- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Picador; First Edition 2nd Impression edition (6 July 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330438352
- ISBN-13: 978-0330438353
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.6 x 4.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 581,814 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Self Help
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Engrossing ...Docx's story has a pleasing vitality, and the strands of it set in St Petersburg are particularly compelling. This is a solid novel. --Daily Telegraph
Edward Docx may well be remembered for creating the Anglo-Russian family Novel.... I was genuinely amazed by the detail of Docx's St Petersburg its streets, canals, yards and back-street life. He does not just provide a realistic description of the city, but also allows the reader to experience it, with all its beauty and cruelty, similar to the style of Dostoevsky. All of Docx's St. Petersburg characters are believable, as are Gabriel's friends and acquaintances. --The Financial Times Magazine
Not since What a Carve Up! has there been such an absorbing indictment of the family. --Independent on Sunday
Edward Docx may well be remembered for creating the Anglo-Russian family Novel.... I was genuinely amazed by the detail of Docx's St Petersburg its streets, canals, yards and back-street life. He does not just provide a realistic description of the city, but also allows the reader to experience it, with all its beauty and cruelty, similar to the style of Dostoevsky. All of Docx's St. Petersburg characters are believable, as are Gabriel's friends and acquaintances. --The Financial Times Magazine
Not since What a Carve Up! has there been such an absorbing indictment of the family. --Independent on Sunday
The Guardian
'Docx's ability to evoke the atmosphere of a city is almost
Dikensian...his talent for narrative is very fine indeed.'
Dikensian...his talent for narrative is very fine indeed.'
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
self help,
By
This review is from: Self Help (Hardcover)
If this is only Docx's second novel, he'll be winning awards in no time.
This is an engrossing novel about families which escapes the banality that often permeates such novels. The plot follows Gabriel and Isabella Glover, thirty two year-old twins, as they come to terms with their mother's death in Russia. Gabriel is based in London while Isabella lives in New York, and the sudden loss causes both to reassess their lives and relationships. Meanwhile, a talented Russian pianist has links to the Glovers. His life is a million miles from theirs. Docx thrillingly evokes the sleazy underbelly of the poverty-stricken in Russia, and the horrors of drug dependency, withdrawal and eking out a living in a criminal world are fascinatingly depicted. There are so many breathtakingly potent sections in this novel. Fear, anger, loyalty, hatred and love are all seared into the text, and some sections are white-knuckle inducing. Docx captures the conflicting emotions that family evokes. And the characters are rounded and believable, they have faults like real people, and their dialogue sparkles. The Booker should have gone to this or to Darkmans.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A total masterpiece,
By
This review is from: Self Help (Hardcover)
Self Help is a complex and engrossing novel.
A returned Soviet émigré, Maria Glover, is found dead in her St Petersburg flat by her son. He has flown out at short notice to answer her intriguing call of distress. In the aftermath of Maria's passing, the Glover family secrets and stories start to come to light. The tentacles of these stories stretch from St Petersburg to London, Paris and New York as Maria's family have flown the nest and made, generally, unsuccessful and unfulfilling lives for themselves. What makes Self Help is the level of intrigue in the stories - especially as Arkady, aided by English heroin addict Henry, tries to make contact with Maria's family. The novel is narrated from various perspectives, allowing characters to be the villain of the piece in one chapter and the focus of attention and sympathy in the next. The level of detail, too, is astounding. This creates a very real sense of place which, in four different cities, is no mean feat. By way of example, the detail we see of Gabriel's life - he is Maria's son - as he edits the Self-Help! magazine goes way beyond what is needed to carry the story along. Each of Gabe's staff gets a mention, along with their various issues and problems that make them totally unsuited to their work. And Arkady and Henry's dealings with the criminal underworld in St Petersburg ring very true indeed. The arch-baddie Leary is a comic creation of genius - his understanding of the psyche of the junkie is so true. As the novel meanders its slow but shimmering path to conclusion, the various strands get brought together in various unpredictable ways. There is the obligatory jaw dropping moment of shock - and it really is jaw-dropping, but without being clichéd. A couple of anachronisms apart, this is a total masterpiece. The language glows on the page, briefly, before the urge to turn the page kicks in. Top class.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quite excellent,
By Nick M-L (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Self Help (Hardcover)
This is an outstanding novel - highly recommended. Docx's writing style is in turn lyrical, affecting and funny.
This book aims high and succeeds, delivering a complex, emotionally involving plot set against an evocative portrayal of St Petersburg and a modern day, media-centric London. Looking forward to more from this talented author.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
