Several Deceptions: Four Novellas - Hardcover
These four novellas are narrated by a brilliantly distinctive voice telling the stories of an Anglo-Italian Professor of Semiotics undone by his own cleverness; an Irish woman who joins a Tibetan nunnery in India; the old university friends whose party is galvanised by a pugnacious newcomer into a demented Buchanesque mission to restore their hostess's lost humour; and an international lawyer who takes to terrorism in pursuit of a theory. Several Deceptions is clever, funny and a little cruel and introduces a writer of quite remarkable gifts.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
Several Deceptions, Jane Stevenson's first work of fiction, explores the topic of deceit through four quite distinct novellas: "The Island of the Day Before Yesterday"; "Law and Order"; "The Colonel and Judy O'Grady" and "Crossing the Water". The settings are bourgeois, urbane--"Crossing the Water" is country-house farce--often giving the impression of an author "in the know" and playing with that knowledge. "In retrospect, I am strongly inclined to blame the whole thing on Umberto Eco" begins "The Island...", setting the scene for its semiotic indulgence in the well-worn idea of creating a woman's life through archive and story. Nemesis looms, however: the ways in which cleverness can damage, or destroy, itself becoming a central theme of the book. A perennial theme, of course, and that may be why it's easy to get a sense that you've heard, or seen, these stories before: there's a touch of Rope about the brilliance of the University lawyer and his circle in "Law and Order", a cross-dressing twist to "The Colonel and Judy O'Grady", a certain Peter's Friends feel to "Crossing the Water". Recognising the landscape is part of the pleasure of these tales, but it may not be quite enough to sustain a reader's interest through the twists and turns of the plots. --Vicky Lebeau
Review:
"A very enjoyable display of deadly wit given with a relaxed literary confidence. Here is a gossipy, smart, critical, intellectual, high spirited and literate voice" (Hal Jensen Times Literary Supplement)
"Clever and enjoyable... This is an accomplished first book, and even if Stevenson never writes another word, she is already more than promising" (Phil Baker Sunday Times)
"What continuously sustains these stories is an unfashionable concept of serious fiction as etnertainment, an art in which the process is as enjoyable as the effects it is designed to produce... Relish the neat professionalism of a smart new act" (Jonathan Keates Independent)
"Stevenson's careful plotting and attention to detail prove she is a new voice worth listening to" (The Times)
"Clever and enjoyable... This is an accomplished first book, and even if Stevenson never writes another word, she is already more than promising" (Phil Baker Sunday Times)
"What continuously sustains these stories is an unfashionable concept of serious fiction as etnertainment, an art in which the process is as enjoyable as the effects it is designed to produce... Relish the neat professionalism of a smart new act" (Jonathan Keates Independent)
"Stevenson's careful plotting and attention to detail prove she is a new voice worth listening to" (The Times)
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherTandem Library
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 1417716738
- ISBN 13 9781417716739
- BindingHardcover
- Rating
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