Well-written, concise, and evocative. The milieu of a down-at-heel backside to '60s Swinging London is conveyed through a medley of credible but dreary characters. This period and the author's staid prose style give lots of the language and references a pleasantly dated feel ('TCP', 'anorak', 'Officer' addressing a policeman). Some characters' motivations may seem a bit dated too, but without the charm gained from a completely alien setting (Enlightenment Prussia in 'The Blue Flower', to take her well-known example). So these lame and defeated characters on the Thames barges of 'Offshore' don't think like us, but are close enough in time and place for it to be harder for the modern reader to empathise. TO put it more simply, the characters are not very likeable (and this is a character-driven novel). ( )

"Battersea Reach, ladies and gentlemen. On your right, the artistic colony. Folks live on those boats like they do on the Seine, it's the artist's life they're leading there. Yes, there's people living on those boats." (p. 16)

Along the banks of the Thames, a small group of boats sit permanently anchored, serving as home not to artists, but to a ragtag group of residents who, for various reasons, have chosen to live on the river instead of on land. Their de facto leader is Richard, of the Lord Jim, by far the best-kept boat in the group. Grace is home to Nenna and her two daughters. Her husband has left them and the girls attend school only occasionally. One boat's owner allows stolen goods to be held on board. Another is trying to sell his boat, and hopes none of the other residents will tell prospective buyers about the leak. The characters were largely misfits, with humorous quirks. I was sympathetic towards Nenna, with her general awkwardness, her difficulty raising young daughters alone, and and her inability to rescue her marriage.

Unfortunately however, the central theme of the novel eluded me. There were also several loose ends and incongruities in the plot. It was a light and sometimes pleasant read, but I am positively baffled as to how it won the Booker Prize. Ah well, at least it was short. ( )

If, in your reading material, you appreciate a sublime but deliberate choice of wording which, in its calculated brevity, paints a magnificent panorama, then Penelope Fitzgerald’s Offshore will utterly delight – as it did me.

As plain as it is titled, this book is the briefest glimpse – a snapshot in essence – into a chapter of the lives of a disparate group of barge-dwellers; who actually live ‘offshore’ on the Thames River, in the shadow of Battersea Bridge, London. And much akin with the river itself, their lives are as ordered, oft-times, as the tides that control their houseboats, and as chaotic as living on a seething, ever-changing, moving mass of water can be – amidst the interminable consternation of the surrounding land-dwellers. Drawn together by their individuality, this unique little community, full of eclectic but endearing eccentrics, is thus peculiarly-shaped, and irrevocably altered, by the every choice of dwelling in such absurdity brings – the events which occur almost preordained in their inevitability.

In this book, there is so very much to like in so very little. This is my second Penelope Fitzgerald – and I have come to realise that Ms Fitzgerald is a consummate word-smith. In similitude with these floating lives, everything in this book is slightly askew, and intentionally so! Every word is chosen with a deliberation that in its conciseness elaborates, and discloses, such a welter of information and such colourful characterisations – which you know could never be conveyed as well, and would undoubtedly be lost, within a larger body of work – resulting in a superbly-crafted inference on the society of the time. By invoking a delicate humour on every page, this accentuates the underlying poignancy of the situation; detailing the random, indiscriminate thoughts of the barge residents - from wistful Nenna and her precocious brood to ex-navy Richard and his desire for everything to be ship-shape - discloses a complexity and a quality, a warmth, to this motley group inhabiting such a fascinating world.

But best of all, in regards to this marvellous book, is the respect Ms Fitzgerald pays her reader. She knows that in her succinct exposition the reader will grasp what is left unsaid; that a suggestion and a nuance, a dry wit, is all that is required to reveal the entire picture, and to be completely understood. There is a line on every page in Offshore that I could quote to exemplify the many, many beautiful constructs the author uses. This book made me laugh-out-loud, made me despair and made me ponder; made me return again and again to the immaculately-created phrasings, and in the end, left me wanting much more. Whereat I am left, like the inhabitants of Battersea Reach, floundering and in two minds, and all at sea with the world – and somewhat ‘off’!
Quite remarkable!

(May 1, 2009) ( )

Penelope Fitzgerald’s Booker Prize winning novel Offshore is set in the 1960’s along the Thames and introduces a cast of eccentric and unique characters whose lives criss-cross and intersect as they go about their days on the worn out barges of the area. There is Richard, a retired navy man whose desire for organization unites the others, and Maurice who receives stolen goods, and Willis whose boat Dreadnought is fated for tragedy. But, it is perhaps Nenna who is the most interesting - a woman who has been abandoned by her husband and is trying to raise two precocious, young girls. Tilly, the youngest daughter, loves barge life and her courageous and lively spirit is infectious.

As Fitzgerald’s novella progresses, it is Nenna’s domestic unhappiness which unites the characters, and it is Tilly’s innocent optimism which creates the irony in the story.

Fitzgerald’s story is full of a black humor and her writing is clear and descriptive. Offshore feels much like a character study or a long short story, and its ending is both unexpected and unresolved.

This was my first Fitzgerald novel, and I appreciated her wonderful use of language and development of the characters. But when I turned the last page I felt oddly disconnected and disappointed. I wanted more, yet there was no more to be had. Offshore is strongly literary in style and it is a quick read. It whet my appetite for more of Penelope Fitzgerald’s work. ( )

The characters in Penelope Fitzgerald’s Offshore live in a world in between, on a colony of barges in the Battersea Reach on the Thames. For one reason or another, they don’t quite fit into the community on land, but they aren’t quite able to strike out and cut themselves off completely.

In the first half of this little 140-page book, we get to know the characters and their community, and there's no plot to speak of. Starting at about the halfway point, several characters reach a crisis point, and events build up to an ending that is as bold an ending as I’ve seen in anything I’ve read recently.

I liked the quirky people of Battersea Reach. Fitzgerald describes them with sensitivity, honesty, and humor, and I was drawn into their little community. Fitzgerald doesn’t beat her readers over the head with judgments and opinions about her characters and their world. She just tells their stories. I like that.

See my complete review at my blog. ( )