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Review
'It is as a last excursion into a unique fictional terrain that this spirited, spiky and vividly personal book most irresistibly appeals' --Peter Kemp, SUNDAY TIMES
'An engaging, quirky novel, shot through with dry humour, and a showcase for the qualities for which Bainbridge will be rememebered: an unerring sense of period and a probing psychological intelligence' --Max Davidson, MAIL ON SUNDAY
'A tour de force, well able to take its place alongside two other books that I judge to be her masterpieces, AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE and MASTER GEORGIE' --Mark Bostridge, FINANCIAL TIMES
'The atmosphere of Bainbridge's early books returns in this last novel . . . The unease is extensive, it comes out, mingled brilliantly with light, Chekhovian comedy' --Derwent May, THE TIMES
'A superb and memorable work of fiction'
--Melvyn Bragg, OBSERVER
'An engaging, quirky novel, shot through with dry humour, and a showcase for the qualities for which Bainbridge will be rememebered: an unerring sense of period and a probing psychological intelligence' --Max Davidson, MAIL ON SUNDAY
'A tour de force, well able to take its place alongside two other books that I judge to be her masterpieces, AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE and MASTER GEORGIE' --Mark Bostridge, FINANCIAL TIMES
'The atmosphere of Bainbridge's early books returns in this last novel . . . The unease is extensive, it comes out, mingled brilliantly with light, Chekhovian comedy' --Derwent May, THE TIMES
'A superb and memorable work of fiction'
--Melvyn Bragg, OBSERVER
Product Description
In the rainswept summer of 1968, Rose sets off for the United States from Kentish Town to meet a man she knows as Washington Harold, in her suitcase a polka-dot dress and a one-way ticket. In a country rocked by the assassination of Martin Luther King and a rising groundswell of violence, they are to join forces in search of the charismatic and elusive Dr Wheeler - oracle, guru and redeemer - whom Rose credits with rescuing her from a terrible childhood, and against whom Harold nurses a silent grudge. As they trail their quarry, zigzagging through America in a camper van, the odd couple - Rose, damaged child of grey postwar Britain, and nervous, obsessive, driven Harold - encounter a ragged counter-cultural army of Wheeler's acolytes, eddying among dangerous currents of obscure dissent and rage. But somewhere in the wide American darkness, Dr Wheeler is waiting.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The Girl in the Polka-Dot Dress is undoubtedly vintage Beryl Bainbridge. The story follows Rose and a man known as Washington Harold across America at a time of political turmoil. An odd couple, to say the least, Rose and Harold are drawn together in pursuit of the enigmatic Dr Wheeler; to Rose, he is a saviour figure who, it seems, saved her from her distinctly unpromising early years; for Harold, there is an altogether more sinister aim in finding Wheeler, involving his deceased wife and the possession of a gun. Rose is a classic Bainbridge heroine, harking back to the author's semi-autobiographical early novels. She can be naive yet gauche, full of wisdom yet unutterably bewildered by the simplest things and recounts half-told tales of a violent childhood, sexual misedemeanours and odd encounters that intrigue, baffle and ultimately infuriate her travelling companion. They travel uncomfortably across America, a seemingly odd choice of setting for Bainbridge, but their journey is packed with incident and populated by memorable characters along the way as the increasngly desperate Rose and Harold close in on Wheeler in Los Angeles.
The ending may not be completely finished as the author would have intended, but this does not matter. Bainbridge specialised in ambiguities and, of course, many of her novels told stories where the ending was already known, as, indeeed, does this. What you are left with is a beautifully written but utterly idiosyncratic novel that reminds you how much Beryl Bainbridge will be missed.
The ending may not be completely finished as the author would have intended, but this does not matter. Bainbridge specialised in ambiguities and, of course, many of her novels told stories where the ending was already known, as, indeeed, does this. What you are left with is a beautifully written but utterly idiosyncratic novel that reminds you how much Beryl Bainbridge will be missed.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Beryl Bainbridge has been one of my favourite authors for many years, so it was with some sadness that I read this, her last work. Although not completely finished, it just shows how brilliant an author she was, to create something so wonderful even when she was so ill.
When the book begins, Rose has just arrived in the US from England. She meets Washington Harold, a man she does not know well, but with whom she has a common interest. They are both searching for Dr Wheeler, although for very different reasons, which are difficult to explain without giving away the plot. Suffice it to say that Harold needs Rose, but they make an uncomfortable pair. Rose thinks Harold, "a soul immersed in darkness" and Harold finds Rose immature, annoying and unhygienic. Their misunderstanding intensifies as they drive from place to place, chasing the elusive Dr Wheeler, who is on the Robert Kennedy campaign trail.
During their travels, Rose and Harold go through different stages in their relationship. They are both reliant on each other and yet distrustful; at times disgusted and filled with hate or annoyance, at other times they try to be kind or comforting. Rose keeps up a constant chatter about her past and her relationships with everyone. There are references to the assassination of Martin Luther King, race riots, the Kennedys and a whole array of people that Harold and Rose meet along the way. It sometimes seems that everyone knows what is going on, or who suspect Harold's motives, apart from Rose. The surreal encounters on the road trip leave Harold and Rose more and more at cross purposes.
If you have not read Bainbridge before, this may not be the best novel to begin with, simply because she was not able to finish it as she would have wished. However, even with that, it is an excellent read and the characters are brilliantly written.
When the book begins, Rose has just arrived in the US from England. She meets Washington Harold, a man she does not know well, but with whom she has a common interest. They are both searching for Dr Wheeler, although for very different reasons, which are difficult to explain without giving away the plot. Suffice it to say that Harold needs Rose, but they make an uncomfortable pair. Rose thinks Harold, "a soul immersed in darkness" and Harold finds Rose immature, annoying and unhygienic. Their misunderstanding intensifies as they drive from place to place, chasing the elusive Dr Wheeler, who is on the Robert Kennedy campaign trail.
During their travels, Rose and Harold go through different stages in their relationship. They are both reliant on each other and yet distrustful; at times disgusted and filled with hate or annoyance, at other times they try to be kind or comforting. Rose keeps up a constant chatter about her past and her relationships with everyone. There are references to the assassination of Martin Luther King, race riots, the Kennedys and a whole array of people that Harold and Rose meet along the way. It sometimes seems that everyone knows what is going on, or who suspect Harold's motives, apart from Rose. The surreal encounters on the road trip leave Harold and Rose more and more at cross purposes.
If you have not read Bainbridge before, this may not be the best novel to begin with, simply because she was not able to finish it as she would have wished. However, even with that, it is an excellent read and the characters are brilliantly written.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress was the book that Beryl Bainbridge was in the process of writing at the time of her death in July 2010. Published posthumously, without any additional material added, the novel does seem to be largely complete, even if it ends somewhat abruptly and does have something of an unfinished feel to it. There are however a number of elements in the book and some intriguing characterisation that do come together to certainly warrant the publication of the author's final work.
Although not approached directly, the question of parental neglect, abuse and childhood suffering comes up a lot in The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress, particularly in relation to the consequences it has on people in later life. It's certainly features in the past of the two main characters, an American known as Washington Harold and a thirty-year old English woman called Rose, an unlikely couple who team-up together for a trip across the USA - from Baltimore to Chicago and ultimately down to Los Angeles - on the trail of the elusive Dr. Wheeler, a man who features significantly in both their pasts.
What is intriguing about the trip across the USA is that it is set in the summer of 1968, during a significant period in American history. The assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King are still fresh in the mind of a nation that is torn between the past and an uncertain modern world, with firmly held beliefs and strong divisions among them. As Rose and Harold make their road trip across the country, the nature of this uncertainty is reflected in the nature of the people they encounter and in a series of strange violent events that they find themselves witness to and caught up in. Moving towards personal goals of their own, impelled by events in their own pasts, one inevitably wonders about the events and the "childhood" trauma that has placed America in such a volatile position.
Inspired by a real-life incident that only really becomes clear by the time you get to come towards the end of the book (for which reason I won't mention it here), the implications are all there, if frustratingly not fully explored in the unfinished work. There is enough here however for the reader to draw their own conclusions and speculate on how the book might have been completed (there is little to indicate what stage of the writing of the book was at, but it seems to me to be about a 100 pages short). None of this however takes away from the intriguing story that Bainbridge has detailed and seen nearly through to its conclusion, but perhaps just gives it an even more mysterious and ambiguous edge.
Although not approached directly, the question of parental neglect, abuse and childhood suffering comes up a lot in The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress, particularly in relation to the consequences it has on people in later life. It's certainly features in the past of the two main characters, an American known as Washington Harold and a thirty-year old English woman called Rose, an unlikely couple who team-up together for a trip across the USA - from Baltimore to Chicago and ultimately down to Los Angeles - on the trail of the elusive Dr. Wheeler, a man who features significantly in both their pasts.
What is intriguing about the trip across the USA is that it is set in the summer of 1968, during a significant period in American history. The assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King are still fresh in the mind of a nation that is torn between the past and an uncertain modern world, with firmly held beliefs and strong divisions among them. As Rose and Harold make their road trip across the country, the nature of this uncertainty is reflected in the nature of the people they encounter and in a series of strange violent events that they find themselves witness to and caught up in. Moving towards personal goals of their own, impelled by events in their own pasts, one inevitably wonders about the events and the "childhood" trauma that has placed America in such a volatile position.
Inspired by a real-life incident that only really becomes clear by the time you get to come towards the end of the book (for which reason I won't mention it here), the implications are all there, if frustratingly not fully explored in the unfinished work. There is enough here however for the reader to draw their own conclusions and speculate on how the book might have been completed (there is little to indicate what stage of the writing of the book was at, but it seems to me to be about a 100 pages short). None of this however takes away from the intriguing story that Bainbridge has detailed and seen nearly through to its conclusion, but perhaps just gives it an even more mysterious and ambiguous edge.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A book without an end leads to disappointment
I have to say that when I read such positive reviews of this book, I was extremely excited to say the least. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sarah J
An enjoyable novel with compelling protagonists
It's 1968 and Rose and Harold are on a road trip across the States in search of the elusive Dr Wheeler, who has been both a friend of Harold's and a father figure for Rose back in... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Eleanor
"Unless one accepted that suffering was the direct and immediate...
When she died in July, 2010, Beryl Bainbridge, Dame Commander of the British Empire, had been working for the preceding six months on this novel, The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mary Whipple
Waste of valuable reading time
Not my cup of tea as very boring and read until the end but disappointed. Reviews I had read built this book up to something it did not fulfill.
Published 10 months ago by Mrs. S. L. Barber
This is total TOSH...
...and if this is representative of BB's other works, well at least I have only wasted one day of my life. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Ginola14
Beryl Bainbridge's parting gift to her readers.
There is a northerness to Bainbridge's writing which I love. Even though this is unfinished it is still alot greater than some of the 'great' new novels that are touted at the... Read more
Published 12 months ago by lovemurakami
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