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foggy_rosamund's review against another edition
3.0
Frances and her husband are British expats who meet in Botswana. After a few years of marriage, her husband Andrew gets a job in Jeddah, and the two move to Saudi Arabia. Andrew arrives first, and moves into a furnished apartment. Frances spends her days alone in this apartment while her husband works; she's a cartographer by profession, but she cannot work in Jeddah. Thirty years after publication, this book is interesting snapshot of Saudia Arabia at one moment in time, as well as a portrait of British expat culture. No one comes off well in this book: the British expats are shallow, racist and avaricious; the culture of Jeddah is also described as shallow, callous and cruel. This is my second Mantel novel, and I'm really surprised by how hollow her characters are here: in Beyond Black, she showed a deep understanding of her characters, but in this novel, even Frances is not well drawn. What does a cartographer do or feel passionate about? We never know. But that's not to say this book is without its merits: the prose is careful and evocative, the dialogue is believable, the story is gripping. One of the things that I found most interesting is the ways in which the male characters are shown as being completely incapable of understanding what the women are feeling: they don't seem to be able to see the restrictions placed on women, or any of the misogyny they face. They see cat-calling and harassment as simply an inconvenience. They also can't see ways in which women may want or need to express themselves, whether it's by exploring Islam or spending time alone. This was a subtly written and thought-provoking insight in a book that often felt directionless.
mary_l's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
ooo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
jeannelovesbooks's review against another edition
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The late, great Hilary Mantel is probably best known for Wolf Hall, the Booker Prize-winning novel that propelled her into the spotlight. Published twenty years earlier, Eight Months is trademark Mantel: an exploration of politics and religion through extravagant use of metaphors and similes, brilliant dialogue and darkly caustic wit. And of course the sheer beauty of her writing.
‘The sea itself, sometimes cobalt in colour and sometimes turquoise, has a flat, domestic, well-used appearance. Small white-collared waves trip primly up to the precincts of the desalination plant, like a party of vicars on an industrial tour.’
The story centres on Frances and Andrew, an English couple recently arrived in Jeddah. He’s been offered a salary too good to resist, she simply has to sit it out for a few years. Easier than it sounds. Between the stifling heat, the rules that constrain Frances’ freedom and the tightly-knit ex-pat community (gawd, they’re awful), her life is oppressive. Suspicious coming and goings in the empty upstairs apartment add a sense of intrigue but not one which is satisfactorily resolved. We’re only party to Frances’ perspective: glimpses of shadowy strangers and conflicting accounts of who’s doing what to whom - aka rampant gossip - that adds up to a confusing end.
But that really doesn’t matter because the joy of Eight Months lies in its character exploration. Mantel lays bare Frances’ perpetual inner conflict: professing tolerance but deeply intolerant of the regime; entertaining glassy-eyed racist ex-pats in the name of social integration; determined to retain the liberal values that clash with cultural expectations and local laws. This is a horror story of a different kind. No shape-shifting monsters, zombie apocalypse or demonic possession but rather the horror of isolation and fear. Worth it for the money though.
“‘So what do you want, more than you want to be rich?’
‘Peace,’ Andrew says.
‘Freedom,’ Frances says.”
Fibbers.
‘The sea itself, sometimes cobalt in colour and sometimes turquoise, has a flat, domestic, well-used appearance. Small white-collared waves trip primly up to the precincts of the desalination plant, like a party of vicars on an industrial tour.’
The story centres on Frances and Andrew, an English couple recently arrived in Jeddah. He’s been offered a salary too good to resist, she simply has to sit it out for a few years. Easier than it sounds. Between the stifling heat, the rules that constrain Frances’ freedom and the tightly-knit ex-pat community (gawd, they’re awful), her life is oppressive. Suspicious coming and goings in the empty upstairs apartment add a sense of intrigue but not one which is satisfactorily resolved. We’re only party to Frances’ perspective: glimpses of shadowy strangers and conflicting accounts of who’s doing what to whom - aka rampant gossip - that adds up to a confusing end.
But that really doesn’t matter because the joy of Eight Months lies in its character exploration. Mantel lays bare Frances’ perpetual inner conflict: professing tolerance but deeply intolerant of the regime; entertaining glassy-eyed racist ex-pats in the name of social integration; determined to retain the liberal values that clash with cultural expectations and local laws. This is a horror story of a different kind. No shape-shifting monsters, zombie apocalypse or demonic possession but rather the horror of isolation and fear. Worth it for the money though.
“‘So what do you want, more than you want to be rich?’
‘Peace,’ Andrew says.
‘Freedom,’ Frances says.”
Fibbers.
paulinemason's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
shanth's review
It's always torturous to read a horrible novel by an author you love. Unfortunately, this early book by Mantel is too hung up on the otherness of Jeddah to undertake any sort of serious examination of Saudi society. The Muslim neighbours, especially the Pakistani woman, are more caricatures than fully developed characters. This is all the more disappointing because there were points where the book actually does manage to convey the claustrophobic nature of life under strict purdah and segregation of society.
oldmansimms's review against another edition
2.0
As plotless and meandering as Every Day is Mother's Day, but at least the setting is more interesting.
charleslambert's review
4.0
A cracking read and a master-class in how to fold the political and the personal into a single seamless narrative. I can't imagine the Saudi Tourist Board (if such a body exists) liking it very much, nor the kind of expats who end up there, but it's a salutary tale in more ways than one. Highly recommended, and further proof of just what a versatile writer Mantel is.
sheamussweeney's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
bookpossum's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book with a mounting sense of dread, all the more appropriate in the light of recent events in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey. The fear and suspicion of foul play experienced by the protagonist would have had me running for the airport as fast as I could go.
Hilary Mantel lived in Saudi Arabia for four years, and frankly, I don't know how she bore it. The day she left Jeddah, she says in an interview at the back of the book, was the happiest day of her life.
Creepy and brilliant.
Hilary Mantel lived in Saudi Arabia for four years, and frankly, I don't know how she bore it. The day she left Jeddah, she says in an interview at the back of the book, was the happiest day of her life.
Creepy and brilliant.