"Have you ever been lonely? No, neither have I" (Engleby - Sebastian Faulks)

Member Name: dee778

Product:	Engleby - Sebastian Faulks
Date:	15/10/09 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A novel with lots of depth, but still an easy read

Disadvantages: None

Sebastion Faulks is probably best known for his 1993 novel 'Birdsong' - a novel of war and erotic love, which sold over 3 million copies. 'Engleby' was first published in 2007, as Faulk's eighth novel, and it is a million miles from the drama and agony of the trenches. As with many of the best novels, a lot of the main character's story echoes the life of the author. Sebastian Faulks was born near Reading in 1953. He attended the prestigious public school Wellington College in 1966 and in 1970 won an open exhibition to read English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. After university Faulks worked as a journalist in London. As we will see, his life is reflected in the character of Engleby.

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When we first meet Mike Engleby we leap to the conclusion that we have found a working class hero, and perhaps think back to the likes of 'Room at the Top' or 'Alfie'. Engleby is a working class boy made good, through a combination of his intellect and his amazing memory, which have taken him from the poorer terraces of Reading to the imposing colleges of Cambridge University, via the local grammar school and a scholarship to a prestigious public school. The story is narrated in the first person, through Mike Engleby's diaries, starting in the 1970s where we discover Mike Engleby as a highly regarded English student at Cambridge.

At first glance, Engleby seems to have everything a successful Oxbridge student could want; a lovely girlfriend called Jennifer, strong male friendships, memberships of all the 'in' student societies - but gradually the reader starts to question Engleby's presentation of these facts. He is always socialising, but never seems to have a conversation; he spends a lot of time with his girlfriend at events, clubs and history lectures, but is never alone with her; the reactions of his lecturers and fellow students seem strange - they almost seem to be avoiding him. Faulks is subtly and gradually letting us realise that we are actually reading the diary of a sad loner; a strange young man who hangs around the edges of everybody else's parties and lives - more of a stalker than a lover, more avoided than befriended.

As the novel develops we learn that Engleby was physically abused by his father and bullied mercilessly for years by the prejudiced public school boys. We understand that the blue pills that he pops into his mouth compulsively are there to maintain his mental health rather than to give him a student high - and as we read on, we become more and more uncomfortable with the whole idea of Engleby - is he real? Is he sane? Is he dangerous? The shocking disappearance of Jennifer brings all of our fears to the fore, especially as we learn that Engleby has somehow stolen her diary and hides it in his toilet, where he memorises every line and reads it compulsively every day. Although Engleby himself is one of the major suspects in the police investigation, they never find the diary or a body, and the case is eventually dropped.

As his life continues after university, with the memory of Jennifer still haunting him, we know that we are not reading about a character on the normal spectrum of sanity. Engleby's career in journalism takes him to the Brixton Riots, to interview Thatcher, Sir Ralph Richardson and Ken Livingstone - Jeffrey Archer comes to his parties ... or does he? By this time the reader knows enough to question everything.

Can Mike Engleby really be a stalker and a murderer, or is it all in our imagination? Faulks keeps us guessing. As Engleby himself writes at the beginning of his diaries "It's only page two and already I'm signalling that I'm using one of the laziest and most devalued devices of modern literature: the unreliable narrator".

Mike Engleby is a mixture of the snobbish, the deeply unpleasant, the creepy and the sad. One minute you are feeling the pain of a small boy nicknamed 'Toilet' at boarding school who is ritually bullied and held underwater in a freezing cold bath every night - the next minute you are faced with the student who sneers at those who use incorrect grammar in conversation. Sebastian Faulks has created a character with real depth, and without even realising it, the reader is suddenly looking into the mind of madness. It is easy to become the amateur psychiatrist as you read the story - hmmm ... Engleby never bonded with his family ... he was beaten by his father, rejected by everyone throughout his childhood - AhHa! he must have an attachment disorder, which explains his lack of empathy! The way the Faulks allows the reader to be drawn into the character, to make their own discoveries and to draw their own conclusions, is the secret of this book's success.

The novel has a hugely detailed background; riddled with evocative music from the 70s, Mike Engleby's life is lived against the music of Roxy Music, Velvet Underground and Procol Harem. The book is riddled with political activism and set in a social group whose life is rich in literature and culture. Comments on literary theory, philosophy and classical music are dropped into the narrative, almost without the reader noticing. It is the details of the book that contribute to making it such a satisfying read; this is not just a whodunit - it is the analysis of a deeply troubled individual, a snapshot of different classes in a society that changes over the course of three decades.

Engleby was first published by Vintage in 2007
342 pages, ISBN 9780099458272

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Also posted on Helium

Summary: A gripping novel that you will not be able to stop thinking about