Wilberforce

by H.S. Cross

At St. Stephen's Academy, the students are on the verge of revolt. While the younger boys plot an insurrection, the older ones are preoccupied with sneaking out-of-bounds, thrashing each other, tearing each other's clothes off-or some combination of the three. Morgan Wilberforce, for one, can't take it any longer. Everything Wilberforce touches turns to disaster in his desperate attempts to fight off desire, boredom, and angst. He knocks himself unconscious tackling the unattainable Spaulding on the rugby pitch, his headmaster detests him for crimes committed years ago, and even his closest friends are subjecting him to physical tortures normally reserved for juniors. When an accident at the boarding school leaves him with more suffering than he could have fathomed, he finds himself alone and adrift. And the workaday charms of cricket practice, Victorian pornography, canings from classmates, and fumbling with the pub-keeper's daughter can only do so much to mend a broken body and a restless heart. Stylishly inventive, H. S. Cross has crafted an imaginative, ritualistic world of men and boys narrowly confined by tradition and authority. Wilberforce is an indelible portrait of a young man caught between lust and cruelty, grief and God, frustrated love and abject longing-and a tour de force that heralds the arrival of a brilliant new novelist.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, LGBT, Gay, Young Adult, Queer, Historical

Paperback

First published September 15, 2015

About the author

H. S. Cross was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. She was educated at Harvard College and has taught at Friends Seminary, among other schools. She lives in New York. Wilberforce is her debut novel, and she is currently working on a second book set at St. Stephen's Academy.


Source: Author's website.

Reviews

[Aaron Elliott · Rating 2 out of 5]

A thousand times NO. Very tedious. The hero has complexities but through his hazy doings I found myself needing a nap once to often. The periodic sauciness was however, enjoyed. I'll next be rereading "Maurice" by Forster and shall appreciate it all the more.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to H.S. Cross’s writing (which is decidedly far from mainstream) via an effusive review of her work in The National Review. I’m struggling to determine exactly how I felt about this book in totality. H.S. Cross is a good writer and I will read more of her work. That said, this is a very long, dense book (450 pages) and Parts 1 and 2 were brutal reading. I strongly considered giving up on the book after Part 1. 17 year old Morgan Wilberforce was such an unsympathetic character to me, and I found the 100s of pages of his rebellion, punishment, and repeated, dark sexual exploits to be unrelenting. I don’t believe H.S. Cross is a writer who would pursue gratuitous darkness but I genuinely question whether the redemption arc of Part 3 really necessitated the heavy-handedness of Parts 1 and 2. I think the book deserved more careful editing, a reduction in page count, and a dialing down of Wilberforce’s sexual perversity and obsessions. Readers could have been trusted to grasp the gravity of the situation with far less of the narrative allocated to these descriptions. Part 3 which took place away from St Stephen’s Academy and focused on the “sorting out” of Wilberforce by a bishop (his new headmaster’s father) was a breath of fresh air. The compassion and commitment of the bishop was notable given how unkindly I felt towards Wilberforce by this point in the book— he was a clear God the Father figure (Cross is a person of faith). This inspired some meaningful reflection for me on my strong distaste for Wilberforce and my own sins being of equivalent darkness and offense before a Holy God— my need for Jesus is just as great. That said, the book seemed to crawl to a halt without clear resolution which felt unfair after persevering for so many pages. I can’t see myself recommending this book to anyone and yet I also plan on reading her second novel, Grievous— so make of that what you will.

[Aidan Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I know the author. Not well, but I've had several really engaging conversations with her.

This book has some significant achievements. For one, the author is an American woman. If I hadn't met her and talked with her, if I had just picked the book up from the library, I would never have known she wasn't a gay, male, British aesthete. She certainly writes like one. She has all the vocabulary and atmosphere exactly right. Not a detail out of place, at least not that stood out to me.

The writing is exact and fluid at the same time. Morgan and John, in particular, engage and draw the reader in as characters. I did find the plot a bit uneven. I thought that, particularly Part Two, got a bit boggy. There was too much going on, in too much detail, and I got a bit bored. Parts One and Three flowed more freely. Part Three was pretty extraordinary, actually.

Apart from Cross's mastery of the idom of English boarding school life in the 1920s, the spiritual underpinning of Part Three was exquisite. That last section was worth the entire book. Cross conveys important, poignant, and powerful spiritual truths with a light, almost sideways touch. There was nothing heavy-handed or doctrinal. And in the Bishop, she has crafted a portrait of what a contemporary, quiet saint might look like--one who has grappled with the most important questions of life and found himself smoothed and softened in the struggle. I haven't been able to stop thinking about Morgan and the Bishop.

I look forward to reading her second novel when it comes out.

[Penny (Literary Hoarders)]

How did this one pass me by until now? Yes please!

"For fans of Evelyn Waugh or Kingsley Amis, a wry take on priggish, midcentury boarding schools. It's a dark take on the coming-of-age stories that've populated the book world as of late.

First sentence: “Something was pressing the life out of him.” (From Huffpost)

[Chad D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. A queer adolescent Glittering Images.

[eyes.2c · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the 1920s take on Tom Brown's Schooldays I'd been hoping for. Subsequently for me this was not as engaging as I'd anticipated.
I found Morgan Wilberforce somewhat wooden and I just wasn't involved with his youthful angst. Very ho hum!

A NetGalley ARC

[Kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

A smart, compelling read about a high school boy's crises in 20s Yorkshire. Strongly recommended for anyone with kids, a job in education, or an interest in BBC historical dramas.

[charlotte, · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rep: bi mc

dnf @ 52%

it took me 6 months to get this far and i haven't read any since february, so i'm sorry, morgan wilberforce, i wanted to hug you but not that much.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has taken me since January to complete reading this novel (I actually had to abandon my first attempt at reading it because I kept loosing track of characters and started again and read it, although with breaks, in very large chunks at least a quarter of the book at sitting) and my three stars is a polite rating and should not be taken as a recommendation to read the novel.

I have many reservations about this novel but my major one is that the author is praised for the accuracy of her construction of the setting of the public school St. Stephens and the various boys, masters, slang etc. In reality there are so many inaccuracies, inconsistencies and howlers over the most elemental of details that one can't help wondering is it due to the author's ignorance, carelessness, or maybe simply she doesn't care? It seems amazing to go to the trouble of setting a novel in an English public school in the 1920s and making, superficially, enormous efforts to reproduce so many of the esoteric elements that would be second nature to someone who has attended such a school, yet get so many things wrong, what is the point? It becomes a little understandable when you understand that this is not a boarding school novel at all - but more on that anon.

First I would like to mention just a few of the enormous mistakes the author makes:

1. St Stephen's is described as 'public school' in UK terms a private boarding school yet is also claimed to be a school less then half a century old set up and owned by the headmaster. Now while many 'prep' schools in the USA are owned and operated as businesses the situation in the UK in the 1920s (and still today) completely different. There is no such thing as a 'private' school in the UK for secondary education set up and owned by individuals. No such school could be described as a 'Public School' (private schools for those between the ages of 6 -13, known as 'prep' schools because they are preparing boys for the examinations for entry to public schools are, or were, often privately owned). On a minor point no boarding school in the UK or Ireland (were I attended school) is known by a title such as 'St Stephen's, schools invariably are known by some geographic reference: Eton, Harrow, Marlborough, Lancing, Rugby, Fetes, Gordonstoun in the UK or Belvedere, Clongowes, Rockwell (which I attended) in Ireland.

2. Despite elaborate attention to very small details the author either does not understand or ignores the way schools like her St Stephen's were run. Concepts like the 'school' were very nebulous in terms of organisation and discipline. Boys were members of a 'House' first and foremost. Boys in different house almost never mingled and friendships were unheard of. Boys did not act as a 'year group' (like all 14 year old's etc.) across house lines. Discipline was not so much a 'school' as a 'house' matter. Within each house discipline was in the hands of 'prefects' senior boys in each house. Masters (teachers) would pass on punishments to house prefect of a boy in trouble. Unless the offence was an expelling one it would not come to the Headmaster, or even a house master's attention. Discipline, moral, order, etc. was handled by the prefects though they were in regular contact with their housemaster. The main point is that the way a UK boarding school was run was nothing like a USA prep school such as the one in John Knowles 'A Separate Peace' or Richard Yates 'A Good School' (a novel I greatly enjoyed).

3. Sex - although the synopsis presented on Goodreads (which quoted from the flyleaf of the hard back edition) presents a St Stephen's a school were the boys are literally tearing each others clothes off, this is a gross exaggeration of the book. There is a certain amount of lustful thoughts and an even smaller amount of lustful action between boys but it is all rather small beer considering the promises and overall the author gets almost everything about it wrong. I am not going to belabour you with details but if anyone is interested I would recommend the short stories 'Old Boys' by Patrick Gale, 'Torridge' by William Trevor and the novel 'Lord Dismiss Us' by Michael Campbell.

4. Anachronisms - well there are a great number but I will deal with the major one which actually arises from the boy on boy sexual activity which makes it into the papers and is reported as 'schoolboys love entanglements and treats it as a bit of silly season human interest joke'. This is wrong on so many ways. Although everyone knew about what went on between boys it was taken deadly seriously. Homosexual acts were illegal, and there was no understanding, patience, acceptance or understanding. Being queer was to be damned and queers were what brought down the Roman Empire and if allowed to flourish in the schools that were training the future leaders of the British Empire then that empire would fall. It was almost never acknowledge, when Alec Waugh (the older brother of Evelyn) published a novel in 1917 which mentioned school boy homosexuality (in a most ridiculous polite way) in his roman a clef of his school days at Sherburne it created a storm, he was thrown old of the old boys and his brother Evelyn, who was about to attend the school, couldn't. If any school had been publicly exposed in the way St Stephen's is it would have been destroyed, all the other pupils would have instantly been withdrawn because it was something which by association would have ruined their futures.

I could go on like this but I want to return to something I said earlier this is not a boarding school novel or it least not in the sense that we normally understand it. This is a school story of the classic sort like 'Tom Brown's School Days', 'Eric or Little by Little' that although set in schools were about showing the triumph of a muscular, low church Christianity, they were novel about redemption, about accepting Jesus, learning to pray, but as a man and thus to avoid or rise above 'beastliness' (which is a euphemism for he sex they never mentioned). I realised that 'Wilberforce' was this sort of novel when a song and dance was made over Wilberforce refusing confirmation. Religion is taken very seriously in this novel, but is not in the way that Church of England was in the 1920s or later. The CoE was (still is) very much an institution defining actions and attitudes of a certain class and a pillar of the monarchy, army, state and status quo. The brief phase when the church had had a resurgence in the early to mid 19th century was long gone. Religion is treated in the way it might have been in the USA but was not treated in the UK at any time in the last one hundred and fifty years.

I could go on - the whole last third is unbelievable in the way everyone behaves, and what their concerns are, there is a great deal or moral talk but it is the morality of today - there is a huge concern over the ages of sexual partners, there is absolutely no class consciousness or attitudes, there is a bishop with utterly unbelievably tolerant attitudes towards masturbation which could have shocked many people fifty years later. It is all so improbable. But then Ms. Cross has constructed volume one of succession of novels which deal with moral issues (clearly using the historical setting to present lessons for today) and I suspect that Ms. Cross has some rather old fashioned views on matters like homosexuality and sexual matters in general and she will be slipping them in to her further volumes in between an apparent openness.

I can't recommend this book because it is dishonest in its presentation and in what it intends. H S Cross reminds me of authors like Susan Howatch who write novels that try and present the the Anglican church in either its Episcopalian or Church of England guise as institutions full of really deeply believing people. As a lapsed Catholic who finds it very hard to believe that there are many genuine believers in the hierarchy of that church I can not extend any measure of belief to the bastard off springs of Henry VIII lust.

[Coleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wilberforce is a 17 year old boy at St Stephen's Academy in 1926 in this novel. I believe H.S. Cross is an excellent writer, but the subject matter of male students and their treatment of each other, particularly sexually, is one that I feel has been exhausted. Maybe the topic continues to generate interest with homosexuality, same sex marriage and sexual predators being part of our daily fare.
But of the last number of novels that I have read recently, it has seemed to me that these issues have become a recurring theme, and one that increasingly sickens me.

I would like to read another book by this author provided the issues, topics, issues are not ones that I am tired already of reading.

I won this book in a Goodread's giveaway.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I notice that many of the 4 or 5 star ratings for this novel don’t include a review...probably because it’s difficult to describe this novel adequately. Those who disliked it were expecting something else and were disappointed. It’s a coming of age story, and also a story of healing—and the ways we wound ourselves and others until we allow ourselves to be healed. And communication—the 1920s British boarding school setting is perfect for a world in which people, men in particular, can’t, or won’t, say what they mean and therefore end up with frequent misunderstandings and repressed emotions. Outstanding, and often harrowing.

[RG · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Why in the name of Saint Stephen the Martyr did Morgan Wilberforce have to involve himself in every dire happening in the East Riding of Yorkshire?"

"There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;
all the day I go about mourning. For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me. My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off. . . .

Do not forsake me, O Lord! O my God, be not far from me! Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!" Psalm 38:1-11, 21-22

I have wondered who this book is for--what was H.S. Cross's target audience? This book merits just about every trigger warning one could think of (maybe the only major one that didn't come to mind was disordered eating); it is not an easy read for the heart. Cross doesn't shy away from explicit language either; this is the most vulgar explicitly Christian book I've ever read. It's also not always an easy read, full stop--just about every character is referred to by more than one name (Christian name, last name, and nickname for most) depending on the social context. I'm sure this is a point of historical accuracy to the early-20th century English boarding school context Cross so labors to portray, but it nonetheless makes for a confusing beginning to the novel. (I encountered this novel in audiobook form, which also did not help; I recommend that, if possible, you read rather than listen). Add in a slew of cultural references, heaps of jargon, and plenty of rugby and cricket scenes, and this 21st-century American reader was at times a bit lost.

I didn't really read this book for the boarding school bildungsroman, though, and I'm glad I didn't, because I think where Cross most shines is in her spiritual writing. Wilberforce is about how sin begets sin; how brokenness is passed on from one weary soul to another in the form of sexual assault, physical and verbal abuse, manipulation and domination and all sorts. So many of our main characters have been subjected to profound suffering; and so much of this book's winding way is in their learning (but particularly Morgan Wilberforce's learning) not to run from that suffering. That great besetting sin of English culture to keep a stiff upper lip and quash one's emotion must be overcome before any of the other moral turpitude of young Morgan's heart can begin to be addressed. The only way is to suffer his suffering, and he is not alone in so doing; nor has he ever been alone.

I have such a multitude of thoughts about this book. It perhaps feels most important to say that the longer I sit with it, the more deeply I appreciate it. The road to that appreciation was long and winding, riddled with all sorts of iniquity. And yet, the book's ultimate catharsis rings true to me; that is the way that I know Jesus to work--to meet us precisely in our grief, the One who was waiting there all along for us to finally stop running from it.

Particular points of disapprobation: Cross has a sometimes grating habit of ending characters' thoughts with ellipses or dashes, often in order to indicate an abrupt change of thought; a particularly disjointed understanding of one's emotions on a subject; or one's lack of desire to acknowledge the full truth of a difficult memory. I get what she's trying to do--this is the way all of our thoughts work sometimes, especially when we're acutely experiencing the fragmentation of self that comes from unconfessed sin. However, I think she relies on this stylistic choice entirely too much, to the point that it often muddies the narrative (who did what and with whom? was that particular episode sexual in nature, and if so, how?). Likewise, she hints to inner turmoil for one of our characters that it seems she'll be clarifying but never does; I think based on its title that she likely gets more into said turmoil and interpersonal conflict in Wilberforce's sequel, Grievous, but one could've hoped for a bit more clarity in this novel as a standalone.

Particular points of appreciation: Cross writes spiritual direction beautifully, both the ways in which it can go right as well as the ways in which course correction is sometimes needed. It feels true to my experience of direction as a directee (though mine's an Anglican priest and not an Anglo-Catholic bishop). Most importantly, though, Jesus as we encounter Him in this book feels true to my experience of Jesus--gentle and lowly and fully alive to the force of our grief with us. He is with us at our lowest, our most broken, our most utterly spent. Jesus wept, and Jesus weeps even still. He knows our suffering more intimately than we could imagine, and He moves at the speed of love, inviting us to face it with Him. A novel that understands this Jesus is worth its weight in gold, and here, Cross truly delivers.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Morgan [Wilberforce]’s head swirled. He was used to things not making sense, but now they had begun to refuse sense in an entirely more perverse way.”

This sentence near the end of this plodding, confusing, and frustrating book seemed to fit my own experience in reading it. I so wanted to like this book, but reading it would exhaust me until I had to put it down, only to pick it back up days later in hopes I could somehow get into it. This happened four or five times until I finally got to the last page. I really tried.

I found the writing, by an American woman about a British schoolboy in the 1920s, to be convoluted, precious, yet without charm, and an effort to get through.

Other readers have enjoyed this immensely; I truly wish I had. I see I’m not alone, however.

[Kristen McDermott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tricky one -- a much-too-long novel, the first 2/3 of which is crammed with masses of insightful yet tedious details of public school cruelty, swotting, cricket, 1920's schoolboy slang, and homoerotic yearning, all designed to make the reader thoroughly despise the title character. The final third, however, contains a narrative of forgiveness and redemption that is truly moving and even inspiring, almost making it worth the effort. It's a punishing experience overall, but one that packs a genuine emotional punch at the end.

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF and no wonder, because even reading as far as I did, I have NO idea in galloping hell what this is supposed to be about! There are lots of things implied, nothing ever resolved, no explanation of what people are talking about but knowing what they're talking about is key to understanding the book. Headache-inducing at best.

[H.L. Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

My entire review can be read here: https://hlgibsonauthor.com/2019/08/05...

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time and again and regardless of the era, great works on the page and screen have proven that a confined group of pubescent young men is a recipe for disaster. "Lord of the Flies," "Dead Poets Society," "A Separate Peace," and "Scent of a Woman" provide examples of educated and seemingly well-intentioned youngsters who fail to think before they act, with unfortunate results.

In the debut novel, "Wilberforce," from H.S. Cross, the students at the elite English boarding school, St. Stephen's Academy, are not only guilty of conduct unbecoming, but sugarcoat their recreational tradition of bad behavior as though it were an art form, to be handed down from one generation to the next. Upperclassmen are each assigned a younger classmate to berate, enslave and abuse, while teammates inflict brutal, vicious attacks upon each other during rugby and cricket games. When not condoning violence, the boys might sneak away to a nearby pub or read pornographic literature.

While no one is completely innocent among this gaggle of maladjusted misfits, Morgan Wilberforce is an undeniable hotbed of havoc. He tackles elder pupil, Spaulding, for whom he harbors a secret crush, but only does more physical damage to himself. His best buds, Nathan and Laurie, try to intervene, albeit in vain, particularly when Morgan designates Nathan's younger brother, Alex, as his punching bag. Morgan's carnage, however, does not go unnoticed by instructor John Grieves, who recognizes the boy's rebellious disposition, yet tries to help and better understand him. Meanwhile, John and Morgan have more in common than they ever come to realize.

The misunderstood student and professor who sees his (or her) vulnerable side is a familiar premise. Despite the author's impeccable knack for detail and description, the book starts out a little slow; but Morgan is an intriguing character, mired in enough mystery to keep the reader's interest.

Things escalate rather quickly, though, and not in Morgan's favor, when the lowerclassmen revolt but everyone immediately -- and wrongly -- suspects him. Then things get a lot worse before they (at least appear to) get better, until Morgan takes an interest in young Polly, the pub owner's daughter.

It doesn't take a genius to surmise why Morgan knowingly behaves the way he does, and even when he's not the most likeable individual, one still can't help but empathize with him. The latter part of the novel, during which the new headmaster's clergyman father takes Morgan in to examine his misconduct, is a bit drawn out. I would have liked to see more interaction between Morgan and Grieves, but I suspect Cross will explore their relationship, as well as further adventures at St. Stephen's Academy, in future works.

Cross shows tremendous storytelling talent and her prose is uniquely distinguished for a debut novelist. While the story has its holes, perhaps deliberately, I look forward to her next work.

[LeAnne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this literary fiction. For the first fifty pages I was asking myself, now, why did I think I wanted to read this? First, the punctuation style is European and lacks quotation marks. A real pain for this American since after the tag there is no indication that the quotation has resumed. Set in a British boys school in the 1920s, the story has a lot of adolescent preoccupation with sex, although sometimes amusingly described with adolescent reluctance. I get impatient with literature about people who make stupid choices (like Madam Bovary or Return of the Native.) But about page 60, I remembered it was for the Quaker teacher that the book had been recommended. He is worth reading about and the main character of the second book, Grievous, which was really the one recommended. In the end, despite all the stupid choices that adolescents of every generation make, the book is about redemption, choosing what kind of person you want to be, and having the strength to be that. It’s also about the teachers and pastors, how their lives model or fail to model the gospel, and whether they care enough to invest in a new generation. I continued to be baffled by stupid, backsliding choices and by the Bishop’s methods, but at least the ending was more hopeful than either Madame Bovary or Return of the Native.

The faith presented is Anglican and broad-minded while remaining genuine. (Not in Wilberforce, but in both the Quaker and the Bishop.) I might consider rereading the last 50 pages with the Bishop, but probably not the earlier parts.

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times quite good, even touching, about the trials and tribulations of growing up in a time and system that does not nurture, and that thinks punishment maketh the man. The book is best when exploring the layers of the protagonist’s damaged emotions. What is curiously left open to debate is much young Wilberforce is his own worst antagonist, or how much the surrounding system ought to be blamed. But the book has its weaknesses. Parts are tedious in the way immer processes are described, and the “thickness” of Wilberforce in many situations, as he himself would put it, is sometimes beyond comprehension.

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a very difficult book to read. It is a recreation of a 1920s UK boarding school novel. I think the author went a bit overboard recreating the atmosphere as there are a number of references that are not explained well. Also characters that play a significant part in early pages, do not reappear. The author uses multiple names and initials for several characters which confused me. The writing is oblique and deliberately obfuscating. There is a resemblance of a plot with a couple of exciting situations. I found this book quite dour and not enjoyable. Proceed at your own risk,

[Veisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very mixed about this book. The writing style was a bit erratic. I had trouble connecting and sympathizing with the main character. But I did really enjoy the third part as the bishop pursued healing for this very lost young man. Not sure who I would recommend this too.

[Cristie Underwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. The author wrote a story that was interesting and moved at a pace that kept me engaged. The characters were easy to invest in.

[Lulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can be tedious, interesting characters though not lovable but definitely poignant and insightful at times.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Closed and Peculiar World

When I graduated from my English public (i.e. private) school in 1958, I immediately started trying to sort out my memories by writing a novel. I think I had an outline and two chapters completed before I abandoned the attempt. I had life to get on with, for one thing. I was also aware that several hundred public-school men each year were probably doing exactly the same—and who would want to read of such things anyway? So imagine my surprise to find much the same novel as my own youthful attempt, but written by an American woman who could never have experienced such things herself, let alone in the 1920's at a minor public school in Yorkshire like the fictional St. Stephen's Academy, which is the setting of her debut novel. I still wonder who would want to read such a thing, but I myself was fascinated.

It is amazing that she gets so much right: the social milieu, the Anglicanism, the surnames and nicknames, the emphasis on games (rugby and cricket), the canings and random bullying, the undertow of homosexuality, and the curious time-warp limbo inhabited by the masters. Much of this will seem simply weird and barbaric to modern American readers, but I was convinced by ninety percent of it. By the same token, however, I was unduly disturbed by the details that did not seem right, although it is hard to extrapolate back from my own experience thirty years later at a much better school than the third-rate St. Stephen's. But I rather think that Cross begins by throwing a lot of things at the reader just to establish how peculiar this environment is, and many of the things that seem unconscionable at first, such as a senior boy regularly caning the first-year boy assigned to him as personal servant to keep him up to snuff, will later be revealed as aberrant behavior.

The title character, Morgan Wilberforce, is 17. He is charismatic, good both at games and in class (when he chooses to exert himself), but independent-minded and resistant to authority. The same prefect who caned him on Saturdays also made him heir to the secret of a tunnel through which he can escape the grounds and head off to a local pub on a regular basis. The part I can't believe is that he is supposed to have been doing this for several years; surely no pub is going to serve beer to a 15-year-old? In fact, the age thing bothered me in general. By 17, students are within a year of graduating and already think of themselves as men; they are no longer caned by older boys or set to write out lines by their teachers. I can only think that Cross is trying to compress many aspects of the public-school experience into the one character, and so makes Morgan's age somewhat elastic.

But ultimately her novel is not about the freak-show aspects of the school environment so much as Morgan Wilberforce's spiritual and psychological crisis—and for this, seventeen is absolutely right. Having gone through such a crisis myself at a similar age, I felt myself being drawn in just when the school story was beginning to bore me. Morgan's doubts—about his sexuality, about his beliefs, about his purpose in the world—are very real, despite the author's decision to dramatize them through imaginary dialogues with a pesky alter-ego named Droit. It is a different matter when Morgan is interacting with real people, such as a young history master called John Grieves, a fascinatingly ambiguous figure who may be the most interesting character in the book; he is certainly better drawn than any of the other masters, who remain as ciphers. But Cross leaves Grieves high and dry two-thirds of the way through, and her various hints at his back-story just go begging. He is replaced by quite a different counselor character, an elderly bishop with whom Morgan spends a summer (far from the school, which is a blessed relief). These hundred pages move the novel into quite another gear. But unfortunately not for ever; the book ends with Morgan's return to St. Stephen's with far too much still left unresolved. The author's bio tells us she is planning a sequel; I just wonder whether the market will bear it?

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learning responsibility in a British public school.

[Carl Morton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. The cons were that some of the situations Wilberforce (the main character) got into seemed only to be in the book as some sort of fantasy for the author. Also by the end of the book nothing seemed resolved. The book just kind of started and just kind of ended. There were no plot twists and hardly a plot at all. And the author put a lot of time into writing Grieves story and then midway through the book stopped writing about him all together leaving feelings towards his story the most unresolved. The author also seemed to imply that everybody in the 1920's had gay flings, when I would think that that would've been more scrutinized and not just overlooked as it was. In fact the story seemed to say that Wilberforce's Heterosexual fling was more sinful than his others, so that seemed just slightly off. Even with all those faults however the author spun a good tale and was able to keep me interested for the entirety of the book even if the ending lacked fulfillment. The Bishop was by far my favorite character, as there seemed more put into him than the others. It was a good book, but I think most everybody can go their whole lives without reading it, and still feel like they didn't miss much.

[Steve Penner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book in that it captured the English public school environment of the mid-1920's, what I heard J. I. Packer refer to as English school stories in referencing the Harry Potter books. It will likely not be a best seller among Christians as it deals extensively and almost continually with homosexual adventures among coming of age boys. There is frivolity and tragedy as the life of Morgan Wilberforce is described in stages. It took a while for me to get into the plot, setting and characters. It really wasn't until the second half of the book that I was truly engaged in the lives portrayed. Towards the end, as Morgan is placed with the family of a bishop, there are hints of Susan Howatch's Starbridge series with a wise faith and psychology practitioner trying to figure out the motives of this messed up boy. It leaves all kinds of loose ends, so the second book of a likely series is assuredly forthcoming.

[Joe Hartman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel's strong suit is its believable, unpredictable and compelling characters, especially as led by the protagonist Morgan Wilberforce. He is so charming. There's a naivety and an earnestness to him that kept me reading beyond the page when I realized the plot twists may have reached their full pay-off around halfway through a 450 plus page book. Unfortunately, while I can get behind a character driven novel, I still expect the novel to "pay off" at some point and as I got closer and closer to the ending I realized the character revelations, the answering of all the questions that the book gives rise to, was very unlikely to come, which is why I can't recommend it as highly as I would like. There are definitely great scenes, and some wonderful sections, but as a whole, the book, especially in it's last third, needed more.

[Steven Svymbersky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed reading this novel as the writing is brilliant. At the beginning I found the milieu of an English boy's academy in the 1920's a bit off-putting, but I quickly began to enjoy all the slang and attitudes of the era. The main characters Wilberforce and the teacher, Grieves are both interesting and clearly drawn. The two major "romantic" episodes that occur in the year this book takes place kept me turning pages and the climax that occurs 3/4 of the way into the book was perfect. The last quarter of the book was harder to like as it works to resolve Wilberforce's dilemmas in an entirely different environment, introducing all new characters and leaving Grieves behind, but in the end I understood what the author was trying to achieve and I found the resolution satisfying.

[Dick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book very difficult to listen to. Perhaps it was the idiomatic language in the book. Perhaps it was the phrasing of the book. Perhaps it was just the book.
I listened to the book (Audible.com) and found it very easy to space out while I was listening.

Overall I just didn't like it at all. The reader of the book was pretty good and so I am giving it more than the one start that the book alone deserves. (IMHO).