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The Man Who Wasn't There
1976 1st edition, bce size hardcover. Tight, straight spine. Pages, boards and dustjacket in overall excellent condition. Jacket protected in brand new clear plastic brodart protective cover!
215 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 24, 2012
A decent thriller that reflects many of the conspiracy works of the 70s. Well written with a deep plot that doesn't quit. Gotta love used bookstores where you can still find works like this.
September 8, 2021
I read this book because MacLeish's fantasy novel PRINCE OMBRA has long been one of my favorites, and I wanted to see what else the author had written. While the story held my attention, and I was interested to find out what happened at the end, it is not one I would recommend. Written in the 1970s, it is now extremely dated, with big, steaming piles of racism, misogyny, and especially homophobia scattered throughout.
As a queer reader, I found several passages extremely uncomfortable to read. The two queer characters are both villains, one of whom is a campy caricature who behaves in a predatory manner toward the heterosexual protagonist, and the other of whom is revealed to also be a child molester who victimized the protagonist during his youth. The protagonist himself is overwhelmed with disgust at the very thought of homosexuality, and the gay characters use this fact to torment him. This is an extremely unrealistic portrayal, given a world where most queer people at the time went in constant fear for their own safety, and mostly just wanted straight people to leave them in peace. Portraying queer people as predatory monsters feeds into stereotypes which result in harm and violence toward the queer community, in ways that are still ongoing today (see: trans women in public restrooms).
The three female character (the protagonist's ex-wife, girlfriend, and half-sister) are solely motivated by concern for the male characters adjacent to them, and have no lives or interests outside of the men in their lives and a series of swanky dinner parties which the characters attend.
The only prominent character of color is a Palestinian assassin. In spite of being a point-of-view character, he is referred to throughout the text almost exclusively as "the Palestinian" or "the Arab", and is only given a name toward the end of the story. The only other notable character of color is the Black former boyfriend of one of the characters (mentioned only in her memories), who was violently murdered by her father for having the audacity to sleep with a white girl.
The entire premise of the book is based on some highly improbable psychological theories. If the protagonist and his friends had just talked to each other about what was happening to him, disaster might have been averted quite easily. Instead, for some reason, the protagonist's lawyers/friends never check in to share the results of their investigation with him, and leave him alone to fend for himself in the face of an onslaught of gaslighting from his tormentors.
In the end, a bunch of unpleasant people die so that one character can keep his sexuality a secret, and get his hands on an amount of money which doesn't seem like it would cover the expenses involved in such a complex scheme, or be worth the sheer amount of trouble and risk involved.
(This novel was originally published under the title CARNABY REX.)
As a queer reader, I found several passages extremely uncomfortable to read. The two queer characters are both villains, one of whom is a campy caricature who behaves in a predatory manner toward the heterosexual protagonist, and the other of whom is revealed to also be a child molester who victimized the protagonist during his youth. The protagonist himself is overwhelmed with disgust at the very thought of homosexuality, and the gay characters use this fact to torment him. This is an extremely unrealistic portrayal, given a world where most queer people at the time went in constant fear for their own safety, and mostly just wanted straight people to leave them in peace. Portraying queer people as predatory monsters feeds into stereotypes which result in harm and violence toward the queer community, in ways that are still ongoing today (see: trans women in public restrooms).
The three female character (the protagonist's ex-wife, girlfriend, and half-sister) are solely motivated by concern for the male characters adjacent to them, and have no lives or interests outside of the men in their lives and a series of swanky dinner parties which the characters attend.
The only prominent character of color is a Palestinian assassin. In spite of being a point-of-view character, he is referred to throughout the text almost exclusively as "the Palestinian" or "the Arab", and is only given a name toward the end of the story. The only other notable character of color is the Black former boyfriend of one of the characters (mentioned only in her memories), who was violently murdered by her father for having the audacity to sleep with a white girl.
The entire premise of the book is based on some highly improbable psychological theories. If the protagonist and his friends had just talked to each other about what was happening to him, disaster might have been averted quite easily. Instead, for some reason, the protagonist's lawyers/friends never check in to share the results of their investigation with him, and leave him alone to fend for himself in the face of an onslaught of gaslighting from his tormentors.
In the end, a bunch of unpleasant people die so that one character can keep his sexuality a secret, and get his hands on an amount of money which doesn't seem like it would cover the expenses involved in such a complex scheme, or be worth the sheer amount of trouble and risk involved.
(This novel was originally published under the title CARNABY REX.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 20, 2016
In italiano: L'UOMO CHE NON C'ERA
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews