Mark Haddon

The Pier Falls is a collection of short stories by author Mark Haddon. They are very well written, maybe even brilliant - Haddon can build amazing mind pictures with his words… And yet…and yet…despite the beauty of these stories, or perhaps because of it, this is one of the hardest reviews I’ve written because I’m not sure who I would recommend this book to. At the very least, any recommendation I could give would come with a strong trigger warning about the emotional effects these show more stories will likely have because, seriously, they are all consistently and unremittingly dark. Death, despair, and sorrow run through every story. Perhaps, my feelings about these stories can best be summed up by this quote from one of the stories, The Woodpecker and the Wolf:

There is something wrong with all this but she cannot put her finger on what it might be

So, in the end, I will only say if you love short stories with beautiful writing, lots of tension, and the kind imagery that stays with you long after for better or worse, this is definitely worth the read but be prepared for the emotional impact. You’ve been warned. show less

First of all I will confess that I picked up this book only because it had a rat in it. I had heard about the play, I wanted to read the book and see how the rat was represented. I loved every word of what I read. I'm not talking about just the way the rat is treated here, though the rat is treated very well by the author and is considered an intelligent pet, worthy of love, I mean the entire book was amazing.

Told in the first person perspective of a boy named Christopher, this is a murder show more mystery with a unique point of view. Christopher clearly has a type of autism or other very similar mental handicap, though the story is not about this special situation. You see the autism because you listen to the way Christopher talks, but it is such a natural thing after a minute or two that you stop seeing it as anything special and start seeing it as just part of who the character is. How he handles himself forces the book onto certain paths, but otherwise, this is just a murder mystery that a fan of Sherlock Holmes is trying to solve on his own.

Excellent, excellent book. I found it touching and entertaining (and even a little heart stopping when the rat has his adventure), but most importantly I could not put it down. I regretted getting it from the library because when I finished I realized I should have just purchased it instead. I will definitely be reading this book again and again. show less

‘There was a king’s daughter who married a prince and they loved one another beyond measure. It happened a long time ago and far away and there is nothing to connect that woman to the woman sitting here on the terrace under the vines.
She says, “My name is Emila.”’

If you come to this having read Haddon’s ‘Curious Incident…’ then prepare for something quite, quite different. It takes a brave man to write a novel that takes in incest, Shakespeare’s ghost, Greek myth and show more female empowerment, and what Haddon has produced here is, for me, a triumph of story telling and emotional integrity. The book opens with a pregnant woman flying home to her husband; the small plane crashes and all aboard are killed but the baby is delivered safely. Anjelica is raised by her uber-rich father Philippe on his estate called Antioch near the town of Winchester (here we get the first faint echo of an overriding mythology that will soon overtake us). As the child grows Philippe starts to abuse here – and yes, I’m afraid the subject matter is suitably grim. In a conspiracy of silence, the entire household carry on as if nothing was happening, until one day a young man called Darius calls on the house to sell to Philippe some Hockney prints of the Grimm fairy tales. He suspects something is amiss and tries to rescue Anjelica, but fails and, wounded, escapes, to be pursued by one of Philippe’s faithful retainers….

I give some detail about how the story starts because, under Haddon’s subtle mastery, it hints at what is to come. Somehow Darius’s flight becomes the story of Pericles (and yes, I would suggest you bone up on your Gower and/or Shakespeare before you read this because it will make so much more sense!) – but in doing so, we are never sure how or why. Is this a dream of Anjelica’s, fond as she is of reading tales of Greek myth? Why do we also get the vignettes of George Wilkins, co-author with Shakespeare of the play ‘Pericles’? In these, the ghost of Shakespeare comes to Wilkins when he dies and escorts him on a boat journey down the Thames. And as the story of Darius truly becomes the story of Pericles, we keep flashing back to the house in Winchester and Anjelica’s story, as she first refuses to speak, and then refuses to eat, becoming more and more ill.

You really just need to immerse yourself in this, and whilst the Pericles story is involving, it is the female characters that Haddon writes that are so striking. Chloe (Thaisa in the original play), Pericles’ wife and Marina, their daughter, have a mystical quality to them that makes them somehow symbols of survival and human kindness. There are so many subtle touches to the story: as a child, Anjelica’s first spoken word is ‘water’, hinting at the story of Marina, the daughter born at sea, that is to come. One of the recurring motifs is that of stories and myth-making, not only as Anjelica reads passages from her books that somehow become passages in the book that we are also reading, but each of the main characters see themselves as part of a story. Words, images, events repeat themselves in magical ways. The whole thing is written in the present tense, which gives the entire unfolding story the sense of fairy tale or myth. The ending is sublimely understated, allowing us to only imagine at the future of the three main characters. But the actual ending of the book returns us to Winchester, and Anjelica and her father, whose story somehow created the myth. It is suitably true to the Pericles story and leaves the reader with a sense of closure, yes, of justice, and a sense of passing from reality to myth.

With every passing page I found myself totally engrossed in this wonder of a book. It is a book about journeys, and love, and trying to find your way home. It is the kind of novel that expects something from a reader, a sense of opening your mind to the power of stories and of words, and I can see why some reviewers have been left a little perplexed. For me, it is undoubtedly one of the best books I’ve read this year so far, and fully keeps my faith in the modern novel. What a joy it is to find writers writing such books. Totally deserving of 5 stars. show less

A Mark Haddon novice, I really enjoyed this novel and ended up reading it in one sitting.
Christopher is a 15-year-old boy who is socially awkward but highly intelligent, and the story is told entirely from his perspective. When Wellington, the neighbour’s poodle, is found murdered, Christopher decides to play detective—only to uncover far more than he ever expected.
This is a delightful, moving, and inventive read, offering thoughtful insight into the mind of a young person on the autism show more spectrum. Both funny, heartbreaking and it's leaving the reader with a deeper awareness of how many different ways there are to experience reality. show less