On the back cover one of the press quotes declared this to be different to anything else he'd written. When my bf read this he asked me if the book was depressing, I answered 'yes', to which he said 'well then it's the same as everything else he's written!'.I loved Sebastian Faulk's book 'Birdsong', and it was that which led me to buy 'Engleby'. This book followed the life of the character Engleby, narrated in the first person, through his childhood, university and career. The standard of writing was brilliant, the storyline flowed and the Engleby himself was at the same time both disturbing and compelling. Despite this, you never feel that you know Engleby or can work out what makes him tick, and that is the purpose of the book: that as his life moves on and mysteries from his past come back to haunt him, you realise that this child who you thought was mildly odd is frighteningly dangerous.
I don't know whether to say I enjoyed the book or not. Something drove me to keep reading, to finish it, but at the end I couldn't say whether I felt it had been a worthwhile experience.
If you like a compelling storyline, mystery, intriguing characters and a hero who isn't a hero, then this book is worth a shot; but I wouldn't declare it to be a book everyone should read.
Picture from amazon.co.uk
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