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The Standing Pool
An idyllic, old farmhouse in France is the background to a gripping story suffused with tension.
Two Oxford historians, Johnny and Sarah Thomson, take a sabbatical with their three small and lively girls in a remote and beautiful old farmhouse in the hills of Languedoc. But the farmhouse has its own histories, rather more fraught and alive than those the Thomsons are used to dealing with on the page.
As the illusion of Eden retreats, the Thomsons start to feel the vulnerability of being aliens in this unpredictable wildness. While Sarah frets about the danger of the swimming pool and the night-time visits of well-tusked boars, Johnny is more concerned by the locals — particularly Jean-Luc, the gardener. Is his taste for hammering tiny nails into dolls, collecting arcane rubbish, and secretly photographing Sarah, more than a harmless pastime? And how should they react to his eager befriending of their girls?
The novel, narrated from several points of view (most importantly from Jean-Luc’s), is about being among strangers, and being a stranger oneself. Writing, as always, with linguistic élan, imaginative flair, and an alert ear for dialogue, Adam Thorpe allows the comic to occasionally seep through, before returning us to the terrifying mysteries that feed at the heart of this thrilling novel.
Two Oxford historians, Johnny and Sarah Thomson, take a sabbatical with their three small and lively girls in a remote and beautiful old farmhouse in the hills of Languedoc. But the farmhouse has its own histories, rather more fraught and alive than those the Thomsons are used to dealing with on the page.
As the illusion of Eden retreats, the Thomsons start to feel the vulnerability of being aliens in this unpredictable wildness. While Sarah frets about the danger of the swimming pool and the night-time visits of well-tusked boars, Johnny is more concerned by the locals — particularly Jean-Luc, the gardener. Is his taste for hammering tiny nails into dolls, collecting arcane rubbish, and secretly photographing Sarah, more than a harmless pastime? And how should they react to his eager befriending of their girls?
The novel, narrated from several points of view (most importantly from Jean-Luc’s), is about being among strangers, and being a stranger oneself. Writing, as always, with linguistic élan, imaginative flair, and an alert ear for dialogue, Adam Thorpe allows the comic to occasionally seep through, before returning us to the terrifying mysteries that feed at the heart of this thrilling novel.
- GenresFiction
320 pages, Hardcover
First published June 24, 2008
58 people want to read
About the author
Adam Thorpe
51 books54 followersAdam Thorpe is a British poet, novelist, and playwright whose works also include short stories and radio dramas.
Adam Thorpe was born in Paris and grew up in India, Cameroon, and England. Graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1979, he founded a touring theatre company, then settled in London to teach drama and English literature.
His first collection of poetry, Mornings in the Baltic (1988), was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award. His first novel, Ulverton (1992), an episodic work covering 350 years of English rural history, won great critical acclaim worldwide, including that of novelist John Fowles, who reviewed it in The Guardian, calling it "(...) the most interesting first novel I have read these last years". The novel was awarded the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for 1992.
Adam Thorpe lives in France with his wife and three children.
-Wikipedia
Adam Thorpe was born in Paris and grew up in India, Cameroon, and England. Graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1979, he founded a touring theatre company, then settled in London to teach drama and English literature.
His first collection of poetry, Mornings in the Baltic (1988), was shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award. His first novel, Ulverton (1992), an episodic work covering 350 years of English rural history, won great critical acclaim worldwide, including that of novelist John Fowles, who reviewed it in The Guardian, calling it "(...) the most interesting first novel I have read these last years". The novel was awarded the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize for 1992.
Adam Thorpe lives in France with his wife and three children.
-Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 17, 2017
I had some problems deciding how I felt about this one, possibly because the author didn't really make his mind up what it was.
It is the story of a family (the Mallinsons) who decide to take a six month sabbatical in France. Nick is a 50 something university lecturer with a wife (Sarah) 20 years younger (an ex-pupil) and three young girls. They are liberal, tolerant and care about the environment). They rent a remote cottage from the Sandlers who are not liberal or tolerant and very un-pc. The house is sort of looked after by Jean-Luc a single thirty something who lives with his mother in the nearby village and talks to his dead uncle Fernand.
Add to the above a dirty swimming pool, a mud patch which Jean Luc is supposed to be turning into a lawn, a pack of wild boars, uncommunicative locals, a bunch of hunters and Nick's son from his first marraige (a stroppy teenager of 24) and the mix is rather rich.
Actually most of the time nothing happens; there is a beautifully built sense of unease, even menace and the reader becomes aware of lots of possible looming disasters. What also develops is an interesting study of family life and the internal workings of a relationship; along with an examination of the outsider in society. The tentacles of the war still spread throughout the village and its consequences affect the characters in different ways.
In the end Thorpe cannot decide whether this is approaching menace or real horror and there are two endings (sort of). I just wish he had decided one way or the other.
It is the story of a family (the Mallinsons) who decide to take a six month sabbatical in France. Nick is a 50 something university lecturer with a wife (Sarah) 20 years younger (an ex-pupil) and three young girls. They are liberal, tolerant and care about the environment). They rent a remote cottage from the Sandlers who are not liberal or tolerant and very un-pc. The house is sort of looked after by Jean-Luc a single thirty something who lives with his mother in the nearby village and talks to his dead uncle Fernand.
Add to the above a dirty swimming pool, a mud patch which Jean Luc is supposed to be turning into a lawn, a pack of wild boars, uncommunicative locals, a bunch of hunters and Nick's son from his first marraige (a stroppy teenager of 24) and the mix is rather rich.
Actually most of the time nothing happens; there is a beautifully built sense of unease, even menace and the reader becomes aware of lots of possible looming disasters. What also develops is an interesting study of family life and the internal workings of a relationship; along with an examination of the outsider in society. The tentacles of the war still spread throughout the village and its consequences affect the characters in different ways.
In the end Thorpe cannot decide whether this is approaching menace or real horror and there are two endings (sort of). I just wish he had decided one way or the other.
January 8, 2014
Thank god. Adam Thorpe returns to form with this exquisite novel set in the milieu I know only too well: the back country of beloved France. It has the usual scenario of a family living in a deserted farmhouse when you just know their peace is about to be shattered. But it's the way he has with words. There's no showing off in this one. Having found his novel Still to be too clever long winded and ultimately unsatisfying this bodes well for the future.
Thorpe is among a handful of genuinely interesting English writers who consistently deliver entertaining fare.
July 5, 2024
Adam Thorpe’s first book, Ulverton made a big impact on me back in the Nineties and I’ve followed his career on and off ever since. The Standing Pool dates from 2008, and although a very different kind of book, is a thoroughly readable, page turning literary psychological thriller with a darkly comic edge. Taking the well-worn theme of the middle class English family (in this case a married couple of Cambridge historians and their three young daughters) recharging their batteries in a remote French cottage, Thorpe weaves multiple layers of story and character into a tale of middle-class sensibilities, ancient rivalries, high comedy, madness and extreme violence. Thorpe’s prose is a joy to read, and this is a book well worth discovering.
September 13, 2008
Ever since I read Ulverton back in the 90's Adam Thorpe has been one of my must read authors.
Standing pool is the story of a Cambridge intellectual family who are taking a 6 month sabbatical in the Languedoc region of France to research and write up their books/essays on Africa.
Nick the father of the family is in his fifties and being overtaken by a younger set at University - never quite achieving Professorship. He is suffering from stress and has polyps on his vocal cords.
Sarah is mum - much younger than Nick and used to be his pupil.
Tammy, Alicia and Beans (Fulvia) are the daughters ranging in age from 8 to 2.
Mixed up in this are the owners of the farm they rent. Alan an entreprenurial American currently dealing in antiquities including some shady dealings in Iraq and his English wife Lucy.
Jean-Luc is the strange gardener/groundsman who unsuccesfully tries to keep the titular Pool clean, grow a lawn, keep out the wild boars and grow a cherry tree. He also has a side line in voyeurism and talking to his dead Oncle Ferdinand.
Throw into the mix Jamie - Nick's son by a previous marriage who in his late twenties seems to live a semi-hippy existence travelling and living hand to mouth.
The story is presented with some humour but there are ominous portents of something terrible about to happen. Again and again you are presented with things which could be fatal, the standing pool itself often turning opaque so that anything might be down there, the slippery tiles on the roof which Jamie seems to like investigating, a lethal electric fence Jean-Luc erects to keep out the boars and children who seem to find putting themselves in jeapordy the most fun you can have on the farm.
Adam Thorpe succesfully weaves humour and happy family moments with these dark moments and a look at village life which reminds me of nothing so much as Straw Dogs. You begin to feel affection and fear for the family throughout the book.
The ending is totally unexpected (for an Adam Thorpe book anyway) and if I'm honest a little bit of a cop-out but it shows Adam Thorpe could out 'Stephen King' Stephen King if he wanted to.
Overall I was gripped by this book and enjoyed it enormously right up until the ends. I'm just sorry he didn't choose one or the other.
Standing pool is the story of a Cambridge intellectual family who are taking a 6 month sabbatical in the Languedoc region of France to research and write up their books/essays on Africa.
Nick the father of the family is in his fifties and being overtaken by a younger set at University - never quite achieving Professorship. He is suffering from stress and has polyps on his vocal cords.
Sarah is mum - much younger than Nick and used to be his pupil.
Tammy, Alicia and Beans (Fulvia) are the daughters ranging in age from 8 to 2.
Mixed up in this are the owners of the farm they rent. Alan an entreprenurial American currently dealing in antiquities including some shady dealings in Iraq and his English wife Lucy.
Jean-Luc is the strange gardener/groundsman who unsuccesfully tries to keep the titular Pool clean, grow a lawn, keep out the wild boars and grow a cherry tree. He also has a side line in voyeurism and talking to his dead Oncle Ferdinand.
Throw into the mix Jamie - Nick's son by a previous marriage who in his late twenties seems to live a semi-hippy existence travelling and living hand to mouth.
The story is presented with some humour but there are ominous portents of something terrible about to happen. Again and again you are presented with things which could be fatal, the standing pool itself often turning opaque so that anything might be down there, the slippery tiles on the roof which Jamie seems to like investigating, a lethal electric fence Jean-Luc erects to keep out the boars and children who seem to find putting themselves in jeapordy the most fun you can have on the farm.
Adam Thorpe succesfully weaves humour and happy family moments with these dark moments and a look at village life which reminds me of nothing so much as Straw Dogs. You begin to feel affection and fear for the family throughout the book.
The ending is totally unexpected (for an Adam Thorpe book anyway) and if I'm honest a little bit of a cop-out but it shows Adam Thorpe could out 'Stephen King' Stephen King if he wanted to.
Overall I was gripped by this book and enjoyed it enormously right up until the ends. I'm just sorry he didn't choose one or the other.
December 31, 2016
Didn't really enjoy it. Skipped the violent bits and the intellectual stuff at the end too!
July 12, 2011
This novel has a promising start. A married couple and their three daughters rent a farmhouse in France to escape the rat race for 6 months. It soon becomes apparent to the reader that the gardener, Jean-Luc, is odd in the extreme with a penchant for creating very disturbing sculptures in his bedroom and talking to a long-dead uncle. There is a feeling that he could turn serial killer at any moment. However I kept reading and reading, finding it all rather dull and slow and pointless. Much much too much talking - endless political, social and economic discussions (all the characters apart from Jean-Luc fancy themselves as intellectuals)- not interesting to me at all - and not nearly enough action! To be fair, it redeemed itself a little in the penultimate chapter when Jean-Luc loses the plot MASSIVELY - but then the whole escapade is revealed to be just a fantasy. What a let-down.
October 3, 2010
I was really disappointed this book didn't do better.
To my mind it's a fabulous read and certainly deserved more acclaim that Rose Tremain's Trepass which looks at similar themes.
A young family take off to south west France for a sabbatical. There they realise that they may not be as welcome as they would like and that there are some terrible legacies from the Second World War.
Gripping and highly recommended.
Adam Thorpe video -
http://www.theinterviewonline.co.uk/l...
To my mind it's a fabulous read and certainly deserved more acclaim that Rose Tremain's Trepass which looks at similar themes.
A young family take off to south west France for a sabbatical. There they realise that they may not be as welcome as they would like and that there are some terrible legacies from the Second World War.
Gripping and highly recommended.
Adam Thorpe video -
http://www.theinterviewonline.co.uk/l...
September 10, 2013
Found this one hard to rate. Bits of it were great especially the menace built up in rural Languedoc but also at times I wanted to strangle the two sets of Brits so maybe that ok too. Academics and art collectors but in the end he spoilt it all by his over the top ending. I think he maybe got bored!!
October 16, 2011
Most of this book is really rather good but then it's all ruined in the last chapter when Thorpe becomes bored of the whole thing and ends up with one of the lamest endings I've ever read. What a waste.
September 20, 2011
Not sure if to continue...quite a slow start and not really catching my imagination.
I couldn't complete this. Did not even deserve one star.
I couldn't complete this. Did not even deserve one star.
August 11, 2014
I am a fan of Adam Thorpe's writing and this book is an excellent example of it. I didn't entirely enjoy the direction the book went in, but the unsettling effect has certainly stayed with me.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews