Shuttlecock
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Product Description
Product Description
A critically acclaimed novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Last Orders and Waterland.
Book Description
‘Serious, moving and often very funny indeed’ Observer Prentis, senior clerk in the ‘dead crimes’ department of police archives, is becoming more and more confused. Alienated from his wife and children, and obsessed by his father, a wartime hero now the mute inmate of a mental hospital, Prentis feels increasingly unsettled as his enigmatic boss, Mr Quinn, turns his investigation towards him – and his father. Gradually Prentis suspects that his father’s breakdown and Quinn’s menacing behaviour are connected and the link is to be found in his father’s memoirs, ‘Shuttlecock’ . . . ‘Excellent, profound’ Alan Hollinghurst, London Review of Books ‘An astonishing study of forms of guilt, laced with a thread of detection, and puckering now and then into outrageous humour’ Sunday Times ‘A superbly written claustrophobic account of power that corrupts private and public life and of guilt that becomes obsession’ Daily Telegraph ‘Swift’s central strength as a writer is his integrity. Story and character are treated with a seriousness and respect that while allowing for the oddity of human behaviour – Shuttlecock is thoroughly and beautifully odd – always honours them’ Times Literary Supplement
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a compelling psychological thriller, but a superb profile of the fragile mental state of its protagonist, Prentis, as he struggles to keep up with the responsibilities of his job and reconcile these with his home life. An interesting look at how easy it can be to lose one's sense of self in a modern culture whose moral and social values are constantly changing.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Swift is a very good writer, easy to read but deceptively intelligent, stylistically not unlike Graham Greene. The "Dead Crimes" department in which Prentis works is a metaphor for our subconscious memories or our guilty conscience, in which we hide all kind of truths away or make use of secrets to wield power or make judgements. Prentis undergoes a crisis of confidence during this book and abuses his power to become a tyrant in his own household. This may be due to his upbringing (eg the death of his hamster was kept a secret by his parents) and his dysfunctional relationship with his father, a former spy and war hero, to whom he feels inferior. As Prentis suspects and investigates possible corruption in his Dept he becomes increasingly paranoid. His attempt to get close to his father, now speechless and resident in a care home, causes friction between his son and himself in a comical parallel of his own youth. His insecurity and need to justify himself and live up to his father's reputation reach a climax when it is revealed that his father may have been traitor. At this critical point the book steps back from the abyss and resolves itself through Prentis's boss who reveals a secret that helps Prentis "escape" from his torturous spiral into insanity. I felt it was a bit of an anti-climax but the marvellous portrait of the delusional Prentis is very entertaining and the book has some profound insights and realistic character motivation. A convincing voice and an enjoyable tale with some very funny moments.
Format:Paperback
This is an odd book that begins conventionally enough but soon becomes two stories. The main one, set in the present (early 1980s), is about Prentis - husband, father, and senior clerk in a police department dealing with the archives of 'dead crimes'. The second story is extracts from his 'dead' father's Second World War memoirs ('Shuttlecock')and these two stories are batted two and fro, in a psychological drama, where Prentis tries to sort out his ambivalent relationship with his dad (now confined to a nursing home) and also his own family. It is a serious novel that has many moments that are both funny and poignant.
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