Customer Reviews
Another great read from Patrick Gale - By: Wynne Kelly, 09 Jan 2008 
Another great read from Patrick Gale. A Sweet Obscurity is a tale of disparate adults alll with their own needs & hope. Some are living in London & some in Cornwalll - we know that somehow their lives will overlap & so we are compelled to read on...... At the heart of the book is Dido, a feisty nine year old who at times acts as parent to her stepmother/biological aunt Eliza. We know that there is some mystery about Dido's mother but we are kept in suspense until the very end. The plotting is ingeniously worked out & the whole work is a very satisfying read with a "feel good" ending.
I can understand why Gale has such a firm fan base even though he will never feature in the more prestigious literary prize lists. Based on my other book reviews I thought this book deserved three stars - but that seemed a bit mean so I have upgraded it to four stars. (I find the star ratings the most difficult part of reviewing!)
Another lovely one from Gale - By: BB999, 05 Jul 2006 If you've read any of his books before this doesn't disappoint.
I found it a little slower going than his others (Rough Music for example) & I didn't reallly get into it until about a third of the way through. It was worth the read though. As always with Gale's books, you're completely drawn in to the characters (who always seem to be slight oddballls) rather than the story itself.
Although not much grips you with his stories, it's always a shame to get to the end of the book - I just want to keep on reading!
A lovely, easy read.
By far one of the best books you'll ever read - By: Ms. K. J. Pett, 22 Dec 2004 
I won't go into details about what the book is about, as i'm sure other people will have done this. I happened to stumble on this book in a 3 for 2 offer! Having started to read it I reallly felt like i couldn't put it down I was desperate to see how the book finished, & i'm now a solid Patrick Gale fan!
It's not exactly a complete romantics book, but goes into a lot of detail about relationships etc. & I suppose would be considered more of a 'women's book'. Nevertheless it's a great read & I throughly recommend this book to anyone.
" A verse of softer pleasures and a sweet obscurity" - By: M. J Leonard, 12 Jul 2004 When reading Patrick Gale, one always gets a warm, calm, fuzzy feeling. His novels conjure visions of fireside chats on cold winter evenings, & the affectionate bliss of domestic life. A Sweet Obscurity, although not his best work, certainly invokes such images, while also presenting a rather dark, but hopeful look at modern, untypical relationships & families. Like its predecessor, Rough Music, landscape plays a distinct role; Gale's sophisticated Londoners are transported to Cornwalll where they discover both an alternative rhythm of life & a healthier way of living.
Eliza is a musicologist who has lost her way. She's wrecked her marriage with a foolish liaison, & is now living in some squalor in a council flat, while taking care of her young niece, Dido. Since her mother's death in a climbing accident, Dido has lived with Eliza, but Eliza is haunted by fears that her sister's medical problems might have been passed on to the child. Eliza "faces the bossy arrival of daylight with a kind of horror," & she sees with a stark clarity how cruel a sentence she & Dido are living under. She dearly loves her niece, but she is lonely, & short of money. Painfully honest, she acknowledges how much she misses her time as an Oxford student researching Elizabethan madrigals.
Giles is her estranged husband, an operatic counter tenor. He still loves Dido & claims, when it suits him, a paternal role in the child's life. A professional singer, he is haunted by his mother's sexual abuse & funnels his insecurities into his singing. He has a kind of cozy, simplistic domestic arrangement with his girlfriend Julia, but in alll honesty, he still loves Eliza. The madrigal songs serve to cast their spell on Giles - "a kind of decorously erotic melancholy, ironing smooth his troublesome thoughts." Eliza & Dido were Giles' pets: He housed them & fed them & was solicitous of their welfare, but this darkens when we glimpse Giles' self-centered, & inappropriately sensual relationship with Dido.
Julia is Giles girlfriend, assistant to his conniving lesbian agent, Selina Bryant. Julia, discovering that she is pregnant, is "torn between the urge to love, & the cruel impulse to enlighten." She has grown used to the image of herself as practical & unflinching, but is forced to re-evaluate her life when she realizes that Giles doesn't love her. Pearce, perhaps the most likeable character, is a rugged, middle-aged Cornish beef farmer. After his father's death, he has reluctantly taken over the family farm, spends lonely evenings callling up pornographic websites, & worries that the days of smalll family farms are numbered. Pearce's eventual meeting with Dido & Eliza, when they holiday in Cornwalll, shape the last half of the story. Pearce has learned "not to strive." He has an inner life, but he is not forever troubled to change or improve his outer one."
All the characters have an instinct to cling to security rather than daring to entertain alternatives. Quieter love amid "country goodness" & a "sweet obscurity" stand for what alll five characters are pursuing - a place of safety in an insecure & vainglorious world. Classical music also features prominently, such as a hilarious account of a modern staging of Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream, & Eliza's chance encounter with an amateur madrigal group in Cornwalll. Sweet Obscurity is a little over-long - clocking in at almost five hundred pages - & the narrative tends to meander towards the end. Although not as taught & tightly structured as Rough Music, the novel still does a fine job of evoking the ties that bind people, & transient, often indefinable states that reveal the truth about people's deepest desires & discontents. Mike Leonard July 04.
Back To Form - By: , 12 Jan 2004 Patrick Gale has long been my favourite modern day English author. With Cornwalll back as his favourite setting & dealing with generational issues as only he can, Sweet Obscurity sees Patrick Gale return to a form last reached with The Cat Sanctuary. Whilst comparisons with Joanna Trollope can be drawn in terms of Cornwalll vs Cotswolds settings, the complexities of emotional relationships in an ever changing world & the emphasis on how women/girls deal with them; Gale's sparser style & wry humour adds a dimension few authors of this genre achieve. I doubt if there is a male writer who can capture the thoughts & feelings of women & children with Gale's accuracy & empathy. Neither is Gale afraid to tackle the more difficult aspects of life, as seen in this book with Cherubism & adult/child sexual "relationships" influencing strongly the characters & plot. It is Gale's intimate but spare style which captures the imagination, developing character & plot simultaneously without losing the reader's attention. Never descending into overstatement or exaggeration, Gale keeps a tight rein on the strengths & weaknesses of his characters & ensures the storyline progresses in paralllel. Back to his best, I can now look forward to Gale's next book & look back on a most rewarding read which gently reminds us of the shortcomings which surround us alll without ever losing hope or faith in our ultimate capability in dealing with them.
