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What Was She Thinking?
(Notes on a Scandal). Zoe Heller. Picador: 2004 (paperback). ISBN: 0312421990. 272 pages.
Guide not available
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You've probably heard something about this novel by now, seeing as it's been on everybody's "Top Ten of 2003" lists; everybody like Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, New York Post, the Man Booker Shortlist, etc., etc. What you may not know is just how much sheer fun this novel is; it's the rare nifty little novel that allows you to snicker in a superior sort of way while encouraging you to think about some fairly big and important social/cultural issues. In present-day England, schoolteacher Barbara Covett is leading a sanctimonious and thus not-surprisingly-solitary life (her last close friend has deserted her under mysterious circumstances). But then she bonds with new art teacher Sheba Hart. Barbara doesn't know that Sheba is also developing another new friendship at school, of a very passionate and intimate nature, with one of her teenage students. The inevitable discovery leads to the inevitable media circus, leading Barbara to the decision to write an account of the affair in defense of her maligned and misunderstood friend. An account that reveals much about Barbara, possibly, than she ever intended, perhaps even more than it reveals about Sheba's questionable motives in falling head-over-heels-in-love with a sulky fifteen-year-old schoolboy.
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