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by Zoe Heller

Zoe_Heller Contemporary English
  • ISBN: 0141012250
  • Category: Fiction
  • Author: Zoe Heller
  • Subcategory: Contemporary
  • Other formats: mbr lrf mobi lrf
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (March 4, 2004)
  • Pages: 256 pages
  • FB2 size: 1569 kb
  • EPUB size: 1225 kb
  • Rating: 4.2
  • Votes: 457
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Acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic for What Was She Thinking? Acknowledgements. She is the forty-two-year-old pottery teacher recently charged with indecent assault on a minor after being discovered having a sexual affair with one of her students-a boy who was fifteen years old when the affair began. Since it first came to light, Sheba’s case has received nigh on unstinting media coverage.

Zoe Heller has written a compelling story which is speckled with humour amid the dark, secretive caverns of its disturbing main character. I’d love to read her again.

Notes on a Scandal is therefore neither an essay in praise of older women, nor a Death in Venice-like reverie on the exquisite properties of the . Zoë Heller appears at the Guardian Hay festival today.

Notes on a Scandal is therefore neither an essay in praise of older women, nor a Death in Venice-like reverie on the exquisite properties of the young male. We're held at one emotional remove throughout by the novel's narrator, and immediately told how the affair ends, effectively puncturing all potential for thrilling tension.

Notes on a Scandal (What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal in the . is a 2003 novel by Zoë Heller. It is about a female teacher at a London comprehensive school who begins an affair with an underage pupil

Notes on a Scandal (What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal in the . It is about a female teacher at a London comprehensive school who begins an affair with an underage pupil. The novel was shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize. The Guardian ranked What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal in their list of 100 Best Books of the 21st Century.

More and more of her character is revealed as the book moves on. The novel is in the form of Barbara’s notes on the scandal once Sheba has been caught

More and more of her character is revealed as the book moves on. The novel is in the form of Barbara’s notes on the scandal once Sheba has been caught. Barbara wants to make notes on her relationship with Sheba from the time she first met the new teacher until the present time, when she is still taking care of Sheba in the house of Sheba’s mom.

Notes on a Scandal is a 2006 British psychological thriller-drama film directed by Richard Eyre and produced by Robert Fox and Scott Rudin. Adapted from the 2003 novel of the same name by Zoë Heller, the screenplay was written by Patrick Marber.

Notes on a Scandal - Opening Scene (Best lines of narration of the year!)

Notes on a Scandal - Opening Scene (Best lines of narration of the year!)

We’re dedicated to reader privacy so we never track you. We never accept ads. But we still need to pay for servers and staff.

We’re dedicated to reader privacy so we never track you. I know we could charge money, but then we couldn’t achieve our mission: a free online library for everyone. This is our day. Today.

Notes on a Scandal: A Novel. When a stroke fells radical New York lawyer Joel Litvinoff, a secret is revealed that forces Audrey, his wife, to reexamine everything she believed about their forty-year marriage

Notes on a Scandal: A Novel. When a stroke fells radical New York lawyer Joel Litvinoff, a secret is revealed that forces Audrey, his wife, to reexamine everything she believed about their forty-year marriage. In the meantime Joel's children are struggling with their own dilemmas and doubts. Disillusioned revolutionary Rosa has been drawn into the world of Orthodox Judaism. Karla, a devoted-and married-social worker hoping to adopt a child, is falling in love with the owner of a newspaper stand. Lenny, the ne'er-do-well, faces yet another relapse into heroin addiction.

A Hay Festival and The Poole VOTE 100 BOOKS for Women Selection. Shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize, Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal is a darkly compelling novel that explores the taboo subject of pupil/teacher relationships,. Shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize, Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal is a darkly compelling novel that explores the taboo subject of pupil/teacher relationships, obsession and betrayal. From the first day that the beguiling Sheba Hart joins the staff of St George's history teacher Barbara Covett is convinced she has found a kindred spirit

When the new teacher first arrives, Barbara immediately senses that this woman will be different from the rest of her staff-room colleagues. But Barbara is not the only one to feel that Sheba is special, and before too long Sheba is involved in an illicit affair with a pupil. Barbara finds the relationship abhorrent, of course, but she is the only adult in whom Sheba can properly confide. So when the liaison is found out and Sheba's life falls apart, Barbara is there...
Reviews about Notes on a Scandal (7):
Legionstatic
This is the kind of book that really makes you squirm. On the surface, it’s about a beautiful young teacher named Sheba who has an affair with her 15-year-old student. But the interesting thing is that the story is told from the perspective of Barbara, the lonely, strange, judgmental old teacher who befriends Sheba and becomes her confidant before and after she’s caught.

Usually in stories like this we’re given the perspective of the wrongdoer - and even in that case it’s difficult to trust that we’re getting all the facts, since often that individual is deluded. In this case, we get Barbara’s re-telling of Sheba’s story, which makes it all the more unreliable. We can’t help but wonder what Barbara’s real motive is.

Inevitably, over the course of the book we learn more about Barbara than Sheba. What kind of person befriends and protects someone like Sheba? What’s Barbara’s deal?

An uncomfortable read, for sure - and chock full of literary prose that deliver subtle yet creepy insights into these two characters. I only wish Heller had been a little less ambiguous about some of Barbara’s own secrets.
Cobyno
A middle-age female high school teacher has an affair with a student that began when the student was fifteen. The narrator will mention more than once that the uproar among the public, friends of the teacher, friends of the student, and the school staff is different than what it would be if the situation were a male teacher with a female student. The could not be a book like this without making that observation; by doing so we have gotten social politics out of the way.

For those looking for salacious sexual content; this is NOT the book for you. In the first few pages the reader is almost promised all the lurid details of an eight-month affair, but you will have to look very hard to find any “good stuff.”

What the reader will find is some excellent writing in the way of character development. Barbara, the narrator, is a fascinating character. More and more of her character is revealed as the book moves on. The novel is in the form of Barbara’s notes on the scandal once Sheba has been caught. Barbara wants to make notes on her relationship with Sheba from the time she first met the new teacher until the “present” time, when she is still taking care of Sheba in the house of Sheba’s mom. While Barbara’s focus is on Sheba and student lover Connolly; Barbara also writes of her own relationship with headmaster Pabblem, former best friend Jennifer, and Sue Hodge. It seems Barbara is quite jealous of Sue because Sheba’s first close friend was Sue, not Barbara.

Barbara also is involved with Sheba’s family, husband Richard, daughter Polly, and son Ben. Barbara does not have a high opinion of many. She thinks Richard is pretentious and does not deserve Sheba. She thinks Polly is disrespectful and disdainful of Sheba (a correct viewpoint). She does not have bad things to say about Ben, but Ben has Down’s syndrome.

Sheba is an upper class lady trying to make a difference in sharing enlightenment with the lower class rough crowd of students at her school. Connolly is a student who sees an opportunity for sex. Sheba does not start out with the idea of sex with a student. She looks at Connolly’s early attempts at starting a relationship as cute. She rationalizes her responses as polite; she does not want to stunt his social growth by an outright rebuff. Then she becomes intrigued. Then she responds with more enthusiasm, then she gets caught.

After she gets caught, daughter Polly will not talk to her, husband Richard throws her out of the house and allows only limited visitation with Ben. Sheba loses her job. Barbara loses her job, ousted by the headmaster she never liked, but she was ready to retire anyway. Sheba moves into a house owned by her brother Eddie, who is away in another country for an extended period of time. Barbara moves in with her for emotional support; she also begins making notes (this novel).

There is a surprise, not to be revealed here. How did she get caught? Did someone see Sheba and Connoly together? Who informed?

But the surprise takes backstage to the examination of Barbara’s life (as explained by Barbara). And the answer to the unasked question of why Barbara, really quite a snob, is taking care of Sheba, remains unanswered.
Mavegelv
I saw the movie (twice) before buying the book but wish I had done it the other way around. The story is narrated by Barbara Covett, a cynical, 60-something teacher who is very lonely---and very obsessed with Sheba, the pretty, 40-something art teacher at her school who had an affair with a high school student. Although the book (and the wonderfully-adapted movie) seek to question Sheba’s actions, it's actually Barbara who is the real villain.

The book is so well written that readers actually believe Barbara early on. She is simply writing "notes" on "a scandal" that occurred at her school, right? And she wants to protect her best friend and fellow teacher, Sheba, by documenting how Sheba got involved with a teenage student, right? False and more false! It's not until later in the book, though, that we realize that Barbara is an unreliable narrator----that's why I wish I had read the book before I had watched the movie. All these "notes" are actually Barbara's way of documenting her so-called relationship / obsession with Sheba.

I think Barbara actually feels betrayed that Sheba chose a young man over her. Barbara's fixation on Sheba is so over the top, but she justifies it in the book and in the movie because she's "lonely." Please. Get another cat, crazy lady! Volunteer somewhere! Just. Get. Away. If you've ever known someone with an unhealthy fixation on YOU, you will find Barbara Covett as creepy as I did.

That being said, the novel (and in turn my review) do nothing at all to refute the unflattering societal stereotype of the old / educated / lonely / spinster-teacher with cats. Other reviewers sympathize with Barbara and found passages about her solitary life touching. Not me. Her desire to attach herself to Sheba seems so obsessive that I think it makes Sheba's equally obsessive affair with the underage Steven who-smells-like-fresh-laundry Connelly seem almost acceptable. Both are May-December romances. And both relationships would be great to discuss in a readers' group, I think.

Judi Dench plays Barbara Covett (to the hilt) in the film; Kate Blanchett plays the posh pottery teacher, Sheba. And now I want to read MORE books by Zoe Heller. --Rhonda Filipan

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