Customer Reviews

The Eighth Continent: Tales of the Foreign Service

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A floating and barely perceptible island of sophisticated innocents abroad, the eighth continent is not entirely unknown in other fictions or in films. There, its topography is rendered in broad strokes of primary color; but in this narrative, Philip Gould provides some key nuances, both chromatic and structural. Even more than his first novel, _Kitty Collins_, _The Eighth Continent_ draws strength from Gould's sure sense of place and his sensitivity to fragile, ambiguous situations, as well as his ear for the stress points and lacunae of speech between characters of radically different disposition and culture. A witty, poignant, eminently readable book.

"In brilliantly depicting the 'hazards and delusions of foreign service life,'Gould assembles his three-part story around a theme of tragedy and retribution. A powerful and haunting resolution ties together 'the many networks of people in this life.' Gould handles exotic settings and nuanced character portrayal with impressive skill." --Publishers Weekly

"A chewy, tripartite novel with old-timey foreign service atmospheric appeal. Marvelous reportage on some far places." --Kirkus Reviews

"Gould packs an astonishing amount of history and character observation into this incisive shadow game and writes in a flexible, lyrical shorthand that conjures erotic longing, political background and physical description with equal aplomb." --The Seattle Times

"Gould's writing is tight and expressive, his charcters complex and absorbing." --Los Angeles Reader

"Disciplined story telling, lean, lucid, literate." --Buffalo News