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32nd out of 116 books
—
31 voters
This Is How
by
M.J. Hyland
When his fiance breaks off their engagement, Patrick Oxtoby leaves home and moves into a boarding house in a remote seaside town. But in spite of his hopes and determination to build a better life, nothing goes to plan and Patrick is soon driven to take a desperate and chilling course of action.
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
July 2nd 2009
by Canongate
(first published 2009)
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lotta hype surrounding this one and look, deservedy so. despite being a little bit camus' 'the outsider' THIS IS HOW presents an agonzing portrait of awkwardness with its main man Patrick Oxtoby. every page is tragic in this page turning tale of queit alienation and it finishes so uniquely/beautifully i went back and re-read the last 50 right away just to experience it again. its what we do in this world with the things we are given, if we're lucky enough to see we have such things. simple as th...more
It’s hard to say much about this book without giving away the sharp turn it takes about a third of the way through – and trust me, it’s just so strangely, subtly heartbreaking when you’re not expecting it. At first, I couldn’t stand Patrick Oxtoby, the rather selfish and annoying narrator. Oddly, it was only when the narrative reached its turning point, where I should really have disliked him even more, that I started to really, deeply care for him.
It’s mesmerising, watching the complete change...more
It’s mesmerising, watching the complete change...more
This is Now is not the sort of book I usually read. But it was longlisted for the Orange Prize, it was highly lauded, and my library had a copy. It seemed to be time to step of my comfort zone. And I'm very glad that I did.
The story opens with Patrick Oxtoby in his early 20s. He dropped out of university to become a mechanic, a disappointment to his family.
And then his fiancée deserted him. He decided to make a change. He found a new job in a seaside town and lodgings in a boarding house owned b...more
The story opens with Patrick Oxtoby in his early 20s. He dropped out of university to become a mechanic, a disappointment to his family.
And then his fiancée deserted him. He decided to make a change. He found a new job in a seaside town and lodgings in a boarding house owned b...more
I determined a few weeks ago to try and read as many of the books on the long list for the Orange Prize for Fiction as I could before the prize is announced in June. This is a British prize for the best fiction by women. I tracked down as many of the titles as I could-not all of them have been released in the US yet. I've got about six on my shelf, eagerly awaiting my perusal.
I decided to start with This Is How, by MJ Hyland. It is one of the shorter ones on the list, and since I was not yet on...more
I decided to start with This Is How, by MJ Hyland. It is one of the shorter ones on the list, and since I was not yet on...more
The young man who struggles through this tale as the main character is in dire need of love. His fiance has broken up with him and he takes his huge toolbox with him to a small island in Great Britain to work as a mechanic at a garage. He has arranged for a bed and breakfast accommodation and he is ready to start life all over again. He meets his fellow lodgers and his young landlady. Before he can even get to his first day at work, his mother shows up, uninvited and unwelcome. She doesn't seem...more
"This is How" quickly and craftily establishes an insidious grip on the reader. Once begun, it's hard to stop reading. One senses that something is going to happen, but it's hard to know what, or when. It is set in a drab, seaside town. There's a bed and breakfast, a cafe, a couple of pubs...all ordinary and very familiar, but described in a subtle style and language that skews and infects, leaving the reader unsettled: everything is as it should be, but something is very different and very wron...more
I often like the beginning of a book but hate the ending. Here, I liked the beginning and the end but hated the middle. That's a new one.
The story started off with such promise. I love her writing style. She doesn't beat you over the head with tedious descriptions of every little thing, but when she does describe something, it's perfect: "She looks at me and I look at her and she takes a step back as though she blames the place where she's standing for the silence."
I have a soft spot for sociop...more
The story started off with such promise. I love her writing style. She doesn't beat you over the head with tedious descriptions of every little thing, but when she does describe something, it's perfect: "She looks at me and I look at her and she takes a step back as though she blames the place where she's standing for the silence."
I have a soft spot for sociop...more
This is How does exactly what it says on the tin, it tells you how but not why. It tells you how Patrick Oxtoby arrives at a seaside resort, how he meets his mother, how he gets on with the people in the guesthouse, at his new job and with the nice girl from the café, it tells us how he gets himself into trouble and what happens – but it doesn’t tell us why. This is essentially a reworking of Camus’ The Outsider.
This is How has not received universal praise. I can see why. It’s an uncomfortable...more
This is How has not received universal praise. I can see why. It’s an uncomfortable...more
This book starts slowly. So slowly, in fact, that but for the statement in the blurb that the protagonist "commits a violent act" I would have given up. The violent act takes place at the end of part 1 and frm then on the book gets very interesting indeed.
Part 1 is necessary in order to establish the character of the first person protagonist. He is 23, has dropped out of a psychology degree course to become a mechanic and he is obsessive about his tools and the cars he loves fixing. His relation...more
Part 1 is necessary in order to establish the character of the first person protagonist. He is 23, has dropped out of a psychology degree course to become a mechanic and he is obsessive about his tools and the cars he loves fixing. His relation...more
I finished This Is How today and found myself attached to the writing style of M.J Hyland more so than any other author of recent. Her first- person style of writing concerning the life of Patrick Oxtoby engulfs you in the first few pages and soon after you forget that you are reading a work of fiction. This Is How is definately a journey through the mind of a psychopath, told by the psychopath and we are able to sit on the sidelines and watch everything take place - sometimes with reluctance.
T...more
T...more
You know how they say there are two kinds of J.D. Salinger fans? Ones who live for "Catcher in the Rye" and ones who shun the prior in favor of "Nine Stories"? I'm not making this up. Anyway, I'm definitely a "Nine Stories" girl who cannot give up hope on "Catcher". Every time I reread it I keep hoping everything I want to be there will suddenly appear. As my younger brother has told me, "Yeah, it'd be a great book if Holden's angst actually bloody meant something or he wasn't a total dipwad." Y...more
This is how has been shortlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize and I'm please to say that it is more engaging than her last novel which was nominated a few years ago, (though many others liked it obviously). The main character, Patrick, is a lonely young man who moves to a seaside town after his fiancee breaks off their engagement. He goes to live in a boarding house, while he works as a mechanic.
He doesn't really relate well to the other 2 boarders, though he does strike up a friendship with a loc...more
He doesn't really relate well to the other 2 boarders, though he does strike up a friendship with a loc...more
Comment une vie peut-elle subitement se déliter à partir d'un seul geste de violence incontrôlée? Un jeune homme quitte sa famille dont il se sent exclu pour refaire sa vie après une rupture avec sa copine qui l'a quitté (bien qu'il ne l'aimait pas tant que cela...). Il s'installe dans une autre ville où il a trouvé un nouvel emploi et loge dans une pension. Peu enclin à se lier d'amitié, bien décidé à trouver enfin l'amour, ce jeune homme quelque peu misanthrope ne peut se départir de ce sentim...more
M. J. Hyland is the award winning and Man Booker shortlisted author of Carry Me Down. Her third novel, This Is How, is a psychologically probing and deeply moving account of a man at odds with the world. Patrick Oxtoby is a perpetual outsider longing to find his niche. When his fiancé breaks off their engagement, Patrick leaves home and moves to a remote seaside village. In spite of his hopes for a new and better life, Patrick struggles to fit in or make the right impression. He can’t shake the...more
This review was originally published on my blog, Blood and Barricades.
This is How is a simple yet emotive literary portrait of any ordinary man who’s life is turned upside down by the drop of a hand.
I think I should preface this review by saying I am prone to gushing over writers I meet and become fascinated by as people or characters of their own, and so I’d probably read my thoughts with that in mind and the idea that I may praise it beyond what others might see in it.
At first glance, the pros...more
This is How is a simple yet emotive literary portrait of any ordinary man who’s life is turned upside down by the drop of a hand.
I think I should preface this review by saying I am prone to gushing over writers I meet and become fascinated by as people or characters of their own, and so I’d probably read my thoughts with that in mind and the idea that I may praise it beyond what others might see in it.
At first glance, the pros...more
The first half of the novel didn't grip me at all, and I just felt annoyed about having to read about such a pathetic person and his pathetic life. I know these weak, sad people exist, but I certainly don't want to waste time reading about them, however cynical that sounds. Halfway through the book this odd, odd man suddenly goes even more loopy than he has been so far in the book, but the result is that the second half of the book is a lot more interesting. I couldn't relate to the first half a...more
Told from the point of view of Patrick - a lonely and troubled young man who has dropped his old life and begun a new one at a seaside boarding house.
He wants to connect with other people but isn't sure how he is supposed to interact with them. He persues friendships and relationships but his impulsive manor often lands him in trouble. Eventually it lands him in about as much trouble as a person can be in, and he has to adjust to an entirely new and unexpected existence.
Although I didn't like P...more
He wants to connect with other people but isn't sure how he is supposed to interact with them. He persues friendships and relationships but his impulsive manor often lands him in trouble. Eventually it lands him in about as much trouble as a person can be in, and he has to adjust to an entirely new and unexpected existence.
Although I didn't like P...more
This is the first book I've read by M. J. Hyland and I plan to read more by her--compelling, emotionally honest, and unforgettable. Patrick Oxtoby is out of sorts with his world--he feels neglected by family and was rejected by his girlfriend--so he moves to a boardinghouse in a seaside village to take a job as a mechanic, the only thing he feels good at. However, the job doesn't pan out as expected. He's socially awkward and fantasizes about women he meets and also has jealous fantasies about t...more
I can't tell you how many times I've reached for M.J. Hyland's This is How from my bedside TBR stack before finally deciding it was silly to keep putting off starting a book that I so obviously have wanted to read. I bought it last year when it was longlisted for the Orange Prize. I was particularly drawn to last year's list (most of the titles appealed to me), though this is the first book that I've managed to read from it. I really liked it, but in a very strange, uncomfortable sort of way, wh...more
Feb 14, 2011
Kirsty Darbyshire
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
library-book
I liked MJ Hyland's first two books a lot and am surprised how long it's taken me to discover this one. It moves at what would be a slow pace if it wasn't so beautifully written that it feels more like an elegant dance.
The only thing I can fault it for is moving that bit too slowly at first that, having not read the blurb or anything about the book, I put it down shortly before the pivotal moment at the end of part one and didn't get back to it for a week. Once I got to that point it was practic...more
The only thing I can fault it for is moving that bit too slowly at first that, having not read the blurb or anything about the book, I put it down shortly before the pivotal moment at the end of part one and didn't get back to it for a week. Once I got to that point it was practic...more
De eerst helft van dit boek lees je hoe Patrick zijn intrek
neemt in een pension en hoe hij in deze engelse badplaats
een nieuw leven wil beginnen nadat zijn verloofde hun
relatie heeft beëindigd.
De tweede helft van het boek beschrijft Patrick zijn leven
in de gevangenis.
Het gehele boek leef je toch met Patrick mee doordat de schrijfster
heel meeslepend Patricks gedachtes beschrijft en ook schrijft ze hele
sterke dialogen die het boek boeiend maken terwijl er niet heel veel
gebeurt.
Het einde...more
neemt in een pension en hoe hij in deze engelse badplaats
een nieuw leven wil beginnen nadat zijn verloofde hun
relatie heeft beëindigd.
De tweede helft van het boek beschrijft Patrick zijn leven
in de gevangenis.
Het gehele boek leef je toch met Patrick mee doordat de schrijfster
heel meeslepend Patricks gedachtes beschrijft en ook schrijft ze hele
sterke dialogen die het boek boeiend maken terwijl er niet heel veel
gebeurt.
Het einde...more
This book took me forever to finish. I kept throwing it down in disgust with Oxtoby, but then picking it up a day or so later to try to slog through it. It wasn't only because his character was sad and pathetic, but also because he would do things that anyone with common sense could see would not end well. I found some bits of it cringeworthy and had to step back from it.
However Hyland's writing style is fantastic. Beautifully spare and detached, yet manages to evoke a sense of inevitability and...more
However Hyland's writing style is fantastic. Beautifully spare and detached, yet manages to evoke a sense of inevitability and...more
Some books are deceptively simple, but this one really is simple... The protagonist, painfully awkward and overwhelmed by choice in the world outside, finds out he can get on quite well in prison. As Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, "A lot of good people can't make it on the outside." - I didn't get much out of Hyland's book that I hadn't already gotten out of that one sentence. However, it's extremely well realized, with masterful control in the use of precise detail or complete vagueness, depending o...more
We read this book and came together for our monthly book discussion with me wondering very much where this session was going to go.
For a start I absolutely loved THIS IS HOW, and seeing as I seem to spend an awful lot of our bookclub meetings in the Grumpy Corner I was wondering how many of the others would have loved / hated it.
In short, about 50/50. With a few people rethinking their approach once those of us who had loved this book explained the why and where that the story really worked.
Asid...more
For a start I absolutely loved THIS IS HOW, and seeing as I seem to spend an awful lot of our bookclub meetings in the Grumpy Corner I was wondering how many of the others would have loved / hated it.
In short, about 50/50. With a few people rethinking their approach once those of us who had loved this book explained the why and where that the story really worked.
Asid...more
If you are after an uplifting, cheery read then look away now, you've come to the wrong place. However, if you want to get into the mind of a somewhat ordinary man who does something extraordinary and then pays the consequences, then this is the place for you.
'This Is How' is like a portrait painting and the emphasis is on Patrick Oxtoby, a young man whose fiancee has dumped him. On the spur of the moment he's left home, moved into lodgings and taken a new job. On the face of it Patrick is a bit...more
'This Is How' is like a portrait painting and the emphasis is on Patrick Oxtoby, a young man whose fiancee has dumped him. On the spur of the moment he's left home, moved into lodgings and taken a new job. On the face of it Patrick is a bit...more
This was a pretty good book. A little disappointed in the ending because I was looking for something, some more action. I know literary books focus in on the characters more than the plot and the like, but I couldn't emphasize with this character too much. I didn't understand why he came into being or what the whole ending was about. And that Lumsden character...what'd he do with the price of eggs? But I don't know. It was good, but didn't throw me into that"wow, let's read it again!" factor. Di...more
MJ Hyland is a great writer. Her simple sentences say so much. She is very good at setting the scene and making you feel like you are right there. The novel has an unreliable narrator, and it's interesting to try and figure out when the main character is portraying things correctly or not. Again, the author is very subtle about the clues she gives the reader to figure this out.
This book isn't the cheeriest of subject matters, so it is a hard read, but the author is so good it's worth reading.
This book isn't the cheeriest of subject matters, so it is a hard read, but the author is so good it's worth reading.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Meticulously written but just a little too slow and labored for me. I read a much more economical and trenchant version of this book in college - Camus' L'Etranger (the thematic similarities are striking) - and Hyland's version added little. There were also a weirdly anachronistic vein in the book - some very modern thoughts and words thAt made the period setting seemed strained. But Hyland writes well, and her characterization of Patrick is finely nuanced.
This was an interesting -- though not particularly pleasant -- book. In it, a rather despicable man does a despicable thing and faces the despicable consequences of his act. I can see how a story that has such little light would not be everyone's cup of tea. However, I thought the writing was fascinating. You cannot trust this narrator, and he is the one telling the story. He is telling you that "this is how it happened," but did it? And why?
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M.J. Hyland was born in London to Irish parents in 1968 and spent her early childhood in Dublin. She studied English and law at the University of Melbourne, Australia and worked as a lawyer for several years. Her first novel, How the Light Gets In (2003) was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Age Book of the Year and also took third place in the Barnes & Noble, Discover G...more
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