Blood Harmonies

Five stars for ‘The Believers’ by Zoe Heller

The Believers by Zoë Heller


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ve just this minute finished this extraordinary novel, so will need more time to properly gather my thoughts. Although I would recommend it without reservation, I’m not sure I can really say I enjoyed it, so much as admired it enormously.

For the first half I found Audrey’s relentless snarking and self-absorbed ranting quite tedious. But by the end I felt delighted to see there was some light on the horizon for her. Equally, at first, every paragraph inside Karla’s head, or worse, her marriage, felt somewhat interminable. But as she finally began to emerge from the pitiful self-deprecation, I was rooting for her, and for Rosa, and would happily have followed them both on for another novel.

More than anything, what really kept me going was the sheer force and verve of the prose. I can’t think of when I last read writing I’ve admired this much, or felt moved to make oodles of notes on. Although for me, it lacked the breathless forward momentum of Notes on a Scandal, I’ve no doubt The Believers is a treat I’ll be returning again and again.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 15:35 and is filed under It's dark o'clock in the morning again. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.