- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Phoenix (15 Sep 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0753819147
- ISBN-13: 978-0753819142
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.2 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 760,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'There is more than a whiff of Stepford Wives about Thorne's creepy little tale...The author's spare, matter-of-fact style... is well suited to this depiction of self-abnegation and delusion.' (TIMES (17.9.05) )
'A sinister Borgesian game uncoils whose denouement is cleverly obscured until the final pages.' (OBSERVER )
'The novel unexpectedly develops into a kind of paranoid thriller, as Steve finds out what he's capable of doing for love. Its open ending and Thorne's dispassionate prose allow you to read it as either a simple morality tale...or, more rewardingly, a study in sexual obsession and paranoid delusion.' (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY (25.9.05) )
'This tale of a teacher whose love life takes a surreal turn when he meets an old man is dark and addictive.' (HEAT (1-7 October) **** )
'The perils of sexual fantasy furnish Matt Thorne with the theme for this satire-cum-thriller.' (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (9.10.05) )
'There are impressive touches, and Thorne is very good on peculiarly male characteristics and interests: boredom, sex, sleep and emotional detachment.' (Jerome de Groot GUARDIAN (15.10.05) )
'Thorne's smartly written novel has fun with a full complement of modern anxieties about relationships and sex.' (INDEPENDENT (28.10.05) )
'A sinister Borgesian game uncoils whose denouement is cleverly obscured until the final pages.' (OBSERVER )
'The novel unexpectedly develops into a kind of paranoid thriller, as Steve finds out what he's capable of doing for love. Its open ending and Thorne's dispassionate prose allow you to read it as either a simple morality tale...or, more rewardingly, a study in sexual obsession and paranoid delusion.' (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY (25.9.05) )
'This tale of a teacher whose love life takes a surreal turn when he meets an old man is dark and addictive.' (HEAT (1-7 October) **** )
'The perils of sexual fantasy furnish Matt Thorne with the theme for this satire-cum-thriller.' (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (9.10.05) )
'There are impressive touches, and Thorne is very good on peculiarly male characteristics and interests: boredom, sex, sleep and emotional detachment.' (Jerome de Groot GUARDIAN (15.10.05) )
'Thorne's smartly written novel has fun with a full complement of modern anxieties about relationships and sex.' (INDEPENDENT (28.10.05) )
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (9.10.05)
'The perils of sexual fantasy furnish Matt Thorne with the theme for this satire-cum-thriller.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Novel pretentions,
By A Customer
This review is from: Cherry (Paperback)
What a seriously disappointing book. I bought and read it on the strength of the blurb - and other reviews - and it's a prosaic piece of work with pretensions. Take an average guy and set him down in the middle of a strange scheme to bring love into his life with the girl of his dreams and suddenly it all happens - girl, love, happiness. But there's a snag to the prize - a payback. It might have been more interesting if the first-person narrator had been more sympathetic, more attractive, but he's a dullard, with tedious sexual fantasies. The girl is little more than a cipher, and woven around the 'love-affair' is a plot that's all manipulation - you can see it coming a mile away and you hope the author has the imagination to twist everything unexpectedly, but alas he doesn't...genuinely dull piece of writing. Predictable, familiar, derivative. "Borgesian" one of the reviewers writes - but it isn't remotely, it doesn't have the sophistication, the learning, the skill. In fact it's got little to recommend it.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A man walks into a bar...,
By
This review is from: Cherry (Paperback)
The basic idea behind the book is that a thouroughly unlikeable and unsympathetic 30-something English teacher has a 'strange encounter' with a strange man. Then some other stuff happens, then a man arrives and takes his specifications for his ideal woman, then she appears, then she goes again and he has to do some horrible things to get her back... (in a nutshell!)I imagine it's the fantasy of many men to be able to specify the exact requirements of your ideal woman, have someone make a list of them and then have her appear on your doorstep... so it might appeal for that reason The main problem I had with the book is that Steve, the central character, is so awful that I really didn't care what happened to him at all. An English teacher who doesn't like books and doesn't read?? I didn't get it. As a character Cherry was at least reasonable likeable, if a bit pathetic. Don't get me wrong, this book is worth a read, but perhaps beach reading rather than an attempt to improve yourself! Just a little warning...the bit with the bloodied cotton wool balls made me feel quite unwell...
1.0 out of 5 stars
Truly awful,
By
This review is from: Cherry (Paperback)
How awful this novel is has been described in the other reviews and I'd have to say I'd agree with them. I got this book in a local library withdrawn stock sale for 50p..if the price had been based on quality I was overcharged by 49p.
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