Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #722151 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Sam Thompson, TLS (3.9.04)
'The determoinded concision of the storytelling is admirable in itself, and successful...gripping.'

Review
'Underachieving 33-year old Steve meets the perfect woman. But she's just a little too perfect, causing Steve to wonder whether he's made a pact with the devil. Thorne has finally delivered a gem.' (Henry Sutton ESQUIRE (September 2004) )

'The determined concision of the storytelling is admirable in itself, and successful...gripping.' (Sam Thompson TLS (3.9.04) )

'CHERRY's real strength is in its incidental comedy and Steve's chatty narration, which teems with elliptical observations and asides.' (John O'Connell TIME OUT (7.9.04) )

'Reading CHERRY is like looking at a photograph of an everyday scene or identifiable face taken slightly out of focus. Everything in the picture maybe recognisable, but at the same time that slight loss of perfect definition renders everything altered or suspect or 'wrong'. It is that distance - the carefully calculated breadth between the normal or the known and the disconcerting or the unknowaable - that gives this novel its strength.' (Robert Edric THE SPECTATOR (11.9.04) )

'[a] stunning and shocking new novel, a masterpiece of menace and unease that will haunt you for days after turning the last page...Matt Thorne has produced the best piece of British noir that I've read in years...[a] fantastic, fraught, Kafka-esque fever dream of a novel...You'll read it in one drop-jaw sitting...CHERRY is that rare thing, a perfect novel.' (Stav Sherez ZEMBLA (September issue) )

'CHERRY is an utterly absorbing read: a hugely satisfying case of a writer finding a narrative perfectly suited to his sparse prose style. The less Thorne gives us, the more we question, until from his seemingly effortless prose there develops an elegant, noirish mystery story.' (Alex Heminsley DAILY MAIL (10.9.04) )

'the novel acquires that most wonderful and blessed quality unique to good books: it is hard to put down' (Nicholas Royle INDEPENDENT (13.9.04) )

'An intriguing and mysterious novel.' (Caroline Simms WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY )

'Intriguing love story.' **** (HEAT (18-24 September 2004) )

'the plot...is a mixture of noirish thriller and Borgesian fantasy.' (Simon Baker NEW STATESMAN (20.9.04) )

'Thorne's erotic writing is sometimes interrupted by musings on the dichotomy between writing about love and writing about sex, between the Hollywood version of a story and its messy reality. And at the heart of this slice of reality lies a mystery that turns it into something more complex and more satisfying.' (FINANCIAL TIMES (18.9.04) )

'compulsively readable, intelligent and satrirical...[Thorne's] quirkily poignent sixth novel explores the loss of innocence and idealism which provokes a desperate need for fantasy and illusion.' (Kate Ewart THE LIST (9.9.04) )

'Cherry...is a page-turning urban adventure with a strong cinematic feel.' (Natasha Tripney readysteadybook.com (11.10.04) )

John O'Connell, TIME OUT (7.9.04)
'CHERRY's real strength is in its incidental comedy and Steve's chatty narration, which teems with elliptical observations and asides.'

Customer Reviews

Excellent read with twist in tale
This is the first novel by Matt Thorne I have read. I found the book very easy and quick to read. I completely empathised with the main character of Steve so that I supported the chracter's motives and actions. There is a surprise ending which is totally unexpected. Highly recommended and I will seeking out this author's previous novels.

Novel pretentions
What a seriously disappointing book. I bought and read it on the strength of the blurb - and other reviews - and it's a prosaic piece of work with pretensions. Take an average guy and set him down in the middle of a strange scheme to bring love into his life with the girl of his dreams and suddenly it all happens - girl, love, happiness. But there's a snag to the prize - a payback. It might have been more interesting if the first-person narrator had been more sympathetic, more attractive, but he's a dullard, with tedious sexual fantasies. The girl is little more than a cipher, and woven around the 'love-affair' is a plot that's all manipulation - you can see it coming a mile away and you hope the author has the imagination to twist everything unexpectedly, but alas he doesn't...genuinely dull piece of writing. Predictable, familiar, derivative. "Borgesian" one of the reviewers writes - but it isn't remotely, it doesn't have the sophistication, the learning, the skill. In fact it's got little to recommend it.

A man walks into a bar...
The basic idea behind the book is that a thouroughly unlikeable and unsympathetic 30-something English teacher has a 'strange encounter' with a strange man. Then some other stuff happens, then a man arrives and takes his specifications for his ideal woman, then she appears, then she goes again and he has to do some horrible things to get her back... (in a nutshell!)

I imagine it's the fantasy of many men to be able to specify the exact requirements of your ideal woman, have someone make a list of them and then have her appear on your doorstep... so it might appeal for that reason

The main problem I had with the book is that Steve, the central character, is so awful that I really didn't care what happened to him at all. An English teacher who doesn't like books and doesn't read?? I didn't get it. As a character Cherry was at least reasonable likeable, if a bit pathetic.

Don't get me wrong, this book is worth a read, but perhaps beach reading rather than an attempt to improve yourself!

Just a little warning...the bit with the bloodied cotton wool balls made me feel quite unwell...