Mr. Wakefield's Crusade by Bernice Rubens

Mr. Wakefield's Crusade Reviews

• 
  Julia Simpson-Urrutia

  Cast in a comedic likeness of J. Alfred Prufock, Mr. Luke Wakefield is the loneliest of 20th century literary heroes, for he is a self-professed failure. Even his failure fails for he manages to inherit a sizable fortune from his estranged mother and live in luxury in a penthouse overlooking Regent's Park in London. happily, the more convinced we become of Luke Wakefield's existence, the more is our delight.
  
  This is a mystery, for such is the nature of the crusade. He is always planning to make extensive preparations for each new step of his quest and never does. In an attempt to put some organization into his life (if not purse), Mr. Wakefield reads the obits every morning and shows up at the post office each Tuesday if only to stand in line and rub shoulders with mankind. When the intriguing figure of a man standing in front of him drops down dead, leaving his unposted letter on the counter, Wakefield pockets the letter and begins the crusade, becoming emotionally caught up in the dead man's life.
  
  Luckily for the reader, Wakefield's mental breakdown--for he is already unbalanced--is delightful. It gets funnier and funnier. The book as a whole deals with illusions and delusion. The way Luke Wakefield learns to tame his illusions is the hilarious resolution to this entertaining novel.
• 
  Dan Witte

  Welsh writer Bernice Rubens wrote scores of books, had several become films or TV dramas, won the Booker Prize in 1970, and was a runner-up numerous times. With these impressive credentials, I’m surprised to see how little following she and her books have here on goodreads, and I’m just as surprised that it took me until this year myself to read any of her work. This is the fifth book of hers that I’ve read, and each one has been enjoyable, memorable, and worthy of recommendation. This one in particular showcases her special talent for unusual and entertaining protagonists, following the title character’s clumsy and obsessive pursuit of a suspected murder that he is aware of only because he stole someone else’s mail. It’s a funny premise for an absurd yet solid drama, and like the four other Bernice Rubens books I’ve read, it is perfectly paced and resonates with wit, grace and enlightened insight into human behavior. I think she is an under appreciated author bordering on obscurity, which is both sad and amazing given her many accomplishments.
• 
  Ilana

  Closer to 3.5 stars
  
  Mr Wakefield's Crusade was a very odd kind of fish. This is to be expected I suppose, as everything I've read by Rubens so far has been quirky in the extreme, which is a quality that sets her writing apart. I particularly enjoyed her brand of dark humour in The Waiting Game, The Elected Member and Nine Lives, but for some reason this book made me feel uncomfortable. In retrospect, I see Rubens very intentionally manipulated the reader so he or she would share in the protagonist's sense of disconnect.
  
  Mr Wakefield lives in great luxury in a penthouse apartment in London, having benefited from a huge inheritance from his estranged mother. A self-professed utter failure, he is lonely in the extreme, having no hobbies or interests other than keeping alive the flame of anger and resentment for his ex-wife Connie, who left him to live with a woman in Australia. He's made a habit of going to the post office once a week, just on the off chance of starting a conversation with a strangers waiting in line, and on one such day the man just in front of him falls dead before he's had a chance to post his letter. Mr Wakefield grabs this letter and later upon reading it, discovers to his horror that the man has written to his murdered wife to ask for her pardon. He immediately decides he must find out all about the crime and the murdered wife, his 'crusade' which will help him forget about his lesbian ex-wife, whom he blames for having emasculated him. He drinks heavily and falls into deep paranoia, convinced he is a prime suspect in the murder and that his doorman and the police are watching his every movement. As I write this summary, I wonder why I didn't enjoy the book more than I did, because the premise is rather amusing. Perhaps it's the fact that Mr Wakefield is the storyteller: an unreliable narrator at best and evidently a deeply disturbed individual. As the story unfolded and came to a very kooky ending, I found I'd gained much sympathy for our odd would-be hero, so perhaps an eventual reread won't be out of the question.
• 
  George

  An enjoyable, amusing, intriguing, short mystery novel, about Luke Wakefield who is well off, 40 years old, alone, mainly living and relaxing in his penthouse apartment in London. One day he goes to the post office and the man in front of him suddenly drops dead. Luke picks up the letter the man had just purchased a stamp for, takes it home and reads the letter which is a confession that Luke decides to investigate. From there Luke’s life changes as he meets a number of new people.
  
  The characters are well developed and there is good plot momentum. This is my third Bernice Rubens book and I found it just as enjoyable a read as ‘The Elected Member’ and ‘A Five Year Sentence’.
  
  
• 
  Colin

  This has a great premise ( a man suddenly collapses and dies in front of the narrator in a queue at the post office, the narrator pockets the letter the dead man was about to send and uncovers an apparently sinister tale of murder, mystery and false identity), but the plot is unnaturally strung out, Mr Wakefield, at first eccentric and sympathetic, soon becomes irritating and tiresome, and the denouement is underwhelming. There's some good comic writing in here, but it is overshadowed by the book's weaknesses.
• 
  Chris Mctrustry

  An unreliable narrator on an almost impossible crusade, what’s not to like? Luke Wakefield’s sketchy hold on life (reality?) and his battle to gain some meaning and purpose in life is a joy to read. For a self confessed failure he sticks to his crusade admirably resulting in a satisfying and quirky conclusion for both protagonist and reader. Great fun!
• 
  Wendy Williams

  Just re-read this and enjoyed it just as much as the first time. A quirky, amusing tale with an uplifting ending for the poor Mr Wakefield.
• 
  Phil

  I first knew of this book because of a BBC TV adaptation in the 1990s, starring the present Doctor Who, Mr Peter Capaldi as the eponymous Mr Wakefield. And it's a clever, quirky little tale - Mr wakefield is a man who has failed consistently in life from childhood, who then inherited several million from his estranged mother (being her only living relative, via his unknown American chain-store-owning stepfather), so he is jobless, bored, living in luxury while hating his ex-wife who left him for a woman. Then, one day, he is standing in the queue of the Post Office when the man in front of him falls down dead. Mr wakefield, unthinking, pockets the man's unposted letter and upon reading it back home, finds himself embroiled in a murder mystery that he endeavours to get to the bottom of. Wakefield is a spectacularly unreliable narrator and his self-delusion is amusing to read, through the various twists and turns of the plot. Rubens has an understated style too, which helps the book go down. A nice simple summer read that doesn't leave you feeling stupid.
  
  #26 in my Year of Reading Women)
• 
  Frances

  This is a typically well written, very witty but slightly dark tale from Bernice Rubens. It is an easy read, cleverly plotted with a neat surprise ending. Good fun.
  The book starts “My name is Luke Wakefield and I am a failure. All my life, almost forty years of it, I have been a loser”. Fortunately, through an inheritance, Luke can live comfortably and not work. One day a man in the post office queue next to him falls down dead. Luke picks up the letter the dead man was about to send and takes it home. This sets Luke off on a quest for justice on behalf of Marion, the wife that the dead man has apparently murdered. The quest becomes an obsession as he attends the funeral, goes to the house and clumsily follows any clue until the solution is revealed.
  
• 
  Niamh

  what a great book! :-) it was so funny and it kept you interested all the way through, + a really good + satisfying ending! :-)