Engleby

by Sebastian Faulks

Stoney-hearted lover, confessional liar, stranger to himself, man with five names, but you'll remember him by one: Engleby.

Who is Mike Engleby? When we meet him, he is a college student. He is a brilliant scholar, but not a social creature at all. He doesn't have any real friends and just kind of hangs out with crowds, even though he's never been formally invited. Through him, we learn of his miserable school days and his abusive father. And the reader feels just a little bit of pity for him.

And then Jennifer Arkland disappears. Jennifer is Engleby's obsession. Did Mike have anything to do with her disappearance? We don't know. His memory is sketchy, and as sympathetic readers, we keep hoping that her fate had nothing to do with him.

As he ages, Mike's strangeness becomes somewhat amplified. And the reader cannot help but to wonder whether he had anything to do with Jennifer's disappearance.

Odd, engaging, and a mystery in its own right, Engleby is a novel worth reading.

9/27/07