The Enlightenment Club by Chris West
It’s 1975. Bright, dissatisfied teenager Stella Tranter wants to learn about big things: philosophy, great art, love.
Her quest leads her to the select ‘Enlightenment Cub’ and the charismatic Dr Stanislas Licht. And to trouble.
Thrown out of college, she continues her search in London. Is she really cut out for being a part-time roadie for a punk band, fronted by her outrageous sister? Probably not, but being her, she gives it a go.
Her ultimate goals continue to elude her, however, and she decides to settle for a quiet life with well-meaning but slightly dull Bobby. But memories of the Enlightenment Club haunt her, whispering that she must find more, do more, learn more, be more… When she meets Alex, a talented, lonely, experimental composer, she knows she must break free. But at what cost? Passion, it soon turns out, can exact a terrible price.
This is a book about dreams and how tough it can be to fulfil them. It is about identity, aspiration and change. It is about music, and its power to inspire (but also, maybe, to mislead).
Prizewinning author DJ Taylor has described it as ‘delicately written, with big themes boiling away beneath the surface.’
My Review
It’s 1971 and I’m doing my A levels at the local tech. I apply for Bristol University to read English and – yes you guessed it – Philosophy. I even get as far as a group interview where a load of Old Etonians discuss a load of old you know what. I don’t get in, so I do a foundation year at the Art College instead, followed by Fashion Writing at The London College of Fashion. We have a blast. Go to shows, drink Bucks Fizz at eleven in the morning, while an over-tanned Judith Chalmers does the commentary. So I ‘get’ Stella, though I never got thrown out or tipped a bowl of soup over anyone’s head.
The Enlightenment Club that Stella goes to is a bit like the Dead Poets Society, or in this case the dead philosophers society. Looking back, it seems very pretentious. It encourages us to be so much more, while everyone else is telling us to be so much less. Be a free thinker. Find your one point of certainty say the philosophers. Get married to boring Bobby, study typing and shorthand (so you can work for a man who is not half as clever as you are), says everyone else.
But instead of enhancing Stella’s life, it actually makes her dissatisfied with everything. I think for Stella, the problem is that she takes it all too literally. Her sister Lucy on the other hand, embraces the latest trends. She fronts a punk band even though Stella is the far better singer and dresses like Poly Styrene from X-Ray Spex, while they bash away at their terrible music. Stella prefers Mozart’s Requiem. Get over yourself Stella, I want to say.
Stella marries boring Bobby. Everyone is pleased (or relieved). But she’s still unhappy. And then she meets Alex, a ‘talented, lonely, ‘experimental’ composer’. Or is he? Talented that is. What a vile human being he is underneath. A bowl of soup over his head just wouldn’t hack it. But it would have been cheaper, Stella.
And finally, I love Abba! And though they weren’t ‘cool’ in the eighties and nineties, they were actually very accomplished musicians, song writers and music producers. So while you are starving for your Great Art in your self-imposed garret Alex, defined by your musical snobbery, remember that.
I just adored this book. It has everything for me (apart from any gruesome murders). It made me think, and remember my teenage (and twenty-something) angst, and be glad I managed to shed that layer of pretentious pomposity. Ha!
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of #TheEnlightenmentClub blog tour.
About the Author
“I grew up in a country village north of London. As a boy I filled endless notebooks with stories – not all of them finished! As a young man I played in various (unsuccessful) bands, then worked in the City of London. I studied philosophy and economics as a ‘mature’ student (though I wasn’t very mature). After leaving uni I went backpacking in China, and wrote a book about that adventure which came out in 1991. Since then, writing has (along with family) been at the heart of my life, though I’ve had other jobs, too, largely in Marketing and PR, working with small businesses. In 2008, I found an old stamp album in the attic of my parents’ old house, and became fascinated by the contents and the way they seemed to mirror history. Each stamp was a tiny, rectangular time machine! In the end, I had to write a book along these lines: A History of Britain in 36 Postage Stamps was the result. I have now done the same for the USA – a fascinating journey into American history (and a great pleasure to collect the nation’s stamps). I live in North Hertfordshire with my wife and daughter.”
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