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Summary: a unique gem of a novel
Review: A surprising and wonderful novel. The narrator, Ebenezer Le Page, tells the story of his life and of the passing of a way of life in the Channel Islands of Great Britain. He speaks in a unique tongue, a sort of French/English patois, that sounds unlike anything you've ever heard. As his story & his life come to a close, he finds a transcendent happiness that will warm the cockles of the coldest heart. GRADE: A+
Rating:
Summary: Did John Fowles also write this book?
Review: I am convinced that this wonderful book was really written by John Fowles, and I wondered if that proposition has ever been put forth? Those who have read John Fowles work and learned from each are also well aware of Fowles slight of mind in "Magus" and "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and "A Maggot". He really intends to push the idea of the novel as a vehicle of human expression and impact, and in my view he succeeds again in this book. His basic philosophy, areas of insight and of blindness are well set out in Jan Relf's introduction to "Wormholes" his mosaic of nonfiction "Occasional Writings". It seems to me that it would be perfectly in Fowles literary character to take the novel to this new realm where his claim in the Introduction is that ... "There may be stranger recent literary events..." He is certainly correct, if as I think, John Fowles is the person who wrote this book. An Author who denies his own existence and writes an introduction to his own work ostensibly written by a recluse of whom little is known... Fowles deserves the Nobel Prize for this exceptional work (on all levels).
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Summary: A masterpiece!
Review: I enjoyed reading the other readers' reviews to see how in-sync we were about this marvelous novel. It was a bittersweet moment when I finished the book. On the one hand, Edwards didn't need to write another word -- this was a masterpiece. On the other, I realized that was it -- no more coming from this wonderful writer. How sad.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece!
Review: I enjoyed reading the other readers' reviews to see how in-sync we were about this marvelous novel. It was a bittersweet moment when I finished the book. On the one hand, Edwards didn't need to write another word -- this was a masterpiece. On the other, I realized that was it -- no more coming from this wonderful writer. How sad.
Rating:
Summary: The Book of Ebenzer Le Page
Review: I first read Ebenezer Le Page several years ago when it was given to me by a friend in Arizona. Being English it wasn't too much of a stretch to picture the Guernsey that Ebenezer new and loved. Of all the books I have ever read in my life this is absolutely the one I would choose to take to a desert island. I've recommended it and passed it on to family and friends as a must read. GB Edwards was a master story teller and it's fortunate that the manuscript for this beautiful novel was not destroyed after his death, which was his wish. As I reached the last few chapters of the book I felt a little depressed that it was all going to end. However, the ending is so perfect that it makes this book a treasure that you will want to keep and read again.
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Summary: A big-hearted novel about a little-known time and place
Review: I have long had a fascination for islands and count among my memorable experiences times spent on them and meeting the people who live there. It often amazes me how the geography of these small areas of land surrounded by open sea can expand in the minds of island residents to seem much larger than they in fact are. This psychological phenomenon must be due in part to the density of memory and history compacted within such confining natural boundaries. G.B. Edwards' novel captures exactly that experience. It takes place on Guernsey, an English-speaking island with French cultural roots, and it embraces in its many pages the lifetime of one man. Born into the attitudes and values of the Victorian era, he's a very singular man, living alone, often cranky and difficult but his heart filled with yearning. His whole life has been transfigured by a boyhood adventure that leaves him stranded at high tide with a dearly loved friend on a chunk of rock offshore. The island confinement is intensified in the years of German occupation during World War II. This seldom-told chapter of British history is depicted with absorbing detail and considerable suspense, as diminishing supplies of food and fuel, the constant threat of harsh treatment by the occupiers, and the sense of being "abandoned" by the British government make resistance difficult. Like others who have written reviews here, I was enthralled by this big, well written book and was reluctant to see it end. I heartily recommend it as both an engaging story with a rich cast of vividly drawn characters and a window into a time and place that are little known to the rest of the world.
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Summary: Delightful. Insightful. Poingnant & Cantankerous!
Review: I loved this book, me! I grew up on that little island, barely 5 miles long and 4 miles wide, but a whole country unto itself! The place defies the physics of Geography! It's tiny, but it's vast too. Like the story of our friend Mr. Ebenezer Le Page, the simplicity of the lives of the inter connected characters, colourful and quirky, defies the closeness of the shores. GB Edwards' posthumous writings capture the essence of the folk and the place as well, possibly better, than any book about anybody, anywhere. I highly encourage anyone who reads this story to find out as much about Guernsey as possible, perhaps even go there (visit Victor Hugo's house), then read it again for the first time. Utterly enchanting! Haunting! Simply brilliant!
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Summary: A friend that has made an impression on my life. Old Le Page
Review: It was like a book that, at first, I'd never heard of, and I was destined to read. I was on a sales trip, visiting the Channel Islands on a whistle stop tour, but still wanted to take my family with me to share the sights of Guernsey. We were waiting to catch the ferry home, having lunch in a pub in the centre of town and for some reason or other, I got talking to a gent who was visiting the Island, simply to put a place to the names described in a book he had just read. The Book of Ebenezer Le Page. He assured me that if I ever came upon this book and read it, I would love it. The following weeks, back on 'the mainland', during other sales trips, covering all other towns, I would just pop into second hand book stores to see (even though I had no idea what the book looked like.) I was in Lyme Regis, again I went into a book store and I felt compelled to ask them if they had a copy of the book. It only turned out that this particular book store specialised in books by John Fowles, The writer of the forword. The particular book was out of print, but YES they had copies. "Hard back or paper back", they offered. Well, needless to say, I have just finished the book and I am now left with a sadness at almost having left a friend behind. At least I had the fortune to share a piece of Ebenezer Le Page's life.
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Summary: Nobel Prize
Review: John Fowles deserves the Nobel Prize. Has he won it? What year
Rating:
Summary: ?There may have been stranger literary events,??
Review: There are some books which seem predestined to disappear into literary obscurity. Yet "The Book of Ebenezer Le Page" continues to enjoy a sort of charmed life and I'm very glad of it. The story unfolds on the island of Guernsey, in the Channel between Britain and France. Its character are therefore subjected to the influences of both countries, giving rise to such quaint observations as, "in 1066, when we (the Guernseymen) conquered Great Britain...." The island's patois is used throughout the book and there is a sense of locality which can only be gained (apart from having lived there) by those intimate with the small change of French argot. Some marvellous things about this first and only novel include the voice of the narrator and the obscure life of its author. A Guernseyman who left the island to live in England, G. B. Edwards remained unknown in literature despite having earned a small income from play writing for many years. During his years outside Guernsey, he lived in a series of small English seaside towns, finishing in Weymouth where he died. Weymouth is the nearest place one can be to Guernsey on the English mainland. Some great sadness kept him from returning to his homeland but scarcely ever, it seems, from thinking about it. Such is the quality of the narrative voice in the novel, which contains always a trace of lament. Yet it is very much a joyful book, in a typically dour, island sort of way. It is essentially a celebration of life and we, removed from the times by fifty to a hundred years, are given a privileged view of a corner of the world we would hardly expect to know at first hand. In any case, it is a world now passed. In his 1981 introduction to the book, John Fowles remarks, "There may have been stranger recent literary events, but I rather doubt it." It is just this oddness which makes me suspect that the book will one day slip into the mist. In the meantime, while it continues to be published, I can only recommend that readers continue to pay the small price for this unique yet hardly provincial masterpiece.
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