Rating: 
Summary: Well-Written, But It Left Me Cold
Review: THE FALL is a good book, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as two of Simon Mawer's other books, MENDEL'S DWARF and THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS. There was something about THE FALL that just didn't "ring true" for me. I can't say exactly what it was. It could have been that I simply didn't enjoy the mountaineering episodes; mountaineering always seems so much more of a man's sport than a woman's, but I know that's not necessarily true.THE FALL opens with a death. As Rob Dewer is driving he learns about the death of his estranged friend, Jamie Matthewson in a fall from a Welsh cliff. Almost impulsively, Rob turns around and drives to Wales to visit Jamie's widow, Ruth. He's puzzled by the accident: he wants to know why Jamie wasn't wearing a helmet or using ropes and even why he was climbing such a difficult and unfamiliar peak alone. Rob even toys with the idea that Jamie might have wanted to commit suicide. The story of Jamie's fall isn't a straightforward one. Mawer takes us back fifty years, through two generations of Dewers and Matthewsons and their complex interrelationships, but, for the most part, the book centers on the relationship between Rob and Jamie because it is within this relationship that all of the answers to Rob's questions will be found. Rob and Jamie's friendship began when they were boys and was propelled by their mutual love for mountain climbing. Their relationship hits a snag, however, when they both fall in love with the same woman, a Welsh painter named Ruth. Even though Ruth chooses to marry Jamie, she works for Rob and she sleeps with both of them. Complicating matters (a little unbelievably for me) are Rob and Jamie's parents. Jamie's mother, Caroline, once seduced a teenaged Rob, while Jamie's father and Rob's mother were lovers in their youth. If all of the above sounds confusing, in Mawer's hands, it is not. He handles the shifts in time and generations both smoothly and skillfully. Mawer certainly makes us believe in his characters and his story. His descriptions are vivid and filled with sensory detail. The mountaineering scenes were especially vivid, but thank goodness Mawer didn't feel the need to fill them with technical jargon. That would have ruined the book for me. I wanted a book about people, primarily, and that's what Mawer gives us. Although THE FALL was a fairly entertaining story and a well-written one, I felt the ending was quite predictable. There are two "revelations", in particular, that were probably meant to be "shockers" or "surprises" but any astute reader could see them coming long before the final pages. All works of fiction are contrived, but the ending of THE FALL seemed "too contrived." It seemed forced rather than evolving naturally out of character progression and growth. THE FALL was a well-crafted and well-written book, but I just couldn't find empathy with or sympathy for any of the characters. THE FALL was a book that, despite all of its good qualities (and there are quite a few), simply left me cold. This is probably due to personal preferences and definitely not a reflection of Mawer's expertise. If you're new to Mawer, I'd read MENDEL'S DWARF or THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS rather than beginning with THE FALL, though. I think the other two books are more indicative of Mawer's literary talents.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Climbing Book
Review: This book has riveting climbing sections which are true page turners, and fantastic, realistic love triangles between fascinating characters who we all know.
Rating:
Summary: "The Fall" Explores The Gamut Of Human Emotions - Superb!!
Review: This is a powerhouse of a novel that will have you reading compulsively until you've turned the last page, and will leave you deep in thought long after that. "The Fall" has achieved a place on my Top 10 list of favorite works of fiction. Rob Dewer hears on the car radio that his old friend and mountain climbing partner, Jamie Matthewson, has fallen to his death while making an almost suicidal solo climb. Although the two men have not been in touch for years, the news hits Dewer hard, stirring up a series of memories and strong, unresolved feelings from long ago. He immediately turns his car towards Wales and begins a journey, not only to bring comfort to Matthewson's widow, his old friend and former lover, Ruth, but into the past where decades old secrets and betrayals are disclosed. Author Simon Mawer writes, "At some time or other you must confront your past. We are our past...There is nothing else, and none of it can be undone." Mawer visits the past of a group of people who are intimately connected through friendship, love, lust, jealousy, competition, hatred and blood ties. The enormous power of some of Mawer's characters is almost overwhelming at times, as is their extreme fragility and vulnerability. His prose is masterful and poignant. The plot is riveting, compelling, almost brutal, in its honesty. I have never been very interested in the sport of climbing, but Mawer's narrative transported me, time and time again, on exhilarating treks up mountainsides; the action so vividly described that I felt that I was one of the climbers. His descriptions of landscapes, both fierce and bucolic, are as visual as paintings. Mawer is indeed a master craftsman. This is a novel of love, of moral choices and decisions that life forces us to make. Sometimes the repercussions of these decisions echo into the future, for generations to come. This is truly one of the most amazingly original novels I have read in years and it has effected me deeply. I cannot praise "The Fall" highly enough!
JANA
Rating:
Summary: "The Fall" Explores The Gamut Of Human Emotions - Superb!!
Review: This is a powerhouse of a novel that will have you reading compulsively until you've turned the last page, and will leave you deep in thought long after that. "The Fall" has achieved a place on my Top 10 list of favorite works of fiction. Rob Dewer hears on the car radio that his old friend and mountain climbing partner, Jamie Matthewson, has fallen to his death while making an almost suicidal solo climb. Although the two men have not been in touch for years, the news hits Dewer hard, stirring up a series of memories and strong, unresolved feelings from long ago. He immediately turns his car towards Wales and begins a journey, not only to bring comfort to Matthewson's widow, his old friend and former lover, Ruth, but into the past where decades old secrets and betrayals are disclosed. Author Simon Mawer writes, "At some time or other you must confront your past. We are our past...There is nothing else, and none of it can be undone." Mawer visits the past of a group of people who are intimately connected through friendship, love, lust, jealousy, competition, hatred and blood ties. The enormous power of some of Mawer's characters is almost overwhelming at times, as is their extreme fragility and vulnerability. His prose is masterful and poignant. The plot is riveting, compelling, almost brutal, in its honesty. I have never been very interested in the sport of climbing, but Mawer's narrative transported me, time and time again, on exhilarating treks up mountainsides; the action so vividly described that I felt that I was one of the climbers. His descriptions of landscapes, both fierce and bucolic, are as visual as paintings. Mawer is indeed a master craftsman. This is a novel of love, of moral choices and decisions that life forces us to make. Sometimes the repercussions of these decisions echo into the future, for generations to come. This is truly one of the most amazingly original novels I have read in years and it has effected me deeply. I cannot praise "The Fall" highly enough!
JANA
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