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giftofthegab's review against another edition
slow-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
2.5
millypip's review against another edition
5.0
When retired doctor and soon-to-be-widower Hilary Spinster hovers over fence under the pretence of some gardening, his Bangladeshi neighbours, the Sharifullahs, watch him with hesitant patience. But when he leaps over the fence to save their young son it forms the first strands of a bond between the two families that will connect them over the next 40 years.
The Spinsters are small, unknowingly self absorbed and disappointed in themselves and each other. The Sharifullahs present themselves with the outwards nobility of all immigrant families in slightly PC 21st century novels. Their pasts, and attempts to navigate the stormy world of today, make a tapestry of stories that are woven together with the swooping arc of family saga.
The English chapters and charming, easy to read and vaguely Victorian in tone and pace. The Bangladeshi chapters fiery and gripping. Despite a slightly self congratulatory overtone this story is deeply affecting.
The Spinsters are small, unknowingly self absorbed and disappointed in themselves and each other. The Sharifullahs present themselves with the outwards nobility of all immigrant families in slightly PC 21st century novels. Their pasts, and attempts to navigate the stormy world of today, make a tapestry of stories that are woven together with the swooping arc of family saga.
The English chapters and charming, easy to read and vaguely Victorian in tone and pace. The Bangladeshi chapters fiery and gripping. Despite a slightly self congratulatory overtone this story is deeply affecting.
bibliolinde's review
4.0
This novel deals wonderfully with family relationships and culture differences. It reads like a Victorian novel in that it follows many clearly-characterised individuals as their trajectories overlap. Would recommend if you’re looking for something long but easy to read.
Hensher’s novel follows a Bangladeshi and an English family, who happen to be neighbours, and considers their cultural and individual histories over 2 generations from the 70s to the 2000s.
Hensher’s novel follows a Bangladeshi and an English family, who happen to be neighbours, and considers their cultural and individual histories over 2 generations from the 70s to the 2000s.
kelbi's review
2.0
There was a good book inside this one, but I found it sprawling in a bad way. Too many characters, too long a time period, too episodic. I enjoyed the section set in Bangladesh the most I think, which surprised me. His editor did not do their work properly. This book lacked a proper shape.
traceyyoung's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
It was interesting to read a book based in the area I currently live and being able to picture the shops and buildings that were being descriped. The bits set in Bangladesh were interesting and not a history that I was familiar with. I also hadn't realised until I got to the end that it was a retelling of The WInter;s Tale. In parts there was too much detail but I didn't mind too much. I prefered The Northern Clemancy but still enjoyed this book.
treeleef's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
ffir's review against another edition
3.0
The Friendly Ones follows two neighbouring families in Sheffield, the Spinsters and the Sharifullahs, skipping forward and backwards in time between the 1970s to the present day.
The Spinsters are a solidly middle-class white family. The elderly parents are Celia and Hilary. Celia is dying of bowel cancer and Hilary, at first deeply unlikeable, announces that he intends to divorce her and wishes to do so before she dies, although she has only months left to live, as it transpires to punish a decades-old transgression. Next door are the Sharifullahs, a Bangladeshi family who move to Sheffield permanently in the 1970s as their newly-formed country implodes and they struggle to come to terms with their own family tragedy.
The Spinsters are a family on the decline, with disintegrating relationships and children permanently divorcing themselves from the family. The Sharifullahs’s time in Britain by contrast charts an upwards trajectory, most evidently played out through space, as they progress through Sheffield real-estate. The final sections of the novel are perhaps a little heavy-handed in stressing this and it begins to feel a little like a children’s morality tale, where the spoilt Spinster children get their comeuppance and the hard-working Sharifullah’s become millionaires and a Baroness.
I’m still ambivalent about this book a week on from finishing it. I think there’s a question as to whether Hensher is the best person to tell the Sharifullah’s story, although this is mitigated by the fact that his husband Zaveed Mahmood is Bangladeshi-born and has inspired other works of Hensher’s and admittedly the most interesting section of the book are the passages set in Dacca . There are too many secondary characters, including Ada Browning the engineering department secretary; the real estate agent who has a page or so dedicated to her casual racism and the revisiting of Enrico to indicate Aisha’s success and there are some bizarre scenes which appear to add little to the plot, as when one of Aisha’s school friends converses with the spirits. With too wide a focus, a lot of the characters became bland and uninteresting and their motivations weren’t explained, leading to abrupt and illogical choices – Aisha’s love letter to Leo and then later Leo’s brief flirtation with the idea to run away with Aisha on meeting her for the first time in decades (despite his marriage and young child) spring to mind here.
There are some redeeming factors. I learnt about the formation of Bangladesh with the Friend of Bangladesh and the intense fighting between the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. There are compelling parts of the plot, including Hilary’s wish to divorce Celia, his gradual transformation into a more sympathetic character and the Sharifullah family rift which is slowly explained. A brief interaction between Aisha and an old school-friend (now an immigration lawyer) raises an interesting point about who is an immigrant and what defines that identity, comparing the highly-educated and well-off Aisha, whose father is an engineering professor at the University of Sheffield and whose mother owns multiple properties to her friend’s clients, who live in squalid conditions with 18 men in a house, who has to lock his food in a cupboard to stop the other men eating it and is fighting to remain in the country. Beginning and ending with family parties, the first for the Sharifullahs and the second for Hilary’s 100th birthday, brings a neat sense of resolution to the story whilst allowing some obvious comparisons between the two families.
Overall a mediocre read – not one I regret spending time on but not one that I want to revisit, falls short of expectations built by The Northern Clemency.
The Spinsters are a solidly middle-class white family. The elderly parents are Celia and Hilary. Celia is dying of bowel cancer and Hilary, at first deeply unlikeable, announces that he intends to divorce her and wishes to do so before she dies, although she has only months left to live, as it transpires to punish a decades-old transgression. Next door are the Sharifullahs, a Bangladeshi family who move to Sheffield permanently in the 1970s as their newly-formed country implodes and they struggle to come to terms with their own family tragedy.
The Spinsters are a family on the decline, with disintegrating relationships and children permanently divorcing themselves from the family. The Sharifullahs’s time in Britain by contrast charts an upwards trajectory, most evidently played out through space, as they progress through Sheffield real-estate. The final sections of the novel are perhaps a little heavy-handed in stressing this and it begins to feel a little like a children’s morality tale, where the spoilt Spinster children get their comeuppance and the hard-working Sharifullah’s become millionaires and a Baroness.
I’m still ambivalent about this book a week on from finishing it. I think there’s a question as to whether Hensher is the best person to tell the Sharifullah’s story, although this is mitigated by the fact that his husband Zaveed Mahmood is Bangladeshi-born and has inspired other works of Hensher’s and admittedly the most interesting section of the book are the passages set in Dacca . There are too many secondary characters, including Ada Browning the engineering department secretary; the real estate agent who has a page or so dedicated to her casual racism and the revisiting of Enrico to indicate Aisha’s success and there are some bizarre scenes which appear to add little to the plot, as when one of Aisha’s school friends converses with the spirits. With too wide a focus, a lot of the characters became bland and uninteresting and their motivations weren’t explained, leading to abrupt and illogical choices – Aisha’s love letter to Leo and then later Leo’s brief flirtation with the idea to run away with Aisha on meeting her for the first time in decades (despite his marriage and young child) spring to mind here.
There are some redeeming factors. I learnt about the formation of Bangladesh with the Friend of Bangladesh and the intense fighting between the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. There are compelling parts of the plot, including Hilary’s wish to divorce Celia, his gradual transformation into a more sympathetic character and the Sharifullah family rift which is slowly explained. A brief interaction between Aisha and an old school-friend (now an immigration lawyer) raises an interesting point about who is an immigrant and what defines that identity, comparing the highly-educated and well-off Aisha, whose father is an engineering professor at the University of Sheffield and whose mother owns multiple properties to her friend’s clients, who live in squalid conditions with 18 men in a house, who has to lock his food in a cupboard to stop the other men eating it and is fighting to remain in the country. Beginning and ending with family parties, the first for the Sharifullahs and the second for Hilary’s 100th birthday, brings a neat sense of resolution to the story whilst allowing some obvious comparisons between the two families.
Overall a mediocre read – not one I regret spending time on but not one that I want to revisit, falls short of expectations built by The Northern Clemency.
wendoxford's review
3.0
I was instantly drawn into this multi-generational insight into neighbouring households. It appears initially as a parallel telling of Sheffield residents as Northern Clemency but it is rather a different beast. Again, however this is a LONG book and you need to invest in it.
As I have read neither Eugene Onegin nor The Winters Tale, its re-telling was lost on me. I wonder whether this is a "new thing" like Home Fires (Kamila Shamsie re-telling Antigone) or whether authors previously assumed their readers literary brainstock and ability to spot the author sources and how they had dog-legged the plotting.
The family stories current and back lurched about with a vast cast of characters covering the birth of Bangladesh, exile, conflict and both long & foreshortened lives. Parts were hugely absorbing and others seemed to me to be so pedestrian in order to detail how family members behave. Whilst the everyday was part of the book's charm, it is impossible to retain these meanderings when there are so many players without confusing the reader (or this reader) So many felt like caricatures as a result.
Think it would have benefited from some heavy red pen editing and an improved presentation of the story arc. However I did enjoy so many parts of both the writing and story and did keep chuckling when reminded that a branch of family were all under 5 '2"...
As I have read neither Eugene Onegin nor The Winters Tale, its re-telling was lost on me. I wonder whether this is a "new thing" like Home Fires (Kamila Shamsie re-telling Antigone) or whether authors previously assumed their readers literary brainstock and ability to spot the author sources and how they had dog-legged the plotting.
The family stories current and back lurched about with a vast cast of characters covering the birth of Bangladesh, exile, conflict and both long & foreshortened lives. Parts were hugely absorbing and others seemed to me to be so pedestrian in order to detail how family members behave. Whilst the everyday was part of the book's charm, it is impossible to retain these meanderings when there are so many players without confusing the reader (or this reader) So many felt like caricatures as a result.
Think it would have benefited from some heavy red pen editing and an improved presentation of the story arc. However I did enjoy so many parts of both the writing and story and did keep chuckling when reminded that a branch of family were all under 5 '2"...
100percent_ballerina's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jackiefranklee's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25