Engleby

Product Details

Author : Sebastian Faulks
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780099458272
Number of Pages : 352
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 2008-03-27
Publisher : Vintage

ASIN : 0099458276

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Customer Reviews

Too much waffle (2008-07-01)

An interesting premise and a great basis for a novel, but I found this too dragged out and laborious. Cutting it by about half might have made for an excellent read.Mike Engelby is a loner. As he leads us through the traumas of his childhood and school days and then on into his time at Cambridge University, we start to see chinks in his personality. He has no close friends and seems a bit autistic, possibly a touch schizophrenic. He starts to drink heavily and take 'blue pills' regularly. He prefers his own company to that of others and drives to remote pubs in the area to eat and drink alone.During his time at University tragedy strikes - a young girl, Jennifer, on whom he has a crush, disappears. Despite a re-enactment and intensive questioning of students, no further sign of her is found.Mike leaves Uni and becomes a newspaper reporter - probably an ideal job for a loner. He seems to be muddling alond quite effectively until the past comes back to haunt him.I have only read one other Sebastian Faulks book - Birdsong. I regret I did not find Engelby to be even close to that.Sections were readable but huge chunks seemed to ramble on at length about anything from the idea of time not being linear to theories of psychatric medicine.I had to read this for a book group and struggled to the end, only to find that no-one else had bothered anyway!

Wow! (2008-06-30)

I loved this, and really have nothing more to add to the positive comments so far posted. This is my first reading of Sebastian Faulks. I was not sure if I would like it, as had been told about (although not read) Birdsong, which didn't really appeal. However, bought this on the strength of seeing several positive reviews. I found it an engrossing read, managed to find some sympathy for the unappealing central character, enjoyed the elegance of Faulks' prose and his ability to evoke period detail of the 70s and 80s. I would highly recommend this.

An excellent read (2008-06-30)

I agree with the other positive reviews of this book, initially I thought: "Why should I care about this character" but as the novel unfolds, so the ability to put the book down diminishes.This was the second Faulks book I have read and I have just completed my third, he is certainly a talented author. The ending was excellent - obviously I don't want to give too much away - but I was never quite sure whether it is actually the things that happened to Engleby, or it's how he imagines they COULD have been for him. I'm told a sign of a good novel is to be pondering the meaning of its ending long after you have finished reading it. I certainly will not forget this read and look forward to owning my own copy.

Review (2008-06-26)

This is the first Faulks novel I have read, and was inspired to do so on the strength of a favourable review in The Spectator. We see the life of the protagonist during his schooldays, childhood, student days and afterwards. There is sympathy for the character, but he also has a number of unpleasant traits, too. So our regard for him alternates. The novel can be confusing as it shifts back and forth in time, sometimes without any indication and it only becomes apparent after a few pages. One oddity is that the narrator refers to Jennifer's diary, yet it is apparent that the diary covers 1972-1974, and, given the lengthy page extracts we are shown, it could hardly fit into the single volume which the narrator tells us it consists of. A diarist myself, she would surely have written three volumes, and they might not be all conveniently in one place to be stolen. The other weakness is taht we are told the outcome quite a few pages before the end, and if the last couple of pages are supposed to indicate a twist, they don't; rather wishful thinking on someone's part. The novel reminded me of a later Agatha Christie novel, and uses a few of the same devices, which I spotted on a first reading. Having said that, it is a gripping read and I found myself reading this in two days.

Spellbound (2008-06-24)

Having enjoyed but not been overly struck by Faulks' novels so far, I was thoroughly spellbound by this one. As Faulks' dark, lone anti-hero, Engleby, reveals himself and his background, the reader is invited into his sardonic, autobiographical reflections, his musings on the period in which he is living and the characters (many of them real) that inhabit it. Readers over 50 who can look back on the same time frame will relish Engleby's cynical recollections. I was continually impressed by Faulks' ability to evoke the atmosphere and thinking of the 70s and 80s and his occasional neat trick of applying the irony of hindsight.However, the principal force of the book is the gradual exposure of Engleby as a brilliant scholar from a poor, violent background who initially seems to have survived early abuse and the atrocities of public school bullying (Faulks' exposé of this is painful and shocking but the reader's sympathies with Engleby take an abrupt turn away when he metes out the same offence on a younger boy) to evolve into a quasi-savant intellectual and then a successful and respected national journalist.As the mystery of the girl's disappearance unfolds, it is inevitable that the reader will predict the outcome and inexorable fate of Engleby's solitary and impaired personality. Any other possibility would reduce the novel's power and purpose. It is a chilling account of deep psychological damage hidden for many years beneath an `acceptable' individual. Finally, Faulks' fascinating portrayal of our current fixation with finding `psychobabbly' causes for Engleby's mindset and behaviour emphasises our limited understanding of the human mind and simply serves to nourish this cold and superior individual's narcissism and self-obsession. Nothing fits, and right to the end he keeps us guessing.Normally, I am able put a book down (well, one has to work, eat and sleep eventually) but this one was hard: the story gripped me slowly but persistently. I found Faulks' style to be concise, witty and moving - I have tagged several pages to revisit. Definitely, worth a second read.

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