- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial; (Reissue) edition (4 Mar 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007213573
- ISBN-13: 978-0007213573
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 758,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Grievance
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Review
‘The harrowing experience of a child growing up in a family made brutal by social shame is powerfully rendered…there is an aching truthfulness in the writing…“Grievance” will stay with me for its emotional truth…We shall certainly hear more of Marguerite Alexander.’ Independent
'Powerfully imagined.' The Times
‘A shrewd novel.’ Independent
‘“Grievance” is a campus novel with a difference. Its beautifully nuanced account of Nora’s moral and intellectual education and in particular its vivid, unsentimental portrait of Felix for which Marguerite Alexander acknowledges the inspiration of her own son, make for a debut of promise and distinction.’ Daily Mail
‘It is the most riveting debut novel–or indeed any novel–that I have read for a long, long time. This is a deeply human, hugely readable story and I’m telling everyone I meet how great it is.’ Mavis Cheek
Independent
'A shrewd novel.'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I found this is a beautifully written and totally engaging account of a very moving story. The two elements - one set in Northern Ireland and the other in London - work together very cleverly. I really enjoyed the scenes featuring the students, and found much of what she shows in that respect horribly recognisable and accurate. The strand set in N Ireland, which ties in very well with the London scenes I think, is incredibly moving, and provides a really unique (for me at least) understanding of the rewards, difficulties and tensions of life with a Downs Syndrome child. Strongly recommended.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a book I took on holiday and thoroughly enjoyed. It is a story about undergraduates in London. One of them is from Ireland and gradually her own complicated past makes an impact on the rest of the group and on her star lecturer. There is lots going on in the story - and there are funny scenes - and we have a touch of Irish politics as well as more than a brush with Irish literature. Not far from the centre of the book is a handicapped boy. Events fall this way and that but we arrive at a closure which is also a promising new beginning. In the hands of the right director, this book would make a memorable film.
Format:Paperback
Grievance is an utterly absorbing novel. The title relates to the browbeating, contentious energies of Gerald Doyle, father of a gifted child, Nora, and her younger brother Felix, who has Downs Syndrome. As a small child Nora is taught to recite passages from Shakespeare to demonstrate her precocity to the small town business men who are cronies of her father. Later Nora gains a mind of her own and, in her Northern Irish Catholic family the talk is all of the Troubles and Nora and her father argue bitterly. The scales have dropped from Nora's eyes long before this episode, when she sees how their social shame at having a less than perfect son has caused her father's withdrawal from any close engagement with his family. His wife, Bernie, is consumed with guilt and shame and feels revulsion for her son and as a result, there is only Nora who can give Felix the stability and kindness that he needs.
But Nora leaves, given scant help from her parents, for University and her time there is at first exciting as her intelligence and critical skills are recognised, but later deteriorates, when she becomes prey to the unwelcome attentions of a preening, self-absorbed lecturer. The writing is almost abnormally clear, clean and precise, as the story moves back and forth from Nora growing up in Ireland and Nora at University. The exposition, particularly in the University chapters, seems sometimes like part of a thesis, taking in Ulysses, Yeats and Maude Gonne, etc., but the characters are also likeable, except for one or two, including the arrogant elder daughter of the lecturer, on whom Nora exacts an uncharacteristically spiteful revenge.
It is the relationship between Nora and Felix that most resonates with me, as the shameful parental neglect of this lonely boy leads, in the final chapter, to a tentatively hopeful conclusion.
But Nora leaves, given scant help from her parents, for University and her time there is at first exciting as her intelligence and critical skills are recognised, but later deteriorates, when she becomes prey to the unwelcome attentions of a preening, self-absorbed lecturer. The writing is almost abnormally clear, clean and precise, as the story moves back and forth from Nora growing up in Ireland and Nora at University. The exposition, particularly in the University chapters, seems sometimes like part of a thesis, taking in Ulysses, Yeats and Maude Gonne, etc., but the characters are also likeable, except for one or two, including the arrogant elder daughter of the lecturer, on whom Nora exacts an uncharacteristically spiteful revenge.
It is the relationship between Nora and Felix that most resonates with me, as the shameful parental neglect of this lonely boy leads, in the final chapter, to a tentatively hopeful conclusion.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Acutely observed
This is an extraordinary book, giving an acute insight into the lives of ordinary people - a family in Northern Ireland, students and an academic in London, and a Down's Syndrome... Read more
Published on 15 Nov 2007 by K. E. Baird
Grievious to Read
Marguerie Alexander is knowledgeable about literature, psychology, Downs syndrome, Urban Northern Ireland and social intercourse, but she should have written this as a novella. Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2007 by Ann Kay
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