The Book Report Episode #25

Episode #24

Study Of Obedience By Sarah Bernstein

The Book

Written by Canadian author Sarah Bernstein, and was first published by Granta Books in 2023. The novel was chosen for the Booker Prize in 2023. The book has 196 pages, including references and acknowledgements.

What did I Think

This book threw me through a loop. What was this going on about? In the beginning. It sounded like a woman who seemed a bit full of herself. A bit paranoid thinking everyone was against her. She appears to be fairly intelligent. Well, smarter than me anyway. She has a good life and is doing well but everything she does: is not right or there is some conspiracy. It is never clear what or where her ideas come from.

And this lady can talk and talk and talk. What is she waffling on about? She talks about everything that is going on in her life but not saying anything at all. this book is this size due to mostly ramblings.

Family

She leaves her current job to be a housekeeper for her brother. But she keeps part of the job as a work-from-home transcriber. She is in charge of looking after the house and the land around it. When the brother is there she has to be a mother/ nursemaid to her brother. I did find her washing her brother’s back a bit weird.

But the brother, I trust, is paying her for her duties. So it can’t be all bad.

From what I can gather from her life. Her family are a bunch of intellectuals and she is the runt of the litter. Her brother seems to take her under his wing and makes sure she is learning to improve herself and this continues when she joins her brother at his home. He does this by loaning her books and helping her with her speech.

The house is at the edge of what seems to be a normal town, with normal things that happen in a small farming area. But even here there is some conspiracy. A cult-like happening. Which again is not fully explained except that something is happening. The locals are weird to her. Well, she believes they are.

The best thing about this is that we don’t know anybody’s name. Not even the main character. We don’t know who she is, or who her family are. Where they are in the country or the world. The fact we know that they speak English is amazing. Or do we? And also the fact that she doesn’t know what the locals are saying because she doesn’t speak the language.

The “Troubles”

It turns out in the end, that she is the replacement family member to look after the residences until further notice. And even that isn’t explained.

Maybe the “curse” or “troubles” are mainly a family that has mental health problems. For all their intelligence: they never work on themselves mentally.

Although well-written the story is right at the end of you grasping all the answers. You can follow her first-person perspective reasonably well and even understand the gist of what is going on. I am not sure if this is a good book or not. The mystery is there but there are no solid answers. I supposed that could be okay. But for me, I need to know. And even if, there is something weird going on and the village is against the woman. The way she talks about it half makes her look a little crazy.

Even the portrayal of the village acts like something out of a mild horror film without anything happening. Well, anything of consequence.

Would I Recommend

Honestly, I don’t know. I am on the edge of saying yes. But I believe this is one of those books, you would have to read for yourself so you could decide. I’m not sure I like this book. I am not saying I wouldn’t read anything else by Mrs Bernstein. I. Just. Don’t. Know.

Would you like to purchase your very own copy?

You could try these online stores: Amazon UK/USA. Waterstones. AbeBooks UK/ USA, Barnes and Noble and eBay UK/ USA.

Alternatively, you could try your local bookshop or even your local library