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Kitchen Venom
 
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Kitchen Venom (Paperback)

by Philip Hensher (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Hardcover (First Edition) 13 used & new from £0.59
Paperback (New edition) 20 used & new from £0.01

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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo; New Ed edition (19 May 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007152426
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007152421
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.6 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 439,310 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #14 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > H > Hensher, Philip

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Product Description

Synopsis
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. 'At the centre of this book is John, 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...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

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Coldly brilliant, 21 Dec 2007
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.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Unputdownable, 25 Mar 2006
By A Customer
This review is from: Kitchen Venom (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.

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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Stirring up apathy, 24 Sep 2008
Quite the dullest and least engaging novel I have ever read. To paraphrase Chamberlain "far way people about whom we care little".

A previous reviewer has referred to the cool, aloof nature of this book and to the somewhat arcane world of the HOC clerks. Some people may find it all fascinating. This reviewer found the style and the subject matter tiresome.

I should add that I have been a customer of Amazon more or less since it started in the UK and this is the first time I have felt (de)motivated enough to post a review
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars 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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