Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
78th out of 103 books
—
189 voters
A Sight for Sore Eyes
by
Ruth Rendell
Nobody does North London squalor better than Ruth Rendell. Describing in vivid detail the cultural sewer in which a monster named Teddy Brex grows up, she uses hideous furniture, slovenly housekeeping habits, even his mother's diet while pregnant to root us in the setting's hopeless ugliness. In contrast, Rendell introduces people and places of stunning beauty: Francine, a...more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
March 7th 2000
by Dell
(first published 1998)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
2,349)
Ruth Rendell has rarely disappointed me. Her elegant prose cannot be matched in this genre. I continue to be amazed at the depths and heights of her prolific imagination.
Her characters possess varied deficits and pathologies which reveal increasing deviousness and add continued tension throughout her narrative. This novel is no exception to her skills. In fact, the major offender is one of the most chilling individuals whom I have met in her books. Rendell's clear insight into this man's skewed...more
Her characters possess varied deficits and pathologies which reveal increasing deviousness and add continued tension throughout her narrative. This novel is no exception to her skills. In fact, the major offender is one of the most chilling individuals whom I have met in her books. Rendell's clear insight into this man's skewed...more
Ruth Rendell has made a long career out of writing about damaged people. They go about their lives doing things that are strange, sadistic and even criminal but somehow they are undetected until they spiral out of control. In "A Sight for Sore Eyes" her lead characters are Teddy and Francine. Teddy is an ignored and unloved child from a lower class London family who lives in a filthy smoke filled home. He has no interest in anything until a neighbor shows him carpentry. As Teddy grows up he has...more
Another great Ruth Rendell book: winding plot lines that all converge, deliciously unlikeable characters, and a twist at the end that I didn't see coming.
Rendell is a master storyteller. She creates stories that capture me right away. Intriguing plots involving ordinary characters in ordinary situations yet they will inevitably be pushed to commit murder. In Sight for Sore Eyes, she presents three sets of stories.First begins with Marc and Harriett who pose for a portrait in the 1960’s. Marc is a rock star, Harriet, his current girlfriend. He throws her out when she repeatedly asks him if he loves her. It was the last straw. Next there’s Eileen a...more
I am in love or should I say infatuated with Ruth Rendell's writing ability. This book was a treat especially the audio version with the great narrator, Jenny Sterlin. I loved it so much I downloaded it so I could read and really relish Rendell's prose. Yes, she does all those things you aren't supposed to do as a writer--multiple POVS, leaving clues along the way with hints that we should remember them, but it all works beautifully.
Those clues. You think the books is slow at first but then it...more
Those clues. You think the books is slow at first but then it...more
I picked this up thinking it was an Inspector Wexford mystery and it wasn't. I still enjoyed it though. It did seem plodding at times except for the ending which mad it worthwhile. It's about Teddy who has childhood issues and Francine who sees her mother murdered. There lives intertwine and of course no good can come of it.
Teddy can make beautiful things and only likes beautiful things as his life has been surrounded with ugliness. Francine is considered fragile as she heard her mother being s...more
Teddy can make beautiful things and only likes beautiful things as his life has been surrounded with ugliness. Francine is considered fragile as she heard her mother being s...more
I started reading the book and I was immediately captured by the deep psychological analysis of the main character, Teddy, a psychopath. The author led the reader in Teddy's mind. Suddenly it is easy to understand his way of thinking, and even relate and be sympathetic towards him. This is the kind of book that is impossible to put down once started, the kind of book you end up reading until an early hour in the morning to realize you need to be at work few hours later. (Spoiler alert, stop read...more
The characters play the most important part in this psychological suspense. We follow Teddy and Francine through their lives. Each person has aspects of their past that link them together in tragedy. Teddy is the son of two parents who never show him any signs of attention. He learns to trust only in beautiful objects and becomes an exquisite craftsman. Francine has witnessed her mother's death. She becomes mute for a time being, and this puts her in contact with under-qualified pscyhotherapists...more
May 23, 2012
Mary
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who likes contemporary mysteries
Recommended to Mary by:
Library Book Sale
Teddy was born into poverty and has risen from those humble beginnings to become an extremely talented craftsman determined to banish ugliness from his life. Harriet is a beautiful, bored trophy wife who employs a series of repairmen and handymen to satisfy her sexual desires. Francine is a college student who witnessed her mother’s murder and now must free herself from the manipulative clutches of her father’s second wife. Connected by strands of pure chance, their lives intersecting in the str...more
So, this is one of those wishy washy books...where you say to your friends "well, it wasn't good but it wasn't necessarily bad either." Like that helps, right? But honestly, I just have lukewarm feelings about this book.
This was the latest choice for my book club as we've picked our way along EW's list of 100 new classics. Since A Sight for Sore Eyes appeared on the list, you know that it is a critical darling (I just want to make you aware that my view of this book likely diverges from popular...more
This was the latest choice for my book club as we've picked our way along EW's list of 100 new classics. Since A Sight for Sore Eyes appeared on the list, you know that it is a critical darling (I just want to make you aware that my view of this book likely diverges from popular...more
Subverting the familiar fairy-tale theme of an orphaned maiden rescued by a handsome knight, Rendell focuses her tale on three individuals: Francine, who as a young girl is a witness to her mother’s murder; Julia, Francine’s therapist and then stepmother, whose worries over her step-daughter’s safety turn into an obsession that make her as mad as any fairy-tale witch; and last but not least Teddy, the “white knight” of the tale who in this case is a psychopath who doesn’t hesitate to murder to g...more
I am always amazed at Ruth Rendell's ability to imagine such unpredictable plots. While reading A Sight for Sore Eyes, I couldn't tell in which direction the plot would twist and turn or where it would eventually end up. Having read large numbers of mystery books, I've become an expert at finding a pattern and predicting where the author is headed long before the book's culmination, but Ruth Rendell is wonderfully unpredictable. I also marvel at her ability to create believable and sympathetic f...more
With excriciatingly-teeth-grindingly awkward characters and situations, A Sight for Sore Eyes is full of a creeping horror--and the murders that are at the core of this book are only part of it. Like Patricia Highsmith's Talented Mr. Ripley before him, Teddy Brex needs to be surrounded by beautiful things, and will do anything to get them. People are merely obstacles in his way. There are a number of threads that come together in an inexorable way...it's all so terrible, but one cannot look away...more
I reread this after reading The Vault, which follows on from it, many years later. It is one of her darker, psychological novels - no detective, no mystery as such, just a tale of two fractured families and the children they produce: beautiful, gentle, sheltered Francine, and Teddy, who is amoral, unsocialised, handsome, and loves beautiful things. As with many Ruth Rendells there is a strong sense of chance - the small choice that leads to a larger catastrophe - and the fatal misunderstanding....more
A slightly uncomfortable read since both the main protagonists are psychologically damaged. (And Francine's mum is a few cards short of a full deck.)
The main problem however is that Teddy's fate is too contrived even with a truckload of suspended disbelief. His characterisation is very weak. At one moment he is childishly naive and then confidently knowing. He is also capable of making giant mental leaps from ignorance to understanding after a couple of moments thought or observation.
As a first...more
The main problem however is that Teddy's fate is too contrived even with a truckload of suspended disbelief. His characterisation is very weak. At one moment he is childishly naive and then confidently knowing. He is also capable of making giant mental leaps from ignorance to understanding after a couple of moments thought or observation.
As a first...more
Dec 23, 2012
Amy
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommended to Amy by:
Cranston Book Discussion Group
Shelves:
put-down
Maybe I should have had more patience, but I was just getting frustrated with the three different plot lines. I knew that at some point they would all come together but after reading half the book that hadn't happened yet and I decided there are many more books out there that I want to read and have more chance of enjoying. This is the second Rut Rendell book I have started and not finished, despite the number of people I know who love her and keep suggesting her work I don't think I will bother...more
Nobody does North London squalor better than Ruth Rendell. Describing in vivid detail the cultural sewer in which a monster named Teddy Brex grows up, she uses hideous furniture, slovenly housekeeping habits, even his mother's diet while pregnant to root us in the setting's hopeless ugliness. In contrast, Rendell introduces people and places of stunning beauty: Francine, a mentally fragile girl who became mute after witnessing her mother's murder; and Orcadia Cottage, scene of a famous painting...more
It is really too bad that the first book I read by Ruth Rendell was Simisola. I feel it made such a negative impact upon me that I will forever perceive any book written by Rendell as a waste of time.
I can say for certain that A Sight for Sore Eyes was significantly better than Simisola. I loved the deep psychological issues of the characters. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something in the way that Rendell writes in which keeps me from developing any emotional connection to he...more
I can say for certain that A Sight for Sore Eyes was significantly better than Simisola. I loved the deep psychological issues of the characters. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something in the way that Rendell writes in which keeps me from developing any emotional connection to he...more
I have never heard of this author - found a copy in a hostel and since it was in english, gave it a go. Takes a bit to get going and is very intriging how three different story lines ultimately come together in the final third of the book. A young girl witnesses her mother´s murder and grows up in the protective shadow of her stepmom; a red-haired beauty still lives off the fame of being part of a contemporary artist´s greatest masterpiece; and an ignored boy grows up to be a cold and unfeeling...more
My book list indicates I do not read suspense novels. My friend whom I respect suggested this reading-- It was scary!! this is a tale of poetic justice in the realm of everyday comings and goings. How lack of parental nurturing leaves open spaces in the plains of conscience. How thinking from a to b when using the deductive ability of reasoning, can end up being your own undoing, unless there is probably spiritual or medical intervention.Excellent.
Of course she is British so her writing is impec...more
Of course she is British so her writing is impec...more
Rendell's latest Wexford is a sequel to this novel published in 1998. I either missed this one (which is what I think happened) or forgot it totally. Since I knew what happened through reading The Vault, the story was not as creepy or mysterious as it could have been. But it was a great study of psychopathic personalities and other forms of madness, so pretty creepy after all. As in her more recent stand alones, Rendell here pulls together the threads of individual characters' stories.
Love this book! Ruth Rendell is a favorite of mine.
This is a shocking and stark account of a young man. A boy growing up in an indifferent home. His parents, uncle and grandmother the worst of the worst! He meets and falls in love, or so he thinks with Francine. A tragic figure in her own right.
Francine's life is filled with uncertainties. After a horrible event in her life, her father remarries a woman, who is slowly losing her mind.
A must read. I am now reading the sequel to this book entitle...more
This is a shocking and stark account of a young man. A boy growing up in an indifferent home. His parents, uncle and grandmother the worst of the worst! He meets and falls in love, or so he thinks with Francine. A tragic figure in her own right.
Francine's life is filled with uncertainties. After a horrible event in her life, her father remarries a woman, who is slowly losing her mind.
A must read. I am now reading the sequel to this book entitle...more
Wow. Just when I thought it couldn't get any darker than the Cormac McCarthy book I'd just finished. Again, Rendell gets inside the mind of a psychopath, and inside the mind of a lot of seemingly ordinary characters with their own mental and emotional problems to boot. The story builds slowly through a series of seemingly disconnected events and incompatible characters. It's not your usual whodunnit type mystery, more crime fiction, I think. Yet the ending has that mystery twist that is both con...more
i realize that all of us have flaws, but it seemed that all of the characters in this novel were seriously strange. what are the chances of so many off the wall people having their lives intertwined?
this was not so much a love story of teddy and francine as a painful recollection of their meeting and subsequent time together. it is hard to root for an amoral character. it does give an interesting picture of how these people and their actions have an impact on many others.
this was not so much a love story of teddy and francine as a painful recollection of their meeting and subsequent time together. it is hard to root for an amoral character. it does give an interesting picture of how these people and their actions have an impact on many others.
Francine's mother was murdered when she was a child, and she has been raised by a hovering father and stepfather. Teddy's family was cold and unemotional and he has grown up to appreciate beauty but with little interest in fellow humans. When he meets the beautiful Francine, he becomes obsessed by her, and she is grateful for his interest. But all is not right....
This is an incredibly suspenseful psychological novel about madness and obsession, and it includes an Edsel.
This is an incredibly suspenseful psychological novel about madness and obsession, and it includes an Edsel.
When I started my website, I began with a batch of reviews of books I had read that had stuck with me for one reason or another. One that hadn't made the cut was Ruth Rendell's Make Death Love Me, quite readable but failed to leave a lasting impression.
A Sight for Sore Eyes now reminds me of how readable Ruth Rendell is.
This one was very absorbing, and there are few authors I have read that can write about obsession like she can. This novel has one of my favorite formulas, be it with novels or...more
A Sight for Sore Eyes now reminds me of how readable Ruth Rendell is.
This one was very absorbing, and there are few authors I have read that can write about obsession like she can. This novel has one of my favorite formulas, be it with novels or...more
2 likes · like · see review
I was almost persuaded by the “harrowing” on the front cover to set this aside, but Dee suggested it was not that so much as suspenseful. I’d almost forgotten about the murder that starts the book by the time it was resolved at the end. The suspense lay more in wondering how much murder would be done, whether our heroine would be among the victims, & how this other murderer would get his comeuppance. A bit gruesome but well crafted.
HB -- 1st Edition -- bravo amazon. 3.5 Adult material. So far the characters have flaws and the descritptions of the environments is enough to use a hand sanitizer. Her descriptionseven conjure odors. It amazes me how this author can design these creepy people. does she lock herself away?
so far it reminds me of 'great expectations' Awkward in places because of the jumps btwn characters. Her descriotion of an evolving sociopath is vivid. the story is circular which is amazing on its own.
so far it reminds me of 'great expectations' Awkward in places because of the jumps btwn characters. Her descriotion of an evolving sociopath is vivid. the story is circular which is amazing on its own.
Really well plotted but the characters are tough to get behind. The main character is frustratingly passive (although the writer goes to great lengths to explain the psychology behind her passivity) and it relied a little too much on the "if only she told someone what was happening" trope that drives me crazy (although usually it's found in bad sitcoms). But the last 20 pages or so are pretty anxiety-provoking.
Fantastic book for a summer read. More suspense than a mystery though. I could hardly put it down. I was pleased at the threads of the story being drawn up together and then surprising me with the ultimate winding together. I kept feeling a sense of doom for the individual characters as they progressed in the story and were built upon. Excellent. I would recommend it to everyone.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What's The Name o...: Male obsessed about ridding himself of his shabby existance [s] | 4 | 34 | Apr 13, 2013 09:50am |
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an acclaimed English crime writer, known for her many psychological thrillers and murder mysteries.
More about Ruth Rendell...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
Jan 21, 2012 09:26am
Jan 21, 2012 11:36am