The Edge of Pleasure [Paperback]

Philippa Stockley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 20, 2006

Gilver Memmer is running short of time. He is an enormously gifted painter, staggeringly good-looking, and profoundly self-involved, a cross between every woman's dream and every woman's worst nightmare. Great though his creative gifts may be, they cannot save him from dissolution. No longer the London art scene's wunderkind, he is getting by on the fumes of his former luck and sliding inexorably-though with a certain self-destructive elegance-toward oblivion. Into Gilver's life come two women: one who wants to push him into the grave he has been digging for himself and another who just might save him from it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Stockley presents a stylish portrait of a formerly famous artist as a not-so-young man. Once a "gorgeous, lone, enigmatic male," with a fabulous early career, painter Gilver Memmer, now 42, has slipped into alcoholism, set aside his paintbrush for a decade and retreated into self-imposed exile from his former London social circles. Two women penetrate the realm of his near-seclusion. Alice longs to be part of his future, hoping to help him become the man he once was. But Juliette, who just happens to be Alice's best friend, is a woman from Gilver's past intent on exacting revenge for a transgression of his 15 years earlier. None of the characters is likable, but the glittering narrative exerts a strong pull. Gilver's habit of rough, narcissistic sex complicates a later "did he or didn't he" rape scenario in which Stockley wisely steers clear of the reformed-bad-boy cliché. Stockley's novel (after A Factory of Cunning) revels in London's glamorous art world, but also teeters uncomfortably close to the edge of something much darker. (Mar.)
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Review

UK PRAISE FOR THE EDGE OF PLEASURE
"There is much to enjoy in Stockley's sly, tart mix of sex, painting and mischance, confected with a naughty, sophisticated glitter."
-DAILY MAIL

"Confident, assured and highly entertaining . . . A vividly sensual novel."-EVENING STANDARD

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Product Details

• Paperback: 325 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1 edition (March 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156032104
• ISBN-13: 978-0156032100
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,040,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (4.5) "... a gorgeous, lone, enigmatic male.", March 12, 2006

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Edge of Pleasure (Paperback)

In the first careless years of artistic triumph, Gilver Memmer makes his fortune, much-feted by a thirsty London art world that idolizes youth, beauty and artistic temperament. His hubris unchecked, the handsome Gilver acts accordingly, cutting a swath through the ladies, talent and wealth powerful aphrodisiacs: "This early connection between artistic skill and the granting of sexual favors was not lost on him." His reputation is secure, although he is "too compliant in facile skill and ubiquitous popularity to do more than walk his talent on a slack rein". Preparing to stun America in a New York showing, an assistant's fluke precipitates a disaster, but in London this fiasco only adds to the artist's cache. Gilver is deeply concerned, but throws himself into a flurry of social activities. Suddenly a decade has passed and Memmer hasn't painted, gliding along on his social skills. Eventually, the accumulated wealth is gone, Gilver facing a far different future, his luxurious accoutrements and sartorial indulgences of little use without the means to support his lifestyle.

At one last party for his friends, a fire erupts, destroying everything but the clothes on his back and a few pieces of furniture. Gilver goes to ground, moving to a shabby loft where he daily drinks himself into a stupor, sliding into alcoholism and a blur of one-night stands, "the momentary oblivion of an indifferent embrace". Shocked by the changes that accompany his fall, Gilver is deeply disturbed by the gray hairs, the loose flesh, myriad physical betrayals, trapped in a cycle of dissipation. As with any true genius, Gilver's gifts come with a price tag, his chaotic personal life feeding a natural self-destruction, obliterating his redemption, his work. Into this depressing scene comes Alice, whom Gilver meets while making a pathetic attempt to render his flat livable. She sparks the artist's long-dormant creativity, although between inebriation and a paralyzing fear of failure, Gilver cannot reach out to Alice in a meaningful way (although he had he at hello). The past collides with the future as another woman enters his world, the edgy, vitriolic Juliette, who has long nurtured a particular interest in the artist.

Stockley prods the vulnerable underbelly of Gilver's creativity without reservation, at the same time exposing a core of untapped emotion that is obscured by years of drunkenness and emotional cowardice, his genius nearly destroyed by an untamed ego born of the praise of the London glitterati and the immaturity of self-gratification. For Gilver, Alice is a fortuitous accident, a promise barely recognizable to the downward-spiraling artist. The egocentric Gilver is redeemed, not by his own actions but the intervention of a new friend, an old friend and an enigmatic enemy who bears the seeds of his destruction. Exhibiting the brilliant prose and clever plotting of A Factory of Cunning, Shockley has written a stylish novel that skims the razor's edge of the dark side of humanity, the subtleties of life vs. art, the yin and yang of creativity and ego, genius fused with angst and the healing touch of compassion. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

3.0 out of 5 stars The end of pleasure, September 16, 2011

By 

J. Grattan "Ideas can move the world" (Lawrenceville, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Edge of Pleasure (Paperback)

Though variously a sharp, witty, even gritty examination of the hubristic, excessive side of the art world, nonetheless, the characters in this book are pretty much stock-in-trade. The central character is fortyish Gilver Memmer, at one time a young, adulated painter, who has squandered his talent and his money while indulging in wine, women, and goods, especially expensive clothes, for the last fifteen years. However, the author portrays Gilver as a sufficiently sympathetic character for the reader to be concerned whether he can pull himself out of his freefall.

A supporting cast, again standard, among whom are Harry, an admiring college roommate and now successful interior decorator; Eugenia, an Austrian countess and ex-flame; and Alice, an attractive girl and part-time proofreader who befriends Gilver at a paint store, supplies bits of help and encouragement at the right time. Interestingly enough, it is Juliette, the aggressive editor of a scandal publication and who is determined to settle a long-held score with Gilver, who inadvertently creates renewed interest in Gilver among players in the art world.

The book is a gentle reminder of the consequences of arrogance and indulgence on those who have succeeded by their exceptional talents, and, furthermore, the difficulty of recognizing when one is in the midst of a downward spiral. Perhaps reflective of the difficulty of turning a life around, the story drags at times. The continual disconnect between nice girl Alice and Gilver is symptomatic of Gilver's slow, uneven climb from the depths of despair and disgrace and does detract somewhat from the appeal of the book. Second chances can also be squandered.

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving story of change and talent, February 3, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Edge of Pleasure (Paperback)

Gilver's childhood talent is to understand the connections between artistic skill and the granting of sexual favors: his early understanding leads to a rich life, but at age 28 he's forgotten the talents which formed the wellspring of his success. When ruin strikes, he's ill-prepared to recover in this moving story of change and talent.