Product Description

Longlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize. A raucous, exuberant novel about the outrageous circus surrounding David Blaine's 2003 starvation stunt at Tower Bridge, from Nicola Barker, a Granta Best of British Novelist. On 5th September 2003, New York illusionist David Blaine entered a small perspex box beside the River Thames and began starving himself. Forty-four days later he left the box. The end. The real show, of course, was on the sidelines: the crowds, the chaos, the hype and most enjoyably, the hypocrisy. Through the eyes and exploits of Adair Graham MacKenney, bitter, shameless and irreverent, we see this world for what it is: a place of illusion, delusion, celebrity and hunger. And, naturally, lust. With her Tupperware and awful shoes, Adair finds himself unaccountably drawn to the reluctant Aphra. But when has futility ever stopped anyone? Just think of the guy in the perspex box. Wickedly comic, caustic and uncommonly astute, this outrageous peep show of a novel gives us our contemporary world laid bare.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #152015 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
'The hippest literary novel of the year' Boyd Tonkin, Independent 'Nicola Barker's linguistic exuberance got me hooked ! Like an angel dancing on the head of a pin, she takes a brief event in the crowded capital and uses it to whoop and whirl ! impressive, smart, funny, fast' Observer 'Barker knows how to manufacture an arresting image ! she is such a brilliant and original writer' Guardian '***** Amazing' Heat 'This novel is a box of magic' Sunday Herald 'Funny ! sharp ! the sort of book to take on holiday and down in one' Sam Leith, Literary Review 'The writing is impeccable ! Nicola Barker has a way of making you think about things you thought you had shut the door on' Scotsman 'In Clear, Barker's most purely enjoyable novel to date, the depths of everyday madness are dazzlingly illuminated' TLS 'a self-aware, clever writer, with an idiosyncratic sense of humour' Sunday Telegraph 'a hilarious mish-mash of urban stereotypes ! The prose is rhythmic, witty and suitably ironic' Time Out

The Guardian
‘Barker’s much-admired linguistic acrobatics takes a stylish swipe at urban culture, pseudo-intellectuals and over-educated bureaucrats.’

The Scotsman
'The writing is impeccable: apparently effortless, her dialogue shapes and colours scenes of drama and humour with tightrope precision.'

Customer Reviews

Through the Looking Glass
Clear is the best novel I've read this year. Ms. Barker has reignited my belief that good writing lives . . . and that novels can be innovative, literate, surprising and accessible.

The book's main theme is that even when we think we are seeing, our perceptions of appearances are deceiving us.

What can be more transparent than an illusionist, David Blaine, who sits suspended in a Perspex box above the Thames while he fasts for 44 days? That central image becomes the fulcrum for this insightful, witty novel about modern conceits.

You soon get a hint that the book is in part about writing when the narrator, Adair Graham MacKenny, opens the narration with ribald praise for the language in Jack Schaefer's Shane. Later, Blaine's very illusion is discussed in terms of a Kafka story. Unlike snobbish novelists, Ms. Barker shares everything you need to know to share her point.

As the story develops, you find yourself in the middle of an enigma wrapped in several mysteries, one Aphra by name, who sits every night watching Blaine in the wee hours while others sleep, who keeps dozens of containers of gourmet food which alternative with regurgitated remnants of such food, and wears outrageous shoes. Aphra's shoe fetish nicely matches Adair's foot fetish, and Adair finds himself in enraptured pursuit. As the mysteries about Aphra are gradually resolved, you begin to appreciate Ms. Barker's point about not knowing what we are seeing. In one powerful passage on page 311, she reveals all in describing Blaine's magic:

"He's like a mirror in which people can see the very best and the very worst of themselves."

Clear goes on to make the point that we all use other people in the same way. It's clear!

A very funny well written novel
This novel was on my reading list for a Innovative Contemporary Novel module, and I wasn't sure what to make it of from the blurb. However, after the first chapter I was completely drawn in and found it absolutely hilarious! I love the fact that Barker writes from a man's point of view, and how the whole thing is structured around David Blaine's above the below. Her use of writing is also very refreshing, and I strongly recommend this book. I gave it 4 stars as I don't think it is a good as other books I have read, but it is by no means bad or confusing as other reviewers have said.

Brilliant
I loved this book. It combines depth with a very dry, tongue in cheek humour.

The central construct is the contrast between a man who can eat but chooses not to (David Blaine) and a man who wants to eat but can not. This is played out not by looking at the two men directly, but by looking at two spectators to their lives - both oddball and both dysfunctional - and ultimately both closely intertwined. The backdrop of the David Blaine stunt and the bizarre mix of people drawn to it is a very accurate depiction - but perhaps you had to be a witness to the stunt (as I was) in order to appreciate this.

The book has a leitmotif of deep over-analysis of the Blaine stunt and Blaine as a mystical guru. The two spectators goad each other on in their analysis, both believeing it will impress the other. The result - deep and believing analysis of a magic trick and a stage conjourer - is very, very droll. I suspect, though, that it would appeal only to people who have a healthy cynicism concerning Mr Blaine's supernatural powers.

I am sorry to have seen so many reviews of this book claiming it was written in a hurry. I did not find it felt rushed - if anything, it was well crafted and carefully balanced. I'm not sure, anyway, how you would tell that a book had been written in a hurry.

This novel inspired me to buy Nicola Barker's back catalogue, which I am in the process of reading. It is a very impressive back catalogue indeed and the short stories, in particular, are very well crafted. Pure, understated brilliance.