Scan barcode
A review by brianreadsbooks
Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
4.0
3.5 stars.
In the end I quite enjoyed Offshore, but I wasn’t sure for the first quarter of it. Fitzgerald won the Booker prize in 1979 for this novel about a community of people living on barges in the River Thames in West London. It’s thoughtful but also quite light and humorous.
There are some great bits where the dialogue has the perfect wit of a sitcom almost, and I laughed out loud multiple times at her skewering descriptions of neighbourhoods and shops around London. But other moments I had to re-read the page 2-3 times because the writing was so clever I couldn’t follow what just happened. In the end it’s a nice short book, and a reflection on loneliness and community. It’s worth a read.
In the end I quite enjoyed Offshore, but I wasn’t sure for the first quarter of it. Fitzgerald won the Booker prize in 1979 for this novel about a community of people living on barges in the River Thames in West London. It’s thoughtful but also quite light and humorous.
There are some great bits where the dialogue has the perfect wit of a sitcom almost, and I laughed out loud multiple times at her skewering descriptions of neighbourhoods and shops around London. But other moments I had to re-read the page 2-3 times because the writing was so clever I couldn’t follow what just happened. In the end it’s a nice short book, and a reflection on loneliness and community. It’s worth a read.