Blenheim Orchard
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Product Description
Daily Mail
`This is a brilliantly insightful family saga, full of comedy and sadness, and the dilemma of modern fatherhood are particularly well handled.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'A brilliantly insightful family saga, full of comedy and sadness' Daily Mail 'Pears is a master at drawing significance out of the everyday ... a lasting portrait of a family breaking apart' Sunday Times 'The sudden catastrophe is riveting: its aftermath is dramatic agony' TLS 'An unflinching portrait of the subtle mechanisms of a modern marriage' Daily Telegraph
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A rare treat - another book from the marvellous Tim Pears. It is hard to find superlatives to describe this novel, so I will limit myself to words which may persuade others to read it. On the face of it, Blenheim Orchard follows an Oxford family through a few months of their lives in 2003. But this is no sentimental family saga. Ezra and Sheena Peppin have three children, and the book deals with themes of middle-age and parenthood, while adolescence disturbs well-established family structures. It deals with friendship and work relationships, and the struggle we all have to come to terms with the circumstances of our lives while remaining sane.
This family are articulate and highly educated, and it is amusing to see Ezra and Sheena try to maintain their sense of "specialness" while teenage Blaise blows holes through so many of their pretensions and fake values. The failings of both parents are exposed from time to time, but this book is not an attack on the Peppins, but compassionately describes their struggle to live authentic lives among the cultural changes and work pressures of modern life.
This is a book which draws you in to the Peppins' world, so that when you put it down you find yourself wondering what will happen next. It's a book you read quickly but also want to make last a few days - a difficult task for this reader. I have recently read Gerard Woodward's "A Curious Earth", another exploration of family life, and would say that these two books are the best I have read this year. This one is highly recommended and if I could award five and a half stars I would do so.
This family are articulate and highly educated, and it is amusing to see Ezra and Sheena try to maintain their sense of "specialness" while teenage Blaise blows holes through so many of their pretensions and fake values. The failings of both parents are exposed from time to time, but this book is not an attack on the Peppins, but compassionately describes their struggle to live authentic lives among the cultural changes and work pressures of modern life.
This is a book which draws you in to the Peppins' world, so that when you put it down you find yourself wondering what will happen next. It's a book you read quickly but also want to make last a few days - a difficult task for this reader. I have recently read Gerard Woodward's "A Curious Earth", another exploration of family life, and would say that these two books are the best I have read this year. This one is highly recommended and if I could award five and a half stars I would do so.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
He's a brilliant author - deals with domestic British love and the disintegration of relationships better than almost anyone except Glen Duncan. While it should not stop anyone from reading Blenheim Orchard, I can't understand why nobody has commented on its similarity to Revolutionary Road.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having read everything Tim Pears has written and noting that this book hasn't been trumpeted to the skies by the publisher, I just have to say it is staggeringly good. On the surface a simple story of a middle class family in Oxford over the course of the summer of 2003, it is, in fact, a devastating critique on our society and its moral vacuity as well as being an entertaining pageturner. The sense of impending disaster is palpable and I was utterly gripped from the first page to the last. Buy it, read it and then read his other books. The man is an unsung genius.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not my favourite Pears book
Pears has a knack of looking into relationships but I don't think that this is one of his better books. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Mrs. Audrey Williams
An overwrought and rather silly story
I live in the area of Oxford portrayed in this novel and I have to say I barely recognise it, and its characters similarly fail to convince, least of all Sheena, the frustrated... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2010 by David Rose
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