A shocking novel of adolescent anger and social disorder. Dragged from the influences he so enjoyed in London, a young boy spies on his sister and father sharing an intimate bath. As his obsession with their relationship grows, so does the need to end it in whatever manner necessary.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A photo of children in bomb-torn Beirut hangs in the bedroom of Tom, the adolescent narrator of this taut, gripping novel by a young British writer. The war zone of the title, however, is the seemingly tranquil village in Devon where Tom and his family have moved from London. Bored and restless, Tom at first seems a contemporary Holden Caulfield, possessed of an urge to do mischief to establish his identity. But as he relates the circumstances that transform his lifehis discovery of the incestuous relationship between his father and his older sister Jessiethe novel reveals its sinister, shocking theme. Because he and Jessie have always been close, the situation feels like a double betrayal to Tom, who also realizes that to reveal the bizarre secret to his mother, preoccupied with a new baby, will destroy them all. In electrically tense prose, Stuart succeeds in enveloping the reader in the surcharged atmosphere of sexual perversion. Although Tom's painful emotional limbo is effectively conveyed, however, Stuart's portrayal of Jessie is less successful. The young woman's cool, nervy manipulation of her father and Tom, her determination to engage in every form of sexual experience, is meant to mirror the "corrupt, repressive" society of Thatcher's England, but Jessie loses her credibility as she leads Tom into a maelstrom of depravity and violence. The denouement, containing the rationale for Jessie's behavior, is unconvincing, but until that point the reader is caught up in a riveting tale.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This exciting but distasteful novel is narrated by rebellious, adolescent Tom, scion of a middle-class English family who discovers that his elder sister Jessica is having sexual relations with their father. Simmering with frightening psychological tensions and perverse violence, the novel effectively captures the raw emotions of adolescence in uninhibited language. It finally fails primarily because one cannot believe in the witchlike cunning and amorality of Jessica, on which the plot hinges. And the conclusion, in which Tom ends up having sex with his sister (just like Dad) is too perverse to be satisfying. The fascination the book undoubtedly exerts is due mostly to morbid curiosity about how far the author's odd imagination will take him, and one is left wishing he had put his undoubted talents to more worthwhile use.
- Bryan Aubrey, Fairfield, Ia.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Bryan Aubrey, Fairfield, Ia.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
Alexander Stuart (also known as Alexander Chow-Stuart) is a California-based, British-born novelist and screenwriter, whose novels, non-fiction and children's books have been translated into eight languages and published in the US, Britain, Europe, Israel and throughout the world.
His most controversial novel, The War Zone (now reissued in an updated and newly revised 20th Anniversary Edition), about a family torn apart by incest, was turned into a multi-award-winning film by Oscar-nominated actor/director Tim Roth.
At the time of the book's initial publication, The War Zone won Britain's prestigious Whitbread Prize for Best Novel (now the Costa Book Awards), but was stripped of the prize amid much public controversy when one of the judges - who hated the book - politicked behind the scenes.
As a screenwriter, Stuart has worked with actors ranging from Angelina Jolie to Jodie Foster to Kiefer Sutherland, and with directors including Tim Roth, Danny Boyle and Jonathan Glazer.
Stuart lives by a lake in Sonora, California, in the Sierra foothills between Yosemite and San Francisco, with his wife, Charong Chow, their two young children and a menagerie of pets.
His most controversial novel, The War Zone (now reissued in an updated and newly revised 20th Anniversary Edition), about a family torn apart by incest, was turned into a multi-award-winning film by Oscar-nominated actor/director Tim Roth.
At the time of the book's initial publication, The War Zone won Britain's prestigious Whitbread Prize for Best Novel (now the Costa Book Awards), but was stripped of the prize amid much public controversy when one of the judges - who hated the book - politicked behind the scenes.
As a screenwriter, Stuart has worked with actors ranging from Angelina Jolie to Jodie Foster to Kiefer Sutherland, and with directors including Tim Roth, Danny Boyle and Jonathan Glazer.
Stuart lives by a lake in Sonora, California, in the Sierra foothills between Yosemite and San Francisco, with his wife, Charong Chow, their two young children and a menagerie of pets.
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A traumatic, compelling read.,
By A Customer
This review is from: War Zone, The (Paperback)
Where in the world do I start? I had never heard of the War Zone until I began to read about Tim Roth's proposed film. I admire Roth's acting and have been a fan of Ray Winstone (he gets the 'nice guy' role of Dad) since his debut in 'Scum'. Being a pedantic sort of person I felt bound to read the novel before I saw the film and got left with too concrete an impression of how the characters look. I've always been a fast reader but I devoured this book in a little over a day. Stuart's story is utterly compelling, I couldn't understand Jessie's motivation at all. It obsessed me, was this girl sociopathic in her total indifference to the people she hurts? Or is she so damaged by what has happened to her that life means nothing more than a search for the ultimate taboo to break? Lesbian exhibitionism, beach sex with Nick, sex with both dad and brother, what's next for Jessica? Beautiful, intelligent, deadly - it is all too easy to dismiss Jessie as the instigator of the relationship, to dismiss her as a spoiled Lolita wreaking havoc for the ultimate thrill. Ultimately though, Jess is a victim and dad can't escape the fact that he is an abuser who destroys his entire family. Tom is a superb character; a turbulent mix of humour, anger and frustration. I thought the novel was fantastic, particularly in it's climactic scene and the close collaboration of author Stuart and director Roth (Stuart wrote the screenplay and was closely involved with the casting of the family) leads me to expect great things of the film. Get watching and reading folks, the subject matter is horrific and it is graphic but it is something we all need to face. For all it's horror, this novel exerts a grim fascination.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Disturbing but fascinating,
By
This review is from: The War Zone (Hardcover)
There are two adversaries in the war being fought here: Tom, the narrator, allied with his violent rebelliousness, and his older sister, Jessie, who is having sex with their father (at her instigation). Caught in the middle are their mother, and the new baby, and the local biker scumbags in the small Cornish town to which they have moved from the train wreck of London. Jessie, who is carnality personified, insists there must be nothing she would not do, while Tom, who hates his sister and adores her in equal measure, isn't nearly the bad boy he wants to be -- or thinks he ought to be. Stuart's prose is intensely vivid and impossible to glide over, no matter how uncomfortable you become at some of the scenes he paints. A book that is meant to be disturbing and succeeds. "Brilliant," as Jessie would say.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Different but equally good,
By A Customer
This review is from: The War Zone (Paperback)
The pleasure of reading this book comes from the fact that is different from the film with the same title. It is very disturbing, sometimes funny,and it's okay to read it, it's just a really good book. The film's script was also written by Stuart so it's a good thing to compare these two original version. To me, the book is about betrayal, madness and decadence while the film focuses straight on the effects of incest.
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