Worth
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Product Description
Review
Julie Myerson's summer reading choice: "it's set in my favourite place (Suffolk) and I opened it at random, read a page and laughed"--The Daily Telegraph
"As an advertisement for either urban or rural living among self-satisfied characters, Worth is a toe-curling horror story; as a cheeky and well-directed poke in said characters' eyes, it's a winner."--Independent on Sunday
"Powered by Jon Canter's sharp and original wit and his constantly fizzing prose, Worth sets off at a lick and keeps up the pace. An acute and very funny novel about the perils of rural life and of falling a little bit in love with your next-door neighbour ... the vignettes of village life are good, and the difficulty of relationships is deftly underscored."--Daily Mail
"A darkly comic read that's perfect for anyone considering chucking in city life and starting afresh."--Sport Magazine
"Canter is a sympathetic writer and one with a keen eye and ear for the absurd. There are sentences on almost every page which raise a smile."--The Scotsman
"With shades of Mike Leigh's Another Year, it's a consistently funny skewering of middle-class clichés with memorable characters and a dark twist."--The Shortlist
"The author's comic take on the gap between his characters' aspirations and their shortfall makes for hilarious, snappy reading... A sermon on the perils of the rural dream, it will have estate agents blanching. But as a robust and sharp piece of fiction, it is smart, confident and, in places, eye wateringly upfront."--Elizabeth Buchan, The Sunday Times
"As an advertisement for either urban or rural living among self-satisfied characters, Worth is a toe-curling horror story; as a cheeky and well-directed poke in said characters' eyes, it's a winner."--Independent on Sunday
"Powered by Jon Canter's sharp and original wit and his constantly fizzing prose, Worth sets off at a lick and keeps up the pace. An acute and very funny novel about the perils of rural life and of falling a little bit in love with your next-door neighbour ... the vignettes of village life are good, and the difficulty of relationships is deftly underscored."--Daily Mail
"A darkly comic read that's perfect for anyone considering chucking in city life and starting afresh."--Sport Magazine
"Canter is a sympathetic writer and one with a keen eye and ear for the absurd. There are sentences on almost every page which raise a smile."--The Scotsman
"With shades of Mike Leigh's Another Year, it's a consistently funny skewering of middle-class clichés with memorable characters and a dark twist."--The Shortlist
"The author's comic take on the gap between his characters' aspirations and their shortfall makes for hilarious, snappy reading... A sermon on the perils of the rural dream, it will have estate agents blanching. But as a robust and sharp piece of fiction, it is smart, confident and, in places, eye wateringly upfront."--Elizabeth Buchan, The Sunday Times
Book Description
Worth is a fast-paced, touching and hilarious novel about the perils of loving your neighbour.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Richard, our main protagonist, works in advertising and his boss doesn't appreciate him; he lives in London with Renate, a dreadful, domineering woman who runs his life for him and she doesn't appreciate him either. Richard is unhappy and unfulfilled; but then he meets Sarah at an art gallery and they fall in love with each other and decide to make a new start.
For their fresh, new start they leave London and relocate to Hay Cottage, in Worth, Suffolk. Richard gives up his job in advertising to become a free-lance illustrator and Sarah resigns from her job as a lawyer to work for a charity for homeless people. They make friends with village stalwarts, Keith and Margaret, who are so entirely different from them that you know the friendship will falter, as indeed it does over an amusing meal of beetroot pasta: "Even though he [Keith] knew pasta was coming, it surprised him... He peered inside his pasta in the hope of seeing breasts, legs, wings, livers, kidneys, a heart. Anything he thought of as food". The meal ends rather abruptly when Keith utters an off-colour remark that makes Richard and Sarah realize how small minded and parochial both Keith and Margaret are, and it is not just the meal that ends prematurely, but their friendship also.
Now practically friendless in the village, Richard and Sarah, whose cottage is too small to accommodate visting friends from London, start to 'reverse commute' to London for their weekends. However, after several amusing, but difficult and tiring weekend trips, they realize how unsatisfactory this is. So, when a new neighbour, Catherine, moves into the cottage next door to them and they see she is sophisticated, intelligent and amusing (she passes the beetroot pasta test with flying colours) both Richard and Sarah feel they have found the friend they are looking for. Or at least they think they have - for Catherine may not be quite what she seems...
This is a rather amusing novel - not laugh out loud funny - but satirical and blackly comic. It may sound like your average `move to the country novel' - but it isn't. Jon Canter has written a book about love, sex, friendship, family - it's a story of modern life. And amongst the humour, there are moments of genuine pathos. If you want an amusing, diverting and entertaining read and you want something that doesn't take life too seriously, then `Worth' might well be what you are looking for - it's not a great literary novel, but then we don't always want that, do we?
4 Stars.
For their fresh, new start they leave London and relocate to Hay Cottage, in Worth, Suffolk. Richard gives up his job in advertising to become a free-lance illustrator and Sarah resigns from her job as a lawyer to work for a charity for homeless people. They make friends with village stalwarts, Keith and Margaret, who are so entirely different from them that you know the friendship will falter, as indeed it does over an amusing meal of beetroot pasta: "Even though he [Keith] knew pasta was coming, it surprised him... He peered inside his pasta in the hope of seeing breasts, legs, wings, livers, kidneys, a heart. Anything he thought of as food". The meal ends rather abruptly when Keith utters an off-colour remark that makes Richard and Sarah realize how small minded and parochial both Keith and Margaret are, and it is not just the meal that ends prematurely, but their friendship also.
Now practically friendless in the village, Richard and Sarah, whose cottage is too small to accommodate visting friends from London, start to 'reverse commute' to London for their weekends. However, after several amusing, but difficult and tiring weekend trips, they realize how unsatisfactory this is. So, when a new neighbour, Catherine, moves into the cottage next door to them and they see she is sophisticated, intelligent and amusing (she passes the beetroot pasta test with flying colours) both Richard and Sarah feel they have found the friend they are looking for. Or at least they think they have - for Catherine may not be quite what she seems...
This is a rather amusing novel - not laugh out loud funny - but satirical and blackly comic. It may sound like your average `move to the country novel' - but it isn't. Jon Canter has written a book about love, sex, friendship, family - it's a story of modern life. And amongst the humour, there are moments of genuine pathos. If you want an amusing, diverting and entertaining read and you want something that doesn't take life too seriously, then `Worth' might well be what you are looking for - it's not a great literary novel, but then we don't always want that, do we?
4 Stars.
0 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Never having heard of this author I was swayed by the reviews on Amazon to buy it. Sorry but I didn't get it...I found it tedious and not particularly well written. So bored was I by it that I abandon it about half way through.
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