Swap

by Antony Moore, Jean Esch (Translator)

Un simple échange entre enfants. Pas un timbre-poste, ni un jouet, ni un autocollant. Une BD, échangée contre un banal tuyau en plastique. Un acte anodin au départ. Mais avec le temps, le Superman numéro un a pris une immense valeur. Et Harvey, devenu libraire, de bandes dessinées justement, ne rêve que de le récupérer. C'est même une obsession, le seul but de sa vie d'adolescent attardé : retrouver ce comic rarissime... Mais après toutes ces années d'attente, son scénario longuement mûri va dérailler, et il se retrouvera pris dans un imbroglio impitoyable.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Mystery, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Contemporary, Literature

349 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

Reviews

[Jack]

This is one of those books I should have reviewed back when I first read it, but am only truly getting around to now. The cover was what first attracted me to it, and ultimately proved to be the very best thing about the book. Brilliant, classic comic book style cover that reveals, in part, what the bulk of the book is following. In this case, a stunted man's desire to get back his childhood copy of Action Comics #1 from a boy he traded it to for a different comic.

This book is meant to be humorous, but to me it just came across as entirely frustrating. This read a bit like a first draft that needed a few more rewrites and a better editor before being released. I found nothing about the main character compelling or desirable, which made the women in his life rather unbelievable. The ending, likewise, frustrated me deeply as little about the main character changed. He remained the stunted loser he was at the start, lacking remorse or basic empathy for others. I have no patience for anyone so self-pitying who has no desire to better themselves and he seemed to fall fully into that category for me.

This was just a very unrewarding, frustrating read for me overall.

[Alizée Miller]

pas dingue

[PaOddSocks]

Brilliant book from start to finish. Each chapter flowed into the next and the characters were all well written. It had action, comedy, crime and even a bit of romance. It had everything. I would recommend it to anyone.

[Maurice Fontaine]

Un livre noir et humoristique, qui réserve quelques bons moments, de nombreux gloussements mais hélas qui pêche beaucoup sur le « mystère » autour duquel l’histoire est brodée.

C’était bien, je ne regrette pas cette lecture, mais le roman souffre de la comparaison avec d’autres qui maîtrisent mieux les deux aspects - je pense à Donald Westlake ou bien sûr Terry Pratchett.

Si on ajoute une fin pour le moins abrupte, on se dit que ce n’est probablement pas le livre qu’on recommande en premier - à moins de voir des ressemblances entre le personnage principal et le futur lecteur.

Donc si vous connaissez quelqu’un qui vent des BDs à Londres, ou qui vient de Cornouaille, vous savez quoi leur offrir. Si vous êtes curieux vous pouvez aussi essayer. Pour les autres je recommencerai plutôt un livre de la série Dortmunder par Westlake.

[Clint Hannah-Lopez]

I wanted to really like this book. There's some fun to be had in the concept for sure, and I think the main character works often as someone you love to hate. The problem for me is the core of the mystery relies on two things: (1) a woman to be supremely into our main character, which doesn't feel believable given his entire arc is being unattractive, lazy, and complaint filled, and (2) the reveal was because he didn't protect the kid who was bullied growing up who he spends the entire book still making fun of. The author tries to end with giving the main character his punishment, but we find out in the final three paragraphs that the sad man kills himself and so our lead is being blamed for the murder. It's too late, too sad, and not the fun twist at the end that the book presents it as.

[Paschalis]

elibrary

[Benjamin]

Nice book with an unlikely "hero", a middle age fat guy who owns a comic book store. Entertaining.

[Amber]

Entertaining story, nicely written.

[Robert Thompson]

This book was a hot mess with a plot that was more unbelievable than most comic books and I loved every page of it.

[Laurent]

Un thriller sympathique et régressif.

[Romain]

Ce livre est celui d'un anti-héros prénommé Harvey. Il est le propriétaire d'un magasin de bande dessinées, aime beaucoup la bière et est donc un peu bedonnant. Il passe le plus clair de son temps à soupirer et à se lamenter — il me fait un peu penser au vendeur de comics avec catogan des Simpson. La principale cause de ses lamentations est un cuisant souvenir d'enfance. N'allez pas croire qu'il était la tête de turc de son école, non, bien au contraire, il faisait partie à l'époque — puisque ce n'est plus trop le cas désormais — du clan des branchés. Sa principale occupation était, comme tout membre de ce club, de tyranniser un élève surnommé "Bleeder". Tout était donc pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes jusqu'au jour où, comble des idées saugrenues, il a décidé de faire un échange avec ce souffre-douleur — d'où le titre du livre.
Cet échange d'une BD contre un objet quelconque semble somme toute assez banal. Objet dont il a d'ailleurs oublié depuis le nom et la fonction. Par contre, ce dont il se souvient très clairement c'est de la BD : le premier numéro de Superman. De quoi à avoir quelques regrets lorsque l'on sait — et il est bien placé pour — qu'un exemplaire peut se vendre pour 1 million de dollars. Sentant bien que cette histoire le mine et est la cause de tous ses problèmes, il décide de se rendre à la réunion annuelle des anciens élèves afin d'en avoir le coeur net.
Antony Moore — c'est un pseudonyme — est un psychanalyste anglais qui est manifestement doté d'un bon sens de l'humour. Ce livre est drôle, rafraîchissant et se lit comme une bande dessinée. Pour vous donner une idée du style voici ce que donne la description d'un réveil après une soirée un peu trop arrosée :

On aurait dit que quelqu'un s'était introduit dans sa bouche pendant la nuit et s'en était servi comme toilettes; il avait au fond de la gorge une matière inconnue et malodorante, et en même temps, une sorte d'humidité visqueuse et anormale sur la langue.

On ne s'ennuie pas un instant et on prend un plaisir malsain à suivre les aventures de notre malheureux héros. Une lecture très sympathique — et n'en attendez pas autre chose — qui me fait un peu penser à un livre que j'avais beaucoup apprécié il y a quelques années: Auteur en sursis de John Colapinto. http://www.aubonroman.com/2010/12/swa...

[Brandi Rae Fong]

The Swap by Antony Moore

It didn’t mean much to him. He pitied the kid, the one everyone (including himself bullied and picked on. Bleeder Odd the called him. Besides, it was only a comic; whereas Bleeder’s length of plastic could chop down grass.

However now it’s twenty years later, and Harvey will never forget that day. The day he swapped away a mint condition Superman One. A comic now worth over 200,000 pounds. The irony that he now owns a comic book shop doesn’t escape him, and the “what ifs” plague his thoughts….what if he hadn’t swapped? What if Bleeder still had it? Or, even worse, what if Bleeder had just thrown it away?

With his twenty year high school reunion coming up, Harvey decides that if Bleeder shows up at the reunion, he could maybe find a way to tactfully inquire about the comic. Make it sound nostalgic, like a random remembrance, rather than something he has thought about everyday for twenty years. Maybe if the comic still exists, Harvey could even get Bleeder to swap it back to him.

However, things quickly spiral out of control for Harvey. After talking with Bleeder (who is no longer a scrawny, bullied kid but a well off man called by his proper name of Charles), Harvey is convinces himself that the Superman One still exists. Thinking that he may find it at Bleeder’s old house, he decided to break in and look for it and finds more than he bargained for.

Part murder mystery, part boyhood nostalga,The Swap is a darkly comic (no pun intended), centering on an elusive “white whale”…in this case Superman One.

[Rebecca]

Antony Moore's 'Swap' is a combination of a comedy, mystery, and thriller. Harvey Briscow is also not your typical main character; he's pretty much a looser who never grew up. He attends his twentieth reunion high school in hopes of seeing Charles "Bleeder" Odd, the boy who he swapped his now priceless 'Superman One' comic book for a piece if plastic tubing in school. But in his attempt to retrieve the comic when discovers Bleeder still has it, Harvey stumbles into a situation he will instantly regret. The Swap is a decent comedy, once you get into the book. The first few chapters are not as interesting, but once Harvey starts to lose control, it gets better. The overall mystery is also good; in a way, it's a story about how much more can be occurring beneath the surface in your peers' lives. The ending though was a real letdown, it ended very abruptly and it felt like Moore didn't tie up all the loose ends. Otherwise, the book was a fun and short read, but if the sudden ending will bother you, then this probably isn't the book for you.

[Thomas]

The story follows the actions of Harvey Briscow as he returns to his hometown to attend his 20 year high school reunion. Popular in school, Harvey now lives of life of ennui as the owner of a comic book store in London. He dreams of a life in New York as the owner of a coffee shop, funded by the sale of the Superman #1 comic he owned in his youth but swapped with a kid named Bleeder for a length of plastic tubing.

Once he returns to Cornwall, he reconnects with old friends and runs into Bleeder. Then things get complicated - Bleeeder won't even mention the comic, there's a possible love interest, and oh yeah, in a moment of weakness Harvey finds himself embroiled in a murder.

I wanted to really like this novel. It takes a serious turn in the fourth act, adding surprising depth to the story so far and raising my opinion of the novel. Unfortunately, the ending felt a little incomplete. While it's appropriate to the characters and the mood of the novel, it felt unfinished and really tarnished my overall impression.

[Bandit]

This was the book I judged entirely by its cover, being a huge Superman fan. The story does in fact concern Superman, the comic, the first ever, and the very ordinary man who traded it away as a kid and regretted it ever since. At a school reunion he bumps into the person to whom the comic was traded off, which sets off an absolutely wacky chain of events. It's a very british funny sort of story, where dark undertones are systematically offset by comically awkward fumblings of the all too human meaning profoundly flawed characters. There is a murder mystery too to keep things interesting. The combination makes for an entertaining light read, although some of it including the ending is quite frustrating, yet quite fitting at the same time. Also makes one wish for a superhero themed coffee shop...do those exist anywhere? If so, where, if not, they really ought to. Doesn't look like the author wrote any other books, for one and done this is a pretty good effort really.

[Bookhuw]

This felt like a real let down, as I'd hoped for a lot more based solely, and of course unwisely, on the blurb. In a book that features a comic obsessive as our lead companion, you hope to have some of that fixation illuminated and explained. Unlike in, say, Hornby's High Fidelity, none of that compulsion comes across, and everything feels a bit flat. There were some nice observations around tense relationships with parents in adulthood, but throughout the majority of this book, I couldn't believe an editor hadn't sent it back with "Promising, but try this again" written across it.

And why the hell were the Metropolitan Police investigating a Cornish murder?!

[Benjamin Kahn]

I would have liked to give this book a higher rating, but I couldn't really do so. Although it had just genuinely funny parts, the plot was hackneyed, I didn't like the protagonist, and the plot was fairly predictable. I saw the ending coming from a long ways away.

Harvey, our hero, is that kind of character that I've seen lots of times before. The bumbling, klutzy anti-hero, that always avoids giving the information that will clear everything up or always takes off or interrupts others when they are about to give pertinent information that will make the situation clearer to the protagonist. It's annoying, and it's been done to death. Disappointing.

[Sarah]

I wasn't too impressed with this one, even though I like the basic plot line. Harvey swaps a 1st edition Superman for a piece of metal pipe as a young boy. Now he's old, running a comic shop, and constantly regretting his decision. So he returns during this class reunion to talk to the swapper, but things get worse. Someone is murdered and Harvey is implicated and even feels guilty. This is a little snarky, but just didn't quite work for me. And I'm not sure who I would ever recommend it to.

[Erin Hager]

The Swap was fairly predictable. I wasn't sure if it was the way the story was written with Harvey British dialect or if he just really came off as an idiot, but I really had no emotional attachment to any of the characters. Harvey comes across as a bumbling, emotionally oblivious moron. What in the world the girl or his friends saw in him is beyond me. The story was short, but felt like it took forever. I didn't have a problem with the plot or storyline, but the characters were forgettable and often annoying.

[Christopher]

The main character was quite awful. Making poor boneheaded decisions. It was quite frustrating to read. Not sure why the Female character would fall for him or even enjoy his company. Sometimes the actions were cringeworthy. From a technical standpoint it felt a bit jarring when you spend the first half of the narrative following the main character and then we abruptly start following others. I also didn't like the way the story resolved either but I suppose it makes sense.

[Derek Baldwin]

Vaguely diverting story of a man obsessed by the first edition of Superman comic which he swapped with the school scapegoat many years ago and which he recovers after a class reunion... but only at the cost of becoming embroiled in a murder mystery. Not terribly suspenseful, seldom all that funny, it was frankly very hard to believe that someone else's sexy wife would find the hero in any way attractive.... but entertaining enough I suppose.

[David]

I kind of thought this one was going to be a bit humdrum when I started reading, a rehash, but it rapidly became a lot more interesting. It was well woven and gripping. I have to admit that the ending seemed like a bit of a cop-out, but the ending I was expecting would have been a worse cop-out. In the end, it was fun to read and not too bad.

[Erwan]

ce livre agréable léger se lit d'une traite, ce n'est pas une grande intrigue, certes mais bien agréable après quelques lectures plus sombres ....

par moment on se croirait chez Nick Hornby qui aurait troqué son magasin de disques pour vendre des BD ....

[Nina]

Easy read but not terribly entertaining.. Main character is a schulb and in the end he loses everything. Feels like a waste of time as he never redeems himself. The ending is abrubt and dissapointing. I don't think I would reccomend this book to anyone.

[Maryrose]

school reunion turns murder...

[Nicole]

NoBSBookReviews

[Rich]

Very enjoyable, insightful book. Covers lots of bases

[Zack]

Please catch my review at this link: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-83...

[Anna]

Je ne l'ai pas fini, pour être honnête. Le style est faible (enfin ça, c'est peut-être dû à la traduction ?) et le personnage principal geignard.

[Pierrick]

Un humour noir décapant, un anti-héro attachant, mais une fin quelque peu prévisible...