Sacrifices
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Product Description
Jem Poster, Guardian, 01 April 2006
A work which simultaneously conforms to the broad contours of classical tragedy and evokes recent events in British politics.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Katherine Hunt, Time Out
"it belongs very much to that category of Ian McEwan-esque contemporary novel"
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Christopher Hughes was the headmaster at a boys' public school. From the outside, he seemed like a respectable, if somewhat stuffy character doing his best for the school over which he presided. However, a secret hangs over his family that finally erupts into scandal.
Michael Fishwick's novel is a montage of stories about some of the characters who crossed paths with Hughes and their direct, or indirect, involvement in his downfall. Opening with Hughes' funeral, his daughter, Anna, reflects on her upbringing and her father's life, his aloofness and her mother's decline into melancholia.
Subsequent chapters follow other characters, sometimes with the author taking on the character's voice. This is most notable with Mrs Kobak, ex-matron of the school, dismissed for over fraternising with Anna. Here, Fishwick's prose is beautifully deployed, sometimes with long, glutinous sentences. Anna explains: "Her family had been Jewish refugees from Austria, and she still spoke with a thick accent." It's a chapter that reads like a monologue, packed with incidental detail, but with its character still haunted by the past.
Although the stories interlock with the novel's central theme, there is still some ambiguity regarding how much each character's life impinged on the headmaster's. Several times during the course of the novel, I had to ask myself how much relevance each story had to the overall narrative. By the novel's conclusion, many loose ends had been tied up. The author is highly skilled at teasing information out that, at first reading, doesn't necessarily strike you as meaningful, but slowly seeps into significance as the story progresses.
`Sacrifices' is not a long novel, but the writing is rich and intricately crafted. This is a novel that I believe would repay rereading, not just to glean more insight into these characters' lives, but also for the sheer enjoyment of reading Michael Fishlwick's superb prose.
Michael Fishwick's novel is a montage of stories about some of the characters who crossed paths with Hughes and their direct, or indirect, involvement in his downfall. Opening with Hughes' funeral, his daughter, Anna, reflects on her upbringing and her father's life, his aloofness and her mother's decline into melancholia.
Subsequent chapters follow other characters, sometimes with the author taking on the character's voice. This is most notable with Mrs Kobak, ex-matron of the school, dismissed for over fraternising with Anna. Here, Fishwick's prose is beautifully deployed, sometimes with long, glutinous sentences. Anna explains: "Her family had been Jewish refugees from Austria, and she still spoke with a thick accent." It's a chapter that reads like a monologue, packed with incidental detail, but with its character still haunted by the past.
Although the stories interlock with the novel's central theme, there is still some ambiguity regarding how much each character's life impinged on the headmaster's. Several times during the course of the novel, I had to ask myself how much relevance each story had to the overall narrative. By the novel's conclusion, many loose ends had been tied up. The author is highly skilled at teasing information out that, at first reading, doesn't necessarily strike you as meaningful, but slowly seeps into significance as the story progresses.
`Sacrifices' is not a long novel, but the writing is rich and intricately crafted. This is a novel that I believe would repay rereading, not just to glean more insight into these characters' lives, but also for the sheer enjoyment of reading Michael Fishlwick's superb prose.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
Top of the Class
9 Dec 2007
Format:Hardcover
Christopher Hughes was the headmaster at a boys' public school. From the outside, he seemed like a respectable, if somewhat stuffy character doing his best for the school over which he presided. However, a secret hangs over his family that finally erupts into scandal.
Michael Fishwick's novel is a montage of stories about some of the characters who crossed paths with Hughes and their direct, or indirect, involvement in his downfall. Opening with Hughes' funeral, his daughter, Anna, reflects on her upbringing and her father's life, his aloofness and her mother's decline into melancholia.
Subsequent chapters follow other characters, sometimes with the author taking on the character's voice. This is most notable with Mrs Kobak, ex-matron of the school, dismissed for over fraternizing with Anna. Here, Fishwick's prose is beautifully deployed, sometimes with long, glutinous sentences. Anna explains: "Her family had been Jewish refugees from Austria, and she still spoke with a thick accent." It's a chapter that reads like a monologue, packed with incidental detail, but with its character still haunted by the past.
Although the stories interlock with the novel's central theme, there is still some ambiguity regarding how much each character's life impinged on the headmaster's. Several times during the course of the novel, I had to ask myself how much relevance each story had to the overall narrative. By the novel's conclusion, many loose ends had been tied up. The author is highly skilled at teasing information out that, at first reading, doesn't necessarily strike you as meaningful, but slowly seeps into significance as the story progresses.
`Sacrifices' is not a long novel, but the writing is rich and intricately crafted. This is a novel that I believe would repay rereading, not just to glean more insight into these characters' lives, but also for the sheer enjoyment of reading Michael Fishlwick's superb prose.
Michael Fishwick's novel is a montage of stories about some of the characters who crossed paths with Hughes and their direct, or indirect, involvement in his downfall. Opening with Hughes' funeral, his daughter, Anna, reflects on her upbringing and her father's life, his aloofness and her mother's decline into melancholia.
Subsequent chapters follow other characters, sometimes with the author taking on the character's voice. This is most notable with Mrs Kobak, ex-matron of the school, dismissed for over fraternizing with Anna. Here, Fishwick's prose is beautifully deployed, sometimes with long, glutinous sentences. Anna explains: "Her family had been Jewish refugees from Austria, and she still spoke with a thick accent." It's a chapter that reads like a monologue, packed with incidental detail, but with its character still haunted by the past.
Although the stories interlock with the novel's central theme, there is still some ambiguity regarding how much each character's life impinged on the headmaster's. Several times during the course of the novel, I had to ask myself how much relevance each story had to the overall narrative. By the novel's conclusion, many loose ends had been tied up. The author is highly skilled at teasing information out that, at first reading, doesn't necessarily strike you as meaningful, but slowly seeps into significance as the story progresses.
`Sacrifices' is not a long novel, but the writing is rich and intricately crafted. This is a novel that I believe would repay rereading, not just to glean more insight into these characters' lives, but also for the sheer enjoyment of reading Michael Fishlwick's superb prose.
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