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60th out of 75 books
—
33 voters
The Blasphemer
On its way to the Galapagos Islands, a light aircraft ditches into the sea. As the water floods through the cabin, zoologist Daniel Kennedy faces an impossible choice - should he save himself, or Nancy, the woman he loves?
In a parallel narrative, it is 1917 and Daniel's great grandfather Andrew is preparing to go over the top at Passchendaele. He, too, will have his courag...more
In a parallel narrative, it is 1917 and Daniel's great grandfather Andrew is preparing to go over the top at Passchendaele. He, too, will have his courag...more
Hardcover, 432 pages
Published
January 21st 2010
by Doubleday
(first published January 1st 2010)
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Prologue
Ypres Salient. Last Monday of July, 1917.
* * * A waxy-faced young private in a relatively clean tunic appears in the doorway, stamps in a tray filled with chloride of lime, and adjusts his eyes to the gloom. With his downy mustache and his narrow shoulders that slope down like a Russian doll's, he looks his age, twenty. "Private Kennedy," he says in a flat-voweled voice. "Shropshire Fusiliers. I've been told to find Major Morris. You seen him? He's with the Rifle Brigade."
And so we...more
Ypres Salient. Last Monday of July, 1917.
* * * A waxy-faced young private in a relatively clean tunic appears in the doorway, stamps in a tray filled with chloride of lime, and adjusts his eyes to the gloom. With his downy mustache and his narrow shoulders that slope down like a Russian doll's, he looks his age, twenty. "Private Kennedy," he says in a flat-voweled voice. "Shropshire Fusiliers. I've been told to find Major Morris. You seen him? He's with the Rifle Brigade."
And so we...more
An exceptionally well written meditation on courage, faith, and science. A stridently atheist biologist has a near-death experience while on a pilgrimage to that Mecca of natural science, the Galapagos Islands. The aftermath of that experience leaves him wrestling with his confident non-belief while trying to save his marriage and his career. Interwoven with this present day account is the vivid and heartbreaking narrative of his great-grandfather's experiences in the first world war. The passag...more
I quite enjoyed the book but there were too many characters and definitely too many themes and storylines. What was the author thinking when he included the Wetherby / Mahler storyline? That should have been a whole different novel in its own right! Even the characters of Bear and the father were a bit unnecessary. The novel of two stories (past/present) has been executed a lot more efffectively by other authors e.g. AS Byatt in Possession, and clearly the WWI storyline is reminiscent of Birdson...more
I have just finished reading The Blasphemer. Not for quite some time has a book touched me so much, its characters and their stories lodged in my mind. I was literally glued to the book for the last half of it; I felt as though from chapter 25 onwards, I was on a rollercoaster, the pace was increasing and I didn't want it to stop, eager to learn the fate of Andrew, Adilah, Daniel, Nancy, Wetherby, Philip and Hamdi, and just how much Andrew and Adilah's story intertwined with those in the present...more
Cutting between the life of a contemporary academic and that of his great grandfather during the First World War The Blasphemer is an ambitious novel. It's themes include courage and cowardice, love and betrayal, evolution and the possibility of the miraculous. It's a novel of ideas squeezed into the plot of a thriller.
The central dilemmas of the book are firstly whether academic Daniel Kennedy can live up to the heroics of his father, grandfather and great grandfather who were active in World W...more
The central dilemmas of the book are firstly whether academic Daniel Kennedy can live up to the heroics of his father, grandfather and great grandfather who were active in World W...more
Unlike some of my fellow readers, I loved the intricacy of the plot. The book is such a page-turner that I was glad of the necessity to go back and check out references to incidents or references I'd missed first time round and tie everything together pleasingly.
But two of the characters raised questions for me: Wetherby and Philip, Daniel's father.
I'd like to have had more information about what might have led up to or explained Wetherby's behaviour, which seemed gratuitously destructive.
And...more
But two of the characters raised questions for me: Wetherby and Philip, Daniel's father.
I'd like to have had more information about what might have led up to or explained Wetherby's behaviour, which seemed gratuitously destructive.
And...more
The biggest problem I had with this book is that within the entire story there was never any defining moment. The book is supposedly about a professor who is an atheist, who goes down in a plane crash along with his long-time girlfriend and several other passengers. The professor volunteers to swim to the nearest island (some 14 miles away) to get help. While he's swimming, he sees a man, calmly treading water, always in front of him, urging him on. So now the obvious question arises: Was this a...more
I reviewed this for Publishers Weekly; here's my unedited review:
In this elegantly written meditation on morality (among many other topics), protagonist Daniel Kennedy, a biologist specializing in worms, is convinced of that the universe is godless—until the plane carrying him and his partner Nancy to the Galapagos Islands crashes in the ocean. In his desperate scramble to escape the sinking plane, he pushes Nancy out of the way, though returns to rescue her. The primary plot is about how Daniel...more
In this elegantly written meditation on morality (among many other topics), protagonist Daniel Kennedy, a biologist specializing in worms, is convinced of that the universe is godless—until the plane carrying him and his partner Nancy to the Galapagos Islands crashes in the ocean. In his desperate scramble to escape the sinking plane, he pushes Nancy out of the way, though returns to rescue her. The primary plot is about how Daniel...more
There’s a lot going on in Nigel Farndale’s new novel, which is good because it keeps the pages turning; but I feel that The Blasphemer ultimately tries to hold more than it can contain.
In the present day, zoologist (and atheist) Daniel Kennedy takes his partner Nancy on a surprise trip to the Galápagos Islands — but, before they get there, their light aircraft crash-lands at sea.At first, instinct leads Daniel to push past Nancy on his way out of the stricken plane, before returning to help her...more
In the present day, zoologist (and atheist) Daniel Kennedy takes his partner Nancy on a surprise trip to the Galápagos Islands — but, before they get there, their light aircraft crash-lands at sea.At first, instinct leads Daniel to push past Nancy on his way out of the stricken plane, before returning to help her...more
1 like · like · see review
A lot is happening in The Blasphemer by Nigel Farndale, probably too much for my taste – a few less plot lines and a little more development of the key themes would have made for a better book. Nonetheless, this is an interesting novel with an ambitious approach which makes for a good holiday read. There are two main story lines which are interwoven. The dominant story focuses on academic Zoologist Daniel Kennedy, a prominent atheist with a television series and a developing public profile who i...more
There is a LOT going on in this book. Religion vs science, bravery vs cowardice, plane crash, WWI, father and son relationships, middle eastern prejudice, amber alert, redemption, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria! Just when I thought I knew what this book was about (plane crash that tests a couple's relationship paralleled with a WWI storyline) a new character and subplot would be introduced - the middle eastern teacher, car bombs, the counselor, the father, the nasty vice-provost....more
Let's get the comparisons over with first. The scenes from the Passchendaele? Birdsong, but even more hard hitting - and the passion amidst it has the same highly charged eroticism - with a touch of Private Peaceful. The modern story? Very reminiscent style-wise of Danny Scheinmann's Random Acts of Heroic Love for me - too reminiscent maybe, remembering that was also a R+J choice a few years ago.
The modern story really is a total hotchpotch - inter-academic back-stabbing, Islamic terrorism, a l...more
The modern story really is a total hotchpotch - inter-academic back-stabbing, Islamic terrorism, a l...more
While I thoroughly enjoyed The Blasphemer, I found myself forced to contact the author about one third of the way through when I read a sentence that made my blood boil. In a discussion between two characters, Farndale has one character claim that there exists in Ohio a Creation Museum in which young children are pictured playing with carnivorous dinosaurs. As we in Ohio all know, that infamous, ridiculous museum is not located in Ohio but was constructed south of the Ohio River in Kentucky. We...more
1 like · like · see review
A man climbs over his girlfriend in the aftermath of a plane crash potentially leaving her to die. The same man's great Grandfather goes over the top of the trenches on the first day of Passchendale, is assumed dead but is really a deserter. The question here, is if we were in either of these men's shoes could we say we would react differently; are we really in a position to judge?
In amongst these two moral dilemmas that run parallel throughout the 492 pages of this novel we also have a nine yea...more
In amongst these two moral dilemmas that run parallel throughout the 492 pages of this novel we also have a nine yea...more
I really enjoyed this novel, and thankfully started it when I had a couple of days off work, and tore through the first couple of hundred pages. There are two main plots, one set in France during the First World War, the other in modern London. Daniel and Nancy have been together for ten years, have a daughter, but have not married yet. Daniel is hoping to change that by surprising Nancy with a holiday to the Galapagos islands where he intends to propose to her. Dramatic events occur on the jour...more
My goodness, there is SO much going on in this book, it's a minor miracle it is all packaged up and concluded in 492 pages. Is there a God or is there not? Was the earth created in seven days or not? Are there angels or not? And that is just for starters. But having said that, these three questions form the crux of the novel.
Daniel Kennedy is an atheist. He is also an associate professor of zoology at Trinity College in London, and has recently written and fronted a natural history television pr...more
Daniel Kennedy is an atheist. He is also an associate professor of zoology at Trinity College in London, and has recently written and fronted a natural history television pr...more
The Blasphemer - Nigel Farndale Read It Forward Aug/2010
5*****
“The Blasphemer” is a great novel, easily deserving of any awards which the author, Nigel Farndale might win. Published in 2010, Farndale’s book gave me a glimpse into my own family’s past. Since I had relations that served in the trenches of WW1, I kinda felt a unique curiosity and connection to “The Blasphemer”.
Well written, “The Blasphemer” is the story of 3 generations of men, 2 of which served time in the military. It’s a story o...more
5*****
“The Blasphemer” is a great novel, easily deserving of any awards which the author, Nigel Farndale might win. Published in 2010, Farndale’s book gave me a glimpse into my own family’s past. Since I had relations that served in the trenches of WW1, I kinda felt a unique curiosity and connection to “The Blasphemer”.
Well written, “The Blasphemer” is the story of 3 generations of men, 2 of which served time in the military. It’s a story o...more
The reviews call the book thought provoking. I consider that a serious understatement, as it has kept me up at nights, not only reading but also reflecting about the book in itself. It goes through a wide range of human emotions and their expressions, cowardice, love, envy, bravery, fear, faith or lack of it. It develops those feelings into characters that are threedimensional, with whom you can empathize whether you agree or not with their actions.
Most importantly though, it made me look deep i...more
Most importantly though, it made me look deep i...more
This book kept my interest, kept me wanting to read on to see how the various plot-lines were resolved, but wasn't as satisfying as it could have been.
There are so many strands and ideas explored in this story that writing a summary is beyond me - Darwinism, angels, courage, post 9/11 hysteria, father/son relationships, betrayal, a plane crash, a crumbling marriage a missing child, WWI, desertion, Mahler's 9th symphony, I could go on and probably should as I'm sure I've missed some out. In fact...more
There are so many strands and ideas explored in this story that writing a summary is beyond me - Darwinism, angels, courage, post 9/11 hysteria, father/son relationships, betrayal, a plane crash, a crumbling marriage a missing child, WWI, desertion, Mahler's 9th symphony, I could go on and probably should as I'm sure I've missed some out. In fact...more
Angels, apes, soldiers, scientists, Mahler, love, relationships, militant atheists, terrorists – phew, I dread to think what Nigel Farndale fits in his man-bag, considering the amount of material he manages to fit into this, his Costa Award shortlisted novel. Thankfully, I am not a minimalist, definitely not in my home and most certainly not in my reading life, so I became quickly engrossed in The Blasphemer.
The novel has multiple layers, it’s a dual time-frame narrative with one story set in wa...more
The novel has multiple layers, it’s a dual time-frame narrative with one story set in wa...more
This is our reading group book for the month of March, and I wasn't initially enthused by the cover or the first chapter. It felt a bit chick-litty for my taste (despite being written by a man). However, that didn't last long - as I read on, I was hooked. This is a beautifully constructed and written novel with some very fine touches and linked themes, and quite remarkable for a first work. It has all the elements for which I award my highest praise - great, believable characters, well-rounded a...more
The Lifeboat
The lifeboat example, a classical Philosophy 101 illustration, depicts a scenario in which you reside safely in a lifeboat surrounded by a sea of drowning passengers. While the hope of you – the lone lifeboat resident – is to save as many as possible, only one more person can safely board. Amongst the drowning treads your spouse, a brilliant physicist, and a poor child. Who should you save?
Daniel Kennedy – a zoologist, Dawkinsian atheist, and protagonist of The Blasphemer – would fi...more
The lifeboat example, a classical Philosophy 101 illustration, depicts a scenario in which you reside safely in a lifeboat surrounded by a sea of drowning passengers. While the hope of you – the lone lifeboat resident – is to save as many as possible, only one more person can safely board. Amongst the drowning treads your spouse, a brilliant physicist, and a poor child. Who should you save?
Daniel Kennedy – a zoologist, Dawkinsian atheist, and protagonist of The Blasphemer – would fi...more
The Blasphemer is an interesting novel that weaves together the stories of several men from different generations of the same family. As you might expect this is a well-constructed novel, with clearly drawn characters and interesting narrative style delivered through the switches from one time period (and life) to another.
The author employs beautiful imagery in his detailed descriptions, which really build depth into the world surrounding each of the men. However, as interesting as I found the b...more
The Blasphemer looks at several generations of males in one family, their lives, their loves and how they express them. The book flips backwards and forwards between each character, gradually unfolding a period of emotional upheaval in each of their lives. Usually books written in this way drive me daft, I’m just getting into one character’s story when the narrative breaks off and takes me somewhere else, leaving me frustrated but The Blasphemer made it easy to get into each and every life story...more
The Blasphemer by Nigel Farndale is a very fascinating work of fiction. Simply, this is a novel about a scientist named Daniel. The other important characters are his wife Nancy, his father who is a retired soldier, his great-grandfather and his daughter's Muslim teacher. Daniel and Nancy are in a plane crash and even though they physically survive they have to deal with the repercussion of guilt and censure. This affects them as individuals and creates ripples of everyone their lives touch. It...more
Given how obsessed I am with the First World War, this would seem to be a no-brainer. And indeed the plot line involving flashbacks to the grandfather's experience at Passendaele is the strongest material. But the writer just takes on far too much and loses my precious tolerance and suspension of disbelief as he over-lards the pudding with one unlikely twist after another, symbolic effect after symbolic effect. It's tiresome and it all gets a little preposterous after a while, with villains and...more
In dual time frame narratives, I usually enjoy the historical tale much more than the present. However, in this instance, I found the present day tale much more interesting. Perhaps the characters and their dilemnas were better explored-or perhaps the more in depth treatment gave it added zest. Not sure what caused this reversal for me, as I normally enjoy war settings and read many of them. Yet the war scenarios here were somewhat cliched-repeated descriptive scenes of dead bodies innured the r...more
This book started out confusing but, by the end, most of my questions had been answered. The book had concurrent storylines. The first deals with Daniel and is set in modern time. The second is set during WWI and has to do with Daniel's great great grandfather. There are also some offshoot storylines that really go no where. The Blasphemer was a hard read but I wasn't disappointed. That's not to say I was thrilled though. I'm not going to shout from the rooftops how much I loved this book but I...more
So well plotted and well written. Good on love, loss, parenthood and war. But most importantly, a non-linear puzzle plot with a good dose of the supernatural. Good breathless page-turning fun. Really enjoyed more than almost anything in ages. Only not a five because some of the conversations on atheism, science and faith were a bit heavy handed and too much tell in a book that is otherwise very much good on showing and feeling. The wonderful bitter irony of how Hamdi is treated in contemporary B...more
War soldiers,plain crash,evolution,debates about faith and the existence of God,angels(?),human relationships and fight of cowardice.All these you can find in this book.The way so many themes are tied in through the book was brilliant.The characters seemed to me very real.It seemed like a believable story.Well-written.My favorite part was the plain crash and the struggle for survival.Although the book had a lot of unexpected plot twists, it didn't manage to leave you excited and in agony in my o...more
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Jun 16, 2012 03:16am
Jan 05, 2013 02:35am