Book Review: Gentlemen and Players--by Joanne Harris

Readers who liked Chocolate, Holy Fools, or Five Quarters of the Orange are probably already Joanne Harris fans and will be drawn to Gentlemen and Players (2006). This thriller breaks new ground and shows a gifted writer at her best as she presents the modern world microscopically with its range of human foibles and systems explored through St. Oswald's Grammar School for Boys.

Alternating narration between Roy Straightly and the mysterious child/monster who declares in the opening sentence, "...murder is no big deal..." carries this thriller across the roofs of St. Oswald's Grammar School for Boys to the Guy Fawks Day bonfire with entertaining twists and turns. Readers remain mystified as to the identity of St. Oswald's nemesis and may give a gasp when that nemesis is revealed.

Although I initially thought of not completing the book, the psychological exploration of what it means to be a teacher kept me reading, along with the intriguing and varied voices that Harris develops to tell the story. Harris says in an essay at the back of the book that she taught French for 15 years, thirteen of which were in a boys' school much like St. Oswalds, and loved it:
"It's hard enough to give up on the continuous soap opera that constitutes life in a
school, harder still to lose the sense of community and the feeling of being involved in
something more important than my own little life's concerns."
Unlike Straightly, a teacher of Classics as his name suggests, Harris recognizes the potential for psychological scars which teachers may cause, and this thematic element of the plot provides another compelling component for us, as former students and parents and teachers.

The night I read the section set on St. Oswald's rooftops, my feet were sweating. I'm terrified of heights, and the description of the boys' rooftop adventure kept me on the edge of vertigo. The climax of that scene leads naturally to the issue that propels the book to its conclusion.

Harris employs dramatic irony throughout as each narrator weaves elements of the back story while providing his take on what is happening or about to happen and why. Harris is far too gifted a writer not to provide necessary clues along the way so that, along with the large number of characters, we have much to keep in mind. Avid Chess players may find added structural clues since Chess provides the motif for each of the book's major sections as well as some names and nicknames: Knight, Bishop, Queenie. We must pay attention to names and everything else. At some point, we realize that Harris is having a ball writing her thriller, at least as much enjoyment as we're having reading it.

Reading a story based in British culture and Classics may require readers to check the "Reader's Companion" at the back of the book. It provides helpful amplification of Latin quotations and commentary on cultural phrases, including the title.

Gentlemen and Players will remain on my shelf for rereading. I look forward to reading it both for Harris' craft and what I missed by hurriedly reading the opening sections. Besides, I grew to like Roy Straightly, and I empathize with the "monster" for a sensibility desensitized by a broken family, an alcoholic father, and a not-much-better than Dickensonian educational system.


Both the British and U.S. educational systems unfortunately remain based in the factory models of the Industrial Revolution, whose outcomes threaten us all today. Thus, Gentlemen and Players explores integral cultural themes which need to be addressed if we are to survive a world which is as imbalanced as St. Oswalds becomes.