- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Minerva; New edition edition (9 Aug 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0749396180
- ISBN-13: 978-0749396183
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 368,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Peter Nicholson, an English geologist, is to inspect a granite quarry on a Mediterranean island for an Australian client. He has brought along his mistress and pushed wife and family to the back of his mind. But the tranquility is disturbed by the arrival of a woman with a death to avenge.
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First Sentence
That night he dreamt there was evil in the rock. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
That night he dreamt there was evil in the rock. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Shear refers to the eye-watering method by which geological products recovered from the earth are cut into the requisite sizes and shapes to be useful to architects and builders. The noise alone would put you off wanting to witness this process, but if the subject of geology interests you, you will love this novel. Even if it doesn't, you'll like it.
An English Geologist, Peter Nicholson, is sent to inspect the quarrying work on a Mediterranean island. He has come with his girlfriend, Margaret, at 22, much younger than him, and leaves a wife and two children at home. At first he can't find much wrong with the methods used at the site but is harried by a woman, Hazel Owens, whose husband has been killed by a rock fall. Hazel is convinced that this death wasn't an accident and that the quarry owner is covering up for the inferiority of some extraction process.
Sexual politics feature heavily, especially when the beautiful daughter of the complaisant quarry owner makes it known that she is available. Then a fax arrives from Nicholson's wife with some unwelcome news. That gives him three love interests, perhaps one too many? The plot turns upon issues of subtle, and not so subtle, blackmail, another murder, and Hazel's problematic 11 year-old daughter Wendy. It picks up pace towards an explosive finale when he finds a conscience and imagines he can right the wrongs with a wildly desperate act.
As with all Parks' novels, the writing is very good, wonderfully atmospheric and lively with solidly built characterisation. I like Tim Parks' well-researched competence and stylish imagination and I enjoyed this racy thriller.
An English Geologist, Peter Nicholson, is sent to inspect the quarrying work on a Mediterranean island. He has come with his girlfriend, Margaret, at 22, much younger than him, and leaves a wife and two children at home. At first he can't find much wrong with the methods used at the site but is harried by a woman, Hazel Owens, whose husband has been killed by a rock fall. Hazel is convinced that this death wasn't an accident and that the quarry owner is covering up for the inferiority of some extraction process.
Sexual politics feature heavily, especially when the beautiful daughter of the complaisant quarry owner makes it known that she is available. Then a fax arrives from Nicholson's wife with some unwelcome news. That gives him three love interests, perhaps one too many? The plot turns upon issues of subtle, and not so subtle, blackmail, another murder, and Hazel's problematic 11 year-old daughter Wendy. It picks up pace towards an explosive finale when he finds a conscience and imagines he can right the wrongs with a wildly desperate act.
As with all Parks' novels, the writing is very good, wonderfully atmospheric and lively with solidly built characterisation. I like Tim Parks' well-researched competence and stylish imagination and I enjoyed this racy thriller.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The effect of shear on granite and a geologist called Peter
12 Feb 2000
Format:Paperback
Tim Parks attained prominence with the Booker nominated "Europa", but "Shear" seemed the more interesting novel. As a one time quarry man turned novelist, Parks writes with rare authority about a geologist called Peter Nicolson who is sent to a Mediterranean island to inspect a granite quarry whose product for an Australian project has resulted in the "accidental" death of a construction worker. Using the language of geology and images drawn from the world of mineralogy (eg, shear, quartz, feldspar, etc), Parks scores with a gripping thriller that has you on the edge of your seat all through its 210 pages. The pace doesn't let up, in fact gathers pace until it delivers a shattering climax at the very end. The words "there was evil in the rocks" early in the novel sets the tone for what ensues. The philandering protagonist(Peter) isn't exactly a sympathetic character. He is unfaithful to his pregnant wife from a marriage gone stale, yet thinks nothing of cheating on his travelling companion mistress while on his investigative mission. In the course of his five-day stay on the island, Peter finds himself equally subject to the effects of "shear" that granite slabs are exposed to in their voyage to their final destination. Even the moral choices that Peter is confronted with each step of the way are tainted by motives which are suspect. Without spoiling the fun for readers of this highly ingenious and dazzlingly written suspense novel, I can only say that "Shear" is entertainment of the first order and noboby who has read it will feel disappointed.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
A brilliant book combining geology and modernist fiction.
3 July 1996
Format:Paperback
Tim Parks is the author of several distinguished works of fiction
and non-fiction. In addition, he has produced well received
translations of Italian fiction including the work of
Italo Calvino. Sheer is a novel which demonstrates the author's
usual linguistic brilliance along with a surprising
knowledge of geology, both aspects of which combine to produce
a work of extraordinary richness and vitality. A
geologist, finding himself the dupe of big money interests,
falls into an ever widening pit of sexual and ethical malaise.
An extremely interesting novel by one of the best of today's
younger English writers.
and non-fiction. In addition, he has produced well received
translations of Italian fiction including the work of
Italo Calvino. Sheer is a novel which demonstrates the author's
usual linguistic brilliance along with a surprising
knowledge of geology, both aspects of which combine to produce
a work of extraordinary richness and vitality. A
geologist, finding himself the dupe of big money interests,
falls into an ever widening pit of sexual and ethical malaise.
An extremely interesting novel by one of the best of today's
younger English writers.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Over-analytical and tedious
18 Oct 2001
Format:Paperback
Some writers can do a lot with a bare premise for a plot, expertly weaving interesting subplots and characters around in a mosaic that captures the reader's imagination even though the reader may ultimately remember little of the story. William Gay and Richard Russo are examples. Other writers, like Tim Parks, take what should be very entertaining premises for novels and turn them into psychological tales of guilt and deception, sapping almost all of the entertainment out of a good story. Shear is an example.
I had previously read Europa by Tim Parks, and while that book didn't overwhelm me I recognized Parks' writing skills and thought I should give him another try, considering the acclaim he receives in England and elsewhere. Having read Shear, I have to face the fact that maybe he just isn't my type of author. Shear takes place on a sunswept Mediterranean island, although we seldom learn very much about our setting other than that. The protagonist is geologist Peter Nicholson, sent from his home office to investigate a rock quarry and to write a report explaining a slab's collapse in a construction project that killed a worker in Australia.
Peter is not a terribly sympathetic character, he brought his 22 year old mistress Margaret along for a little fun in the sun, (he is 40 with a pregnant wife and kids at home). Peter receives a fax from his wife announcing her pregnancy, and much of what constitutes "drama" in the novel surrounds Peter's guilt at his inexplicable failure to respond, by phone or even by fax, to his wife's announcement. Peter is desperate to prolong his relationship with young Margaret, sensing that she is about through with him, and yet he wastes no time in bedding a beautiful interpreter on the island named Thea, even as he realizes she was probably put in his path to soften the blow of his report on the construction mishap.
You would think with all this infidelity, and with the drama surrounding a contruction accident (the widow from Australia shows up demanding answers, and determined to find a guilty scapegoat), that the plot would be fast-paced and dramatic. Wrong. Parks endlessly piles on these rock metaphors, and spends so much time exploring Peter's guilty psyche that basically every other character is simply along for the ride.
We care little for Margaret or Thea, cause the author barely describes them. At times, when Peter is crawling in or out of bed with one of them, I had to go back a page or two to find out which girl he was sleeping with presently. We know nothing of how the affair with Margaret got started, and have no real visual picture of any character in the novel. As for setting, Joseph Conrad in Nostromo made his Central American mining locale a principal player in the story; here there is nothing very unique or memorable in the locale.
The book was relatively short, at about 200 pages, but seemed longer to me since after about 25 pages a night I put it down. Many love Park's psychological style, as the editorial reviews and positive Amazon feedback attests, but in this reviewer's humble opinion Shear was a swing and a miss.
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