The Italian Teacher: The Costa Award Shortlisted Novel Hardcover – 22 Mar. 2018

This bitter-sweet novel is really touching. The Italian Teacher of the title is Charles Bavinsky, son of an artist known as Bear Bavinsky. The plot derives from the world of modern art.This world is not presented in a very flattering light. Dealers, collectors and critics collude to shape taste and make money. Even in this world of self-promotion Bear Bavinsky is singular. He covets the public accolade of a museum, refusing to sell privately. Most of what he paints he burns.We meet him in a studio in Rome in 1955. Bear at his easel, his wife Natalie at her potter’s wheel and a little boy, Charles. There is a real charm to the little boy who worships his dad. This domestic scene is fake. Bear has other families in America and sleeps with his models in Italy. The only person Bear loves is himself. The nature of the man is revealed in his paintings – body parts, never the whole person and never the face, never the heart and never the soul.Rachman then tells us how life worked out for the boy. It is written from the point of view of Charles who struggles for true happiness or fulfilment. He lacks the tools to make a success of his talents and it is his faults that strike most of those who come and go in his life. But it is his father who poisons his promise. What at first seemed paternal neglect becomes revealed as malign cruelty. Bear is a monster.Described as “relentlessly funny” by one reviewer it is actually very sad. The relationship with his mother Natalie, who loved him deeply, is painful to read. We desperately want a good outcome for Charles and a happy ending. Do we get that? Does Charles slay the monster?

....whether or not a book moves me. Whether to anger, irritation, tears is immaterial but this did on all three counts. There was a sticky point, roughly in the middle when I mentally shouted at the author to move it on. When there were chunks of superfluous prose. And times when I shouted at Pinch for being so, what, subservient to his selfish, self absorbed father and for so needing his approval to the point of being unable to live an independent life. But that’s good because it means I believed in him as a character. Overall, an excellent read.

Story wasn't what I first expected and thought it dragged along with too much unnecessary detail. Thought the characters of Natalie and Charles too weak and Bear too over the top to be believable. But if you stick with the book, it's actually quite comical and a good story which I enjoyed and glad I read.

The life of an artist's son, coping with life in his fathers shadows.Some bits towards the end were a little slow and repetitive but overall an enjoyable easy read. Anyone with an interest in art history may find it fun.

Sprawling complex book. The life story of the gentle ineffectual son of a narcissistic father, an artist of international fame, who destroys everyone in his path. Pinch, the son, becomes an obscure Italian teacher as he battles to survive his childhood. Raw accounts agony of loneliness and of psychological violence and manipulation. Also of the fragile power of friendship. Was often very painful to read, but glad I persisted. The ending was masterly in its irony and unexpectedness.

I fail to see the point of novels like this, which are so deeply conventional. A mildly interesting story, with the odd good quirk, reasonably well told.

We'll written but totally preposterous story with an unlikable "hero"

Rachman excels at portraying the awfulness of Type A personality men riding roughshod over less narcissistic and assertive others. Like his previous stories, this one is funny, particularly about modern art, and poignant. A thoroughly good read.