Lauren Magnussen 2008-08-08

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Reading Heller's smart and endlessly readable novel is one of those rare moments in which the reader can find absolutely nothing to criticize. Combining staggering observational wit and page-turning suspense is a rarity, but Heller pulls it off with emotion and poise. Granted, the climax could have been a little bit longer, but perhaps its briefness is what makes it more human, real; what makes it more devastating and sharp. The characters are drawn so well, that you start to find parts of yourself in each of them. The author's examinations of social class and the quirks it brings are so astute, that the reader will find themselves nodding along, or even embarrassed at the honesty. Inevitably, people will be drawn to this novel by the plot. But they will stay for the world that Heller beckons us into, eventually ensnaring us in the drama and the culture of a place glimpsed only by a select few.

D. Brady 2008-08-04

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Notes on a Scandal is a brilliant read. Zoe Heller has such an amazing taste for words and once you read a page or two, you find yourself not able to put it down. The subject matter was fascinating, how we as society see these relationships from the outside, however, the author makes you see the whole thing from a completely different perspective. It can almost change your mind on the entire topic all together. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a brilliant masterpiece. From beginning to end, you will not be disappointed.

A. M. Ramos 2008-08-03

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This was an amazing book! I read a couple of books over the summer, and this one was my favorite. I love fiction..but this one just blew me away! The only detail is that I did not enjoy the ending..it was very vague..If you loved the movie..the novel is even better!! I enjoyed it because it is not all the same as the movie, so it left me in suspense and wanting to read more. It is brilliant!! I did not want it to end, I savored every page. This novel is one of my all time favorites. I highly recomend it

Baking Enthusiast 2008-07-07

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Barbara Covett, a sixty-ish spinster (complete with a cat), is our unreliable narrator in Zoe Heller's "What Was She Thinking: Notes on a Scandal." She befriends Sheba Hart, a much younger, upper-crust and married teacher at the London comprehensive where they both teach. When the hippie-styled Sheba begins a "love affair" with a 16-year-old pupil, Barbara documents not only the affair as related to her by Sheba, but her own intense obsession to be part of Sheba's life as well. The book is structured as Barbara's manuscript.

The primary focus in the novel, surprisingly enough, isn't really the scandal but the dynamics between the two women. The scandal-Sheba's criminal affair with the minor, Steven Connolly-serves to ignite Barbara's creepy fixation with Sheba, something which Barbara carefully masks as a "relationship de chaleur," a warm friendship of reciprocal intimacy and trust. Barbara is a very lonely woman, one who "constructs an entire weekend around a visit to the launderette," and sees the beautiful Sheba as someone who could fill that loneliness. Unfortunately for her, Sheba has a much different take on their relationship, and is more invested in her infatuation and assignations with Steven. Having been unceremoniously pushed aside at a time when she most needed her friend, Barbara sees a chance to use her knowledge of Sheba's crime to her advantage resulting in an unplanned act of revenge and betrayal. Remembering her mother's axiom that evil will out, Barbara muses, "...I rather think she was wrong about that. Evil can stay in, minding its own business for eternity, if the right situation doesn't arise." For Barbara, the right situation did arise.

I don't know if my having seen the 2006 film with Judi Dench (who did her usual magnificent job) predisposed me to liking this book. The film was more of a thriller with Barbara portrayed as an obvious sociopath, whereas the book is more of a drama with some psychological suspense. It also ended quite differently. At any rate, I find both the book and film to be very well done. I think Zoe Heller is a fantastic writer and I find her prose cleverly witty, perceptive, and provocative, and has fashioned a character in Barbara that's a fitting outlet for all that wit and insight. The bitter Barbara sees St. George's, the school where she and Sheba teach, as "the holding pen for Archway's pubescent proles." The acute Barbara regards the idealistic, politically-correct and so-called progressive way of teaching with disdain: "It strikes me as not coincidental that, in the same period that pedagogical ambitions have become so inflated and grandiose, the standards of basic literacy and numeracy have radically declined." (Think it's hot air? Look into the literacy level of some youths graduated from high school, and see how many can make change without aid of a machine.) In all fairness, as intelligent as our Barbara is, she's also sick in the mind.

It's odd that the book succeeds with nary a sympathetic character. Barbara, I've already covered. Sheba, the center of all the sturm und drang, regresses into a love-sick teenager, rationalizing her indefensible impulses, and becomes the tabloids' deviant du jour. Sheba's husband, Richard, is a condescending fool, if we're to believe Barbara. Even their daughter, Polly, is a spoiled and vulgar brat. Steven is a user, and given his pubescent caprices, strings Sheba along for no other purpose than coital. But the author skillfully elevates the narrative from what could have easily been a farcical and lurid Jerry-Springer-like story to one that is smart, touching and disturbing all at the same time. I highly recommend both the book and the film.

Kys 2008-07-06

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Not as good as these stars sould suggest. (Some people use 4 stars to mean "almost perfect"; others, to imply "more than a 'merely decent/satisfactory' 3 stars". This case is the latter.

It's well-written, although sometimes I felt that Heller was describing something (be it a feeling or a facial expression, etc.) with vaguely off-center word choice. But the writing is good, with many witty phrasings and the almost stereotypical British sayings in dialogue.
However, I don't like the way this book was written--as in, the set up. It becomes slightly disorienting to have Barbara writing in one chapter about recent events that have occurred after Sheba is discovered, and then to go back in time to when the affair was still a secret, even from Barbara.

In fact, telling the story from Barbara's point of view is utterly problematic. It *is* strange that she records events that she never witnessed. She is the narrator, but she's removed from the "scandalous" part of the story she is telling. This makes us even more removed from the characters. We see Sheba unusually forthcoming, and then increasingly obsessed with Stephen Connolly. She is, at first, interesting and exotic to us because of her frankness and the way Barbara describes her. But, as teh affair progresses and we must hear from Barbara Sheba's feelings on why she is having an affair with her student, she seems increasingly girlish.
I understand that this bookw as not necessarily supposed to create flattering characters

Connolly is, ultimately, an underdeveloped character. Had Heller told the story from Sheba's point of view or from a neutral narrator's, we might have delved more into the specifics of the affair as it related to him. What *really* sparks his crush on his teacher? Is is really just an innocent crush that is taken too far? Barbara expresses some cynicism about his motives; but her general dislike of him doesn't solve any of the reader's questions. What exactly makes him tire of the affair? Was the girl Sheba saw his new girlfriend or not? Does he tell his friends about the affair? In the end, he becomes a flat, one-dimensional character, one who almost blends into the background because we cannot discern his purpose or motives. Heller needed to *show* us more of his character so that we could understand "what [Sheba] was thinking". Connolly (as Barbara disdainfully calls him) is a mixture of shyness, grit, and aggressive sexuality. All right; he is a teenager, after all. But this clinical portrayal of his actions and the effects they have on Sheba serve only to make him not so much mysterious as indiscernible.

One could make the argument that the crucial pairing in this book is not Sheba and Stephen, but is really Sheba and Barbara. Certainly, Barbara's detailed note-taking of the affair and her self-professed emotional intensity that often leads her to dominate relationships make her an interesting character and clearly show her attachment to attachment itself. (Personally, I think this was explored a bit better in the movie.) But Heller jumps into this character without explaining her. We hear Barbara's witty, observer-like voice throughout the book, but it's only through her words and tone and reflections that we get a sense of her character; otherwise, she's not fully explored in depth.

The problem with Notes on a Scandal is that it contains both an affair between student and teacher, an intense attachment between friends, yet doesn't fully address either.