A Ladder to the Sky: A Novel

A Ladder to the Sky is so hard to describe properly but it's so damn good that I'm going to give it a try: man without scruples (or empathy, or any basic human emotions, really) wants more than anything to be an author. Never mind the fact that he can't write. Is he a success? You betcha! Oh, Maurice. From the start, when a late in life moderately successful author, Erich, sees you and is instantly besotted, you take his time, his money, and a story from his past and boom! You're on your way. Getting there, you encounter Dash, who also becomes besotted, and use him to make sure you wedge open every door in publishing you can, with an unsuccessful encounter with Gore Vidal (!) along the way. The brief interlude with Gore Vidal was my favorite (say what you will about Gore Vidal, but he was deeply aware of the human capacity for terrible behavior) until there's the section narrated by: Edith. Up and coming British author, madly in love with Maurice, and oh! She's my favorite. So full of charm and passion and with such a bright future. And that second book she's working on... Well. Maurice, you "help" that along, don't you? Then, finally, you're a huge success, with an actual literary magazine, Stori (the title seems to have punctuation of some " at the end, naturally) and you have your own other heart's desire, a child. Your very own son, Daniel. Too bad children are so much work. And so needy! But he's a bright boy and he does love to read. Of course, there's that pesky asthma. Still. Onward! There are more ideas to steal, (convient, to run a magazine every aspiring author appears to want to be in) more novels to write. More fame to be had. And then, you're older and no longer published but maybe, with this doctoral student, Theo, who has been sniffing around (and who has a big publishing house editor father!), there's still one last idea to be found and appropriated (because, really, it's not the writing that's hard, it's the idea!) perhaps it's time for one more great novel... Ladder to the Sky is a deft skewering of publishing while still managing to be a love letter to both books and the way the very best of them work, by laying bare some part of what our best and worst selves are. Oh, and Maurice? The main character, on whose life so many authors enter (and exit)? Sociopath. (On a good day, mind!) Ladders to the Sky has to be experienced. It manages to be full of life while its main character is best at stealing it, full of love (again, while Maurice has none), and a love letter to the power of words starring someone with no real facility for them. It's brilliant, it's thoughtful and yes, it's core character has none of these traits. And the ending! Oh, I laughed out loud as Maurice recounts his last act of "writing." (And how the publishing world receives it) Ladder to the Sky is, hands down, one of the most twisted love letters to books and their power I've read. IOne of the best books of 2018.

Until recently my top three John Boyne books were The Heart’s Invisible Furies, A History of Loneliness and The Absolutist. But, having just finished his most recent novel, A Ladder to the Sky, I’m rethinking my ranking. A Ladder to the Sky is a darkly funny psychological drama that tells the story of a relentlessly ambitious Englishman, Maurice Swift. Swift decides at a young age that he wants to be an author – not just any author, but an acclaimed and awarded one. “I want to be a success…It’s all that matters to me. I’ll do whatever it takes to succeed,” says Maurice. While working part time as a waiter in Berlin, twenty-two-year-old Maurice meets novelist Erich Ackermann, who has found literary success late in life. Erich is attracted to the beautiful young man and not unmoved by his admiration for the novelist’s work. Desperate to prolong their interaction, the older man offers to critique Maurice’s writing. He’s infatuated, which means Erich wants to like Maurice’s work, but he’s disappointed. While his writing is impressive, Maurice’s plotting is mundane and, thinks Erich, too boring to be publishable. Indeed, Maurice is a good writer, but lacks the imagination and/or creativity to come up with ideas for stories. Fortunately for Erich, the younger man recognises this weakness and asks for advice. “The more you read, the more you write, the more the ideas will appear,” says Erich. “They’ll fall like confetti around your head and your only difficulty will be deciding which ones to catch and which to let fall to the floor…There are stories everywhere. When you find one, when you hear one, make it your own and then the world will come to you.” Erich doesn’t stop there. “Everyone has secrets. There’s something in all our pasts that we wouldn’t want to be revealed…And that’s where you’ll find your story,” he counsels. Maurice is a fast and driven learner, and – spellbound by youth, beauty and a tiny promise of passion – Erich finds himself telling the youngster his own secret, which, as he’ll later discover, will lead to him becoming “the author of my own misfortune”. Erich is Maurice’s first victim. His second, Dash Hardy, introduces Maurice to American writer, Gore Vidal in a wonderful chapter written from Vidal’s vantage point. Boyne does such as great job emulating Vidal’s tone and sharp humour that it seems entirely plausible that he really met and wrote about the young parasite. Just when you think Maurice can’t be more dreadful, you meet his wife who tells her story as if addressing her husband. And then there’s his son, Daniel. A Ladder to the Sky tells a story of ambition and deception. It’s a book about writers and some of their worst characteristics. Maurice is the literary world’s Talented Mr Ripley amplified tenfold. There were moments that I felt he was too evil and predatory to be real, and wanted reasons to understand his choices. But then Maurice rationalised his conduct (and apportion blame to his victims) in his narcissistic and psychopathic way, and I was convinced once more. And, of course, the book is satire. So, where does A Ladder to the Sky fit in on my list of favourite Boyne novels? It’s a cracking good read and, since I was captivated by the story and the characters (Maurice, deserves a place in The Gallery of Most Renowned Literary Rogues); awed by the author’s ability to alternate perspectives, locations and structured; and once again admired his humour and taut writing throughout, I think A Ladder to the Sky might now be my favourite Boyne novel. If nothing else, it is, as my family will attest, definitely a “LEAVE ME ALONE, I’M READING*!” kind of novel. * The best kind of holiday book.

I just recently discovered John Boyne's novels and he's quickly become a favorite. This particular book is excellent and I found it difficult to put down, always wanting to just read a few more pages, and then a few more after that. The story itself is dark, telling the tale of an extremely flawed man and his lifetime of using any means necessary to achieve fame and acclaim in his chosen field, fiction writing...despite his lack of talent. Boyne is a superb writer and that fact shines through in this novel as it has in his other works. This book is both easy and difficult to read, it makes one think, and is not a so-called "beach read". I highly recommend it.

I love your writing and that you can make you feel as if you are really with the characters..this story is so good and I wanted to dislike Maurice but in the end I liked him ..just felt sorry for him..he destroyed some many people!! Thanks for a good story cannot wait to read another one of your books!

The story, told in episodes by several characters, of a man who is completely amoral, but aggressively ambitious. He starts life in poverty, fixes his sights on a career as a writer and soon finds that he has limited skills for the profession. His biggest failing is a lack of imagination or the inability to create necessary plot for the fiction that is his target. His solution is to become a leech who attaches himself to successful writers and steals their life stories or the actual stories that they have created. He is remorseless, but seemingly unstoppable as his purloined work is published and praised--eventually pushing him to the top of the writing profession. The first half of the man's story is told largely by his victims and it is only about midway through the novel that the reader begins to hear the inner thoughts of the main character, only after he has crossed several moral boundaries including murder. His inevitable decline is viewed pretty much through his own eyes. This is a page turner, but one with a lot of flaws that send you back to earlier sections of the book to be sure that you have understood correctly what had happened. Basically, the behavior of the central character is so often far over the top that it cannot be credited--even coming from a sociopath. The man's obsession with having a child, for example, when he was unable to feel any empathy or passion for others, was just not creditable. We learn that eventually he loses interest in being a parent with regrettable results. There are plenty of other instances of lack of human connection that would seem to make the premise of his success out of reach. So read this interesting novel--by all means--but be ready for some moments of incredibility.

I am a huge fan of the novels of John Boyne, from The Heart's Invisible Furies to A History of Loneliness to The Absolutist. His novels are definite page turners: suspenseful; well-plotted; full of surprises, and---as in Invisible Furies, for instance, filled with memorable, heart-rending and very well-executed scenes (Amsterdam, the hospital death scene, etc.). However, things happen in Boyne's latest novel A Ladder to the Sky that seem to push the limits of the reader's credibility, although I admire Boyne for striving in this book for something a little more experimental. It is very difficult to believe that a character as diabolical, as clever and as cautious as Maurice would, in the end, be caught in the trap of Theo Field. In fact, some of their pub dialogues just don't ring true. They seem a bit contrived. And the novel's conclusion seems laughable. Is the novel a satire? It doesn't seem so. Nor does it work as a morality tale. Additionally, the Interlude involving Gore Vidal is digressive, albeit brilliant and entertaining. And the development of the relationship between Maurice and his son Daniel doesn't seem drawn well or convincingly. Some shifts in point of view also seem awkward, jarring and unnecessary, such as the switch to Edith's point of view. Overall, I still liked the novel---and I remain a John Boyne fan. It's a book---like his others---that you will find hard to put down. It's intriguing. But it seems a little more---uneven?----than some of his previous works.

If you can get your hands on a book by John Boyne, do it. I’ve read four, and they are all great. Now I’ve read another, A LADDER TO THE SKY, and it proves once again what a master he is at writing both plot- and character-driven literature. Every sentence is so well written I wanted to reread it. This novel is about a bad guy, a really, really bad guy, a psycho: Maurice. He lurks among the writing community. He fancies himself a great Prize [sic]-worthy author of fiction. And he is a good writer, but his stories are boring. So he cannot become a recognized author who can at least get on the short list for The Prize [sic] unless, as he sees it, he inserts himself into the lives of successful authors. He uses and abuses, as the saying goes. And he’ll do anything. (I capitalized "The Prize" because it is spelled that way in the book.) Through his characters, Boyne often says what I often say when I review a book: the writing may be good, but that is not enough. A good book is also driven by a plot. Without that, the book is boring. And that is Maurice’s problem: he cannot come up with plots. He needs story ideas. And he’ll stop at nothing. A LADDER TO THE SKY is, in a way, difficult to read because one bad thing after another happens. Now and then, though, someone is wise to Maurice. Unfortunately, his beauty attracts both men and women, so he gets away with years of exploitation. Do yourself a favor and read A LADDER TO THE SKY.

John Boyne’s novel A LADDER TO THE SKY is a literary triumph. Talentless writers live the high life, while the gifted suffer miserably. A deviant character who god knows how he lives with himself but thank goodness he does because the more terrible he is the better able he is to hold our attention. Erich, getting on in age, a successful writer on his book tour, in his home town of Berlin, is enjoying an evening to himself when he spots a handsome young waiter. He lets his guard down and makes contact. Maurice has set his sights on much more than serving drinks at The Savoy. His eyes sparkle with literary dreams minus the creative talent. This boy will throw a line and reel in the lonely old man. A story so cunning, so wicked, so unbelievably sinister, yes, it’s that wonderful. Dear, Mr. Boyne, is it too greedy to ask, if we may please have another. Soon.