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The Honesty of Tigers
Living his life again. Same person, same fishing village, same years. But this time the world shows him a different face.
Ken Jackson builds traditional boats in a small Cornish fishing town, where everyone might not have heard everything about everyone else, but if they haven't, it isn't for the want of listening. Which complicates matters for Ken, because he has a secret: he's living his life all over again.
It sounds like a dream come true. He's got the chance to make things right for his loved ones, and to avoid all his old regrets. But the past is never that simple. Ken's second life opens his eyes to different sides of people and places, and what's a man to do when his hopes and dreams and carefully laid plans are ripped apart?
Ken Jackson builds traditional boats in a small Cornish fishing town, where everyone might not have heard everything about everyone else, but if they haven't, it isn't for the want of listening. Which complicates matters for Ken, because he has a secret: he's living his life all over again.
It sounds like a dream come true. He's got the chance to make things right for his loved ones, and to avoid all his old regrets. But the past is never that simple. Ken's second life opens his eyes to different sides of people and places, and what's a man to do when his hopes and dreams and carefully laid plans are ripped apart?
- GenresFantasy
244 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 10, 2016
14 people want to read
About the author
David Bridger
16 books28 followersDavid Bridger and his family settled with their two monstrous hounds in England's West Country after twenty years of ocean-based mischief, during which he worked as a lifeguard, a sailor, an intelligence gatherer and an investigator. He writes science fiction and fantasy novels.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 16, 2016
I've never read a book like this before.
This is a very magical yet realistic enough story about a man who is reincarnated to live his life again. And in doing so sets out to avoid the mistakes - or what he sees as mistakes - of the first life. Slowly and deliberately the writer crafts for us this man's world as it is now, and compares and contrasts it to the life he once lived. And in some instances he does it side by side.
Which is - genius.
This isn't a fast paced book of worn out themes and two dimensional characters. This is a character study of a man who got to do it all over again. And then - again.
This is a glass of Johnny Walker Black, on ice, while you sit in front of a fire as you read on a day when its too wet outside to do anything else - book. This is a , 'you let the whisky soak your soul and fall asleep because the fire made you warm and you dream about the book, book.
There are a lot of large themes, beautiful landscapes, incredible writing, and love. That is what shines out of this in it's entirety.
Love.
I'll be thinking about this book for a long while. And I'll be thinking about what I could change on my next go 'round.
Big. Brilliant. Beautiful. Gentle. Different. And all lovely.
This is a very magical yet realistic enough story about a man who is reincarnated to live his life again. And in doing so sets out to avoid the mistakes - or what he sees as mistakes - of the first life. Slowly and deliberately the writer crafts for us this man's world as it is now, and compares and contrasts it to the life he once lived. And in some instances he does it side by side.
Which is - genius.
This isn't a fast paced book of worn out themes and two dimensional characters. This is a character study of a man who got to do it all over again. And then - again.
This is a glass of Johnny Walker Black, on ice, while you sit in front of a fire as you read on a day when its too wet outside to do anything else - book. This is a , 'you let the whisky soak your soul and fall asleep because the fire made you warm and you dream about the book, book.
There are a lot of large themes, beautiful landscapes, incredible writing, and love. That is what shines out of this in it's entirety.
Love.
I'll be thinking about this book for a long while. And I'll be thinking about what I could change on my next go 'round.
Big. Brilliant. Beautiful. Gentle. Different. And all lovely.
December 22, 2019
This is without a doubt one of the best novels I've read. It's a do-over day story, except it's a do-over life, and it's told in such a uniquely brilliant way, exploring the ripple effect of the changes the main character makes on his second time through but only within the immediate proximity of his family and his Cornish village home. Rarely does it go where one might expect, or that was my experience, but in truth I was so enthralled I didn't really stop to contemplate what would happen next.
I can't do this book justice in a review, so I'm not even going to try. I could talk about it for days; I'll think about it for years. Yes, it's the kind of story that leaves a mark on your soul – deeply philosophical, political, literary, and engaging from the first page to the last.
Needs more stars.
I can't do this book justice in a review, so I'm not even going to try. I could talk about it for days; I'll think about it for years. Yes, it's the kind of story that leaves a mark on your soul – deeply philosophical, political, literary, and engaging from the first page to the last.
Needs more stars.
September 20, 2016
Magic realism is a genre that I usually like better before and after (as opposed to during) the experience. Actually reading Gabriel García Márquez or Thomas Pynchon is hard work. Or maybe the hard work happens at the beginning, when you have to turn off all the ways you normally look at and think about the world.
But The Honesty of Tigers is different, possibly because it doesn’t serve as a satellite telescope through which we view huge events—like the Banana Massacre by the United Fruit Company that could only be told in a fictionalized version such as Gabriel García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude, or like Thomas Pynchon’s 400-plus character “intro” to modern times in Gravity’s Rainbow. Instead author David Bridger uses the genre as a microscope to examine the effects of one person’s life on his first-person singular world. It’s an intimate series of “what-if” moments, and the chance to see opposing answers play out.
This isn’t some It’s a Wonderful Life rehash, though. When we meet Ken Jackson—retired military hero, widower, father, pub quiz champion—his life is ending. His wife has died recently, and he’s been consumed with grief and regret. When his family and friends finally coax him to join them for one of his beloved pub quiz nights, he and arch-rival Johnny Cable make quick work of the sports trivia questions, and Ken starts to enjoy himself. But he’s caught off guard by a new question that he can’t answer.
[Quote:] “Which big cat,” asked Charles,”has markings on its skin that appear in an identical pattern to the markings on its fur?”
It was a new one on me. We all stared at one another, except for Natasha, who slid the paper across and wrote Tiger.”[End Quote]
The question about whether superficial appearance matches your true self ignites a bitter internal debate for Ken. Instead of reflecting on his successes, he’s consumed with regret and guilt for the things he didn’t do—especially for his recently dead wife—and with shame that he couldn’t match the tiger’s honesty.
“If I could do it all again, I’d do it differently. I wouldn’t join the navy. I’d stay home and get a normal job, be a hardworking husband who was there for my family. For you and the kids.”
What Ken is really asking himself and the reader is not whether he could be a better husband/friend/person, but whether he could be more honestly true to himself. “If only I could start again.” Instead, he dies. End of Chapter 1.
With Chapter 2, we start to realize this isn’t your usual story arc. Ken is back, as a baby, but one with the core knowledge and memories of his first life. His family and friends are the same, and he grows up in the same Cornish fishing village. But this time he has two advantages: the knowledge of what went wrong the first time around, and the pub quiz champion’s lifetime of memorizing sports scores and trivia. Except… In his first life, Ken saved the life of his friend Ninja when a mission goes horribly wrong. Also in his first life, Ken is unable to save his boyhood friend Billy from a horrible death. But his attempts to protect Billy go brutally wrong. And his goal of saving and protecting his wife? Well…
Readers get to join Ken in trying out different choices, telling the same story over and over with varying results, trying for that perfect endgame, that honest tiger. But as Ken stubbornly keeps trying to improve his outcomes, he finally wonders if maybe the real honesty asks for …”a third possibility: an artistic, unplanned arrangement of countless things…”
Ken ends his first life raging against the finality of death. Subsequent lives end with the knowledge that despite his improvements, he still hasn’t given his wife the honesty and the perfect life he wants for her. Ken—and through him, the reader—have had a chance to examine what it means to honestly live a life. It’s an amazing journey.
The Honesty of Tigers is a beautifully written character-driven exploration of “what if”, and I honestly think it’s the best thing David Bridger has ever written. As Ken’s story repeats in different ways, and as we join him in his search for the perfect life, we start to suspect that the only way forward is to make every possible mistake along the way. It’s an intimate story of one man’s journey, and it’s full of the passion and heartbreak of everyday life when death is just another “reset” button.
**I received this book for free from the publisher or author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**
But The Honesty of Tigers is different, possibly because it doesn’t serve as a satellite telescope through which we view huge events—like the Banana Massacre by the United Fruit Company that could only be told in a fictionalized version such as Gabriel García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude, or like Thomas Pynchon’s 400-plus character “intro” to modern times in Gravity’s Rainbow. Instead author David Bridger uses the genre as a microscope to examine the effects of one person’s life on his first-person singular world. It’s an intimate series of “what-if” moments, and the chance to see opposing answers play out.
This isn’t some It’s a Wonderful Life rehash, though. When we meet Ken Jackson—retired military hero, widower, father, pub quiz champion—his life is ending. His wife has died recently, and he’s been consumed with grief and regret. When his family and friends finally coax him to join them for one of his beloved pub quiz nights, he and arch-rival Johnny Cable make quick work of the sports trivia questions, and Ken starts to enjoy himself. But he’s caught off guard by a new question that he can’t answer.
[Quote:] “Which big cat,” asked Charles,”has markings on its skin that appear in an identical pattern to the markings on its fur?”
It was a new one on me. We all stared at one another, except for Natasha, who slid the paper across and wrote Tiger.”[End Quote]
The question about whether superficial appearance matches your true self ignites a bitter internal debate for Ken. Instead of reflecting on his successes, he’s consumed with regret and guilt for the things he didn’t do—especially for his recently dead wife—and with shame that he couldn’t match the tiger’s honesty.
“If I could do it all again, I’d do it differently. I wouldn’t join the navy. I’d stay home and get a normal job, be a hardworking husband who was there for my family. For you and the kids.”
What Ken is really asking himself and the reader is not whether he could be a better husband/friend/person, but whether he could be more honestly true to himself. “If only I could start again.” Instead, he dies. End of Chapter 1.
With Chapter 2, we start to realize this isn’t your usual story arc. Ken is back, as a baby, but one with the core knowledge and memories of his first life. His family and friends are the same, and he grows up in the same Cornish fishing village. But this time he has two advantages: the knowledge of what went wrong the first time around, and the pub quiz champion’s lifetime of memorizing sports scores and trivia. Except… In his first life, Ken saved the life of his friend Ninja when a mission goes horribly wrong. Also in his first life, Ken is unable to save his boyhood friend Billy from a horrible death. But his attempts to protect Billy go brutally wrong. And his goal of saving and protecting his wife? Well…
Readers get to join Ken in trying out different choices, telling the same story over and over with varying results, trying for that perfect endgame, that honest tiger. But as Ken stubbornly keeps trying to improve his outcomes, he finally wonders if maybe the real honesty asks for …”a third possibility: an artistic, unplanned arrangement of countless things…”
Ken ends his first life raging against the finality of death. Subsequent lives end with the knowledge that despite his improvements, he still hasn’t given his wife the honesty and the perfect life he wants for her. Ken—and through him, the reader—have had a chance to examine what it means to honestly live a life. It’s an amazing journey.
The Honesty of Tigers is a beautifully written character-driven exploration of “what if”, and I honestly think it’s the best thing David Bridger has ever written. As Ken’s story repeats in different ways, and as we join him in his search for the perfect life, we start to suspect that the only way forward is to make every possible mistake along the way. It’s an intimate story of one man’s journey, and it’s full of the passion and heartbreak of everyday life when death is just another “reset” button.
**I received this book for free from the publisher or author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**
August 19, 2016
Originally posted on Tales to Tide You Over
The first thing I learned in reading The Honesty of Tigers was the meaning behind the title. Tigers, apparently, are the only big cats with markings on their skin that matches their fur. It seems an odd fact, but it goes well with this rather odd, but wonderful, book.
The feel is more magical realism with a Cornish twist than traditional fantasy. The fantastical element is a groundhog day stretched to a repeated lifetime. Ken Jackson relives his own existence from birth to death not once but three times before he figures out some things are not meant to change while others might have appeared straightforward that were not.
This book is a low-key, introspective, people story focused around the trauma and loss life brings, but at the same time, it’s hopeful. Not so much in the changes Ken makes each time, but in the person he becomes. All three times are written as a personal narrative directed to Clare, his wife and love who dies of breast cancer in the very beginning. He starts with a simple goal of preventing that moment, but learns life is not ever simple.
Between the trauma and losses, without even considering the explicit sexual language at times, this story is geared to an adult audience. It touches on common experiences in growing up and on not so common ones. The narrative explores love in many varieties and the realization that it doesn’t have to be as binary as the Western cultural narrative would claim. It also touches on the blinders people wear, such as dismissing reports of abuse without a second thought rather than accepting the possibility the reports could be true.
It looks at the integration of old cultures and new in the form of witches (another characteristic of magical realism) and consequences to actions that might not have been noticed at the time, but have a lasting impact.
The Honesty of Tigers is most definitely a thinking book. It draws you in with beautiful language, a clear love of the sea, and a sense of home, but it’s not just an introspective description of a small Cornish fishing town dying along with the fish. Beyond the lessons each pass teaches Ken, many of which are harsh and reveal his actions to be clothed in help but ultimately selfish, how he revitalizes and redirects his home to save it from dying is wonderful.
Ultimately, there is a core strength in this story. It doesn’t scream, shout, and rant. There are definitely moments of passion of pretty much every type, but the overall feel is of a man determined to make the most of this gift. His focus and growth bring him from a simple grief-stricken man blaming himself for things out of his control into a greater understanding of his world and the people in it. It’s a powerful transition taken one step at a time and with moments of peace to balance out the bad ones. Ken never accepts the peace he finds, though, or rests until he’s made things the way they should be, and it’s not what you might expect.
P.S. I received this book from the author in return for an honest review.
The first thing I learned in reading The Honesty of Tigers was the meaning behind the title. Tigers, apparently, are the only big cats with markings on their skin that matches their fur. It seems an odd fact, but it goes well with this rather odd, but wonderful, book.
The feel is more magical realism with a Cornish twist than traditional fantasy. The fantastical element is a groundhog day stretched to a repeated lifetime. Ken Jackson relives his own existence from birth to death not once but three times before he figures out some things are not meant to change while others might have appeared straightforward that were not.
This book is a low-key, introspective, people story focused around the trauma and loss life brings, but at the same time, it’s hopeful. Not so much in the changes Ken makes each time, but in the person he becomes. All three times are written as a personal narrative directed to Clare, his wife and love who dies of breast cancer in the very beginning. He starts with a simple goal of preventing that moment, but learns life is not ever simple.
Between the trauma and losses, without even considering the explicit sexual language at times, this story is geared to an adult audience. It touches on common experiences in growing up and on not so common ones. The narrative explores love in many varieties and the realization that it doesn’t have to be as binary as the Western cultural narrative would claim. It also touches on the blinders people wear, such as dismissing reports of abuse without a second thought rather than accepting the possibility the reports could be true.
It looks at the integration of old cultures and new in the form of witches (another characteristic of magical realism) and consequences to actions that might not have been noticed at the time, but have a lasting impact.
The Honesty of Tigers is most definitely a thinking book. It draws you in with beautiful language, a clear love of the sea, and a sense of home, but it’s not just an introspective description of a small Cornish fishing town dying along with the fish. Beyond the lessons each pass teaches Ken, many of which are harsh and reveal his actions to be clothed in help but ultimately selfish, how he revitalizes and redirects his home to save it from dying is wonderful.
Ultimately, there is a core strength in this story. It doesn’t scream, shout, and rant. There are definitely moments of passion of pretty much every type, but the overall feel is of a man determined to make the most of this gift. His focus and growth bring him from a simple grief-stricken man blaming himself for things out of his control into a greater understanding of his world and the people in it. It’s a powerful transition taken one step at a time and with moments of peace to balance out the bad ones. Ken never accepts the peace he finds, though, or rests until he’s made things the way they should be, and it’s not what you might expect.
P.S. I received this book from the author in return for an honest review.
November 14, 2017
As you begin to read Chapter One of this intriguing novel, it seems to be about the grief of a man living in a small Cornish town, after the recent death of his wife. Surrounded by his family he goes to a pub quiz night, appearing to be making a return to normal life. But on the contrary, Ken Jackson’s life is about to end. As he says,
“If I could do it all again, I’d do it differently.”
And he is given the opportunity to do just that. With the foreknowledge of his previous life, he sets out on his new life intending to spend more time with his wife and family and trying to prevent the suffering that those closest to him had endured.
There is poetry and rich description in this book and characters, especially his childhood friends Sheila and Billy, who come out of the pages with clear voices and emotions. His Granfer, the wise woman, is so important to Ken that he tries to extend her life and change events, but she knows about his second life and does not always approve of his actions.
The story of Porthfurzy, declining as a town of fishermen in one life or becoming a thriving yacht-building town in his other life, causes Ken to question his motives but he cannot ignore his knowledge of an alternative. There is a moral dilemma, but with fore-knowledge we might also act as Ken does.
I found this story riveting because beyond the concept of changing events that once happened is the underlying truth that people’s feelings and passions are unchanged. I have slight reservations about the final part of the book but that is for you to judge when you read it.
“If I could do it all again, I’d do it differently.”
And he is given the opportunity to do just that. With the foreknowledge of his previous life, he sets out on his new life intending to spend more time with his wife and family and trying to prevent the suffering that those closest to him had endured.
There is poetry and rich description in this book and characters, especially his childhood friends Sheila and Billy, who come out of the pages with clear voices and emotions. His Granfer, the wise woman, is so important to Ken that he tries to extend her life and change events, but she knows about his second life and does not always approve of his actions.
The story of Porthfurzy, declining as a town of fishermen in one life or becoming a thriving yacht-building town in his other life, causes Ken to question his motives but he cannot ignore his knowledge of an alternative. There is a moral dilemma, but with fore-knowledge we might also act as Ken does.
I found this story riveting because beyond the concept of changing events that once happened is the underlying truth that people’s feelings and passions are unchanged. I have slight reservations about the final part of the book but that is for you to judge when you read it.
August 12, 2016
Ken Jackson is like anyone else who reaches a certain age when he looks back over his life and wishes things could have been different. He wishes people he loved hadn't died, that circumstances were different, that he'd maybe should've taken a different route in life. When he dies, he gets his wish: he lives his life over again.
As he's aware what's happened to him, he's able to make his wishes come true. But does he? Can he alter life to fit into his own plans?
An unusual concept which David Bridger handles with professional aplomb, keeping his readers guessing and keeping them on the edge of their seats either ranting at Ken Jackson or cheering him on.
I recommend this book as a compelling and fascinating read.
As he's aware what's happened to him, he's able to make his wishes come true. But does he? Can he alter life to fit into his own plans?
An unusual concept which David Bridger handles with professional aplomb, keeping his readers guessing and keeping them on the edge of their seats either ranting at Ken Jackson or cheering him on.
I recommend this book as a compelling and fascinating read.
September 19, 2016
Will write review shortly
January 14, 2020
This is a wonderfully unique story, well-written and captivating. The main character gets to live his life over from start to finish, with the memories of his previous life. He sets out to change the things that brought him heartache and tries to make things better for his loved ones. This is not as predictable as you may think and the whole story is Ken Jackson comparing his two lives. Bridger has a way of taking you to a place by describing it, but not in too much detail, so you can use your own imagination, I like that. Each character has a strong personality, introduced to you by Ken himself and I enjoyed every one of them. This was a book I had a hard time putting down, loved every minute of it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews