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Reader Reviews | |
Review by Ben Macnair (310110) Rating (8/10) Review
by Ben Macnair Charles Highway is not what could be described as a typical romantic hero. He is not handsome, suffers from a myriad of mild health complaints, does not take easily to sports, and is most often to be found studying, when he is not with a succession of Girlfriends. A dysfunctional family, and his aspirations to go to Oxford, and sleep with an older woman are the back drop to his life. Rachel fits the bill perfectly, she is older, good looking, and faintly exotic, with a back-ground far removed from Charles’s. They have a friendship that is based around many of the same things. The poetry with which Charles seduces other women works on Rachel, but only because she knows it. The only problem is her boyfriend, Deforest. He has a campaign to seduce her, and the more time they spend together, the better his plan seems to be going. They meet each other’s families, spend a lot of time with each other, and have realistic sex, not the type that is described in books, but of the teenage variety. Charles has issues with his father, and writes an epic letter to him, that he never finishes. He has a teenage writing project he must finish before he hits twenty, and he has to revise for exams, so he can escape the fate that has befallen many of the people he knows. The characters are all well drawn, with the relationships between Charles, and his siblings, and his Mother and Father working well, although the scene where Charles meets his father’s latest Mistress at his sister and brother-in-law’s flat shows just how cruel his father can be, particularly towards his wife. The realms of Academia are well described, with Charles being offered the place at Oxford, only so he can’t get any worse. The story is well told, and well written, although at times the self-pitying Charles as narrator can be a bit much, and some of the characters could have been better drawn. Rachel’s boyfriend Deforest, for example, is allowed very little depth, whilst Rachel’s character is not as well developed as it might have been.
There was a film made of the book, but it did not really go anywhere,
and is different to the story told in the book. The book has no
happy ending, but a fitting one. Rachel has gone back to Deforest,
and Charles is seen writing in his room, as the clock strikes
12.00, and he turns 20. |
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