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The Other Side of the Fire Alice Thomas Ellis 9780670529599 Books

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The Other Side of the Fire Alice Thomas Ellis 9780670529599 Books

If you are a man, do you think you understand women; or, if you are a woman, do you think you understand men? If you answered yes, you should read this very funny short novel to find out how wrong you are; if you answered no, you should read it to find out how very right you are. Probably Ellis’s funniest novel, The Other Side of the Fire sets out how fundamentally impossible it is for men and women to understand each other, especially over time. It is at turns hilarious, thought-provoking and insightful and would be perfect discussion material for any book club – men’s, women’s or even better, mixed.

This story is set in a small English country town near Oxford. The main character Claudia is not very happily married to Charles but is madly in love with her stepson Philip who is (apparently) gay. Near incest is an awkward predicament for a comic novel, but Ellis carries it off in high style. Her best friend Sylvie lives in a remote cottage, is divorced and rather misanthropic, but she has all the best lines in this book and her carefree, unerring and unsparing insights into men and women are priceless. Here she is coolly counseling Claudia not to debase herself in her crush: “You see, when people lose their hearts they frequently lose their minds too, retaining only their organs of generation. This is why love is such a sad, mad and chancy business.” Sylvie has a half mad dog called Gloria and a daughter Evvie who is studying classics at Oxford and writing an uproariously fatuous romance novel set in Scotland. It is all a great stew of longing and loathing, and Ellis stirs the pot with relish and gusto.

These women are smart, feeling, funny and articulate. The men, not so much. The book has the same novelistic DNA as her other great comic novel, Unexplained Laughter, and I enjoyed them both enormously. I was predisposed to like this book anyway before I even opened it, as I have been a long-time fan of the late author, who died in 2005, and of her celebrated “Home Life” column in the British weekly “The Spectator”. We miss her voice of reason, compassion and feeling, her droll sense of humor and her suave and elastic writing style as she pulls us deeply into her characters’ complicated and sometimes absurd lives and points of view. But the books are still there for everyone to enjoy.


Tags : The Other Side of the Fire [Alice Thomas Ellis] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Book by Ellis, Alice Thomas,Alice Thomas Ellis,The Other Side of the Fire,Viking Adult,0670529591,56742216511,Fiction General

The Other Side of the Fire Alice Thomas Ellis 9780670529599 Books Reviews

Excellent
I don't know how to describe this novel other than as a most unusual love story. The characters are so unexpected and they act in atypical ways.
Even Gloria, the dog, has a love affair.
If you are a man, do you think you understand women; or, if you are a woman, do you think you understand men? If you answered yes, you should read this very funny short novel to find out how wrong you are; if you answered no, you should read it to find out how very right you are. Probably Ellis’s funniest novel, The Other Side of the Fire sets out how fundamentally impossible it is for men and women to understand each other, especially over time. It is at turns hilarious, thought-provoking and insightful and would be perfect discussion material for any book club – men’s, women’s or even better, mixed.

This story is set in a small English country town near Oxford. The main character Claudia is not very happily married to Charles but is madly in love with her stepson Philip who is (apparently) gay. Near incest is an awkward predicament for a comic novel, but Ellis carries it off in high style. Her best friend Sylvie lives in a remote cottage, is divorced and rather misanthropic, but she has all the best lines in this book and her carefree, unerring and unsparing insights into men and women are priceless. Here she is coolly counseling Claudia not to debase herself in her crush “You see, when people lose their hearts they frequently lose their minds too, retaining only their organs of generation. This is why love is such a sad, mad and chancy business.” Sylvie has a half mad dog called Gloria and a daughter Evvie who is studying classics at Oxford and writing an uproariously fatuous romance novel set in Scotland. It is all a great stew of longing and loathing, and Ellis stirs the pot with relish and gusto.

These women are smart, feeling, funny and articulate. The men, not so much. The book has the same novelistic DNA as her other great comic novel, Unexplained Laughter, and I enjoyed them both enormously. I was predisposed to like this book anyway before I even opened it, as I have been a long-time fan of the late author, who died in 2005, and of her celebrated “Home Life” column in the British weekly “The Spectator”. We miss her voice of reason, compassion and feeling, her droll sense of humor and her suave and elastic writing style as she pulls us deeply into her characters’ complicated and sometimes absurd lives and points of view. But the books are still there for everyone to enjoy.