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A review by wendoxford
The Friendly Ones by Philip Hensher
3.0
I was instantly drawn into this multi-generational insight into neighbouring households. It appears initially as a parallel telling of Sheffield residents as Northern Clemency but it is rather a different beast. Again, however this is a LONG book and you need to invest in it.
As I have read neither Eugene Onegin nor The Winters Tale, its re-telling was lost on me. I wonder whether this is a "new thing" like Home Fires (Kamila Shamsie re-telling Antigone) or whether authors previously assumed their readers literary brainstock and ability to spot the author sources and how they had dog-legged the plotting.
The family stories current and back lurched about with a vast cast of characters covering the birth of Bangladesh, exile, conflict and both long & foreshortened lives. Parts were hugely absorbing and others seemed to me to be so pedestrian in order to detail how family members behave. Whilst the everyday was part of the book's charm, it is impossible to retain these meanderings when there are so many players without confusing the reader (or this reader) So many felt like caricatures as a result.
Think it would have benefited from some heavy red pen editing and an improved presentation of the story arc. However I did enjoy so many parts of both the writing and story and did keep chuckling when reminded that a branch of family were all under 5 '2"...
As I have read neither Eugene Onegin nor The Winters Tale, its re-telling was lost on me. I wonder whether this is a "new thing" like Home Fires (Kamila Shamsie re-telling Antigone) or whether authors previously assumed their readers literary brainstock and ability to spot the author sources and how they had dog-legged the plotting.
The family stories current and back lurched about with a vast cast of characters covering the birth of Bangladesh, exile, conflict and both long & foreshortened lives. Parts were hugely absorbing and others seemed to me to be so pedestrian in order to detail how family members behave. Whilst the everyday was part of the book's charm, it is impossible to retain these meanderings when there are so many players without confusing the reader (or this reader) So many felt like caricatures as a result.
Think it would have benefited from some heavy red pen editing and an improved presentation of the story arc. However I did enjoy so many parts of both the writing and story and did keep chuckling when reminded that a branch of family were all under 5 '2"...