MacK's review
The Collector (Back Bay Books)
by John Fowles
MacK's review
The Collector (Back Bay Books) by John Fowles
MacK's review
rating:
bookshelves:
brit-lit,
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Other things were supposed to be read first. But I'm finding I'm powerless in the grip of John Fowles.
I don't like scary stories, yet I keep reading.
I don't much like novels wherein almost all the characters are reprehensible, yet I keep reading.
I don't much like admiting that my boss is right about most things, yet I agree with him more and more each book.
What's most remarkable about The Collector is that for half the book I was totally unimpressed. The plot was engaging but the narrative style was so unlike The Magus so timid, so deferential I couldn't get worked up about it.
Then he turns the whole thing on its head, once the novel becomes a diary of the captive, Miranda, it takes on Fowles' more familiar philosophical, introspective overtones, it unites the reader with the victim after so long a familiarity with the captor, Clegg. And knowing the final result isn't a hindrance but an aid, urging the reader to go on depsite the situational irony,...more
I don't like scary stories, yet I keep reading.
I don't much like novels wherein almost all the characters are reprehensible, yet I keep reading.
I don't much like admiting that my boss is right about most things, yet I agree with him more and more each book.
What's most remarkable about The Collector is that for half the book I was totally unimpressed. The plot was engaging but the narrative style was so unlike The Magus so timid, so deferential I couldn't get worked up about it.
Then he turns the whole thing on its head, once the novel becomes a diary of the captive, Miranda, it takes on Fowles' more familiar philosophical, introspective overtones, it unites the reader with the victim after so long a familiarity with the captor, Clegg. And knowing the final result isn't a hindrance but an aid, urging the reader to go on depsite the situational irony,...more
