A Whistling Woman portrays the antic, thrilling, and dangerous period of the late ‘60s as seen through the eyes of a woman w... read full description
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Jan 17, 2008
Elizabeth
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This is the fourth installment in a series; the earlier novels are The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, and Babel Tower. While the first three books are brilliant, this last book was a major disappointment to me. It's tough to get through, and presents Byatt at her most self-indulgent. The only reason I'm keeping it around is because it represents the culmination of a longer story, and because overall Byatt is one of my favorite writers. I just wish this book had been better edited...
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Dec 17, 2009
Jessica
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Jul 15, 2009
Ellen
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Oh AS Byatt, I love ye! Once again another engaging and engrossing book by Ms. Byatt. Sometimes I wonder if other people have realize that Byatt may be one of the smartest authors alive? But her story weaves together Univeristy life, cults, the study of snails, mythology, sexuality, dissertations, children's stories, the emerging influence of television, feminism and early 1970s rebellion in England. And she nails it all. This book is fascinating not only because she offers a buffet of ideas and
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Feb 09, 2012
Helen
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In this, the final book in the 'Frederica Potter' quartet of novels, Frederica is almost a peripheral character. The core character around whom the novel revolves, one way or another, is the charismatic Josh Lamb, whose transition from mental hospital patient to leader of a Manichean religious cult is seamless and credible. The action of the novel takes place between 1968 and 1970, a time of turmoil as young people (particularly students) begin to question authority, and everything from scentifi
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Nov 10, 2009
Emily
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The new book, A Whistling Woman has been a long time coming (and won't appear in the U.S. until December). While it avoids some of the ponderous over-stylization that made Babel Tower draggier than its predecessors, I found it disappointing as a conclusion to the series. Byatt devotes more attention to tying up small subplots from the previous books than she does to the main entanglements.
The book describes several parallel events: the merging of the Children of Joy and the Spirit's Ti More...
The book describes several parallel events: the merging of the Children of Joy and the Spirit's Ti More...
Aug 28, 2009
C.
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Jan 20, 2010
Marsia
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I began this book unaware that it was fourth in a series, read it anyway, and now want to say that A WHISTLING WOMAN by A.S. Byatt stands brilliantly on its own. In fact, it may be best to read it first, or at least not to feel compelled to read the four Frederica novels in the order in which they were written. I read two of the preceding ones years ago, long enough ago to have forgotten them, and have begun reading STILL LIFE again. Have also read BABEL TOWER but not VIRGIN . . . GARDEN.
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May 25, 2009
Karl
rated it:
A great book.
My only real complaint is that Byatt doesn't show what happens when the police break up the demonstration at the variously titled NYU or UNY (North Yorkshire University). She's led us to despise the spiritualist, romantic, medievalist, Tolkienite excesses of the late 60s American/European student movement, while, yes, complicating matters somewhat by witnessing to its responsibility for the incipient animal liberation movement and cui bono critiques of reason. But when t More...
My only real complaint is that Byatt doesn't show what happens when the police break up the demonstration at the variously titled NYU or UNY (North Yorkshire University). She's led us to despise the spiritualist, romantic, medievalist, Tolkienite excesses of the late 60s American/European student movement, while, yes, complicating matters somewhat by witnessing to its responsibility for the incipient animal liberation movement and cui bono critiques of reason. But when t More...
Jan 31, 2011
Paul
rated it:
It continues like Babel Tower (of which it makes several references)the story of Frederica. Yet, in this book, she seems strangly apart from the drama, most of which seems to take place at universities. The Sixties becomes the usual drug use, false messiahs and anti education. Yet, the main drama of the story ends anticlimatically. I won't say I was disappointed, but like Children's Book, I expect more from the author of Possession, not to mention the first two volumnes Virgin in the Garde
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Sep 13, 2010
Beth
rated it: 
This is not a good book. I read it because it's the last of a quartet and I've read the first three. The concepts were fairly intriguing (late 60s cults and student unrest, scientific research into the formation of memories) and so I chose to finish, but the execution was pretty dire. The worst sin probably lay in character development, descriptions were repeated incessantly but not skillfully enough to qualify as a motif, and most characters who hadn't appeared in previous books were nothing
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Dec 23, 2010
macgregor
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I hated this book. Hated it. It was tedious, annoying, frustrating and irritating. The constant barrage of ideas and concepts instead of characters or plot, plus the introduction of a sizable amount of just plain awful boring characters makes this one of the worst books I've ever read. The first two Frederica books are so excellent, but the second half is just plain awful: pretentious, self-indulgent, and self-absorbed. This isn't a novel - it's sketches for a novel about how annoying hippies ar
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Nov 16, 2008
Marianna
rated it:
I have a love/hate relationship with the Frederica quartet. On the one hand, once started, I cannot put them down. It's like an intellectual soap opera; everyone is so special and everyone loves everyone because they're all ever so special and brilliant. On the other hand, they provide sheer narrative pleasure, much like a soap opera. My favorite character has always been brash, bold, "brilliant" yet stupid Frederica, and I really felt that Byatt did the character of Frederica a disser
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Sep 19, 2008
Philip
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A S Byatt’s A Whistling Woman is a strange book. At one level it’s a straightforward account of university life, with its politics, affairs and academic pursuit. But then there’s the suspicion that none of this is ever satisfying for those involved. They yearn for something bigger, whilst at the same time trying to deny its significance in their lives. Another strand is the career of Federica, one of the book’s principal characters. Almost by default, she finds herself host of a BBC2-style arts
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Feb 12, 2007
Feather
rated it:
The last in the series concerning Frederica Potter. I liked it a lot. A deserving ending for our heroine.
From the Publisher
"A Whistling Woman opens in the late 1960s, as the world begins to split, and as Frederica - the spirited heroine of the novel - falls almost by accident into a career in television in London. Tumultuous events in her home county of Yorkshire threaten to change her life and the lives of those she loves." Meanwhile, near the university, wher More...
From the Publisher
"A Whistling Woman opens in the late 1960s, as the world begins to split, and as Frederica - the spirited heroine of the novel - falls almost by accident into a career in television in London. Tumultuous events in her home county of Yorkshire threaten to change her life and the lives of those she loves." Meanwhile, near the university, wher More...
Nov 11, 2011
"Gloriously complex, extraordinarily dramatic, and diabolically clever, Byatt's tour de force, a descendant of Shakespeare, Milton, George Eliot, and Lewis Carroll, is fueled by penetrating inquiries into the nature of story and metaphor, the workings of the mind, and the mystery of love." - Booklist
Listen to A Whistling Woman on your smartphone.
Listen to A Whistling Woman on your smartphone.
Oct 19, 2009
Anne
rated it:
This is a novel about ideas, set in north England in the late 60's. The plot ingeniously wraps around two unfolding events, the planning of a Body-Mind Conference by scientists and linguists at a university, and the founding of a therapeutic community, that might be evolving into a religous cult.
About ideas, yes, but the book's characters, like the ones in "Possession" become people I cared about. So glad I didn't give yp after "The Biographer's Tale"
About ideas, yes, but the book's characters, like the ones in "Possession" become people I cared about. So glad I didn't give yp after "The Biographer's Tale"
Jan 30, 2011
Norma
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The fourth of Byatt's Frederica series, this book melds science, mathematics, psychology, religion, cultural upheaval, feminism, new (in the 60s) technology and human relationships in a fascinating culmination of Frederica Potter's story. I suppose it could be read by itself, but I enjoyed reading the four books in order. I find myself wanting to start again at the beginning, now that I know where all these amazingly well-developed characters ended up.
Jan 04, 2009
lyndel
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I got addicted to to this writer a while ago,in fact I started reading this series of books about fredericas life backwards starting with the last in the series first by chance . If you are the kind of person who wishes a book would never end then this story that spans 4 decades is for you ! It can be a bit dense at times but, once you get into her style, its really compelling.
Oct 30, 2011
Logophile
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It doesn't hold a candle to Possession or even Babel Tower, but it still was an interesting, intellectual novel, full of ideas. What I'd really like to read is the novel-within-a-novel, The Voyage North, or whatever the title was of Agatha's fantasy novel.
Sep 13, 2011
pjreads ♫
rated it:
The worst part is the pages and pages of creation myth spouted by a psychologist on LSD based on the rantings of a certified loony.
The best parts are the peeks at Flight North, the story Agatha tells her family of two women and two children plus their friends.
The best parts are the peeks at Flight North, the story Agatha tells her family of two women and two children plus their friends.
Aug 24, 2011
Dropped this one 25% of the way through -- too violent (or simply psychologically not what I want to read); not compelling enough of the other bits of plot to sustain it (letters between two Freudian psychologists? The science of snails?). Sorry, Byatt -- I loved "The Children's Book," but this isn't doing it for me.
Jan 24, 2010
Rebecca
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I was completely immersed, but come away feeling there was just too much going on and not enough attention/detail paid to the individuals in the cast of characters. They magically appeared when needed for the plot's twists, then abruptly disappeared again.
Oct 14, 2009
Sean
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I read this book out of sequence, but I thought it was very well paced and very stimulating. Byatt is wonderful and I'm going to read the series from start to finish as soon as I get the chance!
Jul 29, 2011
Njwillott
rated it:
I read this not knowing that it was part 4 of a series, but I felt that it stood alone and I enjoyed it. Now, though, I want to read the first three.
Aug 27, 2009
I'm on a Byatt binge. This was the book that culminated a series, of which I had only read the one previous, Babel Tower. It's probably best to start at the very beginning of the series. However the real reason to read Byatt is micro-textual. Her most casual observations often hit you like a knee to the gut.
Feb 18, 2010
Randi
rated it:
At last, a fitting resolution to the story Byatt began four novels ago with "The Virgin in the Garden." The Potter family - all of them, including Stephanie - have come full circle and Frederica (long-searching, long-suffering, and sometimes too intellectual for her own good Frederica) has settled into her own.
Reading Byatt always opens me up historically and culturally, not to mention that I always feel compelled to read more great works of literature while I'm doing so i More...
Reading Byatt always opens me up historically and culturally, not to mention that I always feel compelled to read more great works of literature while I'm doing so i More...
Mar 22, 2008
Wendy
rated it:
I really liked this book. A really great look at the good things, bad things, weird things of the 60's as well as then ideals turn into fashion/hypocrisies or worse evil. The partial list of topic covered: student protests, cults, tarot, tv, laura ashleigh, drugs, a little bit of free love, science experiments/research involving snails, free speech, insanity, christianity.
the overall tension reminded me of the movie Strawdogs which might have made the book more unsettling. I'm insis More...
the overall tension reminded me of the movie Strawdogs which might have made the book more unsettling. I'm insis More...
Mar 15, 2011
Adele
rated it:
Hmm, not really my type of book, nearly put it down but plodded on to the end regardless. It's part of a "quartet of novels" so maybe it doesn't stand alone as well as the jacket claims.
Jan 18, 2012
Paddy
rated it:
I really loved Virgin in the Garden and Still Life, tolerated Babel Tower, and skimmed huge swaths of A Whistling Woman. Face it, readers only really care about Frederica, not biology and religious cults. Increasingly, showing off her esoteric knowledge of many things seems more important than plot to Byatt. The rumored feud between Byatt and her younger sister Margaret Drabble may or may not be true, but I remember finding it telling that Byatt killed off the sister in Still Life. That her deat
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Sep 24, 2008
Judy
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I was rather disappointed with this volume of the Frederika saga. It is too full of long discourses about science which, unless you understand them (I don't) are irritating. The storyline of the cult is also a little reminiscent of Babel Tower. Of course there is still lots of interest for anyone who was young in the late 60s and , with hindsight so much silliness spoken then. On the other hand, the interest in the arts and in answering basic moral problems is refreshing. AS Byatt makes feminism
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