mal4mac
09-08-2009, 06:24 AM
Mike Engleby is working class boy who wins a place at a public school and an esteemed university. He is isolated and picked on at school, managing to gather the nickname "Toilet", because the posh kids would never use such a working class name for the thunder box. His alienation only gets worse at the posh university, where the cool rich kids just ignore him rather than bully him.
First few chapters were reasonably interesting, but then it started to drag. The origins of Engleby's meaningless life (childhood bullying , generally drab existence...) are quite well drawn. But the mystery (the disappearing love interest) remains a mystery for far too long. Also Engleby's meaningless progress through meaningless London jobs is just a repetition of his meaningless student life at Cambridge. A plot should develop, unless there are compensating factors. There are no compensating factors. Faulks doesn't explore the subject's interior any further. So, all in all, some good parts, but it's another disappointing work by a current writer. It isn't anywhere near as good as "the classics". Crime & Punishment is the nearest comparison, but Faulks never gets anywhere near the cosmological depths of nihilism and despair that Dostoevsky explores. (And he - unforgivably - imposes yet another Notting Hill dinner party on us - come on Faulks try harder!)
Faulks recovers somewhat in the last few chapters, as the mystery is resolved and other facets of Engleby's life are explored, in an interesting new environment. These chapters were quite funny, and there is some interesting "text within a text" byplay going on.
If you like Faulks or other modern Brit. lit-lite writers like Nick Hornby, then you might like this. But for a light read on the train, that doesn't make any concessions to quality, try "The Cossacks" by Tolstoy, or any Dickens novel instead. Feel the difference!
First few chapters were reasonably interesting, but then it started to drag. The origins of Engleby's meaningless life (childhood bullying , generally drab existence...) are quite well drawn. But the mystery (the disappearing love interest) remains a mystery for far too long. Also Engleby's meaningless progress through meaningless London jobs is just a repetition of his meaningless student life at Cambridge. A plot should develop, unless there are compensating factors. There are no compensating factors. Faulks doesn't explore the subject's interior any further. So, all in all, some good parts, but it's another disappointing work by a current writer. It isn't anywhere near as good as "the classics". Crime & Punishment is the nearest comparison, but Faulks never gets anywhere near the cosmological depths of nihilism and despair that Dostoevsky explores. (And he - unforgivably - imposes yet another Notting Hill dinner party on us - come on Faulks try harder!)
Faulks recovers somewhat in the last few chapters, as the mystery is resolved and other facets of Engleby's life are explored, in an interesting new environment. These chapters were quite funny, and there is some interesting "text within a text" byplay going on.
If you like Faulks or other modern Brit. lit-lite writers like Nick Hornby, then you might like this. But for a light read on the train, that doesn't make any concessions to quality, try "The Cossacks" by Tolstoy, or any Dickens novel instead. Feel the difference!