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The Fernbank Culture Club, Bristol

The Fernbank Culture Club, Bristol review Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

The Fernbank Culture Club comprises six members who have been meeting regularly since New Year's Eve 2004. We all enjoy reading, films, theatre, music and walking. We meet monthly in Fernbank Rd to watch a film and our post-film discussions often embrace books/theatre/music. Four of us are in our 50s, two in their 60s. Three occupy senior positions in Social Services, two are teachers and one is a retired computer software MD.

"A cruel but enticing voyeuristic experience unfolds for the reader of Zoe Heller's novel, Notes on a Scandal. We encounter the obsessive passions of two middle-aged women, and through the narration are drawn into an intimate collusion with the protagonist, an inveterate sociopath, Barbara Covett. Her victim, Sheba Hart, is an unusual 'antihero'. She too, is psychologically unstable with, perhaps, a more circumstantial madness, leading her into an imprudent affair with a minor.

Zoe Heller's well-observed novel, at first, took me back 35 years to reminisce on my grammar school years and the experiences and stories of the teachers then and later, to reflect on the people I have met over the years, as a teacher myself. The elements of the complex psychological relationships between staff and pupils are echoed and then cleverly extrapolated in Zoe Heller's novel. We are thus subtley engaged in a delusional world which appears to be rooted in reality and elicits a discomforting frisson of recognition and thereby virtual association. Zoe Heller is bitingly cynical in her recreation of school life, particularly exemplified in the sadistic headteacher, Pabblem. I am deeply impressed by her vividly staged scenes of repartee in the staff room and aspects of teaching with which those in the profession would empathise. In this sense I do indeed feel a sense of exposure in the knowledge that Zoe Heller found our 'inner sanctum' to be so transparent."

"A very good book to be off ill with...! Tucked up in bed with the lurgy, this book got me through the day. A very easy read. The description of the teachers' staff room was funny , bitchy and no doubt very true to life. The main theme was the relationship between two very different women and their perceptions of not just the relationship with the young boy but of other issues too. The way this relationship developed and soured was compelling.However i was less convinced by Sheba's attraction to the pupil and her motivation for getting involved with him. The fact that it described, so well, an area of London I know very well was another appeal."

"A cruel but enticing voyeuristic experience unfolds for the reader of Zoe Heller's novel, Notes on a Scandal. We encounter the obsessive passions of two middle-aged women, and through the narration are drawn into an intimate collusion with the protagonist, an inveterate sociopath, Barbara Covett. Her victim, Sheba Hart, is an unusual 'antihero'. She too, is psychologically unstable with, perhaps, a more circumstantial madness, leading her into an imprudent affair with a minor."

"Zoe Heller's well-observed novel, at first, took me back 35 years to reminisce on my grammar school years and the experiences and stories of the teachers then and later, to reflect on the people I have met over the years, as a teacher myself. The elements of the complex psychological relationships between staff and pupils are echoed and then cleverly extrapolated in Zoe Heller's novel. We are thus subtley engaged in a delusional world which appears to be rooted in reality and elicits a discomforting frisson of recognition and thereby virtual association. Zoe Heller is bitingly cynical in her recreation of school life, particularly exemplified in the sadistic headteacher, Pabblem. I am deeply impressed by her vividly staged scenes of repartee in the staff room and aspects of teaching with which those in the profession would empathise. In this sense I do indeed feel a sense of exposure in the knowledge that Zoe Heller found our 'inner sanctum' to be so transparent."

"I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I found it easy to read, yet absorbing and, at times, disturbing. The characters were drawn as mostly essentially flawed people who judged each other readily. As the characters developed I felt an empathy with many of them, whilst being able to distance myself sufficiently to assure myself that they were not like me. Yet I found the main draw of the story was the way it demonstrated how the people in the story are just like so many people in our lives as we judge them without really knowing them. We were drawn to Barbara in the first half of the book as a person of integrity and a strong character. Her descent into bitterness and them to disturbed, manipulative behaviour, which completed her character, was compelling. This successfully outlined the way we she survived. The book left me with a sense of wellbeing. Maybe because I felt that we are all struggling with our demons."

"Zoe Heller's well-observed novel, at first, took me back 35 years to reminisce on my grammar school years and the experiences and stories of the teachers then and later, to reflect on the people I have met over the years, as a teacher myself. The elements of the complex psychological relationships between staff and pupils are echoed and then cleverly extrapolated in Zoe Heller's novel. We are thus subtley engaged in a delusional world which appears to be rooted in reality and elicits a discomforting frisson of recognition and thereby virtual association. Zoe Heller is bitingly cynical in her recreation of school life, particularly exemplified in the sadistic headteacher, Pabblem. I am deeply impressed by her vividly staged scenes of repartee in the staff room and aspects of teaching with which those in the profession would empathise. In this sense I do indeed feel a sense of exposure in the knowledge that Zoe Heller found our 'inner sanctum' to be so transparent."

"After 30 years in education I found Notes on a Scandal, set largely in a school, a compelling if uncomfortable read. I could not put the book down, yet I was not wholly convinced by the central storyline: the attraction of teacher Sheba to spotty pupil Connolly seemed an unlikely scenario, pushing the boundaries of credibility. Was this because I have never felt drawn to an adolescent boy at school in this way, or because the boy in question seemed such an unwholesome individual hardly likely attract a married, good-looking woman like Sheba? If he had been an Adonis would this have made the storyline more believable? Possibly.

I was much more intrigued by the character of the narrator, Barbara, and the behaviour of the state school staff which rang more true. Heller excels in her description of the Headmaster, Pabblem 'a petty-minded despot obsessed with staff punctuality charts' and the sly Maths teacher, Bangs, who collects jackets because, "They're just cool, aren't they?" She is able to successfully conjure up these horribly familiar staffroom figures with great panache.

I was unprepared, however, for the masterly denouement. With the exposure of her affair the net tightens around Sheba who is forced to leave the marital home. In steps Barbara to 'take care' of her. The intricate web spun by Barbara round Sheba, we realise, will ensnare Barbara long after the scandal has blown over."