Damage

by
Josephine Hart

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Damage

by Josephine Hart

3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 · rating details · 1,637 ratings · 252 reviews

“A passionate, elegant, ruthless story.” —Iris Murdoch

The New York Times bestselling novel—now available as an ebook

Damage is the gripping story of a man’s desperate obsession and scandalous love affair. He is a man who appears to have everything: wealth, a beautiful wife and children, and a prestigious political career in Parliament. But his life lacks passion, and his ac...more

ebook, 186 pages

Published August 10th 2010 by Open Road (first published 1991)

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Jan 21, 2013 Ginny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: riletti, romanzi, dal-film-al-libro

"C'è un paesaggio interiore, una geografia dell'anima; ne cerchiamo gli elementi per tutta la vita"

Bello nonostante la vaga sensazione di incompiutezza che lascia – e ben più complesso e coinvolgente della sua riduttiva e un po’ banale trasposizione cinematografica – il romanzo è pervaso in ogni pagina da un senso di angosciosa ineluttabilità, in un climax di tensione ed emozioni, che prepara e prelude alla tragedia finale.
La passione divorante che irrompe - non cercata, eppure inconsciamente a...more "C'è un paesaggio interiore, una geografia dell'anima; ne cerchiamo gli elementi per tutta la vita"

Bello nonostante la vaga sensazione di incompiutezza che lascia – e ben più complesso e coinvolgente della sua riduttiva e un po’ banale trasposizione cinematografica – il romanzo è pervaso in ogni pagina da un senso di angosciosa ineluttabilità, in un climax di tensione ed emozioni, che prepara e prelude alla tragedia finale.
La passione divorante che irrompe - non cercata, eppure inconsciamente attesa da sempre - nell’esistenza impeccabile e banalmente perfetta del protagonista, ne sconvolge dalle fondamenta l'edificio costruito sul terreno friabile di un'abile dissimulazione. Perché non si tratta soltanto dell’attrazione, sia pure ossessiva e irrefrenabile, nei confronti di una persona “proibita” e avvolta nel mistero, ma di un "ritorno a casa", del riconoscimento di un essere simile a sé con cui liberare, finalmente, pulsioni e desideri mai confessati e sempre ingabbiati nel carcere della mistificazione.
"Dominatore senza potere" dominato dalla sua schiava onnipotente, fin dall'inizio della relazione questo uomo non si fa illusioni: è lucido, razionale e perfettamente consapevole di stare precipitando in un abisso senza ritorno; tuttavia non esita a mettere in gioco tutto quanto ha di più caro, anche con la menzogna e l’inganno, anche con il rifiuto e l'abbandono, pur di seguire la sua natura segreta e il suo destino. Perché soltanto adesso si sente finalmente vivo.

Chi si aspettasse contenuti ad alto tasso erotico resterebbe però deluso, in quanto il tema predominante del racconto – contrariamente a quanto si potrebbe pensare – non è la storia di sesso, morte e disperazione vissuta dai due protagonisti, bensì quel “danno” che dà il titolo al romanzo.
La prosa lapidaria, essenziale e tagliente, adottata dalla scrittrice, se da un lato risulta intensamente evocativa ed efficace a scongiurare il rischio di ovvietà o cadute di buongusto, dall’altro lato sintetizza all’eccesso le parentesi descrittive, i resoconti degli eventi e la stessa caratterizzazione dei personaggi. In tal modo, l’impressione generale che si ricava è di insoddisfazione per il non detto, che non è neppure tratteggiato in sintesi, ma solo cripticamente suggerito per allusioni. In particolare è la figura di Anna che, a mio avviso, avrebbe richiesto un rilievo più marcato e incisivo. È lei la chiave di volta dell'intera vicenda, il perno intorno al quale ruota la sorte dei vari personaggi.

Ci sono persone che, pur non intenzionalmente, causano distruzione intorno a sé, annientando soprattutto chi le ama. Sono persone enigmatiche, affascinanti e pericolose, perché avanzano nel mondo illese, incuranti delle rovine che si lasciano alle spalle. Segnate da un passato doloroso, hanno già subito un "danno" e sanno che si può sopravvivere a qualunque sciagura ibernando il cuore come scudo alla sofferenza, perché loro lo hanno già fatto.
E il vuoto che lasciano è solo disperata infinita solitudine.

"Le storie di estasi sono storie infinite d’insuccessi. Perché arriva sempre la separazione. E ricomincia il viaggio verso l’essenziale, fuggevole unità."

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Mar 08, 2009 Ja'net rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Excerpt:
"And round every meeting with her spun a ribbon of certainty that my life had already ended. It had ended in the split second of my first sight of her.

It was time out of life. Like an acid it ran through all the years behind me, burning and destroying."

I ate this book for lunch. Delicious.

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Nov 21, 2008 Peter rock rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

excellent book jeremy irons was in the movie but the book is always better...
"damage" was a gift from a lover
she thought it was interesting and provactive....
i read it in about an hour "coked" out of my mind in high school i used to do do "cocaine" and speed read books...tecnical manuals..stay up for days and do art well after the actual effects had worn off....
main premise the one jeriann maggio wanted me to get from the book ...
"damaged people are dangerous atleast we are dangerous to no...more excellent book jeremy irons was in the movie but the book is always better...
"damage" was a gift from a lover
she thought it was interesting and provactive....
i read it in about an hour "coked" out of my mind in high school i used to do do "cocaine" and speed read books...tecnical manuals..stay up for days and do art well after the actual effects had worn off....
main premise the one jeriann maggio wanted me to get from the book ...
"damaged people are dangerous atleast we are dangerous to normal people because we know the pain we have endured and that we can endure normal people fear pain adversity"
she was one of only two women that new the extent of how i was abused by my mother
I told her the book was good but then again she was still growing and exploring mentally and emotionally and spiritually... Karri ann ohl and Peter rock treacy campbell we were very patient with our emotional Psuedo-daughter when we were all 16 but then by about 24 years old karri ann ohl and peter rock treacy cvampbell had been beaten betrayed incarserated institutionalized robbed disowned and we started to suspect that since non-of this had happened to jeriann "crash" maggio that it was "high past time" that we start to accelerate jeriann "beanz" education in life art politics world cultures and the ability of the human soul to over come "true horrific suffering"... she was an excellent student for a "spoiled debutant" Karri ann ohl and peter rock Campbell still love jeriann maggio especially after that t.v. show the "sopranos" ask the ohl's and the Campbell's how much they love the maggios in the state of new jersey after the "sopranos" t.v. show lets talk about some more "jeriann maggio"....ever here the song "stigmata" by the group "ministry" jeriann .......you are 34 dear grow up new york new jersey and the keystone state are controlled by the irish mob get over yourself princess....did amjad marry you was it wonderful when you finally discovered the depth of abuse of women and children in Palestine and other muslim states...the institutionalized rape,incest and pedophilia that is the engine - the fuel - the power that "al qaeda" is based upon... why are we back in afganastan again rebecca elizabeth sanders because "niggars" are people that abuse the meak - the pure - the innocent. we hate warlords, dictators, and fucking "child rapists" if a teenager comes on to you that is an argument for another day so is "date rape"..but if you break the mind and soul of a child you do not deserve life..something about people who need that much control that much adoration they make us fucking sick. real actual child abuser make Karri ann ohl and Peter rock Campbell and Jeriann maggio sick in a way that makes our rage build and build and build.......smile child child pornographers pete campbell n.y.p.d.

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Apr 10, 2013 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I toggle between 2 and 3 stars on this one because of the way the narrative was structured. The author is a playwrite so it does read more like stage directions mixed with striking dialogue and much interiority. However when Anna commands the stage she is intriguing and a puzzle you as reader want to figure out. The narrator is someone I can give or take but I do see himself watching as he goes on a downward spiral. What makes me push more towards the 3 stars or even higher is that I kept thinki...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Allie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: realistic-fiction

Oh good gravy.
Let's start with the facts.
Fact: This book is VERY well written.
Fact: It is also VERY short, which allowed for me to read it in its entirety in under 3 hours.
Fact: Symbolism runs rampant, which I love.
Fact: Damage is an excellent title and describes perfectly what happens when obsession overrides sanity. Or, in the eyes of our MC, what happens when one finally finds "passion." (passion= being a man whore pyscho....but whatever. Also, this fact is turning into an opinion....)

Opi...more

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Jul 21, 2012 Marleen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.”

By the time the narrator of this story is fifty he has lived his life almost as if by accident. An unexceptional childhood followed by an impassionate marriage and successful but unfulfilling careers, first as a G.P and subsequently as an upstanding but unremarkable Member of Parliament. A life lived without strong emotions of any kind. A life which, had it ended in the narrator’s fiftieth year, would have been widely respected and total...more “Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.”

By the time the narrator of this story is fifty he has lived his life almost as if by accident. An unexceptional childhood followed by an impassionate marriage and successful but unfulfilling careers, first as a G.P and subsequently as an upstanding but unremarkable Member of Parliament. A life lived without strong emotions of any kind. A life which, had it ended in the narrator’s fiftieth year, would have been widely respected and totally unremarkable.
Everything changes when he meets Anna Barton, his son’s girlfriend. Although his wife is suspicious of the girl, who is eight year older than her beloved 25 year old son, the narrator feels an instant attraction to her the moment he meets her. An attraction that appears to be mutual since he and Anna start a passionate affair shortly after meeting.
The affair with Anna becomes the narrator’s obsession. For the first time in his life he is experiencing strong emotions and he is unable and unwilling to let go of either those emotions or the woman who has triggered them; is at the centre of them.
Anna is a troubled woman though, with tragedy in her past and almost certainly tragedy in her future. As Anna and the narrator’s son prepare to get married, the affair continues as passionate as ever and disaster must surely wait, just around the corner.

This was not an easy book to read. It is a bit like watching a train-wreck. You know that it’s all going to go horribly wrong but yet you can’t look away, can’t stop reading, even though you are feeling increasingly uncomfortable with what is happening on the page.
From the very first chapter it is clear that this story is not going to have a happy ending:
“But I did not die in my fiftieth year. There are few who know me now who do not regard that as a tragedy.”
From the very first word it is clear that the narrator is speeding his way towards disaster and the reader has no choice but to watch him destroy not only his own life but also that of those around him.
Of course it is proof of the excellent writing that although I did end up feeling extremely uncomfortable about the road to self-destruction the narrator so willingly took I had to follow him to the bitter end.
It is strange to read a book in which the sympathetic characters are the secondary ones. The two main protagonists’ selfish actions make it hard if not impossible for the reader to like them. They are, because of their characters and actions, fascinating to read about though.
This would make a great book for a reading group discussion since it brings some interesting questions to mind.
Does a life-time lived without passion really constitute a life? Or, how much are we willing to excuse or explain away because of trauma early in life? How would I react or behave if I were any of the characters in this story? I could go on.

If I were absolutely honest I should probably mark this book five stars. It is very well written, a compulsive read and thought-provoking. The reason I can’t quite get myself to do so is completely personal; the book made me uncomfortable while I was reading it and still has me feeling that discomfort now that I’m writing about it. I would call this an ugly story very beautifully told.
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Apr 08, 2012 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have in the past read mixed reviews of Josephine Hart's debut thriller of erotic obsession, but finally decided to pick up a copy of "Damage" due to my plan this year to focus on female authors, together with my having enjoyed the film adaptation. Whilst the book is in as places as melodramatic and overwrought as the film, it proved a pleasant surprise: consistently entertaining, convincingly conveying sexual obsession without the need for too much explicit sex, and in places extremely insight...more

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Jan 29, 2012 CuteBadger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A married, middle-aged MP becomes obsessed with his son’s girlfriend – a fixation that turns his life and that of his family upside down.

I’ve been meaning to read this novel for a long time, probably since I saw the film version in the mid-1990s, but had somehow never got round to it. Having read it, I’m sorry I waited so long for such an intense and physical experience. I don’t now remember much about the film which is a blessing as I wouldn’t have wanted it to interfere with the experience of...more A married, middle-aged MP becomes obsessed with his son’s girlfriend – a fixation that turns his life and that of his family upside down.

I’ve been meaning to read this novel for a long time, probably since I saw the film version in the mid-1990s, but had somehow never got round to it. Having read it, I’m sorry I waited so long for such an intense and physical experience. I don’t now remember much about the film which is a blessing as I wouldn’t have wanted it to interfere with the experience of reading the book.

The opening chapter is just overwhelmingly wonderful – it includes some enormously complex ideas, but is terse and compact. The narrator collars us like a modern-day Ancient Mariner and doesn’t loosen his grip until we have heard his whole shocking story.

We never learn the narrator’s name and it also strikes me that we don’t know how reliable a narrator he is. After all, he can tell us his own version of the truth and we have to believe him. His story is “a confession without the desire for repentance”, so he has to represent his erotic obsession with Anna as unavoidable, otherwise how could he continue to live at the end of the book? He reports Anna’s sentiment that “damaged people are dangerous” – this too could be his way of avoiding blame.

The prose is stark and stripped down, it does away with all but the barest of descriptions. In the same way, the narrator casts aside social convention and what is generally seen to be acceptable to expose the animal beneath. There is no love in the affair between the narrator and Anna, it is pure erotic obsession that will never turn into anything else. It’s a very dark novel, with the feel of a horror story about it. The monster (the erotic obsession) approaches, lays waste to the characters in different ways and retreats, leaving only a few survivors. You feel you want to warn the characters that it’s sneaking up on them, but of course you can’t make yourself heard.

The reader of Damage has their own obsession which gathers pace during the book. We have to know what happens, to try to make sense of it, though we know it’s not going to be pleasant. It’s quite a cold book – there’s lots of obsession, but little love. This means that there can be no forgiveness and everyone is doomed in their own way.

I found reading the book quite a physical experience – I could feel my heart beating too fast and my breathing get faster at various points in the book. And when a tragic and shocking scene was described it took me completely by surprise and I made an involuntary noise while reading it.

If only we could learn more about Anna – a Rashomon-like re-run of events from her point of view would answer a lot of questions.

Enjoyed isn’t the right word for how I feel about this book, but reading it was a powerful experience which has stayed with me since I closed the cover.
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Oct 27, 2011 Cynthia Haggard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

DAMAGE, a novella by Josephine Hart is a chilling tale of obsession and of the unintended consequences of ungovernable love. Now made into a movie starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche, and directed by the late Louis Malle, I have to say that reading the novella didn’t add anything to the experience of seeing the movie. Which is unusual.

Perhaps it is because Louis Malle was such a great director. Or maybe it is because this tale is so chilling that it needed little enhancement.

What is inte...more

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Aug 20, 2011 ♆ BookAddict ~ La Crimson Femme rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romance

I found this book when I was still in high school. It was a bad time for me. At the time I was upset and confused. Mostly, I was angry at males and the patriarchal society. I didn't know how to relate as a trained under duress strong female who had suppressed submissive tendencies.

I also thought there was something wrong with me. The title of this book caught my attention. Damage. How true. I read this book and I was horrified at how a seemingly perfect life could go terribly wrong. I could unde...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Damage is about a middle-aged man who has an affair with a younger woman. Pretty standard stuff, right? But hold on there, there's more. The younger woman in question is his son's soon to be fiancée, and the middle-aged man is an upstanding man in England's parliament with absolutely no blemishes to his record. He was totally boring--until now.

There is a sexual obsession that dominates this story, an obsession so overwhelming that it propels the main character on a collision course to tragedy....more

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Oct 01, 2010 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Damaged- by Josephine Hart

This was a very well written book, capturing what greed, lust, and love, can drive even what may seem the most “normal” people to do. The writing style seemed almost like a play, taking place in the early twentieth century, but actually the story took place in modern times, and no play could capture the intense feelings and thoughts of the main character. The father of a prominent, upstanding, wealthy English family, has gotten himself into quite a predicament. Some ma...more

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Sep 08, 2010 Meredith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, england, reviewed, arc, suspense

On the surface, Damage is about a middle-aged man who has an affair with a younger woman. Pretty standard dramatic fare, right? But wait--there's more. The younger woman in question happens to be his son's fiancée, and the man in question happens to be a member of Parliament.

There is much more at work here than mere lust, or even mere love. No, it is sexual obsession that dominates this story, an obsession so pervasive that it propels the narrator to unspeakable lows. It propels the narrative t...more On the surface, Damage is about a middle-aged man who has an affair with a younger woman. Pretty standard dramatic fare, right? But wait--there's more. The younger woman in question happens to be his son's fiancée, and the man in question happens to be a member of Parliament.

There is much more at work here than mere lust, or even mere love. No, it is sexual obsession that dominates this story, an obsession so pervasive that it propels the narrator to unspeakable lows. It propels the narrative toward its tragic conclusion.

Still, it isn't dramatic excess that packs a punch in this story. It is an eerie and enduring emptiness. These characters are all, on various levels, devoid of humanity. The narrator has traipsed through a loveless fifty years of life, never once experiencing feelings of love or sexual passion until he meets Anna, his son's newest girlfriend. His wife, Ingrid, seems content with their passionless union and, together, they put on a good show in public. They are both façades.

Martyn has meandered from one relationship to the next with women who vaguely resemble his mother. Anna has dragged multiple men through her psychological mud in a vain attempt to escape her troubled past. Sally, the only remotely functional family member, remains fairly remote throughout the story. Her romantic relationship with Jonathan is the only functional one in the book. Her narrative distance from the rest of her family allows her to transcend their collective emptiness.

We experience this story through the detached eyes of a cold narrator, who engages in some logic-defying mental contortions to justify what he is doing. But there is no escaping the consequences of his disturbing romantic entanglement with Anna. He remains firmly rooted in the delusion that he has found true love, that he can have a domestic life with this young woman. He even assigns himself godlike powers of taking on others' negative feelings so that they can be free of them--all in the name of assuaging his own vague sense of guilt. At points, he even deflects blame from himself and onto the "devil."

The writing style lends itself to this inherent emptiness. Sentence fragments and long strains of simple sentences give the story an abrupt, staccato feel. The chapters are short; the story flits from one scene to the next quickly, leaving the reader with impressionistic shards of rising and falling action, rather than a fully realized narrative exploration. We are on a crash course with ruin from the moment we begin reading, and the story takes no detours on its way there.

(Disclaimer: I received a digital galley of this title from Open Road.)(less)

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Jun 21, 2010 Catherine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Since I have wanted to see this film for a while both from my own interest and from my aunt and boyfriend having admiration for it, I decided to finally read this so I can watch the film. It was a very short read, only clocking in at 200 pages. Overall I liked it but did not love it. It seems that it could potentially make a great film though because it would be so simple to adapt. My problem with it was its repetitive qualities. I know it is supposed to be examining primal feelings and instinct...more

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Jun 22, 2011 Caitlin Constantine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a wretchedly awful book, and I mean that in the best possible way. This is a beautifully-written book about some very ugly people.

Over the course of this tiny book, a man goes from having everything we are supposed to want - career, family, respect, money - and proceeds to trash it all for the sake of his sexual obsession with his son's fiancee.

I can't really say I ever felt terribly empathetic with the narrator, or with Anna Barton for that matter, but I was fascinated by the lengths to w...more

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Dec 21, 2012 Liam Berry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

I had seen the film of Damage several years ago and while I liked it I probably wouldn't have gone out my way to read the novel if it hadn't been made a gift to me. Visualising Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche in the role of Stephen and Anna gave the novel a very vivid face for me even before I started reading. Once I did I was quite stunned at the sparse elegance of the prose and the brazen intelligence of the writing. Damage deals with a couple of heavy themes and much of the story is conduct...more

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Apr 23, 2011 Lorraine rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bullshit. Absorbing enough as a read, but utter bullshit. The whole 'undermining respectable middle class life' is so cliche. Goodness. 'One hasn't lived life by following some social template'. This has been done to death and this book is one of the more pathetic attempts to get that idea across. I found the prose corny. Apparently I was supposed to get all excited over the 'poetic' parts of this book but -- I'm sorry -- I've read MUCH better writers. Josephine Hart is a hack. She's not just a...more

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Mar 15, 2013 Audrey rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was definitely not a favorite. The summary of the plot had an interesting story that piqued my interest. Once getting into the book the words felt rushed. It was as though the words of the story just couldn't be told fast enough. This is most likely due to the short sentence structure of the author and it is not what I enjoyed. I want to read and get lost in the story. This made me feel as though I was being propelled through it at a speed faster than I wanted to.

The word selection was...more

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Jul 05, 2011 Lynne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's hard to hate a novel written by a poet. Her language is sparse, focused, emotional. All the stuff that I love in words strung together. The book pulses on in short chapters. I'm about a quarter through, and I don't think the protagonist has a name yet. It's never mentioned. Interesting! You love him, you hate him, as he loves and hates himself from page to page. I'm hooked.

But, as a therapist, I'm having a hard time leaving my therapy-mind out of it, and diagnosing his bad thinking, behavi...more

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Nov 09, 2011 Miranda Polanía Vélez rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I stopped reading it. I don't think I will finish it. I have nothing against the book, it's well written, an interesting story. It's... involving I guess, it interests you. It just... I'm sad, I mean, the book made me sad, but not sad in a way like.. She is dying of cancer, or something like tragic or anything, sad in a.. so we are that screwed up, huh? And it's not even because of what he or she does to any of them it's because of everything, because he didn't stop, because he didn't think he h...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Rachelcurran_ rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Nobody

Shelves: owned-books

I bought this book in a library sale for 10p as a mistake, the blurb on the edition I have led me to believe this was a book about damaged people and "psychological darkness". Instead I ended up reading the most unbelievable, cliché characters, predictable basic storyline from the start and a whole lot of crap about sex and incest. What an appalling read and a complete waste of my time. The writing is in a constant "i-am-trying-to-create-suspense-and-mystery" style which fails completely.

-spoile...more

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May 03, 2013 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Josephine Hart is a poet, and it is poetry and powerful turn of phrase that drives this erotically charged tale of obsession and love. Very easy reading, because her style is one of brevity; the plot points might lack some meat, but the story races from one scene to the next, dumping you in and letting the connection with the characters and the story flower naturally through powerful, emotive language.

A theme like this is always dark territory to tread, and for a debut novel the book's power an...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Steven rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The author is supremely talented and has a true gift for describing the intricacies and difficulties of relationships, be they romantic, familial, business, or casual. The protagonist causes and experiences terrible tragedy and his family is irreparably damaged by his actions, yet I could muster no anger toward him and even found myself feeling a bit sorry for him. If given a brief outline of the acts of this person, I would have thought feeling anything other than disgust for him impossible, bu...more

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Apr 23, 2010 Evan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: yearning, __in-my-collection, fucked-up-women, 2010-reads

I felt like I was engaged in a long, drawn-out battle of fisticuffs with this novel; with my opponent being an otherwise placid Englishman lecturing me properly on the sporting necessity of the Marquess of Queensberry rules as he jabbed me almost apologetically with knuckles pointed upward and outward and cloaked in dainty boxing gloves; his endurance greater than mine as he slowly but surely battered my face to a pulp in patient, cumulative, and ultimately devastating fashion.
The novel is popul...more I felt like I was engaged in a long, drawn-out battle of fisticuffs with this novel; with my opponent being an otherwise placid Englishman lecturing me properly on the sporting necessity of the Marquess of Queensberry rules as he jabbed me almost apologetically with knuckles pointed upward and outward and cloaked in dainty boxing gloves; his endurance greater than mine as he slowly but surely battered my face to a pulp in patient, cumulative, and ultimately devastating fashion.
The novel is populated by boringly correct English types who seem almost parodically perfect, civil and discreet. Their world is slowly and quietly devastated by the entrance into it of an almost blameless femme fatale, a damaged girl harboring a terrible secret so corrosive that it seems to destroy all she touches, though the recipients of her attentions fail to see -- or do see and ignore -- the inevitably painful consequences. The story is told from the perspective of a genteel middle-aged Englishman, Dr. Stephen Fleming, a physician and member of Parliament, who willingly constructs an alternate reality to justify his obsessive affair with her. As she happens to be the fiancee of his own son, the deception takes on particularly disturbing aspects.
The first chapter of this novel is one of the most perfect in English literature. It's really quite amazing, and there are passages throughout that are nearly as good. The novel is perhaps not perfect as a whole, and one sometimes becomes irritated at the "oh aren't we so frightfully correct and conventional" self observational conversations spouted by the characters as a sort of authorial shorthand. On the other hand, the way the novel simmers under its lid and slowly uncoils itself to render its death bite is quite masterly. And there is much sigh-inducing gorgeousness in Hart's prose. It's a sad tale, part Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier, part Nabokov's Lolita in its forbidden (age-gap, but not pedophilic) love, deception and existence of a peripheral character with a mysterious pull, and probably several other novels I'm missing. The most tragic figure in the story is probably Fleming's wife, Ingrid, decent and guileless, and thus eminently destroyable.
The book is about the reality of what people think and how they feel while they wear their false public masks, as well as the profound concern of never really living until death takes them. There's nothing particularly new in this or in the novel's framework of deceptive relationships, but Hart brings her own expressive ingenuity to the material. It's a spare work; thoughtful and haunting. Because the story is told entirely from Fleming's POV, we see what is most important to him, so the surface of his everyday life -- his career and other aspects -- are glossed over in only a few sentences. This is authorial prerogative, and oftentimes this lack of ancillary detail can make a novel seem frivolous, but here the issues are explored with such brooding intensity and insight that such details would merely impede the flow and dilute the novel's imperatives.
As I say, I fought with this book. At times I found myself bored and frustrated by the characters and their impossible stiff-upper-lipped orderliness; sometimes put off by the occasional cliche or passage of melodramatic dialogue. But the book over its course continually brought me back into the fold, and by the end it persuaded me; reminding us that no amount of social structure can ever truly contain the lizard brain.
This book was made into a good film in 1992, starring Jeremy Irons, and it's probably his presence in that which reminded me of Lolita, as he appeared in the excellent remake of that film as well.
I might be overrating this by at least a star, but I thought the book was ultimately powerful, rewarding and recommendable. It is a book for lovers of literature.(less)

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Jan 18, 2011 Michelle added it · review of another edition

Damage is one of those novels that you know from the start is not going to end well. It tells you so in almost the first paragraph, but therein lies the draw. What happens to make such a statement? What could possess someone to conscientiously do something so wrong that would cause him or her to make a blanket assessment like that? The resulting pages are every bit as horrific, emotional and intensely personal as the narrator cautions the reader to expect. Short but powerful, Damage is like watc...more Damage is one of those novels that you know from the start is not going to end well. It tells you so in almost the first paragraph, but therein lies the draw. What happens to make such a statement? What could possess someone to conscientiously do something so wrong that would cause him or her to make a blanket assessment like that? The resulting pages are every bit as horrific, emotional and intensely personal as the narrator cautions the reader to expect. Short but powerful, Damage is like watching a runaway train; the reader cannot look away even while knowing the outcome is going to be awful. Like said accident, it also leaves its mark on the reader as it explores what it means to love.

Love - According to 1 Corinthians 13, love is patient and kind and is completely unselfish. According to Ms. Hart and the anonymous narrator, it is the greatest act of selfishness one can achieve. It is all-consuming, impatient, cruel, and decidedly impure. It eats a person alive and spits them out again, battered and bruised. Survivors of this ordeal know that they can survive anything, while those not strong enough to handle it find themselves mere shells of their former selves and their lives irrevocably altered. Presented in this light, Ms. Hart confronts the reader with the age-old question of whether it truly is better to have loved and lost than to have not loved at all.

It is quite telling that while every other character is named and fleshed out a bit, the narrator remains anonymous. As the narrator does not shrink from the truth and does nothing to hide his own complicity in his decline, the reader is left to wonder if he remains anonymous for his own protection or as punishment for his actions. Similarly, the focus on the sensual, almost cruel trysts between Anna and the narrator raise the question of whether their attraction is truly this life-altering love, as discussed, or plain lust. Is one worse than the other? Does it really matter given the damage that occurs?

Anna is the key to the mystery and really deserves her own story. Cool and collected, strong-willed, maddeningly secretive and yet surprisingly pliant to the narrator's desires, who does she really love? Why is she so willing to sleep with her fiance's father? What is her motivation behind her actions? Ms. Hart tantalizes readers with the answers, but rather than frustrate, the remaining mysteries only enhance the tension.

What pulls this emotional cauldron together is the language. Stark but elegant, the words are almost audible to a reader. The language evokes a clear image of the mysterious narrator, his family and his emotional trauma while building those important connections to the reader. Damage takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions, raising question after question about what it means to love, and ultimately leaves the reader gasping for breath at the end. (less)

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Jan 12, 2012 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was both drawn and pushed by this book. The writing is at times striking. Bothersome is the idea that "damaged" people are insidious or calculating or obsessive as is presented by both Anne and the narrator.

Language like "children are the great gamble - from the moment they are born, our helplessness increases. Instead of being ours to mould and shape after our best knowledge and endeavour, they are themselves" both pushes me away and pulls me in. I worry about imposing myself on my children'...more

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Feb 06, 2011 Sharonm rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"But I did not die in my fiftieth year. There are few who know me now, who do not regard that as a tragedy." The narrator then goes on, in the most dispassionate manner, to tell of his obsession with his son's fiance. This book puts the reader inside the mind of a man who has withdrawn emotionally from his life and meets a woman who is equally unemotional, finding the one person with whom he can connect. That connection is not about love, but obsession. The narrator, who is never named but rathe...more

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Jun 30, 2012 Bizzy Day rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There is just something about this book, the way the words reveal the intricacies of the relationships between the characters. The absolute raw pain and beauty and truth infidelity inevitably brings was just revealed so expertly with the subtlety and grace that made me as a reader just accept and even to sympathise with the unnamed male protagonist. With Anna, although kept somewhat of a mystery, I could not only empathise with her but could relate to her in a strange non-relative sort of way. A...more

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Dec 20, 2007 Jorge rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"quick read, a book given to me while i was in the university infirmary with the flu and needed to get out of a bad relationship"

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Mar 17, 2013 Luna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romanzi, contemporanei, letteratura, straniera, stranieri, 2008

L'ho comprato perch� mi tirava l'ombelico, quel sesto senso che uno ha addosso ed a cui non sfuggo mai. Avevo visto il film, secoli fa, che mi aveva attirato ma angosciato...... Beh, � bellissimo. Chi ha amato Follia di McGrapht non pu� non amare questo libro, che non ha nulla di sessuale (sfiora appena il discorso, ed il sesso � molto meno presente che in Follia) ma ha una psicologia incredibile..... Nel film il sesso � presente come ossessione, ma le parole non hanno bisogno delle immagini, c'...more

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About Josephine Hart

Josephine Hart was born and educated in Ireland. She was a director of Haymarket Publishing, in London, before going on to produce a number of West End plays, including The House of Bernarda Alba by Frederico Garcia Lorea, The Vortex by Noel Coward, and The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch. She was married to Maurice Saatchi and had two sons. She was the author of Damage. Hart died, aged 69, of ovaria...more

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Quotes from Damage

“Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive.” — 165 people liked it

“..I always recognize the foces that will shape my life. I let them do their work. Sometimes they tear through my life like a hurricane. Sometimes they simply shift the ground under me, so that I stand on different earth, and something or someone has been swallowed up. I steady myself, in the earthquate. I lie down, and let the hurricane pass over me. I never fight. Afterwards I look around me, and I say, 'Ah, so this at least is left for me. And that dear person has also survived.' I quietly inscribe on the stone tablet of my heart the name which has gone forever. Th inscription is a thing of agony. Then I start on my way again.” — 13 people liked it

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