North

by Brian Martin

Overview

Soon after arriving at his Oxford school, the enigmatic North has invited his female history teacher, Bernie, to lunch - and not, as she had thought, to discuss history. When Monty, North's married physics teacher, makes it clear that he wants Bernie for himself, North seeks to mollify him in his own particular way: by seducing him. As North and his bizarre cohort travel across Oxford, London, Ravello, and Washington, the sexual anarchy grows ever more devastating, until eventually North's farcical ménage-à-trois results in death and tragedy. But what is the real story - and is the English master's version to be trusted? A dazzling psychological thriller, North is by turns erudite, audacious and brilliantly witty. An utterly assured and wholly original debut.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781909807020
Publisher:	Quercus Publishing
Publication date:	06/15/2013
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	404 KB

About the Author

Brian Martin was appointed MBE for Services to English Literature in 2002. His literary criticism has appeared in the Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement, the Financial Times and Literary Review. He lives in Oxford, where he spent most of his career as a teacher. His first novel, North, was published by Macmillan New Writing, in 2006. His second novel, Latimer, was published in 2013. The Double Bind of Mr Rigby is his third, and he continues to write.

Editorial Reviews

Lives are ruined when a Satanic student plays erotic games with his teachers; a first novel from a 68-year-old Englishman. The eponymous North, soon to graduate from his venerable Oxford high school, has already mastered the game of life; with his extraordinary charm and self-possession, he deals with adults as equals. We see this son of an American divorcee through the eyes of an unnamed narrator, a senior teacher who lives alone since his wife suffered irreparable brain damage and his grown children moved far away. Lonely and prone to depression, he has fallen under North's spell, while aware of a darkness in the student's character. Martin is not a subtle writer. In case we miss the point, North is compared early on to Lucifer, the fallen angel; Paradise Lost is mentioned again and again. Seeing the narrator as more indulgent spectator than player, North confides in him without fear of betrayal. His first move is to seduce Bernie, an attractive young female teacher who falls for him right away. This upsets Monty Ross, a handsome young science teacher; Monty is married (his wife Jess is pregnant) but intent on pursuing Bernie. North senses correctly (he is never wrong) that Monty is bisexual, and sets out to seduce him too; in no time, both teachers are in thrall to him. To add to his mischief, North encourages the latent attraction between Monty and the headmaster Aitken, also married and bisexual. The hothouse intrigue amounts to a damp squib, however, since the characters are simply pawns being moved by the omnipotent North who, with his high-flown dialogue ("we voluptuaries know what is most important . . . the Keatsian idea of the bursting grape"), is just not credible. By the end,he has caused a suicide attempt, a mental hospital confinement and two staff suspensions. Will the hapless, complicit narrator be his final victim? That remains a question mark. A concept-driven work that runs afoul of reality.

Kirkus Reviews