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42nd out of 86 books
—
144 voters
Repeat It Today With Tears
by
Anne Peile
Susanna is a secretive child, obsessed with the father she has never known and determined that one day she will find him. As an adolescent she becomes increasingly distanced from life at home with her mother and sister. When she finally discovers her father's address and seeks him out, in the free and unconventional atmosphere of 1970s Chelsea, she conceals her identity, b...more
Paperback, 186 pages
Published
June 3rd 2010
by Serpent's Tail
(first published 2010)
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The novel is divided into two parts. The first half of the book concentrates on Susie's childhood and how she then meets and seduces her father. The second part does not come a surprise to the reader, because by then Susie has already hinted many times at a "the end" of their secret affair. While in part one, she is but a quiet girl who is in desperate need of (parental) love and then goes at it in a way most people would never even contemplate, when the love of her father is taken away from her...more
I picked this book up in the library because the cover grabbed my attention and, when I read the back cover copy, I was torn as to whether to take it home. This book deals with the incredibly taboo topic of incest and so I knew it would be a difficult read, but something about the title and the description made me want to read on. So I decided to go with it.
The first thing to say about this book is that the writing is beautiful. Such a sensitive subject could easily become crass, explicit and di...more
The first thing to say about this book is that the writing is beautiful. Such a sensitive subject could easily become crass, explicit and di...more
WHOA! This book was quite a deviation from what I typically read and although I thought the topic perverse and most definitely taboo, I also think it's good to push myself to have a wide range of reading variety. Without going in to too much detail, I will say that the 16 year-old girl, Susanna, is so hungry for her fathers love that she finds her father, who does not know her, and seduces him. I just kept thinking - No! No! No! What are you thinking Susie? Needless to say the things did not end...more
Not an easy subject to tackle, I wasn't even sure that I wanted to read it but am so glad that I did.
Susie seeks out the father she never knew and leads him into a sexual relationship without him knowing her true identity.
So much about this book could have gone so wrong but rather than being voyeuristic and sleezy , it was a disturbing and uncomfortable read, yet also incredibly touching and poignant.
Whilst admittedly there is a lot of sexual activity it very much takes second place to Susie's d...more
Susie seeks out the father she never knew and leads him into a sexual relationship without him knowing her true identity.
So much about this book could have gone so wrong but rather than being voyeuristic and sleezy , it was a disturbing and uncomfortable read, yet also incredibly touching and poignant.
Whilst admittedly there is a lot of sexual activity it very much takes second place to Susie's d...more
Aug 21, 2010
Erica
added it
Like The Kiss, but fictional and therefore not as shocking (The Kiss, for anyone who doesn't know, is about a woman who has a consensual affair with her father.) Part of what makes The Kiss such an amazing book is that though most of us have not had incestuous affairs, the story is instantly relatable to anyone who grew up with an emotionally manipulative parent, even if their own relationship never crossed that line. But in Repeat It Today with Tears, the father never knows that Susie is his da...more
Susanna is a teenage girl who is obsessed with the father that she has never known. When she schemes up a way in which to meet him, rather than introduce herself as his daughter, she seduces him. Rather obviously, this is not a relationship that is going to end well for either party involved.
This is the kind of book that I knew I wanted to read the moment I read the synopsis. I am a girl with an absent father. I can relate to Susanna’s longing and desperation for a relationship with her father....more
This is the kind of book that I knew I wanted to read the moment I read the synopsis. I am a girl with an absent father. I can relate to Susanna’s longing and desperation for a relationship with her father....more
Fifteen-year old Susanna grew up with a sister who was ready to embrace her sexuality the minute she crossed that threshold and a mother who couldn't care less about what her daughters wanted or did. Her mother didn't have a great opinion of her daughters' father either, who she claimed was a womanizer and who wasn't around much. But Susanna was fascinated with the idea of her absent father. Having grown up on tough or no love, under a mother who is only focused on her own love life with a marri...more
In Repeat it Today with Tears, Peile takes the idea of an unloved person’s insatiable longing for love, and exemplifies it to stunning effect.
The person is Susie, a clever but disengaged teenager living in 1970s south-west London. She tracks down her long-absent, artist father, Jack, to a street in Chelsea. He doesn’t know who she is, and she never tells him. She seduces him, and begins a sexual relationship with him.
Susie’s interest in nothing but her father is immensely powerful. She never wa...more
The person is Susie, a clever but disengaged teenager living in 1970s south-west London. She tracks down her long-absent, artist father, Jack, to a street in Chelsea. He doesn’t know who she is, and she never tells him. She seduces him, and begins a sexual relationship with him.
Susie’s interest in nothing but her father is immensely powerful. She never wa...more
If you read one book this Summer, make it this one!
And if you can, get someone else to read it with you. My Mum and I were both enrapt by the character of Susie and enjoyed sharing theories on why she carried out the actions she did. Our insights differed from each other's and we each picked up on things the other had not.
I don't want to put forward any theories as I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but if you have any you'd like to share, please message me with them!
And if you can, get someone else to read it with you. My Mum and I were both enrapt by the character of Susie and enjoyed sharing theories on why she carried out the actions she did. Our insights differed from each other's and we each picked up on things the other had not.
I don't want to put forward any theories as I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but if you have any you'd like to share, please message me with them!
Anne Peile’s debut novel, Repeat It Today with Tears, opens in this way: “The first time I kissed my father on the mouth it was the the Easter holiday.”
The reader is meant to be shocked. And, fair warning, the author has laid out the book’s subject matter in the opening line: Here there be dragons. If you venture further, you do so at your own risk.
For surely it is risky, taking on such a subject for your first work of fiction: “..something that’s not allowed by law, something that’s frowned upo...more
The reader is meant to be shocked. And, fair warning, the author has laid out the book’s subject matter in the opening line: Here there be dragons. If you venture further, you do so at your own risk.
For surely it is risky, taking on such a subject for your first work of fiction: “..something that’s not allowed by law, something that’s frowned upo...more
Anne Peile successfully creates a disturbing character whose actions are at once incomprehensible and pitiful. A story of neglect that leads to an extreme, misplaced desire for affection, the calm attitude of Susie when relating her tale heightens the chilling atmosphere. At times I felt the diaogue was a little stilted, but even with that I found this to be a well-crafted novel, driven by the depth of character that Peile has portrayed.
dark and sinister book about one of the society's major taboos, incest and the major character susie who trapped her father into an affair without him realising its his own daughter and well written and all the interactions and the breakdown of susi. book is based in 1972 chelsea
Deeply disturbing, beautifully written - my kind of book! Loved it, will be haunted by it for weeks to come. Having sickly strange dreams since I first began reading it. If only more books were this intense and affecting. This book is exactly what I have come to expect from the rock stars at Serpent's Tail - their titles rarely disappoint.
It is a difficult one to read but a good book nevertheless...
Took me a while to get into this book due to the style of writing, but I found it a fast read. Quite harrowing and disturbing through the majority of it.
This is it: the first book in my Orange longlist readerthon that has blown me absolutely and completely out of the water. Straight onto my own personal shortlist it goes.
Set in pre-punk London, a teenage girl tracks down her long-lost father and begins a sexual relationship with him. Sounds sensational but it is a strange, sad, beautifully written tale.
Mar 19, 2011
Featherbooks
marked it as to-read
2011 Orange List
Wow. Unputdownable, despite the fact that not a whole lot happens. (But what does happen is pretty intense, so there's that.) The writing is spot-on. I'm docking it a star because I thought the ending was weak, and not wholly plausible. But still highly recommended.
Superbly written. Deals with the taboo of incest (deliberate and unwitting) with sensitivity. A very powerful read.
Firstly, this is a topic that is quite taboo...I was quite shocked when I go to the point where it is revealed, although, there was a slowish buildup to it. I am divided on the book, I think that some will love it or hate it, depending on your personal values and morals. That being said it was well written, it was just the subject matter that was a bit disturbing.
wauw... even een momentje stilte voor de indruk die dit boek heeft achtergelaten.
wat een prachtig verhaal dit boek over susy en haar vader. Een controversieel onderwerp, maar heel mooi klein geschreven. aanrader!
wat een prachtig verhaal dit boek over susy en haar vader. Een controversieel onderwerp, maar heel mooi klein geschreven. aanrader!
I loved it, It was wrong but it was right, It made me cry and laugh and feel what the protagonist was feeling, I actually got into her mindset and understood her reasoning... I'd read it all over again...
May 14, 2013
Kruimel
marked it as to-read
May 13, 2013
ilse
marked it as to-read
May 09, 2013
Samantha
marked it as to-read
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Anne Peile was born in London; she has lived in the South West and Belfast and worked as a cook, writing emails for the BBC and in educational support. She works for a London bookstore. Repeat It Today With Tears, her debut novel, was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2011.
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Apr 02, 2011 05:34pm