Follows the life of Flavia Cameron, a beautiful young woman who is an extremely talented musician and who is married to a mild mannered headmaster of boy's school, until another man comes along and charms her."
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Fans of contemporary British novelists will enjoy this tale of a beautiful young musician who, while on the rebound, marries the headmaster of a boys' prep school and almost immediately finds herself in love with the father of one of his pupils. Sheepshanks (A Price for Everything, LJ 6/1/96) and her husband ran a boys' prep school for many years, and it shows in the way Winsleyhurst School comes to life?staff, students, and parents all ring true. The reader occasionally longs to shake some sense into heroine Flavia Cameron, but the novel is nonetheless compulsively readable and very well written. Highly recommended for popular fiction collections.?Elizabeth Mary Mellett, Brookline P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
An enjoyable, faintly sly account of upper-caste English domestic folderol--more of the entertaining same from Sheepshanks (A Price for Everything, 1996)--concerns a gifted flautist whose romantic life has the progression of a shaky sonatina: first, a loveless passion, then a passionless love, finally a peerless passion and regard. Pretty Flavia's major performance with an orchestra conducted by sexy lover Antoine is ruined when the young woman is flattened by a sudden illness. Antoine, your basic rotter, levels blame and storms away. Devastated, Flavia convalesces at the estate of her parents, a charming, wise father and failed pianist mother who invests all her emotional capital in her daughter's career. Also visiting is avuncular, kindly Gervaise, headmaster of a boys' prep school. Gervaise, tactful and tolerant, is a superb administrator and loves children. A thoroughly good sort, he serves as a rock in Flavia's stormy emotional pool. Meanwhile, Gervaise is beginning to feel he should marry (were the boys calling him ``perv''?), and all imagine his choice will be the school aide who adores him, the good, good Meg. Alas, Gervaise proposes instead to young Flavia, who's still recovering from illness and Antoine. The two marry, but then mischief enters in the person of widower Alistair, whose kiss after a dance once left Flavia ``gasping as if underwater.'' Flavia and Alistair begin to smolder; Flavia returns to the flute; and the affair bursts into full flame after a wild chase for runaway Alistair's son Ben (who attends Gervaise's school) and an idyll on a Scottish isle. Now Flavia must face the music--and gentle Gervaise. With lively women and elegant men, the marvelous silliness of school gossip, and that hyperbolic witty slang that eases the path of both the just and unjust, it's a droll go. Mary Wesley fans take note. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Before She Hit Her Stride...,
By Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Facing the Music: A Novel (Hardcover)
Mary Sheepshanks began with this charming effort. Having read and loved "A Price for Everything" and "Picking Up the Pieces," both superb, I can see the progression of Sheepshanks' talents. This is not a bad book, and it is certainly worth reading, but the characters are not as finely drawn as in her later novels. Our heroine, Flavia the Flautist, is not entirely a sympathetic character, as she flits mindlessly from one wrong situation to another to avoid facing reality. I found the juxtoposition of her brilliant musical career with her extreme naivete very hard to believe. Likewise, the hapless Gervaise, her schoolmaster husband, falls in love with her for no apparent reason, and is somewhat one-dimensional as well, so we really do not know what makes him tick. The "lover-from-hell," the famous conductor Antoine, is a swine for no particular reason, and the later love interest, Alistair, is a saint. Nevertheless, this is a fast, rather entertaining read, and we can see glimmers of the author's subtle and outrageous humor so evident in later works. "Facing the Music" is nowhere near the beautifully crafted novels that came after it, but I'm glad I read it; it makes me appreciate Sheepshanks' later books even more.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A reader fom Maine,
By A Customer
This review is from: Facing the Music: A Novel (Hardcover)
This first book By Sheepshanks is not nearly as good as "A Price for Everything." I find the adultery too much; tasteless, and does not seem to "fit" in the story. I would, however, highly recommend "A Price for Everything!" I laughed out loud so much while I read that. It's good for your spirit.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful touching story,
By
This review is from: Facing the Music: A Novel (Hardcover)
I really loved this book. All the characters were very real. Flavia is very interesting and keeps the story moving along. Her story is continued in Off Balance. (It has already been published in England.)Ms. Sheepshanks is a great author!!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Listmania!
|
|
So You'd Like to...
|
|
