Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A total masterpiece, 29 Aug 2007
Self Help is a complex and engrossing novel.
A returned Soviet émigré, Maria Glover, is found dead in her St Petersburg flat by her son. He has flown out at short notice to answer her intriguing call of distress.
In the aftermath of Maria's passing, the Glover family secrets and stories start to come to light. The tentacles of these stories stretch from St Petersburg to London, Paris and New York as Maria's family have flown the nest and made, generally, unsuccessful and unfulfilling lives for themselves.
What makes Self Help is the level of intrigue in the stories - especially as Arkady, aided by English heroin addict Henry, tries to make contact with Maria's family. The novel is narrated from various perspectives, allowing characters to be the villain of the piece in one chapter and the focus of attention and sympathy in the next. The level of detail, too, is astounding. This creates a very real sense of place which, in four different cities, is no mean feat. By way of example, the detail we see of Gabriel's life - he is Maria's son - as he edits the Self-Help! magazine goes way beyond what is needed to carry the story along. Each of Gabe's staff gets a mention, along with their various issues and problems that make them totally unsuited to their work. And Arkady and Henry's dealings with the criminal underworld in St Petersburg ring very true indeed. The arch-baddie Leary is a comic creation of genius - his understanding of the psyche of the junkie is so true.
As the novel meanders its slow but shimmering path to conclusion, the various strands get brought together in various unpredictable ways. There is the obligatory jaw dropping moment of shock - and it really is jaw-dropping, but without being clichéd.
A couple of anachronisms apart, this is a total masterpiece. The language glows on the page, briefly, before the urge to turn the page kicks in. Top class.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
self help, 23 Oct 2007
If this is only Docx's second novel, he'll be winning awards in no time.
This is an engrossing novel about families which escapes the banality that often permeates such novels. The plot follows Gabriel and Isabella Glover, thirty two year-old twins, as they come to terms with their mother's death in Russia. Gabriel is based in London while Isabella lives in New York, and the sudden loss causes both to reassess their lives and relationships.
Meanwhile, a talented Russian pianist has links to the Glovers. His life is a million miles from theirs. Docx thrillingly evokes the sleazy underbelly of the poverty-stricken in Russia, and the horrors of drug dependency, withdrawal and eking out a living in a criminal world are fascinatingly depicted.
There are so many breathtakingly potent sections in this novel. Fear, anger, loyalty, hatred and love are all seared into the text, and some sections are white-knuckle inducing. Docx captures the conflicting emotions that family evokes. And the characters are rounded and believable, they have faults like real people, and their dialogue sparkles.
The Booker should have gone to this or to Darkmans.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another brilliant novel by Edward Docx, 10 Jul 2007
Another brilliantly written and gripping novel from Edward Docx. Darker than the Calligrapher, dealing with family & secrets spread across London, St Petersburg, Paris and New York. There's a much broader cast of characters in this one - from the brooding suppressed violence of the silent Arkady, a Russian pianist; to the intelligent, cruel, indolence of bisexual Nicholas, a gracefully aged Dorian Grey, painting badly in Paris. Hard to choose a favourite, really.
The chapter from which the book takes its title is hilarious. Gabriel, the sort-of hero, works on a magazine called Self Help (providing advice to the emotionally desperate) and all his staff are useless. He tries to keep his temper while reducing the camp, page designer to tears over his spread of Princess Diana for that month's front cover, themed "Toxic Parents". Docx is definitely one of the funniest writers I've ever read...
But as well as the humour there are sensitive, affecting, indeed deeply moving scenes - the loss of a mother, the sympathy of loved ones, Isabella breaking up with her boyfriend, brother and sister arguing, childhood memories of parental anger. And as with The Calligrapher, the location descriptions, the scene setting of time and place, are spell-binding.
All in all: definitely worth it. I am a fan. Just wish he would write more!
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