Higher Ed

by Tessa McWatt

In her most powerful and resonant novel to date, the acclaimed writer Tessa McWatt explores the ways in which people find love in desperately uncertain times.
      Against a backdrop of 21st-century east London, where cuts and job crunches and unemployment are ugly, unrelenting realities, three very different love stories bloom. Francine, a university administrator who firmly believes that she is unattractive and unloveable, is unhinged after witnessing a tragic road accident. Cracked open, she is also on the verge of realizing that she is worth something to someone. Meanwhile Robin, a young film prof who Francine has lusted after from afar, is awoken to beauty in the form of the young Polish waitress in his local café, who cannot believe that he might love her back. And then there is Olivia, Robin's charismatic student, a mixed race girl growing up in a racist household, who thought she'd been abandoned by her father, Ed. Conducting research for a law school project on what society owes the dead, she stumbles across him working in a council office, where he's in charge of burying the indigent and unclaimed. Soon she realizes that Ed is not the kind of man who would abandon anybody.
     Thoughtful, poignant and profound, Higher Ed is a brilliantly observed novel that illuminates the human capacity for love, and lingers in the soul long after the last page is read.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Canada

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 10, 2015

About the author

Guyanese-born Canadian writer Tessa McWatt is the author of six novels and two books for young people. Her fiction has been nominated for the Governor General’s Award, the City of Toronto Book Awards, and the OCM Bocas Prize. She is one of the winners of the Eccles British Library Award 2018, for her memoir: Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging. She is also a librettist, and works on interdisciplinary projects and community-based life writing through CityLife: Stories Against Loneliness. She teaches Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Posted in full http://www.reviewedthebook.co.uk/2015...

When I travel to London, I take the long coach there and spend most of my visits in a tube station, waiting for the next stop. Being in London feels much different to being at home and I spend a lot of my time people watching as busy Londoners head off in all different directions. You don’t get a moment’s peace. Reading Higher Ed was a bit like one of my trips to London. I felt like a real people watcher as I watched the five main characters, all busy getting on with their own, different lives, but also all linked in some small way, all heading in different directions yet at the same time, all heading for the very same thing. Higher Ed was a fascinating novel, really character-driven, and over the course of the book we easily get to know a fair bit about Francine, Robin, Olivia, Ed and Katrin, who are written with strong depth. We also catch on to little glimpses of ties between the five characters. Despite the beginning, where I didn’t catch on to any links at all as they were all very individual characters with their own different battles, there were links in there too. I enjoyed getting to know them.

Higher Ed is the first book I have read by Tessa McWatt. I really enjoyed it. The first thing that struck me was the format of the chapters, which are short and snappy, sharply written and quick to read. Why read one chapter when you could read two, or three, or… I flew through this book and loved the short chapters. I really don’t like long chapters and I read this book much quicker thanks to the style it was written in. Before the story even begins, the book lists the ‘cast’ and ‘supporting players’. I liked the idea of this, it gave the book a film-like feel, but then I felt pretty overwhelmed reading the list of characters wondering how I’d keep up. But that doesn’t ever become an issue when reading the book itself. I kept up easily. Each of the characters were well voiced, realistically drawn and interesting to read about although some more than others. Francine and Katrin were the two I most cared about and I liked their parts the most. Olivia’s story struck a chord too. Even though I didn’t find all the characters entirely likeable, they were still easy enough to read about but I was more eager to get on to the chapters of those I did like.

Surprisingly, I felt like the large number of main characters actually worked well. I’m never good with keeping up with lots of characters but I did think they suited the style of Higher Ed well. All the stories felt honest and believable. Some were sad, others were laced with humour but all made me think about how you don’t truly know what is happening in someone’s life as you judge from the outside. As with people watching in London, you make assumptions and guess what’s happening, what they’re up to, what’s bothering them, but you don’t really know. This novel really breaks down the characters and they come to life better that way.

The main aspects of this book worked well for me. My problem was with the actual plot itself which I struggled to get to grips with. I’m not really sure why. All five main characters were reaching out for love and acceptance. Something most readers (including me) could relate to. My issue wasn’t anything to do with the characters. I liked the brave themes the author explored like bulimia, death, pregnancy, redundancy and immigration, to name a few. I think I struggled with the tone of this novel which was a bit too strict and serious. There were funny moments for sure but at times I got dragged down in all the harsh themes. It’s not really a criticism of Tessa’s writing – how can you criticise an author for writing a multi-layered, interesting novel? – but more that this book wasn’t entirely for me. So I do have mixed feelings over Higher Ed but I couldn’t actually fail to notice how compelling I found it and how quickly I finished it. The beauty of this book is seeing the strands that link these characters come to life. I began, not sure strong ties would be possible, but I ended up completely convinced. Higher Ed was, overall, intelligently written, gripping and very thought-provoking.

(review copy)

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love London. I love the fact that it is, along with New York, the city that everyone in the world is familiar with, the city that people flock to visit. London is a city that never fails to amaze me, no matter how many times I visit, there is always something new to see and to do. Along with the historical sights, the amazing shops, the street art, the theatre and the fashion, there are the people. Millions of people, all living together in what is really quite a small space. Tessa McWatt has created a handful of people who all live in London, but are all very different.

Higher Ed is set in a London university and each character is a true individual, although their lives are linked. Some of the links are fleeting, but others are stronger and more attached. The author is really skilled in creating characters, each one of them is solid and credible, with their own original voice and foibles.

Whilst I enjoyed reading about all of these characters, and their lives, my favourite was Katrin. She's highly educated yet can make a better life for herself working in a London coffee shop than she ever could back home in Poland.

The characters in Higher Ed are all looking for the same thing. They each deal with their issues in their own way, but their aim in life is what connects them. That, and London of course.

Higher Ed is almost like sitting on a bus or train, or indeed, in Katrin's coffee shop and people-watching. It's a quick read, but a really fulfilling one. Tessa McWatt's writing is colourful, funny and vivid. Her setting is perfect and her characters are wonderful.

[Chris Waterford · Rating 1 out of 5]

A story about five characters whose thoughts seem to jump at random from one thing to another. Metaphors seem clunky or inappropriate, like a dog's breakfast. Almost incomprehensible.

[CanadianReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set in East London, this is a novel told from multiple points of view, with all of the characters linked (some more closely than others) to a lower tier university that is grappling with austerity measures. Lonely Francine, a middle-aged clerk who works in Quality Assurance, is an American who followed an older boyfriend overseas and was dumped by him some time before the story opens. She muddles through her job, engages in repeated bulimic purges, and regularly checks her internet dating profile for interested suitors. Equally lonely Robin, a retiring and somewhat anemic young professor of film theory, who also risks losing his job, grapples with becoming a father to an "accidental" child with a woman he doesn't love. To complicate his life, there is the beautiful Katrin, a well-educated Polish immigrant, who can make far more in the high-end London cafe, Epicure, than she can back home in Gdansk. Finally, there is Olivia, an idealistic young law student, who is working on a dissertation about the lonely dead--those who have died with no family to bury them. Her research brings her into contact with Ed, "Wood", a dignified Guyanese man, whose social service job it is to bury these people, and who may possibly be the father that abandoned her in early childhood. Ed, too, is in danger of losing his job due to economic hard times.

Author McWatt provides readers with short chapters which move from one character to another, providing windows into each of their struggles.

I appreciated the artistry of McWatt's work and her suggestion, through the novel's structure, that as isolated as the characters sometimes feel themselves to be, they are all mysteriously connected. Their personal stories find echoes in the stories of each other, though the characters themselves are unaware of such resonances. For example, as Robin contemplates his unplanned fatherhood, Ed recalls the reasons he abandoned the role of father. Each of these men has a "Catherine", an elusive beauty, and a complicated love. By the book's end, some of the characters--Olivia and Francine, most notably--have small emotional victories in the form of new fragile connections; however, the conclusion is, on the whole, rather unsatisfyingly open ended.

The multiple points of view work to underscore McWatt's exploration of the fragile ties that connect her lonely urban cast. However, the many perspectives given also dilute the emotional force of the novel, leaving the reader a little cold.
While I liked the book enough, it is not necessarily one I would recommend or reread.

Thank you to Goodreads Giveaway Program for providing me with an ARC of this book.

[Shan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Higher Ed, by Tessa McWatt, is a beautiful novel that follows five people who from the outside lead very different lives and are from very different backgrounds, but on the inside are searching for the same things.

I enjoyed reading this book very much. The chapters jump around between characters so that the story is told in the five voices. At first this bothered me, especially since chapters are short. I found myself flipping to the character list at the front to remind myself of who they were. But as the book went on, I didn’t mind this much at all and I actually enjoyed that it went between the characters consistently.

If you like books that focus on the characters and their emotions, rather than major plot devices, then I think you will be interested in this book. This is a book based on reality - the uncertain times we live in and how through it all we are still searching for the same, most basic things. We can all see ourselves in these characters.

You can read my full review here

[Gill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't sure about this for quite a while and stuck with it because I was reading it for Book Club but by the end I found I had got involved with the characters and cared about them.

On the other hand...
Higher Ed
Tessa McWatt
Reviewed by Penistone Library Readers’ Group

Generally not liked.
11 members present and only 2 finished the book, most gave up after about 40 pages.
Most did not like the bad language at the beginning but agreed it died away quite quickly, questioning whether it was there for the “shock” factor.
One of the 2 who finished it took 5 attempts to do that, interspersed with reading other, more enjoyable books.
The list of characters was felt to be essential but most hated still having to refer to it so frequently.
Some said the book felt like an exercise for students which had just been cobbled together.
Most felt the book was pointless and “went nowhere”, several said they had to keep re-reading parts to try to understand what was going on.
Most agreed the characters were well drawn even although we didn’t really like any of them, tho’ Ed was generally the most liked character.

We have rarely been so united in our dislike of a book.

[Wendy Jensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about 5 people. Francine, Robin, Olivia, Ed and Katrin and each chapter is about one of them. The setting is in London. I found this not an easy style of writing to read. After the first two chapters I almost quit but it got a bit better. I had a hard time trying to understand the lingo and what it actually meant.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

[Kbeckermann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time keeping track of the stories and characters in this book. I've read other books with different stories and characters woven throughout that were more readable and connected to a theme.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mild spoilers. This is one of the lowest rated books that I have read on Goodreads and in no way does it deserve that. It’s a perfectly readable account of intersecting lives mainly figured around a not particularly prestigious London university that is facing a round of serious cost cutting. It’s well written and brings up some interesting elements (e.g. the practicalities of what happens to those who die without any family or friends to mourn them or organise their funeral etc.), but in the end I’m not sure that everything came together in a particularly satisfactory manner. It becomes obvious fairly early on how the characters are linked and unless I missed something (entirely possible) there is nothing more revelatory about these connections by the end. However it’s still enjoyable enough and it’s always good to read a book about modern day London. I also liked the Guyanese aspects (a country I have read little about) so I’m sure I’ll try another of the author’s at some point.

[Scribe Publications]

Tessa McWatt brings the traditional campus novel bang up to date … This polyphonic novel owes an obvious debt to Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, but nevertheless [McWatt] manages to make this exuberant but bittersweet tale something all of her own.
Lucy Scholes, The Observer

A wryly passionate, slyly political and engrossing concatenation of London lives, that only a Londoner by choice could have written.
China Miéville

The search for love is at the heart of Tessa McWatt’s work as a writer, and so it is in Higher Ed. Her characters are by turns wise and foolish, hopeful and sometimes — movingly — so very near defeat. But they all continue to search … In dark times, they want to walk to the light. We watch them and hope that they make it.
Ronan Bennett

The ecosystem of a London university is more of a jumping-off point than the focus of this frequently bleak take on the city and the scattered lives straining for purpose within its melée … In a manner reminiscent of Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love, a senseless accident brings the disparate lives [of McWatt's characters] together … Authentic.
Catherine Scott, TLS

Situated within a select group of metropolitan-England-today novels that range in outlook from despairing to hopeful (Stephen Kelman’s Pigeon English, Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani, Margaret Drabble’s The Radiant Way, Zadie Smith’s NW, and Jackie Kay’s Trumpet), Higher Ed stands in the sensible middle. As though motivated by E.M. Forster’s dictum to “only connect”, the five key characters of McWatt’s magnetic novel are muddling through … McWatt conjures a familiar world of uncertainties, in which fallible but striving individuals find basic needs — security, community, bonds — difficult to attain. Kind to her characters, but never blind to their iffy choices or restrictive circumstances, McWatt gradually grants the members of this loosely interrelated tribe some respite. Her generous vision suggests that people might not get exactly what they desire, but, since the world’s a huge, complicated place, it may provide them with something else, something ultimately beneficial.
Maclean’s

Wonderful narration. Wonderful map of the archipelago. Embark and discover it!John Berger

A finely tuned sense of sadness and quiet despair haunts all of the characters in Tessa McWatt’s tenderly observed view of East London life.
Atom Egoyan

Written in a captivating polyphonic style reminiscent of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and NW, Tessa McWatt’s big-hearted novel animates her five characters effortlessly.
Quill & Quire

I enjoyed Higher Ed hugely. The writing was finely tuned and the characterisation sharply focused. As vibrant as the city it depicts.
Jonathan Kemp, Author of London Triptych

Tessa McWatt’s Higher Ed is a vibrant, beating heart of a book. Characters come together from vastly different backgrounds, united by longing and displacement and bursting forth in McWatt’s vital, witty, raw prose. A book that contains multitudes, Higher Ed is less about how we are different than the ways in which we are the same. Sly, brainy, and razor-sharp, McWatt's writing is unmissable.
Grace O’Connell

Higher Ed injects a welcome dose of diversity into a tale about universals: love, loneliness and the search for belonging. It revels in the collision of two hitherto distinct genres: the campus novel and the multivoiced immigrant saga set in London's gritty fringes … [McWatt] pushes at the boundaries of what we've come to expect from stories about universities, about London and the uncertain times in which we live.
Trilby Kent, Globe and Mail

Sincerely affecting.
Carly Lewis, National Post

If you want a novel to get truly stuck into, Tessa McWatt’s Higher Ed is an unflinching look at the impact of public spending cuts on a down-and-out London university … Rather like a grittier version of John Lanchester’s Capital [Higher Ed is] a story about the challenges and quirks of urban living … McWatt brilliantly and sympathetically contributes to the conversations being had all around contemporary London.
Runnings in Heels

Set at a fictional east London university, Higher Ed paints a picture of the city that is both realistically multicultural and, from its academics to waitress characters, realistically insecure. Wry and funny, evoking a world you’ll recognise, Higher Ed should appeal to fans of Zadie Smith and Monica Ali.
Emerald Street

[C]ombines campus novel (historically a distinctly white-male genre) with a Zadie Smith-like sense of a thoroughly multicultural London … satirises with sharp wit the precariousness of academic life.
Cameron Woodhead, The Age

Five sympathetic characters blunder and blag their way through demanding periods of their lives. Loneliness, guilt and looming penury drive each of them into a quirky melee of sometimes weird but always enticing decision-making and action-taking … Higher Ed resounds with the delightful clang of clumsy truth.
Joseph Crilly, Irish Times

McWatt’s tangled tale of five flawed, frustrating people is … so vividly written that you’ll miss hanging out with her characters well after you’ve finished the book.
Elle Canada

The diversity of voices in the novel is impressive … Each character’s story comes with its own richness.
Kerry Clare, Pickle Me This

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5) The missing 0.5? That was me, I fear; not McWatt's well-crafted novel. Unsettled by the CBC and the weather, it took me awhile to appreciate fully what I'd come to expect from the author's other brilliant works. Reading is a duet. Or maybe a symphony if you include world events and what the reader had for lunch. In this case the author's choice of material and her execution were spot on. Give it the chance it deserves.

[Simon J Alvey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was described as a campus novel for Zadie Smith fans, and yet I found this novel to be deeply frustrating, the different stories, seemed to bounce around to no particular purpose, it never seemed to be doing to much purpose. This is in spite of claiming to be a novel about austerity and the reality of higher education, very disappointing

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and easy to read, in spite of the number of characters - I like converging-plot novels because I'm always working out how they're going to join up in the end.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Zoe · Rating 1 out of 5]

i did not like this book at all. Very boring

[Jaffareadstoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting novel about the vagaries of modern life, brought together by the unique perspective of five very different people, all with complex stories to tell.

Their individual stories are told in short and snappy chapters. We get to know them as people and learn about what makes them act in the way they do. Some of them are not always very likeable, but their collective stories really make you think about the vagaries of modern lives. Inevitably, they are all connected in some way, the reasons why they are linked becomes apparent as the story progresses.

Initially, I felt that the story got off to a bit of a slow start and I found that I needed to pay particular attention on who was who, which for a time spoiled my enjoyment, but then about a third of the way into the novel, and as I became more comfortable with the characters, I started to become more involved in the story itself. In many ways, it's a story about London and about how it functions as a city and of how it works as a huge melting pot for people from so many different backgrounds. And yet, it is also a story about the complexities of human nature, and of the tenuous ties that bind us together, and also of the wretched situations that people can find themselves caught up in.

Overall, I think that Higher Ed was a well written and intelligently thought out novel. It's a slow burner rather than all action but it's nicely observed and certainly kept me entertained whilst at the same time made me look at things in an different way.

[Anne Goodwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Francine is grappling bulimia and the menopause along with wondering whether she’ll survive the coming cuts in Quality Assurance. Robin genuinely cares about his students as he philosophises over film and the dread of having a baby with the wrong woman. Olivia wants to put the world to rights but isn’t sure if her law degree will let her, or whether she should start with her own dysfunctional family and the father who’s been hidden from her since she was four. Ed soothes his own loneliness by ensuring the unloved and unwanted still get a good sendoff. Katrin navigates the gulf between London and her native Gdansk in the cafe where she works and with the gentle Englishman who seems to like.
Each of these five point of view characters are vividly and sympathetically realised on the page. Each of them follows an interesting narrative arc, complete with back story and associated minor characters, I could have followed for an entire novel. But just as the characters seem to question whether there’s anything more cohesive than the fragments of their world (p151, 267):
Continues http://annegoodwin.weebly.com/annecdo...

[Buried In Print]

Following Amazon's purchase of GoodReads, I no longer post my reviews here.

If you would like to read my thoughts on this book, you can view them in the following places:
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Posting these links does not constitute permission to duplicate these thoughts anywhere, including corporate-owned sites.

If you read/liked/clicked through to see this review here on GR, many thanks.

[Raluca Sandu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little bit weird. I almost gave up after a few pages, but sticked to it and even developed certain empathy for Tessa McWatt's characters eventually.

At the beginning it was a little difficult to catch up and I had to keep going back to the list of characters. And there were probably too many philosophical and witty parts that I didn't fully understand. I'm not sure whether it was my level of English or the writer's complicated thoughts (or both).

Overall I liked the book, but I wouldn't recommend it, as I don't really see a point to it...

I received this book as a giveaway in exchange for an honest review.

[Alix Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Higher Ed is a novel that chronicles the lives of five radically different, similarly passionate Londoners who are trying to get to grips with the city that they reside in and the people that live in it. It is a novel full of curiosity, of questions and of the one undying question that each person is forced to confront at some point in their lives. Who will bury us? It is a novel that is as philosophical as it is anthropomorphic. It didn't try too hard to be something it wasn't. It was beautiful in its simplicity of exploring the complexity of human existence, and for this reason, I loved it.

This book truly is fabulous, and I was hooked from the very first page until the very last.

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goodreads Uncorrected Proof Win

This is about five characters as they come together weaving their tale.

We are thrust into 21st century east London as we watch three different love stories bloom in the world of job cuts and economy downfall. We watch reality hits us in different ways and the ugliness we call life unfolds.

We are face with characters that are not perfect and flawed whose daily life unfolds before us. Each unique but they seem like anyone else. How they handle events in their life and do what they think is right.

[Eva]

In "Higher Ed', we glimpse into the lives of 5 characters who live in London. As you read, one gets the feeling of following their lives through a daily video. Sometimes the pace is pensive. Overall, Tessa McWatt shows us the everyday life of average Londoners. If you are expecting the excitement of a Hollywood film, this novel would not fulfill that need.

Thank you GoodReads for the book.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from a goodreads giveaway. Overall, I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the stories of each of the characters, but some, like Francine, were much more interesting to me than others, like Olivia. I found the author's writing style to be poetic. Sometimes things were so beautifully stated. Other times, I would have appreciated if things were stated more simply.

[Ellen Stafford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a good reads first read contest.

I personally found it hard to keep track of all the characters in this book. I just think it wasn't my type of book but I can see how others would enjoy it. It's probably more to do with the fact that I read a little each day.

[atalina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uncorrected Proof Copy**

The plot was well thought out and enjoyable but the several point of views annoyed me to the point I didn't want to finish the novel.

[N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh, a lot of talk-talk, but never really builds on the traumatic event that's supposed to be at the heart of the story. Occasional flashes, but overall, sorry, meh.

[Judy LeBlanc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, not crazy about the ending. I like tidy endings, this had too many loose ends for me.

[Abby Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

GoodReads Win.

Although I liked the book, I wasn't keen on the 5 character thing each telling their own side,
Other than that I enjoyed the book and would read more from this author.

[Mereka Elsworthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this through the good reads giveaway. I thoroughly enjoyed this book with its twist and turns and quirky bits. A must read for this summer

[Crisana]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. Review will be added later.