false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173414086m/285826.jpg 285826 7 At first glance, the thrillers of British author Rupert Thomson seem to have nothing in common except the expansiveness of his imagination and the lucid radiance of his writing. <I>Air & Fire</I> is about a group of French people sent to California at the end of the 19th century to build a church. <I>The Insult</I> is about a man blinded by a robber in a supermarket parking lot who discovers one night that--because of a bizarre experiment--he can see again. Thomson's latest finds three very different characters--an aimless waitress, a reluctant hit man, and an ambitious young marketing executive--linked by the sudden success of a new soft drink. But a closer look confirms the feeling that <I>Soft!</I> continues the author's fascination with the way science can bend and shape the destinies of all sorts of nonscientific people. Certainly Glade Spencer, the flaky young woman who flies off periodically for unpleasant encounters with her American lawyer boyfriend, has no idea when she signs up for a sleep clinic to earn some extra cash that the soda slogans planted in her brain could cause her death. Barker Dodds, the nightclub bouncer from Plymouth, doesn't know why he's being paid to kill Glade. And James Lyle, the striving marketer who thought up the brainwashing scheme in the first place, is deliberately out of the loop about its consequences. All three are so perfectly drawn that you'd recognize them on the street, and the way Thomson describes their quirky, weirdly decorated flats and lifestyles captures the flickering pulse of London with uncanny accuracy. <I>--Dick Adler</I> 1417448 1998 Soft total:65|5:13|4:17|3:27|2:7|1:1| 65 229 86 6 4 1 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Oct 02 13:41:32 -0700 2007 Thu Feb 21 09:37:44 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Sep 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 11 08:12:58 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 07:12:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jun 07 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Tue Apr 21 02:26:02 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 21 02:26:17 -0700 2009 ]]> 5 0 false false Sat May 24 13:19:03 -0700 2008 Sat May 24 13:20:38 -0700 2008 3 0 true false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 16 08:05:06 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 16 08:09:26 -0800 2007 0 0 false false Wed Jan 02 18:13:46 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 02 18:14:21 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Tue Oct 20 13:18:07 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 20 13:18:07 -0700 2009 1 0 false false Mon Oct 19 06:46:46 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 06:46:46 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Oct 18 12:57:15 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 12:57:15 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Oct 12 04:17:27 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 04:17:27 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Oct 11 05:20:15 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 11 05:20:15 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sun Jul 19 07:11:40 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 07:11:40 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Jun 24 05:39:17 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 05:39:17 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Tue May 05 13:27:26 -0700 2009 Tue May 05 13:27:26 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Tue May 05 10:24:40 -0700 2009 Tue May 05 10:24:40 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Apr 27 09:10:05 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 09:10:05 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Apr 23 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 05:37:42 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 24 05:49:22 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Mar 19 13:52:37 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 19 13:52:37 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Mar 14 16:17:35 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 16:17:35 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Mar 05 11:43:25 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 11:43:25 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=285826