Engleby is a first person narrative set in southern England during the '70s. A time when many of our book club members were still at Uni, so there was partial convergence of experience with the unreliable and occasionally amnesiac narrator: Mike Engleby. There is very little that is likable about Engleby, but this adds rather than detracts from the enjoyment of the novel. The reader learns about the principal female character, Jennifer, mainly through her diary, so she is not as well rounded as Engleby. The story covers Engleby's youth and early working life and his reactions to others in each phase. Each discrete phase: boarding school, university and life as a journalist was convincing, with the other characters clearly drawn, some of whom, although only playing a cameo role, are vividly memorable.
As a group we very much enjoyed Sebastian Faulks' Birdsong, many of us going on to read the author's full oeuvre. But Engleby was a departure from what we know of Faluks's works, but nevertheless a riveting read. Many of us could not put the book down - it's that engaging!