t understand was why Luke lied at the hearing. It was thought that Luke had a great relationship with Thomas but not strong enough with Doc to lie. One option offered as that Luke could see that Doc was not well and telling the truth would not serve any good for him or his family.

In the end some group members mentioned being disappointed, cheated at not knowing how much of the story ends and drained! Others found they were relived and much better informed about strokes. One member said how difficult it was to read, given their own personal experiences with a close family member, the group thought it was very brave of them to continue with the book.

Overall, the group felt the book was skilfully written with good quality writing and was informative. It gave a different style to many books by not having a narrator of the book as it shifts from different characters perspective. Overall, an excellent book Club read as it sparks so many long and interesting discussions. I for one was disappointed there were no penguins😊