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"'Elliot Perlman is a master storyteller.' Observer"
Product Description
At once a psychological thriller and a social critique, Seven Types of Ambiguity is a novel of obsessive love in an age of obsessive materialism.
Following years of unrequited love, an out-of-work schoolteacher decides to take matters into his own hands, triggering a chain of events no one could have anticipated.
This is a story of impulse and paralysis, of empty marriages, lovers and a small boy, gambling and the market, of adult children and their parents, of poetry and prostitution, psychiatry and the law.
Published to huge acclaim in the author's native Australia, Seven Types of Ambiguity was hailed as 'a tour de force' (The Age) and described as 'Perlman's achingly humane, richly layered and seamlessly constructed masterpiece' (Canberra Times).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This novel is a rare thing - it has big serious things to say about the way the world is and the way we live our lives, yet its central ideas are explored through characters you can't help engaging with and whom you care about, whether they inspire horror or pity or admiration or bewilderment or, more often, complex ambivalent responses. The story is compelling, mysterious and seriously well plotted; the widely various backgrounds of the characters are entirely convincing. In the end I was moved, impressed, made to think and reflect, and felt I had experienced a slight inner shift - in decades of reading seriously I find very few books do all this.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When I picked up this book in a train station WHSmith store, I did so with the intention of broadening my literary tastes. Naturally, I approached it with certain trepidation; after all, people are resistant to change.
When I opened this novel, however, I was greeted with something quite different from the expectations I’d formed in my mind. It is, quite definitely, a novel of this century, touching upon issues both economic and social that are relevant to modern life, and yet Perlman communicates his observations with grace. His prose flows effortlessly, breathing poetry into potentially mundane subjects, beguiling the reader at times when the plot fails to thrill. This, fortunately, is a rare occurrence, as the novel has seven narrators, each continuing their predecessor’s account, relieving much of the tedium when a particular voice starts to irk.
Perlman has received criticism for the apparent lack of ambiguity in relation to his narrators and their perceptions of events, and I have considered this carefully since finishing the book. Admittedly, there is a definite similarity in the tone of the seven parts, but I attribute this to the author’s style, which it cannot be argued, is imperative to a writer’s identity. But can that be the case in this situation, where the subject of ambiguity, the theme supposedly illustrated, is the very quality missing from Perlman’s characters? I suggest that the reader look deeper, closer at the characters, at their subtle differences. An acute observation reveals that the characters’ slightest difference in interpreting the events of the novel severely affect their outcomes. Here, Perlman is forcing the reader to work for their own meaning; he creates ambiguity by the very nature of his narrative structure.
The plot itself, whilst far fetched, is deeply moving and confrontational in its controversy and dubiety. The reader feels empathy towards characters with an implied lack of morals, and warmth towards initially likeable characters is tested. The kidnapping of a child, the central storyline, is both disturbing and infuriatingly beneficent in nature. This acts to enhance the reader’s experience, and challenge personal moral ideology in favour of general moral ambiguity.
If this book succeeds in reaching the reader, it does so in the following way; it can help open one’s mind to the existence of grey in a world of apparent black and white. Well written, moving and emotionally gruelling at times, Seven Types of Ambiguity is a beautiful account of contemporary life and the fragility of human beings, and their often fallible interpretations of truth.
When I opened this novel, however, I was greeted with something quite different from the expectations I’d formed in my mind. It is, quite definitely, a novel of this century, touching upon issues both economic and social that are relevant to modern life, and yet Perlman communicates his observations with grace. His prose flows effortlessly, breathing poetry into potentially mundane subjects, beguiling the reader at times when the plot fails to thrill. This, fortunately, is a rare occurrence, as the novel has seven narrators, each continuing their predecessor’s account, relieving much of the tedium when a particular voice starts to irk.
Perlman has received criticism for the apparent lack of ambiguity in relation to his narrators and their perceptions of events, and I have considered this carefully since finishing the book. Admittedly, there is a definite similarity in the tone of the seven parts, but I attribute this to the author’s style, which it cannot be argued, is imperative to a writer’s identity. But can that be the case in this situation, where the subject of ambiguity, the theme supposedly illustrated, is the very quality missing from Perlman’s characters? I suggest that the reader look deeper, closer at the characters, at their subtle differences. An acute observation reveals that the characters’ slightest difference in interpreting the events of the novel severely affect their outcomes. Here, Perlman is forcing the reader to work for their own meaning; he creates ambiguity by the very nature of his narrative structure.
The plot itself, whilst far fetched, is deeply moving and confrontational in its controversy and dubiety. The reader feels empathy towards characters with an implied lack of morals, and warmth towards initially likeable characters is tested. The kidnapping of a child, the central storyline, is both disturbing and infuriatingly beneficent in nature. This acts to enhance the reader’s experience, and challenge personal moral ideology in favour of general moral ambiguity.
If this book succeeds in reaching the reader, it does so in the following way; it can help open one’s mind to the existence of grey in a world of apparent black and white. Well written, moving and emotionally gruelling at times, Seven Types of Ambiguity is a beautiful account of contemporary life and the fragility of human beings, and their often fallible interpretations of truth.
Format:Paperback
For anyone who's ever been depressed, or been in a mental state different from the considerable norm, this book is for you. I can easily see how this book can be divided into two - those that relate and those that don't. It's packed with philosophical and psychological reasoning, and heavily quotable sentences that are so true to life, you really wish you wrote them yourself.
The book follows a story of the obsessive and heartbroken Simon, whose life is dominated by the memory of his ex-lover, Anna. In a spur of madness he does something that will change both of their lives, for better and worse, and the book provides seven different viewpoints and opinions on the series of events; seven characters, seven types of ambiguity. The thing that makes the book so great though is the character of Dr Alex Kilma, Simon's psychiatrist. If, as a reader, you've ever had the experience of visiting such a doctor, you'll probably romanticise and connect with him more than anyone else can. He's the type of psychiatrist that films provoke and reality lacks; the will-drive-to-your-house-at-night committed, the type where your problems have taken over his whole life, the one that always says the right thing in a session, and every one is an intense debate about the world, or the things and metaphysics within it. However, he is in no way storybook, and neither is the story - it's easy to imagine it all as very real.
I didn't like the ending, but thinking about it, I don't know what I would have preferred. Sometimes the overall storyline, when looking at it all as a whole, seems a bit unbelievable, in the sense of 'all that happened and they still did that?'. But as a whole, it was a really endearing read. One of my biggest complaints about books is that often they are too predictable, but there were times when I was genuinely shocked and completely not expecting the instantaneous but logical twists wrapped into the plot.
I can see how some people could find this book hard to delve in to, and even find it a bit of a bore. Dare I say it's ambiguous? I certainly found it a highly unpredictable and eye-burningly gripping read. Will you? Read it and find out.
The book follows a story of the obsessive and heartbroken Simon, whose life is dominated by the memory of his ex-lover, Anna. In a spur of madness he does something that will change both of their lives, for better and worse, and the book provides seven different viewpoints and opinions on the series of events; seven characters, seven types of ambiguity. The thing that makes the book so great though is the character of Dr Alex Kilma, Simon's psychiatrist. If, as a reader, you've ever had the experience of visiting such a doctor, you'll probably romanticise and connect with him more than anyone else can. He's the type of psychiatrist that films provoke and reality lacks; the will-drive-to-your-house-at-night committed, the type where your problems have taken over his whole life, the one that always says the right thing in a session, and every one is an intense debate about the world, or the things and metaphysics within it. However, he is in no way storybook, and neither is the story - it's easy to imagine it all as very real.
I didn't like the ending, but thinking about it, I don't know what I would have preferred. Sometimes the overall storyline, when looking at it all as a whole, seems a bit unbelievable, in the sense of 'all that happened and they still did that?'. But as a whole, it was a really endearing read. One of my biggest complaints about books is that often they are too predictable, but there were times when I was genuinely shocked and completely not expecting the instantaneous but logical twists wrapped into the plot.
I can see how some people could find this book hard to delve in to, and even find it a bit of a bore. Dare I say it's ambiguous? I certainly found it a highly unpredictable and eye-burningly gripping read. Will you? Read it and find out.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Enticingly different!
I love Perlman's style of prose and the way he has woven this book together is compelling. You just have to know how it ends. Have to! Read more
Published 18 months ago by comm88
All cake and little fruit
There are some very good things in this book: the courtroom scenes and the blackjack tutorial stand out. Read more
Published 20 months ago by C. W. Robbins
A most fantastic read, thoughtful and provoking
Eliot Perlman seems to write about psychiatry, the breakdown of global community fuelled by social divisions around economics and how it all impacts on a particular protagonist. Read more
Published on 27 Feb 2010 by Ms. L. Bannister
Seven types of redundancy
Perlman is an acclaimed Australian author, and this is his 3rd novel. He works as a barrister in Melbourne, which explains his interest in court procedures. Read more
Published on 7 July 2009 by Joachimski
Enthralling literary jigsaw puzzle
Simon and Anna fell in love at first sight, some ten years ago, when they found themselves in the same university tutorial-group. Read more
Published on 26 July 2006 by jfp2006
Intelligent and ambitious, but flawed and unsatisfactory
My main problem with this novel is, as others have pointed out, the fact that the tone of voice remains almost identical - an erudite, slightly contrived quasi-confession - no... Read more
Published on 20 Sep 2005 by R. Gray
Although you wouldn't know it
There are 7 different narrators. Their voices are almost indistinguishable. Ironically (given the title), all the narrators are apparently fully trustworthy. Read more
Published on 13 Nov 2004 by Daniel Read
BRILLIANT
This is a remarkable book, the best novel I've read in years. I hardly know where to begin in describing it. Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2004 by "kingscounty"
couldn't put it down
This is a sweeping tapestry of a book, and I loved every page of it. I grant that it's lengthy, but it completely sucked me into the world of the characters (Read the first 50... Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2004
No Jonathan Franzen
The book is readable, but it's far too long. Any comparisons with "The Corrections" [itself vastly over-rated] hold no water. Read more
Published on 20 Sep 2004 by Mr. J. R. Law
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