She takes her time and paces the story well, tying up loose ends nicely. At times I am much more interested in the lives of the people than the mystery, which I think is generally a good thing in a long novel.

Joanne Harris is a good writer, injecting touches of humor into the narration but never trying to hard. I love this attention to detail, though I understand it's not for everyone. You learn a lot about the school culture, the personalities involved, and both the working and private lives of several of the schoolmasters. Here we get the town-and-gown conflicts, the 'different class' of the title, and a narration that is explicitly trouble to the point of being evil.īoth viewpoints and both time periods work well, though I do agree with the reviewer who said that if you read this novel in small bites, you can lose your place in time and space! This is a nicely paced, intricate read, not a breathless whoosh of activity. We don't learn the identity of this narrator until quite late in the novel, but he/she is a student at St. Īlternating with this story is another point of view from the early 1980s.

A new headmaster arrives who turns out to be an alumnus, triggering Straitley to remember a painful time in the school's past. He is a good teacher, though, very dedicated and intuitive about boys. Roy Straitley, a Latin teacher in his 60s and not in the best of shape, is firmly resisting such changes as email and female students joining the student body for selected sessions. Oswald's, a private boys' boarding and day school in Yorkshire, and the year is 2005. I loved the multiple viewpoints and the somewhat meandering pace. While not as unputdownable as Gentlemen and Players (the first in what turns out to be trilogy: Gentlemen and Players, Blueeyedboy, and now Different Class), this novel is an intriguing look at the changing public school system, the often unspoken class warfare among children, and the problems of getting older.

Joanne harris different class review