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bexef2b3's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
aniahollinshead's review against another edition
2.0
this was perhaps the oddest book ever. i didn't actively hate it, but i definitely didn't like it.
- the plot was, until the last chapter, so stagnant. most of it was our pompous protagonist walking around the ship and forming complex opinions on two-dimensional characters whom we only ever learn the last name of.
- even the sinking chapters I found myself skipping through. how do you make the sinking of the Titanic boring?! Beryl Bainbridge certainly managed. Probably because we spent the entire time looking for Wallis. no one cares.
- the protagonist was so annoying. yes, the class divide in 1912 was clear cut, but Morgan didn't need to revel in it and mention it every three lines.
on the other hand, sometimes Morgan was quite funny, and occasionally the scandals were somewhat interesting. hence 2 stars.
p.s. happy bday to me heheh
- the plot was, until the last chapter, so stagnant. most of it was our pompous protagonist walking around the ship and forming complex opinions on two-dimensional characters whom we only ever learn the last name of.
- even the sinking chapters I found myself skipping through. how do you make the sinking of the Titanic boring?! Beryl Bainbridge certainly managed. Probably because we spent the entire time looking for Wallis. no one cares.
- the protagonist was so annoying. yes, the class divide in 1912 was clear cut, but Morgan didn't need to revel in it and mention it every three lines.
on the other hand, sometimes Morgan was quite funny, and occasionally the scandals were somewhat interesting. hence 2 stars.
p.s. happy bday to me heheh
schopflin's review against another edition
3.0
Like all her books, this is an Excellent Short Novel, but I found it less compelling than some of her others. I have enjoyed her more brittle depictions of shallow, doomed characters in the past and love the period detail here but it's very difficult to care what happens to them.
evastrange's review against another edition
4.0
More than a dramatic account of a maritime disaster, this short novel is an elegy for the society that would perish not long after, the microcosm of the ship mirroring the old world order on the eve of its spectacular and spectacularly destructive demise. In just a few broad strokes Bainbridge paints a very vivid picture of that society and the rules by which it plays, of its gross inequality and of the casual oppression and dehumanisation of the lower decks – errr, classes. Most of all, it shines a harsh light on the absurdity of the lifestyle and behaviour of the upper class, the self-appointed captains of a ship that was slowly but surely, and just as willfully blind as the Titanic, steering towards a big fat disaster and tragedy of its own making, its crew astonishingly oblivious to the reality of their situation. This highlighting of the absurdity inherent in so many historic events and developments is classic Bainbridge and her novels’ strongest point. It’s infinitely more poignant in Master Georgie, though.
nunnuanne's review against another edition
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
dynamo170's review against another edition
4.0
A little book that nicely captures the atmosphere in the first class surroundings and perhaps what it might have felt like to have been there.
brona's review against another edition
3.0
Peopled by fictional characters who mixed with actual first class passengers and crew, Bainbridge explored the nature of class and courage and integrity, all mixed up with foolishness and snobbery and the mundane.
Mystery abounds, there are puzzling characters, snatches of overheard conversations, loads of drinking and buffoonery. Our narrator, Morgan spends a lot of time philosophising and pondering his future (even though the story is actually told from this future Morgan's perspective). He is insecure about his past, yet the hand of fate seems to play a big role in every thing that happens to him.
I wasn't sure how much I enjoyed this at first and puzzled over what star rating to give it on Goodreads.
Bainbridge provided sooooooo much foreshadowing that I nearly yelled out to her "enough already! I get it!" There was also a coolness in her writing style that kept me from engaging wholeheartedly.
However now that a couple of days have gone by, her attention to detail and startling descriptions keep popping into my mind. I also read somewhere that she suggested that her books should be read three times each. An artists conceit perhaps, but for an inveterate re-reader like myself, this was manna to my eyes.
I am now very curious to see what a re-read might reveal.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/every-man-for-himself-by-beryl.html
Mystery abounds, there are puzzling characters, snatches of overheard conversations, loads of drinking and buffoonery. Our narrator, Morgan spends a lot of time philosophising and pondering his future (even though the story is actually told from this future Morgan's perspective). He is insecure about his past, yet the hand of fate seems to play a big role in every thing that happens to him.
I wasn't sure how much I enjoyed this at first and puzzled over what star rating to give it on Goodreads.
Bainbridge provided sooooooo much foreshadowing that I nearly yelled out to her "enough already! I get it!" There was also a coolness in her writing style that kept me from engaging wholeheartedly.
However now that a couple of days have gone by, her attention to detail and startling descriptions keep popping into my mind. I also read somewhere that she suggested that her books should be read three times each. An artists conceit perhaps, but for an inveterate re-reader like myself, this was manna to my eyes.
I am now very curious to see what a re-read might reveal.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/every-man-for-himself-by-beryl.html
alarra's review against another edition
3.0
I love her writing, the stark precision of language and the merest detail that hints at so much under the surface. This is menacing while being mild in tone and sharp in observation, a retelling of some lives that might have been on a doomed ship.
asuiterclarke's review against another edition
3.0
Last week, I picked up Beryl Bainbridge's Whitbread Novel Award-winning Every Man for Himself: a short, dramatic novel set on the doomed RMS Titanic. Through the eyes of an orphan-turned-rich-upper-class man in his early twenties, we see the days leading up to the great ship's demise in the Atlantic.
Let me just say, I, like many others, am quite obsessed by the Titanic story. I am also incredibly freaked out by the coincidences associated with a novel written 14 years before the ship ever took its maiden voyage, which tells the story of a ship called Titan that sinks in the Atlantic after striking an iceberg.
I mean, seriously.
So it was a no-brainer to pick up my first Bainbridge novel considering it had won such a prestigious award and it was based on the events of a tragedy that still enrages me even though it happened 100 years ago.
A book based on a true story
The eeriness of largely knowing how a story is going to end cannot be understated. It was the same when I watched the Titanic movie, which came out the same year as this book, by the way. You know the ship is going to sink -- you just don't know which of the characters you're getting to know will die.
I did feel a lot of compassion for Morgan. He's in love with a girl who messes him around. He's surrounded by high-class dolts and while he fits in all right, he's still just a normal young man in his twenties who's trying to find his place in the world. He misses his sister and longs to know more about his parents. He wants a career, but he doesn't know in what yet. He pities the poor but doesn't really bother to help them.
Morgan is, in fact, pretty normal. That being said, he's also a frustrating mess to experience this story through. He often makes a decision and then changes his mind within minutes. He sees the injustices between the upper and lower classes, but he remains quiet.
There is a rather large cast of characters for such a small novel, and it painstakingly takes us through each day leading up to the sinking of the ship, which is really only covered in the last quarter of the novel.
While there were some clever moments, and some interesting dialogue, and while Bainbridge obviously researched this novel thoroughly and provided some details I've never seen before, I was sort of bored. I mean, I knew it was going to sink. The whole time, the only suspense in the story was knowing it was going to sink, which had nothing to do with the author's mastery of suspense but more so with my knowledge of the real events.
I did have a rush of rage when they clambered into lifeboats and these stupid people refused to get in because they were so certain the boat wouldn't really sink and they didn't want to tear their dresses. I voiced anger several times as third-class passengers were barred from the lifeboats while their high-class counterparts wouldn't even put on life preservers and the boats were lowered with only a quarter capacity.
There weren't enough lifeboats for everyone on board, but so many more lives could have been saved if people hadn't been such idiots.
Bainbridge handles all these events well, inducing the appropriate level of fury as we watch lives uselessly wasted. I think she captures the lives and cares of the upper class and gives a realistic portrayal of what it must have been like on that ship.
I'm not sure why, then, that I'm left without any regret of finishing the book. That, to me, is what separates good books from great ones -- when I just don't want it to end. With Every Man for Himself, I didn't mind in the least when the last page came along.
Let me just say, I, like many others, am quite obsessed by the Titanic story. I am also incredibly freaked out by the coincidences associated with a novel written 14 years before the ship ever took its maiden voyage, which tells the story of a ship called Titan that sinks in the Atlantic after striking an iceberg.
I mean, seriously.
So it was a no-brainer to pick up my first Bainbridge novel considering it had won such a prestigious award and it was based on the events of a tragedy that still enrages me even though it happened 100 years ago.
A book based on a true story
The eeriness of largely knowing how a story is going to end cannot be understated. It was the same when I watched the Titanic movie, which came out the same year as this book, by the way. You know the ship is going to sink -- you just don't know which of the characters you're getting to know will die.
I did feel a lot of compassion for Morgan. He's in love with a girl who messes him around. He's surrounded by high-class dolts and while he fits in all right, he's still just a normal young man in his twenties who's trying to find his place in the world. He misses his sister and longs to know more about his parents. He wants a career, but he doesn't know in what yet. He pities the poor but doesn't really bother to help them.
Morgan is, in fact, pretty normal. That being said, he's also a frustrating mess to experience this story through. He often makes a decision and then changes his mind within minutes. He sees the injustices between the upper and lower classes, but he remains quiet.
There is a rather large cast of characters for such a small novel, and it painstakingly takes us through each day leading up to the sinking of the ship, which is really only covered in the last quarter of the novel.
While there were some clever moments, and some interesting dialogue, and while Bainbridge obviously researched this novel thoroughly and provided some details I've never seen before, I was sort of bored. I mean, I knew it was going to sink. The whole time, the only suspense in the story was knowing it was going to sink, which had nothing to do with the author's mastery of suspense but more so with my knowledge of the real events.
I did have a rush of rage when they clambered into lifeboats and these stupid people refused to get in because they were so certain the boat wouldn't really sink and they didn't want to tear their dresses. I voiced anger several times as third-class passengers were barred from the lifeboats while their high-class counterparts wouldn't even put on life preservers and the boats were lowered with only a quarter capacity.
There weren't enough lifeboats for everyone on board, but so many more lives could have been saved if people hadn't been such idiots.
Bainbridge handles all these events well, inducing the appropriate level of fury as we watch lives uselessly wasted. I think she captures the lives and cares of the upper class and gives a realistic portrayal of what it must have been like on that ship.
I'm not sure why, then, that I'm left without any regret of finishing the book. That, to me, is what separates good books from great ones -- when I just don't want it to end. With Every Man for Himself, I didn't mind in the least when the last page came along.
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