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School's Out
When a teacher is found dead, having apparently committed suicide, his friend Pierre Hoffman takes over class 4F and finds himself responsible for a group of strangely subdued, well-behaved and yet menacing pupils. Assuming their behavior to be a response to the trauma of their teacher's death, Pierre Hoffman at first takes it easy with the precocious class, refusing to share the other staff members' hostility toward the children. Over the weeks that follow, however, he receives a series of signals and warnings that cause him to question the motivations of his pupils and the circumstances of his colleague's suicide.
336 pages, Paperback
First published November 3, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
October 26, 2019
***NO SPOILERS***
What School's Out is supposed to be about: a class of sinister freshman students with murderous tendencies. What it is instead: 321 pages of tangents, plus five pages of an unfocused, yawn-inducing main plot. This is such a frustrating book. Here are just some of the tangents I was subjected to while impatiently waiting for the main story: a detailed memory of a punk rock concert; the narrator's ramblings about the television shows he likes to watch, the various sounds he can hear from his apartment, and his oddball neighbors; a television show the narrator liked to watch as a child, with special mention of the show's theme song; excessive detail of a home's gardens and property; and a bizarre out-of-the-blue incestuous encounter between the narrator and his sister.
Just when Dufosse focused on the main plot, just when the pace finally quickened the slightest bit, he switched back to some completely irrelevant, utterly boring, pages-long tangent. The pace then reverts to a snail's crawl. I was desperate for more details--about the students, the dead teacher, the history the students had with each other, something having to do with the main plot line.
Equally problematic is that School's Out tells but doesn't show. A few characters describe these students as "peculiar" and "scary," but the students are never shown actually doing anything criminal; my curiosity never was piqued much. I was supposed to accept these kids are threatening and clannish simply because they are. As for the few creepy student-teacher moments...they're laughably underwhelming--at least to modern readers desensitized by stories of real-life school massacres.
The characters in this book are so cardboard, though, that I'm not even sure seeing them commit a crime would be so frightening. The most dimension Dufosse gave each student, for instance, was a first and last name--at one point even listing all twenty-four full names--as if full names are the most important kind of characterization. The students barely even speak. Additionally, this book has at least twelve extraneous non-student characters; they in no way relate to the main plot or serve any purpose. It feels almost as if Dufosse mistakenly believed that to achieve a certain level of literary sophistication he had to cram his work full of characters.
Stylistically, School's Out is flawed. Numerous sentences are rambling and convoluted to the point of nonsense. I'm not sure whether the fault lies with the translator or the author. Regardless, it's torture:
The ending is supposed to be dramatic and shocking but is meaningless. Again, because Dufosse barely focused on the main plot and failed entirely to flesh out his main characters (and show them acting criminal), the ending has zero impact--and doesn't even make sense.
I can't praise a single thing about this book. As a short story or novella, this tale could have turned out beautifully, as Dufosse would have been forced to home in on main characters and main plot only. The premise is provocative, and it's obvious Dufosse wanted to create something chilling and memorable, but unfortunately he failed entirely in its execution.
Final verdict: Throw out School's Out.
What School's Out is supposed to be about: a class of sinister freshman students with murderous tendencies. What it is instead: 321 pages of tangents, plus five pages of an unfocused, yawn-inducing main plot. This is such a frustrating book. Here are just some of the tangents I was subjected to while impatiently waiting for the main story: a detailed memory of a punk rock concert; the narrator's ramblings about the television shows he likes to watch, the various sounds he can hear from his apartment, and his oddball neighbors; a television show the narrator liked to watch as a child, with special mention of the show's theme song; excessive detail of a home's gardens and property; and a bizarre out-of-the-blue incestuous encounter between the narrator and his sister.
Just when Dufosse focused on the main plot, just when the pace finally quickened the slightest bit, he switched back to some completely irrelevant, utterly boring, pages-long tangent. The pace then reverts to a snail's crawl. I was desperate for more details--about the students, the dead teacher, the history the students had with each other, something having to do with the main plot line.
Equally problematic is that School's Out tells but doesn't show. A few characters describe these students as "peculiar" and "scary," but the students are never shown actually doing anything criminal; my curiosity never was piqued much. I was supposed to accept these kids are threatening and clannish simply because they are. As for the few creepy student-teacher moments...they're laughably underwhelming--at least to modern readers desensitized by stories of real-life school massacres.
The characters in this book are so cardboard, though, that I'm not even sure seeing them commit a crime would be so frightening. The most dimension Dufosse gave each student, for instance, was a first and last name--at one point even listing all twenty-four full names--as if full names are the most important kind of characterization. The students barely even speak. Additionally, this book has at least twelve extraneous non-student characters; they in no way relate to the main plot or serve any purpose. It feels almost as if Dufosse mistakenly believed that to achieve a certain level of literary sophistication he had to cram his work full of characters.
Stylistically, School's Out is flawed. Numerous sentences are rambling and convoluted to the point of nonsense. I'm not sure whether the fault lies with the translator or the author. Regardless, it's torture:
"The well-proportioned quasi-neutrality of her silhouette, of her appearance, even in a seated position, the fragile rectitude of it all, evoked in me an irreversible negation, flaws concealed beneath a deceptive classicism."Gobbledygook like this completely halts the pace about every two pages.
The ending is supposed to be dramatic and shocking but is meaningless. Again, because Dufosse barely focused on the main plot and failed entirely to flesh out his main characters (and show them acting criminal), the ending has zero impact--and doesn't even make sense.
I can't praise a single thing about this book. As a short story or novella, this tale could have turned out beautifully, as Dufosse would have been forced to home in on main characters and main plot only. The premise is provocative, and it's obvious Dufosse wanted to create something chilling and memorable, but unfortunately he failed entirely in its execution.
Final verdict: Throw out School's Out.
January 22, 2023
A very peculiar book, difficult to describe, near impossible to categorise – to put it another way, my favourite type of story. Neither the blurb nor the cover are right for School’s Out. It starts straightforwardly enough: a high school teacher dies in an apparent suicide; our narrator, Pierre Hoffman, takes over the dead man’s class, finding them to be a disturbingly composed, weirdly synchronised group of 13-year-olds. Are we going to find out what drives the sinister students, and what happened to the teacher? Not exactly; what follows is a directionless narrative punctuated by musings on the teaching profession, some observations of class 9F, a demented dinner party scene, and Pierre’s borderline incestuous relationship with his sister.
Pierre has a great line in descriptions of people. A student’s father ‘looked at everyone with the desperate expression of a man condemned to empty a pond with a sponge’. A tired-looking teacher ‘must have spent the night tossing and turning in his bed like a dishevelled porpoise’. The face of a girl working in a petrol station ‘bore an expression of complete injustice, like an older sister who had just been betrayed once again by her younger sibling’. This uniquely evocative, darkly funny style kept pushing me forward.
There are tense, ominous moments, including a climactic event, but rational explanations are lacking. Everyone in the book, adults and children, seems unhinged. Nobody thinks or acts normally at any point. It’s like a hybrid of Fleur Jaeggy’s Sweet Days of Discipline and M. John Harrison’s The Course of the Heart, particularly in the sense of both books’ inscrutability.
Pierre has a great line in descriptions of people. A student’s father ‘looked at everyone with the desperate expression of a man condemned to empty a pond with a sponge’. A tired-looking teacher ‘must have spent the night tossing and turning in his bed like a dishevelled porpoise’. The face of a girl working in a petrol station ‘bore an expression of complete injustice, like an older sister who had just been betrayed once again by her younger sibling’. This uniquely evocative, darkly funny style kept pushing me forward.
There are tense, ominous moments, including a climactic event, but rational explanations are lacking. Everyone in the book, adults and children, seems unhinged. Nobody thinks or acts normally at any point. It’s like a hybrid of Fleur Jaeggy’s Sweet Days of Discipline and M. John Harrison’s The Course of the Heart, particularly in the sense of both books’ inscrutability.
August 23, 2020
La quasi neutralità ben proporzionata della sua figura, del suo portamento, perfino da seduta, l'austerità fragile dell'insieme, lasciavano pensare a una negazione intima senza ritorno, a faglie dissimulate sotto un classicismo ingannevole. Ogni sua attività sembrava condensata nel guardare dal finestrino mordicchiandosi con aria trasognata la pelle dell'indice.
Nel silenzio e nel buio la sua posizione di abbandono mi sconvolse: era l'espressione estrema della rinuncia, come una volontà nuova di parlare ormai per essere capiti.
E' TUTTO COSI'.
Duecento e rotte pagine di aggettivi accumulati, di sostantivi arbitrariamente accostati agli aggettivi, di similitudini tirate per i capelli (già a me le similitudini fanno venire l'orticaria), con la risultante di una serie di frasi insensate. Che cosa siano le faglie dissimulate e che cosa abbiano a che vedere con il portamento di una ragazza, è un mistero che non voglio prendermi la briga di risolvere.
Aggiungerei che la storia è inverosimile e fastidiosa, ma a questo punto mi pare superfluo.
Nel silenzio e nel buio la sua posizione di abbandono mi sconvolse: era l'espressione estrema della rinuncia, come una volontà nuova di parlare ormai per essere capiti.
E' TUTTO COSI'.
Duecento e rotte pagine di aggettivi accumulati, di sostantivi arbitrariamente accostati agli aggettivi, di similitudini tirate per i capelli (già a me le similitudini fanno venire l'orticaria), con la risultante di una serie di frasi insensate. Che cosa siano le faglie dissimulate e che cosa abbiano a che vedere con il portamento di una ragazza, è un mistero che non voglio prendermi la briga di risolvere.
Aggiungerei che la storia è inverosimile e fastidiosa, ma a questo punto mi pare superfluo.
February 6, 2008
It was translated from the French into British English, and Americans have to do the second translation mentally, which, in addition to the loads of unfamiliar cultural and political and philosophical references, makes it a tough read for such an unassuming little book.
The story ppppllllooodddssss along. By the end, I just kept hoping that the kids would put him out of his existential French misery.
As several other reviewers have pointed out, the author spends a lot of time on character studies of peripheral characters such as faculty spouses and parents of victims, but only sketches the adolescents in quick, broad strokes.
On a positive note, the author has a different very different voice then one might encounter in most American and British novels, and some uniques turns of phase amused (and startled). But not enough to recommend plowing through this long, dreary, rainy tale.
The story ppppllllooodddssss along. By the end, I just kept hoping that the kids would put him out of his existential French misery.
As several other reviewers have pointed out, the author spends a lot of time on character studies of peripheral characters such as faculty spouses and parents of victims, but only sketches the adolescents in quick, broad strokes.
On a positive note, the author has a different very different voice then one might encounter in most American and British novels, and some uniques turns of phase amused (and startled). But not enough to recommend plowing through this long, dreary, rainy tale.
January 31, 2008
I happened to check out the Amazon reader reviews of this book and 90% of the readers hated the book.
But I had a lot of fun reading it. When I think of the reviewers on Amazon; I think what is wrong with those people. Sure, It is the authors first novel and there are some weaknesses. A little too caught up in existential frenchy thought but it's really an amusing book, the metaphors are amazingly funny and wierd through out. I would highly recommend. If you read it tell me what you thought.
But I had a lot of fun reading it. When I think of the reviewers on Amazon; I think what is wrong with those people. Sure, It is the authors first novel and there are some weaknesses. A little too caught up in existential frenchy thought but it's really an amusing book, the metaphors are amazingly funny and wierd through out. I would highly recommend. If you read it tell me what you thought.
December 15, 2021
A rather self-absorbed school teacher is put in charge of a class of 13-year-olds whose previous teacher has committed suicide. There is something strange about the children, even though they seem outwardly well-behaved, for the most part.
The book reminded me of other books about the group-behaviour of children -- Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clark, and The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham/ The last two are science fiction, and one could perhaps argue that Lord of the Flies is also science fiction, but School's Out is not science fiction by any definition.
It is a sad and rather nihilistic book. The protagonist, Pierre Hoffman, doesn't get on well with his fellow teachers. The only person he really relates to is his sister, and he doesn't relate very well even to her. His description of his brother-in-law can give some idea of the tone of the book:
The book is full of such character sketches and descriptions, and the plot moves slowly until near the end.
The book reminded me of other books about the group-behaviour of children -- Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clark, and The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham/ The last two are science fiction, and one could perhaps argue that Lord of the Flies is also science fiction, but School's Out is not science fiction by any definition.
It is a sad and rather nihilistic book. The protagonist, Pierre Hoffman, doesn't get on well with his fellow teachers. The only person he really relates to is his sister, and he doesn't relate very well even to her. His description of his brother-in-law can give some idea of the tone of the book:
I remembered him as a young man with crow's feet and a slightly greying mind and wrinkled skin that looked as if it had endured all the gales of life without any capacity for discernment. Being ten years older than me he was part of that generation that had been the first to mock goodness and kindness, and whose hour of glory had come in the mid-eighties.
The book is full of such character sketches and descriptions, and the plot moves slowly until near the end.
July 23, 2020
★★★ - Le impressioni di lettura sono state fortemente condizionate dalla visione del film, ma d'altronde non sarei mai arrivata a questo romanzo senza passare per l'angosciante thriller di Sébastien Marnier.
Pur essendo lontanissimo dal film che ne é stato tratto (forse non avrei nemmeno sospettato la connessione tra i due senza l'aiuto del titolo) il romanzo di Dufossé restituisce lo stesso acuto senso di smarrimento e di opprimente presagio legato al mondo della scuola e all'età dell'adolescenza, di cui inquadra con grande acume la mancanza di compromesso e la pura radicalità.
L'apertura raggelante e la chiusa altrettanto sinistra e memorabile sono ahimè unite da un romanzo che ho trovato a tratti davvero pesante, per via del lessico ricercatissimo dell'autore e della psiche particolarmente contorta dell'insegnante protagonista. Non so se l'ho approcciato io in un momento no o se davvero il gioco non valga la candela, ma non ne consiglierei la lettura a cuor leggero, soprattutto alla luce di un film che in 104 minuti ne condensa l'essenza angosciante pur stravolgendone tutto l'impianto.
Tutto considerato pensavo l'avrei odiato, sapevo già dove sarebbe andato a parare eppure mi ha molto colpito. Quindi missione compiuta Dufossé, ma qua e là che fatica.
Pur essendo lontanissimo dal film che ne é stato tratto (forse non avrei nemmeno sospettato la connessione tra i due senza l'aiuto del titolo) il romanzo di Dufossé restituisce lo stesso acuto senso di smarrimento e di opprimente presagio legato al mondo della scuola e all'età dell'adolescenza, di cui inquadra con grande acume la mancanza di compromesso e la pura radicalità.
L'apertura raggelante e la chiusa altrettanto sinistra e memorabile sono ahimè unite da un romanzo che ho trovato a tratti davvero pesante, per via del lessico ricercatissimo dell'autore e della psiche particolarmente contorta dell'insegnante protagonista. Non so se l'ho approcciato io in un momento no o se davvero il gioco non valga la candela, ma non ne consiglierei la lettura a cuor leggero, soprattutto alla luce di un film che in 104 minuti ne condensa l'essenza angosciante pur stravolgendone tutto l'impianto.
Tutto considerato pensavo l'avrei odiato, sapevo già dove sarebbe andato a parare eppure mi ha molto colpito. Quindi missione compiuta Dufossé, ma qua e là che fatica.
January 26, 2025
O livro não é muito cativante, não é aquele tipo de livro que te faz perder a noção do tempo enquanto lês, mas mesmo assim não deixa de ser um bom livro. Fiquei um pouco perturbada com o comportamento dos alunos e do próprio professor, mas o livro em si é bom, a descrição é ótima e revela um romance bastante sombrio. Feliz por ter terminado logo.
May 21, 2013
I came across this book at the library a while ago and thought "why not?" Hence, I borrowed it and started to read it. At first, I wasn't impressed at all. I found the reviews saying it was a thrilling read bla, bla, bla were a bit exaggerated. The author seemed to have some kind of megalomania going on with a lot of "difficult" words in like every sentence. Interestingly enough, I continued reading. The plot was at the point quite boring and the book was being a really slow read. It was actually just standing in my bookshelf for a while, nothing made me want to read it until I just decided to get rid of it. That's when it started getting better. Suddenly, some interesting characters were introduced and the mystery which the book evolves around was starting to become a real mystery. Earlier it had just seemed like a teacher's obsession. Hmm, maybe I should talk about what the book is about? Let's do that.
30-ish-year-old teacher Pierre Hoffman takes over a school class after the mentor died in what looks like a suicide. The class has a strange way of acting and Pierre realises something has got to be wrong with the class. He comes up with the conclusion that the class murdered their old teacher and it developes into his own little detective's show. Throughout all this he has some philosophical moments where he ponders everything that he can come up with. When he is not pondering och doing detective's work, he is observing people's behaviour and making assumptions about them which are almost always spot on.
Well, well. Let's get to the reviewing stuff. I was a bit annoyed by the "Hey! Let's put all kinds of pro-words into this book so that I look really smart!"-mentality. The funny thing was that it reflected in both the author's style and in the main character. Coincidence? All in all, I give it a three. To give it a two would be too hard as it was more than OK but it wasn't good enough to deserve a "I really liked it". I disliked it becouse of the excrutiatingly slow pace and the lack of a good plot but liked it because of the unique style and all the things that go around the plot, the backgrounds, descritions and thoughts about I-don't-know-what.
If you have some patience, read this book. It's not a masterpiece, far from it, but it's worth a try.
30-ish-year-old teacher Pierre Hoffman takes over a school class after the mentor died in what looks like a suicide. The class has a strange way of acting and Pierre realises something has got to be wrong with the class. He comes up with the conclusion that the class murdered their old teacher and it developes into his own little detective's show. Throughout all this he has some philosophical moments where he ponders everything that he can come up with. When he is not pondering och doing detective's work, he is observing people's behaviour and making assumptions about them which are almost always spot on.
Well, well. Let's get to the reviewing stuff. I was a bit annoyed by the "Hey! Let's put all kinds of pro-words into this book so that I look really smart!"-mentality. The funny thing was that it reflected in both the author's style and in the main character. Coincidence? All in all, I give it a three. To give it a two would be too hard as it was more than OK but it wasn't good enough to deserve a "I really liked it". I disliked it becouse of the excrutiatingly slow pace and the lack of a good plot but liked it because of the unique style and all the things that go around the plot, the backgrounds, descritions and thoughts about I-don't-know-what.
If you have some patience, read this book. It's not a masterpiece, far from it, but it's worth a try.
February 17, 2008
A perennial topic in my tutoring sessions with non-native speakers is why there are so few books translated from other languages into English, relatively speaking. More specifically, books by native-English speaking authors are more likely to top the bestseller list or show up on Oprah. After reading School's Out I would have to say the answer to that question may lie in the milieu of cultural miscues that one encounters when trying to understand the French psyche. Perhaps that's why I didn't connect with this book. Or maybe if I were French and reading it in French I still wouldn't like it. A perennial question that may have no answer.
Wow, this book was bad. The narrator, a schoolteacher, rambled on and on about nothing. There were ominous signs of malfeasance--repeated phone calls with no one on the other end, copping a feel of his sister's breast, a mysterious video tape--that led to absolutely nothing. Added to that, the writing, or perhaps the translation, seemed only intended as a practice in self-aggrandizing. The author used a slew of GRE words, and he unfortunately used them repeatedly. Everyone in the book, it seemed, at some point expressed "rancor".
The main problem with this book, however, is that Dufosse offers wonderfully descriptive passages, the kind that would translate well out of context in a review of the book. But between these passages are vast (another overused word in the novel) stretches of disconnectedness. I never understood who the characters are and what defines them and why I should care about the novel's denouement.
Wow, this book was bad. The narrator, a schoolteacher, rambled on and on about nothing. There were ominous signs of malfeasance--repeated phone calls with no one on the other end, copping a feel of his sister's breast, a mysterious video tape--that led to absolutely nothing. Added to that, the writing, or perhaps the translation, seemed only intended as a practice in self-aggrandizing. The author used a slew of GRE words, and he unfortunately used them repeatedly. Everyone in the book, it seemed, at some point expressed "rancor".
The main problem with this book, however, is that Dufosse offers wonderfully descriptive passages, the kind that would translate well out of context in a review of the book. But between these passages are vast (another overused word in the novel) stretches of disconnectedness. I never understood who the characters are and what defines them and why I should care about the novel's denouement.
August 30, 2011
Esta obra es la ópera prima de Christophe Dufossé, al parecer ganó algún premio allá en Francia. El autor conoce bastante bien el ambiente escolar (fue profesor), lo que hace bastante creíble la ambientación de la historia. El narrador a veces es demasiado detallista, lo que me chocó un poco, me sacaba de la lectura (pienso que nadie es tan detallista todo el tiempo en toda situación), pero sus pensamientos e interacciones con otros personajes fueron lo más interesante. Los misteriosos chicos del Tercero F no son del todo creíbles, y me parece que faltó más desarrollo a sus motivos para hacer lo que hacen al final (lo cual es bastante predecible por cierto, lo adiviné casi desde la mitad del libro).
Al final me quedo con la sensación de que podría haber sido una historia corta, en la mitad de páginas, y podría haber sido mucho más efectiva.
Al final me quedo con la sensación de que podría haber sido una historia corta, en la mitad de páginas, y podría haber sido mucho más efectiva.
December 8, 2011
The only reason this even gets one star is because I don't ever have to look at it again. I'm certain that some of the reason this book was so terrible was because of an extremely poor translation. But even beyond that, the story itself lacked any positive attributes. There were no characters to sympathize with, no kind of plot to grasp onto, and the writing was overly descriptive with disparate dialogue that often didn't even make sense. (Again, perhaps the lack of descriptive and dialogue quality was due to translation issues.) I just kept waiting for something to happen and nothing ever did until the final five pages. At that point, it wasn't worth it.
DO. NOT. BOTHER. Seriously.
DO. NOT. BOTHER. Seriously.
September 25, 2014
I can't believe I even finished this book. Saying that this was one of the most mind-numbingly tedious books I have ever read...would be an understatement. The plot, if you can call it that, supposedly revolved around a high school teacher in France who was taking over a class after their assigned teacher committed suicide by jumping out of his class window. Except, the plot is featured on maybe twenty pages of this 300+ page book. The rest of the book features the narrator going off on pages- and sometimes chapters-long tangents about absolutely nothing of interest to the reader.
I really would not recommend this book to anyone.
I really would not recommend this book to anyone.
March 4, 2011
This book was extremely lame, for being a mystery about how a teacher got killed it was very bland. There was no depth to anything. Very disappointing
January 7, 2017
Det kreves nok en del fokus for å forstå denne fullt ut. Jeg hadde dessverre ikke tilstrekkelig konsentrasjon akkurat nå, men angrer likevel ikke på at jeg leste den.
February 1, 2024
They tell you never to judge a book by its cover. Well, I did, and I got burned. I read the back of the book and it sounded interesting. So, I pick it up, and was I ever disappointed! The blurb on the back of the book didn't match the actual content. The cover stated that the children's perfect behavior was too good to be true. Their behavior was not perfect. By the way, the front cover of the book makes you think the students are wearing perfect school uniforms. No such thing. I don't know how they chose the front cover, but it does not fit at all. There was not a single likable character. The main character, Professor Hoffman, had an incestuous fondness for his sister. The book was full of psychobabble on almost every page. It really detracted from the book.
I read through it straight because it was so bad I wanted to get it over with. Would never recommend this book to anyone else.
I read through it straight because it was so bad I wanted to get it over with. Would never recommend this book to anyone else.
April 25, 2025
Contrary to most reviewers I quite liked this novel. Yes, it does drag on a bit but I found it quite intriguing nonetheless.
The narrator is particularly interesting. He never gets involved in anything, but his descriptions of other people are very detailed, if superficial. This causes the lack of depth in the characters and is in my opinion intentional. And of course, a first person narrator tells instead of showing. Unlike a lot of reviewers I didn't find the novel particularly French. Of course, the school system is French but everything else could be set in any country. It is more about indiviual and society than about schools as such and it certainly is not a horror story.
The narrator is particularly interesting. He never gets involved in anything, but his descriptions of other people are very detailed, if superficial. This causes the lack of depth in the characters and is in my opinion intentional. And of course, a first person narrator tells instead of showing. Unlike a lot of reviewers I didn't find the novel particularly French. Of course, the school system is French but everything else could be set in any country. It is more about indiviual and society than about schools as such and it certainly is not a horror story.
April 3, 2022
Puh. Dræbende at læse sig igennem. Beskrivelser af alt muligt ligegyldig med så mange sære detaljer presset ind i en mærkværdig (fransk?) syntaks. Meget af bogen er rent vrøvl. Slutningen meh. Håber ikke der er nogen fra lærerprofessionen der kan genkende bare en brøkdel af det navlepilleri som fortælleren (bogstaveligt!) piller frem af erindringen om sin egen barndom og sin nuværende lærergerning. Gys!
November 23, 2019
Yeahhhhh so the translation was just so strange and I couldn’t really tell what was going on for the most part! I kept with it thinking that it would get better. There were some moments that made me laugh though!
August 1, 2017
Ainda tentei ler, juro que tentei. Mas não me cativou de maneira nenhuma
July 8, 2022
Disjointed and a slog to read as the writer spends far too long on peripheral characters and irrelevant information. The end result is a lack of central plot. Painful.
September 28, 2025
I never abandon a book, but I only ploughed halfway through this one. Wordy, pretentious and contrived abs worst of all - boring. What a disappointment
March 21, 2014
I found this book by Christophe Dufossé quite enjoyable. I spent several hours in uncertainty more than in real fright, but they were, to be true, quite creepy, a hundred miles away from more optimistic texts on the redeeming role of the educator.
Pierre Hoffmann doesn't like his job. Pierre Hoffmann is not necessarily someone we would like to meet. Actually, Pierre Hoffmann and the other characters seem to be the stereotypes of their own manias, and here is the full catalogue of them. Between the gruff lesbians, the young suicidal teacher, the stupid gym teacher, the headmaster that plies to the will of the parents, the overtly sexual teenager... and yet... This classroom of cold teenagers, who talk like adults, so young and yet so close to the end. Who could believe in such a plot? Paradoxically, the slightly contrived language used by Dufossé reinforces this illusion: this is only a novel, a finely observed social and psychological study, the exploration of something that will never happen... and yet... There is in all something that rings very true as far as relationships are concerned.
I advise this read for teachers who are a little blasés about their work, as well as for those who want to spend a few hours reading a story of suspense (I didn't say horror) which takes the reader deeper in manipulation and unnaturally creepy human relationships.
Having said that, excuse me, but who was in charge of the summary on the backcover on the French edition??? What a blunder to reveal the ending!
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
J'ai assez aimé ce livre de Christophe Dufossé. Il m'a fait passer quelques heures plus incertaines qu'inquiétantes, assez glauques à vrai dire, à cent lieues de textes plus optimistes sur la fonction salvatrice de l'éducateur. Pierre Hoffmann n'aime pas son métier. Pierre Hoffmann n'est pas quelqu'un que l'on aimerait forcément rencontrer. Plutôt, Pierre Hoffmann et les autres personnages sont les stéréotypes de leurs propres névroses, et il y en a un catalogue. Entre les lesbiennes un peu brusques, le jeune enseignant suicidaire, le prof de gym idiot, le principal soumis à la pression des parents d'élèves, l'adolescente nymphomane...et pourtant...Cette classe d'adolescents froids, à la diction si adulte, si jeunes et pourtant si proches de la fin. Qui pourrait-y croire? Paradoxalement, le langage un peu ampoulé de Dufossé renforce cette illusion: ce n'est qu'un roman, une étude psychologique et sociale très bien observée, une exploration d'un fait divers qui ne se produira jamais...et pourtant...Il y a dans tout cela une forte part de vérité sur les rapports humains.
Je conseille la lecture de ce livre à tous les profs un peu désabusés, ainsi qu'à ceux qui ont envie de passer quelques heures à lire une histoire de suspense, sans terreur pourtant, mais où l'on s'enfonce de plus en plus dans la manipulation et dans des rapports humains qui mettent mal à l'aise.
Par contre, qui s'est occupé du résumé au dos du livre???? C'est un peu ballot de dévoiler la fin...
Pierre Hoffmann doesn't like his job. Pierre Hoffmann is not necessarily someone we would like to meet. Actually, Pierre Hoffmann and the other characters seem to be the stereotypes of their own manias, and here is the full catalogue of them. Between the gruff lesbians, the young suicidal teacher, the stupid gym teacher, the headmaster that plies to the will of the parents, the overtly sexual teenager... and yet... This classroom of cold teenagers, who talk like adults, so young and yet so close to the end. Who could believe in such a plot? Paradoxically, the slightly contrived language used by Dufossé reinforces this illusion: this is only a novel, a finely observed social and psychological study, the exploration of something that will never happen... and yet... There is in all something that rings very true as far as relationships are concerned.
I advise this read for teachers who are a little blasés about their work, as well as for those who want to spend a few hours reading a story of suspense (I didn't say horror) which takes the reader deeper in manipulation and unnaturally creepy human relationships.
Having said that, excuse me, but who was in charge of the summary on the backcover on the French edition??? What a blunder to reveal the ending!
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
J'ai assez aimé ce livre de Christophe Dufossé. Il m'a fait passer quelques heures plus incertaines qu'inquiétantes, assez glauques à vrai dire, à cent lieues de textes plus optimistes sur la fonction salvatrice de l'éducateur. Pierre Hoffmann n'aime pas son métier. Pierre Hoffmann n'est pas quelqu'un que l'on aimerait forcément rencontrer. Plutôt, Pierre Hoffmann et les autres personnages sont les stéréotypes de leurs propres névroses, et il y en a un catalogue. Entre les lesbiennes un peu brusques, le jeune enseignant suicidaire, le prof de gym idiot, le principal soumis à la pression des parents d'élèves, l'adolescente nymphomane...et pourtant...Cette classe d'adolescents froids, à la diction si adulte, si jeunes et pourtant si proches de la fin. Qui pourrait-y croire? Paradoxalement, le langage un peu ampoulé de Dufossé renforce cette illusion: ce n'est qu'un roman, une étude psychologique et sociale très bien observée, une exploration d'un fait divers qui ne se produira jamais...et pourtant...Il y a dans tout cela une forte part de vérité sur les rapports humains.
Je conseille la lecture de ce livre à tous les profs un peu désabusés, ainsi qu'à ceux qui ont envie de passer quelques heures à lire une histoire de suspense, sans terreur pourtant, mais où l'on s'enfonce de plus en plus dans la manipulation et dans des rapports humains qui mettent mal à l'aise.
Par contre, qui s'est occupé du résumé au dos du livre???? C'est un peu ballot de dévoiler la fin...
February 21, 2022
I found this book tedious, to say the least. I thought it was ok at the beginning with the presumed death of a teacher and the introduction of his replacement but it went downhill at a fantastic rate of knots thereafter. I have never known an author who could simply waffle on about a passing thought that goes through the head of his main character for half a chapter before. The description of a car journey almost sent me to sleep and the reminiscence of his night at a punk rock concert both revolted and bored me in equal measures. I trudged through to the end with great relief and I shall never read this author again. It may be that some of the meaning was lost in the translation but not all of it surely? It seemed to me to be pretentious and spun out to fill the necessary amount of pages.
May 4, 2014
School's Out was the book recommended by my book group that meets in the local library. It is the eerie frist novel written by Christophe du Fosse. This book has received terrific critical acclaim and Dufosse makes his debt to Stephen King clear in one of the novel's two epigraphs. However, I do not think Stephen King needs to worry about losing a large part of his readership to this author. There is a vague air of menace throughout the narrative which is too long, in my opinion.
The year is 1995; the action takes place in France from February to May. The story opens with the suicide of Éric Capadis, who has been teaching 9F, a class composed of boys and girls aged between 14 and 15. No one understands why Capadis threw himself out of the classroom window. His colleague, Pierre Hoffman, is the narrator of Christophe Dufossé's eerie first novel. Hoffmann is a 32-year-old schoolteacher who works in a rural French town. Hoffman discovers the reasons for the suicide slowly and steadily as the story unfolds.
Capadis was very much a loner. He is still in his twenties but his hair had already begun to turn grey. Hoffman and Capadis both have a fear of physical and emotional involvement. They are both outsiders, sure of little at all.
The story is a bit laboured with similes and metaphors for my taste. The weather reflects Hoffman's temperament: the sky is white, the trees bereft of leaves, and every bird is a harbinger of doom. Hoffman lives in a poor council flat. He only goes to parties arranged by other members of staff. Oddly, he seems to enjoy watching the other teachers getting drunk and behaving badly. He is only physically attracted by an Arab nurse called Nora and, sadly, by his sister Léonore who is unhappily married to a man who is bewildered by her indifference to him.
Class 9F are Gallic to the core, briefed as they are in the finer nuances of gloom. They lack the robust good humour of other authors. This novel suffers from severely heavy handed writing. When they talk to Hoffmann, they sound like everything is a chore. Dufossé chooses not to make them memorable. There is just an undercurrent of malice.
The scenes with Capadis's parents and with Hoffmann and his sister show Dufossé to be a keen observer of behaviour.
Shaun Whiteside has produced an excellent translation of School's Out. He captures the dispiriting tone of the original text. However, I did not enjoy this book. It was dull and uncomfortable throughout.
The year is 1995; the action takes place in France from February to May. The story opens with the suicide of Éric Capadis, who has been teaching 9F, a class composed of boys and girls aged between 14 and 15. No one understands why Capadis threw himself out of the classroom window. His colleague, Pierre Hoffman, is the narrator of Christophe Dufossé's eerie first novel. Hoffmann is a 32-year-old schoolteacher who works in a rural French town. Hoffman discovers the reasons for the suicide slowly and steadily as the story unfolds.
Capadis was very much a loner. He is still in his twenties but his hair had already begun to turn grey. Hoffman and Capadis both have a fear of physical and emotional involvement. They are both outsiders, sure of little at all.
The story is a bit laboured with similes and metaphors for my taste. The weather reflects Hoffman's temperament: the sky is white, the trees bereft of leaves, and every bird is a harbinger of doom. Hoffman lives in a poor council flat. He only goes to parties arranged by other members of staff. Oddly, he seems to enjoy watching the other teachers getting drunk and behaving badly. He is only physically attracted by an Arab nurse called Nora and, sadly, by his sister Léonore who is unhappily married to a man who is bewildered by her indifference to him.
Class 9F are Gallic to the core, briefed as they are in the finer nuances of gloom. They lack the robust good humour of other authors. This novel suffers from severely heavy handed writing. When they talk to Hoffmann, they sound like everything is a chore. Dufossé chooses not to make them memorable. There is just an undercurrent of malice.
The scenes with Capadis's parents and with Hoffmann and his sister show Dufossé to be a keen observer of behaviour.
Shaun Whiteside has produced an excellent translation of School's Out. He captures the dispiriting tone of the original text. However, I did not enjoy this book. It was dull and uncomfortable throughout.
December 14, 2011
This book was actually kind of weird and strange to follow...it felt a little scattered all over the place. I didn't like some of the sentences in the book such as, "I'm quite convinced that hospitals are swarming with people with a secret grudge against humanity (pg.7)" because i am a nurse so i thought that line was a little bit of a hasty generalization regarding healthcare workers. And it has gross imagery such as, "An olfactory spectrum between decomposing vegetation and menstrual discharge.(pg.112)"?????? in reference to the odor of a fake miniature of a monkey. I was like really? But in spite of these weird moments, when he interacted with the kids I enjoyed it because the dialogue/novel tended to be more organized at those points...I also liked the authors thoughts on loneliness and aging. My favorite line in the story came from one of these interactions with the teens, "The important thing for us is to go unnoticed, not to fight to become adults, which is the idea that drives most children these days.(pg. 297)" Overall the book had a VERY unexpected ending that left me like "WOW!" so i guess after getting past the frenetic nature of the protagonist's thoughts and experiences it was all worth it for the ending. So if you like stories that are wild and confusing with great endings...this is the book for you!
June 17, 2008
This book combined my top three book fascinations: first time author, a translation to English (to British English from French which added a second element of adjustment) and a story set in a school. I wish I had read this book over a shorter period of time -- the various dimensions of the story would have hung together better for me. The premise of the story is spooky and the teacher, who the story is really about, had layers of issues. There are some fabulous passages and the school setting was spot on compared to my own independent school world (the teachers' conversations, the faculty lounge, the necessary but onerous chaperoning duties) --how does that happen when the characters are French and in a French school? The students' behaviors were a bit implausible since they were written as middle schoolers -- was something lost in translation? They were way too gloomy and sophisticated but maybe that was the point -- the sturm und drang of early adolescence.
November 1, 2007
Ugh. It's not a long book but it took me forever to finish, and I had to slog to the very end. It never gelled for me. There is no cohesive plot or narrative flow. It read more like a series of vignettes involving the narrator, who took over teaching a class ("9F") at a French middle school after the previous teacher offed himself. There is very little to tie together the various chapters regarding the narrator's adventures, his random encounters with his colleagues, sister, the class, etc. other than a vaguely depressed point of view. I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because I found some of the characters amusing and it painted a good picture of suburban dread.
This book apparently won major awards in France, so that shows how much I know.
This book apparently won major awards in France, so that shows how much I know.
January 8, 2013
The book intrigued me to read it- French translated into British English, it's in a school, mystery involved, and an interesting cover. I started reading it and yes it caught my attention but about a third of the way there it all went downhill. It was poorly translated too many synonyms that the sentences were overly complicated. The teacher goes into great deal to describe what he observes when it has nothing to do with the plot. Waaay too many characters introduced that it was hard to keep track of who was who. Towards the end the book just dragged but I was going to finish the book. And yes the ending was anticlimactic. But this was the authors first book and reading it translated doesn't convey everything the author intended.
March 18, 2009
One of the drawbacks of a five-star rating is that there's really no way of reflecting a half-star. Had there been, this would have had a 3.5 rating from me, as that's much more how I felt about it than a 3.
SCHOOL'S OUT is an interesting concept. From the shock of the beginning when a young teacher apparently commits suicide, to the shivery prospect of what might be going on under the surface, the story moves to its final harrowing scenes.
As others have said, there are minor shortcomings, but I make allowances for its being a first novel, and in translation, too.
Quite why others have rated it so poorly I don't understand.
SCHOOL'S OUT is an interesting concept. From the shock of the beginning when a young teacher apparently commits suicide, to the shivery prospect of what might be going on under the surface, the story moves to its final harrowing scenes.
As others have said, there are minor shortcomings, but I make allowances for its being a first novel, and in translation, too.
Quite why others have rated it so poorly I don't understand.
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