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kweekwegg's review against another edition
4.0
4.5. Fitzgerald is wonderful as always. I can see why this one in particular got so much attention; it's exemplary of her kaleidoscopic style. It really does have the feeling of looking at a watercolor, making your own impressions, and then seeing the greater thing as a whole.
Offshore has some of Fitzgerald's most easily likeable characters, though they are just as flawed and human as ever. Martha and Trisha, the two young daughters, are her quintessential young people, so witty and charming and full of life.
Offshore has some of Fitzgerald's most easily likeable characters, though they are just as flawed and human as ever. Martha and Trisha, the two young daughters, are her quintessential young people, so witty and charming and full of life.
brittn's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
ladulcinella's review against another edition
3.0
For some reason Penelope Fitzgerald doesn’t do the trick for me. The book is written in elegant, very subtle prose which provides a great read. I did enjoy the writing very much.
This novel, about a group of people who live on boats, at the edge of water and land, has a lot of themes I usually like: relations, people searching for meanings and a good life,....The end is open, very open and I think that is great.
And still after all these praising words, I cannot connect in any way to the book. I recognize rationally the qualities, but it does nothing for my feelings.
This novel, about a group of people who live on boats, at the edge of water and land, has a lot of themes I usually like: relations, people searching for meanings and a good life,....The end is open, very open and I think that is great.
And still after all these praising words, I cannot connect in any way to the book. I recognize rationally the qualities, but it does nothing for my feelings.
readingrara's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Yawn
grubstlodger's review against another edition
4.0
Another of Penelope Fitzgerald’s meticulous and precise little novels. This is more in the vain of The Bookshop, inspired by a part of her own life, where she lived on a barge in Battersea Reach, was friends with a rent boy, hid her daughters from truant officers and eventually lost her home beneath the murk of the Thames.
Also like The Bookshop, the characters were clear, precise and a pleasure to spend time with, even with their flaws. They are all amphibious people; halfway between river and shore, between good and bad, lost in a geographic limbo.
There is Nenna, a woman who feels like a lost little girl and Maurice the rent boy, they are both drifters, living life by not deciding because only by making a decision can they feel regret. There is Richard who lives life in a regimented manner, and his wife who feels unhappy with that life. The old painter Willis, who felt ‘his moral standards were much the same as Richard’s, only he did not feel he was well enough off to apply them as often.’ There’s also Nenna’s little girls; Tilda who has become a creature of the river and Martha, who is the most mature person there.
The book does contain events, particularly in the last third, leading to another one of her strange, aborted non-endings. It’s more about the snapshots of barge life and the strange little half-lives that bob around just offshore.
Also like The Bookshop, the characters were clear, precise and a pleasure to spend time with, even with their flaws. They are all amphibious people; halfway between river and shore, between good and bad, lost in a geographic limbo.
There is Nenna, a woman who feels like a lost little girl and Maurice the rent boy, they are both drifters, living life by not deciding because only by making a decision can they feel regret. There is Richard who lives life in a regimented manner, and his wife who feels unhappy with that life. The old painter Willis, who felt ‘his moral standards were much the same as Richard’s, only he did not feel he was well enough off to apply them as often.’ There’s also Nenna’s little girls; Tilda who has become a creature of the river and Martha, who is the most mature person there.
The book does contain events, particularly in the last third, leading to another one of her strange, aborted non-endings. It’s more about the snapshots of barge life and the strange little half-lives that bob around just offshore.
helen's review against another edition
4.0
Penelope Fitzgerald's prose is precise and understated and she packs so much in to 140 pages.
She draws on her real life experience of living on a barge moored on the Thames in the 1960s to give us a series of vignettes about a small independent community of flawed and likeable people.
It's a charming, funny and sad story about things falling apart (literally in the case of one barge). The humour is sometimes cutting but never cruel.
She draws on her real life experience of living on a barge moored on the Thames in the 1960s to give us a series of vignettes about a small independent community of flawed and likeable people.
It's a charming, funny and sad story about things falling apart (literally in the case of one barge). The humour is sometimes cutting but never cruel.
Favourite quote:
"Nenna was thirty-two, an age by which if a blonde woman's hair hasn't turned dark, it never will."
ameliaminamikoji's review against another edition
4.5
'at half tide they heard the water chuckling, waiting to lift the boats, at flood tide they saw the river as a powerful god, bearded with the white foam of detergents, calling home the twenty-seven lost rivers of London, sighing as the night declined.'
serialreader's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
jengennari's review against another edition
4.0
A fun and quirky slice of life book about living on houseboats on the Thames. Absolutely original, authentic characters.