THE VIRGINS

TITLE: THE VIRGINS

AUTHOR: PAMELA ERENS

Pages: 280

Date: 13/02/2014

Grade: 4-

Details: Received from John Murray

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Bruce Bennett-Jones is starting his last year of high school at the Auburn Academy boarding school when he sees Aviva Rossner for the first time. It is the start of the 1979 - 80 school year and Bruce is interested in Aviva from the moment he watches her step off the bus.

Aviva isn’t for Bruce though. It doesn’t seem to take the girl anytime at all before she hooks up with Seung Jung who is a senior like Bruce. Almost from the start of the relationship, the school is buzzing with talk of Aviva and Seung; the young couple seems so close, so intimate, so unashamedly attracted to each other that the other pupils can’t help imagine their sexual adventures.

It is only after everything goes wrong with the most horrible of consequences that Bruce comes to realise that maybe things weren’t as clear cut as he thought. And that realisation affects Bruce so strongly that years later, he feels the need to share Aviva and Seung’s story with the world.

This is a book about teenagers and the volatility of their feelings. The story is told by Bruce Bennett-Jones a rather typical high school senior. His hormones play havoc with him, girls occupy his mind and sex intrigues him. Aviva attracts his attention the moment she steps off the bus and he is quick to introduce himself to her and help her with her luggage, even quicker to kiss her once they get to her dorm room. And then he flees, afraid of the consequences if he’s caught in the girls’ dorm.

That must be the moment he ruined things for himself. Although his obsession with Aviva only grows over the rest of the school year, Bruce lost her as soon as he found her. The next thing Bruce knows Aviva and Seung are a couple, flaunting their relationship and sexuality for all to see.

When I say that Bruce is the one telling this story I have to point out that he doesn’t have a lot of the facts, something he freely admits.

“I’m inventing Seung, too, of course. It’s the least I can do for him.”

Bruce plays only a small role in the drama that is Seung and Aviva’s relationship. A small role with devastating consequences. Because Bruce doesn’t actually know a lot about Seung and even less about Aviva we never know if what he tells us about them and their relationship is true or imagined. This made the story feel a bit contrived for me. I never got a real impression of any of the characters in this book.

“I’ve imagined every part of her: her body, her thoughts, the conversations she has with her friends, with her brother and father and mother, the things she says to him, Seung, the books she reads and the fantasies that make her touch herself.”

Aviva and Seung remain vague because the reader knows that the narrator is sharing what he imagines may have happened without knowing whether or not he’s right. And because he never finds out if his assumptions are correct, the reader can’t be sure either. And we don’t get a much better picture of Bruce himself. While he doesn’t try to make himself look good or nice - quite the opposite actually - we can’t be sure if he really was a rather nasty young man or if it is his guilty conscience talking. The result, for me, was a rather intriguing read that left me a bit dissatisfied by the time I turned the last page.

What this book does really well, on the other hand, is illustrate the workings of a teenage mind. The extremes of emotion youngsters go through in those few years are vividly painted and all too recognisable. That sense of all or nothing, the constant fear of life passing you by, that you are missing out on some secret others have already discovered and the ease with which you can convince yourself that there is something fatally wrong with you, are the very powerful elements around which this story is constructed. The sparse but beautiful language only adds to the illusion of being lost in a teenage mind.

For me this was a beautiful and intriguing read that didn’t quite hit the spot. Too much relied on my ability to believe in the imagination of a narrator who doesn’t have a lot of the facts and isn’t all that sympathetic. Having said that, the author’s voice did strike a chord with me and I will almost certainly be on the lookout for more of her work.

NOTES ON A SCANDAL

TITLE: NOTES ON A SCANDAL

AUTHOR: ZOE HELLER

Pages: 244

Date: 29/10/2013

Grade: 4

Details: Book Club selection

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The Blurb:

“From the first day that the beguiling Sheba Hart joins the staff of St. George’s history teacher Barbara Covett is convinced she has found a kindred spirit.

Barbara’s loyalty to her new friend is passionate and unstinting and when Sheba is discovered to be having an illicit affair with one of her young pupils, Barbara quickly elects herself as Sheba’s chief defender. But all is not as it first seems in this dark story and, as Sheba will soon discover, a friend can be just as treacherous as any lover.”

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“Insidious”. That is the word that sprang into my mind while reading this book. And although the blurb seems to indicate that this insidiousness only becomes clear near the end of the story, it is obvious to the reader almost from the very first page.

While it may appear that this is the story about an affair between a rather foolish 40-something female teacher and a fifteen year old schoolboy, this really is a story about one older spinster becoming obsessed with a younger colleague and going to great lengths to make herself indispensable in the life of her “victim”. Even at the beginning of the story it is clear that Barbara is anything but the efficient teacher and loyal friends she sees herself as. This story is told by Barbara and even as she tells the story about Sheba’s inappropriate behaviour and its consequences, even while she tries to paint a picture of herself as a wonderful person trying to help a person she loves, it is very clear that there is something wrong with her feelings and actions. It is Barbara herself who informs the reader about “misunderstandings” between herself and other teachers. It is Barbara who tells us that a former friend accused her of being “too intense” and it is she who confesses to being jealous when Sheba appears to be getting close to another of their colleagues. Barbara’s creepiness is at its clearest when she admits to having highlighted the “important” – read “most incriminating” – parts of Sheba’s story using gold stars, with the moment she finds out about the affair warranting two stars.

A good book, but not a very nice or pleasant read. While the story fascinated me in the same way a horror movie might – I didn’t really want to watch it unfold but couldn’t look away either – it failed to capture me. It all seemed just a little bit too much to me; Sheba a little bit too infatuated and silly, Barbara a little bit too sociopathic, Richard a little bit too dim, Sheba’s mother a little bit too horrible and Steven a little bit too predatory. It felt almost as if I were reading about caricatures rather than characters. In fact, I couldn’t help feeling that this story was written in a way very similar to the sensational newspaper articles Barbara professes to despair of yet appears to have read in detail.

And yet, I couldn’t put the book down either. I had to continue reading until the very end, which wasn’t really an ending if you think about it. And I’ve got a feeling that I will be thinking about everything that might or might not happen after the story ends for quite some time. In fact, I can’t wait to discuss this book with my reading group in a few days. I’ve got a feeling opinions on this one are going to be divided and that should make for a very interesting meeting. I may not have enjoyed reading this book very much, but I am thoroughly impressed with the way in which the author managed to tell such a horrific story in what were, on first impression, very innocent terms.

“There are certain people in whom you can detect the seeds of madness – seeds that have remained dormant only because the people in question have lived relatively comfortable middle-class lives”

MY EDUCATION

TITLE: MY EDUCATION

AUTHOR: SUSAN CHOI

Pages: 395

Date: 11/08/2013

Grade: 3

Details: Received from Short Books

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The story:

It is 1992 and Regina Gottlieb, 20 years old, is starting her graduate degree. From the very first time she sees him at a poetry reading, Regina is mesmerized by Nicholas Brodeur, the seductive English professor with a rather shocking reputation. Although she is well aware that it may not be the smartest thing to do, Regina accepts a job as his assistant and slowly finds herself entering the world Nicholas and his wife, Martha, inhabit. Getting closer to Nicholas and Martha means a distance develops between Regina and her house-mate, friend and occasional lover, Dutra.

While it is Regina’s fascination with Nicholas Brodeur and his reputation that entices her into his orbit, he won’t be the subject of her fantasies and desires. A passionate affair will follow, but instead of Nicholas it will be the person closest to him who captivates Regina to such an extent that she disregards the consequences her feelings and actions will have, both for herself and for those around her. And it won’t be until 15 years later that the conflicts that started in 1992 and their lasting consequences come to the surface and have a chance of being put to rest.

My thoughts:

I am not entirely sure how I feel about this book or what to say about it. This a rather typical coming-of-age story in that it portrays the journey a young woman makes from the innocence and happy-go-lucky lifestyle so typical of teenagers to the very real and harsh consequences that an affair and first deep, but unattainable love can bring. And the gravity of everything Regina encounters and experiences jumps of the page in the form of long and at times seemingly mindless descriptions of everything she sees, feels, does and experiences. And that is where my main issue with this book lies. While I realise that those first encounters with deep but impossible love can turn us into philosophers, I can’t help feeling that this book, or rather the writing in it, was trying to be a bit too clever. Overly long and detailed descriptions and complicated structures to the sentences forced me regularly to re-read a sentence or paragraph multiple times before I got the meaning. And this enforced re-reading kept on taking me out of what was a very interesting story.

Because, while the main story-line was fascinating, it seemed to take a back-seat to all those descriptions. After almost 400 pages I can only say that at all times I felt that very little was actually happening in this story. The emotions as experienced by Regina never quite seemed to match that which was happening to her and despite all the descriptions I never developed an understanding for her actions or a clear picture of what was motivating the other characters caught up in this drama.

I guess it is hard to get truly involved in a story in which the object of everybody’s desires is a character I can’t find attractive and, probably more importantly, can’t imagine anybody else finding attractive either. Because it isn’t really Regina’s actions that upset everybody’s lives. In fact, you could say that while Regina is the one relating this story she isn’t really the main catalyst in it. That honour, in my opinion, falls to the person she has her affair with, the person I could never get a handle on or sympathise with.

From the description on the back of this book it would be easy to get the impression that this is a work of erotic fiction; however it isn’t. While an affair plays a huge and devastating part in this story, and that affair is definitely passionate, this is not the sort of book that indulges in detailed or long descriptions of intimacy. This is a book about feelings, about acting on those feelings and the consequences those actions can have, not only on the lives of those personally caught up in that passion but also on those around them. This is a literary novel about love, lust, betrayal and devastation. It is a story about growing up and recognising the consequences of our actions, even if it takes years for the real consequences to come to the surface.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I liked the story, or the idea behind it, but didn’t – always – enjoy the way in which it was told. To me this book seemed at times overly descriptive and lyrical which made it a slow and at times a bit of a hard to follow reading experience for me. I can’t help feeling though that this may well be a deficiency on my part rather than a fault of the author. If you enjoy a thoughtful, descriptive and introspective story written by someone who uses words masterfully as well as abundantly, you will probably love this book.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

TITLE: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

AUTHOR: JANE AUSTEN

Pages: 253

Date: 28/03/2013

Grade: 4

Details: Book Club Selection

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The Blurb:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited, while he struggles to remain indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.

It is very hard to write something original about a story that is ‘universally’ this well known. I mean there can’t be many people in the world who haven’t read the book or seen one of the many movies and TV-shows that have been based on this story. I know that I can never think of Darcy with imagining Colin Firth with his wet shirt plastered to his chest. And that brings me to my first issue with this book, which isn’t book related at all if I’m honest. I discovered that I really don’t like reading a book (for the first time I should add) when I’m already completely aware of the story in it. What is more, I don’t like having other people’s ideas of what the characters look like in my head before I have had a chance to form my own. With this book, unfortunately, that was unavoidable and I know it influenced my enjoyment of the story.

On the other hand, I did enjoy reading Pride and Prejudice. I liked the insight it gave into life at the turn of the 19^th century. I loved having a closer look at how the middle and upper classes lived and interacted. The descriptions of the interactions between those of different standing were as fascinating as it was unimaginable to this modern mind.

The way the title is reflected in the two main characters – with Darcy’s Pride running head first into Elizabeth’s Prejudice – was a joy to read and maybe not as specific to the time the story is set in as I would like to think.

And that brings me to my next observation. It is astonishing to think how little romance novels have changed over the past 200 years. In this book we find all the elements we would expect in modern novels: the misunderstandings, the dastardly villain, the broody and seemingly distant hero, the quirky and spirited heroine, the nice girl and the vixen they all make an appearance and play their role in the story. In fact, were this a modern romance I would call it predictable and uninspired so well does it cover every possible plot device. Remembering when this book was actually written I will call it clever.

Another thing that fascinated me was the social commentary Jane Austen provides in this story. The snobbery of the middle classes, the contempt of those in the higher classes for those they perceive as being less than them, and the importance of money when it comes to being able to marry someone made this story historically significant as well as an enjoyable read.

What I really appreciated in this book is the way in which Jane Austin allowed her heroine, Elizabeth Bennett, to find her own way and come to her own conclusions in a time when women were rarely alone long enough to think, never mind act, for themselves. As Colm Tóibín says in his book ‘New Ways to Kill Your Mother’ this is achieved by separating Lizzie from the family members who might influence her at crucial times in the story.

“Power instead is handed directly to the heroine and this power arises from the quality of her own intelligence. It is her own ability to be alone, to move alone, to be seen alone, to come to conclusions alone, that sets her apart.”

I also have to admit that after reading this book I’ve come to a new appreciation of P.D. James’ ‘DeathComes to Pemberley’. I’ve read enough reviews by others to realize that many readers disagree with me on this, but I find that her story gives a rather satisfying sequel to Pride and Prejudice. I may have to read that book again at some point now that I’m more intimately acquainted with all the main characters and back-stories.

Overall I have to say that this was a pleasant reading experience that I would probably have enjoyed more if I had not been as intimately aware of the story as I was.

THE CONCEPTION OF ZACHARY MUSE

TITLE: THE CONCEPTION OF ZACHARY MUSE

AUTHOR: JASON HINOJOSA

Pages: 135

Date: 04/03/2013

Grade: 4+

Details: Received from Roman Books

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When Evangeline Muse gives birth to her baby boy in the lagoon she is alone. Returning home with the newborn she lies down on her bed where Will Archer finds her and cuts the umbilical cord, before lying down behind her. When he raps his arms around her he whispers that he will love her for the rest of his life. Will however is not the father of the baby called Zachary.

After this first scene the reader is taken back to more than a year before Zachary’s birth. We meet Evangeline Muse and her parents Michael, who is in charge of the local church and Maya with her red hair. We are also introduced to Thomas Greene a young man who is still discovering what it is he really believes, who he really is and where he belongs in the world. Thomas is Evangeline’s tutor and attracted to her. When Will Archer arrives in their peaceful coastal village to start work on a wooden statue for the church, he sets in motion events and emotions that will lead to the birth of a baby boy and big changes in and for Thomas.

This short book is something special. It is not a mainstream novel in any respect. The story is told with a minimal use of words and descriptions; the language used is subdued. The reader is forced to read between the lines and draw their own conclusions. Reflective, meandering and dreamlike the story seems to flow as if on a gentle breeze, taking the reader along on a smooth and peaceful yet profound journey. This appears to be a world in which life happens without upheaval, yet momentous events take place.

This is the sort of book that will reveal more to the reader with every subsequent reading. It is a story on which you will want and need to reflect. Almost more happens during what is not told than in the things that are described on the page. The Conception of Zachery Muse is a story that would benefit from a group discussion because what you get out of it will, in large part, depend on what you bring to it.

This is a story with religious undertones that never tries to press a certain view on the reader; a story about passion without ever getting passionate; a story about love that is only ever shown but never spoken of. Very little is disclosed about the character’s thoughts and emotions and yet you end up feeling that you know and understand them. An awful lot is disclosed in very few words.

This is a very special book. The story is barely there and yet it is fascinating. Almost poetic in the reading this is a short book that manages to tell a big story with very few words.

THE UNIVERSE vs. ALEX WOODS

TITLE: THE UNIVERSE vs. ALEX WOODS

AUTHOR: GAVIN EXTENCE

Pages: 346

Date: 05/02/2013

Grade: 5+

Details: Received from Hodder & Stoughton

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“Full explanations are much messier. They can’t be conveyed in five unprepared stop-start minutes. You have to give them time and space to unfold. (…) I’m going to tell you my story, the full story, in the manner I think it should be told.”

Alex Wood is not your average teenager. He didn’t have a conventional start to his life. With a clairvoyant mother who doesn’t know who his father is his life was always going to be a little bit different. Things really change though when Alex is ten years old and gets hit on the head by a meteorite. When he wakes up after two weeks in a coma his life has changed. He discovers that he has become something of a celebrity, that his hair will not grow back over his scar and that he will have to contend with epileptic fits from now on. After a year of forced house-arrest to come to terms with his fits and the medication he takes for it, Alex has a hard time fitting back into school and life in general.

When an unfortunate incident involving three bullies, a greenhouse and an epileptic fit bring Alex into contact with Mr. Peterson, it is the start of a remarkable and very special friendship.

“The first thing I learnt that day was this: what you think you know about a person is only a fraction of the story.”

The young boy and the older man grow close through a shared love for classical music and Kurt Vonnegut novels. When Mr. Peterson is diagnosed with a debilitating and fatal disease which will force him to face a slow and excruciating death his options are limited. With Alex’ help and determination though, Mr. Peterson finds that he is able to make the decisions he wants to make. And Alex has no regrets. Not even when, aged 17, he is apprehended in Dover with an urn of ashes on the passenger seat of his car and a bag of marijuana in the glove compartment. The whole of England may be in an uproar about his recent journey; Alex knows he’s done the right thing.

This is a very special book. At first glance it is a charming coming of age story about a young man with a less than conventional life. On further inspection though this proves to be a thought-provoking work of fiction dealing with weighty subjects such as bullying, illness, life, death, euthanasia and personal responsibility. 

“Understanding and accepting that you have a permanent illness does not mean being a slave to it. It’s the first step you have to make so that you can go on living your life.”

And yet this book doesn’t read like a work that is trying to convey a message. This book doesn’t preach, doesn’t try to convince the reader about anything and is remarkably – even deceptively – easy to read. And yet it poses an important question: should we, or should we not have the right to decide when to end our own lives? I realise that this makes the book sound as if it will be a depressing and heavy read, but it isn’t. The sad and reflective sections in this book are perfectly balanced by the lighter and at times laugh out loud funny parts. The differences between young, curious and innocent Alex and the older and world-weary Mr. Peterson are at times very funny; a delight of confusion and misunderstandings. At the same time their friendship is wonderful; these two characters enrich each other’s lives in a multitude of ways.

Gavin Extence hits the voice of young Alex spot-on. He brings this character who is older than his years in some ways, yet very innocent in others, to life in a way that made me want to go and find him. The writing in this book is smooth and takes the reader on an emotionally charged journey they won’t want to end.

This is also a wonderful book for those who love reading. We meet Kurt Vonnegut’s books in rather poignant ways and are also treated to parts of Catch 22 with equal relevance to the story in this book.

Beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, thought-provoking, very clever and original this is the best book I’ve read so far this year and will, undoubtedly, end up among my favourites for 2013. I can’t rave enough about this book; it is nothing short of brilliant.

I’ll give the final word to Mr. Peterson:

“In the long history of human affairs, common sense doesn’t have the greatest track record.”

BRING UP THE BODIES

TITLE: BRING UP THE BODIES

AUTHOR: HILARY MANTEL

Pages: 407

Date: 16/10/2012

Grade: 5

Details: no. 2 Thomas Cromwell

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This is the second instalment in Hilary Mantel’s thoroughly fascinating trilogy about Thomas Cromwell; his humble beginnings, his rise to power and ultimately – but not in this book – his downfall.

The story in this book starts in the summer of 1535. Henry VIII is on tour in the country with most of his court including his Chief Minister, Thomas Cromwell. It is while the King is visiting Wolf Hall that he first pays real attention to Jane Seymour, a young woman who is the complete opposite of Henry’s wife, Anne Boleyn. Where Anne is strikingly beautiful, outspoken and brazen Jane is unremarkable, quiet and shy. Henry, who has lost interest in Anne now that she is his wife but is not producing the male heir he yearns for, is taken with Jane and soon convinces himself that all would be well with him, his legacy and the country if only he could marry her. But with Katherine still alive in exile and Anne officially married to him, Henry’s path to happiness is littered with roadblocks.

It will be up to Thomas Cromwell to make sure that the King gets what he wants. And so Cromwell finds himself having to take on the family whose rise to power made his own career possible. When Katherine dies one obstacle is removed but in order to also remove Anne, Cromwell will have to turn to rumour, scandal and innuendo. Making use of old jealousies, internal competition between families and the selfish desires of all in the King’s court to look after themselves no matter what the cost for others, Cromwell will find a way to give the King what he most desires. But it is a process that will, maybe for the first time, reveal to him how fragile anybody’s position at court is. Depending on the whim of an unpredictable and spoiled King is not a safe way to conduct your career or safeguard your life.

This is a fascinating and multi-layered story. Of course, it is also a story that everybody, up to some extent at least, is familiar with. Which makes it all the more remarkable that Hilary Mantel manages to completely captivate her reader and make them feel as if they are reading about these characters for the first time.

This story is very much told from Cromwell’s point of view, even if he is referred to as “he” or “him”. This means that we don’t get an impartial narration of events. In fact, a lot of the time it is hard to see the main character as anything but a victim of his circumstances, an obedient servant of his King, doing only that which is required of him. It is only at certain times that the mask slips and the reader gets glimpses of Cromwell’s plotting, of the way in which he hoards and cherishes past slights and relishes in the opportunity to get his own back. This is the result of the way in which this story is told and language is used - both are beautiful and deceptive. It is so easy to like Thomas Cromwell. Even while he is plotting someone’s downfall and threatening others into doing and saying what he wants them to, he is made to sound friendly, trustworthy and honourable. To get to the depths of what he is doing the reader has to interrupt their reading and think about what has just transpired on the page. But there is also the other Cromwell; the man who lost his family and treasures those who share his life. The man who comes to the realisation that:

“His whole career has been an education in hypocrisy.”

And finally he’s the man who has to face the fact that those he helps make their way upwards through the ranks at Court may very well be the very people who will one day cause his own downfall.

With one more book to come in this trilogy, and Cromwell’s fate well know I still find myself waiting for the rest of this story with bated breath. Not because I don’t know what is going to happen, but because I can’t wait to see what those events will look and feel like when experienced from Cromwell’s perspective.

As far as I’m concerned there is no reason not to give Hilary Mantel a Man Booker Prize for this book as well.

ANCIENT LIGHT

TITLE: ANCIENT LIGHT

AUTHOR: JOHN BANVILLE

Pages: 245

Date: 16/08/2012

Grade: 4-

Library

Alexander Cleave is an actor who thinks he has retired and spends a lot of his time in his tiny attic office, writing about the past and remembering his first love.

“Billy Gray was my best friend and I fell in love with his mother.”

Alex Cleave was only fifteen years old when his unlikely five month long affair with Mrs Gray started. Now in his sixties he thinks back on the stolen moments, the illicit meetings, his jealousies and the way it all ended. But even as he is writing down his memories he is aware that he is not recalling the affair the way it actually happened. Why does he place the affair during autumn when he knows for sure that it took place over the course of a very hot summer in 1950’s Ireland? In fact, is anything he remembers about this passionate time true to what actually happened or is most of it the product of his imagination and the lapse of time?

And these are not the only memories coming back to him. Thrown in with the recollections of his teenage sexual awakening are the heartbreaking memories of his daughter’s suicide, ten years ago. A suicide that was never properly explained for him and his wife and took place in a location they didn’t even know there daughter had travelled to.

When Alex is offered a role in a biopic movie his present and his daughter’s suicide appear to collide, leading to a sort of pilgrimage that won’t resolve anything.

This is a book written in the most beautiful language and filled with deep reflections and philosophies. This is also a most fascinating story. The descriptions of fifteen year old Alex and his feelings when he is in the middle of his affair with the mother of his best friend are so life-like that the reader can almost experience them with the boy.

This is a story about love; discovering love, enjoying it, losing it and coping with the aftermath. This is also a story about memory and how unreliable it is.

“I cannot tell whether they are memories or inventions. Not that there is much difference between the two, if indeed there is any difference at all. Some say that without realising it we make it all up as we go along, embroidering and embellishing, and I am inclined to credit it, for Madam Memory is a great and subtle dissembler.”

However, this is a very literary novel in so far that it deals with thoughts, feelings and perceptions more than with action. And for me this kept the story at arms-length. I never really got into the story, never felt any connection to any of the characters and always felt like a distant observer to some vague, not fully illuminated, drama.

And that is part of the reason I can’t say I loved this book. Another reason is that there were quite a few unanswered questions by the time the book ends. And while that is completely realistic measured against real life, I do prefer my fiction to come to a more straight-forward conclusion.

I enjoyed this book, and greatly admire the writing skills of John Banville, but I just couldn’t love the story.

DAMAGE

TITLE: DAMAGE

AUTHOR: JOSEPHINE HART

Pages: 216

Date: 18/07/2012

Grade: 4+

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“Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.”

By the time the narrator of this story is fifty he has lived his life almost as if by accident. An unexceptional childhood followed by an impassionate marriage and successful but unfulfilling careers, first as a G.P and subsequently as an upstanding but unremarkable Member of Parliament. A life lived without strong emotions of any kind. A life which, had it ended in the narrator’s fiftieth year, would have been widely respected and totally unremarkable.

Everything changes when he meets Anna Barton, his son’s girlfriend. Although his wife is suspicious of the girl, who is eight year older than her beloved 25 year old son, the narrator feels an instant attraction to her the moment he meets her. An attraction that appears to be mutual since he and Anna start a passionate affair shortly after meeting.

The affair with Anna becomes the narrator’s obsession. For the first time in his life he is experiencing strong emotions and he is unable and unwilling to let go of either those emotions or the woman who has triggered them and is at the centre of them.

Anna is a troubled woman though, with tragedy in her past and almost certainly tragedy in her future. As Anna and the narrator’s son prepare to get married, the affair continues as passionate as ever and disaster must surely wait, just around the corner.

This was not an easy book to read. It is a bit like watching a train-wreck. You know that it’s all going to go horribly wrong but yet you can’t look away, can’t stop reading, even though you are feeling increasingly uncomfortable with what is happening on the page.

From the very first chapter it is clear that this story is not going to have a happy ending:

“But I did not die in my fiftieth year. There are few who know me now who do not regard that as a tragedy.”

From the very first word it is clear that the narrator is speeding his way towards disaster and the reader has no choice but to watch him destroy not only his own life but also that of those around him.

Of course it is proof of the excellent writing that although I did end up feeling extremely uncomfortable about the road to self-destruction the narrator so willingly took I had to follow him to the bitter end.

It is strange to read a book in which the sympathetic characters are the secondary ones. The two main protagonists’ selfish actions make it hard if not impossible for the reader to like them. They are, because of their characters and actions, fascinating to read about though.

This would make a great book for a reading group discussion since it brings some interesting questions to mind.

Does a life-time lived without passion really constitute a life? Or, how much are we willing to excuse or explain away because of trauma early in life? How would I react or behave if I were any of the characters in this story? I could go on.

If I were absolutely honest I should probably mark this book five stars. It is very well written, a compulsive read and thought-provoking. The reason I can’t quite get myself to do so is completely personal; the book made me uncomfortable while I was reading it and still has me feeling that discomfort now that I’m writing about it. I would call this an ugly story very beautifully told.