By the winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2001, this is a witty and tender romance that demonstrates that sometimes, unexpectedly, there can be something better than perfection.
The Idea of Perfection
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'Grenville makes awkward atmospheres and fumbling encounters wonderfully vivid. Read it and cringe' The Times The Idea of Perfection is a funny and touching romance between two people who've given up on love. Set in the eccentric little backwater of Karakarook, New South Wales, pop. 1374, it tells the story of Douglas Cheeseman, a gawky engineer with jug-handle ears, and Harley Savage, a woman altogether too big and too abrupt for comfort. Harley is in Karakarook to foster 'Heritage', and Douglas is there to pull down the quaint old Bent Bridge. From day one, they're on a collison course. But out of this unpromising conjunction of opposites, something unexpected happens: sometimes even better than perfection. 'From these two reticent characters, besieged by two lifetimes of regret, doubt and dismay, Grenville manufactures an extraordinary comedy of manners, made all more powerful by her own reticence as a writer' Guardian 'Outrageously entertaining' Daily Mail 'Mined throughout with little pockets of danger and depth' Guardian 'A truly amazing writer' Rosie Boycott, chair of the Orange Prize jury
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First Sentence
IN HIS EX-WIFE'S clever decorating magazines Douglas Cheeseman had seen mattress ticking being amusing. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
IN HIS EX-WIFE'S clever decorating magazines Douglas Cheeseman had seen mattress ticking being amusing. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By MollfromOz
Format:Paperback
I thought that The Secret River was a brilliant book, as was Lilian's Story, but, for me, this is the Kate Grenville I shall remember the best.
It is such an Australian story, in that it nails small town Australia -the look, the feel, the smell, the sounds -perfectly. There are laughs a plenty in many of the small town scenes. I defy anyone reading about the buying of the bucket not to chortle out loud. The central story and theme is universal, but it is Kate Grenville's skilful depictionThe characters (and that includes the poor Bank Manager's wife) are so sympathetically drawn, and their inner turmoils are described with memorable humour and pathos. It really did make me laugh, and then the final chapters describing the love between the two central couples as they all came to terms with their own ideas of perfection moved me to tears.
It is such an Australian story, in that it nails small town Australia -the look, the feel, the smell, the sounds -perfectly. There are laughs a plenty in many of the small town scenes. I defy anyone reading about the buying of the bucket not to chortle out loud. The central story and theme is universal, but it is Kate Grenville's skilful depictionThe characters (and that includes the poor Bank Manager's wife) are so sympathetically drawn, and their inner turmoils are described with memorable humour and pathos. It really did make me laugh, and then the final chapters describing the love between the two central couples as they all came to terms with their own ideas of perfection moved me to tears.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book starts as languidly as the weather in NSW, and one can almost feel the heat coming out of the pages. The hurts and shattered dreams of two outsiders to a small town are delicately unfurled, and throughout there is a sense of how fragile human emotions are and how easy it is to pretend that life is safer alone, without intimacy. Yet how those yearnings never let us alone. A beautiful exploration of loss and hope.
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By "whatfruit"
Format:Paperback
This is a gorgeous book. The searing heat of Australia can be felt in every page and everything just moves slowly to accommodate it. The two main characters are beautifully drawn and the conclusion well-paced and exactly as you would want it to be. Better than perfection? Definitely!
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Just finished The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville which won the Orange Prize a few years ago (against stiff competition) and have to confess to being slightly puzzled by it. She writes deftly and Karakook, the small town in New South Wales where it is set, is very effectively evoked. The story is about Harley and Douglas two slightly stunted, frightened middle-aged people who find in eachother a tentative romance. This central relationship is powerfully delivered and genuinely moving, but a third of the book is given over to the affair taking place between the town's butcher and the bank manager's wife ... it goes nowhere, reveals nothing and is a very very odd distraction. Or so it seemed to me. The rest of the book is so well written that I feel it has to have been me failing to see the link: was it just an unhappy counterpoint? a comment on unhappiness behind the facade of a successful marriage? what??? it really bothered me though and I just kept thinking why is Grenville wasting words on this. Hmmm. I guess it is a testament to the book that I want to know what it is that I missed.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a deftly constructed piece and a pleasure to read. Grenville takes the time to illuminate her characters her characters and their environment so that as you read the book you are in a small country town in rural NSW Australia, you feel the heat and flies. You can smell the dust on the road and feel the relief of the shade. By the end of the book you know some of those small town 'characters' that so often lie flat on the page as cliches. The novel also works at a symbolic level with the juxtaposition of the Bank manager's wife to the main characters. And there is a scene where the protagonist swims in the river that is just wonderful and reminds me of the scene in the 'Piano' where the piano sinks in the ocean. I can see why this book won the Orange prize. This book is every bit as good as anything by Dawn Powell or Patrick Hamilton who also create wonderful character studies.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Cloggie Downunder
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
The Idea of Perfection is the fifth novel by Australian author, Kate Grenville. Set in the dying country town of Karakarook, NSW, pop.1374, the story revolves around the Bent Bridge: the Heritage mob (Karakarook Heritage Museum Committee) believes it can attract tourists; the Shire councillors want to tear this now-dangerous construction down. Enter divorcee Douglas Cheeseman, engineer from the Lands Office, in town to tear down the old bridge and start construction of the replacement. A self-confessed bridge bore who suffers from fear of heights, he can see a way to save the old bridge but lacks the guts to do anything about it. The other newcomer in town is Harley Savage, Consultant (Part-time) to the Curator (Textiles) at the Sydney Museum of Applied Arts, here to help establish the Karakarook Heritage Museum on a grant from the Cultural Affairs Board. Descended from famous artists, Harley, who has gone through three husbands, considers herself a danger to anyone who gets too close; she is big and clumsy, and lacks creativity, except when it comes to quilts. Felicity, neurotic wife of Hugh Porcelline, manager of the Karakarook branch of the Land & Pastoral Bank, believes that the local butcher, Alfred Chang, is in love with her. How their lives intersect is made into a mesmerising story by this talented novelist. Grenville's descriptions bring her characters vividly to life and she conveys the feel of the country town and "the bush" so well, the reader almost feels the heat and the flies. City dwellers Harley and Douglas find this town different: "But out here, she could see people went by different rules. You did not just pick out the best bits of life. You took the whole lot, the good and the bad. You forgave people for being who they were, and you hoped they would be able to forgive you.... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
You only get what you pay for..
I have enjoyed reading Kate Grenville before and was delighted to be able to get one of her novels on my kindle for such a bargain price.(£1!) However I was disappointed. Read more
Published 9 months ago by M. Hargreaves
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Disappointment
After reading "The River", which I loved and was saddened to have it end, a brilliant book, I eagerly snatched up this one and was very disappointed. Read more
Published on 16 July 2009 by J. E. Swenson
4.0 out of 5 stars
A cleverly crafted comedy of social behaviour
This novel was for me an introduction to the writing of Australian writer Kate Grenville. It was passed on to me by an Australian Bookcrossing friend, while she was visiting Italy... Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2009 by LindyLouMac
4.0 out of 5 stars
funny and sweet and oh so human
The reviewer who was bored with this book made me chuckle because she is, at least in part, right! There is no plot to speak of, and not a lot happens! Read more
Published on 20 April 2007 by H. Ashford
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Idea of Perfection
Well, The Idea of Perfection, which won The Orange Prize in 2001, WAS a surprise. Having read Grenville's Booker 2006 shortlisted The Secret River a few weeks ago, I picked this up... Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2007 by Leyla Sanai
1.0 out of 5 stars
Oh dear....
*yawn* ooops...sorry, just finishing what has got to be the most boring book ever written. Kate Grenville's 'Idea of Perfection' is well written - unless you count the non-existant... Read more
Published on 8 Oct 2006 by Laura K
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Idea of Perfection
This is brilliantly written and will make you smile. The characterisation is vivid, and you can't help liking and feeling empathy for the two main protagonists. Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2006 by S. V. Rhodes
4.0 out of 5 stars
Made me laugh!
I loved this book. It's about some sad losers in a sad small town in the middle of nowhere and not much happens, but there was something delicious and so very, very funny... Read more
Published on 16 Mar 2006 by Suzanne Collett
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb!
I thought this book was superb. Coming from a small town myself I could actually feel and visualise the atmosphere of the place. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2003
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