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The Shape of Her Hardcover – 24 Jun 2010

by
Rowan Somerville (Author)
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Rowan Somerville (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars 14 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: W&N (24 Jun. 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0297844571
  • ISBN-13: 978-0297844570
  • Product Dimensions: 15.9 x 2.5 x 24 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,470,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

For any young man desperate to work unflexed sexual muscle it's the ultimate win: a holiday in the Greek sun in a secluded villa close to the beach and the briny with the singularity of your first serious girlfriend for company. The retsina, the sea food, the heat...gosh... Somerville's own background? He speaks with the pain of too intimate a recognition. A brilliant summer read on so many levels. Take it to the beach and be glad to be past your first fumbles. (WATERSTONES.COM - bookseller's review)

Rowan Somerville investigates cause and effect in obsessive desire. On a Greek island, the novel's sexed-up summer idyll for two privileged youngsters darkens into dread and recrimination... In his novel, unresolved trauma brings its danger to this liaison like the jagged boat-wrecking rock that lurks underwater beyond the golden beach. (BOYD TONKIN THE INDEPENDENT - 25.06.10)

darkly erotic, offbeat holiday read... an entertaining book that while not echoing to the chimes of chick lit, probably wouldn't be out of place in the beach bag. (IRISH TIMES - 10.07.10)

Somerville is clearly a thoughtful writer... a rich plot and some lovely vivid local colour. (THE GUARDIAN - 17/7/10)

Alternating between the past and the present, the novel explores the open scars of childhood abuse and its effect on later relationships. (PRESS ASSOCATION)

confronts us with an extended meditation on the anxious incomprehensbility surrounding sex and desire. (THE DUBLINER)

Deceptively simple in plot and singularly musical in its voice, it is a study of the place where our past has become our present. A summer read to be kept - and visited in the dark days of winter. (THE ECONOMIST - 17/7/10)

Rowan Somerville is a talented author, perfectly capturing the characters¿ distinctive voices...The language is gorgeous, rich and evocative...the pacing is perfect. The Shape of Her is dark, beautiful and an ideal summer read. (FOR BOOKS SAKE blog)

Somerville has a deft turn of phrase (FOLLOW THE THREAD blog)

Book Description

Two young lovers arrive for an idyllic holiday on a Greek island but find that their shadows from their own past emerge.

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Customer Reviews

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Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsSex with adults
By The Clear Voice on 22 July 2010
Format: Paperback
They f*&k you up, your mom and dad .. or at least, adults. A second reading of this book, because it's a slow starter and caught me by surprise. I don't mind slow starters when the payoff is as good as this (Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian was another slow starter). There's a lot of play between sunny surface and what lies beneath here, a play of light and dark as with Joyce's A Portrait, save here it deals with the consequences of enforced juvenile sex. It's why there is a lot of sex to start, sex that should be uninhibited, joyous and youthful discovery, but which is abruptly halted, leaving a perplexed yearning as the characters deal with the suppressed, inchoate past. It's brave, sex being so hard to do in the novel, and the slight feeling of discomfort engendered brings to mind the enforced taboos of society which are complicit in hiding so much abuse. Is it a coincidence that the Author was apparently educated in an Irish Jesuit school? Anyway, the sense of loss of the possibilities of love between the characters at the end is poignant, and you are left wondering whether the gain - the realization of the source of their troubles - is enough, or whether the characters experience of love will be stained forever. Some form of such inhibitions is in all of us, and for that reason alone, it's very much worth the read. With that, the rendering of an idyllic Greece - it's food, colours and people - is lush and inventive, the feeling of sun and sea on the skin almost palpable. It could easily be the best holiday ever ..
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5.0 out of 5 starsthe good shape of her
By Adelia Bernini on 10 Aug. 2010
Format: Paperback
This is a story very well told and very intense. You can feel the heat and the silences and the confusion of youth, when the scars of childhood are still so raw but one is not yet old enough to even know they exist.
How the very damage that draws one to people is the same shared damage that drives them apart. All brilliantly drawn.
The evocation of the grotesque boarding school was superb and a reminder of the appalling legacy those institutions and 'teachers' inflict on children.
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4.0 out of 5 starsNot just the shape of her
By Varifocal on 23 Oct. 2011
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
A strange title for this novel. While it featured a shapely young woman, it only did so in one of the three narrative strands. There is her relationship with a young man; her childhood; and the early educational experiences of the boy.All three were chilling in the cruelty and indifference they described. The love affair was remarkably done, even if occasionally overblown. Somerville has the rare gift of being able to write convincingly about what is explicitly erotic while generally avoiding absurdity or pornography. The Greek setting is startlingly vivid and the characterization in all three parts disturbingly authentic.

It is not an optimistic book but it is realistic, so compelling that I missed it when I had finished. The selfishness Somerville offers us is distressingly recognizable.
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5.0 out of 5 starsWonderful writing, beautiful book!
By Mr Vertigo on 24 Jun. 2010
Format: Hardcover
This author goes from strength to strength in The Shape Of Her. First of all, the style of writing is so fresh and packed with such original images and perspectives, you really get to know these characters intimately. The plot unfolds beautifully and concludes with wisdom and grace. This is one of those books where you can't wait to get home and read it and at times when life is bringing you down the mere thought of returning to it lifts the whole day. Loved it!
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5.0 out of 5 starsa master of modern english
By Dr. Jane Somerville on 3 Sept. 2010
Format: Paperback
a beautifully crafted experience of todays lusty young and the influence of childhood experiences -good and bad [very bad] on their adult behaviour.
this brings home the difficulties of growing up in todays world .it captures the romantic beauty of a greek island and escape to happiness which turns out to have dark surprises.
the reality of steamy young love and sexual drive is unusually well portrayed -
thoroughly recommended but demands concentration .
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4.0 out of 5 starsSex and sun
By Christopher Bland on 19 Aug. 2010
Format: Paperback
Buy this book - it's a terrific follow up to Somerville's impressive first novel,The End of Sleep. The characters and relationships are beautifully described, and the school stuff is quite brilliant.
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5.0 out of 5 starsStriking, candid
By Juju on 26 Jan. 2011
Format: Paperback
This book is an exceptionally candid expression of the emotions and actions that stir from the feelings we would rather repress.
I concede that the style of writing takes a couple of chapters to get swinging. But then again, sometimes so does sex. And when the sex gets real good, why not embrace the memory of the initial fumbles as you lay back aghast, full of love and smug after an orgasm?
If you are the type of person content with humping your rabbit or your page 3, preferably after lashings of bad jokes, then this book is not for you. If you are the type of person that is fascinated by the inner workings of the mind and its far reaching impact in our day to day lives, the type that is brave enough to attempt looking at yourself, then you might well enjoy this book.
The chapters with the girls' flashbacks reminded me of Bonjour Tristesse (Francoise Sagan) in style and topic.
The chapters with the boys' flashbacks reminded me of Portrait of the artist as a young man (James Joyce), but in a far more accessible style of prose.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

found it an interesting book to read.

Published 4 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFunny, affecting and memorable

I thought this to be a superb work. Somerville explores weighty themes with a light and sometimes playful touch. Read more

Published on 31 Mar. 2014 by leofwine
4.0 out of 5 starsA haunting tale of how abuse infects your life

Chilling passages of abuse at a boarding school, cleverly intertwined with how those terrible experiences come to bear on a young man's sexual life. Read more

Published on 28 Aug. 2013 by John Ferundi
3.0 out of 5 starsMeandering start but built up a head of steam

Like other reviewers (generally) I felt that this book took a while to get going which is sometimes a prequel of a fantastic story ahead
The story of Tine (Valentine) and Max... Read more

Published on 27 Sept. 2011 by Jonathan Clark
1.0 out of 5 starsDisappointing

I cannot understand those reviewers who have given this five stars. I found the novel unoriginal in theme, and in order to get to average novel length a slight plot had to be... Read more

Published on 20 Sept. 2010 by Col
1.0 out of 5 starsI should have sent the book back to Amazon

The book is pure garbage. Both the characters and plot are unbelievable and the sex scenes are boring. Put it the trash can; I did just that. Read more

Published on 18 Aug. 2010 by James E. Mckinney
4.0 out of 5 starsThis is a great read

Normally I spend part of the summer in Greece. This year I didn't, but having just finished The Shape of Her I feel the Hellenic loss less keenly, while I was immersed in it I... Read more

Published on 10 Aug. 2010 by Roper Walken

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