Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Even the title is witty in this latest of Spark's delightful novels, bearing as it does at least three layers of ambiguity. It is a tale told in a splendidly commonsensical way by Mrs. Hawkins, a buxom young war widow who is a tower of strength in a failing London publishing house during the lean years after WW II. She is surrounded, both at work and in her seedy Kensington boarding house, by those slightly off-center eccentrics the Englishand particularly Sparkdraw to perfection; everything on the surface seems utterly realistic, yet fantasy as rich as anything in Garcia Marquez is only a breath away. Mrs. Hawkins selects a hate object among the literary hangers-on at her firm, and that hatred changes her life. She also becomes involved with a Polish dressmaker with a dark secret, invents a supremely successful method of dieting and almost in spite of herself becomes happy. Spark knows the wonderfully zany world of postwar-London publishing backward, her wit has never been more telling, and any book person is going to gobble this up. A sample, to whet the appetite: ``Publishers, for obvious reasons, attempt to make friends with their authors. Martin York tried to make authors of his friends.'' (July)
Library Journal
Spark's latest novel is a taut, controlled portrait of the residents of a Kensington boarding house and the members of London's publishing world in 1954. Linking the two settings is Mrs. Hawkins, a solid young widow who becomes a center of normalcy as she solves the novel's clever mystery. Spark balances devastatingly eccentric characters and funny situations with darker elements, even pathos. Her well-constructed novel has no loose ends and few contrived situations. Characterizations and plot details reveal her at her best; comparison with Spark's The Girls of Slender Means and Memento Mori is tempting. Serious yet entertaining fiction; for most libraries. Elizabeth Guiney Sandvick, North Hennepin Community Coll., Minneapolis
Glyph Jockey - Stephen Hanulec
"The plot arrow is large and sharp and accurate. There's crazies, death, fist-fighting, insults, medical emergencies, injustice ... hoodoo and more."
Colm Tóibín
"The divine Spark is shining at her brightest—pure delight. "
The Guardian - Ali Smith
"Mercurially funny, playful and mischievous."
The New York Times - Jennifer Szalai
"This slip of a novel includes, among other things, anonymous threats, a fraudulent book publisher, the pseudoscience of radionics, the metaphysics of evil, a love story and an endorsement of cats. But Spark’s sly wit is what shimmers throughout. "
Sunday Times [London]
"A 1950s Kensington of shabby-genteel bedsitters, espresso bars...irradiated with the sudden glows of lyricism she can so beautifully effect."
Independent Whig.
"The divine Spark is shining at her brightest—pure delight."
The Philadelphia Inquirer
" Far Cry is, among other things, a comedy that holds a tragedy as an egg-cup holds an egg. "
AUGUST 2011 - AudioFile
Narrator Pamela Garelick’s rich, throaty voice is perfect for the character of Mrs. Hawkins, a portly, young widow in post-WWII London who lives in a boarding house filled with quirky neighbors and who finds herself in the middle of a mystery. Written by the author of THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, the story offers a glimpse into the publishing world of that time, although the plot is somewhat musty and unfocused. Garelick delivers the story with gusto, taking verbal risks with the many secondary characters that make each one distinct and quite often hilarious. Garelick’s wit and obvious pleasure keep the listener well entertained, and Spark’s apt descriptions and witty observations make up for what is missing in tension. F.J.K. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
