Customer Reviews

Every Man for Himself (ISIS Large Print)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Beryl Bainbridge's story of the Titanic is different from any of the multitude of other accoungs, fictional or not, which are out there. And that is a very good thing.

One of the main joys of this novel is having history become personal. This is not a adventure story about the Titanic but rather a small novel of the personal lives of various people which gets interrupted by the disaster at sea. Those looking for big cinematic thrills are advised to look elsewhere. But those looking for a glimpse of a group of interesting characters just before a life changing event will enjoy this tale.

The other joy of this novel is the compact, effective writing. Dialogue and narrative are told with an elegant sparseness. A nice read.

This is the second Historically Based Novel I have read by Ms. Beryl Bainbridge, the first was, "The Birthday Boys". Of the two I believe the one based upon the Scott voyage to the Pole was much stronger, however the Author's writing is consistently good. I think this work suffered a bit in my reading as the movie, "Titanic", kept intruding. There were bound to be similarities in this maritime mess, however the screen version insinuating itself into the written work was a distraction.

"Every Man For Himself", takes place in virtually the same time frame as, "The Birthday Boys". The latter work was excellent in telling a story that became a metaphor for the time and its philosophies, the former does this again in a confined setting, and for this reader it was less interesting. Blind faith to the point of negligence in Technology of the unsinkable ship, and a list of passengers that would rate the top tier of Fortune's wealthiest certainly make for an interesting cast. However unlike the Scott work which spread itself across a wide range of people, this was more narrowly confined to the wealthiest cast, and finding empathy for these incredibly rich and generally pompous caricatures is hard. Our guide through most of the book is a member of The Morgan Clan, and even though his relation is tenuous his wealth makes him as boring as the rest.

The Author did introduce an event that was new to me, and even if it is not historically accurate (I don't know) it did make the story much more intriguing. If that plot line had been the main thread instead of more traditional love interests, and the preoccupation with scoring off of others to their detriment I think I would have enjoyed the work more.

Beryl is perfect. You collect all the swells, all the gentlemen, all those perfect graduates of all the right schools that at the end of the Edwardian Era believe themselves to be the best of the best. You add to that roster all the blatant goldiggers, the social parentheticals and all those female trollers in whom their mothers had all the best hopes. You put them all on a ship bound into the winter North Atlantic; and in just one Neptunian inhalation you sink the boat.

Never in the history of biology has fate and genetics so conspired to remove from our presence such a conceited and disgusting group. Beryl wrote this book with a sigh of relief and a chuckle; you should chuckle too. We are all better for the story and the biology.

Beryl Bainbridge's account of the Titanic disaster is a poignant coming-of-age drama cunningly cast against a backdrop of the world's most publicised naval mishap. Period costume notwithstanding, its central character's lust, love, and identity yearning are as valid today as it was almost a century ago. For those who prefer an intelligent read to some mindless, overhyped celluloid product manufactured only by Hollywood, the book will not leave you dissatisfied.

The setting:a larger than life historical event.The challenge:make it interesting.Beryl Bainbridge gets top mark for this.Perhaps the offbeat subtlety of the characters were misunderstood by some of the readers but this is truely British writing at its best.When disaster strikes it often carries an sureal quality and this book captures the moment perfectly.If you like quirky this is it!

Beryl is perfect. You collect all the swells, all the gentlemen, all those perfect graduates of all the right schools that at the end of the Edwardian Era believe themselves to be the best of the best. You add to that roster all the blatant goldiggers, the social parentheticals and all those female trollers in whom their mothers had all the best hopes. You put them all on a ship bound into the winter North Atlantic; and in just one Neptunian inhalation you sink the boat.

Never in the history of biology has fate and genetics so conspired to remove from our presence such a conceited and disgusting group. Beryl wrote this book with a sigh of relief and a chuckle; you should chuckle too. We are all better for the story and the biology.

aboard for the maiden voyage. The Morgans are represented by the narrator. I'm really not into novels but this is a historical novel on an irresistible subject the Titanic. Sadly, Beryl Bainbringe's recent passing reminded me of how I enjoyed her work, such as Young Adolf, written back in the seventies. Ms Bainbringe gently chides the first class passengers for their arrogance & total lack of awareness for anything except their own comfort. There are those whose wealth is created by dint of their own efforts. There is a much larger group who came into their wealth the old-fashioned way, they inherited it. They are mostly indolent & aimless. Morgan is a bit different. Orphaned as a infant, he was adopted as a nephew into the family of the fabulously wealthy J.P. Morgan. Merely by fate does he have position looking down at the hoi-pol-loi in steerage. Morgan can be taken care of for the rest of his life, but J.P. does not believe in patrimony & feels everybody should work for a living. Morgan is trying to find himself. He had a small part in designing the Titanic's bathtubs. He feels he might like a career in boat design. But the internship is hard & he is soft. So he & his lay about friend drink & party their way back home to America. Morgan recounts his adventures & misadventure until the that fateful early morning in the North Atlantic that changed everything. That event indeed took its measure of every person aboard.

Every year, I read a Titanic book; this year, it's fiction. Morgan, somehow related to JP Morgan, comes from a scandalous and poor background, which gives him both an outsider's and moral perspective on the glittering, amoral, shallow world of the upper crust of Edwardian society. He befriends Scurra, a man whose stark view of the world enchants him, even as he stands for all the selfishness ("every man for himself") that horrifies Morgan. Women are a foreign, bizarre world to Morgan, and he looks at them like he does the ship itself, a work of art that is also a lifeboat. The style of the book is wonderful, as if being told from a survivor suffering post traumatic stress disorder. That is, oddly detached, but minutely observant. As a Titanic novel, though it is not the best (Cynthia Bass' Maiden Voyage remains the queen), it is refreshing in its eyewitness-like portrayal, in its bringing to life the people and time of the ship. Rather than trying to capture the complete tragedy, the book narrows its focus brilliantly. Grade: B+

A dilettante sails on the Titanic and meets a number of strange and unbearable people. Nobody I could be induced to care about, though that might have been different if there had been any character development whatsoever. I can't imagine how this might have gotten published other than the cache of the author's name and the Titanic connection.

Two stars because of the accurate description of the sinking, and because it is purportedly about Titanic. Otherwise, not worth the time.

Having only read this recently in paperback, some time after its Booker nomination, I found it difficult to see what all of the fuss was about. It's nicely written but has sacrificed character development or plot for technical description and, 'look at my research' detail. It's hard, I thought, to care about any of the characters at all and our exorphic knowledge of the ship's imminent fate led me to feel apathetic about the characters' fate rather than sympathetic. It doesn't seem to be ABOUT anything and, as we already know what happens, it's not a potboiler either.Bainbridge's prose is neat and clear but, ultimately, this is a novel less than the sum of its parts.