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Title: Another World : A Novel by Pat Barker ISBN: 0-312-20397-7 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 December, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (16 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Survivor's guilt
Comment: Gareth is Fran's son. Miranda, a stepchild, is to visit for six weeks. Nick meets Miranda at the train. Their house says Fanshawe 1898. Miranda points out it is like Wuthering Heights.
When Gareth isn't in school he plays computer games. The authorities at his school feel that he has a propensity to bully younger children. His mother Fran disagrees with the assessment. Jasper is the baby of the family. Another child is expected. Nick and Gareth, his stepson, do not get along. Miranda is visiting because her mother, Barbara, has been hospitalized for a nervous breakdown.
The family scrapes wallpaper in order to redecorate. A sort of Victorian portrait is discovered. Unfortunately the portrait of the family is anatomically correct and not in very good taste.
Nick visits his grandfather Geordie at the hospital. Nick's father had been the headmaster, and his mother the matron, of a small preparatory school. As a boy Nick had been devious and deceitful trying to curry favor with others.
Geordie is 101 years old. He has cancer. He seems to be having flashbacks of his service during World War I. The story with Geordie is that he believes that his mother said that she wished his brother had survived the war instead of him.
Nick reads that a child of the Fanshawes, the previous owners, died under mysterious circumstances. Members of the family were acquitted in a murder trial. When Nick's family goes to the beach, Gareth throws stones in the direction of the baby, Jasper, and wounds him. Miranda witnesses the incident but denies being present.
The grandfather dies. Just before this happens Nick learns more details of Geordie's experience in the war. Gareth is to start a new school and is upset. One of the themes of this excellent novel is the complexity of truth.
Rating: 2
Summary: thin lizzy...
Comment: I cannot quite comprehend how this little read provokes the above adoring ratings except, perhaps, as remembered tribute to the oft mentioned Trilogy of the same author. Either that or some folks have been on a calorie poor diet of prose of recent. Like a few others, I found this a let-down, thinly written and not terribly convincing either in characterization or in point. It's almost as if she were in a hurry to tell about something, not quite having the time to decide what. Throwing together a number of high profile dramatic elements along with a collection of overwrought characters does not a story make. To each their own, I suppose. I vote for passing on.
Rating: 4
Summary: Not Pat Barker's best book - but still well worth reading.
Comment: Violence crosses time and space to trouble the lives of both a centenarian and his pre-teen great grandson. The focus of the story is the dying of Geordie, who fought in the First War and now, having lived long beyond his time, is slowly dying. Other generations and other days are woven through the novel, reminding the reader of the common thread of humanity that runs through all time. I particularly commend Barker for her description of Geordie's dying and moments of actual death . . . she has obviously been there with more than one dying person. The portrayal was both respectful and, from my experience, accurate. I'm working my way through Barker's entire opus, and this is a worthwhile contribution to her fine reputation.
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Title: The Man Who Wasn't There by Pat Barker ISBN: 0312275439 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 07 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Border Crossing : A Novel by Pat Barker ISBN: 0312420196 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 09 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Union Street & Blow Your House Down by Pat Barker ISBN: 0312240899 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Regeneration by Pat Barker ISBN: 0452270073 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: July, 1993 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker ISBN: 0452272726 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: April, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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