Literature│ Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller

Notes of a Scandal draws us into the terrifyingly chilling world of the cold, calculating and sardonic world of Barbara Covett. Heller’s story is a psychological thriller which is disturbing enough to leave you sitting still with your mouth gaping in astonishment as you watch disastrous events unfold before your very eyes.
Notes of a Scandal follows the disturbing consequences of what happens when Barbara finds out that the new art teacher, Sheba Hart, is having an affair with one of the students. This unforgivable behavior on Sheba’s behalf is horrific, but it is what Sheba’s supposed friend, Barbara does with this knowledge which is truly jaw-drooping. Thanks to Sheba’s ‘airy-fairy” mind and inconceivable behavior, she becomes a fly trapped in Barbara’s gargantuan tarantula web. Sheba grows to trust her colleague Barbara, but her trust in her friend becomes a dependency, and the only one who knows her secret, What Sheba does not know, is that her friend is secretly chronicling her affair, by doing so, Barbara takes a firm hold of Sheba’s life in her cold hands.

At first, a foggy picture is created when one questions what it is exactly that Barbara wants from Sheba; is it friendship? Companionship? Love? In fact, it is all of these things that Barbara is after, she wants her soul, her essence, she wants Sheba entirely, and she will not stop at anything until she has consumed her whole.

Heller’s novel is most definitely an addictive read; it has that shocking element which turns us, my fellow reader, into that blood-sucking fiend that only the fateful elements supplied by the writer can fulfill. Sheba is presented as an inept character who we feel very little pity for, until much later on in the novel. Yet, it’s not so much pity that one feels for Sheba, but distress and fear that one experiences when feeling and hearing the inner workings of cold and bitter Barbara.

Although this read is an enslaving one, I can’t say that it brings out the best in one’s reaction to it, which is to revel in the pain and utter breakdown of a fellow human being, no matter how foolish and blind they are. The scandalous behavior on display is liken to today’s obsession and participation with the downfall of our celebrities, something that one really should avoid at all costs. It’s this nasty part of one’s nature, which causes such relishing, which one finds themselves in the throes of when reading this novel, which works in favour as well as against Heller’s story.

©Zehra Mustafa