- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Black Swan (16 July 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0552774189
- ISBN-13: 978-0552774185
- Product Dimensions: 12.7 x 2.2 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 514,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
Praise for Robert Edric:
"Edric's work constitutes one of the most astonishing bodies of work to have appeared from a single author for a generation."-"Daily Telegraph"
"Has a seriousness and a psychological edge that nine out of ten novelists would give their eye teeth to possess."-"Sunday Times"
"Edric's work constitutes one of the most astonishing bodies of work to have appeared from a single author for a generation."-"Daily Telegraph"
"Has a seriousness and a psychological edge that nine out of ten novelists would give their eye teeth to possess."-"Sunday Times"
"From the Trade Paperback edition." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate - Guardian
[Edric's] prose has an impressive emotional weight
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Inside This Book
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is not one of Edric's best novels and therefore if he is new to you I suggest you don't read it as your first novel by him. The story unfolds at too liesurely a pace and although it is very readable it lacks the grittiness you would expect from a story set in an asylum. Whilst the ending does have a degree of emotional impact the story lacks the psychological insights of, for instance, Pat Barker's 'Regeneration'. I'm sure you will still gain enjoyment from reading it (and as I do like his novels I am inevitably biased), just accept it is an enjoyable if flawed piece of writing.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A superbly written rendition of a man's descent into creative (and perhaps inevitable)impotence, this is essentially a psychological study of an actual genius wrapped curiously within the guise of a novel.
To be read if you like acutely drawn out characterisation although - be warned - not a lot actually happens. Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott: Song of Pain and Beauty fills in the gap, yet makes this fictionalisation even more bizarre,
To be read if you like acutely drawn out characterisation although - be warned - not a lot actually happens. Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott: Song of Pain and Beauty fills in the gap, yet makes this fictionalisation even more bizarre,
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the first Edric book I have read, after it was widely reviewed in the press. My interest was primarily in seeing how Ivor Gurney would be fictionalised.
I found the book to be a relatively easy read, despite its sombre setting, the City of London asylum at Dartford, and the grief-stricken memories of the doctor who narrates it. Edric is obviously a great craftsman, and is someone I would read again.
But as a fictional study of Gurney (remember this is why I bought it!) I was bothered by many inaccuracies in his background story. His teacher Hubert Parry is mentioned twice, despite having died five years before the narrative. Vaughan Williams is 'Sir', something he never was - yes, I know this is piddling, but it is disappointing from a book that should have been researched relatively well. Gurney is not portrayed in a way that sits beyond what what was known about him in Michael Hurd's 1978 biography, which, though irresistible, is now outdated. One of the characters appears to be a condensation of two, yet is presented with a real person's name. That kind of thing is fine with a disclaimer (such as Pat Barker supplies in Regeneration) and I hope the paperback edition remedies this. Had the author distanced himself from the real story by changing all the character names, it would have worked better for this reader. Is Gurney's 'name' being used to sell the story, even if he bears little resemblance to what we know of the real man? The Gurney poem that gives the book its title is not authentic either . . . All that said, the book is far finer than the abberation called 'Gurney' that Jon Silkin wrote several years ago.
I found the book to be a relatively easy read, despite its sombre setting, the City of London asylum at Dartford, and the grief-stricken memories of the doctor who narrates it. Edric is obviously a great craftsman, and is someone I would read again.
But as a fictional study of Gurney (remember this is why I bought it!) I was bothered by many inaccuracies in his background story. His teacher Hubert Parry is mentioned twice, despite having died five years before the narrative. Vaughan Williams is 'Sir', something he never was - yes, I know this is piddling, but it is disappointing from a book that should have been researched relatively well. Gurney is not portrayed in a way that sits beyond what what was known about him in Michael Hurd's 1978 biography, which, though irresistible, is now outdated. One of the characters appears to be a condensation of two, yet is presented with a real person's name. That kind of thing is fine with a disclaimer (such as Pat Barker supplies in Regeneration) and I hope the paperback edition remedies this. Had the author distanced himself from the real story by changing all the character names, it would have worked better for this reader. Is Gurney's 'name' being used to sell the story, even if he bears little resemblance to what we know of the real man? The Gurney poem that gives the book its title is not authentic either . . . All that said, the book is far finer than the abberation called 'Gurney' that Jon Silkin wrote several years ago.
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