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 Old Filth  

Old Filth
Jane Gardam

Europa Editions, 2006 - 256 pages

average customer review:based on 16 reviews
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     highly recommended  highly recommended



"Jane Gardam's beautiful, vivid and defiantly funny novel is a must."The Times

"Gardam's superb new novel is surely her masterpiece . . . one of the most moving fictions I have read in years . . . This is the rare novel that drives its readers forward while persistently waylaying and detaining by the sheer beauty and inventiveness of it style."The Guardian

"The Whitbread winner scores again with a compelling novel based, in part, on the early life of Rudyard Kipling."Time Out

Sir Edward Feathers has progressed from struggling young barrister to wealthy expatriate lawyer to distinguished retired judge, living out his last days in comfortable seclusion in Dorset. The engrossing and moving account of his life, from birth in colonial Malaya, to Wales, where he is sent as a "Raj orphan," to Oxford, his career and marriage, parallels much of the 20th century's torrid and twisted history.

Old Filth was nominated for the 2005 Orange Prize.

Jane Gardam lives with her husband and three children in England. She has won Katherine Mansfield Award, the PEN Macmillan Silver Pen Award, the Whitbread Novel Award (twice), and has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She was recently awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize in recognition of a distinguished literary career.




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Gardam's "Loss," Our Gain?

As is unanimously pointed out in the other reader reviews, OLD FILTH is a mordant, brilliantly written book that will impress even the most discriminating reader. The character profile that author Jane Gardam draws of its venerable protagonist is nuanced and thoroughly convincing, and the book is also evocative in its depictions of life in Malaysia and wartime Britain.

My continued praise for OLD FILTH could grow tiresome, so please allow me this cavil: this is also not a particularly nourishing book. I took my volume on a long plane flight (not to southeast Asia, though that would have been fitting) and looked forward to the opportunity to sink my teeth into it. And while I found much to admire, the fact is that as an old man, Old Filth is not the most engaging character. He is essentially a passive personality, the book's murder mystery (bit of a red herring, that) notwithstanding. Further, isn't it a little obvious to name a thieving character "Loss"? But again, let me hasten to add, this is a rare misstep in an excellent novel.

I might also add that although I was aware of Jane Gardam's prodigious literary reputation, this is the first book of hers I have assayed. I will return.

Also recommended: The Orwell Reader: Fiction, Essays, and Reportage

Final Note: Please try to ignore this printing's inordinately cheesy cover.


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Stunning

Most writers dream of writing a book of this depth and magnitude. JG executed the task flawlessly. She segues between the past and present in such a way that the prose should be taught in every writing school. The only knock I would give the book is the title, and only that it might turn some off at first. It is an acronym rather than a comment on hygine.


Reply to Midwest Book Review

The review of "Old Filth" by Midwest Book Review seems to have been written by someone who didn't actually read the novel. "Old Filth" is an excellent book, but it doesn't follow the main character through his legal career. In fact, my only complaint about this novel is that I'd wish for a clearer picture of Sir Edward Feather's life as a successful lawyer and judge in Hong Kong. "Old Filth" evocatively portrays the main character's childhood and old age, but it gives only glimpses of the time in between, which offers intriguing material for a novel in its own right.


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Death of an Empire

I totally agree with all the superlatives heaped on this wonderful book. Usually I don't take the time to write a review unless I have something original to contribute, but since this is the best book I've read this year, I just had to add another positive to those already written.


reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4



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