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Christopher Priest's THE GLAMOUR [message #117503] Mon, 23 September 2013 18:15
Anonymous
Karma:
Originally posted by: @RUTGERS.ARPA:donn@utah-cs
Message-ID: <696@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 19-Feb-85 03:38:09 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.696
Posted: Tue Feb 19 03:38:09 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Feb-85 05:10:11 EST
Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 38

From: donn@utah-cs (Donn Seeley)

It's tough to find books by Christopher Priest in this country.
Fortunately I was able to purchase a British edition of Priest's
seventh and most recent novel, THE GLAMOUR (Jonathan Cape: London,
1984).  I say 'fortunately' both because I think THE GLAMOUR is
Priest's best novel yet, and because the incredibly tactful blurb on
this edition manages to avoid giving the story away and ruining much of
the suspense, as many American editions do...

Let me try to tell you enough about the book to make you want to read
it, without giving the good parts away.  Richard Grey is a TV cameraman
with a reputation for getting film in situations where other people
might be killed:  street riots in Belfast, guerrilla war in Central
America.  He has a knack for making himself unobtrusive and unnoticed,
which allows him to shoot candid and realistic footage for which he has
won awards.  One day his luck runs out -- walking home to his flat in
London he passes a police station at the same time that a car bomb
explodes.  Several people die; Grey is horribly maimed, but survives.
As the novel opens, Grey is gradually recovering the use of his body in
a convalescent home, but his memory has failed him; he cannot recall
any of the events in the six months preceding his ordeal.  One day a
woman comes to visit him and he learns that she was his lover in the
time that is now hidden to him.  As he grows to know her again, he
begins to realize that there is something odd about her and her
mysteriously distant ex-boyfriend...  This oddness becomes so striking
that by the end of the book the reader becomes thoroughly paranoid,
but (as I discovered) perhaps not paranoid enough...

The book has perhaps one weak point, and that is its coyness about
revealing its central premise.  It moves slowly, dwelling upon Grey's
romance when the reader KNOWS something very strange is up.  The final
plot twist is so wickedly clever, however, that I'm more than willing
to forgive the indulgence...  Very originally handled, elegantly
written, and chilling.

Donn Seeley    University of Utah CS Dept    donn@utah-cs.arpa
40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W    (801) 581-5668    decvax!utah-cs!donn
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