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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All too unique!, May 24, 1999
By A Customer
When I was visiting England several summers ago, this book was a best-seller. Suspecting that, no matter how popular it might be in Britain, any novel on this subject would be as unheard of and unobtainable back in the U.S. as if it had never existed, I bought three copies-- and good thing, too, because so it proved. For all I know, if it hadn't appeared as a PBS miniseries, American dealers would still not have gotten around to offering it. One has to wonder what else is out there around the globe which the arbiters of American taste casually put on the spike. Thank goodness Amazon and the Internet now provide an end run around provincialism. After buying my three copies, I started to read-- and wished that I had waited, because I was immediately helpless to prevent the next couple days in London being largely wasted as such. Not even the sights from the top of a double-decker bus could compete. (I did, however, cool my heels for two hours in Westminster Abbey holding my place in line for evensong in the choir stalls. The book made this as painless as it was worthwhile.) You see, the way Trollope got right down to business wasn't fair to tour guides. Already on the second page, a young man was collapsing at the bottom of a staircase convulsed with sobs because he was not up there rehearsing with this choir. How did she know that he could have been myself? I have a theory that there are two kinds of people in the world: the many who don't know what this is about, and the few who do. It was almost unbelievable to be holding in one's hands, at last, a book written by someone else acquainted with this grief. Yes, this story has subplots concerning church politics, colorful eccentrics, and of course sex and adultery. But I think that these are come-ons. What the book is *about* is what it begins with: the rare but heart-rending ache of the visitor on the stairs; what it climaxes with in the middle: the ardent speech of the headmaster in defense of his choir school; and what it ends with: "Henry sang." (Hence American dealers' neglect.) Alas, even after giving a welcome enough thumbs up, some of its readers didn't get it. Short of the exquisite music of a cathedral choir itself, this eloquent novel is the clearest possible evidence that the ignorance, when it exists, is sometimes invincible.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Trollope, July 19, 2003
This review is from: The Choir (Paperback)
As a devotee of Joanna Trollope, I had always avoided this one book, due to the dreary book notes that invariably describe it as some row or other about a boys' school choir. I simply could not imagine such a topic holding my interest for more than five seconds, Trollope or not. But it did. Far from being the dismal plot described above, it turns out to be probably one of Joanna Trollope's very best, both in the writing and the plotting. Yes, it does take place in a boys' school, which is closely affiliated with the town's cathedral. The main characters are all quite Britishly normal, thank you, and not a bit precious. On the contrary. We have a runaway wife who always returns, a bored-stiff housewife (mother of a choir boy) who begins a torrid affair, four utterly horrid teenaged and twenty-ish offspring of the cathedral's long-suffering dean, and much, much more. When a group of disaffected socialist (seriously) townspeople decides that the choir is antiquated and must go, that the headmaster's house must be sold out from him and his family and made into a town social hall, and that the catherdral, the deanery, and everything in between is a haven for the rich, the close-knit and relatively peaceful community is torn apart. Trollope's skill, as always, is in somehow effortlessly drawing us into the real feelings and anguish of very ordinary people who become less ordinary as they face the crises of their lives. In that, she is like her ancestor, the great English novelist of the 19th century, Anthony Trollope. Unlike any other of Joanna Trollope's books, this one most closely reminds this reviewer of the senior novelist's brilliant works. As always, the end is not a happily ever after, but, as the British say, a "sorting out" of feelings, personalities, and lives. Some come out the better--others collapse. "The Choir" is simply a wonderfully written work of art, and I am glad to have read it, and doubly glad to be able to recommend it to any reader who loves a finely drawn novel.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gripping story of passion and religion, January 31, 2002
Joanna Trollope introduces us to a small British city with a cathedral that dates back to before Henry VIII and all that goes in making this building a living, breathing entity. Trollope does a fine job of setting the mood in the first few pages. As one would suspect, caring for a building which was first built in the 15 or 16th century requires a great deal of funds. Unfortunately the structure has not stood the test of time and major reconstruction is needed to save the building. Where to get the money for this not-inexpensive undertaking is the task that the dean of the Cathedral faces. The political manuverings to save the structure are all consuming for this man. He will do almost anything to keep the building but what he has forgotten is that it will be just that - a building, but one without a soul. The soul of the cathedral is it's choir and it is this that the dean proposes to dispense with to divert funds from the upkeep of the choir to the upkeep of the building. What he doesn't bargin for it the opposition of this idea that erupts from the cathedral school in the form of the headmaster and a few long time members of the school board and the choirmaster. The opposition is quite an interesting group, from the headmaster who is a respectable priest married to an independent and strong-willed woman, to the choirmaster who is divoreced and at the school at all, only by good fortune and the suffereance of the dean of the cathedral. Their professional and personal lives are quite well detailed and totally beliveable. I found myself wondering who the models for these charecters were. We see town politics interjected as well as the grandfather of one of the boys has set his eye on obtaining church property for use by town as a social service office. He is portrayed as a late in years Labourite, still at war with elitest organizations and sees the church as a prime example of this class distinction. Set in the height of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government in Britain, it is a small scale depiction of the events that took place throughout the country as Conservatism rearranged the social fabric of the country. Trollope does a masterful job of taking a subject that is little known in this country, the Anglican Church, and introducing us to this organization. She also makes her characters believable and interesting. I found myself unable to leave the book - it bears the scars of being read while I was inhaling both the book and fast foods. I first read the book several years ago and have read several times since then. It is a book I never tire of reading and discover things I missed each time I do. I highly recommend this book to all with an interest in the social and religious fabric of Great Britain.
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