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Worth
A fast-paced, wildly entertaining, and blackly comic novel about the perils of loving your neighbor For Richard and Sarah, leaving the rat-race of London for the sleepy village of Worth feels like a dream come true. But their new life isn't quite as idyllic as it at first seems. The cottage is tiny, the neighbors are racist, and they find themselves reverse-commuting back to London on the weekends. And then Catherine moves next door and it's love at first sight. Smart, sophisticated Catherine, with her good wine, her foreign travel and—well—her London ways. But there are things about Catherine that don't quite add up—topics avoided, questions unanswered. She describes a manipulative but never-seen sister, who she says is making her life hell. Richard and Sarah offer advice as best they can, but they are starting to feel uneasy. The rural idyll is beginning to fade. Before long Richard and Sarah realize that rather than being the answer to their prayers, Catherine might in fact be quite the opposite.
256 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 25, 2017
This book was well written and I feel mean giving it two stars but I just didn't get the point of it. I love tangents, long books, slow books, meandering books, but this.. I'm no thief but am doing a cut and paste job with Frank's review because he hit on what I can't articulate. I've just got tumbleweeds blowing around the following phrases : did I miss something? Meh, what was the deal with the beetroot pasta? I was waiting for there to be a big thing and there wasn't, is this some kind of oblique ennui humour that I don't get? Jon Canter was once primary LOLz writer for Lenny Henry so possibly not. Over to Frank:
Jun 18, 2012 Frank rated it three stars liked it
Very well written and with interesting passages, but in the end I wondered why this story needed to be told to me. Either I expected some ironic reversal or undercutting of the protagonist that just didn't come, or it was there and I failed to see it.
Richard and Sarah meet in London and fall in love. They have to extricate themselves from the relationships that their love inconveniently appears in the middle of. Sarah is with a father figure and Richard is having an on/off thing with Renate. Renate is gloriously awful. Loved her work. The lovers decide to cast London aside too and move to a not quite village in the country. They were lulled into a bucolic sense of security by their neighbours. This blooming friendship is cut down by racism. The neighbours are racists and will therefore never become good neighbours that become good friends. Then, oh joy, the chic and urbane Catherine moves next door. Richard and Sarah fall in love with Catherine. Thus follows I don't really know what. Nor does Frank.
Jun 18, 2012 Frank rated it three stars liked it
Very well written and with interesting passages, but in the end I wondered why this story needed to be told to me. Either I expected some ironic reversal or undercutting of the protagonist that just didn't come, or it was there and I failed to see it.
Richard and Sarah meet in London and fall in love. They have to extricate themselves from the relationships that their love inconveniently appears in the middle of. Sarah is with a father figure and Richard is having an on/off thing with Renate. Renate is gloriously awful. Loved her work. The lovers decide to cast London aside too and move to a not quite village in the country. They were lulled into a bucolic sense of security by their neighbours. This blooming friendship is cut down by racism. The neighbours are racists and will therefore never become good neighbours that become good friends. Then, oh joy, the chic and urbane Catherine moves next door. Richard and Sarah fall in love with Catherine. Thus follows I don't really know what. Nor does Frank.
December 23, 2019
Canter can certainly write and create lively dialogue and entertaining scenes. But, in Worth, he doesn’t really create a coherent novel. It as if he started on day 1 of writing having fun with his lead character and then kept writing either until he was bored or until he had completed the requisite number of words. The result is enjoyable enough but ultimately rather unsatisfying.
December 21, 2018
Very wittily written, original and kept me amused, until the twist near the end.
September 20, 2012
I like Jon Canter. He's erudite and witty and writes about educated middle class folk and their little foibles and problems as well as anyone. And this story about a mid-30s couple who 'emigrate' to the country, leaving behind their Big City lives, is entertaining and highly readable.
Canter avoids the obvious pitfall of characterising country folk as bumpkins - albeit he introduces us to only a handful - and paints an accurate picture of the upsides and downsides of living in tiny communities surrounded by fields.
But the book's central theme, rather than displacement, is friendship, specifically the one forged between the couple and their new neighbour, a stately, intelligent, beautiful single woman with whom they fall in love, singly and jointly, albeit platonically. The frisson of a new alliance between like-minded people (the neighbour is refreshingly 'normal', funny and switched on; an educated urbanite who apparently shares an almost identical outlook on life) and its subsequent peaks and troughs is well drawn. The friendship falters as a blind date arranged by the couple goes nowhere, unpalatable discoveries are made about each other, offences given and taken, apologies made and accepted - all very believable and recognisable.
For me, though, the City couple fail to ignite. They are dull and uninteresting; it is the neighbour who is the unknown quantity, the potentially colourful central player. But this is told from the male protagonist's perspective, so we only see her from his POV and thus we don't see enough. The other issue is that the narrative 'voice' is Canter's - razor-sharp, funny, clued-up - whereas the protagonist is supposed to be a bit of a twit, an unsuccessful animator who constantly owns up to his own faults, who can't help putting his foot in his mouth, who is cowed by the intelligence of others. Canter can't help imbuing the character with his own intelligence, which makes his fumblings and faux pas less believable.
All in all, though, a fun read.
Canter avoids the obvious pitfall of characterising country folk as bumpkins - albeit he introduces us to only a handful - and paints an accurate picture of the upsides and downsides of living in tiny communities surrounded by fields.
But the book's central theme, rather than displacement, is friendship, specifically the one forged between the couple and their new neighbour, a stately, intelligent, beautiful single woman with whom they fall in love, singly and jointly, albeit platonically. The frisson of a new alliance between like-minded people (the neighbour is refreshingly 'normal', funny and switched on; an educated urbanite who apparently shares an almost identical outlook on life) and its subsequent peaks and troughs is well drawn. The friendship falters as a blind date arranged by the couple goes nowhere, unpalatable discoveries are made about each other, offences given and taken, apologies made and accepted - all very believable and recognisable.
For me, though, the City couple fail to ignite. They are dull and uninteresting; it is the neighbour who is the unknown quantity, the potentially colourful central player. But this is told from the male protagonist's perspective, so we only see her from his POV and thus we don't see enough. The other issue is that the narrative 'voice' is Canter's - razor-sharp, funny, clued-up - whereas the protagonist is supposed to be a bit of a twit, an unsuccessful animator who constantly owns up to his own faults, who can't help putting his foot in his mouth, who is cowed by the intelligence of others. Canter can't help imbuing the character with his own intelligence, which makes his fumblings and faux pas less believable.
All in all, though, a fun read.
May 18, 2013
I read this book as it was recommended as an East Anglian story. I liked the core of the story - a London couple move to Suffolk and find themselves drawn into the life of their neighbour, Catherine - but I wish the book had focussed entirely on that. The first section could have been much shorter. I was also expecting some sinister plot twist and was disappointed when it didn't eventuate.
June 25, 2012
Very well written and with interesting passages, but in the end I wondered why this story needed to be told to me. Either I expected some ironic reversal or undercutting of the protagonist that just didn't come, or it was there and I failed to see it.
July 14, 2014
Wasn't quite sure about the structure of this story, but I laughed out loud multiple times for its portrayal of friendship between adult women.
December 29, 2012
The main characters witty but brutally honest observations reminded me of Larry David. This story was very cute, gave me a few chuckles, and had a surprise twist at the end. Enjoyable fiction!
May 7, 2013
Only got as far as the first chapter, decided it really wasn't my cup of tea, took it back to the library next day.
June 25, 2016
A clever author, but I didn't enjoy this novel. Didn't like the characters. I managed to finish it, and was glad when I had!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews