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Memoirs of an Invisible Man
When a freak accident leaves stock analyst Nick Halloway completely invisible, he is pursued by intelligence agents, amasses a fortune, and battles against desperate loneliness
396 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
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August 17, 2023
how can you not give this book five stars???(slowly shaking head)...the detail, the tension, the brilliant sardonic life view of my hero nick (did I mention the detail?)...i love this book and i love h f saint; WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU???...when i first read this book i spent the next few years scanning the book shop shelves under "s" looking for his next book but it never came...the radio interview on the net is wonderful, heartbreaking listening as you realise h f was still hopeful of continuing his writing, and was in the process of writing another novel set in N Y...now he's in his 70's (or dead) and i've given up hope but i would love to know his life story post 1987, even more than nick's...i guess he just used up too many good ideas in the one masterpiece.
long live the king
(come on harry, let us know what happened to you)
footnote:-my first book was a paperback with chevy chase on the cover. I think this coloured the way I saw Nick. The last couple of times I read it in the hard cover version, and I think it felt a bit different. I recommend you cover up chevy's face if you have that edition, so that Nick is allowed to be himself. I wouldn't worry about covering up Darryl Hannah though, she IS Alice.
Update on Harry F Saint, March 13th, 2016.
Okay, every now and then I have a little search on the internet to see if anything has turned up on Harry F. Tonight I stumbled across one seemingly insignificant fact that lead to another then another; so that now I have a bit of a picture of Harry's life before and after MOAIM with details that haven't been linked publicly before; so here goes...
Born Feb 13 1941 in New York to Ellis Saint and Rachel Freeman. Full name Harry Freeman Saint. Ellis died in 1963, Rachel lived to 100 and died in 2007. She was living with her other son Chandler (Harry's brother) at the time at 47 North Street, Litchfield CT. Chandler is also a published author of "Making Freedom". It seems at some time Harry might have lived just down the road at 41 North St.
After graduating from Haverford College (at the time an all boys school) he studied Philosophy in Munich in Germany. He returned to America in 1963 when his father died to help run the family business and began a career in real estate development in Pennsylvania and New York. He became involved in developing and running squash courts, and is crediting with revolutionising the sport in New York at the time. He could see that squash might be the next big thing and created St. John Squash Racket Inc in 1973, raising $300,000 from private investors, including his wife's wealthy European family. Squash did enter a boom period, and Harry's company became a key backer of the sport. They expanded rapidly, but in doing so his wife's family became the major shareholders in the company. By the late seventies the squash boom was waning, and the company started moving into running gymnasiums. By 1981 Harry was finding it difficult to run a company that was mainly owned by his ex-wife's family (divorced in 1977, see below), so he cashed in his share and pursued his long held desire to write a book. Just by the way, that original company started by Harry eventually became Town Sports International, a large chain of over 120 health and fitness clubs with sales of $225 million by the year 2000.
So with the sale of his share in the business, Harry set about writing his book. On the basis of a couple of chapters he obtained a $5000 advance which forced him to write the whole of MOAIM. Even before publication he had accrued over $3 million in film, book club and paperback rights. Strikes me as ironic that the bulk of this early money came from the film rights for a film that was ultimately pretty dull. After the success of this book he worked for a time on another one based in New York, but could never quite get it going.
Harry was married in 1963 to Dona Gerarda de Orleans-Bourbon y Perodi Delfino, who was the eldest daughter of Infante Alvero, Duke of Galliera, Prince of the Royal House of France, etc etc. They had two children, Carla in 1967, and Marc in 1969. They divorced in 1977. Carla married Steven Lilly of Chicago in Riverdale, New York in 1992, divorced in 2001, no children. Remarried in Seville, Spain in 2001 and had three children in Seville. Marc married Dorothy Horps in USA in a civil ceremony in 1990, and followed up with a religious ceremony in Murs, France in 1991; divorced in 1995, no children. Remarried in 2009 in Seville, no children. Had one child prior to marriages in 1990 named Christopher Saint-Campogna. Interestingly both Carla and Marc's second marriages in Seville were to people with the same surname, "fernandez de cordoba". Brother/sister or cousins maybe?
At some stage before or during writing the book Harry married Nancy Gengler who, unsurprisingly given Harry's business involvement with squash courts, was a professional squash player. Her sister Louise was the head tennis coach at Princeton for a record 25 years. Nancy, a "tall, willowy redhead", appears to have been about 19 years younger than Harry. I think they probably married about 1983/4, since Nancy didn't graduate from Princeton until 1980 and was still known by the name Gengler in 1983, when she was runner up in the US national championship. They had two children, Lily and Alexander. There is a Lily Saint who is an assistant professor of English at Wesleyan University in Connecticut who looks the right age to be Harry's Lily, but I have no evidence of a link other than the name and the location of the school in Connecticut. Oh, and also Harry's brother Chandler's book was published by Wesleyan University Press. If this is the same Lily she married independent journalist David Freelander in about 2014 and they have two children.
It seems likely that the Saints moved to the south of France around about 1990; probably to Murs which is a very pretty town on a hill in Provence, near Avignon. Harry was close to 50 by then, and would seem to be wealthy enough to have no need for employment. In my imagination he spent the following years raising his two younger children and managing his investments. Maybe still dabbling with writing. The other two children, by then in their twenties, seem to have developed a relationship with Seville in Spain, as both Carla and Mark were married there. Not sure if Harry and Nancy moved there as well. Harry's first wife had at least one relative living there, so maybe that is where she was living, which could explain the two children moving there.
Since at least 2002, and possibly some years earlier, Harry and Nancy have lived in Earls Court in London, within a stones throw of Queen's Club. I imagine given their backgrounds they might be keen royal tennis players. As of last year it appears they were both still alive and well at that location. As late as 2006 Harry was quoted as saying he had a couple of writing projects he was working on, but as yet nothing has appeared.
Quick update, November 2017
Harry and Nancy still appear to be living at the same place, which they actually bought in 1995. Lovely location...picture the final scene in Notting Hill.
Still holding onto that hope that we'll see another H F Saint on the bookshelves!
Further update, April 1, 2020 (not an April fools day joke)
With the sad news of the passing of Princess Maria Teresa of Spain at age 86, the first Royal to die from Covid19 infection, and a successful and meritorious person in her own right, I have dug a little deeper into the ancestry of Harry Saint's first wife. The reason is that Princess Maria Teresa was a member of the Bourbon-Parma Royal Family in Spain, a "morganatic", or "illegitimate" branch of the Bourbon dynasty which reached its peak with the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, the longest reigning and most powerful king in French history. Harry's first wife, Dona Gerarda, was of Bourbon lineage through the House of Orleans, so I hoped to establish a link somewhere along the line. That proved difficult, however I did find that Dona Gerarda is actually a great, great grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, as shown in the potted histories below.
1 Queen Victoria's second son was Prince Alfred (1844-1900). Until his 20th year when his elder brother had his first son he was second in line to the throne. Whilst in the navy he travelled widely, including to Australia (indulge me here, I am Australian) where he was the first royal to visit the country. He was here for five months, and survived an assassination attempt in Sydney where he was shot in the back at close quarters. His would be assassin was hanged six weeks later. Alfred survived largely due to the care of six nurses trained by Florence Nightingale and only recently arrived in the colony. There are a number of major buildings in Australia named after him including Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, which was granted use of the term "Royal" by Queen Victoria herself. He eventually married Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, and an English bakery made the now famous Marie biscuit to commemorate the occasion. Their fifth child was Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh.
2. Princess Beatrice (1884-1966) led an eventful life, including being a bridesmaid at the wedding of the future King George V and Queen Mary when she was nine. After being refused permission to marry her cousin Grand Duke Michael, brother of Tsar Nicholas II, she met Alfonso de Orleans y Bourbon (1886-1975), a cousin of King Alfonso XIII of Spain at the king's wedding. They married three years later in 1909 at Coburg in Germany, and were to enjoy a long marriage through tumultuous times which included exile, imprisonment, and the loss of a son and their estate during the Spanish Civil War. Alfonso trained as a pilot in 1910, went on to a long career in aviation and the military, and is considered one of the most distinguished aviators in Spanish history. Their first child, Alvaro, was born in Coburg in 1910.
3. Alvaro de Orleans, 6th Duke of Galliera (1910-1997) was educated at Winchester College in England whilst his family was in exile from Spain. They eventually returned to Spain but at some stage Alvaro moved to Italy and married Carla Parodi-Delfino (1909-2000) in Rome in 1937. Their first child was Dona Gerarda (1939-present) who would become Harry Freeman Saint's first wife, and mother of his two eldest children. Succession rules decree that the title pass onto the eldest son. Since he (Alonso, second child of Alvaro) died in 1975, before the death of Alvaro, the title has passed to Alonso's son Alfonso who is now the 7th Duke of Galliera. So unfortunately Harry and Dona's son Marc has missed out on this title and its subsequent benefits.
Queen Victoria>Prince Alfred>Princess Beatrice>Alvaro de Orleans>Dona Gerarda m Harry F Saint in 1963. Which made Harry a great, great grandson-in-law of Queen Victoria, as well as a great writer.
I had hoped to visit Harry in London with my h/c copy of Memoirs of an Invisible Man and ask him to sign it this year. Unfortunately the Covid19 that ended the life of Princess Maria Teresa has put paid to this trip. Hopefully I can try again next year when Harry will be 80. My wife thinks I'm mad and will end up in gaol for stalking, but if Harry's worried at all he is being given a year's notice and has plenty of time to relocate to a brownstone in New York somewhere.
October 13, 2023
https://youtu.be/7RWKSLOffxw
In April this year Nancy Gengler-Saint was inducted into the American Squash Hall of Fame. The above YouTube video contains her induction from the 50 minute mark. I think we can probably deduce from her acceptance speech that Harry is no longer with us.
The End.
February 1, 2023
...or is it?
https://soundcloud.com/outsidetheglas...
August 17, 2023
Final Edit
Finding Harry. Many, many thanks to L for organising this. On Wednesday, July 19 this year the very generous Harry Freeman Saint and some of his wonderful family hosted Kim and I to dinner in London. As he escorted us back towards our station he half promised another book but I'm more than happy with the one he already gave us nearly 40 years ago. It turns out this review is largely accurate with just a few diabolical errors and omissions; although I did track down the Invisible Man which is more than the FBI could do. Hopefully they'll have better luck with a certain ex-president.
Looking forward to reading my newly signed copy when we get back home in October. I wish I could post a picture of this but I can't work out how to on Goodreads.
"for Kim and Peter
Thanks for your kind words
Harry"
long live the king
(come on harry, let us know what happened to you)
footnote:-my first book was a paperback with chevy chase on the cover. I think this coloured the way I saw Nick. The last couple of times I read it in the hard cover version, and I think it felt a bit different. I recommend you cover up chevy's face if you have that edition, so that Nick is allowed to be himself. I wouldn't worry about covering up Darryl Hannah though, she IS Alice.
Update on Harry F Saint, March 13th, 2016.
Okay, every now and then I have a little search on the internet to see if anything has turned up on Harry F. Tonight I stumbled across one seemingly insignificant fact that lead to another then another; so that now I have a bit of a picture of Harry's life before and after MOAIM with details that haven't been linked publicly before; so here goes...
Born Feb 13 1941 in New York to Ellis Saint and Rachel Freeman. Full name Harry Freeman Saint. Ellis died in 1963, Rachel lived to 100 and died in 2007. She was living with her other son Chandler (Harry's brother) at the time at 47 North Street, Litchfield CT. Chandler is also a published author of "Making Freedom". It seems at some time Harry might have lived just down the road at 41 North St.
After graduating from Haverford College (at the time an all boys school) he studied Philosophy in Munich in Germany. He returned to America in 1963 when his father died to help run the family business and began a career in real estate development in Pennsylvania and New York. He became involved in developing and running squash courts, and is crediting with revolutionising the sport in New York at the time. He could see that squash might be the next big thing and created St. John Squash Racket Inc in 1973, raising $300,000 from private investors, including his wife's wealthy European family. Squash did enter a boom period, and Harry's company became a key backer of the sport. They expanded rapidly, but in doing so his wife's family became the major shareholders in the company. By the late seventies the squash boom was waning, and the company started moving into running gymnasiums. By 1981 Harry was finding it difficult to run a company that was mainly owned by his ex-wife's family (divorced in 1977, see below), so he cashed in his share and pursued his long held desire to write a book. Just by the way, that original company started by Harry eventually became Town Sports International, a large chain of over 120 health and fitness clubs with sales of $225 million by the year 2000.
So with the sale of his share in the business, Harry set about writing his book. On the basis of a couple of chapters he obtained a $5000 advance which forced him to write the whole of MOAIM. Even before publication he had accrued over $3 million in film, book club and paperback rights. Strikes me as ironic that the bulk of this early money came from the film rights for a film that was ultimately pretty dull. After the success of this book he worked for a time on another one based in New York, but could never quite get it going.
Harry was married in 1963 to Dona Gerarda de Orleans-Bourbon y Perodi Delfino, who was the eldest daughter of Infante Alvero, Duke of Galliera, Prince of the Royal House of France, etc etc. They had two children, Carla in 1967, and Marc in 1969. They divorced in 1977. Carla married Steven Lilly of Chicago in Riverdale, New York in 1992, divorced in 2001, no children. Remarried in Seville, Spain in 2001 and had three children in Seville. Marc married Dorothy Horps in USA in a civil ceremony in 1990, and followed up with a religious ceremony in Murs, France in 1991; divorced in 1995, no children. Remarried in 2009 in Seville, no children. Had one child prior to marriages in 1990 named Christopher Saint-Campogna. Interestingly both Carla and Marc's second marriages in Seville were to people with the same surname, "fernandez de cordoba". Brother/sister or cousins maybe?
At some stage before or during writing the book Harry married Nancy Gengler who, unsurprisingly given Harry's business involvement with squash courts, was a professional squash player. Her sister Louise was the head tennis coach at Princeton for a record 25 years. Nancy, a "tall, willowy redhead", appears to have been about 19 years younger than Harry. I think they probably married about 1983/4, since Nancy didn't graduate from Princeton until 1980 and was still known by the name Gengler in 1983, when she was runner up in the US national championship. They had two children, Lily and Alexander. There is a Lily Saint who is an assistant professor of English at Wesleyan University in Connecticut who looks the right age to be Harry's Lily, but I have no evidence of a link other than the name and the location of the school in Connecticut. Oh, and also Harry's brother Chandler's book was published by Wesleyan University Press. If this is the same Lily she married independent journalist David Freelander in about 2014 and they have two children.
It seems likely that the Saints moved to the south of France around about 1990; probably to Murs which is a very pretty town on a hill in Provence, near Avignon. Harry was close to 50 by then, and would seem to be wealthy enough to have no need for employment. In my imagination he spent the following years raising his two younger children and managing his investments. Maybe still dabbling with writing. The other two children, by then in their twenties, seem to have developed a relationship with Seville in Spain, as both Carla and Mark were married there. Not sure if Harry and Nancy moved there as well. Harry's first wife had at least one relative living there, so maybe that is where she was living, which could explain the two children moving there.
Since at least 2002, and possibly some years earlier, Harry and Nancy have lived in Earls Court in London, within a stones throw of Queen's Club. I imagine given their backgrounds they might be keen royal tennis players. As of last year it appears they were both still alive and well at that location. As late as 2006 Harry was quoted as saying he had a couple of writing projects he was working on, but as yet nothing has appeared.
Quick update, November 2017
Harry and Nancy still appear to be living at the same place, which they actually bought in 1995. Lovely location...picture the final scene in Notting Hill.
Still holding onto that hope that we'll see another H F Saint on the bookshelves!
Further update, April 1, 2020 (not an April fools day joke)
With the sad news of the passing of Princess Maria Teresa of Spain at age 86, the first Royal to die from Covid19 infection, and a successful and meritorious person in her own right, I have dug a little deeper into the ancestry of Harry Saint's first wife. The reason is that Princess Maria Teresa was a member of the Bourbon-Parma Royal Family in Spain, a "morganatic", or "illegitimate" branch of the Bourbon dynasty which reached its peak with the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, the longest reigning and most powerful king in French history. Harry's first wife, Dona Gerarda, was of Bourbon lineage through the House of Orleans, so I hoped to establish a link somewhere along the line. That proved difficult, however I did find that Dona Gerarda is actually a great, great grand-daughter of Queen Victoria, as shown in the potted histories below.
1 Queen Victoria's second son was Prince Alfred (1844-1900). Until his 20th year when his elder brother had his first son he was second in line to the throne. Whilst in the navy he travelled widely, including to Australia (indulge me here, I am Australian) where he was the first royal to visit the country. He was here for five months, and survived an assassination attempt in Sydney where he was shot in the back at close quarters. His would be assassin was hanged six weeks later. Alfred survived largely due to the care of six nurses trained by Florence Nightingale and only recently arrived in the colony. There are a number of major buildings in Australia named after him including Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, which was granted use of the term "Royal" by Queen Victoria herself. He eventually married Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, and an English bakery made the now famous Marie biscuit to commemorate the occasion. Their fifth child was Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh.
2. Princess Beatrice (1884-1966) led an eventful life, including being a bridesmaid at the wedding of the future King George V and Queen Mary when she was nine. After being refused permission to marry her cousin Grand Duke Michael, brother of Tsar Nicholas II, she met Alfonso de Orleans y Bourbon (1886-1975), a cousin of King Alfonso XIII of Spain at the king's wedding. They married three years later in 1909 at Coburg in Germany, and were to enjoy a long marriage through tumultuous times which included exile, imprisonment, and the loss of a son and their estate during the Spanish Civil War. Alfonso trained as a pilot in 1910, went on to a long career in aviation and the military, and is considered one of the most distinguished aviators in Spanish history. Their first child, Alvaro, was born in Coburg in 1910.
3. Alvaro de Orleans, 6th Duke of Galliera (1910-1997) was educated at Winchester College in England whilst his family was in exile from Spain. They eventually returned to Spain but at some stage Alvaro moved to Italy and married Carla Parodi-Delfino (1909-2000) in Rome in 1937. Their first child was Dona Gerarda (1939-present) who would become Harry Freeman Saint's first wife, and mother of his two eldest children. Succession rules decree that the title pass onto the eldest son. Since he (Alonso, second child of Alvaro) died in 1975, before the death of Alvaro, the title has passed to Alonso's son Alfonso who is now the 7th Duke of Galliera. So unfortunately Harry and Dona's son Marc has missed out on this title and its subsequent benefits.
Queen Victoria>Prince Alfred>Princess Beatrice>Alvaro de Orleans>Dona Gerarda m Harry F Saint in 1963. Which made Harry a great, great grandson-in-law of Queen Victoria, as well as a great writer.
I had hoped to visit Harry in London with my h/c copy of Memoirs of an Invisible Man and ask him to sign it this year. Unfortunately the Covid19 that ended the life of Princess Maria Teresa has put paid to this trip. Hopefully I can try again next year when Harry will be 80. My wife thinks I'm mad and will end up in gaol for stalking, but if Harry's worried at all he is being given a year's notice and has plenty of time to relocate to a brownstone in New York somewhere.
October 13, 2023
https://youtu.be/7RWKSLOffxw
In April this year Nancy Gengler-Saint was inducted into the American Squash Hall of Fame. The above YouTube video contains her induction from the 50 minute mark. I think we can probably deduce from her acceptance speech that Harry is no longer with us.
The End.
February 1, 2023
...or is it?
https://soundcloud.com/outsidetheglas...
August 17, 2023
Final Edit
Finding Harry. Many, many thanks to L for organising this. On Wednesday, July 19 this year the very generous Harry Freeman Saint and some of his wonderful family hosted Kim and I to dinner in London. As he escorted us back towards our station he half promised another book but I'm more than happy with the one he already gave us nearly 40 years ago. It turns out this review is largely accurate with just a few diabolical errors and omissions; although I did track down the Invisible Man which is more than the FBI could do. Hopefully they'll have better luck with a certain ex-president.
Looking forward to reading my newly signed copy when we get back home in October. I wish I could post a picture of this but I can't work out how to on Goodreads.
"for Kim and Peter
Thanks for your kind words
Harry"
August 8, 2024
Read this great book but DO NOT confuse this brilliant novel with the crap movie it was later made into starring Chevy Chase and directed by John Carpenter. If ever a movie screamed out for a remake, it would be this story. They cocked up the movie horribly and it's a tragedy that this great little book is linked to such a steaming pile of manure masquerading as a film.
I can state without any exaggeration that the umpteen times I have made it through this book cover-to-cover were the most fun that I've ever had reading. This last reading I pulled off in a single day! I also think that it's interesting how many people state that this is their favorite book, more than any other book I've come across on Goodreads. I also think it’s curious how many people admit to having read the novel several times. I have lost track, but the last time I read it was probably ten years ago.
A guy turns invisible. Pretty simple idea and done to death you may think. Think again. Think about an absolutely brilliant execution of this idea.
Please, please don't call this a "remake" or an update of the H.G. Wells novel; they have nothing but invisibility in common. No one says that every vampire book is a "remake" of Bram Stoker's book. It's not like Wells owns the rights to any book about invisibility, and I guarantee that nobody would claim that the book by Wells is their favorite novel. In his version, the protagonist is a figure of dread, a wretched creature more dead than alive. In this one, the author makes it a battle of wits in a fascinating game of cat and mouse in which the hero must overcome a befuddling and never-ending array of practical details to keep one step ahead of his ruthless pursuers.
Instead of detailing the advantages of invisibility, the author explains how an invisible man must be constantly aware of how he is making his presence known to the world around him. Being less than completely invisible in this story is shown to be absolutely perilous.
The mundane aspects of living as an invisible man in a crowded city provide most of the conflict in this story as Nick is compelled to outsmart the creepy government stooges hounding him at every turn. As magical as the idea of invisibility may seem for most of us, we are treated with a story that more or less shows it as a horrible curse. We pity this poor victim who wants nothing more than to be left in peace. Disappearing is much more than simply being invisible and the genius of this novel is how Nick goes about making himself "disappear." He must fabricate an invisible life to go along with his body.
Thank goodness my younger brother recommended the book to me or I wouldn’t have bothered with it—I don’t really like science fiction at all. This isn’t science fiction; it’s a blast! Read it!
P.S. Too bad the guy didn't write anything else, but one brilliant novel is plenty. According to rumor, he retired on his book and movie rights earnings and settled somewhere in France. Bon voyage, H.F. Saint.
Update 09AUG24
Yes, I'm reading this again, this time in Spanish.
I can state without any exaggeration that the umpteen times I have made it through this book cover-to-cover were the most fun that I've ever had reading. This last reading I pulled off in a single day! I also think that it's interesting how many people state that this is their favorite book, more than any other book I've come across on Goodreads. I also think it’s curious how many people admit to having read the novel several times. I have lost track, but the last time I read it was probably ten years ago.
A guy turns invisible. Pretty simple idea and done to death you may think. Think again. Think about an absolutely brilliant execution of this idea.
Please, please don't call this a "remake" or an update of the H.G. Wells novel; they have nothing but invisibility in common. No one says that every vampire book is a "remake" of Bram Stoker's book. It's not like Wells owns the rights to any book about invisibility, and I guarantee that nobody would claim that the book by Wells is their favorite novel. In his version, the protagonist is a figure of dread, a wretched creature more dead than alive. In this one, the author makes it a battle of wits in a fascinating game of cat and mouse in which the hero must overcome a befuddling and never-ending array of practical details to keep one step ahead of his ruthless pursuers.
Instead of detailing the advantages of invisibility, the author explains how an invisible man must be constantly aware of how he is making his presence known to the world around him. Being less than completely invisible in this story is shown to be absolutely perilous.
The mundane aspects of living as an invisible man in a crowded city provide most of the conflict in this story as Nick is compelled to outsmart the creepy government stooges hounding him at every turn. As magical as the idea of invisibility may seem for most of us, we are treated with a story that more or less shows it as a horrible curse. We pity this poor victim who wants nothing more than to be left in peace. Disappearing is much more than simply being invisible and the genius of this novel is how Nick goes about making himself "disappear." He must fabricate an invisible life to go along with his body.
Thank goodness my younger brother recommended the book to me or I wouldn’t have bothered with it—I don’t really like science fiction at all. This isn’t science fiction; it’s a blast! Read it!
P.S. Too bad the guy didn't write anything else, but one brilliant novel is plenty. According to rumor, he retired on his book and movie rights earnings and settled somewhere in France. Bon voyage, H.F. Saint.
Update 09AUG24
Yes, I'm reading this again, this time in Spanish.
April 16, 2008
This book has been in my top five favorite list since I first read it when it was published in 1987. I'd read it again a couple years later and now for the third time, nineteen years after that. Time flies. It was just as much fun this time around as well. It is such a well-done story about what would happen if an average guy, in this case a 34-year-old securities analyst, should accidentally become invisible. Not only that, he's also got four determined government agents trying to capture him as he tries to survive in New York City. It's not easy and the author gives a thrilling account of how the narrator, Nick Halloway, does it. It's such an inventive, cool story but unless the author's working under another name, it's the only thing he's written. It was also turned into a mediocre movie about ten years ago. Many things are changed from book to movie as you can imagine. Regardless, this story makes you wonder: what would you do in this situation?
June 1, 2016
If you knew about the case of H. F. Saint (the author of this book), you would stop complaining about your favorite writer not completing the next book soon enough, and just be content by the promise that they would continue to write and the next book would come out eventually.
Harry F. Saint started writing this book (published in 1987) when he was in his 40's. He wanted to make money by writing an engaging story, and decided to keep writing in the future to pay the bills. As it turned out, even as the book was in the process of being published, it was picked up for a movie deal for 2.5 million dollars, and moreover, paperback rights also brought in more than half a million dollars. This was way more than Saint was hoping to earn from his debut effort, so thinking that he had already done more than enough, he promptly dropped his plans of making a steady career in authorship and retired to France. More than 3 million dollars in 1987, who could blame him? (But I am surprised by his choice of country of retirement. France isn't particularly famous for being a tax haven.)
So, next time you blame G. R. R. M. for not writing soon enough, just remember that he makes more than 25 million dollars in a year. At this point, his only motivation is that he wants to tell his story to his readers, because he himself already knows how it is going to end (Dany finally gets eaten by the three dragons when she starts yet another monologue of how she is going to rule Westeros for the 97877th time. Jon Snow marries Cersei and dies of shock on the wedding night when he finds her in bed with the High Sparrow to avoid yet another walk of atonement. High Sparrow dies of a heart attack from exertion. Tyrion becomes the High Sparrow in his place. Arya joins the play troupe. Sansa becomes the first Lady Commander of the night watch. White Walkers threaten to never cross the wall ever again if she is not replaced soon. Ramsay Bolton rules Westeros with Theon as his hand. They all (who didn't die) live happily everafter.)
Anyways, H. F. Saint didn't feel motivated enough to write another book. Not unlike his protagonist of the book, Nick Halloway. Halloway's character is pretty uninspired (most of the times). A clever and cunning (and visible, I must add) person might have done most of the things that he did after turning invisible (like stealing food and squatting in a big building). That's like, more than half of the book.
Don't get me wrong, there are some tense moments, and the pages flow easily even if Nick is stuck somewhere doing nothing for a very long time. So I would say that that makes the book readable. But I was expecting something more exciting given the basic plot of the story. Still a good book, though.
If only H. F. Saint had written a sequel...
August 22, 2007
OK, so the basic idea was covered by H.G. Wells long ago, but I found this book hard to put down. Not only does the pace keep you riveted, but the invisible man himself is such a smarta** that the dialogue often made me laugh out loud. It's a shame they butchered the story when they made it into a Chevy Chase movie, in which the witty repartee was replaced with expletives. Skip the movie, read the book...
August 15, 2018
I read this back when it was first published - they were handing out the first 2 chapters in pamphlet form and I loved it, so bought the book.
The movie with Chevy Chase was okay, but not nearly as good as the book.
Great fun.
The movie with Chevy Chase was okay, but not nearly as good as the book.
Great fun.
September 11, 2014
When I think about invisibility, I think of it as a cool superpower. I guess it would be if you could turn it off and on at will. This book makes it seem much less fun:
• Trying to orient yourself in space can be very disconcerting, especially if you happen to be in an invisible building.
• The government will try to hunt you down. It wants you as a lab rat. It might be able to use you for intelligence. It doesn’t someone else to use you. It may need to eliminate you to avoid the embarrassment and chaos that would ensue from a leak about your condition.
• What you eat and drink is not invisible. It turns you into a disgusting sack of fecal matter and vomit. It also kind of destroys any benefit of invisibility. It’s hard not to eat.
• It’s a bit difficult to go to a store and buy what you need. Even stealing it is tough – items floating through space attract attention. Creativity is key.
• Hope you have lots of money because holding a job becomes a problem.
• No human interaction becomes boring after a while.
• You see people you like(d) at their absolutely worst.
• If your invisible clothes were summer clothes, winter’s a bitch.
• If you happen to get hurt, trying to deal with a wound you can’t see is a bit difficult.
Nick’s the only survivor of an explosion in a building where scientists were experimenting with a secret formula. He and the building end up invisible. The government tries to hunt him down, and he spends the whole book on the run, and trying to survive in his new condition.
This books starts off with a sex-on-a-train scene that’s a bit of an attention grabber. But all the women in this book are little more than props. Nick’s got a lot of acquaintances, but apparently no real friends. He seems a bit shallow. But he’s good at working the angles, and that helps him out in dealing with his government nemesis. I’m not sure I liked him enough be overly worried about his fate, but I did admire his ingenuity.
All in all, this was an interesting and creative, but slightly too wordy book. I feel like I need to read the H.G. Wells version now. I’m struggling between a 3 and 4 rating, but I’ll guess I’ll round up to go with popular consensus.
November 15, 2018
"If only you could see me now. You can't and you couldn't, but I am here."
An inexplicably incredible, hilarious novel that I first read years ago when the so-so film came out and which I now revisit, leaving it with glee and the desire to spread its translucent love across the universe.
This is another one of those books that if you described it to someone, they'd walk away from you, shaking their head, and prescribing you something:
A NYC securities analyst gets turned invisible in an accident at an experiment that the girl he is trying to fuck is covering for the Times. He then spends the rest of the novel dodging nefarious and mysterious government agents trying to catch him.
That's right, a securities analyst who, by his own admission, is not very interesting, is kind of a douche, and wears suspenders. What's amazing is that this book is so fascinating and driven and obsessive when in fact the bulk of the book is about the invisible man simply trying to survive. The tension is built merely out of the simple fact that it would be a lot harder to be invisible than you think. How does an invisible man eat? Shit? Have sex? Spend his winters? Make it unjostled through Manhattan? Elude crafty government henchmen who has basically shut down his former life?
That's the bulk of the story. Sounds boring, right? I assure you it is anything but.
An inexplicably incredible, hilarious novel that I first read years ago when the so-so film came out and which I now revisit, leaving it with glee and the desire to spread its translucent love across the universe.
This is another one of those books that if you described it to someone, they'd walk away from you, shaking their head, and prescribing you something:
A NYC securities analyst gets turned invisible in an accident at an experiment that the girl he is trying to fuck is covering for the Times. He then spends the rest of the novel dodging nefarious and mysterious government agents trying to catch him.
That's right, a securities analyst who, by his own admission, is not very interesting, is kind of a douche, and wears suspenders. What's amazing is that this book is so fascinating and driven and obsessive when in fact the bulk of the book is about the invisible man simply trying to survive. The tension is built merely out of the simple fact that it would be a lot harder to be invisible than you think. How does an invisible man eat? Shit? Have sex? Spend his winters? Make it unjostled through Manhattan? Elude crafty government henchmen who has basically shut down his former life?
That's the bulk of the story. Sounds boring, right? I assure you it is anything but.
October 4, 2019
This book was one in a stack of books given to me that, when judging the books by their covers, I was dreading reading. I expected it to drag.
& this is the second time this week I have been wrong about it!
This book grabbed my interest from the first paragraph & had me the entire way through. This author has serious talent!!!
Having read so many books in my life, it’s quite unusual to read a book where I can’t guess what’s coming next, but with this one, I couldn’t!
& this is the second time this week I have been wrong about it!
This book grabbed my interest from the first paragraph & had me the entire way through. This author has serious talent!!!
Having read so many books in my life, it’s quite unusual to read a book where I can’t guess what’s coming next, but with this one, I couldn’t!
October 10, 2024
We have all said at one time or another, “I wish I was invisible!” If you’ve read H.F. Saints’ “Memoirs of an Invisible Man”, you now realize that you really didn’t mean that. In fact, you realize how horrible it would truly be to be unseen, even in a world where nobody seems to be paying attention to more than one thing, themselves.
Try walking in public, no one sees you. What happens? You become a human bowling ball on an alley with hundreds of pins, that are constantly moving in ever changing random patterns. Think about your last trip to the mall and imagine if no one could see you. You would be trampled before even getting near Spunkmeyers Cookie Heaven.
Saint thinks of all the tiny details that would ensnare a suddenly invisible man, one who quickly becomes aware that an unknown shady government agency is very interested in him, and of course how they can best exploit him against the “true” enemy. One of my favorite descriptions was of the protagonist describing having no problem walking right past an entry door security guard - except that how did you explain a door opening and closing on its own and visible impressions in the carpet moving away from the guard, one footprint after another?
I really agreed with Saints’ overall vision and loved that although Nick’s body was invisible, his clothes and other accoutrements were not. If he consumed anything, it was visible, seemingly in mid air, until his cellular structure alteration could change the food and make it also invisible. If it rained, drops seemed to bounce off nothing prior to reaching the ground.
All of this creates great difficulty for Nick as he navigates the perils, and yet he is still able to cleverly thwart the bad guys, and even rescue the beautiful girl to boot.
Best invisible person story ever.
Enjoy
Try walking in public, no one sees you. What happens? You become a human bowling ball on an alley with hundreds of pins, that are constantly moving in ever changing random patterns. Think about your last trip to the mall and imagine if no one could see you. You would be trampled before even getting near Spunkmeyers Cookie Heaven.
Saint thinks of all the tiny details that would ensnare a suddenly invisible man, one who quickly becomes aware that an unknown shady government agency is very interested in him, and of course how they can best exploit him against the “true” enemy. One of my favorite descriptions was of the protagonist describing having no problem walking right past an entry door security guard - except that how did you explain a door opening and closing on its own and visible impressions in the carpet moving away from the guard, one footprint after another?
I really agreed with Saints’ overall vision and loved that although Nick’s body was invisible, his clothes and other accoutrements were not. If he consumed anything, it was visible, seemingly in mid air, until his cellular structure alteration could change the food and make it also invisible. If it rained, drops seemed to bounce off nothing prior to reaching the ground.
All of this creates great difficulty for Nick as he navigates the perils, and yet he is still able to cleverly thwart the bad guys, and even rescue the beautiful girl to boot.
Best invisible person story ever.
Enjoy
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 6, 2023
This book was recommended to me as ‘Probably my favorite novel’. I can’t recall other book recommendations being as decisive and was therefore tempted to read. It didn’t disappoint. A simple idea - man wakes up invisible after an accident (or extraordinary scientific mishap, in his own words) - crafted into a beautiful story of cat-and-mouse, eavesdropping, and the practical problems of living a life unseen. Chased by the government, in the crowded streets of NYC, the main character, Nick, comes to terms with being invisible. Although there are moments of joy (walking in on total strangers’ parties, night swimming in hotel pools), it becomes clear that invisibility is not a trait we should wish for.
Apparently Saint delivered just the one novel, cashed in on the royalties and somewhat vanished since. With surprisingly many stating this to be (one of) their favorite ever reads, it seems there are still many who, every other few years, try to track down Saint and his whereabouts. Try to find out if he's still alive or not. It seems he just disappeared from the public eye, he’s not invisible. Oh the irony, in a world growing more digital by the day, trying to track down the author who wrote one story about a guy who just wanted to be left alone.
I laughed a lot reading this. It’s not science fiction, it’s just a fun, beautifully built story with few but strong characters.
Apparently Saint delivered just the one novel, cashed in on the royalties and somewhat vanished since. With surprisingly many stating this to be (one of) their favorite ever reads, it seems there are still many who, every other few years, try to track down Saint and his whereabouts. Try to find out if he's still alive or not. It seems he just disappeared from the public eye, he’s not invisible. Oh the irony, in a world growing more digital by the day, trying to track down the author who wrote one story about a guy who just wanted to be left alone.
I laughed a lot reading this. It’s not science fiction, it’s just a fun, beautifully built story with few but strong characters.
The trouble is, I have grown so accustomed to my vantage point that its uniqueness is lost on me, and although you might hope that an invisible man could offer you some intelligence of an invisible purpose in the world, if it is there, I have not yet found it.
January 13, 2015
I loved this book. It's very intelligent, funny and compelling.
As the title indicates, it provides an account of the life of a man whose body has turned invisible. It offers a very clever exploration of the question what life as an invisible man would be like.
It reminded me of two of my favorite films, Groundhog Day and The Man from Earth, respectively about a man who keeps reliving the same day over and over again and a man who does not age and has lived for millennia, which are also humorous and intelligent stories about men who have to live with a fantastical phenomenon firmly focused on the experiences of their protagonist. If you enjoyed these films, you might want to give book a shot too.
It also reminded me a lot of Steven Gould's excellent Jumper series, about a young man who discovers he has the ability to teleport. If you enjoyed Gould's Jumper novels and are looking for something similar, I'd highly recommend this book (it's slightly longer than Gould's novels, but just as fun and compelling a read).
As the title indicates, it provides an account of the life of a man whose body has turned invisible. It offers a very clever exploration of the question what life as an invisible man would be like.
It reminded me of two of my favorite films, Groundhog Day and The Man from Earth, respectively about a man who keeps reliving the same day over and over again and a man who does not age and has lived for millennia, which are also humorous and intelligent stories about men who have to live with a fantastical phenomenon firmly focused on the experiences of their protagonist. If you enjoyed these films, you might want to give book a shot too.
It also reminded me a lot of Steven Gould's excellent Jumper series, about a young man who discovers he has the ability to teleport. If you enjoyed Gould's Jumper novels and are looking for something similar, I'd highly recommend this book (it's slightly longer than Gould's novels, but just as fun and compelling a read).
March 19, 2015
I have to unreservedly give this book five stars.
It is absolutely a great book; my only regret is that Saint never published anything else.
Being invisible is probably a little bit of everyone's fantasy, but in this story, Nick Halloway really discovers all of the challenges and frustrations of what that would mean. He can do almost nothing of what he did before. Even worse, he is cut off socially from his entire past life. Saint does a very good job of showing what this would all be like.
In addition to the wow factor of being invisible, there is quite a bit of thriller here, excitement and chase scenes. It is just a very creative, imaginitive, and enjoyable book.
For anyone who has seen or is considering the movie with Chevy Chase, I saw it years ago and do not remember much of it, but it certainly cannot stand up to the novel. Not even close.
Where are you, H.F. Saint, and why did you never write anything else? This is one of my few top books of all time.
It is absolutely a great book; my only regret is that Saint never published anything else.
Being invisible is probably a little bit of everyone's fantasy, but in this story, Nick Halloway really discovers all of the challenges and frustrations of what that would mean. He can do almost nothing of what he did before. Even worse, he is cut off socially from his entire past life. Saint does a very good job of showing what this would all be like.
In addition to the wow factor of being invisible, there is quite a bit of thriller here, excitement and chase scenes. It is just a very creative, imaginitive, and enjoyable book.
For anyone who has seen or is considering the movie with Chevy Chase, I saw it years ago and do not remember much of it, but it certainly cannot stand up to the novel. Not even close.
Where are you, H.F. Saint, and why did you never write anything else? This is one of my few top books of all time.
August 26, 2011
One of my all-time favorite books. I bet I've read it at least 10 times. I was telling a friend about it, about how I kept buying copies of it and loaned to friends and never got it back. Well, he found it on Amazon and bought me a copy as well as one for himself. I recently re-read it and thought about how it worked in 1987, when it was written, but it would be a very different story if written today. Technology has advanced to the point that anyone could disappear and become "invisible" but could also be tracked down by that very same technology. I still found the story exciting; Nick so very resourceful, yet every time you think he's safe, the CIA breaks in and he manages to get away once again.
July 8, 2016
One of the few novels I've read 3 times--it's that good. The protagonist is turned invisible after a tech demo goes wrong, and then is pursued by a government agency. The author captures how life would be so dangerous for an invisible person trying to exist without discovery (doors opening, cars speeding etc.) while he's being tracked down. How I wish the author would write a sequel. The movie didn't do the novel justice in the least.
UPDATE
Just finished read this for a fourth time--the only novel I've read so many times. I also updated my rating to 5 stars. How I wish the author would write a sequel.
UPDATE
Just finished read this for a fourth time--the only novel I've read so many times. I also updated my rating to 5 stars. How I wish the author would write a sequel.
January 11, 2009
The scene on the train is simply priceless. There were many many funny instances in this book that is not simply (only) a funny book.
January 16, 2025
Not really a book I’d recommend. Very different, but in my opinion, kind of boring, and drawn out.
February 13, 2012
Memoirs Of An Invisible Man By H.F. Saint
I get my books from odd places. Garage sales, give a ways, bargain bins, and sometimes out of trash can at my friends house. (He has no tastes in books and often throw good ones away) I grab books that seem interesting, providing an new concept or have tons of potential. I prefer not to join the waves of current fans of big writers stalking their every move. I mean, these guys that no one hears of are sometimes better than JK Rowling, or Stephen King. Sometimes. This time around, the book is called Memoirs Of An Invisible Man By H.F. Saint
So the book has a typical write up on the back cover telling us that it is a man who becomes invisible and then goes on the run from the government. The book clearly tries to sell itself as action book using key words such as Zap! Bang! Kaboom! No. I am not kidding. And the book is covered with reviews on both covers and has three inside pages about how exciting it is. Sound like a fun book right? Well it should have been.
The book actually focuses on a man named Nick Halloway who is an accountant. And as he helps his girlfriend reporter get into a presentation at Micro Magnetics to show their new fusion program to develop energy, something goes wrong. Nick passes out during the evacuation. When he wakes up he finds that he is in the building which is entirely invisible along with him. The government is investigating. And Nick runs away. Or I should say walk away. He leaves, and goes to New York, plays the stock market, does a lot of accounting, live in casinos and apartments every other night and watch people in the park. Yes. That’s about as exciting as it gets. The people who left the reviews about it saying “Keeps you on the edge of your seat,” must also get a total thrill ride out of reading the phone book. But let’s started with the good and bad, shall we?
I’ll start with the bad. Because that’s so much easier to talk about. And with all the bad things in this story, it all basically boils down to one thing. Nick is a shallow person. Before he was physically turned invisible, he already was in another sense. There is no mention of family, friends, hobbies or anything. And the so called relationship he had with the reporter was all sex based. There was no love. They were just both kind of addicts I guess. There was no form of chemistry at all. Point is. There is nothing. So when Nick turns invisible, there is no sense that he lost anything. It’s like “Ahh shucks. Now I have to do my accounting over the phone.” I mean Nick in all sense of the word was nobody because he had no one and just went through the motions trying to earn more money. I mean, if he jumped into the river like George Bailey did, his angel wouldn’t even notice. That and like I said, there’s nothing. We’re just reading about this shallow character with no emotion at all doing things such as watch the stock market as the bad guys will show up every 150 pages or so and then every time the action scene comes, it is over by the next paragraph. Before this author wrote this, I feel he was a math teacher or accountant. I mean, he can not go into any drama or emotional detail centering on the main character, but will spend pages on the angles, dimensions, circumferences, volumes or a say a pile of stuff Nick climbs on top of to get over a fence. I mean its ridiculous. The author went on for ever about the numbers that were involved. I’m not sure why. But it was very odd.
The good? How he became invisible and the scene with the invisible building was very original But that’s all I can give this writer credit for. Oh wait, this book actually did lead to a good movie adaptation (That has nothing to do with the book besides the name) It’s a Chevy Chase ( a serious role) and is actually fun. But for that, I credit to John Carpenter who made the movie, not this book.
Overall, the book promises so much and delivers so little. I mean even if it didn’t had action, I expected emotion. Hell if it lied and was about a space aliens instead, I wouldn’t have cared. I just want something out of it. And it didn’t have it. So I recommend this to no one. But if you like this sort of science fiction stuff, I recommend the movie instead by John Carpenter. Stream it off of netflix and have fun. It’s everything this book wasn’t.
Overall rating: A Book That Really Should Vanish
½ Smoothie out of four
P.S. If you like books, check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/
I get my books from odd places. Garage sales, give a ways, bargain bins, and sometimes out of trash can at my friends house. (He has no tastes in books and often throw good ones away) I grab books that seem interesting, providing an new concept or have tons of potential. I prefer not to join the waves of current fans of big writers stalking their every move. I mean, these guys that no one hears of are sometimes better than JK Rowling, or Stephen King. Sometimes. This time around, the book is called Memoirs Of An Invisible Man By H.F. Saint
So the book has a typical write up on the back cover telling us that it is a man who becomes invisible and then goes on the run from the government. The book clearly tries to sell itself as action book using key words such as Zap! Bang! Kaboom! No. I am not kidding. And the book is covered with reviews on both covers and has three inside pages about how exciting it is. Sound like a fun book right? Well it should have been.
The book actually focuses on a man named Nick Halloway who is an accountant. And as he helps his girlfriend reporter get into a presentation at Micro Magnetics to show their new fusion program to develop energy, something goes wrong. Nick passes out during the evacuation. When he wakes up he finds that he is in the building which is entirely invisible along with him. The government is investigating. And Nick runs away. Or I should say walk away. He leaves, and goes to New York, plays the stock market, does a lot of accounting, live in casinos and apartments every other night and watch people in the park. Yes. That’s about as exciting as it gets. The people who left the reviews about it saying “Keeps you on the edge of your seat,” must also get a total thrill ride out of reading the phone book. But let’s started with the good and bad, shall we?
I’ll start with the bad. Because that’s so much easier to talk about. And with all the bad things in this story, it all basically boils down to one thing. Nick is a shallow person. Before he was physically turned invisible, he already was in another sense. There is no mention of family, friends, hobbies or anything. And the so called relationship he had with the reporter was all sex based. There was no love. They were just both kind of addicts I guess. There was no form of chemistry at all. Point is. There is nothing. So when Nick turns invisible, there is no sense that he lost anything. It’s like “Ahh shucks. Now I have to do my accounting over the phone.” I mean Nick in all sense of the word was nobody because he had no one and just went through the motions trying to earn more money. I mean, if he jumped into the river like George Bailey did, his angel wouldn’t even notice. That and like I said, there’s nothing. We’re just reading about this shallow character with no emotion at all doing things such as watch the stock market as the bad guys will show up every 150 pages or so and then every time the action scene comes, it is over by the next paragraph. Before this author wrote this, I feel he was a math teacher or accountant. I mean, he can not go into any drama or emotional detail centering on the main character, but will spend pages on the angles, dimensions, circumferences, volumes or a say a pile of stuff Nick climbs on top of to get over a fence. I mean its ridiculous. The author went on for ever about the numbers that were involved. I’m not sure why. But it was very odd.
The good? How he became invisible and the scene with the invisible building was very original But that’s all I can give this writer credit for. Oh wait, this book actually did lead to a good movie adaptation (That has nothing to do with the book besides the name) It’s a Chevy Chase ( a serious role) and is actually fun. But for that, I credit to John Carpenter who made the movie, not this book.
Overall, the book promises so much and delivers so little. I mean even if it didn’t had action, I expected emotion. Hell if it lied and was about a space aliens instead, I wouldn’t have cared. I just want something out of it. And it didn’t have it. So I recommend this to no one. But if you like this sort of science fiction stuff, I recommend the movie instead by John Carpenter. Stream it off of netflix and have fun. It’s everything this book wasn’t.
Overall rating: A Book That Really Should Vanish
½ Smoothie out of four
P.S. If you like books, check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/
May 14, 2020
I first read H. F. Saint's novel thirty years ago. I recall the praise it received at the time for how well thought out the novel's exploration of the problems that an invisible person might face. When I read it for myself I was similarly impressed with the challenges Saint identifies (how does someone who's invisible drive a car, or feed themselves, or find regular housing?) and how the novel's titular character overcomes them.
For decades, the novel remained a fond memory, one which I remembered mainly for its description of Halloway's challenges with invisibility. Then I came across a paperback copy in a used bookstore, and I decided to reread it to see how it held up.
Reading it again brought back a wave of nostalgia tempered by hindsight. In it, Nick Halloway, a yuppie securities analyst living in 1980s New York, visits a laboratory staging a demonstration of a new technology. When the test is sabotaged by student protestors, the resulting explosion turns Halloway and everything else in the building invisible. As he adjusts to his new condition, Halloway becomes the target of a small team of federal agents determined to exploit his new condition.
From there the novel becomes a cat-and-mouse game between Halloway and David Jenkins, the agent in charge of his team. Halloway has to find ways to elude their methodical attempts to locate and capture him. While this may seem like a trivial matter for someone who now cannot be seen, Saint emphasizes the problems invisibility creates in terms of doing even the most basic things which people today can address without a second thought. Soon Halloway finds himself cut off from his old life and driven from his apartment, forced to find housing and sustenance wherever he can. These challenges are at the heart of the book, and Saint's consideration of how Halloway overcomes them is one of its great strengths.
Yet what really drives the book is Halloway's conflict with Jenkins. Here Saint envisions an ideal foe for an invisible person: someone who is smart, patient, relentless and with the authority and resources necessary to hunt down someone who is little more than a specter. What makes Jenkins especially interesting as an antagonist is in how in many respects he is as invisible as Halloway, as Jenkins' anonymity and cover identities as an intelligence agent render him nearly as indiscernible to modern society. As a result Halloway finds himself constantly on the defensive, adding suspense to the plot and lending weight to his occasional triumphs over his tenacious opponent.
All of these elements explain why the book has such a fond place in my memory. But then I came upon the sex scenes. I had forgotten about those.
Halloway's battle with loneliness is one of the central themes of Saint's book, as his invisibility and his need to remain hidden isolate him from people even when he is in their midst. At two points in the book, however, Saint has Halloway's desperation drive him to engage in what amounts to sexual assault. Neither scene has aged well, and that the second assault leads to "consensual" sex (to the extent that the woman enjoys the experience with what she thinks is a ghost) doesn't redeem it but makes it worse. It definitely soured my memory of the book, and demonstrates how sometimes the past should stay in the past, even when it comes to a warmly-remembered novel.
For decades, the novel remained a fond memory, one which I remembered mainly for its description of Halloway's challenges with invisibility. Then I came across a paperback copy in a used bookstore, and I decided to reread it to see how it held up.
Reading it again brought back a wave of nostalgia tempered by hindsight. In it, Nick Halloway, a yuppie securities analyst living in 1980s New York, visits a laboratory staging a demonstration of a new technology. When the test is sabotaged by student protestors, the resulting explosion turns Halloway and everything else in the building invisible. As he adjusts to his new condition, Halloway becomes the target of a small team of federal agents determined to exploit his new condition.
From there the novel becomes a cat-and-mouse game between Halloway and David Jenkins, the agent in charge of his team. Halloway has to find ways to elude their methodical attempts to locate and capture him. While this may seem like a trivial matter for someone who now cannot be seen, Saint emphasizes the problems invisibility creates in terms of doing even the most basic things which people today can address without a second thought. Soon Halloway finds himself cut off from his old life and driven from his apartment, forced to find housing and sustenance wherever he can. These challenges are at the heart of the book, and Saint's consideration of how Halloway overcomes them is one of its great strengths.
Yet what really drives the book is Halloway's conflict with Jenkins. Here Saint envisions an ideal foe for an invisible person: someone who is smart, patient, relentless and with the authority and resources necessary to hunt down someone who is little more than a specter. What makes Jenkins especially interesting as an antagonist is in how in many respects he is as invisible as Halloway, as Jenkins' anonymity and cover identities as an intelligence agent render him nearly as indiscernible to modern society. As a result Halloway finds himself constantly on the defensive, adding suspense to the plot and lending weight to his occasional triumphs over his tenacious opponent.
All of these elements explain why the book has such a fond place in my memory. But then I came upon the sex scenes. I had forgotten about those.
Halloway's battle with loneliness is one of the central themes of Saint's book, as his invisibility and his need to remain hidden isolate him from people even when he is in their midst. At two points in the book, however, Saint has Halloway's desperation drive him to engage in what amounts to sexual assault. Neither scene has aged well, and that the second assault leads to "consensual" sex (to the extent that the woman enjoys the experience with what she thinks is a ghost) doesn't redeem it but makes it worse. It definitely soured my memory of the book, and demonstrates how sometimes the past should stay in the past, even when it comes to a warmly-remembered novel.
March 1, 2016
Review of abridged Audio Story along with Novel Review)
First let me say this is one of dem dere Abridged Farcities.
Now sometimes a Shorter Version can be a Good thing. Such as in Bad
stories your glad are finally over, or one of them Stephen king Forrest killing Telephone Books.
But mostly its all BUllOnie. I do tho got to tell ya something good about this. Its a Rare one.
Saints baby was a Incredibly witty book that should be read by All
who like such things as Good Books that are Good! And I'm tellin ya that its a Good One!
Synopsis or Halitosis?
This here Yankee gets caught up in a New Energy Science Demonstration
that happens to go amok because of some Hippie's who blow the Fuse in
a demonstration of angst against the man. Thing is,it bollixed up the experimental equipment and turned the building and our soon to be Anti-Government Hero invisible Like.
Great Trick Right, well the government sure thinks so and are ready to
dissect this man right down to his unseeable ass.
So it goes on from here and yadi Yada. But what ya get is a FUN
fantasy what IF'er that is Wisecrakingly GOod. Very Witty and enjoyable.
Now this sucker is abridged so much so that its basically a long short
story. So Knowing that I had something good on my hands and not
wanting to ruin the memories by being pissed off by this. I treated it
like a Novella that the author might have written before the
novel and realizing he had a HumDinger on his hands. Later went on
to expand it into a novel.
In this case, With the Fantastic Reading it does actually work, regardless of the butchery.
Its just one of those Rock n Rollers that still retains its Energy even when more then just the foreskins been cut off(YIKES)
This Mutilated Baby gets a hackySack 4 and a Half Gold bananas outta 5
The Novel Gets 5 Stars!
First let me say this is one of dem dere Abridged Farcities.
Now sometimes a Shorter Version can be a Good thing. Such as in Bad
stories your glad are finally over, or one of them Stephen king Forrest killing Telephone Books.
But mostly its all BUllOnie. I do tho got to tell ya something good about this. Its a Rare one.
Saints baby was a Incredibly witty book that should be read by All
who like such things as Good Books that are Good! And I'm tellin ya that its a Good One!
Synopsis or Halitosis?
This here Yankee gets caught up in a New Energy Science Demonstration
that happens to go amok because of some Hippie's who blow the Fuse in
a demonstration of angst against the man. Thing is,it bollixed up the experimental equipment and turned the building and our soon to be Anti-Government Hero invisible Like.
Great Trick Right, well the government sure thinks so and are ready to
dissect this man right down to his unseeable ass.
So it goes on from here and yadi Yada. But what ya get is a FUN
fantasy what IF'er that is Wisecrakingly GOod. Very Witty and enjoyable.
Now this sucker is abridged so much so that its basically a long short
story. So Knowing that I had something good on my hands and not
wanting to ruin the memories by being pissed off by this. I treated it
like a Novella that the author might have written before the
novel and realizing he had a HumDinger on his hands. Later went on
to expand it into a novel.
In this case, With the Fantastic Reading it does actually work, regardless of the butchery.
Its just one of those Rock n Rollers that still retains its Energy even when more then just the foreskins been cut off(YIKES)
This Mutilated Baby gets a hackySack 4 and a Half Gold bananas outta 5
The Novel Gets 5 Stars!
December 4, 2019
I originally purchased this book because it contained an answer to a geocache puzzle. The puzzle creator loved this book and I found a used copy. Sounded intriguing. The book is set mostly in New York City, a place where some would argue people can be invisible without really trying. The young man, Nick, in the story is especially interested in a young woman who is hot on a story for the Times at a mysterious magnetic containment design and prototype factory. While there, a protest occurred and all but Nick and a cat were evacuated before an "event" occurred rendering everything in a spherical path to be invisible. Quickly fenced off by a mysterious and powerful government agency, Nick soon realizes he would be best off somewhere else and manages through a complex set of maneuvers (remember now, he is invisible, including his eyelids), collecting some handy (also invisible) items he can gather along the way. He exists on luck and his knowledge of living in New York City... until "they" come to capture him. Not so much a funny story rather a study of someone in trouble, thrown into a new set of rules, making the best of his situation, observing without being observed, and working to turn the tables on the hunters after a number of near-captures. The government agency hunters motivation was a bit of a stretch. Could not imagine selling that at a budget meeting. A surprise connection with Alice, a character introduced late in the book, was a nice touch, too, as well as a significant complication for Nick. A good, consistently paced book.
January 13, 2011
Having been one of those people who always replied "invisibility" to someone's question of what power I would want if I were to posses a magical ability, I was instantly drawn to read this book. I was a little sceptical at first because I'd already read H.G's story of the invisible man, and, really, reading a book with no originality can be boring sometimes but I wasn't let down at all. I loved Nick's humour (written in 1st person) and his aspect of things which I thought reflected well on what a person would feel like if he were invisible in real life. He put the realism in something fantastical. After being caught in a bizzare experimental accident, and losing his visibility, Nick is on the run, using whatever resources he could, whatever strategy needed to not get apprehended, or he'd become a scientist's guinea pig. He wasn't a trained US marine or naval officer, he was just an average man who became a genius at escape and survival because he was trained by his desperation to live as a freeman. I loved his humour and his smart comments. I even liked the leader of his pursuers. Right now, Im trying to get the Chevy Chase film that was based off this book. It was that good. It definitely lived up to H.g's classic and in it's own right, has become a classic itself. Awesome read!
October 18, 2014
This is one of my all-time favorite books, one I read again and again, as a treat to myself. It's clever, funny, engaging, and stays with you for a very long time. It also falls firmly into the - 'Don't Judge a Book by its Movie' category - please! A Chevy Chase and Darrel Hanna slapstick romance? It was like having the keystone cops acting out a John Grisham court drama.
Do yourself a huge favor and read this book. The protagonist, Nick, is so likable, and his dilemma so profound, you cannot help but keep turning the pages, following along with his inventive solutions to extraordinary problems. Such a smart book!
What a shame it's out of print. You can get it second hand through Amazon, however, and I highly recommend that you do.
Do yourself a huge favor and read this book. The protagonist, Nick, is so likable, and his dilemma so profound, you cannot help but keep turning the pages, following along with his inventive solutions to extraordinary problems. Such a smart book!
What a shame it's out of print. You can get it second hand through Amazon, however, and I highly recommend that you do.
October 13, 2011
dave -- this is one of my favorite books of all time. i don't know if you've read it, but if you haven't then put it on your reading list now! H.F. Saint i don't think ever wrote another book, but maybe because nothing else could be this good.
And please, if you haven't already seen the ridiculous Chevy Chase movie version yet -- don't watch it till after you've read the book PLEASE -- and then only as a novelty. It's not an absolutely horrible movie, but compared to the book it was a total disaster.
Read it NOW! It's in my top ten favorite books of all time and that's really saying something. --e
And please, if you haven't already seen the ridiculous Chevy Chase movie version yet -- don't watch it till after you've read the book PLEASE -- and then only as a novelty. It's not an absolutely horrible movie, but compared to the book it was a total disaster.
Read it NOW! It's in my top ten favorite books of all time and that's really saying something. --e
December 13, 2016
An interesting book! We are asked to accept that a thirty- something NYC investment analyst is turned invisible in a scientific demonstration gone wrong. Of course, the government intelligence community is after him and that is the crux of the book. He learns to deal with the day to day issues of living as an invisible yet otherwise normal man. I found it charming that the end of the book contains ten totally blank pages. Metaphor? Just as interesting is the story of the author. The success of this, his first book, was so remunerative that he retired and moved to France! I haven't seen the movie, but I hope to find it soon.
April 2, 2020
If someone put a gun to my head and asked me to name my favorite book, I might say this one. So why did I just give that away without any threat of violence? Because I’m a total coward who can’t keep his mouth shut. My torturer would be telling me to shut up before he even began the interrogation.
The tragedy is that this guy hasn’t written another book. The rumor is that he made a small fortune on the book and the movie rights* and skidattled off to parts unknown. What a shame because this book was such a blast to read, every time that I’ve read it (I think at least four times from start to finish).
Where are you H.F. Saint?
The tragedy is that this guy hasn’t written another book. The rumor is that he made a small fortune on the book and the movie rights* and skidattled off to parts unknown. What a shame because this book was such a blast to read, every time that I’ve read it (I think at least four times from start to finish).
Where are you H.F. Saint?
March 31, 2008
One of my favorite books of all time. The author seems to unkeenly know or suppose exactly what it would be like to be invisible. All of the nuances, and the problems. The abilitys and so forth. Told in an utterly interesting way, that draws you in wanting to know what happens next. Throughout the book, you feel as though your the character, alone and empty, in the middle of a city with millions of people. I highly recommend this book.
July 4, 2019
My favourite book of all-time. This amazing book made me want to be a writer. Fabulous writing style, great story, Faultless. If I could meet any author, it would be H F Saint!
February 17, 2020
A very entertaining read, although I found it hard to get into at first. Recommended for people who enjoy wit and humor and scenarios that make you think!
June 10, 2024
If you can get past the borderline pornography and gross, dated misogyny of the first chapter, this book is most enjoyable. I enjoy reading the minutiae of day-to-day existence of people in interesting circumstances ('Mary Reilly', Little House books, etc.), but some readers might find that dull. This book does have quite a lot of that sort of thing, but I feel it only adds interest.
Controllable invisibility has always been my number one choice for a superpower. I like to fall asleep at night fantasizing about how I would use it and what I could do. The MC in this story is made invisible and will be that way forever, so his situation is not ideal!
Once this book got rolling, I couldn't put it down. I read reviews that claim that this book is the best out of all the "invisible person" types of stories, and after reading, I can believe that. Recommended!!
P.S. small spoiler, from first and second chapters: the guinea pig and cat are fine!
Controllable invisibility has always been my number one choice for a superpower. I like to fall asleep at night fantasizing about how I would use it and what I could do. The MC in this story is made invisible and will be that way forever, so his situation is not ideal!
Once this book got rolling, I couldn't put it down. I read reviews that claim that this book is the best out of all the "invisible person" types of stories, and after reading, I can believe that. Recommended!!
P.S. small spoiler, from first and second chapters: the guinea pig and cat are fine!
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