- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; (Reissue) edition (5 Aug 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006545459
- ISBN-13: 978-0006545453
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 172,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
‘Gale is intoxicated with words and feeds upon them with a kind of manic relish…The sheer funniness of “Facing the Tank” made me laugh out loud. Its optimism delighted me.’ Sunday Times
‘Gale speedily unleashes his merrily black mischief. The uncovering of the sadness behind the doilies and twinsets is in the best tradition of black humour.’ Observer
‘A commendably intelligent, entertaining and moving novel.’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Original and amusing. An elegant, witty writer with an engagingly bizarre imagination. Patrick Gale writes with great zest. I kept on reading because I was perpetually astonished to find what Mr Gale had thought up next.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘The first thing that catches the attention about Patrick Gale is a sardonic eye, an engagingly leery way of looking at life, or the half-life he has chosen as his base in “Facing the Tank”. It’s as though “Cold Comfort Farm” had called in the interior decorators.’ Guardian
‘Gale has a fondness for his characters and a deep tolerance of their foibles which shines through his writing. Facing the Tank is a potent brew … Assured and immensely enjoyable.’ Gay Times
‘Gale has carried off yet another ridiculously crazy tour de force. The plot ricochets between the dozens of richly drawn characters, and one of the many reasons to devour this novel at one go is that it will make it easier to keep track. Some other reasons are that this book is a delightful read. If E.F. Benson, Iris Murdoch and Fay Weldon were to produce a story in some mad collusion, the result might be something like this.’ Publishers Weekly, US
‘If you can imagine a cross of Barchester Towers and Rosemary’s Baby as written by Muriel Spark, you may have some idea of what you’ll be facing with Facing the Tank. There are plenty of good, careful English novelists whose grasp exceeds their reach. Gale is by contrast a very imaginative bull amidst the Wedgwood, and like whatever creature is disrupting Barrowcester, he’s determined – and deserving – to be noticed.’ Washington Post
Product Description
A writer visits a quaint English Cathedral town and discovers its goings-on are stranger than fiction.
When Evan J. Kirby, an eminent American expert on heaven and hell, arrives in Barrowcester to do some research, he finds the community in a less than blissful state. There is the bishop sharing his doubts with the confirmation class while his mother feeds marijuana cookies to Evan’s landlady to unleash her psychic powers. Then there is Emma lurking in her father’s study waiting for love; Dawn sitting naked in a deckchair at midnight waiting for the Devil, and Madeleine seeking refuge from a cardinally inclined Cardinal. When Evan delves into the true origins of the local saint, a macabre and romantic sequence of events begins to unfold.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of Gale's earlier novels and although it has many of the hallmarks of the great writing shown in his later novels, it just isn't up to their standard. The large cast of characters are well-rounded with stacks of background, but in many ways it is like reading a book of short stories which are all related, as the central plot takes avery long time to come to the surface. Had the writing style not been so engaging, I would have given up on this fairly early on.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anyone looking to adapt one of Patrick Gale's books for the screen might try this one, which has lots of local colour, lots of ripe characterisation, and lots of simultaneous subplots, just like a Midsomer Murder. But unlike Midsomer Murders, Facing the Tank suffers from uncertainty of tone, and at times its burlesque is reminiscent of Tom Sharpe's comic novels, which in this context is counterproductive. It doesn't help that the main characters are neither admirable nor likeable, and there are subplots which just vanish, and others which spring into existence unexplained. Without giving any of the plot away, several of these blind alleys involve children. The main plot vehicles manage to avoid the pile-up at the end, and the book offers lots of compensations along its convoluted way, but it seems to be an early and formative work.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bought for someone else as an Xmas gift.
He seemed to be pleased with it.
He seemed to be pleased with it.
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