Bethanne Patrick

Recommended Reading: 'Engleby'
September 5, 2007

Last week I posted three novels and asked which you'd most like to see featured in Recommended Reading. While there weren't many comments (I think some readers were confused, since they'd never heard of any of the books before -- that was my point, but perhaps it wasn't a good one!), the slim majority chose Engleby by Sebastian Faulks. I'm delighted (and never fear, I'll still be featuring The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit and Caspian Rain here, too), since I liked the novel very much.

The publisher calls Engleby "an almost anti-coming-of-age," but what I found most fascinating about its structure is how it mirrors human aging perfectly -- yet the reader is kept at such a distance from Mike Engleby, unreliable narrator sans pareil, that this mirroring sneaks up quietly afterward -- Faulks' final "Boo!" 

In the first third of the book, Engleby seems a somewhat adrift but somewhat likely lad whose blue-collar roots betray him from time to time while he's at university. He's full of potential, as we all are when we start out in late adolescence. 

In the second third, we watch Engleby attempt and finally succeed at building a career (as a journalist, which is what Faulks was for 14 years before he turned his pen to fiction) and a life. He botches things, cut corners, and remains indifferent to others' feelings. Just like most young adults.

Finally, Engleby winds up settled and with a sort of contentment-cum-resignation that will be all too familiar to readers of a certain age. 

Of course, as I said, this sneaks up on you (or it did on me; if you're reading this, perhaps you'll be less surprised -- that's OK, because it will in no way spoil the book for you). Faulks is "playing for the ashes" of Engleby's story. What do we win back when we look into the remains of a life gone wrong?

                                                           

Posted by Bethanne Patrick on September 5, 2007 | Comments (0)