Engelby
by Sebastian Faulks
There was a mixed reaction to this book with some of us finding it fantastic and others not liking it at all.
Several of us were already Sebastian Faulks fans and saw it as a radical departure from his meticulously researched war novels.
A witty and entertaining wordsmith, Faulks seems content to let the events of the story unfurl and professed not to know what was going to happen next.
Certainly it is his first novel in the first person narrative which is the only way this exploration of the protagonist’s thought processes could possibly work.
We struggled to find redeeming features in Engleby with his narcissism, pomposity, lack of morality and awareness of how others see him.
There is humour in the book but the subject matter is quite dark.
We had an interesting discussion about what had “really” happened.
NS November 2008
|
