The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce: A Novel in Four Vintages

Another of my long term TBR books. I really enjoyed Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which is why I picked this up.

Wilberforce is a wine-lover, though that term doesn't really get close to how he really feels about the drink, he "inherited" a great wine cellar when he bought up a dying friend's collection. He is an alcoholic, drinking up to 4 bottles of wine a day, and not just any wine, but great vintages, from his cellars and restaurants. He justifies his drinking, claiming not to be an alcoholic as he only drinks great wine, not just any bottle.

The style of the book is unusual, with Wilberforce narrating his story, each part starts a year before the previous, so while you know how it will end, only slowly do you find why. In the first show more part, 2006, we see how this "inheritance" is destroying his life. The killing he made when selling his computer software company is dwindling as his obsession gets more acute. His personal relationships are also deteriorating rapidly as the wine takes more and more control over his life.

The story is told by Wilberforce, so while we get an insight into his thoughts, other characters only seem to warrant a superficial glance. This says a lot about Wilberforce's own character, a lonely man whose loneliness makes him even more intraspective. A computer programmer, he didn't have great people skills, but fell into a group which, for him, represented getting a life. Trying to fit in, he takes it too far, and starts alienating those around him.

This is a much darker novel than Salmon Fishing, more similar to The Girl on the Landing in its deconstruction of the human character, though the latter deals with latent mental illness rather than the induced, which we have here. Wilberforce's delusions are fascinating, though tragic, reading. I recently read a non-fiction book about wine, so connected better with the object of Wilberforce's obsession.

I would recommend the book, for the literary style and also a, sometimes painful and often sad, intimate portrayal of a man's self-destruction. show less

A curiously entertaining tragedy, The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce tells the downfall of a lonely man, the growth of his addiction to fine wines, and his estrangement from society. A darker book than Torday's Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, but it still displays the same wit and insight.

Wilberforce's story is told in reverse, in four "vintages" beginning with him drinking £6,000 worth of wine one evening, in a restaurant, alone, and ending with him as a bright young computer programmer, about to sell his company and begin a new life with money, friends, and the woman he loves. The reverse chronology helps lighten what might otherwise be depressing to read, and turns Wilberforce from a tragic figure to something more complex: at show more what point, the reader wonders, did he make the wrong decision?

Torday's clear writing style makes this an easy read, but Wilberforce's narrative voice makes it harder to digest: I shall find myself uncomfortably reminded of him every time I open a bottle of red wine... show less

"As soon as the wine is opened, it begins to die."

A couple of years ago I read and enjoyed the author's novel 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' and on the strength of that decided to pick this offering up. This is much darker than the aforementioned book and lacks much of the humour.

This book centres around Wilberforce, a computer geek who runs his own multi-million-pound software business, working long days and spending the nights at home alone with a takeaway. Wilberforce was adopted as a child and has no idea whom his real parents are. Now in his 30s, he is successful, bored and without any real friends. On evening whilst out for a drive he stumbles upon a local wine shop where he is befriended the owner and a few of the latter's show more friends. Through the shop he finds everything that has been missing from his life: a father figure, a new interest, interesting friends and a woman to love.

The story is told in four sections, each featuring a different year, but a little confusingly is told in reverse, chronologically. The book begins with Wilberforce as a drunk wine nerd obsessed with the drink. His wife has died, his friends have deserted him and he is slowly losing his grip on reality. Thereafter the author tries to show his slide into this precarious state and ends the novel, with Wilberforce as a man, mixing with gentry and learning how to appreciate wine, on the brink of a new and exciting phase of his life. Telling the story back-to-front allows Torday to highlight Wilberforce's ultimate self-delusion, right up until his death he convinces himself that he is not an alcoholic.

There are certain similarities with this book and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Both feature a man sleepwalking through his own life, working obsessively at a job without really caring about it, before suddenly waking up and deciding to go and enjoy himself but ultimately ending in failure. There is even a cheeky familial link between the two books. This book features a character called Eck Cherwode-Talbot whilst SFinY features his cousin Harriet, who was an estate agent.

I must admit that I found it initially strange reading a book in reverse and it took me a little while to get used to it. As I have said previously this is quite a dark story but I still feel that it is worth giving it a go. It gives a rather interesting if depressing vision as how to seemingly normal lives can go irretrievably wrong and that anyone can slip into addiction. show less

This is told in reverse, with episodes taking place in 2009, 2006, 2003 & 2002. The book hangs together by the repetition of phrases and descriptions from one episode to the next. in some instances you know what happens - having already heard what happens later. in other cases you discover more about an event that is glimpsed early in the book and described in more detail as the past events are relayed.

Wilberforce is a somewhat unsympathetic character in some ways. He was adopted and didn't have a particularly pleasant childhood before starting a software company and working every hour available for the next 15 years. He has a somewhat obsessive personality and it is this that, to some extent, drives his behaviour throughout the book. show more At each timepoint you feel that he has the chance to turn his life around and not take the path that you know he does. In some why this makes the book a bit depressing; when he's promising to do something, you know in advance that he won't carry it through.

the inheritance of the title isn't really an inheritance in the traditional sense, it's far more complicated than that. Don;t read on if you don;t want to know what happens

I wonder if there is not some double layer meaning in the title - Wilberforce becomes, by the end of the book, an alcoholic and drinks himself, we're almost sure, to an early grave. He is taken under the wing of a faded gentleman, Francis Black, who has gambled or drunk away his family's estate and has no heir. Black leaves his wine cellar, flat and estate house to Wilberforce - who has to pay off the mortgage on the property to the tune of £1million. As I said, not a traditional inheritance. The obsessive nature of Wilberforce's character moves from his business to a girl and thence to the wine he's now the owner of. He chooses between the girl and the wine when his wife dies in a car crash that he causes by being drunk. There is a final twist, in that we discover that Wilberforce and Black share a first name - and that in Black's past he got the love of his life (a maid at the estate house) pregnant and she gave up the child for adoption. We're left with the possibility that Wilberforce's inheritance is not just the wine but his obsessive nature - something that Black also displays.

That this book contains a somewhat unsympathetic character as its main protagonist, but still remains a book that was, overall, quite enjoyable demonstrates some writing skill. I listened to this on audiobook and the narration was very good. There was a lot of accent and pitch change present in conversations, so that they were easy to follow. There is an air of depression about the inevitability of knowing what will happen when each chapter ends on a hopeful note. the ending, is especially poignant in this regard. An object lesson to all who run to an obsessive nature... show less

I very much enjoyed this novel, despite its rather hopeless and self-deluding central character. His wilful rejection of any attempts to bring him to an appreciation of the truth of his situation is gradually and skilfully revealed, with so much pity that it is as impossible for the reader to apportion blame as it is for the protagonist to accept it. I shall certainly be reading this again.

I very much enjoyed this novel, despite its rather hopeless and self-deluding central character. His wilful rejection of any attempts to bring him to an appreciation of the truth of his situation is gradually and skilfully revealed, with so much pity that it is as impossible for the reader to apportion blame as it is for the protagonist to accept it. I shall certainly be reading this again. (PS)

abandoned after about 70 pages. I picked this up because I loved Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, but this is the story of an alcoholic, from the perspective of said alcoholic, who inherits a truly absurd quantity of high quality wine. Being a non-drinker, this didn't speak to me at all! And I found it deeply frustrating. That said, I suspect wine connoisseurs might find it quite funny.