Engleby

Compelling and disturbingly addictive with beautifully crafted language and a "hero" for whom you feel every possible emotion. The best book I have read for a long time and left me feeling guilty for enjoying it. Puzzled? You must simply read the book to understand the ambivalent emotions it stirs.

bowled over by this book (0/0 people found this helpful)

This is an incredible book that I was unable to leave. Rather worryingly - or perhaps not? - I felt a connection with Engleby from the start and agree with him wholeheartedly on most things. A brilliant appraisal of existence. The description of the dinner party alone puts this book in my top ten ever.

Enigmatic (2/2 people found this helpful)

What is it with Faulks and the human psyche? Once again he turns to this subject but this time with much more success. For those of you who have read Human Traces - a lot of people myself included found it very hard work.
This time Faulks tackles the subject from a different point of view - that of an autobiography of a fictional character.
All in all Mike Engleby is not a nice person yet I could help myself warming to him as the story and his character developed. Faulk's glorious descriptive style paints a vivid picture of his life as he sees it and as he begins to realise the true reality. What I particularly enjoyed was how the written style matured in line with the character. All in all it's a very enjoyable book - its not quite Birdsong but very good nonetheless. For those of you who might have given up on him after Human traces - this is truly a return to form.

Enduring sadness (2/2 people found this helpful)

It almost pains me to say it, but this really is a great novel. I never really bought into the whole Birdsong mania - to me it seemed to borrow too heavily from genuinely great chroniclers of the Great War (such as Lyn Macdonald), and in common with other early novels, there was something cold and mechanical about its construction which was consistent with the feeling I got whenever I came across him on the wireless, so I have to say I pretty much knew what I thought about Mr. Faulks.

So how gutting to have one's hard-won prejudices overturned, because 'Engleby' is a revelation. Part psychological thriller in the Patricia Highsmith mode (Engleby is in some ways a descendant of Ripley) part school and university memoir, it grips from the first page (particularly for any child, then student, of the 60s and 70s, who will find the period detail pretty faultless). Which would be great if that was as far as it went, but Engleby has a real and convincing depth. As the book proceeds, Faulks manages to wring pity for the monster that is Michael Engleby, and from there to pity (and a deep sense of sadness) for the human condition - but without any sense of manipulation (though it comes perilously close in the psychoanalytical episodes towards the end) This is a book with heart and soul, and I really rather loved it.

A new Faulks at his best (2/2 people found this helpful)

I've read early Faulks ("Birdsong", "Girl at the Lion d'Or", "Charlotte Gray" etc.) but I found them a bit too, well, safe. There was some very good descriptive writing but it was all a bit unobjectionable. However, I was given "Engleby" for Christmas and felt duty bound to read it, not that duty had much to do after about page 2.

First of all, it's a page-turner. Faulks has reinvented himself here, or discovered a completely unknown voice - for much of it I thought I was reading William Boyd. Second, it resonated for me because of the description of the bullied loner at public school, though I was expelled before I rose to a position of sufficient seniority to start bullying myself. Third, it has a good, coherent plot and a cast of characters at the plot's service. And while it wasn't hard to figure out the final exposition, it was never a tedious journey getting there.

Some reviewers have commented on the way that parts of this story mirror the author's life (the fictional Chatfield for Wellington, where Faulks was educated, followed by Cambridge) but I'd say - so what? Most writers write eventually about what they know - see David Mitchell's wonderful "Black Swan Green", for example.

I'd say that this was a pretty faultless book - I never once found myself saying to myself "As if!", or "Please no!!!" or "Get outta here!", phrases I find myself employing rather frequently with other authors. Whether there's less here than meets the eye might depend on whether any of the book has resonance with you - for me, it struck the right balance between story and lesson.

Sebastian Faulks

Reader Reviews:

Compelling (0/0 people found this helpful)

bowled over by this book (0/0 people found this helpful)

Enigmatic (2/2 people found this helpful)

Enduring sadness (2/2 people found this helpful)

A new Faulks at his best (2/2 people found this helpful)

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