"We sift through our memories not to understand the past but to suit our present understanding of ourselves. The urge to rewrite ourselves as real-seeming fictions is present in us all."
- Christopher Priest, The Glamour
This remarkable novel opens in a convalescent hospital set in the British countryside where BBC news cameraman Richard Grey is temporarily confined to a wheelchair during his recovery from a terrorist bomb blast on a London street. Richard begins telling his story but there is a piece missing – he possesses no recollection of the weeks immediately preceding the explosion. Soon thereafter an attractive young lady, Susan, shows up at the hospital, claiming to be Richard’s girlfriend. Richard does not recognize Susan, however this lack of memory only intensifies Richard’s romantic feelings. A passionate emotional bond quickly forms although a bit of complication intrudes – Susan is still involved with someone maintaining a serious hold on her, a mysterious man by the name of Niall.
Ah, a traditional love triangle, but let me assure you, to describe The Glamour as traditional would be entirely misleading. To say anything more would be to say too much; rather, below are a number of knotty enigmas we encounter via a string of astonishing twists woven into Christopher Priest's tale of suspense. And to repeat: extraordinary, astonishing, suspenseful – a psychological thriller I could hardly put down.
Homo Sapiens: Our worldwide human population currently tops seven billion strong. So many millions of people, yet we all share, every single one of us, a common human nature. What if there was a particular quality usually found in comic book heroes separating off some members, a quality like superhuman strength, invulnerability, x-ray vision, flying . . . or, the power to turn invisible? If such were the case, many of our time-tested assumptions about human life on planet earth would instantly be invalidated, consigned to the trash heap. Such imaginative speculation is what British author Christopher Priest is all about. And fortunately for lovers of literary fiction, Mr. Priest's mastery of craft and language is comparable to Wilkie Collins or Graham Greene.
Invisibility, One: When Richard Grey is in the convalescent hospital, one of the doctors employs hypnosis as a possible means of helping restore Richard’s gap in memory. During the first session, the doctor tells Richard that his medical assistant, a young woman sitting in a chair across from him, will be made invisible. Richard looks in her direction: to his astonishment, she is, in fact, invisible. Such phenomenon in the world of psychoanalysis and hypnosis is referred to as negative hallucination. As we turn the novel’s pages, we wonder how such hypnotic powers might be related to further instances of invisibility. It is also worth noting girlfriend Susan refers to invisibility as “the glamour,” coming from the old Scottish word “glammer" meaning a spell or enchantment.
Invisibility, Two: Taken as metaphor, certain memories we once cherished in shaping our sense of identity are no longer visible to us. Such is the power of time and events coupled with our ever-changing sense of self: going, going, gone – what we once highly valued completely vanishes; certain hunks of our past become invisible. Various are the causes: with Richard, there is the trauma of a terrorist attack; for others like Susan, ordeals suffered in childhood and adolescence.
Invisibility, Three: If I walk into a crowded room flanked by two instantly recognizable movie stars or world leaders, how many men and women in the crowd would actually see me, let along remember my face the next day? In a very real sense, I would have become invisible. One of many psychological and social conundrums both Richard and Susan grapple with.
Invisibility, Four: Think how the plot would thicken and bend in bizarre angles if characters in a novel could slide in and out of invisibility. Now you see me, now you don't. Welcome to the world of The Glamour. Sound captivating? It is highly captivating.
Privacy of the Individual: Our stream-of-consciousness and private inner thoughts are forever ours and ours alone. Not so in fiction - a character shares their mind-stream with a narrator or author, free indirect style being a blending of objective third-person narration with the thoughts and words of a character. On this topic Christopher Priest reveals layers of his storytelling magic from beginning to end, always keeping at least one step ahead of his reader.
Metafiction: The Glamour features multiple narrators and maybe even a third-person narrator. It's that "maybe" that blurs the line and might even undermine our conventional notions of narration and story, including my statement above: "This remarkable novel opens in a convalescent hospital set in the British countryside where BBC news cameraman Richard Grey is temporarily confined to a wheelchair during his recovery from a terrorist bomb blast on a London street." How exactly? I urge you to read for yourself.
We all make fictions. Not one of us is what we seem. When we meet other people we try to project an image of ourselves that will please or influence them in some way."
- Christopher Priest, The Glamour
- Christopher Priest, The Glamour
This remarkable novel opens in a convalescent hospital set in the British countryside where BBC news cameraman Richard Grey is temporarily confined to a wheelchair during his recovery from a terrorist bomb blast on a London street. Richard begins telling his story but there is a piece missing – he possesses no recollection of the weeks immediately preceding the explosion. Soon thereafter an attractive young lady, Susan, shows up at the hospital, claiming to be Richard’s girlfriend. Richard does not recognize Susan, however this lack of memory only intensifies Richard’s romantic feelings. A passionate emotional bond quickly forms although a bit of complication intrudes – Susan is still involved with someone maintaining a serious hold on her, a mysterious man by the name of Niall.
Ah, a traditional love triangle, but let me assure you, to describe The Glamour as traditional would be entirely misleading. To say anything more would be to say too much; rather, below are a number of knotty enigmas we encounter via a string of astonishing twists woven into Christopher Priest's tale of suspense. And to repeat: extraordinary, astonishing, suspenseful – a psychological thriller I could hardly put down.
Homo Sapiens: Our worldwide human population currently tops seven billion strong. So many millions of people, yet we all share, every single one of us, a common human nature. What if there was a particular quality usually found in comic book heroes separating off some members, a quality like superhuman strength, invulnerability, x-ray vision, flying . . . or, the power to turn invisible? If such were the case, many of our time-tested assumptions about human life on planet earth would instantly be invalidated, consigned to the trash heap. Such imaginative speculation is what British author Christopher Priest is all about. And fortunately for lovers of literary fiction, Mr. Priest's mastery of craft and language is comparable to Wilkie Collins or Graham Greene.
Invisibility, One: When Richard Grey is in the convalescent hospital, one of the doctors employs hypnosis as a possible means of helping restore Richard’s gap in memory. During the first session, the doctor tells Richard that his medical assistant, a young woman sitting in a chair across from him, will be made invisible. Richard looks in her direction: to his astonishment, she is, in fact, invisible. Such phenomenon in the world of psychoanalysis and hypnosis is referred to as negative hallucination. As we turn the novel’s pages, we wonder how such hypnotic powers might be related to further instances of invisibility. It is also worth noting girlfriend Susan refers to invisibility as “the glamour,” coming from the old Scottish word “glammer" meaning a spell or enchantment.
Invisibility, Two: Taken as metaphor, certain memories we once cherished in shaping our sense of identity are no longer visible to us. Such is the power of time and events coupled with our ever-changing sense of self: going, going, gone – what we once highly valued completely vanishes; certain hunks of our past become invisible. Various are the causes: with Richard, there is the trauma of a terrorist attack; for others like Susan, ordeals suffered in childhood and adolescence.
Invisibility, Three: If I walk into a crowded room flanked by two instantly recognizable movie stars or world leaders, how many men and women in the crowd would actually see me, let along remember my face the next day? In a very real sense, I would have become invisible. One of many psychological and social conundrums both Richard and Susan grapple with.
Invisibility, Four: Think how the plot would thicken and bend in bizarre angles if characters in a novel could slide in and out of invisibility. Now you see me, now you don't. Welcome to the world of The Glamour. Sound captivating? It is highly captivating.
Privacy of the Individual: Our stream-of-consciousness and private inner thoughts are forever ours and ours alone. Not so in fiction - a character shares their mind-stream with a narrator or author, free indirect style being a blending of objective third-person narration with the thoughts and words of a character. On this topic Christopher Priest reveals layers of his storytelling magic from beginning to end, always keeping at least one step ahead of his reader.
Metafiction: The Glamour features multiple narrators and maybe even a third-person narrator. It's that "maybe" that blurs the line and might even undermine our conventional notions of narration and story, including my statement above: "This remarkable novel opens in a convalescent hospital set in the British countryside where BBC news cameraman Richard Grey is temporarily confined to a wheelchair during his recovery from a terrorist bomb blast on a London street." How exactly? I urge you to read for yourself.
We all make fictions. Not one of us is what we seem. When we meet other people we try to project an image of ourselves that will please or influence them in some way."
- Christopher Priest, The Glamour
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