9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
more interesting, more character depth than the movie, March 1, 2007
This review is from: Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel (Paperback)
In this story with a first-person narrator (Barbara) recounting the scandal her friend (Sheba) has gotten herself into, I disagree with the reviewers who accepted the narrator's point of view at face value. I think Barbara's account of the scandal is deeply unreliable, even when she reports her own messy part in the story. But that's one of the exciting factors in reading this swiftly moving story, trying to figure out what actually happened versus Barbara's narrative of what happened. As for the very open-ended last page, it may be frustrating for those who like their ends all neatly tied up (and it's quite different from the movie), but it does leave the reader wondering whether Barbara really has everything as under control as she thinks she does.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I'm a bloke and I liked it, May 31, 2007
This review is from: Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel (Paperback)
I ordered this book on the basis of its award nomination, having no idea of its subject matter. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, and it won't be for those who like murder mysteries or thrillers - but I liked it from the beginning and by the end, I loved it. Zoe Heller has a real talent for character development, and manages to portray the self-denied loneliness of a sixty-something spinster/schoolteacher in a sensitive and non-condescending manner yet with a good deal of tragic humour as well. I must have completed two-thirds of the book before I realised that the central character wasn't the woman at the heart of the scandal, but her note-maker and grateful friend who tells the story itself. The personalities of both women are artfully and painstakingly developed, along with their working colleagues and families, and for this reason I strongly recommend Notes on a Scandal as an education for other writers on how to tell a story with characters who readers can totally believe in. An astute observation on the trials and tribulations of the lonely, this book deserves its prize nomination and gets my strong recommendation.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Disturbing and great, March 30, 2009
This review is from: Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel (Paperback)
"Notes on a Scandal" tells the story of two slightly with completely skewed and slightly perverse world views. One obsessively justifies her love affair with a fifteen year old, and the other chronicles her betrayal of her best friend without realizing its implications. It was very dark, but not totally disturbing. While I certainly cannot empathize with starting an affair with a highschooler, I enjoyed reading about Sheba's twisted mindset, and seeing her from her own point of view. Meanwhile, I actually developed more animosity for the narrator, Barbara, because of her parasitic friendship. At one point she says;
"There are certain people in whom you can detect the seeds of madness--seeds that have remained dormant only because the people in question have lived relatively comfortable, middle-class lives. They function perfectly well in the world, but you can imagine, given a nasty parent, or a prolonged bout of unemployment, how their potential for craziness might have been realised--how their seeds might have sprouted little green shoots of weirdness, or even, with the right sort of antinurture, blossomed into full-blown lunacy."
I love that, because she has no idea she is perfectly defining herself. This book is fantastic; I very much enjoyed it. It is an interesting story well told, in which you're hearing from one voice, but seeing the story in a totally different light. I enjoyed the ending, which differed slightly from the movie. It really left me wondering.
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