Gentlemen & Players, Review

For genarations privileged young men have attended St.Oswald's Grammar School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric Classics teacher who has been a fixture there for more than thirty years. This year, however, the wind of unwelcome change is blowing, and Straitley is finally, reluctantly, contemplating retirement. As the new term gets under way, a number of incidents befall students and faculty alike, beginning as small annoyances but soon escalating in both number and consequence. St.Oswald's is unraveling and only Straitley stands in the way of its ruin. But he faces a formidable opponent with a bitter grudge and a master strategy that has been meticulously planned to the final, deadly move.

REVIEW:
I don't know exactly why I bought this book. It looked nice to have a book on my shelves that was normal, with simple people, no magicians, no genius children and so. Well, I have to admit that most of the books I thought they are simple, they are not. And this is an example.

The book is telling the story of a young student. It's experiece. The way the school is working. And it's relationships with the people among it. It's family, its friends, its teachers.
The book is also telling the story of a Latin teacher, who's been working for the school for several years. He tells us stories of his past and events that are happening to his life in the present.
Meanwhile, there is somebody in the school, a teacher, an assistant, a student, no-one knows, who makes jokes, that put in danger many lives and many work spaces.

As I said, this book is not normal. There are many travels back and forward to the past and the present as both of the main characters-the student and the teacher-are talking. When you read it, you have to be careful not to miss a spot. Mostly, when you follow the evidence correctly you understand the end before the book reveilles it. But this book was more complex than the others I've read on the past. You figure out the truth when the writer tells you so.

This was the second book of Joanne Harris that I've read(the first was for young people). I wasn't sure at the beggining because Joanne Harris is also the writer of Chocolat (the book is been a movie with Johnny Depp). But it totally surpriced me. The book is not one of those that keep you in agony, because so many things are happening in, that after a point you understand that you have to sit back, relax and let the story reveille in front of you.

And the end comes. And you're adsolutely sure who's who. You've guessed, you've followed the evidence, it doesn't matter. Cause the end is going to surprise you, no matter what.

That's why I'm suggesting it to you. Believe me when I say that after reading it I was speechless for several days and I was refusing to read something else, since I wanted to calm after it.