- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; New edition edition (5 April 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571195660
- ISBN-13: 978-0571195664
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 351,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Wide Open, Nicola Barker's fifth book and winner of the International Impac Dublin Literary Award 2000, has taken all the elements of her first book, Love Your Enemies, and made them into a shimmering, simmering heart-break story. Written seven years ago, when she was 27, Love Your Enemies' ten short stories were enticingly strange, full of ugly truths, askew beauty. The locations were unglamorous and the characters ordinary, and damaged by life. Barker's writing was full of humour, an acidic wit that stripped away all sentimentality, but left a sheen of sadness.
Wide Open is set on the Isle Of Sheppey, "a strange place, flat and empty like the moon." On the island is a nudist beach, a nature reserve, a wild boar farm and not much else. The landscape is bare, but the characters in are brim-full. There's Luke, who specialises in dot-to-dot pornography, and lippy Lily, just 17 and full of outrageous anger. Jim and Nathan end up on Sheppey too, as well as the mysterious figure of Ronnie who is "plain as a boiled sweet" but whose eyes are "deep, complex, dark ringed".
Each one is drifting in turbulent, emotional currents, fighting the rip tide of a past, bleak with secrets and fear. "Hell wasn't black after all. It was an endless, hollow, grey colour and it felt slippery. Nathan could find no finger holds. Even though his hands were still small. He was 8 years old and there was nothing to cling onto." As an adult Nathan works in a Lost Property department, an irony that is almost brutal in its compassion.
Wide Open lays bare the damage done, the awful connection between the characters, which stretches back to childhood. It is beautifully written, crisp, darkly funny and, for all its weighty themes, light as joy to read. --Eithne Farry
Product Description
A novel about stripping off layers of prejudice and lies, about the possibility of redemption, and laying bare the truth. It is also about coming to terms with the past, and about the fantasies people construct in order to protect their fragile inner selves.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
I almost want to give this book more crowns because Barker is such a gifted writer and her imagination is breath-taking, but I have never picked up a book before that I found so difficult to read. I tried so hard, I persevered right through until fifty pages from the end but then I gave up - one of those 'life's too short' moments. Maybe I'll try it again some other time, because there was so much that was good about this book, but I felt like a slithery fish reading it - every time Barker managed to hook me, the scenery would change and she'd lose me again.
If you like a more-than-challenging read, then this is the book for you.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
I had a little trouble initially getting into this book, but grew to love it with each passing page. The multiple, intertwining story-telling is cleverly handled.
The repeating imagery of things (life, true living) as "wide open" was brilliant. There were also bit so Steinbeck in here too... the attention to detail. And there is certainly Shakespearean identity twists all over the place.
I loved the book and will read much more of Barker. It's definitely not for everyone, though anyone with a zany sense of humor or for the bizarre will really like it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Finished Wide Open yesterday and am left, as with most Nicola Barkers, feeling as if I have woken from a deliciously entertaining dream packed with unlikely scenarios and surreal twists.
We start off by meeting Ronny, a bloke who drives on the motorway every day for three weeks and spots a lanky guy waving from a bridge overlooking the road. One day, Ronny stops to find out what the guy wants. And straight away, within the first couple of pages, we're plunged into weird Barker territory, rich with coincidences and inexplicable events. Because it turns out the guy on the bridge and Ronny have a close acquaintance in common. Furthermore, the bridge man is also called Ronny and a number of other strange similarities also come to light.
Just as you're left wondering 'hold on a minute', the novel moves on to Sheppey. The two Ronnies are now friends, the bridge bloke has persuaded the other one to change his name to the bridge bloke's original name, thus setting the contrived scene for a case of mistaken identity.
Also in Sheppey are various quirky individuals. There's Lily, an angry, nightmare adolescent and her mother Sara, a boar farmer. There's fat Luke who, despite his fishy scent and rolls of flab, exerts a strange sexual attractiveness. Then there's Nathan, a gentle soul from Lost Property in Baker Street tube station, who's linked to several of the other characters and Connie, an angelic optician trying to enable execution of her late father's will.
As with most Barkers, the story is hugely funny and unexpected. The weirdo characters are involved in plenty of strange plot twists and, as in most Barkers, the dialogue is hilarious in parts.
But the total sum of the book is less than its constituent parts. Although I kept reading avidly, I ended up with the familiar 'eh?' type feeling so many Barkers instill. The numerous coincidences require total suspension of disbelief and the ending is unexpectedly harrowing and bizarre. Bridge Ronny remains an elusive, mysterious person whose motivations are unclear - if he has a mental health problem it's nothing recognisable, and the traumatic ending belies the gentle quirkiness we're seduced into believing of him.
I'll continue to read Nicola Barker because she makes me laugh and her irreverent style is always refreshing. But she'll never emerge as one of my favourite novelists simply because there are too many loose ends in her books that she neglects to explain. It's as if her wackiness is an excuse to slip through vastly implausible facts. I like my reality to be realistic, and that means disappointment at Barker's trademark numerous incredible coincidences and reliance on elements of the supernatural.
****0
We start off by meeting Ronny, a bloke who drives on the motorway every day for three weeks and spots a lanky guy waving from a bridge overlooking the road. One day, Ronny stops to find out what the guy wants. And straight away, within the first couple of pages, we're plunged into weird Barker territory, rich with coincidences and inexplicable events. Because it turns out the guy on the bridge and Ronny have a close acquaintance in common. Furthermore, the bridge man is also called Ronny and a number of other strange similarities also come to light.
Just as you're left wondering 'hold on a minute', the novel moves on to Sheppey. The two Ronnies are now friends, the bridge bloke has persuaded the other one to change his name to the bridge bloke's original name, thus setting the contrived scene for a case of mistaken identity.
Also in Sheppey are various quirky individuals. There's Lily, an angry, nightmare adolescent and her mother Sara, a boar farmer. There's fat Luke who, despite his fishy scent and rolls of flab, exerts a strange sexual attractiveness. Then there's Nathan, a gentle soul from Lost Property in Baker Street tube station, who's linked to several of the other characters and Connie, an angelic optician trying to enable execution of her late father's will.
As with most Barkers, the story is hugely funny and unexpected. The weirdo characters are involved in plenty of strange plot twists and, as in most Barkers, the dialogue is hilarious in parts.
But the total sum of the book is less than its constituent parts. Although I kept reading avidly, I ended up with the familiar 'eh?' type feeling so many Barkers instill. The numerous coincidences require total suspension of disbelief and the ending is unexpectedly harrowing and bizarre. Bridge Ronny remains an elusive, mysterious person whose motivations are unclear - if he has a mental health problem it's nothing recognisable, and the traumatic ending belies the gentle quirkiness we're seduced into believing of him.
I'll continue to read Nicola Barker because she makes me laugh and her irreverent style is always refreshing. But she'll never emerge as one of my favourite novelists simply because there are too many loose ends in her books that she neglects to explain. It's as if her wackiness is an excuse to slip through vastly implausible facts. I like my reality to be realistic, and that means disappointment at Barker's trademark numerous incredible coincidences and reliance on elements of the supernatural.
****0
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A funny, very human book about a world where awful things happen
This is my favourite of this author's books and she one of my favourite authors. Nicola Barker writes these idiosyncratic characters so effortlessly and the way she slams their... Read more
Published 16 months ago by zernager
Confusing
I bought this book after I saw it recommended in a review. I have to say that I was disappointed. I found the plot extremely confusing and had continually to turn back to see who... Read more
Published on 13 May 2010 by D. Bowers
Highly original
Nicola Barker's third novel tells a strange tale set on the island of Sheppey and features wild boars, lost property, changing identities and a hunt for a mysterious ape. Read more
Published on 23 Feb 2010 by DDH255
Shellness Strangeness
If you're delighted to find (as I was) possibly the first novel ever to be set in Sheppey, you might still feel a bit short-changed by this book. Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2009 by Bob Ventos
deeply dark exploration into another world
Once started, I could not put it down. It is not a book where you can find comfort in identifying with any of the characters. Read more
Published on 19 May 2008 by R. E. Russnak
Excellent, clever, gripping. Best book I've ever read...
...And I've read a lot. I'm not easily pleased, but this book is absolutely brilliantly written. I can't believe Nicola Barker is not more well known. Read more
Published on 25 April 2006 by ladyp79
A cast of bizarre characters with emotional depth
I think I've just finished a different book to the other reviewers! In the very first sentence the author sets up such a bizarre sequence of events that you are compelled to carry... Read more
Published on 7 Aug 2002 by S. Humphreys
Writerly potential, horrible book
There is no doubt that Nicola Barker has a great way with words, and can construct sentences that whip and slither. However, such abilities do not a great book make. Read more
Published on 17 Jun 2001
A fascinating read
I took this book on holiday and, after reading the other reviews on this site, braced myself for a bumpy, difficult ride. Read more
Published on 31 Aug 2000
Disappointingly bland
I was hoping that this book would redeem itself with an unmasking showdown (owing to an addiction to Shakespeare) that I forced myself to finish it but was left feeling wholly... Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2000
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