A Perfect Life

by Raffaella Barker

What do you do when you should be happy, but you're not? Who do you blame when you realise you don't love your husband any more? What can you change when you see your family is falling apart? What if you had the perfect life ... and it turned out to be anything but?

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published May 8, 2006

About the author

Raffaella Barker was born in London in 1964 and moved to Norfolk when she was three. Her father, the poet George Barker, had 15 children; she is the oldest of those by the novelist Elspeth Barker.

She spent her childhood in Norfolk sulking and refusing to get dressed, going everywhere in her nightie. She recalls worrying about how to respond at school when asked how many brothers and sisters she had. She did not know the answer.

After Norwich High School, Raffaella Barker moved to London and did life modelling and film-editing. She landed a job on Harpers & Queen magazine and later freelanced as its motoring columnist. For 10 years she wrote a column for Country Life about her week.

Her debut novel Come and Tell Me Some Lies was published in 1994, followed by The Hook, Hens Dancing, Summertime, Green Grass, the children's book Phosphorescence and A Perfect Life.

Divorced, she lives in Norfolk with her three children aged 17, 15 and eight.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raffaella Barker is on form with this novel about love, life, family and marriage and the breakdown thereof.
To outward appearance Angel and Nick have a perfect life and a perfect marriage; four beautiful children, an idyllic house, excellent jobs in the family business, what more could they want or need?
Told in three voices,those of Angel, Nick and their 16 year old son Jem, this novel is a beautiful and brutal depiction of life unravelling.
Angel knows things are unravelling, she's given up work, ostensibly to spend more time with her younger children but she doesn't seem to know how to spend time with them anymore, everything is too much like hard work; making sure the children are fed and dressed properly, knowing what her eldest daughter is up to, even deaheading the flowers - nothing is worth the effort, especially her marriage.
Nick stumbles from one tawdry sexual encounter to the next instead of focusing on the needs of his wife and family, unaware and uncaring of the misery of his wife but knowing his marriage isn't right and not caring enough to do anything to save it.
Jem, 16 years old and all too aware that all is not well, gives voice to the breakdown of a family from the child's point of view.

Beautifully written, the characters are very alive, very realistic and never one sided, so much so that the reader has very little real sympathy for either Angel or Nick. Nick comes across as arrogant and self-seeking and completely thoughtless with regard to Angel and his family. Angel gets some sympathy as anyone can recognise that she really is struggling and because we know what Nick is getting up to, and she doesn't.
Overall it is quite a heart tugging story; there are obviously deeper issues at stake that are never really acknowledged by Angel and Rose, apart from to themselves individually but even though we, as the reader, know this, we can also acknowledge that the rot has set in and that despite everything, does anyone have A Perfect Life?

[Rowena Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was about a mother of 4 kids in England - 2 teenagers and 2 young ones, struggling trying to cope with the breakdown of her marriage. The story drifted about sometimes and I wasn't sure where it was going, often flipping to the point of view of her horrible son Jem who I am not sure was meant to come across so nasty and hateful. Everyone seemed to blame the mother rather than her selfish husband which I couldn't understand - although maybe it's because everyone tends to blame the women in these situations. I'm not sure what I got from this other than a recognition of the fog of a breakdown and the feelings when struggling to cope and then coming out at the other side again.

[Lobo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Akármennyire is jól van megírva ez a regény és vissza tudja adni azoknak a vidéki angliai nyaraknak a hangulatát, amire én is emlékszem a történet illetve annak hiánya agyoncsapja az egészet. Csak epizódok vannak, mintha semmi se tartana sehonnan sehova a dolgok megtörténnek, mindenféle dráma nélkül – ami még oké, mert többnyire ilyen az élet – de leginkább az szomorított el, hogy nincsenek beszélgetések ebben a regényben. Nincs párbeszéd, nem próbálnak egymással szót érteni a szereplők. Ismerik a rutint, s ha valami gond van akkor vagy a szőnyeg alá söprik, vagy egy huszárvágással megszüntetik a problémát és tovább lépnek. S még az olvasó se kap magyarázatot.

Szóval nem jött be a regény, nem erre vártam. Barker jól ír, hangulatot kiválóan fest visszaadja a környezetet maradéktalanul, csak ez a történet olyan, mintha nem lenne befejezve. Még egy kicsit nevelgetni kellett volna, hagyni, hogy nőjön, kicsit burjánozzon el, legyen mélysége. Mert az így nincs. Távol van a tökéletestől.

Részletesen: http://olvasonaplo.net/olvasonaplo/20...

[Lisacrooksbtinternet.com · Rating 3 out of 5]

strangely compelling as no really very good

[Ruth Brumby · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have enjoyed some of Raffaella Barker's books, so I was disappointed to find this one so poor. It was an odd mixture of disparate parts: mostly I was bored, occasionally entertained, shocked by the lack of morals, grossed out by sentimentality. There was no plot, little character and the settings were only good in small flashes.

[Donna Boultwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book as much as summertime and hens dancing. It was quite a sad story and I couldn't connect with the characters. It was ok.

[Brooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good characters, easy read with lots of well observed situations / feelings. Not really me.

[Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

A staid read. I had trouble in liking any of the characters or the situation they were in!