Bordeaux

November 10, 2008
Sophomore novelist Torday (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
) meditates on the question of what money can and cannot buy in this subtle, sorrowful tale of a man who has mistaken his alcoholism for happy gluttony. Frances Wilberforce has pulled himself up from nothing; an orphan adopted by a family of middle-class means, he made a mint when he sold his software business. Drinking four bottles of wine a day, sometimes spending thousands of pounds on a single, exquisite bottle, Wilberforce doesn’t take long to drink his way through his new fortune. When friends confront him with his problem, he maintains that he does not have an addiction; rather, he has an interest in fine wine. It’s a fine distinction, and as the narrative tracks backwards to reveal the events that precipitated Wilberforce’s fall—the death of his wife, a series of new friendships with a set of dissolute, landed gentry—it sharpens its depiction of the cheerful face that money can put on an unhappy life. Torday is a talented writer and manages this sad story deftly, mixing in redeeming doses of humor and empathy.

Starred review from January 1, 2009
A complex tale of obsession is precisely distilled into a haunting character portrayal, in this second novel from the gifted British author (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, 2007).

The subtitle denotes four years (2006 –02) in the life of protagonist and narrator Wilberforce (his first name initially withheld), who creates a successful computer software company, sells it in order to accept an irresistible offer and thereafter devotes himself to the cultivation and enjoyment of a prized wine collection. That collection is bequeathed, with strings attached, to Wilberforce by his older friend Francis Black, a bachelor whose inherited wealth has gone to amass a huge array of choice Bordeaux (and other wines), kept in a vast vault ( "undercroft ") beneath his family 's estate Caerlyon, outside London. Caerlyon suggests "Corleone " so much so that the reader suspects there 's more to Francis Black than the benign mentor he appears to be. Torday keeps us guessing, as precise imagery suggests the younger man 's immersion in what is perhaps a religious vocation, perhaps a surrender to temptation. Or both, we surmise, as Wilberforce 's story unspools in reverse order, beginning with the upshot of his love for Catherine, a vibrant beauty betrothed to another man; offering a poignant picture of his unhappy foster childhood and all but empty young adulthood; and climaxing with a (brilliantly described) grouse hunt, during which an episode of "innocent happiness " vibrates with the strains of an ironic prophecy of his future. Eventually, we learn Wilberforce 's first name and understand his reluctance to reveal it. But the heritage of sorrow that imprisons him within limits he both has and has not set for himself makes us think of Fitzgerald 's "great " (and, ultimately, unfulfilled) Gatsby. This elegantly conceived novel also reminds us from time to time of another Great Expectations, minus that classic novel 's unconvincing happy ending.

Vintage.

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December 15, 2008
As this novel opens, in 2006, Wilberforce appears invincible. Flush with cash from his software empire, he enters a London restaurant alone and orders a 1982 Chteau P'trus, one of the worlds most coveted and expensive vintages. Savoring its bouquet, he quaffs it appreciatively. Barely eating the pricey, but simple, dinner that accompanies the regal bottle, he is so overcome with vivid, even hallucinatory emotions that he foolishly and wastefully orders a second bottle, which proves his undoing. Informed by a physician friend that he is in the final stages of a particularly horrific alcohol-induced syndrome, Wilberforces fundamental unhappiness and tragic guilt break through. Torday proceeds in reverse sequence to three previous years of Wilberforces life, recounting the relationships that have brought him to this sorry state. Although Wilberforces tale carries universal moral significance, wine lovers in particular will find Tordays descriptive and narrative powers compelling.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)