A review by amelia555
What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller
4.5
Depraved but deliciously-written little book about vile people.
It was interesting to read this Mary Kay Letourneau-inspired book (I'm looking forward to watching the adaptation now) before Todd Haynes's May December arrives later this year.
In Notes on a Scandal, we have Sheba, a 40 y.o. wealthy woman-child, a pottery teacher, who feels like her life lacks thrills, sex and romance, so she decides to find all of it with a 15 y.o. pupil. Sheba's lack of remorse is bemusing and concerning. She keeps going full speed with this relationship even though it seems like deep down she knows it will end in a total collapse. A bourgeois self-sabotaging her life.
This story of Sheba is being told by Barbara, an older teacher from the same school, full-on crazy cat lady. There's something from Humbert Humbert in Barbara self-satisfied, highly articulate style of narration, in how she reveals things about herself while talking about others (talking down on others, I should say). In a way, she's a spider and a predator herself, like Sheba, but kids don't interest her. No, she's a lonely woman in search of a companion — whose life she can penetrate and slowly center herself in it.
The victim, Steven, doesn't get a voice here, which is a shame, although I understand why he doesn't in this particular book. We only see him though Barbara's eyes, and her views of him are questionable. He was totally asking for it, in her mind, and using Sheba just as much as she was using him. Some contrasting chapters by or about Steven would've been interesting.
But overall this was a tasty read in terms of both style and subject. Not for everyone, I guess, but If you can digest something like this — bon appetit!
It was interesting to read this Mary Kay Letourneau-inspired book (I'm looking forward to watching the adaptation now) before Todd Haynes's May December arrives later this year.
In Notes on a Scandal, we have Sheba, a 40 y.o. wealthy woman-child, a pottery teacher, who feels like her life lacks thrills, sex and romance, so she decides to find all of it with a 15 y.o. pupil. Sheba's lack of remorse is bemusing and concerning. She keeps going full speed with this relationship even though it seems like deep down she knows it will end in a total collapse. A bourgeois self-sabotaging her life.
This story of Sheba is being told by Barbara, an older teacher from the same school, full-on crazy cat lady. There's something from Humbert Humbert in Barbara self-satisfied, highly articulate style of narration, in how she reveals things about herself while talking about others (talking down on others, I should say). In a way, she's a spider and a predator herself, like Sheba, but kids don't interest her. No, she's a lonely woman in search of a companion — whose life she can penetrate and slowly center herself in it.
The victim, Steven, doesn't get a voice here, which is a shame, although I understand why he doesn't in this particular book. We only see him though Barbara's eyes, and her views of him are questionable. He was totally asking for it, in her mind, and using Sheba just as much as she was using him. Some contrasting chapters by or about Steven would've been interesting.
But overall this was a tasty read in terms of both style and subject. Not for everyone, I guess, but If you can digest something like this — bon appetit!