Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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49 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
mixed feelings, 23 Sep 2008
This is an book, which I really wanted to like and did - but only to a point. it's the story of a New York secular Jewish left wing intellectual family which, in itself, seemed a bit derivative, and how their various belief systems fall apart and are restructured after the patriarch falls ill. To me the problem with the book was it was mainly head with little heart. We had scenes in an orthodox Jewish community, scenes in a prison, scenes with an over-privileged girl from Florida, scenes with under-privileged black girls from Harlem with names like Chianti, liberal left wingers. It was all very well drawn and observed but ultimately you felt lists were being ticked off in an effort to provide a state of the nation work. The main characters move among these scenes like pawns. They were recognisable types but it was hard to sympathise with any of them. The final couple of scenes felt like a rapid wrapping up and at this point my credulity was tested. Heller is such a good writer, fluent and funny, but I think she is trying too hard to escape her history as a columinist detailing her own life and in the process emotion gets lost. I wish she'd not fight shy of it, her columns were genius in my opinion and had the personal touch this novel sadly lacks. I'm looking forward to her getting it right next time. I'm sure she can.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five Years In The Waiting!, 22 Oct 2008
It's been five years since Zoe Heller wrote Notes On A Scandal, and after reading The Believers I do believe it was well worth the wait. Heller is a genius at creating obnoxious characters, who are hateful and totally unlikeable yet spinning an unputdownable story at the same time.
The Believers opens when Audrey and Joel first meet in London and then moves quickly to New York in 2002, they have now been married for 40 years and the story really starts from there.
Joel is a very succesful, out-spoken New York lawyer and Audrey has been his dutiful and very outspoken wife for all these years. When Joel is taken very ill and the family discover his secret, they all start to examine how they feel about themselves and each other.
The whole family are very brittle and extremely disfunctional - with no likeable or warm characters amongst them, yet you still need to know what they will do next. Audrey, the mother is a particularly nasty piece of work and her outbursts of bad language and un PC comments are kind of delightful in her own way! The whole family hate each other and hate themselves and each one them questions their beliefs and views throughout the book.
This is totally absorbing and very compelling, but, I do feel that it may become a 'Marmite' book - you will either love it or hate it.
I loved it - I hope it's not another five years before her next book
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19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You won't be disappointed..., 1 Oct 2008
There was such an enormous amount of expectation surrounding the arrival of this book for me - five years on, could anything come close to the assured masterpiece that is Notes on a Scandal? The answer is absolutely yes.
It's a very different book to Notes - ostensibly an `American novel' while Notes was so solidly British. It's about a dysfunctional Jewish family (the Litvinoffs) in New York who are trying, in the light of a family emergency and the consequent uncovering of a devastating secret, to work out what (and who) they believe in.
Darkly funny, subtle and deliciously written, The Believers is, by a long shot, one of the best literary novels I have read in years. And Audrey Litvinoff, the mother hen in the book, is sure to become one of literature's great villains - she's monstrous, hilarious and a creation of pure brilliance.
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