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Amazon.co.uk Review
At first glance, the thrillers of Rupert Thomson seem to have nothing in common except the expansiveness of his imagination and the lucid radiance of his writing. Air & Fire is about a group of French people sent to California at the end of the 19th century to build a church. The Insult is about a man blinded by a robber in a supermarket parking lot who discovers one night that--because of a bizarre experiment--he can see again. Thomson's latest finds three very different characters--an aimless waitress, a reluctant hit man, and an ambitious young marketing executive--linked by the sudden success of a new soft drink. But a closer look confirms the feeling that Soft continues the author's fascination with the way science can bend and shape the destinies of all sorts of nonscientific people. Certainly Glade Spencer, the flaky young woman who flies off periodically for unpleasant encounters with her American lawyer boyfriend, has no idea when she signs up for a sleep clinic to earn some extra cash that the soda slogans planted in her brain could cause her death. Barker Dodds, the nightclub bouncer from Plymouth, doesn't know why he's being paid to kill Glade. And James Lyle, the striving marketer who thought up the brainwashing scheme in the first place, is deliberately out of the loop about its consequences. All three are so perfectly drawn that you'd recognize them on the street, and the way Thomson describes their quirky, weirdly decorated flats and lifestyles captures the flickering pulse of London with uncanny accuracy. --Dick Adler
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Sunday Times
‘An unsettlingly intelligent and controlled novel, complete with sharp social observation and some nightmarish violence’
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Soft" is a novel based around three central characters; the reluctant hard man Barker Dodds, bewildered Kwench ! guinea pig Glade Spencer and ruthless advertising executive , Jimmy Lyle. They are all involved in some way with a sinister , subliminal mind-control project linked with the UK launch of the soft drink Kwench ! Predictably things don't go to plan and tragic consequences ensue.
The characters of Barker and Glade are explored in detail and despite their different social backgrounds and the random manner in which they are thrown together , their similarities outweigh their differences. Both are essentially loners,disconnected from the world around them, seeking stability and meaning in life after emerging from broken domestic relationships . The working class ,bouncer-turned-barber anti-hero Barker meets the petit-bourgeois art-school waitress Glade.
What I enjoyed most about "Soft" (and other Rupert Thomson novels) is the stylish and evocative writing. You could open the book at random and be impressed by the smart observations, the sharp, minimalist imagery and the smoothness of the narration. Here are some examples :
"Her eyes were pale grey-blue , the kind of colour that on paint-sample charts would probably be called "Cool Slate" or "Dawn Surprise".
"She walked on ,through streets that smelled of exhaust-fumes, blossom and ... toast."
"The sky was the colour of beer."
Such is the vividness of Thomson's writing that at times you can almost smell it.
So why not give "Soft" 5 stars ? Well, probably because the plot was a little inconsequential at times with themes like mind-control underdeveloped as the author focused on exploring at length the characters of the main protagonists, their unfulfilled lives and their relationship with modern society.
Barker and Glade both have big hearts and ultimately this proves incompatible with the amoral urban environment in which they must live.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Rupert Thompson's books get better and better. If you liked The Insult, you'll love this. His ability to conjure up an entire scene in a single short sentence in unparalleled, and the plot is as clever as the imagery. I finished the book in mere hours; I think my mind has been subtly altered...
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Disappointed! Having read 'Air and Fire' back in the 90's and absolutely loving it, I finally got round to reading another RT book - and I shouldn't have chosen this one. The story line is weak, and the writing is totally OTT in terms of his need to over-describe everything in a really amateur way - and don't get me wrong, it was his descriptive writing which made me fall in love with Air and Fire. In this novel, it totally overpowers the story, which in its own right is poor. In addition, the link with viral marketing is completely flawed. Sorry Rupert - thumbs down from me!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Professional, witty, readable, neat
A murder/thriller type novel with a literary feel, great characters and an absorbing story involving the publicising of a new soft drink that goes quite a few steps further than... Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2009 by Eileen Shaw
The best book about Viral Marketing !
This book is great. I first bought it because the cover was nice and because, according to the nice cover, both the FT and Time out were enthousiastic about it (the book, enough... Read more
Published on 5 April 2001
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