The Headmaster's Wife in Around the World in 80 Books

Apr 07, 2014 Sam rated it it was ok

Shelves: 1-contemp-literary, setting-school, read-2014

At the beginning of this novel, a naked man is found walking aimlessly in the park. After policemen take him into the station for questioning, he begins to tell his story. And it’s a good one. The story starts when he, a 57-year old headmaster at an exclusive boarding school, finds himself in a warped affair with one of the students. Cue the questions that arise from this situation as you try to figure out what’s happened.

This book is another example of why I have mixed feelings towards knowing At the beginning of this novel, a naked man is found walking aimlessly in the park. After policemen take him into the station for questioning, he begins to tell his story. And it’s a good one. The story starts when he, a 57-year old headmaster at an exclusive boarding school, finds himself in a warped affair with one of the students. Cue the questions that arise from this situation as you try to figure out what’s happened.

This book is another example of why I have mixed feelings towards knowing a book has a surprise plot twist. On the one hand, just by knowing that a twist exists diminishes the ‘specialness’ of going into a story blind and having an unadulterated experience of being *really* surprised. On the other hand, without knowing that a story has an enticing twist, certain books that could potentially be good might escape my attention. I certainly wouldn’t have given The Headmaster’s Wife a passing glance without some chatter about its twist. I’ll say this though—despite my sniffing for clues way early on, the twist still struck me as a fairly neat one, even if I did guess it a few pages before the reveal. (I don’t feel like a jerk for mentioning its existence since the book has a Richard Russo blurb right on the cover that references his jaw dropping over it.)

But regardless of whether the twist delights or disappoints you, a great story should transcend the twist, right? This novel didn’t quite get there for me. The absorbing first half before the revelation should’ve set up a more fleshed out second half. My expectation was that once the crux of the problem was identified, we would get to see new dimensions to the story that would imbue the actions and characterization from the first half with more meaning. And yet we only got to see a teensy bit more of the mysterious situation from a different perspective instead of getting to dig deeper into the situation and the characters that had so entranced us in the first half. The second half just didn’t feel substantial enough. The story is supposed to be a meditation on (view spoiler), but I’m sorry to say that it felt too cursorily covered; less an examination and more of a glimpse, and not quite an engaging one at that. The point-of-view shift was not a good choice when said point-of-view was just so dry.

All my warm feelings for the book are due to the goodwill that the first half engendered in being evocative and suspenseful, but because the second half disappointed and the ending seemed off-key, I can’t be very enthused about the book overall. I still recommend it though, just so you can determine for yourself whether the twist is a good one. It’s a fast read with smooth prose, so no harm, no foul either way.
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Mar 25, 2014 Lisa of Hopewell rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2014

Rarely does a story told in a non-linear way hold my attention. This books is MESMERIZING. I had to ration it--it had that great a hold on me. In the beginning he wrote about intimacy in a way that conveyed the emotion and not just physical actions. In the last part f#-! became his go-to word and it cheapened the book unnecessarily, even if it was meant to convey the changing times. Nonetheless the author is a gifted storyteller. I hope to read many more books by him.

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