Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

With Friends Like These

Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller

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Flighty, hippie-ish pottery teacher Sheba Hart and spinster English teacher Barbara Covett seem like an unlikely pair, probably because they are. Sheba is an upper-class woman married to an older man with whom she has two children, while Barbara has lived her whole life with only a cat for a companion. Sheba is open and intuitve and Barbara is an inflexible rule-follower. Their teaching styles too are quite different. Sheba struggles to maintain control over her students, let alone teach them anything, while Barbara’s classroom […]

This is what happens when you covet

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A female teacher engages in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student. This is not exactly a topic that lends itself to humor, but in the hands of Zoe Heller, readers will find biting humor along with social commentary that provokes and makes one squirm. Although the novel (shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize) is over ten years old, its topic is still relevant and the writing is superb. The novel is told from the point of view of Barbara Covett, a friend of […]



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