The Travelling Hornplayer by Barbara Trapido

The Travelling Hornplayer Reviews

• 
  Claire

  Trapido's such a brilliant and wonderful and readable writer that I could almost overlook the lackluster plot and its ten million unbelievable coincidences. Almost.
• 
  Mandy

  The Travelling Hornplayer is typical of Trapido’s style and approach. She is particularly good at showing how people’s lives are inextricably linked and the reverberations one character’s actions can have on so many disparate people. Here, we observe how the tragic death of 17-year-old Lydia Dent impacts on all those who have come into contact with her, however tangentially.
  For me this isn’t one of her best books, as the plot is just a little too contrived, as is the set-piece ending. There are just too many characters, not all of them totally successful. But all Trapido’s hallmarks are in evidence here and it is, in spite of its faults, a good read.
  
• 
  Andrew

  I hadn't read any Barbara trapido but recently on podcasts had heard her praised very highly so came to thi book uncertain about whether it would live up to expectations however it ticked a lot of boxes for books I enjoy, that is middle class English family dramas where lives interconnect.
  Here we open by meeting sisters Lydia and Ellen, who are separated by a year and appear to have a perfect life with their widowed father and later a lovely step mother, gigglers all of life is in front of them however events at the end of the chapter allow us to move into the life of Stella and her family and friends with dramatic twists and turns before a wonderfully crafted ending.
  I was totally absorbed by the characters and I cannot resist a coincidence if it is well done but perhaps best of all is knowing there are other books in which some of the characters are portrayed so lots of great reading to find.
• 
  megspaperbacks

  Hmm. Disappointing. Very much a product of it's time (late nineties).
  
  This read very much like a Richard Curtis film, with multiple characters and storylines interweaving, propelling towards an inevitable finale. However, while in Love Actually the comedy allows you to overlook the unbelievable coincidences and the upper-middle-class pompousness of the characters, in this book it just didn't work. The mood of the book was too serious, making the coincidences feel contrived. I disliked almost all of the characters, despite there being evidence in the prose that we are meant to like some of them.
  
  The book also felt rather dated/tone deaf on the subject of prominent current events at the time (which I won't reveal as it is a major spoiler).
  
  There was also some intertextuality involving Wilhelm Müller which I felt was meant to be integral to our understanding of the story. Instead it felt only partially considered by the author and oftentimes irrelevant.
• 
  Sophie

  Just loved it. I am hooked on this author. How has it taken me so long to discover her?
• 
  Colin

  I came late to the wonderful novels of Barbara Trapido, but I’m glad that I discovered them in the end. They are so full of life, exuberantly complex and multi stranded that they are the very exemplars of that hackneyed word ‘unputdownable’. The Travelling Hornplayer is a case in point. Featuring a large cast of brilliantly drawn characters (some of whom we’ve ready met in another of her books), a plot as intricate as a Chinese puzzle and a story told from multiple viewpoints (none of which sees the whole picture) and a final chapter in which all these disparate strands lock together to form a complete and satisfying resolution, it is a novel that leaves the reader in awe of the surprising possibilities of realist fiction. Combining tragedy, comedy and a sharply observant wit in equal measure, The Travelling Hornplayer is a richly entertaining and provocative novel.
• 
  Tim

  Huge potential of this book with hilarious character-building and great style is dashed by an oddly handled HIV storyline, never-again mentioned child abuse and a confusing litany of characters whose names begin with ‘S’.
• 
  Jane

  Very enjoyable. I am looking forward to reading more of Trapido’s novels.
• 
  Jeanne

  This book was recommended highly by two friends so I suggested it to my book club for June's book. Turns out to have been a big winner as every single person who read it loved it! The novel's central vehicle is the death of a character who we never actually meet alive. Each of the other narrative voices is in some way connected to this character and/or her death. The novel is alternately funny and achingly sad and the different perspectives of the characters make for interesting reading. We get to see characters from multiple points of view and from their own. The best thing someone in my book group said was "Did anyone notice that she managed to write a 500 page novel in under 250 pages?" I plan to read all of Trapido's books.
• 
  Carla

  This slender novel has sparkling prose, and what I am coming to see as Trapido's trademark wit. For me, the plot dilemma was that
  Trapido introduces the utterly enchanting Lydia (whose death starts the novel) and Ellen, and the equally absorbing relationship between their father and stepmother-- only to switch gears to distinctly less interesting (and often irritating) character of Stella. I kept hoping to hear more about Ellen, and less about Stella.
• 
  Kathy

  An ok read......
  
• 
  Liz Lou

  Another perfect book from Barbara Trapido. The culmination of all the stories. I will sorely miss how dozens of lives intersect and affect each other - the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly.
• 
  Johanna Markson

  The Traveling Hornplayer, Barbara Trapido
  Another witty and captivating novel from Barbara Trapido. Here she intertwines biting satire and comedy and tragedy, to treat us to a charming, intelligent and moving story. The novel revolves around the death of teenager Lydia Dent. The story is told through the experiences of Lydia's elder sister Ellen, Jonathan, the writer Lydia sought help from on a paper she was writing, and Jonathan's college student daughter Stella. All of them are living through dramas of their own, unaware of how the death of Lydia has intertwined their lives or will connect their lives in totally unexpected ways. All tell this engaging, constantly funny and offbeat story from their own points of view, but serve to bring us to understand our shared experiences about love, bereavement, awakening sexuality, passion, marriage, friendship and making choices.
  Thrown into the mix are British gentry foibles, intellectual snottiness, ineptitude, bad marriages, learning disabilities, helicopter parenting, and teen angst and we can't but help to admire the talent and power of this marvelous writer. Ordering the next one now.
  
• 
  Lucynell

  Book 9
  
  The Travelling Hornplayer
  Barbara Trapido
  1998
  
  4/5
  
  This was fun, a bit confusing at times because there's a lot going on and there's a few characters whose names begin with S -Stella, Sonia, Sally-, but fun. It reminded me of those American novels that just zig zag all over the place, except that this one is set in England with short excursions into Edinburgh and rural Ireland. It's my first Barbara Trapido. She's good. This book tackles half a dozen lives, does drama and comedy, the young and the old, very well and is also rather subtle. It's about people trying to do the best they can with their lives, but life can be a bit strange and some things work and some don't, despite our hard work, our sacrifices, our mistakes, our good luck, bad luck, even our plain stupidity. Good fun.
• 
  Laura Alderson

  Hard to know how to rate this book as I spent most of the time confusing the characters. Didn't help that 3 of them were called Stella, Sally and Sonia! It also had a very highbrow and somewhat confusing theme around the poems of Müller and Schiller. Add in to the mix that most characters (I think!) seemed to be related via a sort of God-mother's friend's type link, I ended up unable to work out who was supposed to know each other, who had upset each other, and why.... But I was intrigued and stuck with it. Great style of writing, just for me not one of Trapido's best.
• 
  Rodolphe Gintz

  Je suis rentré un peu à reculons dans ce livre : le thème qui brode autour des lieder de Schubert, la bourgeoisie anglaise (qu’on ne voit jamais travailler), ces protagonistes qui se croisent de manière improbable, au sens de premier du terme jusqu’à cette réunion finale qui est cousue de fil blanc. Mais le style de Barbara Trapido balaye tout cela avec brio : l’amour, la perte, le deuil, les quiproquos sont décrits tour à tout avec les yeux des principaux personnages avec un style qui épouse leur caractère de manière assez bluffante. Au final, je ne regrette pas d’avoir persévéré !
• 
  Janet Elsbach

  Barbara Trapido's writing is delicious and smart and this is a fine read that just utterly falls apart at the end. She gets a bit drunk on her admittedly VERY impressive ability to deftly sketch characters and masterfully intertwine their lives. Still read it though, just don't feel bad if you bail before the end because you might be better off imagining it winds up better than it does.
• 
  Lyn

  I love Barbara Trapido. I haven't read her for a number of years, but now I am reminded how good she is and am on a mission to read all her books.
  Apart from a smallish gripe about the ending, this was a fascinating and absorbing story and, although told from the perspective of several characters, it was easy to click into, and relate to, all the narrators.
• 
  Mackenzie

  If you can make it to the end of this book, the ending is worthwhile. However, I felt like the majority of this book had no plot and was just a series of unrelated chapters. They all came together at the end, but the plot could’ve been set up more cohesively. The writing is beautiful and the characters are complex and perfectly dramatic, the story is just so unconnected in the beginning.
• 
  Hilary

  Disappointing after "Brother of the more famous Jack". Many of the characters from that novel appear, but this time the first-person narrative switches from one character to another, often in a different time frame. This makes for confusion and irritation. I found this a more self-conscious novel and the vulgarity of the humour this time just annoyed me. Unfinished.
  
• 
  Adam

  I'm not sure exactly why but Trapido's novels have always hit the spot for me. This one is no different - despite a self-consciously middle class setting, it is charming in its literariness, intelligent observation and rich mix of characters.
• 
  Amanda

  Fun read but found a lot of the actual plot to be a stretch and the ending unsatisfying. Also, the intro by Jami Attenberg was maybe the laziest I have ever read. I feel like she didn't actually like the book and couldn't back out of it. Or maybe is just actually lazy.
• 
  Elizabeth

  This book wasn't really what I needed at this point so maybe that's why I didn't give it that great of a rating but it seemed like it was just full of a lot of strange people.
• 
  Nola

  I rarely read a lot of fiction however this was a good read, I loved the way the writer broke down chapters to individuals.