In the Blind [Paperback]

Eugene Marten (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2003

“A concise, wry journey of a man trying to put the shards of his life together . . . a powerful novel . . . fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Jim Thompson should take note.”—Booklist (starred review)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* An ex-con arrives by bus in a Rust Belt city, finds a transient's apartment, and stumbles into working at a locksmith shop run by two harried Syrian brothers. There he discovers an affinity for the subtle, precise world of tumblers, keycuts, and strike plates. Encouraged in truncated English by cheerful, compassionate Ibrahim to close his eyes and work "in the blind," the man goes out on midnight and mid-afternoon calls and rescues drunken nightclub owners and victims of purse snatchers. As his world slowly expands beyond his single room and hotplate, what put him in prison and what lingers of his old life come to light. When a tense call to make a key for an almost certainly stolen car results in tragedy and upheaval for his employers, the man, imprisoned by memory and guilt, must find another new way to live. Dispensing with such details as the names of the hero and the city he is in, Marten's powerful novel focuses on a man trying to put the shards of his life together. By the end of the first chapter, Marten has convinced us that complete sentences are an affectation, and thereafter he takes us on a concise, wry journey out of his hero's self-made cell. Fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Jim Thompson, in particular, should take note. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Marten's powerful novel focuses on a man trying to put the shards of his life together. -- Roberta Johnson, Booklist, Starred Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Turtle Point Press (October 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885586752
• ISBN-13: 978-1885586759
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #498,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life Under the Radar, June 9, 2007

By 

Hiram Goza (White Bear Lake, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Blind (Paperback)

Eugene Marten's novel IN THE BLIND is the searing tale of a man's, at first tentative, struggle to exist; there are so many things he could succumb to, so many obstacles in the way of his maintaining even the starkest existence in the world he finds himself in after being released from prison. The fact that he learns to make keys, instead of guaranteeing him a future in locksmithing, only complicates things, and at the end we don't know what he will do with himself. He seems optimistic for the first time even though he has just been through something horrible. I highly recommend this book, as well as Marten's first novel, WASTE, which is even darker.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In the Blind is simply stunning, March 6, 2004

By 

Erin O'Brien (Broadview Hts., OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Blind (Paperback)

This novel is dark and gritty, certainly unblinking. The combination of Marten's superior craftsmanship and an industrial city's underbelly results in one rare jewel of a novel.

This book would fit easily on a shelf next to _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_ or perhaps _Deliverence_. It surely belongs in every contemporary fiction reader's collection, and I dare say, on the nightstand of the aspiring writer.

Now buy the book.