Collectors: A Novel [Hardcover]

Paul Griner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 27, 1999

        
Collectors, by critically acclaimed author Paul Griner, is an exquisitely menacing story of one woman's dangerous fascination with a seductive, mysterious man. At her cousin's wedding, Jean Duprez, an advertising-agency art director who specializes in effective but unsettling concepts for her clients, meets a handsome stranger named Steven Cain. What follows is the story of a relationship so ominous and puzzling that the reader is drawn into the author's designs as inevitably, and as helplessly, as Jean is drawn to Steven. She seeks him out although he often seems indifferent to her, she disregards his disturbing personal history, and she tells him about her own transgressions. And so it becomes intriguingly hard to say whether she is a possible victim of evil or has deliberately put herself in harm's way. The story also dramatizes the intricacies of collecting, particularly the wary bargaining between seller and buyer. In Paul Griner's hands, this dance of flea-market negotiation comes to seem nearly as sinister as the increasingly dark encounters between Jean and Steven. One is a matter of guile and folly, the other of life and death.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Think of Damage and other novels that lace tension with frightening sexual overtones, then add the advantage of literary style and assurance, and you have this mysterious, mesmerizing story of psychological suspense. We meet Griner's protagonist, Boston ad agency art director Jean Dubonnet, at her long-estranged cousin Claudia's wedding. Her general unease is gradually revealed as stemming from a gruesome incident in her past, a youthful "game" that she and Claudia played as teenagers, in which they set fire to Claudia's heirloom-filled house and critically burned Claudia's father. It's obvious that Jean still bears psychological scars: she is edgy, has an acerbic tongue, is emotionally cool and self-protective. Yet she is immediately attracted to handsome, charming Steven Cain, who says that Claudia has told him all about her, and that he has been watching her for some time. Steven invites Jean out on his sailboat, where they have percussive sex. Afterwards, he closes her hand in a car door, and sends herAalone, in a taxiAto the hospital. There, the nurse on duty is Claudia, who comments rather elliptically that Steven has "a lot of accidents." By this time, the reader knows that the alternately ardent and elusive Steven is unstable at best, and that Jean is in peril, but frightening details about the women in Steven's past and the true depth of Jean's penchant for danger are still to come. Meanwhile, Griner (Follow Me) discloses that both Jean and Steven are obsessed collectors: in symbolic expression of their characters, Jean collects antique fountain pens and Steven, binoculars. As readers ponder echoes of John Fowles's The Collector, and events move toward the feared denouement, Griner's meticulous care in setting each scene accelerates the suspense. It is too bad that several character traits that Griner repeatedly emphasizes (Jean's preternatural sense of smell, possible collusion between Claudia and Steven) are left vague Still, he never resorts to the staged faux-frissons of conventional psychological thrillers, and his spare prose convincingly portrays the process by which an intelligent, independent woman becomes the victim of an obsessed predatorAor perhaps of her own bent toward self-destruction. Agent, Nicole Aragi at Watkins/Loomis. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Jean Dubonnet collects antique pens, Steven Cain collects binoculars, and both pursue their hobbies with a devotion that borders on obsessiveness. They meet at a wedding, and Jean is drawn to this enigmatic man, despite his impersonal, secretive demeanor and erratic behavior. Ignoring her instincts, she allows herself to pursue him; of course, their brief and odd courtship can come to no good. A familiar plot line doesn't harm Griner's first novel (after the story collection Follow Me), which is a stunner. Griner contrasts the collectors' bargaining with the daily transactions acquaintances, co-workers, and lovers make with each other. Despite the novel's brevity, Griner doesn't rush the characterization, and he courageously presents Jean as complicit in her situation. He also skillfully fosters a disturbing sense of dread from beginning to end, and readers will enjoy piecing together characters' motives and actions. This novel straddles the literary and thriller genres very well, and readers in both camps should devour it. Enthusiastically recommended for public and academic libraries.
-AMarc A. Kloszewski, Indiana Free Lib., PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 173 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (July 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679448462
• ISBN-13: 978-0679448464
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,622,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

PAUL GRINER is the author of the acclaimed novel Collectors and the story collection Follow Me, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick. He is the director of the creative writing program at the University of Louisville. The German Woman was partly inspired by an E. M. Forster quote: "If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Like a creeping fog but without the mystery, June 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Collectors: A Novel (Hardcover)

The elegant, hypnotic prose is marred by an utterly unbelievable female main character. The underlying message here seems to be "the victim was asking for it." A nasty, cold little book that will leave the reader dashing out to find something else to read that will take away the lingering aftertaste of this one.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Short but suspenseful thriller!, November 30, 1999

By 

Joseph J. Hanssen "Joe" (Upstate New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Collectors: A Novel (Hardcover)

We know from the beginning Jean is the type of person who attracts danger, and when she meets Stephen Cain this becomes a fact. I found little to like in either character, and couldn't understand why anyone such as Jean would still want to be around Stephen after he slammed her hand in the car door. However, knowing her past of seeking dangerous situations, maybe it gave her a thrill.

Yes, the story was suspenseful in the beginning but seemed to end in a very boring, expected way. If you like predictable stories this one is for you. There wasn't much guesswork here!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A THRILLER THAT UNFOLDS LIKE A ROMANCE, July 25, 1999

By 

Will Lavender - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collectors: A Novel (Hardcover)

Paul Griner's heroine, Jean, is a fascinating character. Her motives are eccentric, her past is fuzzy (she had "episodes" after a mysterious fire she set with her cousin), she seems to be very beautiful and unapproachable, as if she is holding something back. She meets the even more eccentric Stephen Cain and falls for him, possibly because the games Stephen plays are as dangerous as the childhood games she played with her cousin. They get together on Stephen's sailboat, they have surprising sex, Stephen breaks her hand in her car door and doesn't seem to be sorry.

What is intensely menacing about Griner's novel (his first after an also adroit story collection, FOLLOW ME) is that the reader knows something awful is going to happen. Jean learns that Steven is a widower. The distant widower is a popular character in thrillers, but Griner's pacing and the precision of his characters--the precision that is nicely foreshadowed in Jean's trips to the flea market and her conning of pen vendors ("it is all in the eyes")--allows him to slowly display horrific surprises about the motives of both characters. The last pages of the book were extremely well-done and mysterious and filled me with a palpable sense of dread because I cared for Jean. A fast, engaging, and tense read.