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Title: What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel by Zoe Heller ISBN: 0-8050-7333-7 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.16 (32 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Compelling and chilling
Comment: A fascinating book, mainly focusing on the relationship between two teachers, one a 60-ish spinster type, the other a married 40-ish woman. The older woman, Barbara, covets a friendship with the younger woman, Sheba. Sheba, however, begins a torrid affair with one of her students at a lower-class school. Barbara takes it upon herself to take 'notes' of the scandal and transcribe this history as she observes it happening, as Sheba eventually relates it to her, and what she believes is happening. As Barbara tells this story, she gives away not only details of Sheba's life and the scandal that ensues (the affair, once out, creates a media frenzy), but she reveals a great deal about her own life (and sometimes lack thereof). It's quite chilling to get these insights and revelations and to watch it all unfold. The story is intelligent and holds a few surprises, and it's definitely compelling. I wasn't 100 percent certain I wanted to read it at first, but once I cracked the cover, I found myself drawn into this creepy narrative and wondering what makes Barbara tick.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent
Comment: What was she thinking? That's the natural response when someone hears of lurid stories on the news similar to that of the novel What Was She Thinking? In the novel, Sheba Hart, a forty-something teacher has an affair with a student at her school. The novel does not, as you might expect, tell us what Sheba was thinking at all, rather, Zoe Heller has focused on the thoughts of Barbara Covett, a sixty-something teacher at the school where Sheba also teaches. She is the narrator, and we get into her brain, so much so that the story isn't really about Sheba and young Steven Connolly, but about poor Barbara. Barbara has never married, has no friends, and is basically a social misfit. She is not the sort of person anyone would really choose to be friends with, but her position lends itself to an ability to tell a compelling story--about herself. She becomes obsessed with Sheba, even before she realizes what Sheba is doing with the student. The novel is really about their relationship, how it develops, and why, at least from Barbara's perspective, it develops. What Was She Thinking is a fascinating character study and moral tale that is reminiscent of Iris Murdoch's novels, as well as Ishiguro's Remains of the Day. I was very impressed with this novel, particularly because I thought it was just going to be about this student-teacher affair, when in reality, that affair serves as a springboard for a much deeper, more interesting story.
Rating: 5
Summary: Heller's crisp and razor sharp prose wins the day
Comment: Zoe Heller has enjoyed extensive rave notices for "Notes On A Scandal (NOAS)". It was even considered good enough to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. I can see why. It is the uncomplicated yet articulate nature, and sheer precision and razor sharp quality of Heller's prose that impresses me most. She makes good writing seem so easy. That's because she hails from a tradition of fictional writing that includes icons like Muriel Spark.
Don't expect the plot or the Sheba-Barbara relationship to develop along the lines of the infamous duo in "The Talented Mr Ripley". It is simply nowhere as sinister and readers expecting otherwise are bound to be disappointed. The story is also not about Sheba. She's only its nominal subject. It's really about Barbara, a strong touch of irony considering that she's the one telling us about Sheba's scandal but in the process reveals more about herself to us than the subject of her tale.
Sheba is this attractive and middle class pottery teacher who shows her silly dippy side when she falls for an under-aged student who has a fleeting crush on her. Her disgraceful affair, once out in the public domain, wreaks havoc on her family and professional life. Lost, in shock and despair, she finds Barbara, her lonely spinster colleague who's in desperate need to be needed, just waiting by the side to step in and take charge of her shattered life. Barbara's prim humourless no-nonsense exterior betrays her own lower middle class insecurities. Her jealousy of Sheba's friendship with another teacher Sue doesn't in my opinion make her a closet or unconscious lesbian, more an embittered soul who's absolutely terrified of being an irrelevance to the lives of others. Funnily, or is it just my reading of it, the betrayal scene suggests that it isn't deliberate but accidental, an act of reflex precipitated by the feeling of hurt, embarrassment and jealousy. The novel winds down satisfactorily though a little unsteadily with just a hint of unnatural supremacy in a lopsided relationship.
NOAS is indeed an excellent novel. It is good solid contemporary literature and deserves to be read and enjoyed.
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Title: Brick Lane: A Novel by Monica Ali ISBN: 0743243307 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Vernon God Little: A 21st Century Comedy in the Presence of Death by D. B. C. Pierre ISBN: 1841954608 Publisher: Canongate Books Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Little Children : A Novel by Tom Perrotta ISBN: 0312315716 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Namesake : A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri ISBN: 0395927218 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Today Show Book Club #13) by Mark Haddon ISBN: 0385512104 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 31 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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