Old Filth | Jane Gardam | Moving and thoughtful     books:     Old Filth   Old Filth Jane Gardam Europa Editions, 2006 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image  for more information click here        highly recommended Rich and moving portrait What a wonderful book - the writing is exquisite. I loved Faith Fox and Queen of the Tambourine also, and can't wait to read more of Jane Gardam. She has such insight and empathy for her characters, and is also wickedly funny. Sir Edward Feathers, a retired and elderly judge, is from all appearances a man who has lived an uneventful life and been smiled on by fortune - or so his colleagues apparently believe. We are taken back to his earliest days in Malaysia, where we look in at a little boy happily playing in the mud, not knowing the English language, and living an uncomplicated life. He is soon wrenched away, sent to a foster family in England and we then peek in on his life at various stages. It's heart-wrenching to see the pain inflicted on the little boy in his new circumstances, all the more painful as we have seen his innocence and delight in his former life. We witness the effect this pain - as well as the casual indifference of other adults who should have cared for him - had on his sense of self. He is shown kindness by his headmaster, "Sir", and I believe he would have been lost if not for it. We end up with a rich portrait of Edward Feathers - with each glimpse into his life another nuance is added. The story of his journey from childhood into old age is powerful and moving, and the juxtaposition of the small boy playing in the Malaysian mud, innocent of the hurt that people can inflict, and the "spectacularly clean" and proper judge soldiering on into old age will stay with you.  for more information click here Moving and thoughtful I was not previously familiar with Gardam but I now see that that was a significant omission. She is equally capable of depicting the broad, sweeping story of the decline of the British Empire and of writing beautifully conceived miniature scenes of human joy and desperation. This book contains a secret that is masterfully hinted at by the author, and when it is finally told, it falls perfectly into place and it makes the rest of the narrative that much stronger. Altogether an enjoyable read. To an American, the description of daily British life and institutions (the food, the flowers, the roads) is quaint and fascinating in a way that Gardam may not have intended, but that only adds to this book's charm.  for more information click here Cradle-to-Grave fictional biography that really works Gardam, Jane, Old Filth I found this cradle-to-grave fictional biography fascinating for several reasons. One is the portrayal of infancy of an English child in India under the Raj and the sudden transportation of that child to an unforgiving foster parent in Wales, in the footsteps of Rudyard Kipling's "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep." The characters of Filth's relatives come through clearly and stay with the reader throughout the rest of the book. The other reason is the description of Filth in his old age, nearing 80, and then moving on to his death at almost 90. The author has a peculiar sensitivity to this period in a person's life, when friends and spouses die off and one loses one's independence and faculties gradually, with occasional bright intervals. Another striking feature of the novel is the description of Britain's decay, not only as it lost its empire but as it is today, boiled down to crowds, cell phones and a Ferris wheel. Certain passages are poetic and memorable: "Garbutt found Filth, looped up to drips and scans, trying to shut out the quack of the television sets and the clatter of the public ward where male and female lay alongside each other in various stages of ill health, like Pompeii." I can't describe the novel as comic or inspiring, but it lays out things we would rather not think about, and does so masterfully. Kudos to the author.  for more information click here Curried egs for breakfast This is a book by an old author about an old lawyer looking back over a long and very British life and in large part about a world that no longer exists, the British Empire in the far East. It is full of strange, wonderful and unlikely things and people. People think the protaganist was an old stick. Well, yes he was but oh the things that happened to him. And less of a stick than people thought., The book is about being old, the end of empire, the oddnesses of life and the elusiveness of happiness. It is likehaving a meal from an exotic cuisine--Malaysian perhaps?--in the middle of ordinaary days and an ordinary diet. You might not want it for your daily diet but it's quite wonderful. It takes a certain amount of age and experience to enjoy the book properly but if you have them you will have the time of your life. Is it "relevant". Yes really. I'm an old lawyer myself and the newspapers are warning about the end of our empire.  for more information click here Subtle but grasping This book was my first Jane Gardam novel. It is about a man who is 80 years old, but his state of consciousness is frozen in a time when he was younger, when he was happy. While in the book he is looking back at his life, you get the sense that only a few years of his life really mattered to him. The rest was just details. It is not an intense novel. But a very subtle grasping one, that will leave you thinking about it for a while after you are done. reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4 products you might be interested in search for books filth      toavi.com    web randomly chosen book: Los secretos de Dios (The Secret Things of God): Descubra los tesoros ...