Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Pocket (1999), Paperback, 352 pages
Description
Fiction. Literature. Suspense. Thriller. HTML: An unforgettable tale of mystery and obsession by Barbara Vine (pseudonym of Ruth Rendell, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement) This is the utterly absorbing story of best-selling novelist Gerald Candless, whose sudden death from a heart attack leaves behind a wife and two doting daughters. To sort through her grief, one of his daughters, Sarah, decides to write a biography of her internationally celebrated father. Within hours of beginning her research, Sarah comes across the first of what will be many shocking revelations. As her life is slowly torn apart, a terrible logic finally emerges to explain her mother's remoteness, her father's need to continually reinvent himself in his work, and a long-forgotten London murder. From the Hardcover edition..… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Libbybeens
I don't know if anyone else felt this, but the ending of the book is hilarious. Seriously, I understand **** SPOILER ALERT ***** how serious homophobia was in the 1950s, but only a complete tool would have made such a rash decision like Gerald.
The book was so well written, for a mystery novel,
The book was so well written, for a mystery novel,
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that I almost got angry at the end. That was it? I thought. Until I burst out laughing. And for that (for writing such a complete crap, over dramatic and bogus ending) I give this book 5 stars. Show Less
LibraryThing member nohablo
So Vine can write like all hell and she can slam down an ace character study - her Gerald Candless is a wonderful monster, greasy, malicious, and bottomlessly pitiable - but the central secret is a little too thin to support the enormous weight of the novel. Without the proper bombastic promise of
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scandal, THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER'S BOY loses steam at least three quarters of the way through (most of us have figured out What is Up) and exhausts our ability to really care. But, all the same, sweetly written and, you know, not horrible! Far from horrible. So it's got that going for it. Show Less
LibraryThing member Violetthedwarf
A hard book to review. I disliked nearly all of the characters, and the ones I liked I found frustrating. But the writing kept me reading.
It's hard to give it a star rating, to be honest. The writing would get a pretty solid 4 from me, as would the story itself. But because I spent so much of my
It's hard to give it a star rating, to be honest. The writing would get a pretty solid 4 from me, as would the story itself. But because I spent so much of my
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reading time frustrated and angry with the characters, it drops down. Show Less
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
One of Vine’s best. The tension is just perfect and the characters are well drawn. I especially felt for Ursula trapped in marriage to a man who only wanted her for breeding purposes. Nice. It’s astonishing that neither daughter could see past the constant ass-kissing from dad to see this.
The way Gerald’s past is revealed is by stages, the way any investigation goes. A clue leads to a guess which proves correct and it goes on. Sarah actually hires someone to do this for her and while backward and somewhat clueless, he’s a pretty smart guy (so glad he burst Hope’s smug, self-satisfied little bubble by guessing the whys of The Game). Strange that he and Sarah appear to have hooked up. I guess in the void of daddy’s adoration she needed a substitute; although I can’t see Jason falling under the delusion that sunshine indeed does shine out of her ass.
The real strength of this novel is how Vine ties things together. Candless’s novels each contained a grain of truth (sometimes whole baskets full) and each connected with the chain of his early life. I especially like the explanation of why he got so enraged over the sea mist and why he insisted on shutters. There isn’t one “ah-ha” moment, but many and in the end the solution is very satisfying. I am left wondering what Gerald would have done had he lived after he gave the manuscript to Romney. Did he plan to disappear again? Suicide? Ask for it back? Maybe he just knew he wouldn’t live long after his shock at the hotel.
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Seriously, what was wrong with them? Neither had especially redeeming characteristics at all; especially Hope who is really a waste of air. I seriously don’t know how Fabian stands her. The way Gerald’s past is revealed is by stages, the way any investigation goes. A clue leads to a guess which proves correct and it goes on. Sarah actually hires someone to do this for her and while backward and somewhat clueless, he’s a pretty smart guy (so glad he burst Hope’s smug, self-satisfied little bubble by guessing the whys of The Game). Strange that he and Sarah appear to have hooked up. I guess in the void of daddy’s adoration she needed a substitute; although I can’t see Jason falling under the delusion that sunshine indeed does shine out of her ass.
The real strength of this novel is how Vine ties things together. Candless’s novels each contained a grain of truth (sometimes whole baskets full) and each connected with the chain of his early life. I especially like the explanation of why he got so enraged over the sea mist and why he insisted on shutters. There isn’t one “ah-ha” moment, but many and in the end the solution is very satisfying. I am left wondering what Gerald would have done had he lived after he gave the manuscript to Romney. Did he plan to disappear again? Suicide? Ask for it back? Maybe he just knew he wouldn’t live long after his shock at the hotel.
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LibraryThing member jayne_charles
This was a bit of a disappointment. The start was great - Gerald Candless and his family were wonderfully obnoxious, and I remembered having the 'passing the scissors crossed' routine played on me at a party once, so sympathised with their dinner guests. Also the relationship between Sarah and the
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guy who kept slagging her off was oddly compelling. The trouble was the central plot - it was the dampest of squibs, and when the central 'mystery' was finally unveiled, about a hundred pages after I guessed it, I was left thinking 'is that it?' Show Less
LibraryThing member lberriman
A very clever twist!
LibraryThing member Mozzie
This is the story of a famous author's family who discover, after his death that he wasn't who they thought he was. Ms. Vine went into so much detail in this story. You can nearly see all of the Mr. Candless' books lined up on the shelf while you read.
The characters of his wife and daughters are
It is a joy to watch the family members grow as they adjust to Gerald Candless' death and as they learn about his hidden history.
I found myself rather enthralled by this novel and will gladly read anything else by this author that I happen to stumble across.
The characters of his wife and daughters are
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so realistically displayed that you feel like you know and understand every one of them, as different as they may be from one another. It is a joy to watch the family members grow as they adjust to Gerald Candless' death and as they learn about his hidden history.
I found myself rather enthralled by this novel and will gladly read anything else by this author that I happen to stumble across.
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LibraryThing member Violetthedwarf
A hard book to review. I disliked nearly all of the characters, and the ones I liked I found frustrating. But the writing kept me reading.
It's hard to give it a star rating, to be honest. The writing would get a pretty solid 4 from me, as would the story itself. But because I spent so much of my
It's hard to give it a star rating, to be honest. The writing would get a pretty solid 4 from me, as would the story itself. But because I spent so much of my
Show More
reading time frustrated and angry with the characters, it drops down. Show Less
LibraryThing member uttara82
As with other works of Barbara Vine I've read, character development is brilliant and the story is very well-written. However, the 'mystery' when it is revealed is very unsatisfactory and quite disappointing.
LibraryThing member uttara82
As with other works of Barbara Vine I've read, character development is brilliant and the story is very well-written. However, the 'mystery' when it is revealed is very unsatisfactory and quite disappointing.
LibraryThing member passion4reading
After the sudden death of the well-known author Gerald Candless, his elder daughter is persuaded to write a biography of her beloved father. When she uncovers amid her researches that her father was not who he had claimed to be, that he wasn't in fact called Gerald Candless at all, the results have
Making an unusual departure from the crime fiction genre, Ruth Rendell (writing as Barbara Vine) has written a deeply unsettling portrait of family life, populated by memorable but mostly unsympathetic characters; as Jean-Paul Sartre once said: 'Hell is other people.' Her sense of observation and psychological insights are acute and I emotionally winced more than once on behalf of a character after she had metaphorically stabbed them with her pen. Don't expect a lot of action here: the plot is almost entirely character driven and the pace is slow, enabling each character, especially Ursula, to tell their story. I enjoyed the family history angle of the mystery but did feel that the novel could have been around 30 to 50 pages shorter, without losing any of its impact.
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dramatic and far-reaching repercussions.Making an unusual departure from the crime fiction genre, Ruth Rendell (writing as Barbara Vine) has written a deeply unsettling portrait of family life, populated by memorable but mostly unsympathetic characters; as Jean-Paul Sartre once said: 'Hell is other people.' Her sense of observation and psychological insights are acute and I emotionally winced more than once on behalf of a character after she had metaphorically stabbed them with her pen. Don't expect a lot of action here: the plot is almost entirely character driven and the pace is slow, enabling each character, especially Ursula, to tell their story. I enjoyed the family history angle of the mystery but did feel that the novel could have been around 30 to 50 pages shorter, without losing any of its impact.
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LibraryThing member Ameise1
This was an interesting book about a woman who realized that her late father was not the one he pretended to be. She made inquiries and found that her father took on the identity of a deceased person. During her search, she not only found a new family but also the secret of her father, who had
I liked the book well.
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written much of it in his books without anyone noticing. She plunged into different worlds, including the homosexual scene.I liked the book well.
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LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
Gerald Candless is a popular novelist, with a "perfect" life----lovely wife, two beautiful adoring adult daughters. But there's some darkness in all of his books, and he insists that he uses everything that happens to him in his fiction in some way. When he dies suddenly, one of his daughters
August 2020
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begins researching his family history in preparation for writing her own memoir of Life with Daddy. Except that there doesn't seem to be any history past a certain point, or any family at all. Where did he come from, and why did he change his name? Mother is no help, and has zero interest in the project.(Could it be she's just relieved to be able to drop the Happy Marriage charade?) This is a page turner, with just enough hints to fuel the reader's suspicions about the solution to the mystery. Gerald's daughters don't know what to do with the information that turns up; neither does his publisher, who ends up with two manuscripts in his hands that could explode Gerald's reputation, one from his daughter, and one from the man himself.August 2020
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LibraryThing member charlie68
An enjoyable little mystery with a few unexpected twists and turns.
Subjects
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2000)
Language
Original publication date
1998
Physical description
352 p.; 8.25 inches
ISBN
0671034294 / 9780671034290
Local notes
OCLC = 1300
Google Books
Google Books