Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Earthy & Dry, 18 Mar 2001
By A Customer
It's a shame that this book has been so long overshadowed by the other, slightly showier, elements of Thomson's oeuvre. It was his third novel, and his first great one, after the entertaining but baggy "Dreams of Leaving" and the forced strangeness of "Five Gates of Hell."For those readers, like me, who find most of his work a touch glib (if beautifully written and original), "Air & Fire" will cheer your soul. One part "Oscar & Lucinda" to three parts Graham Greene, it's the central love story and the character of Wilson that resonates. The writing is parched and suffocating, appropriate to the Mexican setting, and it's worth noting here that Thomson has probably the deepest bran tub of remarkable similes in modern literature. It has a coherence and force lacking in, say, "Soft" and "The Book of Revelation," both of which make you feel that too many ideas were thrown into the mix without being fully realised. There is a difference between understatement and frustrating the reader, and "Air & Fire" comes down beautifully on the right side. And, for once in common with Thomson's other novels, it realises too that happy endings are best left to Hollywood.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Aha - Thomson with discipline!, 11 Oct 2005
Having read all Thomson's novels bar the latest (Divided Kingdom), I can now say that this is by far his best. Unfortunately, it is also very different in style and content to all the others - not just due to the early 20th century setting, as opposed to the late 20th century settings of most of his other novels, though this does help avoid some of the more over-detailed sexual obsessions of novels like 'Five Gates of Hell'. It's as if, with the perspective of history, Thomson has to focus on plot rather than just meander in whatever psycho-sexual direction his muse takes him (as in 'The Insult', 'Five Gates of Hell' and 'The Book of Revelation'). I hope that, after the disastrous reviews of 'Divided Kingdom', Thomson moves away from ill-considered science fiction and the sexual and drug-filled obsessions of his youth and writes more fiction from a historical perspective. Thomson is a brilliant writer whose verbal pyrotechnics capture the characters and personalities of social alienation like few others, but he lacks discipline and his editors are not strong enough to tell him where he is going wrong. 'Air and Fire' shows that, with fixed points of historical reference, he can put all his power of expression into telling a good story. Then he can move up into the realms of the great Australian novelist, Patrick White, whose wonderful novel 'Voss' this 'Air and Fire' novel so reminds me of. I fear, however, that Thomson saw this as a one-off (having published it in 1998). I'd dearly like him to re-consider his direction. Leave the macabre to Michel Faber, Rupert, and let's have more of the warm observation, love of detail and, yes, humour, that you put into 'Air and Fire'.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly gifted writer, 4 Feb 2009
I have just begun reading Thomsons books, and have been completely converted. What a superb writer, and real variety of content/style as well. I think he is up there with Marquez, Kundera, Houellebecq as far as my personal taste goes. This particular book is a beautiful, witty, poignant and gritty love story of the first order. And I don't normally do love stories!! This man can really touch on the truths that we all know are out there, but never bother to notice.
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