Clear: A Transparent Novel (Hardcover)

The book's main theme is that even when we think we are seeing, our perceptions of appearances are deceiving us.

What can be more transparent than an illusionist, David Blaine, who sits suspended in a Perspex box above the Thames while he fasts for 44 days? That central image becomes the fulcrum for this insightful, witty novel about modern conceits.

You soon get a hint that the book is in part about writing when the narrator, Adair Graham MacKenny, opens the narration with ribald praise for the language in Jack Schaefer's Shane. Later, Blaine's very illusion is discussed in terms of a Kafka story. Unlike snobbish novelists, Ms. Barker shares everything you need to know to share her point.

As the story develops, you find yourself in the middle of an enigma wrapped in several mysteries, one Aphra by name, who sits every night watching Blaine in the wee hours while others sleep, who keeps dozens of containers of gourmet food which alternative with regurgitated remnants of such food, and wears outrageous shoes. Aphra's shoe fetish nicely matches Adair's foot fetish, and Adair finds himself in enraptured pursuit. As the mysteries about Aphra are gradually resolved, you begin to appreciate Ms. Barker's point about not knowing what we are seeing. In one powerful passage on page 311, she reveals all in describing Blaine's magic:

"He's like a mirror in which people can see the very best and the very worst of themselves."

Clear goes on to make the point that we all use other people in the same way. It's clear!

The central construct is the contrast between a man who can eat but chooses not to (David Blaine) and a man who wants to eat but can not. This is played out not by looking at the two men directly, but by looking at two spectators to their lives - both oddball and both dysfunctional - and ultimately both closely intertwined. The backdrop of the David Blaine stunt and the bizarre mix of people drawn to it is a very accurate depiction - but perhaps you had to be a witness to the stunt (as I was) in order to appreciate this.

The book has a leitmotif of deep over-analysis of the Blaine stunt and Blaine as a mystical guru. The two spectators goad each other on in their analysis, both believeing it will impress the other. The result - deep and believing analysis of a magic trick and a stage conjourer - is very, very droll. I suspect, though, that it would appeal only to people who have a healthy cynicism concerning Mr Blaine's supernatural powers.

I am sorry to have seen so many reviews of this book claiming it was written in a hurry. I did not find it felt rushed - if anything, it was well crafted and carefully balanced. I'm not sure, anyway, how you would tell that a book had been written in a hurry.

This novel inspired me to buy Nicola Barker's back catalogue, which I am in the process of reading. It is a very impressive back catalogue indeed and the short stories, in particular, are very well crafted. Pure, understated brilliance.