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Engleby | 
 enlarge | Author: Sebastian Faulks
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £2.93
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Rating:  75 reviews
Sales Rank: 92
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0099458276
EAN: 9780099458272
ASIN: 0099458276
Publication Date: March 27, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. delivery within the uk only. dispatched withni 1 working day
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| Customer Reviews: Read 70 more reviews...
 Chilling but compelling August 16, 2008
Suzie (Scotland, UK)
It sounds paradoxical to say that I didn't like the book or Mike Engleby, its central character, yet I enjoyed reading it to the extent that I didn't want to put it down. `Engleby' is disturbing and thought provoking, a brilliant depiction of a societal misfit abused by his father and emotionally neglected by his mother. Outstandingly intelligent, he obtains a scholarship to a second-rate public school where his classmates ostracise him, and thence to Cambridge.
The story is told as a journal, a one-sided account from the warped perspective of a sick mind. In many ways Engleby seems immune to the opinions of others, although he ponders the exclamation mark when he sees himself referred to as Mike(!) in the diary of Jennifer Arkland, the fellow student with whom he became obsessed.
As the book develops, the revelation when it comes is chilling (to say more would spoil it for those who haven't read it). I wonder if others were as surprised and shocked as I was or whether most readers foresaw what was coming. My failing to see the pointers only serves to exemplify the brilliance of the writing.
It's a book that provokes a strange mixture of abhorrence and sympathy. To create a dislikeable character with whom readers develop even a degree of empathy is tribute to the skill of the writer. This book is as different from Faulks's other works as a sword from a feather, but it's every bit as strong as `Birdsong' and a strangely compelling five-star read. You really ought to try it, but be prepared not to like it.
unforgettable character August 15, 2008
Roz D (London)
Engleby is a character who is rare in fiction and shoudl be much prized - an entirely unsympathetic protagonist who is nontheless totally compelling. The period reserearch that must have been done is also convincibgly threaded through the story, but over all it is the masterfl depiction of a character in extremis that stay with me. At times I fluctuated, patience wise with the narrative, it does seem to drag in places when scenario decsription gets rather bogged down but it's the charactersistaion that wins through every time. if you liked charlotte gray then this is at least three times as good.
Compelling August 13, 2008
V. Cairns (Scotland)
Engleby marks a departure from Faulks' usual subject matter and style of writing and concentrates instead on the life of Mike Engleby, a loner, who is unable to fit into society.
Throughout the novel, I felt a sense of impending dread, that all of Engleby's life was going to crash down around him at any moment, and although the plot is very different, I found it similar in style to 'Catcher in the Rye', as that too gave me the same sense of uneasiness whilst reading. Having said that, I found the book extremely compelling, with Faulks helping the reader to emphasise with Engleby, in an almost disturbing manner.
I would recommend this book to those who are looking for an interesting and compulsive read, however it is important to note that this is a completely different type of book and style to the majority of Faulks' other novels (Birdsong, Charlotte Gray and The Girl at the Lion D'Or) which were all set during the first and second world wars, and previous fans of Faulks may be disappointed if they were expecting more of the same.
Getting under the skin of an unlikeable central character August 7, 2008
titaniamoth (London UK)
I'm constantly impressed by Faulks. I've recently read a couple of books where the central character lacks warmth, likeability, ability to engage the reader, and have felt the lack of 'engagement' created a flaw for the reader. It's a difficult task for a writer, creating a narrator or central character that it will be hard for the reader to engage with, or care about. It's a task which needs an extremely skillful, sensitive and empathic writer, in order to get the reader inside the skin and have some understanding of the 'unlikeable' or 'unsympathetic' character.
Faulks, unlike the couple of other writers with similar disengaged characters, is absolutely brilliant at this.
Engleby, in a later world than one set in the 70s, might almost be seen as suffering from Asperger's. He starts off as a character one can almost have some sympathy for, victim of class bullying in a public school - the source of understanding his character comes completely from his own journal, so inevitably there are no outside assessments of him, other than the reactions of others seen through his own eyes.
I found myself warming to Engleby, and also enjoying some rather dark humour. Without wanting to engage in 'spoilers' there are of course clear pointers for the READER as to the solution of the 'mystery' but we share in the narrator's unawareness, and take his journey. As the novel progresses the early distaste I had for the character begins to return, but again, by the end, I found myself 'holding' both distaste and some compassion.
Faulks continually reminds me of the great romantic realist European writers, particularly Flaubert and Dostoievsky. He can really examine the minutiae of a particular individual in the context of his society, and create understanding both of the individual and a wider view encompassing something universal about each and every one of us, no matter how 'weird' the individual might appear to be.
Food for thought... July 28, 2008
nicjaytee (London)
Sebastian Faulkes can write and he can weave a gripping story, witness "Birdsong", but when he hits top form he achieves what few authors can: he makes you think. His seriously under-rated "A Fool's Alphabet", with its disjointed and superficially unstructured story, did just that by immersing you into the life of its lead character and "Engleby" does the same. Only here, what Faulkes is dealing with is a more complex and much darker personality... someone who is highly intelligent and disarmingly likeable but who is also extremely "odd" and quite possibly completely "mad".
Lengthily, sometimes ponderously but in the end wholly effectively, Faulkes explores Engleby's life and immerses you into his mind through the use of his first person diary... a clever trick that completely anchors all of the narrative to Engleby's own interpretations of events. And, of course, precisely because of his "condition", his recollections swerve from the wholly believable to the confusingly unbelievable and, in the end, deliver no clear answers as to exactly what's happened or, indeed, whether any or all of it is "true". A situation that will be frustratingly annoying for anyone wanting a straightforward A to Z story with a believable conclusion but which is wholly in line with the thought processes and problems in dealing with them that someone in Engleby's mental state would actually face.
Food for thought then, but there's more. Firstly, Faulkes is dealing with something that he experienced first hand - Cambridge University in the early 1970's - and he uses this knowledge to fully capture this odd but fascinating time & place. Secondly, he uses Engleby's character to explore a number of complex philosophical and psychological questions, in particular: what is "reality"; how do "loners" see themselves, act and make sense of their actions; why do people become serial alcohol & drug abusers; and, how are they pushed "over the edge" into acts of uncontrollable rage and violence. And finally, his writing is not only brilliantly insightful but, in places, genuinely moving, for example:
"I wondered how many of the bright-eyed boys - their parents' treasures, the comets of their hope - were now in Fulbourn or Park Prewitt, fat and trembling on the side effects of chlorpromazine: an entire life, fifty indistinguishable years, in the airless urine wards of mental institutions because one fine May morning in the high spirits and skinny health of their twentieth year they'd taken a pill they didn't understand, for fun." Stunning...
"Engleby" may not be what you want or expect in a novel but if you're prepared to open your own mind to the issues it raises and think about its unanswered questions it will stay with you for far, far longer than most.
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