The Dark Flood Rises (Hardback)
Margaret Drabble (author)Published: 03/11/2016
Fran herself is already too old to die young, and too old to avoid bunions and arthritis, moles and blebs, weakening wrists, incipient but not yet treatable cataracts, and encroaching weariness… What would the balance sheet look like, at the last reckoning?
Fran may be old but she's not going without a fight.
So she dyes her hair, enjoys every glass of red wine, drives around the country for her job with a housing charity and lives in an insalubrious tower block that her loved ones disapprove of. And as each of them - her pampered ex Claude, old friend Jo, flamboyant son Christopher and earnest daughter Poppet - seeks happiness in their own way, what will the last reckoning be? Will they be waving or drowning when the end comes?
By turns joyous and profound, darkly sardonic and moving, The Dark Flood Rises questions what makes a good life, and a good death. This triumphant, bravura novel takes in love, death, sun-drenched islands, poetry, Maria Callas, tidal waves, surprise endings - and new beginnings.
‘Drabble couldn’t have written about the indignities, pains and general “uselessness” of old age any better.’ – The Independent
A piercing eye along the fault lines of English society Dame Margaret Drabble has been writing since the early 1960’s when she published her first novel A Summer Bird Cage although the novel she is best-known for is 1965’s The Millstone for which she won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize. An adept critic and biographer (most notably of the writer Arnold Bennett) she has also edited two volumes of The Oxford Companion to English Literature.
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 9781782118305
Number of pages: 336
Weight: 585 g
Dimensions: 240 x 162 x 31 mm
Edition: Main
MEDIA REVIEWS
Masterly * * New York Times, 100 Notable Books of 2017 * *
An absolute tour de force -- LINDA GRANT * * Guardian, Best Books of the Year * *
Erudite, beautifully written, funny, tragic * * Daily Mail * *
Darkly witty and exhilarating * * The Times * *
With its echoes of Simone de Beauvoir and Samuel Beckett, this quiet meditation an old age seethes with apocalyptic intent . . . Brilliant * * Guardian * *
Masterly, poignant and uplifting * * Mail on Sunday * *
Drabble has pulled off a quietly revolutionary portrait of an age-group whose lives are just as urgent as anyone's but are rarely considered ***** * * Sunday Telegraph * *
Ageing and dying in style . . . Margaret Drabble's sharply drawn characters look back on lives lived and forwards to achieving a good death * * Observer * *
Uplifting . . . Profound . . . Unforgettable . . . At its heart is the enormous question, how do we know if we've had a good life? * * Sunday Telegraph * *
Now 77 and on her 19th novel, Drabble is skillful at creating brilliantly drawn, three-dimensional characters in this thought-provoking and witty read * * Sunday Post * *
Written with tremendous energy . . . Drabble has always been an observant chronicler of human life. Meditations on what makes a good death . . . are enthusiastically explored in a text that roves fluidly between past and present. Inquisitive and erudite * * Literary Review * *
A vein of black humour pulses . . . as entertaining as a conversation with a dear friend * * Daily Mail * *
Heartbreaking and hilarious * * Sunday Independent * *
Witty and intelligent . . . brimming with relevance * * Independent * *
A heartfelt rumination on the process of ageing and inevitability of death * * The List * *
A significant achievement, admirable and truthful * * New Statesman * *
A thought-provoking, witty and surprisingly acerbic read * * The Herald * *
Sharp observation and pessimistic pondering . . .There is a gloomy, undeniable truthfulness to this novel * * Daily Express * *
Drabble's brilliance . . . builds up a sense of wide horizons that one has never seen in quite the same way before * * The Times * *
Her distinctive narrative voice and soaring prose remain electrifying * * Spectator * *
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“What makes a good life and good death....”
In this novel, Margaret Drabble writes about age and the ageing process. Our main character is Fran who cannot willingly admit that she should take it easy or give up like her other friends while her ex husband thinks... More
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