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S'està carregant… The Birthday Present: A Novel (2008 original; edició 2009)de Barbara Vine (Autor)
Informació de l'obraThe Birthday Present de Barbara Vine (2008)
Books Read in 2015 (2,659) S'està carregant…
Apunta't a LibraryThing per saber si aquest llibre et pot agradar. No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. Comença molt bé: un parlamentari conservador durant el govern de Margaret Thatcher manté una relació de matisos sadomasoquistes amb una dona casada. Com a pervers regal d’aniversari, i amb l’aquiescència d’ella, contracta dos còmplices perquè la segrestin i la duguin a una casa desconeguda. Malauradament hi ha un accident de tràfic mortal i l’aventura eròtica queda interrompuda. Als ulls del món, el cadàver de la dona, emmanillat i emmordassat apunta a un acte criminal... El llibre explica l’angoixa del polític, que tem ser vinculat en aquesta tèrbola història i que busca paranoicament tothom que en pugui estar al corrent per fer-los callar com sigui. Tot i que és un bon estudi sobre la culpa i la crueltat inherent als ambiciosos, la història s’allarga en excés i li falta una mica més de suc. No, no començaria per aquí una exploració sobre l’autora; però encara queda molt de bo per descobrir. ( )
A typically cruel and subtle piece of work by Ruth Rendell, writing under her Barbara Vine pseudonym, the novel charts the calamitous career trajectory of a Conservative member of Parliament when he tries to evade the consequences of a sexual misadventure that results in two deaths, including that of his married lover…Ivor can't avoid becoming ridiculous; but because Vine leaves out nothing in portraying him, he remains likable—never admirable, but likable. Within the first five pages of The Birthday Present, you know you're in the hands of a mystery/thriller writer who's in perfect control of her material. In addition to that fabulous control, Rendell/Vine maintains a matronly, almost magisterial tone that lends unexpected dignity to the goriest, creepiest material. It is her trademark.
Ivor Tesham is a handsome, single, young member of Parliament whose political star is on the rise. When he meets a woman in a chance encounter - a beautiful, leggy, married woman named Hebe - the two become lovers obsessed with their trysts, spiced up by what the newspapers like to call "adventure sex." It's the dress-up and role-play that inspire Ivor to create a surprise birthday present for his beloved that involves a curbside kidnapping. It's all intended as mock-dangerous foreplay, but then things take a dark turn. After things go horribly wrong, Ivor begins to receive anonymous letters that reveal astonishingly specific details about the affair and its aftermath. Somehow he must keep his role from being uncovered - and his political future from being destroyed by scandal. Like a heretic on the inquisitor's rack, Ivor is not to be spared the exquisitely slow and tortuous unfolding of events, as hints, nuances, and small revelations lay his darkest secrets hideously bare for all the world to see. The Birthday Present is a deft, insightful, and compulsively readable exploration of obsessive desire - and the dark twists of fate that can shake the lives of even those most insulated by privilege, sophistication, and power. From the Hardcover edition. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — S'està carregant… GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:
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