The gloriously named The Stars' Tennis Balls was randomly purchased for me one Christmas. I like Stephen Fry from QI and such but wasn't familiar with any of his writings and had never heard of this particular book. I can only emphasise (again) how good it is to read books outside of your norm, released some years ago now and without film rights I was never going to stumble across this at Sainsburys in the 'Top 10' book or DVD section yet what a find!
The book is unlike any I have read previously, twisting and turning so that I still had no idea how it would end by the last chapter. It started off as a teen love story (which I found quite bizarre coming from Fry) graduated to an upper class school boy rivalry story to something very dark and mentally disturbing. Throw in some lectures about the differences between strategy and tactics in chess (very different apparently) and you have a very original take on revenge.
It was quite gruesome in parts, and towards the end Fry did steer the victim in to unlikeable territory, which again was unexpected, surely the victim deserves his moment(s) of glory? Yes what happened to Ned was horrifying and no justice could return his life to him but a school boys petty act didn't quite warrant the level of vengeance he extracted. In some ways I suppose this illustrated how Ned didn't fully mature, he didn't get the chance to and so his moral compass was defined by Deft, Babe and his Swedish companions - not exactly shining lights in society.
I don't want to pick the book apart too greatly as I enjoyed it and sometimes writing the blog does take the shine off when trying to write more than 'I really enjoyed it'.
I did find the ending slightly weak, and by ending I mean the last paragraph as the book was still unfolding right to the last line but I thoroughly enjoyed being taken along for the ride and would recommend you give it a whirl. I won't explain how The Stars' Tennis Balls fit in, you will have to read it to find out!
It's a keeper.
The book is unlike any I have read previously, twisting and turning so that I still had no idea how it would end by the last chapter. It started off as a teen love story (which I found quite bizarre coming from Fry) graduated to an upper class school boy rivalry story to something very dark and mentally disturbing. Throw in some lectures about the differences between strategy and tactics in chess (very different apparently) and you have a very original take on revenge.
It was quite gruesome in parts, and towards the end Fry did steer the victim in to unlikeable territory, which again was unexpected, surely the victim deserves his moment(s) of glory? Yes what happened to Ned was horrifying and no justice could return his life to him but a school boys petty act didn't quite warrant the level of vengeance he extracted. In some ways I suppose this illustrated how Ned didn't fully mature, he didn't get the chance to and so his moral compass was defined by Deft, Babe and his Swedish companions - not exactly shining lights in society.
I don't want to pick the book apart too greatly as I enjoyed it and sometimes writing the blog does take the shine off when trying to write more than 'I really enjoyed it'.
I did find the ending slightly weak, and by ending I mean the last paragraph as the book was still unfolding right to the last line but I thoroughly enjoyed being taken along for the ride and would recommend you give it a whirl. I won't explain how The Stars' Tennis Balls fit in, you will have to read it to find out!
It's a keeper.
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