Notes on a Scandal
What Was She Thinking?: A Novel
-
-
4.1 • 36 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize
Zoë Heller's Notes on a Scandal ("A deliciously perverse, laugh-out-loud-funny novel." --Vogue) is a major motion picture from Fox Searchlight starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench
Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense--and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets, but also her own.
Customer Reviews
Gripping read, lacking in vision.
Upon reading this novella for a class, I fully expected a boring drawl of chapters. In actuality, it's rather quick and taut - Heller has a gift for cutting the fat yet still waxing poetic.
The sexual subject matter is also refreshingly well dealt.
So why just three stars? Simply put - it's too short with little to no conclusion. It flips between the present and past events, yet the present timeline never advances more than a few days' time. And within that time, no conclusion or culmination occurs. The end is painfully abrupt - leaving me to wonder what meaning the previous 300 pages even held.