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South of the River
 
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South of the River (Paperback)

by Blake Morrison (Author)
2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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South of the River + Engleby + The Road Home
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Product details

  • Paperback: 528 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage (3 April 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099502569
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099502562
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 62,842 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Sunday Telegraph
`written with all the elegance you would expect'


The Times
`South London deserves to be celebrated in all its tawdry glory - and in this the author has succeeded admirably'


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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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 (2)
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Average Customer Review
2.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Any river, anywhere, 18 Jun 2007
This review is from: South of the River (Hardcover)
This interesting tale of four writers of one kind or another, all middle-class or socially mobile, is set in south-east London. However as a 'local' I found nothing familiar about this area: you need more than a few placenames like "in Woolwich market" or "in Catford" to yield a sense of place. Topical references (presumably intended to evoke the zeitgeist following the new 1997 Labour government) get shunted into sub-clauses, while the protagonists busy themselves with the shenanigans of too many contemporary novels: adultery, the tedium of university teaching, it's a hard life in advertising etc. It's hard to care about any of these people except Harry, the black local newspaper hack, who is nevertheless burdened with stereotypical baggage. This could be any city in Britain. Coe's 'The Closed Circle' did it better, and with more political bite. There are a few inaccuracies in the decriptions of 'over the water', eg the precise location of factories in Silvertown, and the 'Wanstead Tree'. If Morrison intended south of the Thames to be symbolic, ie a liminal space, just as the characters (arguably) endure such a position, it's insulting to residents as well as hackneyed. Shame, I expected better from Morrison, a writer I admire.
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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Left me cold, 23 May 2008
By A Cerbic (Tyneside, UK) - See all my reviews
Rarely have I struggled as much to finish a book or been so indifferent to its main characters. The novel starts off promisingly but descends into a meandering plot (and I use the term loosely). I could not have cared less about Nat, Libby and Anthea; frankly they deserved one another. For me, Nat especially had no redeeeming qualities at all. The plot also jumps certain events and the reader only becomes aware they have happened sometimes a year later which did not help the continuity of the tale. It is as if the author is enjoying witholding the information and delighting in his own imagined cleverness. It simply does not ring true that a woman like Libby would put up with Nat without complaint and then move on to the even dodgier Damien who might as well have warning lights over his head. In my opinion, the rambling contributions by Nat's deceased father are an irritating distraction that add nothing to story and can be skipped. The only character that seemed half human was Uncle Jack. I could not understand what the author was trying to achieve with the underlying fox theme throughout. I thought Harry's character surplus to even the meagre requirements of the novel and found him a cliched racial stereoype. All in all, for me this book was an excercise in writer's smuggery and possibly anti-hunting propaganda. I cannot imagine who these characters or indeed this disjointed novel would appeal to.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, 19 Jul 2008
I really found this book difficult to finish. In a word, it's boring. While the characters are interesting, the plot is slow and doesn't really lead anywhere. The ending, for example, was ridiculously abrupt and just left me confused as to what the book was really about.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A river runs through it (8/10)
`South of the River' is an insightful and often moving novel revolving around the lives and loves of several inter-connected, mostly South London-based characters. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Demob Happy

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Read
I really enjoyed this book and I also thought that it was very funny in parts. I was engaged in the stories of the five characters who are all inter connected in some way... Read more
Published 12 months ago by A. Mccredie

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