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Pictures of You
 
 

Pictures of You (Paperback)

by Matt Thorne (Author) "Martin sat up in the back of the cab, taking a moment to adjust to no longer being in motion ..." (more)
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (13 Sep 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0297646672
  • ISBN-13: 978-0297646679
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 2,648,600 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

After every night of coke-fuelled infidelities, magazine editor Martin Powell takes a smoked ham sandwich to bed in Matt Thorne's Pictures of You. He's that kind of a man. Reliable--up to a point--and, in spite of spending his waking hours editing one of Britain's least respected men's magazines, a down-to-earth bloke. His faithful assistant Alison, on the other hand, is not so much down-to-earth as one of nature's true doormats. She goes out to earn the money while her flatmates--feckless boyfriend Adrian and her pathologically promiscuous sister Suzanne--eat their way through the larder.

But, as we join Martin and Alison in Thorne's latest, stylishly witty yarn, everything is on the cusp of change. Martin's comfortable routine of one-night stands and discrete lap-dancing clubs is about to turn nasty. Very nasty. And Alison's about to discover that she has the power to transform--not just her own life, but Martin's with it. Matt Thorne's skill--honed to near-perfection in his three previous novels, Tourist, Eight Minutes Idle and Dreaming of Strangers--lies in his precise, almost surgical dissection of characters and relationships. The uneasy truce between good-girl Alison and her wildcat sister, the death throes of Martin's marriage to the world-weary Claudia--all are painted with a vivid and convincing attention to detail that the likes of Julian Barnes should envy. Equally remarkable is Thorne's ceaselessly funny world-view--one that never fails to induce an element of the sardonic into the bleakest of situations. For a snapshot of real people in turmoil, you can't do better than this book. --Matthew Baylis



Review

Young British novelist Matt Thorne continues to show great promise as he follows up the gentle, offbeat love affair of his latest novel, Dreaming of Strangers, with a darkly humorous excursion into the sleazier territory of the metropolis. Martin is the epitome of contemporary urban success: editor of Force, a men's magazine, he's in his mid-thirties and he's seemingly got it made. His life, though, is on the verge of falling apart as the knives are sharpened at the magazine, his marriage creaks under a series of unhappy infidelities and his social life degenerates into a hedonistic reflex action pursued alongside some very weird friends. Alison is his twenty-something assistant and has a crush on her boss, who is a nice guy despite the self-destructive habits. She won't do anything about it, though as she relishes unrequited passions and is comfortable with her good if very stoned boyfriend. As Martin's life goes into meltdown Alison must decide if she wants to blow hers up. The characterization of the twenty and thirty-somethings is mercilessly well observed, their fashionable hangouts and hang-ups providing the story with a cynical background mitigated by the true romance at its core. Riven with infidelity, drugs, good sex, bad porn, the writing is very sharp and funny, creating such disastrous circumstances that the suspense of whether Martin and Alison will get it together is successfully maintained until the last page. (Kirkus UK)

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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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4 star:
 (2)
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
2.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, 5 Aug 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Pictures Of You (Paperback)
I am quite baffled by Matt Thorne. I think he is an intelligent writer - I enjoy his journalism and reviews and I thought his first few novels were excellent. However, I thought this novel was puzzling - it is pure chick lit and had it been written by a young female novelist it would have been slated as an example of pure trash (a fate Thorne has escaped because he has a cool literary image). I have nothing against chick lit - it is fun and entertaining and good to read on the train and some chick/lad lit (eg Lisa Jewell) is really very fine and perceptive. But this reads like chick lit at its worst - shallow, 2D characters, an inspiring romance, a limp plot, pale prose and the rather insipid setting of mens' mags.

This novel seems to fall between commercial fiction and literary fiction without having the merits of either. It is shallow without being witty or fun, and the result is rather dull. I couldn't even get past the first 100 pages. I remain convinced, however, that Thorne is one day going to write something great so I am going to keep trying him for a while longer before I give up on him...

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The Truth About Men, 14 Aug 2002
By Ryan Bryant (London, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Pictures Of You (Paperback)
This is the only Matt Thorne novel I have read. I found it extremely funny and clever, and deeply embarrassing. He really reveals the truth about men. This is not a book you'd want your girlfriend to read, because then you'd have to answer a lot of awkward questions. It's not really laddy, though, in fact it tells an extremely sensitive love story. He's honest about people, and that's what counts.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Sweetly predictable, 10 Mar 2003
By Dr Bo Abrahamsen (Odense - Denmark) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Pictures Of You (Paperback)
Lacking some of the powerful images, wit and language of "Eight minutes idle", "Pictures of you" seemed to me a sad and at times dull story of the decline and fall of an essentially decent and likeable man. The plot comes across as a sweet if predictable love story, while the scenes of violence and drugs somehow fail to convince. Though Matt Thorne is without doubt a fine writer, in this particular book the story comes through as something of a Mike Gayle plot toughened up by Irvine Welsh. I suspect that neither readership will be entirely pleased. Give me "Eight minutes idle" any day.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Puzzling, but brilliant
I just don't get Matt Thorne. I loved Tourist and Eight Minutes Idle, but was really perplexed by Dreaming of Strangers. This one is even more unusual. Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2001

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