@RUTGERS.ARPA:donn@utah-cs (02/19/85)
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