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A pacy, poised and undeniably exciting debut...a teat bleakly humorous, well written adventure --Boyd Tonkin, Independent
Goddard's eye is for irony and disaster, a potent thriller, driven by unravelling the neuroses of his characters as much as by uncovering the politics behind their predicament. --Observer
Goddard's highly impressive debut mixes a black comic tone reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino and Graham Greene, a cracking good read. --Mail on Sunday
Goddard's eye is for irony and disaster, a potent thriller, driven by unravelling the neuroses of his characters as much as by uncovering the politics behind their predicament. --Observer
Goddard's highly impressive debut mixes a black comic tone reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino and Graham Greene, a cracking good read. --Mail on Sunday
Goddard's eye is for irony and disaster, a potent thriller, driven by unravelling the neuroses of his characters as much as by uncovering the politics behind their predicament. --Observer
Goddard's highly impressive debut mixes a black comic tone reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino and Graham Greene, a cracking good read. --Mail on Sunday
Goddard's eye is for irony and disaster, a potent thriller, driven by unravelling the neuroses of his characters as much as by uncovering the politics behind their predicament. --Observer
Goddard's highly impressive debut mixes a black comic tone reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino and Graham Greene, a cracking good read. --Mail on Sunday
Product Description
Joint Winner of 2010 Independent Publisher Book Award Horror category. In the brilliant red doom of a Hampshire Sunset Brigit Conti can hear a voice behind her ears that is not her own. Bed-bound, and complaining of a rare bone disease that no Doctor can diagnose, her husband fears that the house they have purchased is a portal through which an older, more malign energy has passed, possessing his wife and son. Through their successive deterioration his secular and agnostic world-view undergoes a metamorphosis, drawing him to a strange man from the hills: the Rector, their unlikely saviour. Or are he and his family merely victims of their own self-serving yuppie way of life? "You Were The Picture of Contented New Wealth" is a gothic tragedy set in the nineteen eighties, bringing proper characterisation and a literary sensibility to the traditional horror story. It's mix of generic elements and mystical realism deal with the irreducibility of evil and its successful normalisation in to our daily and dominant reality.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Got this book after I heard the author on the Radio 4 Saturday morning magazine programme, it sounded intriguing and on the whole was a very good read. I did find it difficult to get into - I think the author has been let by down the editing and proof reading of his material. There are a fair number of glitches, for example repeated or wrong words and sloppy comma use, especially in speech, which rather spoiled the effect at first, distracting me from the story. At one stage I was near giving up, which would have been a shame - 50 or so pages in, it began to grip me - the twist for me is that none of the characters are sympathetic at all! They really are a bunch of selfish, unpleasant types yet it's compelling to see them struggle to cope with the presence of evil - the evil that possesses Brigit - and try to come to terms with and understand something that is simply outside their frame of reference.
There are some jarring notes. We are told, rather than being shown, a great deal about the characters, so sections of the book read rather like short lectures. However, the atmosphere of horror is well done, and the ending satisfying without being too neat (a few puzzles are left). Overall, a quirky horror story, with many of the traditional spooky props but with a modern tone.
There are some jarring notes. We are told, rather than being shown, a great deal about the characters, so sections of the book read rather like short lectures. However, the atmosphere of horror is well done, and the ending satisfying without being too neat (a few puzzles are left). Overall, a quirky horror story, with many of the traditional spooky props but with a modern tone.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this swiftly, in two sittings. Highly enjoyable stuff, tongue slipping into cheek somewhat in certain parts. The lyrics of Mark E. Smith (The Fall), notably from 'Spectre Vs. Rector', intrude occasionally. Indeed, the novel takes its point of departure from this song. Yuppies, migrating from the city into the isolated Tyger Tyger House - one of the great haunted houses of supernatural fiction, surely - encounter a fascinating and seductive demonic power. The spectre takes possession of the woman of the house, Brigit, apparently having opened her up to its influence years prior through the medium of Deleuzian theory (brilliant!!!) and the only hope lies with The Rector ('came from the hills-ah!'). Highly recommended. Sludge Hai Choi!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
"The Picture Of Contented New Wealth" is essentially a metaphysical philosophical discourse using the allegory of demonic spirit possession of the wife and child of the wealthy and materialistic Conti and the Tyger Tyger house where they live.
It's told in an allegorical folk-tale style, populated by characters with names such as Conti (the Yuppie) Bliss (the Shrink), Stack (who does the filing), the eccentric Hatters, Mr Squeers (likes young boys), Mr Crook (Vicar) Raffle (smokes Silk Cut), and so on - a Colonel Mustard wouldn't have gone amiss in this line-up. All of the characters with the exception of the possessed woman and son, the mysterious exorcist (The Rector) and perhaps the housekeeper, are portrayed pretty much as the empty vessels they are.
The author creates a highly enjoyable portrayal of the behaviour of the possessed mother and child both during their possession and the subsequent exorcism, while the other characters react to the bizarre goings on by reflecting back on their own lives, loves, desires and wealth.
The message of the mind as something free from the body and the material cosmos of which it is a part, and the fact that Conti realises that it's the non-corporeal mind of his wife he's trying to rescue and can't just buy everything better, and of course the subtler references and further discussion that could be had, is for me personally almost incidental to a witty and reference-loaded story of a possession and exorcism.
It's told in an allegorical folk-tale style, populated by characters with names such as Conti (the Yuppie) Bliss (the Shrink), Stack (who does the filing), the eccentric Hatters, Mr Squeers (likes young boys), Mr Crook (Vicar) Raffle (smokes Silk Cut), and so on - a Colonel Mustard wouldn't have gone amiss in this line-up. All of the characters with the exception of the possessed woman and son, the mysterious exorcist (The Rector) and perhaps the housekeeper, are portrayed pretty much as the empty vessels they are.
The author creates a highly enjoyable portrayal of the behaviour of the possessed mother and child both during their possession and the subsequent exorcism, while the other characters react to the bizarre goings on by reflecting back on their own lives, loves, desires and wealth.
The message of the mind as something free from the body and the material cosmos of which it is a part, and the fact that Conti realises that it's the non-corporeal mind of his wife he's trying to rescue and can't just buy everything better, and of course the subtler references and further discussion that could be had, is for me personally almost incidental to a witty and reference-loaded story of a possession and exorcism.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fantastic atmosphere and ideas.
A thoroughly interesting and enjoyable tale of demonic possession and the empty souls which fill our capitalist society.
Much of the book paints a lovely, bleak picture. Read more
Much of the book paints a lovely, bleak picture. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Trolleymusic
weird yet wonderful!
this was a recommended read - hooked in from the start. Slightly bizarre, had echoes of the Exorcist but enjoyed it - if you can say that about a gothic horror?
Published 23 months ago by chas
Zero tolerance. And about time.
The first thing to salute is the Zero Books manifesto printed at the end of this brilliant story. It's a crystallisation of everything you might have felt, being as we are, victims... Read more
Published on 1 April 2010 by sloop jb
You will feel the walls move...
Demolished this book in one sitting. I couldn't put it down. I felt as though the author had transported me lyrically to a world close to me but at the same time far removed. Read more
Published on 29 Oct 2009 by M. G. M. Willis
The Picture of Contented New Wealth
I was going to use one word to describe this book but the rules of Amazon say I must use multiples. So here goes... Ace Ace Ace!!! Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2009 by K. S. McAlpine
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