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Lädt ... The Trouble with Goats and Sheep: A Novel (2017. Auflage)von Joanna Cannon (Autor)
Werk-InformationenThe Trouble with Goats and Sheep von Joanna Cannon
Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. Even though I expected a more packaged, complete ending, I did enjoy this novel. The writing feels very free, unencumbered, simple yet sophisticated. There are some delightful turns of phrasing and implied descriptions that provide detail without saying too much. The narrator, Grace, is a lot like Flavia de Luce without being a replication. Both are intelligent and think more highly of themselves than they ought and are blissfully unaware of their faults - in an endearing way. It is too bad the narrative has to go third person for past events and other characters. It would have been a very excellent novel if Grace's story was held throughout. However, its interruptions introduce and develop many other interesting characters who also live in The Avenue. Tilly could have had more page time, too, because she is also delightful. The story is set in 1976 with 1967 flashbacks, but hopefully readers see the bias and judgementalism as commentary on today's society just as much. This book is definitely a novel of two halves. Told from multiple viewpoints, it is set in the roasting hot dry summer of 1976 in a small housing estate somewhere in England. The main action takes place in a close/culdesac of houses where a woman, Mrs Creasey, has gone missing. Two ten-year-olds, Grace who lives in the close, and Tillie, her friend who lives somewhere nearby, decide to investigate, but in the form of a quest to find God in the close, as they have been convinced by the sermon in church that He will sort things out. Part of the story is from Grace's point of view, and other parts are from some of the adults living in the neighbourhood, and they switch between 1976 and 1967, when a baby was supposedly abducted. Gradually, we learn that the various adults all have secrets which Mrs Creasey, a good listener, was privy to - and it seems likely she was murdered to keep her quiet. One man, Walter Bishop, is a local scapegoat for everything that goes wrong - he was suspected of abducting the baby, had his house burned down with his mother in it, and has been subjected to harrassment by - at times - crowds threatening to become a mob. The finger is pointed at him in connection with Mrs Creasey's disappearance, especially since she had apparently been helping him (his glasses are found at her house with information that indicates she was taking them to be fixed). Despite the narrative being a little too knowing at times for a 10-year-old, I enjoyed Grace's viewpoint best of all and was really enjoying the story which was heading for a 5-star review. And then the bottom dropped out when the whole neighbourhood suddenly developed a fixation with a stain on a water pipe which bears some resemblance to Jesus, even characters who seemed very unlikely to have any religious convictions. I couldn't really take it seriously after that - or the abrupt recovery of a child who was seemingly at death's door in hospital. And the ending is a deliberate tease. So given that the first part was very enjoyable and the second not, my verdict can only be a 3-star rating.
An insightful, honest book, The Trouble With Goats and Sheep is the first novel from Joanna Cannon, a doctor whose psychiatric specialities are put to good use here. Each character has fascinating quirks and foibles, and their battles with guilt, distrust and horrifying past traumas are manifested masterfully...Cannon represents the world through the eyes of a child sensitively and intelligently, and highlights the everyday absurdity of grown-ups. ..Cannon presents a whole street full of complicated and realistic people whose roles as pillars of the community are called into question. This debut is one of the most complex, touching, and delightful novels I’ve read in a long time. ... Her prose shines with a genuine understanding of human nature – the beauty and the frailty – and a mastery of the written word. Cannon captures the nuances of so many aspects of society perfectly, but perhaps she most notably hits the mark in the way she conveys how it feels to be a child. Grace’s voice, and Cannon’s prose, astonishes with frequent, shimmering loveliness...As Grace and Tilly get closer to the truth, their observations reveal both the beauty and the ugliness at the core of humanity. People, as an author such as Cannon knows better than most, are never exactly who or what they seem. This is not always a dangerous truth, but it is one that must be handled with care. For some readers there may be too many ordinary misfortunes; too many enigmas in the one book...Having said that, this is a novel to be savoured rather than hurried through...the various characters’ histories come together to form a vibrant whole, reminding me both of Carys Bray’s brilliantly profound A Song for Issy Bradley, with its parallel narratives, and of Kate Atkinson’s wry and clever Jackson Brodie novels. Full of humour and careful depictions of everyday suffering, this is not so much a mystery novel as an investigation into the wealth of secrets and heartbreak that even the most commonplace street can hold.
Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is a quirky and utterly charming debut about a community in need of absolution and two girls learning what it means to belong.
England, 1976. Mrs. Creasy is missing and the Avenue is alive with whispers. The neighbors blame her sudden disappearance on the heat wave, but ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly aren't convinced. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, the girls decide to take matters into their own hands. Inspired by the local vicar, they go looking for God--they believe that if they find Him they might also find Mrs. Creasy and bring her home. Spunky, spirited Grace and quiet, thoughtful Tilly go door to door in search of clues. The cul-de-sac starts to give up its secrets, and the amateur detectives uncover much more than ever imagined. As they try to make sense of what they've seen and heard, a complicated history of deception begins to emerge. Everyone on the Avenue has something to hide, a reason for not fitting in. In the suffocating heat of the summer, the ability to guard these differences becomes impossible. Along with the parched lawns and the melting pavement, the lives of all the neighbors begin to unravel. What the girls don't realize is that the lies told to conceal what happened one fateful day about a decade ago are the same ones Mrs. Creasy was beginning to peel back just before she disappeared. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English English fiction Modern Period 2000-Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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What a relief when I turned the last page. ( )