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Cherry
Physical description; 197 p. ; 23 cm. Subjects; Single men — England — Fiction. Teachers — England — Fiction. Self-destructive behavior — England — Fiction. Dating (Social customs) — England — Fiction.
- GenresContemporary
256 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 7, 2014
Cherry is a short, odd book, hard to put down once you've started reading (I finished it within two hours), frustrating and thought-provoking. There's quite a lot I want to say about this one, so I'll warn now that this review will be full of spoilers. The plot concerns Steve (who narrates his own story), a thirty-something teacher who's portrayed as a lonely, terminally single, really rather tragic figure. A chance meeting with a mysterious elderly man, Harry Hollingsworth, leads him to sign up for what he thinks is a dating agency, and consequently describe his 'perfect woman', Cherry, to a stranger. Cherry then appears - exactly as specified, right down to her parents' occupations - and the pair begin a rather implausible relationship, complete with stomach-churning sex scenes, until she (apparently) becomes seriously ill and the story gets really weird. A series of increasingly surreal meetings between Steve and his sinister mentors culminate in him murdering two colleagues in an attempt to secure Cherry's safety.
As you've probably guessed, I found this book extremely strange and I'm still struggling to work out what I think about it. Part of me wants to read it all over again immediately, but a lot of things about it, particularly the attitude to women, left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't think it was just the fact that the sex scenes were so graphic, and written from a male point of view, that made me feel uncomfortable with them; it was the threatening undertone, the feeling of Steve wanting/needing to assert dominance over Cherry and cast her in the role of an inexperienced, thus easily impressed, yet willing and secretly dirty lover. This was the point at which I began to question the character, who I'd initially liked, thinking of him as the archetypal 'loveable loser' who has flaws and neuroses (and, as we are shown through a number of anecdotes, serious issues in his relationship with his parents) but is essentially a nice guy. There were other incidents that rang alarm bells - particularly Steve's assertion that the women, strangers, he videotaped in the street as a teenager would have 'enjoyed it' and felt 'empowered' if he'd asked them to undress for him. There's even a bit where Steve laments the fact of Cherry's handjob skills not being quite up to the task because - wait for it - his dick's too big. But I couldn't decide whether or not these details were meant to leap out at me quite as much as they did. After the first sex scene, almost two pages are taken up by Steve defending their presence in such detail in the narrative, insisting they are essential to his story - which, in the end, they aren't whatsoever. Is this the character talking, or the author? This justification and Steve's opinions about what women want/think made me cringe, yet I'm not 100% sure they were supposed to.
There were particular touches I absolutely loved - the Tenderloin Hotel (this seriously had me Googling to find out if it existed); the deliciously scary transformation of 'Len' from foul-mouthed acquaintance into an entirely different, much more menacing character; the whole mystery surrounding Hollingsworth and his seemingly endless associates and resources. However, the final reveal, in which we learn that Steve is in prison and has refused to allow Cherry to give him an alibi for the murders, is maddeningly baffling. Steve tells his reader, judge, interrogator, whoever the addressee is supposed to be: 'of all the things you tried to get me to admit, the one that made me the angriest was the suggestion that there was no Cherry'. But this just doesn't work. According to Steve's story, Cherry worked at the same school as him, taught classes and met his parents, neighbours and friends; if she was real, there would be hundreds of people able to corroborate both her existence and her relationship with Steve. So this ending means she's either completely fabricated, or was a real person but Hollingsworth and friends were a product of Steve's imagination; which in itself would call almost everything else into question, especially since if Cherry was real but the others weren't, there would be no imaginable motive for the murders.
Cherry was longlisted for the Booker Prize, a fact I find surprising both because it's comically amateurish in places (at one point, Steve rages at one of Hollingsworth's accomplices, 'I checked in all the medical textbooks. Cherry's condition doesn't exist.' ALL the medical textbooks, really?!) and because it seems a rather daring choice. For a book that seems to have received a decent amount of acclaim, there are few reviews of it available on Goodreads or elsewhere online, which is frustrating because I'd really like to know what other readers made of it. Are you supposed to like Steve, be on his side, feel any sympathy for him at all? How are you meant to perceive the entire story in light of the final 'twist', if that's even what it is? I don't know whether I want to read anything else by the author or not. This was certainly a compelling read, and it's telling that one of the shortest books I've read this year has resulted in what must be the longest review. I would recommend this to everyone simply because I want others to read it and tell me what they think!
As you've probably guessed, I found this book extremely strange and I'm still struggling to work out what I think about it. Part of me wants to read it all over again immediately, but a lot of things about it, particularly the attitude to women, left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't think it was just the fact that the sex scenes were so graphic, and written from a male point of view, that made me feel uncomfortable with them; it was the threatening undertone, the feeling of Steve wanting/needing to assert dominance over Cherry and cast her in the role of an inexperienced, thus easily impressed, yet willing and secretly dirty lover. This was the point at which I began to question the character, who I'd initially liked, thinking of him as the archetypal 'loveable loser' who has flaws and neuroses (and, as we are shown through a number of anecdotes, serious issues in his relationship with his parents) but is essentially a nice guy. There were other incidents that rang alarm bells - particularly Steve's assertion that the women, strangers, he videotaped in the street as a teenager would have 'enjoyed it' and felt 'empowered' if he'd asked them to undress for him. There's even a bit where Steve laments the fact of Cherry's handjob skills not being quite up to the task because - wait for it - his dick's too big. But I couldn't decide whether or not these details were meant to leap out at me quite as much as they did. After the first sex scene, almost two pages are taken up by Steve defending their presence in such detail in the narrative, insisting they are essential to his story - which, in the end, they aren't whatsoever. Is this the character talking, or the author? This justification and Steve's opinions about what women want/think made me cringe, yet I'm not 100% sure they were supposed to.
There were particular touches I absolutely loved - the Tenderloin Hotel (this seriously had me Googling to find out if it existed); the deliciously scary transformation of 'Len' from foul-mouthed acquaintance into an entirely different, much more menacing character; the whole mystery surrounding Hollingsworth and his seemingly endless associates and resources. However, the final reveal, in which we learn that Steve is in prison and has refused to allow Cherry to give him an alibi for the murders, is maddeningly baffling. Steve tells his reader, judge, interrogator, whoever the addressee is supposed to be: 'of all the things you tried to get me to admit, the one that made me the angriest was the suggestion that there was no Cherry'. But this just doesn't work. According to Steve's story, Cherry worked at the same school as him, taught classes and met his parents, neighbours and friends; if she was real, there would be hundreds of people able to corroborate both her existence and her relationship with Steve. So this ending means she's either completely fabricated, or was a real person but Hollingsworth and friends were a product of Steve's imagination; which in itself would call almost everything else into question, especially since if Cherry was real but the others weren't, there would be no imaginable motive for the murders.
Cherry was longlisted for the Booker Prize, a fact I find surprising both because it's comically amateurish in places (at one point, Steve rages at one of Hollingsworth's accomplices, 'I checked in all the medical textbooks. Cherry's condition doesn't exist.' ALL the medical textbooks, really?!) and because it seems a rather daring choice. For a book that seems to have received a decent amount of acclaim, there are few reviews of it available on Goodreads or elsewhere online, which is frustrating because I'd really like to know what other readers made of it. Are you supposed to like Steve, be on his side, feel any sympathy for him at all? How are you meant to perceive the entire story in light of the final 'twist', if that's even what it is? I don't know whether I want to read anything else by the author or not. This was certainly a compelling read, and it's telling that one of the shortest books I've read this year has resulted in what must be the longest review. I would recommend this to everyone simply because I want others to read it and tell me what they think!
December 1, 2013
What a weird book. I wanted to check our Matt Thorne's writing after reading his story in the book based on songs by The Fall Cherry leaves a lot of questions unanswered. For instance, what is a "scart plug"?
January 6, 2019
I was given this weird and wonderful book by a relative... It’s so bizarre that I couldn’t put it down as I just wanted to know what the hell was going on. If you want an easy read and to be left with unanswered questions this definitely something you can read in a day or two.
August 25, 2025
Initially engaging and intriguing but then got ridiculous and dull. There was an interesting link with the ripped up underlay, and I thought this was going to connect, but it didn't.
As with Tourist, when Thorne writes from a female perspective, it sounds very male. Also in common with Tourist, there's some kind of twist at the end, which doesn't quite work.
I won't be reading anything else by him.
As with Tourist, when Thorne writes from a female perspective, it sounds very male. Also in common with Tourist, there's some kind of twist at the end, which doesn't quite work.
I won't be reading anything else by him.
September 5, 2024
So weird - I read “Cherry” by Matt Thorne, not by Mary Karr - but seems like Goodreads doesn’t know the difference. I found it an interesting psychological pulp fiction probably more for a male audience but still an entertaining read.
February 9, 2008
Found this in the bargain books section of Chapters, when I was desperate for something to read, and it seemed by far to be the most endearing of the novels on the shelf. It was a quick read-- I finished it in under a day-- but a really good one.
Matt Thorne's writing style is fantastic, and I'd like to read more of his work. He does an effective job of making the reader feel uncomfortable in the shoes of his character, Steve Ellis, just as he never really tells us the specifics of his protagonist's emotional problems, but I felt I understood them all the same. The character of Cherry was an interesting one, her being so believable even in the midst of all that's going on.
This story starts off simply enough (unhappy character, just going about his daily business) and soon twists its way into a darling, if descriptively sexual, love story, and finally makes its way into a tragedy, a mystery, and above all, an odd jumble of all these things into one convoluted and thoroughly enjoyable mess that left me feeling a bit weird but ultimately satisfied.
This one's going to stay with you. That's for sure.
Matt Thorne's writing style is fantastic, and I'd like to read more of his work. He does an effective job of making the reader feel uncomfortable in the shoes of his character, Steve Ellis, just as he never really tells us the specifics of his protagonist's emotional problems, but I felt I understood them all the same. The character of Cherry was an interesting one, her being so believable even in the midst of all that's going on.
This story starts off simply enough (unhappy character, just going about his daily business) and soon twists its way into a darling, if descriptively sexual, love story, and finally makes its way into a tragedy, a mystery, and above all, an odd jumble of all these things into one convoluted and thoroughly enjoyable mess that left me feeling a bit weird but ultimately satisfied.
This one's going to stay with you. That's for sure.
March 10, 2024
Cherry really annoyed me but, on reflection, I had to award the stars for compulsive story telling. The blurb said it was "Scary, sexy, daring. Reminds me of Paul Auster and the Magus." and the novel delivered. The erotic interludes didn't hold back, though they suffered from garbled moments. The tension built. Pages were turned. It's a short, sparse and noirish, first-person account (enjoyment of which would be more-than-averagely undermined by spoilers) by an eminently unlikeable, unreliable narrator. It's here that the nod to Fowles the Magus rings true. If Auster's New York trilogy at times explores the protagonists' ludicrous sense of self and existential absurdity, Thorne's is a decent, though pastel, imitation with a distinctly English flavour. The ludicrous lack of safeguarding on a school trip to France, however, was a step too far and undermined the novel for this reader at least. Still, at moments really savoured this book and at others loved hating on it!
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February 14, 2014Challenging and slightly weird. For much of the novel you are trying to figure out why the storytelling feels so dysfunctional. When the pay off comes though, it makes it all worthwhile. A really clever piece of work.
July 7, 2010
Easy but engaging reading.I like the style.
April 14, 2013
Left some questions unanswered.
April 15, 2019
A rather boring read, but I couldn't stop reading it. The plot twist at the end was great. I really want to give this 3 stars, but the ending bumps it up.
March 18, 2022
Fascinating thriller! I loved this book so much and it was so creepy, odd, and kept me on my toes. Literally could not put it down. Solid 4-stars!!
November 23, 2023
always nice to find out your uni tutor is a freaky guy
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews