Shuttlecock

By Graham Swift

Prentis, the narrator of this nightmarish novel, catalogs "dead crimes" for a branch of the London Police Department and suspects that he is going crazy. His files keep vanishing. His boss subjects him to cryptic taunts. His family despises him. And as Prentis desperately tries to hold on to the scraps of his sanity, he uncovers a conspiracy of blackmail and betrayal that extends from his department and into the buried past of his father, a war hero code-named "Shuttlecock"--and, lately, a resident of a hospital for the insane.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9780307829788

Graham Swift

Graham Swift was born in 1949 and is the author of eleven novels, two collections of short stories, including the highly acclaimed England and Other Stories, and of Making an Elephant, a book of essays, portraits, poetry and reflections on his life in writing. His most recent novel, Mothering Sunday, became an international bestseller and won The Hawthornden Prize for best work of imaginative literature. With Waterland he won the Guardian Fiction Prize, and with Last Orders the Booker Prize. Both novels were made into films. His work has appeared in over thirty languages.

Reviews for Shuttlecock

[bridgey_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A bit of a strange one this. The novel is essentially made up of two different tales that sort of converge at the end. Set when the book was written (80's) it follows the life of Prentis. Prentis is a married father of two boys, he works as an office bound investigator of past crimes. The story is written in the first person allowing us to learn his disturbed thought and reasoning behind the treatment of his family. Prentis comes across as extremely unlikable and paranoid. He is convinced that an ongoing investigation he is being asked to look into, involves him and his father and as he digs deeper and deeper (at the expense of his deteriorating home life) the more paranoid he becomes. Disillusioned with his lot in life he tries to force respect from his children and wife but only succeeds in alienating himself further.The second tale relates to his father who is currently in a nursing home, and not been able to speak for number of months due to a mental trauma. When a young man he was employed as a secret agent during the war and known under the code name 'Shuttlecock', captured as a prisoner of war he later recounts his experiences in a published autobiography. Prentis becomes fascinated with this book and tries to find the answer for his fathers condition within the pages, reading and rereading them. I don't know why, and it's not something I can easily pinpoint but I just did not enjoy the novel, often as a reader I myself felt left out of plot (in particular following the case where suspects were only referred to as letters). I found the narrative too disjointed and struggled to maintain interest. I can see why other readers have awarded the book 5 stars and I am sure that it has a lot more to offer than I was able to take from it. But, to be honest, it captivated me so little that I just couldn't be bothered trying to find it.

[emmakendon_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A curious little number, better than The Light of Day, but not quite up to Waterland and Last Orders. Odious (and deliciously probably unreliable) narrator, but his boss Quinn's an interesting character. The father, who is in a psychiatric hospital (and visited, summoning up for the reader the mother's visit to her daughter in Last Orders) is great to meet through his book which itself becomes a main character. Not called Swift for nothing, he might have written this nearly as fast as I read it, but he's a clever, clever writer, so the unfinished strands are left as questions. I'd recommend it as a quick read.

[technodiabla · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Shuttlecock is kind of schizophrenic -- part mystery, part spy novel, part family drama. I don't think any of those aspects of it were done perfectly, but the mixing of them was interesting. The main character Prentis, is despicable, especially at the beginning; in fact, none of the characters are especially likable though some you do feel sorry for. The look at life, family, and people is very honest though, if sometimes brutally so. Swift's writing unfortunately reminds me of Ishiguro's (I'm not fan of Ishiguro's writing at all), but it isn't bad-- just not my personal taste. I would have liked to see some of the threads pulled a bit more and finalized, though I think Swift is making a point by specifically NOT doing this. I also would label this as a "guy book." For a quick multi-facted read with memorable characters this is a good choice, but given Swift's reputation and awards it was a bit of let-down for me.