Staying On

A Pleasant Meander

I was gifted this title for my birthday a few months back and was surprised to realise that I had missed reading it during my school years. First, the Raj, where I was born, has a special fascination. Secondly, I thought I'd read most of the Booker winners. Thirdly, I've read Scott's other works, so how did I miss this. Then I started reading it and got an inkling. I think I might have started this twenty years ago and just not got into it. Fortunately, times have changed and I truly enjoyed this very pleasant listen.
The Raj parts were a bit dated, a bit like Raj India now. It reminded me of my grandparents. I smelled the old decay in the early evening and the transition of a time that refuses (even to this day) to finally lie down and die.
The story really is a bit of nothing, but it is told well, with a suppressed love and a slight longing. I enjoyed the odd pidgin word and the figurative shake of a be-turbaned head.
It took me a bit to get used to Paul Shelley, but ultimately I warmed to him and he to his subject.
I will be passing this little gem onto those who love and have loved old India.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Brilliant. sensitive epilogue to the Raj Quartet

I was a huge fan of Paul Scott when his novels "The Jewel in the Crown" first started being published, waiting for each subsequent novel of the eventual Raj Quartet. Now rereading the epilogue read by Paul Shelly - who is truly a brilliant performer, I am reminded again of Scott's greatness , and his sad death at an early age.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Dreadfully boring.

Can a book be well-written but terribly dull? This book reminded me of obligatory lunches with my 98-year old great aunt, whose only interests are bridge, attending Anglican Church services and complaining about her gardener. I really tried to finish it, but finally decided that life is too short.

Must read/listen for those who have enjoyed the Raj Quartet

This is beautifully poignant epilogue to the earlier Raj Quartet series (The Jewel in the Crown as televised), and to British India and the lives of the British in India. British racial attitudes are of course in evidence, as they were inseparable from that history, but there can be no other writer who so successfully evokes the tragedy and melancholy of what India meant to colonial Britons. Paul Scott's familiarity with a now vanished world are as essential as are Indian perspectives to recapturing the faint echoes of the Raj.

i felt like i was part of the characters lives

What a well written book with a rather bleak ending i was so sad to say goodbye to the characters , they were written in a way that i felt i knew them and was apart of their everyday lives. Poor poor lucy

Bugga!

Would you listen to Staying On again? Why?

I laughed; I cried; I was moved and learned a few things along the way. What a fabulous book! Absolutely loved it! I read this book for my book club and I have to thank Celia for suggesting it. This was such a delight to read. I loved the characters, the places and the story. I recommend this book to everyone. What a gem!!!

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the interactions between the characters.

What about Paul Shelley’s performance did you like?

Paul was a phenomenal reader. He did all the accents perfectly. He made the story alive. Awesome narrator!!

If you could rename Staying On, what would you call it?

I would not change a thing.

Paul Scott, one of greats of British literature.

What made the experience of listening to Staying On the most enjoyable?

The sensitivity, the humor, the storytelling, and language of a great British novelist.

What other book might you compare Staying On to and why?

The Short Stories of William Trevor, because of the seamless manner with which both authors move between the past. the present and the future, the internal dialogue and the external action. The sensibilities of the characters and thus the authors. Their subtlety and ability to spot the quiet moral dilemmas of ordinary lives.

Have you listened to any of Paul Shelley’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, I don't believe so.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

Paul Scott, author of the Raja Quartet, as well as a number of other wonderful novels, is one of the most overlooked and greatest writers of the 20th Century. In that respect he is like John Fowles, who wrote the Magus, which is perhaps one of the top five novels of the 20th Century and which sadly and inexplicitly has never been made into an audible book.