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The Facts of Life (Paperback)

by Patrick Gale (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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The Facts of Life + A Sweet Obscurity + The Cat Sanctuary
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  • This item: The Facts of Life by Patrick Gale

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Product details

  • Paperback: 560 pages
  • Publisher: HarperPerennial; New edition edition (5 Aug 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006547680
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006547686
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 22,216 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #4 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > G > Gale, Patrick
    #95 in  Books > Fiction > Genre > Family Sagas

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Product Description

Review

'Patrick Gale offers us so much more than facts in this extraordinary blockbuster of a novel. Its exploration of family ties and tyranny is encompassed within a deft narrative. Much like the late Ivy Compton-Burnett, Gale presents us with a family saga which both questions and defies present day morality. Always fluent, Gale manages to be both brutal and witty. His analysis of the family tree is rooted in compassion and insight and expounded resoundingly well.' Time Out 'Wonderfully vivid, this novel is peopled with characters who compel you to care.' She 'Gale's best and most complex novel. Gale is both a shameless romantic and hip enough to get away with it. His moralised narrative has as its counterpart a rigorous underpinning of craft. This reads, page by page, like a superior gushy blockbuster, but has, as part of its form and subject, a sober consideration of the place of sentiment and rigour in life and art.' New Statesman 'Brilliant. Vastly readable.' Marie Claire 'It is impossible to put "The Facts of Life" down. A rural English blockbuster. It is beautifully done.' Daily Telegraph 'Deftly characterised, deeply involving and relevant. A memorable achievement.' The Times


Product Description

A composer who finds success in his later years surveys his grandchildren as they come to terms with the harsher facts of modern life. A young composer, Edward Pepper, is exiled from his native Germany by the war, struck down with TB, and left to languish in an isolation hospital. But then he falls in love with his doctor, Sally Banks, and his world is transformed. They set up home in a bizarre dodecahedral folly, The Roundel -- a potent place, which grows in significance as it bears witness to their family's tragedies and joys. The years pass, and Edward watches from this sanctuary as both his grandchildren, Jamie and Alison, fall prey to the charms of Sam, an enigmatic builder, and have to come to terms with some of the tougher facts of life.
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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A novel to put things into perspective, 18 May 2000
By Jay H (Guildford, UK) - See all my reviews
Facts of Life is one of those books that stands head and shoulders above others in the AIDS genre. As previous reviewers have pointed out, its a novel of two halves, contrasting two tales of courtship from different times. It is the juxtaposition of a modern gay fairy tale (with the drop dead gorgeous Sam who I long to bump into next time I wander past a construction site) and a beautifully written tale of post war (straight) romance that adds realism and a sense of perspective. Facts of Life cleverly juggles the bad and good fortune we all have to put up with in life, but, in typical Gale style, optimism wins the day. As one has come to expect of Gale, Facts of Life is faultlessly crafted, weaving story lines and drawing the reader in like much of his other books. Rather unfortunately Facts of Life is often to be found in the gay and lesbian section of your book shop. Don't let this put you off... this is a novel for everyone. Go read.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read, but excellently crafted, 13 Jan 2000
By A Customer
The story is unusual, but the previous reviewer's suggestion that it's two books joined together, one better written than the other, seems bizarre. Effortlessly readable, the story is compelling throughout and extremely well crafted. It's not Dickens - or even Martin Amis - but it is very good, and to be recommended.

(And if Armistead Maupin liked it, you can't really argue with that, can you?)

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A great, involving read, 5 Jan 2004
Over the past year I've been working my way through Patrick Gale's novels. Yes, Rough Music is his masterpiece but you can't compare everything to it (see other reviews). I thought this book was very moving.

It is two stories and at times I couldn't really see any reason for putting them in one volume but as you get nearer the end of the second part you see that stories from both parts mirror each other. The Holocoust and AIDs, a grandfather and his grandson both in hospital and mercy killings. These things go towards making up the "facts of life". And maybe the novel also offers different ways of surviving: blocking things out,loving too much, living through other people or just passing through as the Hollywood star does.

My only complaint is that Mr Gale doesn't tie up all the ends of the novel but maybe this is deliberate. It means that you keep the lives of his characters in your mind and plot what you think should have happened. I won't give anythnig away but Alison, you must tell him!

It's about time one of Mr Gale's books was dramatised for tv and if a producedr could successfully link the two partsthis would make a great start (or what about A Sweet Obsucrity?)

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Slow to start but worth persevering
I read this book years ago and remembered liking it very much. Being in a 'Patrick Gale phase' just now I was keen to re-read. Read more
Published 14 days ago by Iain C. Davidson

5.0 out of 5 stars Define what the 'Facts of Life' are.
This is a book which takes you right to the middle of these characters and their lives. This is not the facts of life in its colloquial sense, this is about issues (murder,... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Joanne D'Arcy

3.0 out of 5 stars A great book with a bad cast!
Another great book by Gale but what I get again is a cast of characters that I don't care about and could quite easily dislike! Read more
Published 17 months ago by Philip Thompson

4.0 out of 5 stars I might be out of step with the other reviewers here, but this is my favourite Gale novel!
I recently bought a copy of Patrick Gale's latest novel "Notes From An Exhibition" and I thought before reading it I'd re-read this book as it has always been my favourite of... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Phil Shanklin

4.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing epic
Like Gale's most famous novel, 'Rough Music', 'The Facts of Life' features two narratives several years apart concerning the same family. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Smurfy

2.0 out of 5 stars Bewildering...
Like many of the other reviewers of this book I found it a struggle to gather together the broken strings of Part 1 and Part 2. Read more
Published on 29 Dec 2003 by littlepig littlepig

2.0 out of 5 stars I got to the end, but wondered if it was really worth it!
Again, a promising start (as so many of his other novels) but then too far fetched and ridiculous ending. Read more
Published on 1 Oct 2003 by K. Morris

4.0 out of 5 stars Brought to tears
I am not a sentimental chap really, but having spent a long hot weekend finishing off The Facts of Life and becoming so involved with the characters, particularly Alison, Jamie... Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2003 by ianhalsall

2.0 out of 5 stars Strange
I agree with a previous reviewer that this is a very strange book! The underlying theme of the story is based on homosexuality and Aids, but the characters are all just so strange... Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2003

3.0 out of 5 stars One of the oddest books I've read
Quite a strange book, indeed. The first half is a beautifully rendered story about the search for truth and identity in post-WWII England. Read more
Published on 9 Aug 1999

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