Going Gently
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Review
"In this more serious work...David Nobbs celebrates the resilience and generosity of the human spirit." - "Independent"
Mail on Sunday
‘We should be thankful for the continuing brilliance of David Nobbs … Going Gently is richly funny and rich in many other ways. Buy it’
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having just finished reading this wonderful book for the third time, I am once again left completely satisfied by the read and yet utterly bereft to have reached the end.
As another reviewer observed, Nobbs hits precisely the right note of intertwining comedy/tragedy as two sides of the same coin. Kate was a witty, charming and deeply lovable character, seemingly able to hold her own in any situation, except perhaps in the area of her heart. The accounts of her various relationships/marriages are described to perfection, each quite different, yet all profoundly moving, illustrating the fact that life is not black and white: that you can love someone you are not with, or be with someone who you do not love (enough). The supporting characters are colourful and diverse, from the rather dull and conventional offspring of Kate herself (so often true that the children of someone extraordinary are very ordinary), to the various eccentricities of her parents and extended family: her spinster sister Enid and her tactless and outspoken sister-in-law Bunny. Nobbs is the master of the understatement, and often says much more about his characters in a few well chosen words than another writer could in a chapter.
For anyone who has not read David Nobbs before, this novel is a jewel in his crown, but the crown is heavily bejewelled, and the "Bit of a do" novels and the Pratt series are also well worth dipping into.
As another reviewer observed, Nobbs hits precisely the right note of intertwining comedy/tragedy as two sides of the same coin. Kate was a witty, charming and deeply lovable character, seemingly able to hold her own in any situation, except perhaps in the area of her heart. The accounts of her various relationships/marriages are described to perfection, each quite different, yet all profoundly moving, illustrating the fact that life is not black and white: that you can love someone you are not with, or be with someone who you do not love (enough). The supporting characters are colourful and diverse, from the rather dull and conventional offspring of Kate herself (so often true that the children of someone extraordinary are very ordinary), to the various eccentricities of her parents and extended family: her spinster sister Enid and her tactless and outspoken sister-in-law Bunny. Nobbs is the master of the understatement, and often says much more about his characters in a few well chosen words than another writer could in a chapter.
For anyone who has not read David Nobbs before, this novel is a jewel in his crown, but the crown is heavily bejewelled, and the "Bit of a do" novels and the Pratt series are also well worth dipping into.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A brilliant new novel from Britain's top comic novelist. Going Gently tells the story of 99-year old Kate Copson's life, in flashback form, while lying paralysed in a hospital bed after a stroke. From her upbringing and sexual awakening in a Swansea suburb, through the marriage of her five husbands to the murder of one of them by her son, this is a most ambitious book which delivers on all levels. Inspired by the death of his mother, David Nobbs has captured the entire life of the heroine without skimping on details, and deals with disability and old age beautifully (the present-day scenes describing Kate's ward-mates and their increasing senility are some of the funniest in the book). Unable to move, Kate rewinds the video of her life and plays the most memorable portions of it - her job as a history teacher; as an artist's wife in a Cornish commune; as a factory tycoon's wife in the Midlands; and her writing and television career as a pensioner. The murder of her fifth husband left Kate with the frustration of not knowing which of her three sons - for she knew it was one of them - had murdered him. From her hospital bed she sifts through the clues like an amateur detective and eventually eliminates two of them. Nobbs has maintained his wonderful eye for period detail, and delivers a briliantly descriptive narrative. A very moving book, yet very funny; a rollercoaster ride through one person's eventful life, yet painting an elaborate portrait of every chapter. If you enjoyed his Reginald Perrin novels, A Bit Of A Do or his Henry Pratt trilogy, you will love Going Gently.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
No-one does it better - makes you laugh and cry at the same time that is - than David Nobbs.
His portrait of a woman, Kate Copson, and her family is brilliant.
Nobbs' book opens as Kate is on her death bed. She is days away from her 100th birthday. She has had a stroke but while her body is immobile her mind can move anywhere it likes.
She chooses to take the reader on a review of her eventful, sex-filled, love-laden life.
She is determined to live but she also has a political conscience, dignity and compassion.
This novel is filled with laughs - but will also produce many a tear as Kate looks back on her failures and victories, her husbands and her family lovers.
Written in true Nobbs' I didn't get to be the writer I am today without striving to understand human nature and the meaning of life, it is unputdownable.
Loved this Nobbs book the most except for A Bit of A Do. There is a lot of Kate Copson in Rita Simcock. But while Rita starts by being an ugy duckling who becomes a swan, Kate is never anything but beautiful and outstanding.
Nobbs always seems to be in love with his leading ladies - and invites his readers to fall for them too.
Every woman who reads this book, wants to be Kate, loved, loving having lived her life to the full faces death without fear.
Confirms Nobbs as the best writer of comedy and observer of human nature known to British literature.
His nuances of language are as perfect as his ability to twist a knife so gently you don't feel it sting til it's pierced your heart.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A new author to me
My sister bought me this book for Xmas ,recommended by the authors wife who she met through her work. I knew Reggie Perrin of course but had not thought of trying his books . Read more
Published 16 months ago by lurcher-fan
Delightful
One of the most delightful stories I have read, detailing the life of an amazing woman. A clever plot, brilliant humour,with moments of real pathos. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Frank
Most enjoyable but not his best
Well there seems to be great debate amongst reviewers about where this novel stands in the Nobbs canon. Read more
Published 20 months ago by doublegone
Sexist and unconvincing
When David Nobbs creates a male hero he is often plump, shy, socially awkward - a person we can all understand and recognise. Read more
Published on 20 May 2010 by jane alexander
Original and very funny
This is just so brilliant, original, insightful and downright funny.
The main character is lying in a hospital bed, paralysed and awaiting her inevitable death. Read more
The main character is lying in a hospital bed, paralysed and awaiting her inevitable death. Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2009 by Lance Mitchell
Tedious and not very funny
Oh dear, when the blurb on a book proclaims this to be the author's best book and his most ambitious, you know you're in for a disappointment. Read more
Published on 11 Feb 2009 by Jl Adcock
Writer in top form
I've always found David Nobbs a bit frustrating. I wish he would exercise some quality control. Some of his books are decidedly ordinary while other really are top notch. Read more
Published on 27 April 2008 by M. Cassidy
A DEATH BED COMEDY
Who else but David Nobbs could write about a woman lying in hospital on her death bed and make a novel moving and hilarious by turns as Kate Copson remembers her life from her... Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2007 by M. Drake
Awful
Having read the wonderful newspaper and readers' reviews, I was expecting a genuinely clever and witty read - along the lines of the excellent Jonathan Coe. Read more
Published on 6 Jan 2005
I couldn't put it down
This is a truly excellent book. Really well written - I couldn't put it down. It made me laugh out loud in places and sad in others. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2001
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