When this novel first came out in hardback last year, I wanted to read it primarily because of its Oxford setting.

But I never predicted having quite so much fun as I watched Ezra Pepin grapple with his responsibilities as a father, and as a senior executive at his firm. The father-of-three lives in Blenheim Orchard - a fictional address - in North Oxford, with wife Sheena, daughter Blaise, 14, son Hector, 11, and toddler Louie, who is three.

Ezra started out as an anthropologist but for the past decade has worked for Isis Water, which is now planning to export bottled water to the Middle East. His wife runs a travel company which encourages people to stay in their home city to explore places they never knew existed.

On the face of it, the Pepins should be happy but, at 39, Ezra is hitting some sort of mid-life crisis, and so too is his wife who, out of the blue, suggests that the whole family should move to Brazil for two years.

This is partly because she feels guilty about her husband working in a job that doesn't really interest him, just so they can pay the mortgage. But when Ezra suddenly gets promotion, and a pay rise to go with it, she is not at all impressed.

The narrative is mostly from Ezra's point of view, which allows Pears to introduce some ethical debates about global warming and eating local produce. He even makes a subtle reference to the successful legal fight by residents to save the Trap Grounds from development, by listing it as a Town Green.

But it is Ezra's relationships with the women in his life which will keep the reader gripped and turning the pages rapidly towards an unsettling conclusion.

Blenheim Orchard is a page-turner, not just because it is full of sex - right from the very first page. The moral dilemmas that Ezra faces on his journey through life make fascinating reading and should prompt plenty of debate among our readers.

There are parts of Oxford which don't get a mention in Blenheim Orchard, because it is primarily about a family who live in a five-bedroom house on an estate like the Waterways. Pears acknowledges Oxford's multi-ethnic make-up, but focuses on the middle classes in the privileged quarters of Jericho and North Oxford that Ezra and Sheena inhabit.

Mr Pepin has everything going for him and to begin with, he is given every chance to succeed. Watching his life unravel was shocking and entertaining and left me hoping for a sequel - but Pears has now starting writing a different story for now.

Another theme for discussion is how liberal you should you be as a parent, and fathers with teenage daughters will be particularly alarmed by the risqué scenario involving Blaise at the end of the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed this witty family saga set in Oxford, which contains thought-provoking social dilemmas and some very entertaining sex scenes, and it will be interesting to see how Pears follows this up.

3:30pm Thursday 3rd April 2008

Print

Email this