- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Abacus (4 Mar 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0349122482
- ISBN-13: 978-0349122489
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.4 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 499,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Foolish Lessons in Life and Love
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
When big-boned, eager-to-please, accident-prone Taras Krohe ambles into a stiff English public school on a puzzling scholarship with his funny foreign name, an eccentric and over-protective Bukovinian mother, and no father at all, disappointment beckons. A decade later, Taras and his mother are still living off their benefactress Mrs Bartlett in a cramped South London flat, while Taras's promising job has warped into a Kafkaesque nightmare, and his truculent Russian girlfriend has decamped with a ponytailed aesthete. When the mysterious Mrs Bartlett dies, an old schoolfriend with a grudge emerges and eviction looms. Now even the terminally easygoing Taras must show his mother he's a man, and uncover the secret behind his family's plummet into disaster. But she has other ideas for her little pourchi: she's determined to wrestle him away from the dangerous influences his search reveals. And it's by no means certain who will come out on top ...
About the Author
Penny Rudge is doing a three year PhD in Creative Writing with Andrew Motion at Royal Holloway. She is married and has a young family.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved the book - amazing quality as she is a first time author.
I felt I needed to spend time to really get to know Taras, to understand what made him tick. He staggers through life, from one problem to the next. His character is well drawn and beleivable. The author has devised a plot that is quite complicated but she manages to make it all come together. Mami is a real Balkan Mum, she makes Taras' mind up for him all the time and he feel obligated to her as he is her sole support. Taras is better than he thinks but his lack of confidence colours all his actions.
Buy this book and be enchanted.
I felt I needed to spend time to really get to know Taras, to understand what made him tick. He staggers through life, from one problem to the next. His character is well drawn and beleivable. The author has devised a plot that is quite complicated but she manages to make it all come together. Mami is a real Balkan Mum, she makes Taras' mind up for him all the time and he feel obligated to her as he is her sole support. Taras is better than he thinks but his lack of confidence colours all his actions.
Buy this book and be enchanted.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The novel is basically a modern take on the Spanish picaresque novel. The main character Taras is a clumsy twenty-something who can't put a foot right. The plot is carried by the fact that he discovers something dodgy about his family's past and their involvement with the landlord who evicts them at the beginning of the novel, and although humour is the order of the day, this also turns out to be quite a page-turner because of the mystery - the denouement comes totally out of the blue and Rudge managed to keep me guessing and smiling to the very end. Along the way Taras comes against various obstacles, including a hilarious US takeover of the IT firm where he works, and a number of heartbreaks involving his dodgy Russian girlfriend. Taras's mother towers among the other characters and begs to be turned into a TV character. A thoroughly enjoyable read and a pretty impressive debut...
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jasna says:
A triumph! A book to conquer all the doom and gloom of the Orange Booker shortlist. I did miss my tube stop! Penny demonstrates in her first novel that she is already a very skilled and mature writer. The plot and the characters are so beautifully crafted. There are many different elements which she carefully weaves together including London as a character in its own right, especially the area around London Bridge which feels claustrophobic, similar to the tiny flat where Taras and his mother live. Only someone with a Balkan mother can identify with the suffocating but hugely generous love that Balkan women make their trademark. Many tiny, closely observed details are one of the book's strong features: polenta with cheese for breakfast; obscure chocolate bars long forgotten - when did anyone last eat a Caramac or a Tracker? So very funny. The closely observed machinations of office life are perfectly recreated. Wonderful crossed stories and unexpected twists kept me entertained throughout.
A triumph! A book to conquer all the doom and gloom of the Orange Booker shortlist. I did miss my tube stop! Penny demonstrates in her first novel that she is already a very skilled and mature writer. The plot and the characters are so beautifully crafted. There are many different elements which she carefully weaves together including London as a character in its own right, especially the area around London Bridge which feels claustrophobic, similar to the tiny flat where Taras and his mother live. Only someone with a Balkan mother can identify with the suffocating but hugely generous love that Balkan women make their trademark. Many tiny, closely observed details are one of the book's strong features: polenta with cheese for breakfast; obscure chocolate bars long forgotten - when did anyone last eat a Caramac or a Tracker? So very funny. The closely observed machinations of office life are perfectly recreated. Wonderful crossed stories and unexpected twists kept me entertained throughout.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A fantastic debut
I loved this story, staying up late into the night to see what happened to Taras, his mother and Katya. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Dr NJ Stafford
Laugh-out-loud funny
Penny Rudge is an excellent writer. The novel is both moving and funny, in equal measures, as well as a definite pager turner. I couldn't put it down. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Gnulet
Funny and Foolish and so enjoyable
This is a very enjoyable book. Nearly gave it 5 stars! The novel is set in today's London, Taras lives with his eastern European mother in a l l/2 bedroom apartment. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Alice in Wonderland
An Outlier Review
I feel rather outnumbered by the nineteen reviewers, none of whom have been moved to review a book on Amazon before, who've all given this novel five stars...! ... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Bob Ventos
A wonderful read
I just finished reading this brilliant book and I absolutely loved it.
Despite being sleep deprived with our 3-month old daughter, I gladly sacrificed precious hours of... Read more
Despite being sleep deprived with our 3-month old daughter, I gladly sacrificed precious hours of... Read more
Published 22 months ago by DB
Easy to read, but also sophisticated. Loved it.
Loved this book! A lot is said in not so many words, which shows a real talent of the writer. It is just as much thought provoking as entertaining. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Katya
Great, page-turning, escapist read
I enjoyed all of this book but particularly towards the end I found myself surreptitiously reading a few pages when my boys were distracted for a few minutes. Read more
Published 23 months ago by R. Burns
Funny and foolish... a great holiday read!
Funny and foolish ... I found myself laughing out loud as I was drawn in to the world of Ms Rudge's wry observations on life and foolhardy love. Read more
Published 24 months ago by R. Gillies
Wonderful stuff
This book is full of great characters and observations. And it was so funny that it made me laugh out loud on the London Underground (always embarrassing). Read more
Published on 25 May 2010 by PStar
A great read!
Engaging, fast paced and full of colourful characters. The backdrop to the story is a London that is recognisable to all Londoners. Read more
Published on 17 May 2010 by N. Mirzoian
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