The Gropes

by Tom Sharpe

The hilarious new novel from bestselling author Tom Sharpe.

It is one of the more surprising facts about old England that one can still find families living in the same houses their ancestors built centuries before and on land that has belonged to them since before the Norman Conquest. The Gropes of Grope Hall are one such family.

A brilliantly funny novel about what happens when the women take charge. The Gropes are an old English family based in Northumberland, separated from the rest of society and as eccentric as they come. It is a line dominated by strong-willed and oversexed women, determined to produce more female heirs regardless of whether their desired partners are willing or not.

At the dawn of the new millennium, tired and gormless teenager Esmond is abducted and lured to Grope Hall by a descendant of the Gropes. Young Esmond is powerless to escape, and his kidnap sets in motion a stream of farcical events that will have readers laughing out loud.

Tom Sharpe’s trademark humour abounds in this new novel, marking him out once again as an outstanding storyteller.

Genres: Humor, Fiction, Comedy, Satire, Roman, English Literature, Audiobook

263 pages, Paperback

First published September 3, 2009

About the author

Tom Sharpe was an English satirical author, born in London and educated at Lancing College and at Pembroke College, Cambridge. After National Service with the Royal Marines he moved to South Africa in 1951, doing social work and teaching in Natal, until deported in 1961.

His work in South Africa inspired the novels Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure. From 1963 until 1972 he was a History lecturer at the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, which inspired his "Wilt" series Wilt, The Wilt Alternative, Wilt on High and Wilt in Nowhere.

His novels feature bitter and outrageous satire of the apartheid regime (Riotous Assembly and its sequel Indecent Exposure), dumbed- or watered-down education (the Wilt series), English class snobbery (Ancestral Vices, Porterhouse Blue, Grantchester Grind), the literary world (The Great Pursuit), political extremists of all stripes, political correctness, bureaucracy and stupidity in general. Characters may indulge in bizarre sexual practices, and coarser characters use very graphic and/or profane language in dialogue. Sharpe often parodies the language and style of specific authors commonly associated with the social group held up for ridicule. Sharpe's bestselling books have been translated into many languages.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

The Gropes is a terrifically funny Tom Sharpe novel.

Yes, yes, I can see my positive assessment runs counter to nearly all other reviews posted.

Many reviewers judge The Gropes a disappointment, a story where author Tom Sharpe appears to have been simply following his long established comic formula to win some laughs - after all, the British author wrote The Gropes at age 80 with over a dozen sidesplitting novels already to his credit.

We can understand such harsh judgement here since a reviewer usually relies on comparison as part of their stockpile of analytic tools in assessing a work, frequently contrasting the book with the author's overall output. And Tom Sharpe's oeuvre rates phenomenal, novels like Riotous Assembly (send up of the South African police force), Porterhouse Blue (send up of academia), The Wilt Alternative (send up of, well, all strata of British society). I wonder what reviewers would say if Sharpe published The Gropes as his one and only novel. Oh, well, that's the breaks, Tom. You've been hoisted on the petard of your own past success.

Anyway, with The Gropes we have the author's vintage broad, over-the-top, Monty Python style absurdity and slapstick, literary fiction with enough helpings of the politically incorrect to offend readers inclined to be offended. But for those courageous booklovers up for something completely different (a la John Cleese's Python intro), this, the author's shortest novel, will be a delight. As for myself, reading proved so much fun I could hardly put the book down.

The tale opens thusly: Grope Hall in the hinterlands of northeast England, specifically in the County of Northumberland, possess a history lapsing into legend, a legacy of dominant women, fierce of temperament, hideous of looks and unsurpassed of strength, women who must resort to kidnapping men to father their daughters (baby boys are either strangled or kept on as slave labor), a proud tradition extending to the years prior to the Norman Conquest when Ursula Grope took a sick Viking by the name of Awgard back to her sod hut and forced the huge, muscular warrior afflicted by illness to marry and take on the name of Grope.

By the turn of the twentieth century, Grope Hall is headed by a brood of huge, musclebound, extremely ugly women and fortified by stone walls and barbed wire. Just to make sure outsiders are kept out, a pack of snarling bloodhounds and two angry Spanish bulls grace the grassland of the estate. But modernization finally catches up the Grope women and by the closing years of the century nearly all flee the deadly isolation of Grope Hall. And then we read: "It was to this isolated estate and ancient farmhouse that, as the new millennium dawned, Belinda Grope, niece of the now aged Myrtle, brought a young and largely callow youth named Esmond Wiley."

Tom Sharpe makes a quick shift to Esmond Wiley's boyhood and the backstory of his parents, Mr. Horace Wiley and Mrs. Vera Wiley. So as not to reveal too many surprises as the story bounces along, I'll simply highlight a quartet of my favorite bits:

Pounding Heart – Ever since she was a teenager, Vera immersed herself in Barbara Cartland-type romance novels, “she lived in a world in which men, gentlemen of course, proposed marriage passionately on clifftops under a full moon with the waves crashing on the rocks below.” We watch as Vera presses milquetoast bank manager Horace Wiley into the role of passionate romantic (and to think, the reserved, mild-mannered sop only wished to have the comforts and stability of married life). Poor deluded man, if you only knew.



Victim of Passion – Vera named her son Esmond after a character in one of the romantic novels she happened to be reading shortly before his birth. Vera attempted to mold Esmond into the ideal romantic gentleman. “It was bad enough to be called Esmond but to see also the image of Vera’s romantic hero littering the house and on sale in every bookshop and newsagent he went into was enough to make even an insensitive boy aware that he could never live up to his mother’s hopes and expectations.” On top of this, every single time Esmond accompanied his mother in public, she would announce in a loud voice that Esmond was her love child, a true love child (without the faintest idea that people understood her to mean her son was a little bastard, born out of wedlock). Meanwhile, Esmond couldn’t begin to comprehend the dynamics of the situation since “he was too busy enduring the jeers, catcalls and whistles of any and everyone who happened to be in the vicinity at the time.”

Doppelgänger – Poor, poor Horace Wiley – the guy simply can’t win. “Esmond Wiley made a mockery of his father’s hopes. He resembled Mr. Wiley so precisely that there were moments in front of the shaving mirror when Horace had the terrifying illusion that his son was staring back at him. The same large ears, the same small eyes and thin lips, even the same nose, confronted him.” And then on his fourteenth birthday, when Edmond’s Uncle Albert gives him a drum set for a present, Horace’s only escape from the racket is to leave early for work and return late at night after stopping at the local pub to fortify himself with the hard stuff.

Bumblers – Events move apace until a grand explosion at the home of Uncle Albert prompts the local newspaper to write: “POLICE TERRORISTS BLOW HOUSE UP – WHO NEEDS TERRORISTS WHEN WE’VE GOT THE SECURITY POLICE.” As with his skewering the South African police in Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure, Tom Sharpe can’t help himself when the local men in blue arrive on the scene.

Again, The Gropes is the author’s shortest novel (the publisher stretches the book to 247 pages by large font and multiple black spaces). If you’re up for several hours of satire and extreme slapstick, a novel well worth your time.


British author Tom Sharpe, 1928-2013

[Daniel Garwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was prompted to re-read ‘The Gropes’ after coming across a review by Glenn Russell. Some ten years after my first acquaintance with the book, I was annoyed that the details were now so vague to me.

The first two chapters promise Sharpe’s best work ever. Unfortunately, they set a benchmark to which the remainder of the novel can only aspire. That said, we are still presented with a great story that embraces the farcical shenanigans of eccentric characters which have become Sharpe’s trademark.

Like your favourite slippers, Sharpe’s writing is easy and comfortable to slip into. He writes with a frivolous abandon, caring not whether he’s offending, using stereotypes and clichés where he chooses and finishing a story when it’s told.

This has been referred to as his worst book. But when your most unpopular work is still a five-star read, you know you’re on a rung of the literary ladder that very few writers will ever reach.

[Jon Mountjoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a 4 star read - perhaps 3.5. But it's too short! If it were longer, it would get five. It's light, it's very funny, but the book feels as if it's half a book.

I'm currently reading Full Moon by P.G. Wodehouse - and it's similar in a fashion. Except that Full Moon is a full book too. Yes, it's light and fluffy and wonderfully funny, but it's also complete.

So, 4 stars. A good read, just not long enough!

[Angharad · Rating 1 out of 5]

I keep thinking about this book, so I felt compelled to write a review (by the way, continuing to think about a book after you've read it is not necessarily the sign of a good book).

I think it's already pretty evident that I did not enjoy this book. As I'm at work, here are a few bullet points why.

1) The characters were completely unlikeable. They were not humourous, and I could only sympathise with one of them. I think his name was Horace - I actually can't remember. So while I could sort of sympathise with him, he did not leave much of an impression. (I'm generally pretty good at remembering names). Oh I did also like that gardener bloke, mainly I think because he seemed to have a brain that worked. But not enough to leave the house of mental crazy.

2) The plot was utterly and completely ridiculous. I am quite happy to suspend my disbelief, but there are limits. I understand that it was supposed to be a farce and satirical, but there are farces and there are farces. This was the latter.

3) It was supposed to be funny and satirical. It was not funny and satirical. I did not laugh once. I had high hopes, we have quite a few Tom Sharpe books at home, and while I sort of expected it to be of its time (i.e. slightly 80s - though a lot of 80s humour is brilliant. And yes, I know the book was published in 2009) I thought I would still be able to laugh. I wasn't.

4) The kidnapped male in the story was 17. SEVENTEEN! Yes, he's legal to do a lot of things, but in many others way (like marrying without requiring parents permission) he's not. Yes, I know the marriage is null and void anyway as she was already married, but that is beside the point. He was abducted and then brainwashed into believing that this was ok. That's a little too Stockholm Syndrome for my liking.

5) Is it not a little outdated to portray all the police as incompetent, with no emotional intelligence? The police make mistakes, they're not perfect, I would never say that they are, but the police are overworked, overstretched, poorly funded organisations, who are not the police of the 1970s and 1980s. They have progressed.

6) I like the idea that this was a book about women. Strong women in books is a good thing. I like the idea that women can control their own destiny, that they can decide who to marry, if indeed they want to marry. These women of this family, yes they were strong - but were they really? Every man that they married was one or more of the following:
a) had no brain and too weak to stand up for his own rights and opinions
b) was essentially raped to produce the children required
c) was discarded like rubbish when he didn't help produce the 'correct' child

Now, none of these things sound like a progression of womens rights to me.
a) If you have to marry a weak man who has no self respect, or brain, or ability to express his opinions that does not make you a strong woman. That makes you someone who is callous enough to only take advantage of those weaker than you. Yes, you can argue that men have been doing that to women throughout history, but it is not a sign of progression to reverse the roles like that. It's a sign of an inability to move on and become equal.

b) Sexual assault is not acceptable at any time against any one, regardless of gender. Your desperate need to have a daughter is no excuse to justify sleeping with a man who has been drugged. That is date rape.

c) Some men do discard their wives when a younger model comes along. Some men are misogynistic. Some men are complete bastards who have no respect for their wives/girlfriends/partners. Some men (Henry VIII I'm looking at you) did discard their wives if they couldn't produce the 'correctly' gendered child. However, just because history predominantly shows us that men did this (and I imagine there were a fair few women too), this does not mean that it is funny when reversed, or indeed something that should be celebrated in any way. See point a) for views on progression and how this is not it.

I'm sure that Tom Sharpe meant the reversal of historical gender roles as a satirical look - an alternative to the themes running throughout history. Then again, he may not have, and just thought it was entertaining. I think if the characters and the plot hadn't been so preposterous it might have worked better. I understand the satire, I hope the satire was the point of the book otherwise this is terrible, I just didn't find it funny, and I think a little outdated.

The feeling I felt after finishing? That was one of the most pointless books I've ever read. Yes, it's not really my type of book - they include death and policemen and possibly a kidnapping too. Yes, this book had all those things, but not in the way that I like them.

The more I think about this book the more and more I dislike it. If I could bring myself to I would give it 2 stars for the understanding what it's trying to do. But I thought it was pants, and there are too many negatives to do that, so I'm afraid it only gets one.

[A.K. Kulshreshth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The worst Tom Sharpe I've read, but I was tempted to rate it four stars for giving me a few laughs in these troubled times. There aren't that many writers who can do that consistently.

Mr. Sharpe is wonderfully vulgar and politically incorrect, but this time he cut corners too much with the ending...

[Toshi Parmar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always had problems with Sharpe's abrupt endings but the stories he spins are amazing. I would've given it a 3 if not for the bizarre characters.

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fully in line with the previous works for which Tom Sharpe is so well known.
A bit too much so maybe, it feels very familiar because it is so. Parts of it and especially the plotlines could (and maybe are) be taken from the previous novels.
Nonetheless it is a very funny book, of course going where P.G. Wodehouse stopped. Profanity, sexual exploits and aberrations are present, though less than in the previous books.
We get a long introduction on the Gropes, a matriarchically led family owning a big estate in an outskirt of the country. Ugly women apply all, and you can take that literally, means to get a husband and produce femaile heirs.
The we swith to modern times with a couple where the husband is a bank manager. They have a son. The wife has a brother who is married to a Grope descendant.
Frustrations as we are used to from Tom Sharpe rule, husband and wife do not agree on the education of their son... The boy ends up with aunt Belinda, police gets involved...
Funny, a bit forced maybe, less text than in the masterpiece Wilt.
Worth reading, enough action but nothing extra-ordinary compared wiht the other works of the author.

[Gabriele Russo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually love Tom Sharpe, but was disappointed here.
The funny situations are there, but they don't seem to lead anywhere.

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasantly funny and very easy to follow comedy of errors typical of Sharpe’s style. Just what I needed to keep my mind off what’s happening in the world right now.

[Uri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Si hagués acabat com jo pensava li donava 4

[Juani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro corto entretenido, irónico, con sentido del humor absurdo.
Este es el tercer libro de este autor que aconsejo . . Este es algo así como un cuento corto

[Jason Furman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tom Sharpe is one of the most savagely funny writers ever, someone that was aptly described as "P.G. Wodehouse on acid" on the back jacket of a number of his books (although not this one). His novels have cascades of increasingly outrageous situations that spiral out of control, largely fueled by characters who compete with each other in the realms of stupidity, avarice, venality, and other minor sins.

I hadn't read Sharpe in more than fifteen years but recently discovered he's written two new novels since then. I just read the first of them, The Gropes, published in 2009.

I don't know whether my tastes have changed or Sharpe's powers have dimmed, but either way the novel, while it has all the elements you expect from his novels, somehow never rises to the level of laugh-out-loud funny. Still, it is a page turner with an outrageous enough plot with dozens of twists and turns that revolves around a clan of women going back to old England that exercises complete control over their household, kidnaps men, forces them to have children, and passes control of the clan to the next generation of daughters.

But in addition to not being as funny as some of his previous, it also seemed just a little bit meaner and hollower.

That leaves one more book, the fifth in Sharpe's excellent Wilt series.

[Cristina · Rating 1 out of 5]

La trama è interessante, almeno all'inizio. La narrazione storica del truculento matriarcato delle Gropes è simpatica e priuttosto divertente. L'inizio quindi era decisamente promettente.

Poi man mano che compaiono i veri protagonisti va tutto a rotoli e diventa una storia senza senso e senza divertimento, con continui cambi di scena e di indentità che si trascinano stancamento fino a un finale scialbo.

Poi, ma perlamordiddio, il protagonista ha 17 anni, e si sposa la zia trentacinquenne, pure bigama, e nessuno, ma proprio nessuno fa una piega?

E questa sarebbe una commedia divertente?

Devo avere frainteso qualcosa...

[Adrian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This must be the most uninspired book by Tom Sharpe that I ever read. The plot is tenuous at best, and it ends in a fizzle unworthy of the writer of such gems as the Wilt series. Thankfully the story is rather short and I managed to complete it fairly quickly - no mean feat considering that I got bored of it relatively early and I trudged on simply because I hoped it would redeem itself in the end. Sadly, my hopes remained just that. Avoid.

[Michael Harry · Rating 1 out of 5]

So dissapointing. Very obviously written to a now tired formula, there is little new here. Bullying women, timid husbands upper middle class goofyness and police stupidity... same old same old. Except the funny has gone. Tom Sharpe was once one of my favourite funny authors but this was very dull.

[Oscar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst ever from Tom Sharpe. A shadow of his old self. The final 40-50 pages are just embarrassing, and reminded me of the little essays I wrote at school. Did the author run out of time or energy and have to rush to finish the book?

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best Tom Sharpe book ever written but a good chuckle all the same!

[Майя Ставитская · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't figure out where to laugh. Where does the unfortunate Wiley run away from his family, relying on the modest savings made secretly from his wife, and the passport of a dead man who looks like himself from among the former clients of the bank he managed? Or where he wanders through the cities and towns, staying in cheap motels and gradually losing his human form? Man, I feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for all of them, poor, unsightly, stupid, not at all - despite the names that speak - not wiley and not like gropes, I feel sorry for all of them.

Проблема нахождения мужа в Нортумберленде
Должна же быть на этом пляже хоть одна нимфоманка. Но как ее обнаружить? Вряд ли уместно ходить по пляжу и выспрашивать у каждой.
При случае попробую читать его еще, но первое знакомство с Томом Шарпом не назову удачным. Может быть проблема в том, что "Щупсов" он написал в возрасте восьмидесяти лет, которые вряд ли кто рискнет назвать временем творческого расцвета? А может абсурдистский юмор просто не совсем мое. Не нахожу забавным ни того, что очередная #онажемать! превращает, и без того не блещущего красотой и талантами сыночка, в совершенно затурканное создание; ни того, что папаша, утомившись смотреть на отпрыска, как две капли воды похожего на себя самого, бросается на него с ножом. Это что вообще, это зачем?

Ну встречаются неудачные браки, и даже гораздо чаще, чем идеальные, и жены оказываются всей головой ударенными о романтические бредни a-la Барбара Картленд (то есть, читает этот хлам на определенном жизненном этапе каждая женщина. не всякая после в этом признается), так что с того? Ну назвала эта гипотетическая жена ребенка Эсмондом, уж и не знаю, какие неправильные ассоциации рождает имя у британцев, не думаю, что более непристойные, чем если бы какая русскоязычная поклонница Фандорина назвала сына Эрастом. Но живут люди и не с такими именами.

Пассаж про "дитя любви" оставил в недоумении, неужто у кого-то, знающего клушу миссис Ушли (с незнакомыми она, при всех странностях, вряд ли заговаривает) возникнут подозрения в незаконнорожденности Эсмонда, довольно взглянуть на него и на отца. Странно, что за семнадцать лет никто не объяснил даме неуместность словоупотребления. Да, дети порой не оправдывают родительских ожиданий - сплошь и рядом такое случается, но вынашивать на этом основании планы убить отпрыска, после растворив в кислоте, это уж какая-то совершенная клиника, воля ваша.

И не могу понять, в каком месте смеяться. Где несчастный Ушли бежит от семьи, полагаясь на скромные накопления, сделанные тайком от супруги, да паспорт похожего на себя покойника из числа бывших клиентов банка, которым управлял? Или где он скитается по городам и весям, останавливаясь в дешевых мотелях и постепенно теряя человеческий облик? Блин, мне его жаль. Мне всех их, несчастных, неказистых, глуповатых, ничуть - вопреки говорящим фамилиям - не ушлых и не похожих на щупальца, всех их жаль.

И прибандиченного братца той тетки, что перечитала Теккерея. Ну построил свой криминальный бизнес торговли подержанными авто на угоне машин, но владельцы получали страховку, страховые компании, точно не разорятся. Однако хотел ведь помочь сестре и уберечь от свихнувшегося папаши племянника. А ему такой афронт. Нет, нехорошо это.

Единственное, что по-настоящему круто - концепция злобного матриархата Щупсов, когда девицы столь уродливы и мужеподобны, что вынуждены женить на себе мужиков силой. Хотя обыкновение удушать собственных младенцев мужеска пола как-то не вызывает живого отклика. Такого рода профанно-живодерский феминизм за пределами моего чувства смешного. Резюмируя: не сложилось у песни начало.

[Cliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the days of the viking invasions of the British Isles a rather weedy Viking splits off from the rape and plunder being carried out by his confreres and journeys inland where he eventually comes across a Saxon maiden who is not particularly good looking and who has been passed over by previous raiders as not being worth their time. So Viking and Saxon seem made for each other and run off and eventually settle in a turf hut somewhere in wildest Northumberland. They start a lineage which lasts to the present day, always ruled over as a strict matriarchy with girl babies being favoured over males. After a quick run through of this history, the tales focuses on the family of the Wileys. Mrs Wiley's view of the world has been totally fashioned by the reading of Mills and Boon books. Her son is christened Esmond as that is the name of the hero in the book she is currently reading. I shall not give the plot away by explaining the link between these two threads of the narrative. Suffice it to say that farce is followed by more and bigger farce and so on. I wish I could say all eventually live happily ever after but some don't. You can find out for yourself by reading the book, but try not to irritate your nearest and dearest but continual outbursts of uncontrollable giggling. Tom Sharpe has not lost his touch over the years.

[Tránsito Blum · Rating 4 out of 5]

La novela está dedicada a la medicina catalana por salvarle la vida hace más de dos años. Tom Sharpe vive desde hace veinte años en Llafranch, Palafrugell, Gerona. Su corredor literario le recomendó que se fuera a la Costa Brava para desbloquearse. Se alojó en un hotel y al poco se enteró por un soplo de que el anterior propietario de su residencia estaba en bancarrota y le compró la villa por 48 millones de pesetas (290.000 euros), cuatro veces más barata del precio de mercado. Allí es donde sufrió en 2006 un ataque agudo de peritonitis (inflamación de la membrana que envuelve los órganos del abdomen) y a las 3.30 horas de la madrugada la doctora Montserrat Verdaguer, una neuróloga que se ha convertido en su médico de cabecera, secretaria, cocinera, chófer y amiga incondicional tuvo reflejos para montarlo en el coche, un Lexus inglés con el volante a la derecha, y llevar a Sharpe agonizante, su inmenso corpachón doblado en el asiento, hasta el hospital de Gerona en media hora. Una proeza automovilística digna de un conductor de ambulancias. Lo operaron a vida o muerte. Le cosieron la barriga con 53 puntos y tras la operación se quedó cuatro días inconsciente. Sharpe asegura que si le ocurre en Inglaterra este libro no habría visto la luz.

Fuente: https://huracanesenpapel.blogspot.com...

[Nohemibook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Los Grope son una familia inglesa antigua bastante excéntrica y que viven aislados del resto de la sociedad, una familia con un linaje dominado siempre por mujeres fuertes que buscan engendrar herederas a toda costa sin importar la opinión de nadie ni de sus parejas, un día una de las Grope lleva a la fuerza a Grope Hall, la casa familiar a un joven e ingenuo Esmond lo que desencadeno una serie de eventos que nadie podía prever.

En esta historia el autor nos lleva a conocer una peculiar familia y divide el libro en dos partes, la primera donde nos habla de los orígenes y como funciona la familia y la segunda donde conocemos la historia del joven Esmond y como termina adentrándose enredado en esta situación y si es bastante entretenido las ocurrencias de los personajes y como van cambiando según la época.

El detalle con este libro es que aunque la premisa es interesante el desarrollo es extraño, los personajes son sencillos pero sin mucho desarrollo y el único que parece tener un desarrollo es casi al final y sin mucho sentido por que al final no importo e incluso queda una situación un poco turbia.

En general el libro es entretenido, tiene su lado divertido pero también su final es demasiado abrupto y sin mucho sentido así que si se animan a leerlo saber que es un libro solo para reírse un rato y sin tener mucha expectativas.

[liam kelleher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I had read all Tom Sharpe's books over the years but was delighted when I noticed I had missed this last one. I have just finished it & consider it to be up there with his best. Also I hadn't realised how much I'd missed his unique style. I love the way he links chapters together eg. _( my own words ) "Horace was happier than he ever was looking out at the sea........next chapter.....Belinda wished she could say the same"...I love it !! The plot of course is crazy. The characters are off the scale always in a completely different world. Sharpe's one negative generally over the years is ( slight spoiler alert ) that he doesn't always end his books well & this is no different........It's almost like he had a date & time to complete so ended it abruptly. This is not to take away from the overall book so I'd urge anyone who's not read it to do so & if not already done go back & read the wonderful world of WILT & PORGs.
I wish there were more !

[Mark McTague · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a fan of Tom Sharpe's farces (having read five others), I was disappointed with this. The plot meanders and eventually peters out. I found myself saying at the end, "Well, I guess that's it. End of story," which is not what you want your reader to feel. It lacks the social edge or thematic focus of others (the lunacy of apartheid and anglophilia or the shady dealings of British public schools), which provided a context and backdrop for the lunatic shenanigans of the characters. Without that, the characters are merely eccentric with little to make them more deeply comic. So skip this one and go to his much better works, the two South African ones (Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure), the British public school satires, Porterhouse Blue and Grantchester Grind, or the incomparable Wilt.

[Farhad Shawkat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is possibly the lowest I’ve ever rated a Tom Sharpe book. It’s more of the same from the author, but while I loved almost each and every one of the previous books, this one just didn’t work for me. Definitely not a book I would recommend to anyone curious about Tom Sharpe. Read Riotous Assembly, Wilt, or Porterhouse Blue for a wonderful introduction to his highly relevant satire. Or even Vintage Stuff, The Throwback, or Ancestral Vices will give you an excellent idea of the biting Tom Sharpe wit and humour, which so often finds his characters in such bizarre situations. The Gropes, sadly, is a book I cannot recommend, if you’ve never read Tom Sharpe before. There’s just too many books by this author that are far better.

[Beirut27 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars is for people who, never having read much, much better farcical novels by Tom Sharpe, will have a good laugh but it doesn't deserve more than two stars if you already know that this writer can actually *write* instead of putting a few ingredients together and thinking that as they worked before, why not now...
If I had read The Gropes before Vintage Stuff, which I highly recommend, I would never have bought that sloppy attempt at writing a novel.
Tom Sharpe was seriously ill in 2006, he apparently had a very close shave ; perhaps he should have stopped writing ? I won't buy any of the couple of book he wrote after that shattering experience.

[Doug Lewars · Rating 5 out of 5]

*** Possible Spoilers ***

I love farce but if you don't, I guarantee you won't like this book.

The author uses black humour to satirize helicopter parents, crooks, the police and a certain form of man-hating feminism.

It's a slight variation from Tom Sharpe's other books because a couple of characters actually have a happy ending.

I loved this one which is true of every Tom Sharpe book I've read and I recommend it to all those readers who don't take stories or books too seriously. I think it would help if you're over the age of forty-five.

[Khayali · Rating 1 out of 5]

The beginning is very encouraging. It is funny and sarcastic and that is what led me to keep reading the whole book only to realize, the fist three chapters are the only good part of the book.

As the book progresses, you keep looking for something to happen and it is no more funny. And the end is most disappointing. It is like the author just did not want to write anymore and so suddenly, there is an end.

[Susanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well that was an abrupt ending!! I just got into the flow, sad.
Actually it was a fun read from the start, there were so many gems that surprised me with their absurdity and... I'm not sure, it's just well written with luscious language.

One of the first laugh-out-louds was the start of chapter 3:
"Esmond Wiley's boyhood had been a disturbed one. This was largely due to his name." - came out of the blue

and of course the fates of the family, ha
especially Horace :')

[Johan D'Haenen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dit is zeker niet de beste Sharpe.
Het verhaal komt moeilijk van de grond... het eerste 1/3de loopt langzaam en zit vol langdradige en nutteloze uitweidingen. Daarna komt er vaart in het geheel en wordt de oude Sharpe herkenbaar, maar naar het einde toe zakt het geheel jammerlijk in elkaar en kennen de verschillende verhaallijnen een onbevredigende afloop.

[Steve Branca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Un des derniers de bouquin de Tom Sharpe et cela se (re)ssent, l'humour et le burlesque sont 3 tons en dessous des autres ouvrages, la trame est décousue, sans queue ni tete, et la fin carrement baclée. Dommage de finir comme cela.