Customer Reviews

A Day and a Night and a Day: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

They are both Americans linked forever in their respective minds by the Global War on Terrorism. They perform a dance ritual several times a day, but in a part of America not within the fifty states. Instead operative Harper tortures alleged terrorist Rose in a dark cell in the pits of Guantanamo expecting to extract information like a dentist taking out a tooth without Novocain.

The African-Italian Rose expects to die here because the CIA and White House can hide the fact they have tortured an American citizen at Gitmo. Up until his snatch he was a Manhattan restaurant owner with a past. Rose thinks back to the 1950s growing up in Harlem where he was condemned for his Italian paternal roots leading a decade later to Merkete easily recruiting him as a soldier in her "vigilante democracy" movement, which the Americans called terrorism. He remembers 1968 when he was twenty-one and in love with Selina; thirty years later she died in a Barcelona bombing. Finally he is old and alone expecting death once again while on some bleak British island; but even there he is pulled back into the violence of humanity when he meets a girl.

This is a fascinating character study that condemns the Bush legacy of torture accepted by Americans as a standard operating procedure regardless of the information obtained or the victim's worth. Although Rose is the prime star, he shines when he is compared with Harper as Glen Duncan digs deep into each of their souls to uncover what motivates a terrorist and an inquisitioner to act the way they do: Intriguingly each claims the moral high ground of their end objective condoning the means they use. The Selina and the post-Gitmo subplots are also well written; but it is comparing the inspirations of the two antagonistic Americans that turns this into a terrific intelligent look at a world that has become anesthetized to genocide, terrorism, and torture.

Harriet Klausner

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I'm not going to give a summary because the prior reviewers have covered that quite well already.

It's simply thrilling to read a book that makes you think. There are fewer and fewer of books like this being written. The interaction between Mr. Rose and his interrogator is disturbing, fascinating, and sad. The love story is epic and, though it might be cliché in its make up, it has touching depth. The way the writer explains how Rose's love feels and what it means to him is amazing. I haven't even mentioned the interesting ways in which the book explores torture, religion, love, war, and our own perception of our world.

I do have to admit that I am a fan of Mr. Duncan's writing style, but this can be off-putting for some readers. I have heard in called self-indulgent and I would not disagree, but I still love it.

And for those worried about lengthy descriptions of torture, there aren't any. We are told what is done to Rose but it is not described in detail. The author even tells us why he writes it this way, if you are paying attention. These sections are still disturbing but not graphic.

All in all a great read!

Augustus Rose, an American member of a known terrorist group, is tortured for the length of the title by his American captors, most specifically a singular agent named Harper, whose cruelty exists side by side with his philosophical, conversational manner. As the two men are locked in a horrific psychological battle, the life of Augustus Rose unfolds.

His erratic mother, Juliet, whose marriage to a black man produced the son she loved but had little time for; Elise, the radical who indoctrinated Augustus into the underground; and mostly Selina, the love of Augustus' life - all of these women are centers around which Augustus gathers mentally to deal with the brutality of his interrogation.

Intertwined with the somewhat linear unspooling runs the narrative of the broken-down and older Augustus, hiding anonymously on a remote British island and dealing with a different, and then not so different, set of challenges. This is a riveting read - a life story rich in love and sadness in equal measure - well, not equal, but one should read to see how that works out. Also a timely novel, when America's `war on terror' is so much a part of daily life

Glen Duncan's latest novel is a gripping account of one mans' physical and emotional endurance to survive.

Duncan has the ability to describe the darkest thoughts and needs in his characters, this novel is no different. The main character, Augustus Rose first person account of being interrogated and tortured are extremely realistic. From the realization of self betrayal to the incrudelity of absolute agony, the reader is thrust into the depths of the human instinct to live. There are places you don't want to know exist but are compelled to visit thanks to Duncan.

An emotional epic, which I highly recommend.

Anyone interested in how we, as Americans, became who we are, should read this book. There's a timelessness tied up in the incredible timeliness that made it impossible to put down. I'm telling everyone I know to read this book.

There is a really compelling, even Dostoevskian novel of two men engaged in a ruthless debate about the spirit of the post-9/11 age within this soap-operatic bloat. The novel vacillates in time between Augustus' torture at the hands of Harper, a sinisterly intelligent American operative, and his supposedly epic love affair with Selina, a wealthy white girl from the upper-east side. I say "supposedly" because Duncan-a novelist whose prose styling suggests he ought to know better-writes it with the melodramatic adolescent angst of a Twilight fan. Selina is every stereotype of the wealthy white golden girl, down to the disapproving parents and blonde hair. I failed to grasp why our hero pines so obsessively over a caricature, and frankly, if his motivation isn't deeply felt by the reader, his suffering is meaningless. Skimmed of this cliche-ridden backstory, the novel would be a brilliant mediation on culture and ethics in a traumatized world.