I wanted to like this book more than I did. Brisk pace, could visualize characters, good plot and use of unreliable narrator. It may have been edited down a tad too much, as a few more paragraphs to establish Ollie’s reliability and give the female characters more sentences of backstory would have helped the dynamics. When using an unreliable narrator (Ian) it’s important to provide just a little more likability, just enough so the reveals pack more punch. A good beach read but I wish it had some really great sentences or one or two incredibly keen insights.

One aspect that was done very well was expanding the idea of an unreliable narrator to Ollie and Daisy as well (Em, Ian’s wife, appears to be more reliable). We all tweak our realities here and there and there is good foreshadowing re the nature of truth. Very good mechanics overall but I was left with the impression of a book written with a technical map in hand. ( )

Langdradig, oeverloze uitwijdigingen over golf en andere sporten, geen empathie voor een van de hoofdpersonen. Beslist een tegenvaller na het schitterende 'Ten zuiden van de rivier'. Nochtans knap opzet, interessante ingrediënten, beloftevolle locatie. ( )

This is a good book.
Main character is Ian a primary school teacher him and his wife Emma go a weekend visit to his old University friends Oliver and Daisy,
Ian who is a compulsive gambler and Oliver have some bets, winner takes all £10,000. Oliver tells Ian that he is dying, Ian is sad about his friends illness but really wants to win the money to pay off his debts. Ian and Emma are trying for a baby, the problem is him not Emma. Oliver is also a bit of a story teller.
Another person visits for the weekend Milo with his two daughters, Ian doesn't like him as he is jealous of the friendship between him and Daisy who Ian is in love with.
Ian seduces Daisy she doesn't want to know. The 3rd and final bet ends in terrible circumstances Oliver drowns, A few months later Ian and Emma split up. Daisy accuses Ian of rape. Ian doesn't receive the money.
At the beginning you like Ian but in the end you don't. Very good book. ( )

Technically brilliant, Morrison stretches the idea of the unreliable narrator to near breaking point in a few places, but overall this is a gripping novel. I read it in one sitting, on an equally languid English summer's afternoon, and I suspect this helped a lot. I wonder if I'd have felt the same if I'd read it over a week, as I suspect much of early subtleties of unreliable narration might have been lost on me. Overall I am still pondering whether Ian is knowingly unreliable, or truly deluded as well as unreliable.

I'd been meaning to read this for some time, and picked it up today as the telly adaptation starts this evening. It's hard to imagine how they will manage to convey the psychological depth onscreen, since so much of it is happening purely in Ian's head. ( )

I wanted to give this book a higher rating I really did. The story is quite gripping and it is interesting as the layers of personality are peeled back from the main characters as we go along. However in certain passages the 'jump' into psycopathic behaviour in the mould of American Psycho is sometimes done quite clumsily and once or twice I found myself laughing at the prose in the places where I am sure the author had not intended me to. That said this book is worth a read and will give you something to talk about. Go on, it isn't that long anyway really.... ( )