Product Description

An isolated cottage deep in the heart of the Cotswolds. A writer's den, as dusty, gloomy and full of exotic objets d'art as the cell of a medieval monk. This is an "unsettling, claustrophobic" novel begging the reader to ask many, many questions.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #265443 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 212 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"What I shall want from you are your eyes ..." A writer, blinded in a car accident, employs someone to help write his new book--but not as a mere scribe. "The world was designed to be seen", the writer insists and so he requires:

"Someone whose eyes will take the place of mine. Someone capable not only of observing the world for me but of communicating his observations to me so that I can then transmute them into prose. Into my prose."

So begins the strange symbiotic relationship between the two protagonists of A Closed Book, a relationship that becomes increasingly disturbing and unsettling. Recounted entirely in finely realised dialogue and what seems to be interjections of internal monologue, the reader is confined entirely to the realm of sound, to voices, as if we are being asked to privilege the evidence of the ear over that of the eye, to experience the world from the point of view of the blind writer himself. As the book progresses, however, typographical and factual oddities accumulate, clues towards a darker design that is made manifest in the book's final twist, where questions raised earlier-- of trust, of real and figurative blindness, of self- regard (in both senses), of the power of language--are recast from a brutally different perspective.

Gilbert Adair previously won the Scott-Moncrieff prize for his extraordinary translation of the late Georges Perec's A Void--a novel composed without the letter "e"-- and some of that author's wit, allusiveness and self- conscious artistry find their way into Adair's new book, transmuted into something altogether more sinister. This is a powerful psychological thriller, well-paced, energetic (and occasionally very funny) but it also incorporates some subtle philosophical and literary questions into its narrative: How far can we believe what we read (or hear) and how does a reader's trust in a writer's fictional world equate with the trust required in allowing someone to interpret the world for us? See for yourself. --Burhan Tufail

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Customer Reviews

Couldn't put it down and can't wait to read more
This was the first Gilbert Adair book I have read and I must say that I cannot wait to read more. By writing the book principally in dialogue with only brief descriptive passages (the relevance of which only becomes clear towards the end of the book) it throws you into the world of the blind protagonist. I also disagree with other reviewers who felt that the ending let down the whole book. While it could have been stronger, I feel that it did not detract from my enjoyment of the book and contained its own fair share of twists.

I would recommend reading the book to anyone who is willing to put aside time, as once you start you will not be able to put it down.

Wait for the short story
Back in the sixties when Alfred Hitchcock had an American television show that featured the type of story Gilbert Adair has written in this book, there was a series of inexpensive paperbacks titled something similar to: Alfred Hitchcock-Ten Stories They Wouldn't Let Me Put On TV. The writing was good; the stories were clever. However, they were all short stories. Mr. Adair has concocted one of those Alfred Hitchcock short stories which unfortunately runs to 258 pages. It takes a little too long to get where we are going, and consequentially a little disappointing when we finally get there. A better mystery is how to actually get a copy of his book. In the space of about one month, I read at least five very favourable reviews of this book in several London newspapers. However, during that same time, I checked at least seven bookstores, in various parts of London, and none of them was carrying the book. I finally had to order it via you know who. If I were Mr. Adair, that is a mystery I would wish to solve.

Uniquely and masterfully written, but the ending is cliché.
Adair constructed this novel in a very unique style. It was written with only dialog to describe the characters and setting; befitting for a book whose main character is blind. I could not read it fast enough; I could not put it down; it really grasped me. I was, however, very disappointed with the ending. I was expecting something more intellectual and Hitchcock-ian.