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Product Description
Book Description
The first major new novel from Marias since A Heart So White, winner of the IMPAC prize and a bestseller in Spain. Set in England, the book has all the suspense of the best spy novels, which it parodies so brilliantly
Product Description
In a return to the British setting of his much loved novel All Souls, Javier Marias embarks on a remarkable 'novel in parts', set in the murky world of surveillance and espionage. Fever and Spear is the first volume. In it Mar-as begins to weave a web of intrigue, both narrative and intellectual, that will entice the reader to follow him into the labyrinth of the novel's future books. Recently divorced, Jacques Deza moves from Madrid to London in order to distance himself from his ex-wife and children. There he picks up old friendships from his Oxford University days, particularly Sir Peter Wheeler, retired don and semi-retired spy. It is at an Oxford party of Wheeler's that Jacques is approached by the enigmatic Bertram Tupra. Tupra believes that Jacques has a talent: he is one of those people who sees more clearly than others, who can guess from someone's face today what they will become tomorrow. His services would be of use to a mysterious group whose aims are unstated but whose day-to-day activities involve the careful observation of people's character and the prediction of their future behaviour. The 'group' may be part of MI6, though Jacques will find no reference to it in any book; he will be called up to report on all types of people from politicians and celebrities, to ordinary citizens applying for bank loans. As Deza is drawn deeper into this twilight world of observation, Marias shows how trust and betrayal characterise all human relationships. How do we read people, and how far can the stories they tell about themselves be trusted when, by its very nature, all language betrays? Moving from the intimacy of Jacques' marriage to the deadly betrayals of the Spanish Civil War, Your Face Tomorrow is an extraordinary meditation on our ability to know our fellow human beings, and to save ourselves from fever and pain.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is the first part of a trilogy which has just been completed. I came across the author because of a truly wonderful story about his fear of flying in the summer 2009 issue of Granta. More recently, The Economist highly recommended the (third volume of the) trilogy, acknowledging that readers have to cope with several problems.
This first part is a personal and a family history, and a history of the Spanish civil war, by a man endowed with a unique talent. He is able -on the basis of brief encounters (interviews, sometimes observations with only a few words exchanged) -to assess persons, know them better than they know themselves and put his findings on paper, in report form. It is a very rare gift and his talent is turned into employment by a shady agency in London, after his marriage in Madrid breaks up. The agency and the history of his sponsors suggest he is hired to play a role in support of post-Cold War intelligence work. After all, he lived in the UK before he married, lecturing in Oxford, building a network of friends. Interesting!
However, Javier Marias (JM)is his own writer, full of ideas and ambitions beyond a simple spy novel. The way the novel is written has led one Amazon.uk reviewer to give up reading well before reaching the half-way point. Why? Most pages are solid blocks of text, indentations are few, white lines absent. Fortunately, the chapters are fairly short. Real dialogues are rare. Usually, one character answers a question and holds forth for pages on end. Such essay-type statements are frequently interrupted by page-long musings by the hero himself, and then the lecturing continues. Is it a book written for women rather than men?
But it is also on occasion a warm, passionate book because of the personal ingredients. His description of the emotions at work during a break-up are unsurpassed: the fury, the incomprehension, the doomed efforts to win back a loved one, the autism received. Same for definitions and examples of betrayal in general. The description of the hero's frenzied midnight search in his mentor's library for details about the Spanish civil war is superb.
After finishing this book, I was in need of something else. But I will read Part Two of JM's trilogy, because he has really made me curious about what happened before and happens next.
This first part is a personal and a family history, and a history of the Spanish civil war, by a man endowed with a unique talent. He is able -on the basis of brief encounters (interviews, sometimes observations with only a few words exchanged) -to assess persons, know them better than they know themselves and put his findings on paper, in report form. It is a very rare gift and his talent is turned into employment by a shady agency in London, after his marriage in Madrid breaks up. The agency and the history of his sponsors suggest he is hired to play a role in support of post-Cold War intelligence work. After all, he lived in the UK before he married, lecturing in Oxford, building a network of friends. Interesting!
However, Javier Marias (JM)is his own writer, full of ideas and ambitions beyond a simple spy novel. The way the novel is written has led one Amazon.uk reviewer to give up reading well before reaching the half-way point. Why? Most pages are solid blocks of text, indentations are few, white lines absent. Fortunately, the chapters are fairly short. Real dialogues are rare. Usually, one character answers a question and holds forth for pages on end. Such essay-type statements are frequently interrupted by page-long musings by the hero himself, and then the lecturing continues. Is it a book written for women rather than men?
But it is also on occasion a warm, passionate book because of the personal ingredients. His description of the emotions at work during a break-up are unsurpassed: the fury, the incomprehension, the doomed efforts to win back a loved one, the autism received. Same for definitions and examples of betrayal in general. The description of the hero's frenzied midnight search in his mentor's library for details about the Spanish civil war is superb.
After finishing this book, I was in need of something else. But I will read Part Two of JM's trilogy, because he has really made me curious about what happened before and happens next.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book appears to be of the "love it or hate it" variety judging from the other reviews. Personally I loved it, and very soon became utterly addicted. I was originally drawn to the series because of the basic premise (and the intriguing title,) and I would probably have settled for a thriller/spy novel along those lines but this is so much more. I found the elliptical style endlessly engaging and the discussions concerning life and relationships, history and observation, thoroughly rewarding. With this in mind, the book could have easily become a sterile intellectual study by someone with their eye on a literary prize but what did surprise me was how very moving it was at times. Marias has an honest and insightful grasp of the often painful nature of life and relationships, and I feel that many readers might identify with some of the 'baggage' of the protagonist. I've just ordered part two and am recommending this to any of my acquaintances who will listen.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book second hand and i am glad I did. I would have resented having paid full price for it. Although it has received much praise I cannot add my own. Much as I struggled with Midelemarch despite it being rated as one of the best novels in English literature, I struggled with this one. Readers Digest could have fun with this, bringing the whole book down to fifty pages or so, but then I am sure I have missed the whole point. I thought the story started to pick up at about page 190 but it got dragged down again by interminable digressions. The book is one digression after another, and then digressions within digressions, going on for pages. The hero is an physchologically damaged egotistical introvert who cannot stop himself examining and qualifying every statement or thought he ever has. The subtleties of plot are lost on me. For fascinating flawed characters with a good sense of mystery give me Evelyn Waugh, Stieg Larsson or John La Carre any day. I won't be reading the sequal.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Serious literature
Marias unpeels every moment, examining it from every angle, exploring all its associated memories, all its biases and promises. Read more
Published 9 months ago by K. P. Harrison
Not for everyone
I have started reading this book twice. The first time I got to about page 34, the second time to somewhere past page 100. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Phil Jollans
Private thoughts
Sometimes people's private observations and thoughts are interesting, sometimes not.
I wonder, is this an insight view of the world of secret services or is it, like all... Read more
I wonder, is this an insight view of the world of secret services or is it, like all... Read more
Published on 19 May 2010 by Philip Van Meurs
Desperately in need of a good editor
As a previous reviewer has said, this book is based on a good central concept, but the execution is very poor. Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2010 by book maven
A quagmire of verbiage
This Trilogy has received much critical acclaim. I got to somewhere around page ten of this first book-couldn't recall what I had read and there was no indication of where 'it'... Read more
Published on 12 Jan 2010 by Mrs. Audrey Williams
Interesting idea, long-winded storytelling
Jacques Deza, a Spanish university professor in England is approached by a guy called Tupra. Tupra asks him to watch interrogations and give his opinion about the interrogated... Read more
Published on 6 Sep 2009 by Charles Deckers
Bright start, disappointment follows
I first heard about the second book in this three part series through a friend whose opinion I trusted. Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2006 by L. Minker
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