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Product Description
Review
‘Sharp and funny…a beautifully polished performance.’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Sex, politics and death are the classic themes of Hensher's original novel. Set in Parliament at the time of the fall of Margaret Thatcher, it follows the disintegration of the family of a Commons clerk…Hensher is both sharp and melancholic. Here he is on Thatcher: “When she walked she seemed to extinguish a cigarette beneath every pace; in her walk, it could be seen that she was in the right.”’ Observer
‘Incisive characterisation, first-class dialogue…Set amid the wigs and gowns of parliamentary officialdom, Philip Hensher’s second novel exposes the hidden tensions in apparently banal lives.’ Sunday Telegraph
Product Description
Winner of a Somerset Maugham Award 1997
A stunning novel of political life, betrayal and passion, which lifts the lid on vice within the Palace of Westminster…and cost Hensher his job as a House of Commons clerk.
John is a distinguished widower with a hump, two daughters, and an important job in the House of Commons. He also has a fondness for visiting rent boys in the afternoons, and a passion for secrecy…
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this book. It's sort of a precursor to "Line of Beauty," a portrait of the rot at the heart of the Thatcher years. Hensher is a master at structure and characterization. And his command of language was, for me, a joy in itself. He sketches his characters lightly, not filling in too much in the way of detail and back story, but that's part of the magic of this book.
It's also a fascinating look at the House. I'm American so this was very educational for me. Having said that, I do pose the caveat that this book isn't for everyone, and the House of Commons parts can be confusing. I recommended it to two friends, one American and one American: the British friend had mixed feelings and the American couldn't finish it.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I work in the Clerk's Department of the House of Commons, so was intrigued to read this. Apparently the book contains various thinly veiled portraits of Hensher's former colleagues - I think I recognised one or two. Hensher was long gone by the time I arrived but his name is still referred to around the Department with a sort of appalled admiration.
I found the book compulsively readable and beautifully written. It captures perfectly the claustrophobic, secret world of the House of Commons, the strangeness of the place and the people who work there. Hensher's prose is both grand and casual. None of the characters are very pleasant. Although set in 1990 against the backdrop of Thatcher's downfall, the world portrayed has a timelessness. These things combine to give Kitchen Venom a peculiarly aloof quality. Some of the passages about the arcane procedures of the Clerk's Department are likely to be incomprehensible to those who don't work there but they add to the cold oddness of the book, as do the occasional sprinklings of magical realism - such as when Jane, for luck, throws an egg into the air from the roof of the House of Commons and it doesn't fall down. Altogether, this is an unusual, haunting novel.
I found the book compulsively readable and beautifully written. It captures perfectly the claustrophobic, secret world of the House of Commons, the strangeness of the place and the people who work there. Hensher's prose is both grand and casual. None of the characters are very pleasant. Although set in 1990 against the backdrop of Thatcher's downfall, the world portrayed has a timelessness. These things combine to give Kitchen Venom a peculiarly aloof quality. Some of the passages about the arcane procedures of the Clerk's Department are likely to be incomprehensible to those who don't work there but they add to the cold oddness of the book, as do the occasional sprinklings of magical realism - such as when Jane, for luck, throws an egg into the air from the roof of the House of Commons and it doesn't fall down. Altogether, this is an unusual, haunting novel.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
John is an official writer in the House of Commons. One day he kills his improbably sweet-natured and beautiful Italian rent-boy lover - and there seems to be not the slightest reason why he should. He's not being threatened, they don't indulge in sado-masochism, yet the deed is done.
I found this book rather soulless with all the characters strangely low on human motivation. Sexless too, despite their hetero or homo proclivities, and devoid of feeling for one another. That this takes place mostly (except the sex of course) within the confines of that lunatic place the House of Commons, might explain something. John and his colleagues are called Clerks, but are actually quite high-grade recording officials who write up the decisions of the House each day. They are not shorthand writers - that work is for the women who put together Hansard. Who said what is not the thing - it's the decisions made that concern them. They all seem surprisingly apolitical - the Prime Minister is just a title.
This novel takes place in the late days of Thatcher, however, so there is a residual interest in her ominous presence, which makes itself felt through a litter of passages where she worries about or doesn't worry about the colour of her outfit. Little moments of schadenfreude come along, such as that moment on the steps at Maastricht when she said her fight would continue - all of this portrayed in very few apposite and trenchant words.
But all-in-all this is a distasteful book. One simply doesn't care what happens to these people, who don't care about each other, or even much about themselves. That said, the writing is very good indeed. Why did Hensher write this book? Just because he could? Maybe it was just an episode of his life he felt he had to get out of the way?
I found this book rather soulless with all the characters strangely low on human motivation. Sexless too, despite their hetero or homo proclivities, and devoid of feeling for one another. That this takes place mostly (except the sex of course) within the confines of that lunatic place the House of Commons, might explain something. John and his colleagues are called Clerks, but are actually quite high-grade recording officials who write up the decisions of the House each day. They are not shorthand writers - that work is for the women who put together Hansard. Who said what is not the thing - it's the decisions made that concern them. They all seem surprisingly apolitical - the Prime Minister is just a title.
This novel takes place in the late days of Thatcher, however, so there is a residual interest in her ominous presence, which makes itself felt through a litter of passages where she worries about or doesn't worry about the colour of her outfit. Little moments of schadenfreude come along, such as that moment on the steps at Maastricht when she said her fight would continue - all of this portrayed in very few apposite and trenchant words.
But all-in-all this is a distasteful book. One simply doesn't care what happens to these people, who don't care about each other, or even much about themselves. That said, the writing is very good indeed. Why did Hensher write this book? Just because he could? Maybe it was just an episode of his life he felt he had to get out of the way?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Stirring up apathy
Quite the dullest and least engaging novel I have ever read. To paraphrase Chamberlain "far way people about whom we care little". Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2008 by Dipsophile
Love, death and betrayal at the heart of Westminster
This disturbing fiction intrigues the reader with an account of the events surrounding the resignation of Prime Minsiter Thatcher in 1990. Read more
Published on 26 Feb 1999
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