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    Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel
    Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel
    Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel
    Ebook273 pages4 hours

    Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel

    By Zoe Heller

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize

    Zoë Heller's Notes on a Scandal ("A deliciously perverse, laugh-out-loud-funny novel." --Vogue) is a major motion picture from Fox Searchlight starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench

    Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St. George's, befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an illicit affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend's defense--and ends up revealing not only Sheba's secrets, but also her own.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateDec 12, 2006
    ISBN9781429912174
    Notes on a Scandal: What Was She Thinking?: A Novel
    Author

    Zoe Heller

    Zoë Heller is the author of Everything You Know and What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal, which was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize and made into an acclaimed film starring Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench. Heller lives in New York.

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    Reviews for Notes on a Scandal

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      The lady who read the audio book sounded exactly like Dame Judi Dench, so it was like having the Dame herself tell me a slightly risqué and entertaining story on my daily commutes. Fabulous. And lots of top-shelf diction that was very impressive, too.
    • 3/5
      Zoë Heller’s novel of obsessive and, ultimately, destructive infatuation is a skilfully rendered portrait of a woman embittered by loneliness and solitude who is pathologically unable to make and keep friends. A teacher with many years of service at a London comprehensive school behind her, Barbara Covett is in her sixties and on the cusp of retirement when the school hires a new art instructor, 40-ish Sheba Hart. Barbara is on the rebound from a failed friendship with another female teacher, and it gives the reader some sense of Barbara’s domineering nature to learn that the former friend, Jennifer, has cut ties with her and threatened legal action if Barbara tries to contact her again. For her part, Barbara claims ignorance regarding the cause of the rift. The novel, which recounts events from Barbara’s perspective, is presented as a document that Barbara is composing in defense of Sheba’s actions, though she ends up revealing as much about herself as she does about Sheba. Sheba, bohemian by nature, attired in gauzy outfits, parades her waiflike beauty with casual nonchalance, oblivious to the comments, flattering and unflattering, that follow in her wake. Married to a man 20 years her senior, saddled with a sullen, temperamental teenage daughter and a son with Down’s Syndrome, she lives a privileged life crammed with material things but is emotionally adrift. Enter student Steven Connelly, 15, whose rough exterior, working-class origins and nascent artistic talent go a long way toward breaking down Sheba’s resistance to his sexual advances. In the meantime, Barbara manages to finagle her way into Sheba’s life to the point of becoming the younger woman’s intimate and confessor. All of these factors come into play when the affair between teacher and student is exposed and attains public notice in the form of salacious tabloid headlines. Sheba, crumbling under the notoriety, her life and career in ruins, is left with no one but Barbara to rely on. Zoë Heller, a journalist, is a master of the stunningly apt turn of phrase, particularly where her characters—their appearance and gestures—are concerned, and throughout the book the prose is vivid and rich with metaphor. On the other side of the ledger, the action occasionally descends into melodrama, and it’s possible some readers will find the construct of Barbara piecing together the story from details gleaned from Sheba during conversations a bit awkward and far-fetched. Despite these minor reservations, What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal], which tells a sordid and unhappy tale in which there are virtually no sympathetic characters, remains highly entertaining and absolutely gripping.
    • 4/5
      While the story does deal with an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student, Sheba’s relationship with young Connelly really only plays a peripheral role. Told from the point of view of Barbara – don’t call her Barb, and never call her ‘Babs” – this is a story with strong themes of power/control and how appearances can be deceiving. Now, some readers may call Barbara an old, miserable spinster, but I prefer the term “crusty” to describe her jaded outlook on life. Barbara leads a rather lonely life, eschewing relationships in preference for observing and passing judgement from the sidelines, so for Barbara to decide to become friends with the younger, more effervescent and (as we learn) powerless Sheba, you know something just isn’t quite on the “up and up”. While this story does not have an outright sinister vibe, Barbara’s manipulations of Sheba and her observations of events, result in a salient, compelling portrait of lopsided, deteriorating relationships. Sadly, the story left some unanswered questions for me - like why Barbara decided to take care of Sheba when she could have just cast her off like an old sweater - so, the end result for me is an interesting read that left me somewhat unsatisfied at the end, even though I did enjoy discovering that Heller is a writer who's writing style has been influenced by the likes of Muriel Spark.
    • 5/5
      I didn't anticipate what a suspenseful, psychological novel this would be! Very Talented Mr Ripley or even Gone Girl-esque.
    • 4/5
      This is definitely a psychological thriller. This was a very cleverly written novel. What should be the most shocking aspect of the book, teacher Bathesheba's sexual relationship with a 15 year old boy is not as shocking as the friendship betrayal by Barbara, the narrator of the book
    • 3/5
      Great characters. I love Barbara as a narrator. The book is almost entirely driven by Barbara's voice, though, and not by the plot, which isn't all that interesting.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this book on a slightly guilty voyeuristic way. The narrator is totally unreliable and thoroughly unlikable but it makes for addictive reading.
    • 3/5
      A compelling read
    • 5/5
      A beautifully written novel of obsession, jealousy and an inappropriate sexual relationship. The story is written in the third person by a woman whom we perecive to be supportive and sympathetic to the main character. Over time we gain more insight into the narrater's motivation and uncover layers of betrayal and further obsession which are triggered by envy and lonliness. A beautifully written novel which will have you hooked from the first chapter.
    • 5/5
      I wonder what it is about this author that allows her to write so well about such despicable characters! She brings you inside their minds, straight to what they are thinking, and with one phrase you understand the person, their motivation, their fears, beliefs etc. Truly skillful!
    • 4/5
      oh great, another stupid American retitling of a book
    • 4/5
      As Barbara, the narrator, nears retirement from teaching in a London school, Sheba, a new art teacher, arrives. Barbara takes some trouble to develop a friendship and to discourage Sheba other potential friends. She keeps notes about Sheba that eventually include her love affair with a fifteen-year-old student. These notes form the story. Nasty people are plentiful: Sheba's husband, her daughter, her mother, the school principal, other teachers, even Barbara, that the book's success is all the more amazing. It's hard to appreciate that these unpleasant characters can hook the reader but combined with the psychological twists of jealousy, obsession, shifting loyalty and variations of love, you have a winner, albeit a creepy winner.
    • 3/5
      I thought this book was very well written. The characters and their relationships to each other were well developed throughout adding a richness to the story.
    • 5/5
      The best book with an unreliable narraator that I have read. Morally ambiguous and you're never quite sure who the predator is, and who the prey.
    • 5/5
      So many things were hard to read for the fact it's so spot on about things.. the comment about the Rosary being one of the many :-)
    • 5/5
      A middle-age female high school teacher has an affair with a student that began when the student was fifteen. The narrator will mention more than once that the uproar among the public, friends of the teacher, friends of the student, and the school staff is different than what it would be if the situation were a male teacher with a female student. The could not be a book like this without making that observation; by doing so we have gotten social politics out of the way.For those looking for salacious sexual content; this is NOT the book for you. In the first few pages the reader is almost promised all the lurid details of an eight-month affair, but you will have to look very hard to find any “good stuff.”What the reader will find is some excellent writing in the way of character development. Barbara, the narrator, is a fascinating character. More and more of her character is revealed as the book moves on. The novel is in the form of Barbara’s notes on the scandal once Sheba has been caught. Barbara wants to make notes on her relationship with Sheba from the time she first met the new teacher until the “present” time, when she is still taking care of Sheba in the house of Sheba’s mom. While Barbara’s focus is on Sheba and student lover Connolly; Barbara also writes of her own relationship with headmaster Pabblem, former best friend Jennifer, and Sue Hodge. It seems Barbara is quite jealous of Sue because Sheba’s first close friend was Sue, not Barbara.Barbara also is involved with Sheba’s family, husband Richard, daughter Polly, and son Ben. Barbara does not have a high opinion of many. She thinks Richard is pretentious and does not deserve Sheba. She thinks Polly is disrespectful and disdainful of Sheba (a correct viewpoint). She does not have bad things to say about Ben, but Ben has Down’s syndrome.Sheba is an upper class lady trying to make a difference in sharing enlightenment with the lower class rough crowd of students at her school. Connolly is a student who sees an opportunity for sex. Sheba does not start out with the idea of sex with a student. She looks at Connolly’s early attempts at starting a relationship as cute. She rationalizes her responses as polite; she does not want to stunt his social growth by an outright rebuff. Then she becomes intrigued. Then she responds with more enthusiasm, then she gets caught. After she gets caught, daughter Polly will not talk to her, husband Richard throws her out of the house and allows only limited visitation with Ben. Sheba loses her job. Barbara loses her job, ousted by the headmaster she never liked, but she was ready to retire anyway. Sheba moves into a house owned by her brother Eddie, who is away in another country for an extended period of time. Barbara moves in with her for emotional support; she also begins making notes (this novel).There is a surprise, not to be revealed here. How did she get caught? Did someone see Sheba and Connolly together? Who informed? But the surprise takes backstage to the examination of Barbara’s life (as explained by Barbara). And the answer to the unasked question of why Barbara, really quite a snob, is taking care of Sheba, remains unanswered.
    • 4/5
      From the back cover: School teacher Barbara Covett has led a solitary life until Sheba Hart, the new art teacher at St George’s befriends her. But even as their relationship develops, so too does another: Sheba has begun an affair with an underage male student. When the scandal turns into a media circus, Barbara decides to write an account in her friend’s defense – and ends up revealing not only Sheba’s secrets but also her own.

      My reactions
      Wow. Told from Barbara’s perspective the story unfolds slowly as Barbara observes and records her impressions of the new art teacher. It is clear that Sheba is obsessed with the affair, emotionally stressed and not thinking straight. But the reader slowly becomes aware that Barbara is also emotionally damaged- equally obsessed with her friendship with Sheba and jealous of Sheba’s relationships with other teachers and even with her husband and children.

      In the end, the more interesting psychological study is the portrayal of Barbara. What she reveals about herself in recording Sheba’s story is more subtle and interesting than the story she is trying to tell. She is dangerous woman to have as a “friend.”

      I did think that Heller was a bit heavy-handed with the symbolism in these central character’s names. “Bathsheba” is bad enough, with all the implications of sexual misconduct, but “Covett”? Really? Still this is a minor irritation.

    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this one & liked the film as well. Donating as clearing bookshelves for move.
    • 4/5
      Another well overdue book from my TBR and I have to ask myself why it took me so long to pick it up. I haven't seen the film version but I do know it stars Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench. And on reading Barbara's narrative I could 'hear' Judi Dench's voice in my head.I really enjoyed this book, well written with some great descriptions. I particularly liked the use of the word 'incubus' when an angry Sheba told Barbara what her husband had said about her. That word stuck with me, a strong accusation but perhaps correct to an extent. The author leaves it up to the reader to decide what the outcome of the situation will be. Both with the impending court case and the future of Barbara and Sheba's friendship.Let's look at Barbara first: Here is a woman who worms her way into the life of those she presumes to be weak. A predator, who dominates and in a less obvious way bullies. Someone who becomes a subversive friend, attaches like a leech before you realise that you really want to get rid of them. Can you identify with that? I'm sure you can from somewhere in your life. We get a glimpse of this Barbara when she refers to her previous friendship with Jenny who cuts her out completely. Barbara is hurt but doesn't see what she is doing in these relationships, smothering her friends. A spinster teacher with no external interests in life other than her cat.Moving on to Sheba: Sheba has gone into teaching later in life after bringing up her family. She has a trying relationship with her mother and is the daughter of a renowned father. Sheba married young, much to her mother's upset but adding to this upset by marrying a man much older than herself. Her husband is wrapped up in his own career and you are left with the view that Sheba feels a tad neglected. She starts her new teaching post and has trouble holding the classes under control. She is shown some interest by a younger pupil, is flattered and responds to his charms. What struck me about Sheba is her lack of self control. She knew her actions were wrong but she did nothing to put a stop to it or made half hearted attempts in the beginning. We see her as weak and she is certainly in the eyes of Barbara. Yet, Sheba does have strengths.I am not sure if I want to see the film. More often than not, film adaptations do not live up to the written word. The storyline is uncomfortable as it discusses abuse of trust, sexual relationship between teacher and pupil, friendship, marriage and much more. Blanchett and Dench are both formidable actresses and I am sure gave their roles justice. You may not like the subject matter but the book is well worth reading and I highly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      This book is more of a character study than anything; not a lot happens plotwise, but the characters are so beautifully created that it hardly matters. Sheba and Barbara, the two principals, are both deeply, deeply flawed. I can't truly decide which one is more flawed; Sheba, on the one hand, has a bright eyed innocence but is clearly guilty of horrific choices and utter stupidity. Barbara, on the other hand, is more cold and calculating and deeply selfish, but also profoundly lonely and desperate. In any case, both feel true to life and while both are terrible people (it's truly difficult to sympathize with any characters in this novel; perhaps Ben, Sheba's son, who alone seems to be the massive collateral damage) you understand their motivations and understand their flaws. I very much enjoyed the way the novel finished with Barbara victorious; given their personalities, there could be no other way. I also thought the way Heller examined Sheba's motivations was the truest account of a cheating spouse that I've ever read. All in all, the novel felt like it could have easily happened, and perhaps this realism was what I liked best.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this one! It wasn't really anything like I expected it to be but I say that as a good thing. The writing is beautiful- it's intelligent without being clunky and flows incredibly well, making it a pleasure to read. Both Barbara and Sheba are portrayed brilliantly. They're complex and well developed characters and I felt like we got a good sense of who they are from all angles. Barbara tells her story well and honestly had me laughing out loud more than once which I love in novels. It was an intriguing story and very thought-provoking. This is certainly a unique and memorable work.
    • 4/5
      “But about the drip drip of long-haul, no-end-in-sight solitude, they know nothing. They don't know what it is to construct an entire weekend around a visit to the laundrette."This was a surprisingly multi-layered book. Initially thinking that this is a novel about tabloid titillation concerning an affair between a middle aged,mother of two,teacher and one of her male pupils it becomes so much more, a critique on class and loneliness which then turns to stalker-ism.Bathsheba Hart is a middle class 41 year old woman of beauty who starts work as a pottery teacher in a London comprehensive turning male heads as she does so but whilst her male colleagues merely admire from a distance 15 year old Steven Connolly,the son of a taxi driver living on a local council estate, who makes his move thus starting an affair between the two. However, the story of the affair is not revealed by one of the participants but by Barbara Collett,a sixty year old spinster and history teacher who befriends Sheba.Barbara's life is empty shared only with an ageing cat who begins to live her life through Sheba, revelling in the latter's rolls behind the pottery kiln and al fresco sex on Hampstead Heath with Steven marking so much so that when she decides to write down an account of the affair she marks every significant event with a gold star. Sheba is married to a controlling man 20 years her elder and has a frosty relationship with her own mother and 17 year old daughter, who when forced to make decisions for herself generally seems to make poor ones regressing to a love-sick teenager,mooning outside Steven's bedroom window,ringing him late at night and becoming ever more desperate as the affair begins to wane.When news of the affair becomes public and the daily press begin to report its more lurid details Barbara takes on the mantle of self-proclaimed guardian and spokesperson of the poor sinner who is shunned by her own family thus cementing her control over Sheba, a prospect that she seems to relish.On the whole the novel's language is crisp and sparing and not without an element of pathos that it is not hard to note that Heller's background is in journalism.Generally I felt that all the characters were well written.In the past I've read both Lolita and Death in Venice where I've felt sorry for the young victim but in this case I certainly fail to feel that Steven was in any way harmed by having an affair with an older,more experienced woman in fact part of me couldn't help thinking, lucky sod! This double standard is actually remarked upon within the book so is not perhaps that surprising really but it still feels odd to have a woman make the point.
    • 3/5
      Briefly: I admired the craft, but could not love the book. It wasn't that I didn't like any of the characters - that is not a prerequisite for me in a novel. But I didn't care too much what happened to them. And not much actually happens in the book that we don't know about the start. The plot has not moved on. It is a flashback telling of this 'friendship' between these two women, told by Barbara. But she doesn't know much of what has been going on until later on, so while she's telling us the story, she has to keep saying: Of course, at the time, I didn't know that Sheba was doing x and x. Which, for me, was more than a little annoying.Yes, of course, at the end of the day, it's not about Sheba and Connolly, but about Sheba and Barbara, and more about Barbara than Sheba. In her purported telling of the 'scandal' of Sheba, Barbara is in fact telling us about herself, her flaws and her failures in life. And it's done really well. But as she has so few redeeming features, it's hard to care and be moved or even fascinated about her plight, her loneliness etc.In short: Well crafted, but no suspense, hard to care.
    • 3/5
      Absolutely loved Barbara and her always sharp wit. I thought Judi Dench made an outstanding job in the movie and the script was an excellent adaptation as well.
    • 5/5
      Delicious. It is the only word I can think of that sums this novel up. There is something so dirty and icky about it that just hooks claws into you. Loved it!
    • 4/5
      It's possible to sell this as a ripped-from-the-headlines tale about a fortysomething teacher's affair with a secondary school pupil, but it's just as much about the creepy, unreliable narrator's obsession with said teacher. A riveting plot related to us by a distinctive and unnerving character, who will surely be remembered for decades to come.
    • 4/5
      Hmmmm. This is one of those books that would be wonderful for a book group - so much to discuss, so much to say! - but when it comes to writing a review, it's hard to know where to start. This extraordinarily accomplished novel focusses on two teachers, Barbara and Sheba, and their unlikely friendship. While Barbara is a retirement-age spinster, traditional and set in her ways, Sheba is a younger, free-spirited pottery teacher, new to the school and to the profession. The book is entirely told through Barbara, in the form of a kind of journal of her relationship with Sheba and the fall-out from her new friend's passionate affair with a student at the school.Despite the scandal of the title relating to Sheba, her illicit relationship is almost a secondary concern, forming the centrepiece for the whole book yet never really feeling like its true heart. It's not glossed over exactly, but it's not as important as I'd expected. Instead, the novel is very much about Barbara. She is one of the most complex, unpleasant yet strangely sympathetic characters I have ever had the privilege to encounter. I think everyone knows someone like her. Her 'notes' on Sheba are almost sinister in their obsessive detail. Every conversation, every circumstance, is painstakingly transcribed, mulled over, analysed and ultimately reflected back onto herself in a sickening display of self-importance. She is the prying curtain-twitcher, the pompous grandmother, the unreasonable old lady that everybody loves to hate. Yet underneath all this, the reader gets a glimpse of a lonely and slightly bitter woman who is, at some level, very much aware of her own faults, even as she tries to deflect them away in blind denial. There is a self-pity and naïvety underlying everything she 'writes' that makes it hard to truly dislike her as a character, even as the reader instinctively shies away from her. She is what makes the novel so compelling yet so strangely painful to read.I can't believe it's taken me so long to finally read this book. It's not as easy a read as it seems on the surface, with its compulsive attention to detail and thought-provoking themes, and it's definitely not a book that leaves you with a smile on your face and a sense of having really enjoyed it - yet it is absolutely superb in its execution and deserves every ounce of praise that has been flung its way. And on a personal note, reading it at last means I can finally watch the movie adaptation, which has been sitting in its cellophane for months! Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Neither of the two main characters in Heller's novel are instantly likeable. The narrator, Barbara, tells the story of her friend - Sheba - and her affair with one of her pupils. Barbara is middle aged, lonely and desperate to make and keep Sheba the closest of companions. Through Heller's perfectly written character study, we grow to empathise with and root for Barbara, whilst never actually going as far as seeing her as someone actually desirable to have as a friend.Sheba, on the other hand, is an outgoing and confident character with a personality more youthful than her age. As she admits at one point, marrying an older man has kept her always feeling the younger member of her social circle.This is a story of adultery, and of more than one betrayal, but ultimately its message is that mistakes are easy to make. Frighteningly easy. Sheba is simply bumbling her way through life, never seeming to fully comprehend the depth of the hole she has managed to dig herself.The book is a fascinating study of relationships, what it means to trust somebody, what it means to love somebody and how very differently two people can view the relationship they have.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful creepy narrator. She was a lot like me I'm ashamed to admit, so I did have a certain sympathy! Fantastically well-written....the passage where the narrator goes out with the maths teacher and ends up back at his flat was an absolute hoot, worthy of five stars on its own. A slightly odd ending, but still a five-star review as far as I'm concerned!
    • 4/5
      The authors eloquence of writing is what I really enjoyed about this book. The characters and their thoughts were completely real.

    Book preview

    Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller

    1

    The first time I ever saw Sheba was on a Monday morning, early in the winter term of 1996. I was standing in the St. George’s car park, getting books out of the back of my car, when she came through the gates on a bicycle—an old-fashioned, butcher-boy model with a basket in the front. Her hair was arranged in one of those artfully dishevelled up-dos: a lot of stray tendrils framing the jaw, and something like a chopstick piercing a rough bun at the back. It was the sort of hairstyle that film actresses wear when they’re playing sexy lady doctors. I can’t recall exactly what she had on. Sheba’s outfits tend to be very complicated—lots of floaty layers. I know she was wearing purple shoes. And there was definitely a long skirt involved, because I remember thinking that it was in imminent danger of becoming entangled in her spokes. When she dismounted—with a lithe, rather irritating little skip—I saw that the skirt was made of some diaphanous material. Fey was the word that swam into my mind. Fey person, I thought. Then I locked my car and walked away.

    My formal introduction to Sheba took place later the same day when Ted Mawson, the deputy head, brought her into the staff room at afternoon break for a meet and greet. Afternoon break is not a good time to meet schoolteachers. If you were to plot a graph of a teacher’s spirits throughout the school day, afternoon break would be represented by the lowest valley. The air in the staff room has a trapped, stagnant quality. The chirpy claptrap of the early morning has died away, and those staff members who are not milling about, checking their timetables and so on, sprawl in lugubrious silence. (To be fair, the sprawling is as much a tribute to the shoddy construction of the staff room’s three elderly foam sofas as an expression of the teachers’ low morale.) Some of the teachers stare, slack-shouldered, into space. Some of them read—the arts and media pages of the liberal newspapers mainly, or paperback editions of the lower sort of fiction—the draw being not so much the content as the shield against having to converse with their colleagues. A great many chocolate bars and instant noodles in plastic pots are consumed.

    On the day of Sheba’s arrival, the staff room was slightly more crowded than usual, owing to the heating being on the blink in Old Hall. (In addition to its three modern structures—the Gym, the Arts Centre, and the Science Block—the St. George’s site includes two rather decrepit redbrick buildings, Old Hall and Middle Hall, which date back to the school’s original, Victorian incarnation as an orphanage.) That afternoon, several teachers who might otherwise have remained skulking in their Old Hall classrooms during break had been driven to seek refuge in the staff room, where the radiators were still operative. I was off in a far corner when Mawson ushered Sheba in, so I was able to watch their slow progress around the room for several minutes before having to mould my face into the appropriate smile.

    Sheba’s hair had become more chaotic since the morning. The loose tendrils had graduated to hanks and, where it was meant to be smooth and pulled back, tiny, fuzzy sprigs had reared up, creating a sort of corona around her scalp. She was a very thin woman, I saw now. As she bent to shake the hands of seated staff members, her body seemed to fold in half at the waist like a piece of paper. Our new pottery teacher! Mr. Mawson was bellowing with his customary chilling good spirits, as he and Sheba loomed over Antonia Robinson, one of our Eng. lit women. Sheba smiled and patted shyly at her

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