- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (6 April 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099469618
- ISBN-13: 978-0099469612
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.6 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,106,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"* 'A blackly, bleakly comic novel...An enjoyable, original fable' Sunday Telegraph 'Casual-seeming but frighteningly perceptive.Palmer is a master of sly, deadpan narration.Not a word or detail seems misplaced' Times Literary Supplement 'Wry and vivid, this novel is a little gem' Good Book Guide 'Caustically comic' Daily Mail 'An absorbing symphonic novel. A delightful, enjoyable tale. William Palmer is a master craftsman' Literary Review 'Stylishly written and bitingly funny' Tablet"
Book Description
'William Palmer is a fine writer with a gift for narrative and a sharp eye for peering into the dark and dusty corners of the human psyche.' Louis de Bernieres
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The year is 1956, and on the outskirts of a village in Shropshire there is the India House, so called by the locals because the inhabitants had filled it with artefacts from the time they had been in India before that country's independence, after which they had returned to England. The inhabitants are Julia, aged nearly 18, her mother and her grandmother; also Julia's resident tutor, Mr Henry, because the mother and grandmother want to prevent her from being corrupted by the outside world, every aspect of which they hate and fear. Their eccentricities go so far that they do not have a telephone in the house, and they have Mr Henry go to the village each morning to buy The Times and present, at lunch-time, an extract of material thought suitable for the two older women, who are soaked in vicious right-wing, imperialist and racist prejudices. There were of course some people like that in 1956, nostalgic about the old days and intemperate in their condemnation of the modern world; but I feel the depiction of these two women are close to caricature - clever and witty caricature, and fun to read about, but lacking, I think, in credibility. Poor old downtrodden Mr Henry is also a bit of a caricature, but there are passages of real pathos about him which I found the best part of the book. Julia is kept on a very tight rein, forbidden to go outside the house, even into the village, without her mother's permission, which is always withheld. When the book opens, it appears that Julia had never experienced the slightest teenage rebellion, and it needs the visit of James, a handsome cousin of hers, to make her aware of how she has been imprisoned. The book is a very good read, but I think it strains credulity.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
Julia needs to be rescued
19 May 2006
Format:Hardcover
The year is 1956, and on the outskirts of a village in Shropshire there is the India House, so called by the locals because the inhabitants had filled it with artefacts from the time they had been in India before that country's independence, after which they had returned to England. The inhabitants are Julia, aged nearly 18, her mother and her grandmother; also Julia's resident tutor, Mr Henry, because the mother and grandmother want to prevent her from being corrupted by the outside world, every aspect of which they hate and fear. Their eccentricities go so far that they do not have a telephone in the house, and they have Mr Henry go to the village each morning to buy The Times and present, at lunch-time, an extract of material thought suitable for the two older women, who are soaked in vicious right-wing, imperialist and racist prejudices. There were of course some people like that in 1956, nostalgic about the old days and intemperate in their condemnation of the modern world; but I feel the depiction of these two women are close to caricature - clever and witty caricature, and fun to read about, but lacking, I think, in credibility. Poor old downtrodden Mr Henry is also a bit of a caricature, but there are passages of real pathos about him which I found the best part of the book. Julia is kept on a very tight rein, forbidden to go outside the house, even into the village, without her mother's permission, which is always withheld. When the book opens, it appears that Julia had never experienced the slightest teenage rebellion, and it needs the visit of James, a handsome cousin of hers, to make her aware of how she has been imprisoned. The book is a very good read, but I think it strains credulity.
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