As a college student Michael visited Egypt Hill, the curiously named estate of his roommate+s family, for a garden party, and in one afternoon met a host of eccentric characters who have stayed with him ever since. Years later he decides a return to Egypt Hill would be an ideal sojourn-a place where he can escape the chaos at home that is destroying his marriage, his fashionably old townhouse, and possibly his worrisomely taciturn young son, Hamish.But now nothing in Egypt Hill is as it was, or at least how it once seemed. With Hamish in tow, Michael discovers the house teeming with age-old deceptions, broken confidences, and sordid alliances. At the heart of the turmoil is a lie so shameful, every Hanbury is responsible for its concealment. With his marriage crumbling in a series of telephone calls and his son growing more peculiar by the day, Michael is witness to the spectacular unraveling of a family-until a violent accident draws him, inexorably, into the fold.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Real estate trumps true love in this often hilarious, British black comedy of manners and property values. After the second-story balcony of London lawyer Michael's townhouse crashes at his feet, nearly killing him, he decides to take a holiday to sort out his unhappy life. His wife, Rebecca, miserable with motherhood and marriage, is glad to see him and their introverted three-year-old, Hamish, hie off to the fine old country farm of Michael's university friend Adam Hansbury. But all is not well at Egypt, the oddly named Hansbury estate. Patriarch Paul is hospitalized, but no one visits him; his audacious ex-wife (Adam's mother) remains a frequent "guest" at her former home, where Paul's current wife doles out money, food and complaint to the malcontent step- and grandchildren who come and go. Even Adam is acting strangely. As the discord among the Hansburys escalates to violence and revenge, Michael becomes privy to a secret that unites the family where love and filial piety failed. Whitbread-winner Cusk (The Country Life, etc.) serves up crisp prose full of the unexpected pleasures of observation and metaphor, but this is a book about clever people behaving venally, and as such, the only person to really root for is poor silent Hamish.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
Cusk’s fifth novel was long listed for the Booker Prize, an honor that somehow belies its good, but unspectacular, reviews. A work that wordsmiths will love for its dialogue, In the Fold speaks of youth, privilege, and disillusionment—but, unlike Gatsby in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby or Charles in Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, Michael understands the deception of appearances. Praised for her limning of psychic and emotional complexity, Cusk establishes convincing stereotypes of wealth, just to tear them down and cast a revelatory light on the treachery of it all. A few critics, however, saw Michael as a "sneering" narrator who infuses the book with meanness (Spectator); others thought too little happened to too many people. In sum, the novel is depressing, to be sure, but it’s a playful, biting comment on human relationships.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not Good,
By Kate Smart "Private" (Private) - See all my reviews
This review is from: In the Fold: A Novel (Hardcover)
I very much admire Rachel Cusk - I've read all of her books and quite enjoyed them. But "In the Fold" was so lacking in anything to capture my interest that I couldn't even finish it. It is a story filled with characters who are weird, who say odd things, who seem to appear and vanish like apparitions. People just don't talk like this - the dialogue is extremely tiresome.
There was not a single character I cared about, and everytime I went back to reading, I had no recollection of what transpired previously and had to re-read the previous several pages. This story had no warmth, no heart, and seemed a pointless use of time. Very disappointing, as I expected something truly great.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An impressive mix of imagery and philosophy,
By
This review is from: In the Fold: A Novel (Hardcover)
The plot of this book concerns disillusion and dissolution: the growing disillusion that the narrator, Michael, feels toward the family of his former college buddy, and the looming possibility of the dissolution of his marriage. Neither prospect is much of a surprise. The family, which he'd once youthfully idealized, consists largely of fractured eccentrics, and his wife has seemingly come unhinged. Michael watches it all as if from a distance, outwardly passive (maddeningly so for his wife) but internally buffeted.
The events are occasionally humorous but pointedly ordinary--farm chores, trips to the store, quick conversations. What's remarkable is the stage Cusk creates for these little dramas. Her imagery is extremely vivid. She pays close attention to light and shadow, for example, and nails her descriptions of both. She focuses on a steady procession of everyday details--jackets, buckets, fishing nets--and uses them to anchor the story in a very recognizable work-a-day world. This flat realism combines with Michael's candid interior monologue to create a mild, is-this-my-life? sort of existential dread that inhabits the quieter moments of the book. With its heavy shadows, odd details, and sense of a things wobbling slowly out of control, the book resembles a particularly vivid and profound dream. The themes Cusk explores, notably the tension between responsibility to self and responsibility to family, will stay with you long after you put this one in the bookshelf.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A complex, nuanced, and darkly written comedy of manners,
By Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: In the Fold: A Novel (Hardcover)
Michael, a British college student from a conservative background, is invited to attend a birthday party at his friend Adam Hanbury's country estate. The estate is called "Egypt," and to Michael, the place and the people are as exotic as any faraway country. Adam's large, messy family seems wonderfully witty and worldly. The Hanburys' world is idyllic, pastoral and bohemian, and Michael longs to be a part of it, especially when he sees the birthday girl, Caris, a free spirit who poses nude for the family's artist-in-residence: "She looked more extraordinary than any person I had seen before, although it is hard to say exactly why she gave this impression...She looked like a goddess."
After Michael enjoys a too-brief kiss from Caris, the narrative flashes forward more than a decade. Now in his mid-thirties, living in Bath with his wife Rebecca and their three-year-old son Hamish, Michael seems to be enjoying an orthodox existence that is diametrically opposed to the Hanburys' bohemian lifestyle. Although Michael hasn't spoken to Adam in several years, he can't stop thinking about that one magical party. When a balcony on his ramshackle house (donated by his in-laws) collapses, nearly killing him, Michael decides to accept an invitation to visit the Hanburys again to help with the spring lambing while Adam's father is in the hospital. Arriving at Egypt with his young son in tow, Michael is surprised to discover that all is not as it seemed at this country estate. Adam himself is now married and living nearby; Caris is a voluptuous hippie living on an all-women's commune; Adam's mother and stepmother, who seem on the surface to be friends, secretly loathe and resent each other; and Adam's ailing father is not entirely the benevolent patriarch he seems. As Michael grows increasingly disillusioned not only with the Hanburys but also with his own troubled marriage, he must figure out how --- or whether --- to return to his former life. Set in a manor house in the English countryside, IN THE FOLD has the feeling of early-twentieth century comedies of manners, with some distinctly modern twists. Although the novel does have its moments of levity, its brand of humor is definitely dark, and it can be difficult to find any characters to like (including the narrator himself). Nevertheless, Rachel Cusk's writing is tight and biting, and the novel's characterizations are complex, nuanced, and sometimes a little uncomfortable --- much like family life in the real world. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
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