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 enlarge | Author: Sebastian Faulks
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  69 reviews
Sales Rank: 72
Media: Paperback
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0099458276
EAN: 9780099458272
ASIN: 0099458276
Publication Date: March 27, 2008
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| Customer Reviews:
 A life in the mind of Mike "Toilet" Engleby July 6, 2008
Setting aside the fact that `Engleby` is a gripping psychological thriller of sorts, Sebastian Faulks' new novel is also a brilliant meditation on the unreliability of memory, on the things lost by the fallability of the human mind. It also examines the unattainability or brevity of the present in an ever-evolving world and the protagonist's philosophical, and indeed psychological, inability to cope with that. Coupled with the faultlines in his memory, the fact that the eponymous Mike Engleby cannot account for events in his past has disastrous consequences for his future: "There are some things in the past that may have happened and some that may not have happened. But the reality of their happening or not happening then has no weight now".
Faulks' atmospheric - at times deceptively nostalgic - rendering of the 1970s means that while `Engleby` deals with the past, it does not conform to the author's favoured genre of the historical novel. Rather, in telling a whole life as a memoire - albeit one truncated by a selective or unreliable memory - Faulks is aiming to show life as transitive: always lived and felt, but fleeting and ungraspable. It's an astonishing work that cleverly uses the first person to play with notions of narrational reliability: of the lucidity and accountability of adulthood over youth, and of course the fragility of the human mind. Indeed the subject of psychosis is explored in far more interesting ways here than in the research-heavy but poorly characterised `Human Traces`. However, the groundwork done on Faulks' earlier work has really paid off in `Engleby`, a novel whose simplicity of form belies the depth of his knowledge of psychiatry.
As a loner and misanthrop, Mike Engleby is a rather marginal - if not invisible - character in the world that he inhabits, enabling a honest while cynical detailing of the life and times that surround him. He drifts through 1970s and 80s Britain, pulled along by the social transformations that shaped the period yet mysteriously detached from them, wavering between brutal lucidity and inertia. We notice very early, however, that something is missing from Mike "Toilet" Engleby's perception of himself, his memory, and the clarity of his perception of other people. It is difficult to judge at first whether we are just constricted by his subjective world view or if the narrator is being deliberately selective with the truth. At first his memory of events seems to have the supernatural accuracy of a savant, then seems obsessive, later completely unreliable.
Throughout the book we - and the narrative - are impelled by a desire to understand Engleby, or his place in the world, as much as to discover the truth of his actions. It's a wonderfully compulsive read, eventually driven by the protagonist's need to comprehend himself. Therefore, what we have is a portrait of someone which starts sketchily and gradually gains colour and clarity, much in the way that our minds tell - or trick - us into perceiving the present (a "trick" given that the richness of the present disolves with time). Debateably his finest novel, certainly his best since `Birdsong`, `Engleby` is one of the best new novels I have read in years.
 Too much waffle July 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An interesting premise and a great basis for a novel, but I found this too dragged out and laborious. Cutting it by about half might have made for an excellent read.
Mike Engelby is a loner.
As he leads us through the traumas of his childhood and school days and then on into his time at Cambridge University, we start to see chinks in his personality. He has no close friends and seems a bit autistic, possibly a touch schizophrenic. He starts to drink heavily and take 'blue pills' regularly. He prefers his own company to that of others and drives to remote pubs in the area to eat and drink alone.
During his time at University tragedy strikes - a young girl, Jennifer, on whom he has a crush, disappears. Despite a re-enactment and intensive questioning of students, no further sign of her is found.
Mike leaves Uni and becomes a newspaper reporter - probably an ideal job for a loner. He seems to be muddling alond quite effectively until the past comes back to haunt him.
I have only read one other Sebastian Faulks book - Birdsong. I regret I did not find Engelby to be even close to that.
Sections were readable but huge chunks seemed to ramble on at length about anything from the idea of time not being linear to theories of psychatric medicine.
I had to read this for a book group and struggled to the end, only to find that no-one else had bothered anyway!
Wow! June 30, 2008
I loved this, and really have nothing more to add to the positive comments so far posted. This is my first reading of Sebastian Faulks. I was not sure if I would like it, as had been told about (although not read) Birdsong, which didn't really appeal. However, bought this on the strength of seeing several positive reviews. I found it an engrossing read, managed to find some sympathy for the unappealing central character, enjoyed the elegance of Faulks' prose and his ability to evoke period detail of the 70s and 80s. I would highly recommend this.
An excellent read June 30, 2008
I agree with the other positive reviews of this book, initially I thought: "Why should I care about this character" but as the novel unfolds, so the ability to put the book down diminishes.
This was the second Faulks book I have read and I have just completed my third, he is certainly a talented author. The ending was excellent - obviously I don't want to give too much away - but I was never quite sure whether it is actually the things that happened to Engleby, or it's how he imagines they COULD have been for him. I'm told a sign of a good novel is to be pondering the meaning of its ending long after you have finished reading it. I certainly will not forget this read and look forward to owning my own copy.
Review June 26, 2008
This is the first Faulks novel I have read, and was inspired to do so on the strength of a favourable review in The Spectator. We see the life of the protagonist during his schooldays, childhood, student days and afterwards. There is sympathy for the character, but he also has a number of unpleasant traits, too. So our regard for him alternates. The novel can be confusing as it shifts back and forth in time, sometimes without any indication and it only becomes apparent after a few pages. One oddity is that the narrator refers to Jennifer's diary, yet it is apparent that the diary covers 1972-1974, and, given the lengthy page extracts we are shown, it could hardly fit into the single volume which the narrator tells us it consists of. A diarist myself, she would surely have written three volumes, and they might not be all conveniently in one place to be stolen. The other weakness is taht we are told the outcome quite a few pages before the end, and if the last couple of pages are supposed to indicate a twist, they don't; rather wishful thinking on someone's part. The novel reminded me of a later Agatha Christie novel, and uses a few of the same devices, which I spotted on a first reading. Having said that, it is a gripping read and I found myself reading this in two days.
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