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Review
'A disturbing love affair that will stick in the mind long after it's been recounted' --Daily Mail
'The obvious comparison is to Ian McEwan's 'The Cement Garde'... this is a beautiful book' --Observer
'The obvious comparison is to Ian McEwan's 'The Cement Garde'... this is a beautiful book' --Observer
Book Description
A transgressive love story by a singular new voice
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a disturbing short novel. The obsession a very young girl has with her errant and absent father, and her unhappiness much later when an intelligent teenager living in a dysfunctional family, make her determined to track him down. Without any idea of who she might be, and perhaps a with a touch of self-deception, he allows this now very attractive youngster to seduce him into a relationship of a more intimate nature than would normally be expected between and older man and a schoolgirl.
The story set in the early 1970's in the general area of Clapham at first and extending to Chelsea. Told in the first person, the story is tightly written. Heroine Susanna has a gift for description of both people and places and an eye for the failings of others. This created a bit of ambivalence in this reader, as such clarity of vision is not an appealing trait. She is also manipulative and not particularly truthful. But her story if believable and in the context of fiction I assume we are expected to accept it as "true". I note that on the back cover it is described as "a fever dream that examines our need to be loved and accepted and a piercing portrait of madness." I shall leave the clever literary analysts to debate that point.
So it is very much to the author's credit, as well as being necessary to maintaining an interest, that the reader can care about the heroine, even while being relieved that the chance of meeting anyone like her is nil!
I enjoyed the little details of the times. Does anyone else remember kunzle cakes? The cover appears to suggest that the book will appeal primarily to young female readers. Not being in either category I can only guess! It is certainly worth reading, uncompromising, and pessimistic to the end.
The story set in the early 1970's in the general area of Clapham at first and extending to Chelsea. Told in the first person, the story is tightly written. Heroine Susanna has a gift for description of both people and places and an eye for the failings of others. This created a bit of ambivalence in this reader, as such clarity of vision is not an appealing trait. She is also manipulative and not particularly truthful. But her story if believable and in the context of fiction I assume we are expected to accept it as "true". I note that on the back cover it is described as "a fever dream that examines our need to be loved and accepted and a piercing portrait of madness." I shall leave the clever literary analysts to debate that point.
So it is very much to the author's credit, as well as being necessary to maintaining an interest, that the reader can care about the heroine, even while being relieved that the chance of meeting anyone like her is nil!
I enjoyed the little details of the times. Does anyone else remember kunzle cakes? The cover appears to suggest that the book will appeal primarily to young female readers. Not being in either category I can only guess! It is certainly worth reading, uncompromising, and pessimistic to the end.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Susanna, the main protagonist of `Repeat It Today With Tears', is a rather quiet and subdued young woman. Growing up with an overbearing mother, rebellious sister who her grandmother much prefers and lets her know as much, the one thing missing from her life is her father who we learn left when Susanna was very young. What starts off as general inquisitiveness soon becomes an obsession that leads to a rather dark opening of the book from the first line. "The first time I kissed my father on the mouth it was the Easter holiday." From the very start we know we are in rather unchartered territory and from here on Anne Peile takes us on a rather a dark journey of Susanna from that point, whilst also taking us through her past.
I am sure many people will be put off the book, as I admit I was a little, from the subject this book brings up.
Yet I have to say Anne Peile writes fantastically and really gets into the mindset of her leading character. In many ways it makes the story all the darker that a girl who you start of thinking is rather innocent and lost becomes more and more deceitful and manipulative as the book goes on, for her father has no clue that the woman he is having an affair with, behind his wife Olive's back, is his own flesh and blood. You know from the very start of the book this is dark territory and as the book goes on things get worse and worse.
Despite its generally dark tone there is, interestingly enough, also great humour in this book. The people that Susanna meets once she starts to work in 1970's Chelsea are a mixed bunch of `free loving' spirits, and the women in her home territory of Clapham and the gossip and foul mouthed tittle-tattle they come out with is hilarious. It nicely adds a sense of place and atmosphere in the book, whilst breaking up the darkness with some light and often saucy relief.
`Repeat It Today With Tears' is a dark and tightly woven `coming of age' tale with a huge twist and one that could lose it some of the audience that I think it deserves. It's also a very hard book to write about because its short and not knowing what's coming makes the pay off all the greater. It's not always comfortable, it gets pretty bleak, and yet it's written in such a way that you find yourself turning the pages, often despite yourself, up until the final word. It's a very accomplished debut novel that I would recommend people give a try, just brace yourself a little first.
I am sure many people will be put off the book, as I admit I was a little, from the subject this book brings up.
Yet I have to say Anne Peile writes fantastically and really gets into the mindset of her leading character. In many ways it makes the story all the darker that a girl who you start of thinking is rather innocent and lost becomes more and more deceitful and manipulative as the book goes on, for her father has no clue that the woman he is having an affair with, behind his wife Olive's back, is his own flesh and blood. You know from the very start of the book this is dark territory and as the book goes on things get worse and worse.
Despite its generally dark tone there is, interestingly enough, also great humour in this book. The people that Susanna meets once she starts to work in 1970's Chelsea are a mixed bunch of `free loving' spirits, and the women in her home territory of Clapham and the gossip and foul mouthed tittle-tattle they come out with is hilarious. It nicely adds a sense of place and atmosphere in the book, whilst breaking up the darkness with some light and often saucy relief.
`Repeat It Today With Tears' is a dark and tightly woven `coming of age' tale with a huge twist and one that could lose it some of the audience that I think it deserves. It's also a very hard book to write about because its short and not knowing what's coming makes the pay off all the greater. It's not always comfortable, it gets pretty bleak, and yet it's written in such a way that you find yourself turning the pages, often despite yourself, up until the final word. It's a very accomplished debut novel that I would recommend people give a try, just brace yourself a little first.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Not an easy subject to tackle, I wasn't even sure that I wanted to read it but am so glad that I did.
Susie seeks out the father she never knew and leads him into a sexual relationship without him knowing her true identity.
So much about this book could have gone so wrong but rather than being voyeuristic and sleezy , it was a disturbing and uncomfortable read yet also incredibly touching and poignant.
Whilst admittedly there is a lot of sexual activity it very much takes second place to Susie's desperate need to be loved and taken care of.
Very well drawn sypathetic characters, the author lets us understand them rather than demonise them as they enter their clearly doomed relationship. A very brave debut.
Susie seeks out the father she never knew and leads him into a sexual relationship without him knowing her true identity.
So much about this book could have gone so wrong but rather than being voyeuristic and sleezy , it was a disturbing and uncomfortable read yet also incredibly touching and poignant.
Whilst admittedly there is a lot of sexual activity it very much takes second place to Susie's desperate need to be loved and taken care of.
Very well drawn sypathetic characters, the author lets us understand them rather than demonise them as they enter their clearly doomed relationship. A very brave debut.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not about a Love Affair at all
This is not a book about a Love Affair : it is a book about Mental Illness , and this is not only because of the second part set in Tooting Bec : to seek out and seduce a lost... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Abercrumble
Extraordinary, powerful book
I believed every word of this book, despite the strange events and obsession that unfolds. Written with a restrained elegance it both moved and disturbed me. Read more
Published 10 months ago by marmaladereader
Most thought provoking
I can see why this disquietingly strange and beautiful book is being compared to Lolita, here the gender and age of the obsessive are reversed and it is the adolescent girl who... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Sharon jeens
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