It is the story of a woman English teacher and her son. It is alternately told from both their perspectives. She was a single parent. We meet her while she is teaching at an exclusive New England private school. She lives with her son for whom she has been a single parent. The story is told alternately from both their perspectives. At the beginning we learn she has a fear that somehow she has killed her son in their sleeep. She is teaching Tess of the Deubervilles to her class and it turns out she identifies quite strongly with Tess as her son was born out of wedlock. Later we learn her pregnancy was the result of rape. The story is one of her personal growth and that of her son, Peter as they cope first with her marriage and then with her finally explaining to Peter his origins. Through the course of the narrative we see them both freed from the constraints that past placed on them. ( )

Lily King is a favorite writer so I am trying to read all of her novels. This one is interesting. Vida is an English teacher at a private school on an island off the coast in New England. She is a single mom of Peter and as the book begins we see her moving into a marriage with Tom. This is her first marriage and the father of Peter is not mentioned at all(Peter is 15, Vida late 30's). King does an excellent job showing the difficulty that Vida and Peter have integrating into Tom's family(3 kids, a mom who died of cancer). Vida has her misgivings and the various relationships; between all of the characters make for an interesting and worthwhile read. Eventually, Vida's past is revealed and King does a good job of making the ending somewhat believable. A solid book but I would recommend "Writers and Lovers" as a good introduction to King. ( )

I truly loved Lily King's Euphoria. By contrast this book was boring and lacked the depth it promised. Skip it. ( )

Astonishing in its depth, I loved the fast-paced yet insightful nature of the book ( )

A sub genre I thoroughly enjoy consists of novels about English teachers and professors. I stumbled on a copy of The English Teacher by Lily King, after reading her latest novel, Euphoria. This is her second novel, and as I write this, I am awaiting delivery of her first.

Vida Avery is a single mother with a son, Peter, who is about 14. She teaches at a school located in a mansion previously owned by her grandfather. When the story opens, she has been at the school for awhile, and the headmaster admires her, but many of her students think she is too hard. Vida has a dark secret she has shared with no one. She begins dating, and accepts a proposal of marriage on an impulse. The marriage is a failure almost from the start. She begins drinking, and her colleagues begin to notice. Her husband pleads with her to open up, but she refuses. He begins to lose patience, and the couple starts a series of heated arguments.

Ever the English teacher, she spins a life for some waste collectors she has never seen. King writes, “The got behind a garbage truck. Vida lit a cigarette as the two men in back leapt from the runner, separated to opposite sides of the street, hurled bags three at a time up and over the truck’s backside, and hopped back on just as the truck jerked ahead. White steam streamed from their nostrils. They wore no gloves and drank no coffee and yet they seemed warm and full of energy. They’d probably been up since three, and soon they would be done. They’d go to a diner for lunch – Reubens, French fries, a few beers. Then they’d sleep – at a room apartment on Water Street, their muscles tired, their bellies full, their minds thoughtless as cows. The truck stopped again, and the man on the left, having caught Vida’s covetous eye, grinned at her. She glanced quickly away in what felt like fright. The truck veered off then, but the acknowledgement made her uneasy for several more blocks, as if a character in a book has addressed her by name” (38). All these seemingly innocuous scenes connect to clues as to her past.

The faculty are a curious set of characters. They seem to go about their business, like whispers in the background. Only one of the male teachers shows any interest in Vida. King writes, “They had, every one of them, misunderstood her entire life. She had never yearned to marry as these people apparently thought she had. Brick Howells was hardly the only person to have attempted the fix up. How many times had she accepted a dinner invitation from one of them, only to find in their living room some recently devastated fellow wiping his palms on his slacks? You have so much to offer, she was often told, as if she had a tray of cigarettes and candy perpetually strapped to her waist. But these setups had stopped a few years back. Vida realized now, from their relieved, astonished expressions, that they had all given up” (60-61).

An interesting aspect of the story is Vida’s use of works of literature she was teaching as thickly veiled connections to her secret. One day, she fails to show up for school, and Peter finds her face down in a field. He manages to drag her to her car, put her in the back seat, and drives off with or without even a learner’s permit. He drives to California to see Vida’s sister. The English Teacher by Lily Ling is a suspenseful and riveting novel without being horrifying, and only at the end does the story explode.

--Jim, 8/31/16 ( )