Customer Reviews

Face Blind

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

 

 

Raymond Benson has shown that he can create suspense away from his James Bond novels. "Face Blind" kept me glued to the page. The plot deals with a woman who has "prosopagnosia," or "face blindness"--this means she can't recognize faces except within the context of location or by voice. This of course leads to a lot of mistaken identity twists. What's brilliant about the story is that Benson turns this concept around and shows how other characters in the story are also "face blind" in their own way. The bad guys mistake *her* for someone they're looking for. Another creepy guy in the story preys on victim by means of medical transcription tapes, something that makes you stop and think about who's really doing that kind of work for your doctors! "Face Blind" has surprises at every turn and it would also make a great movie.

I'll start off by saying that I have prosopagnosia. In fact, I've had it for as long as I can remember. Mine was one of the first personal web sites on the web which discussed it. Anyway, I have some authority to write this review, both as a reader and as an interested person.

That being said, it is often extremely difficult to communicate some of the subtleties involved in living with prosopagnosia. Benson managed to vividly capture some of those difficulties in this book. I almost found myself literally crying with the sincerity of some of the descriptions of situations Hannah experienced. Most people have a very difficult time grappling with the social nuances of "not being able to recognize people", but Benson did a masterful job of this through relating some of Hannah's day-to-day struggles as well as those exceptional circumstances which arise throughout the book.

For those who are interested in just a glimpse of what life can be like for a person with prosopagnosia, this is a magnificent starting point. True, it is a work of fiction, but I can tell that it was also a work of sincere care crafted by Benson. If you want the real deal about "life with prosopagnosia", even though the story is fiction, BUY THIS BOOK, because the experiences could just as easily have really happened.

I just read "Face Blind" and came to leave my own 5-star review, and then saw the ridiculous review from "the reader from Illinois"--which doesn't review the book at all but rather gives a 2-star review to the "reviewer from New York." Sheesh, get a life. Did you like the book or not? I guess you really didn't read it. Anyway, I thought Benson's new book was very suspenseful. It had me up all night! I recommend it to anyone who like suspense books with strange, twisted characters.

This is my first book I've read off of Raymond Benson's James Bond novels but I wasn't disappointed!

It tells the story about a woman named Hannah McCleary who has "prosopagnosia", a real life condition where you can't recognize human faces. Ever since she was brutally attacked a few years earlier Hannah has had to live with this, only recognizing a few faces a day but can't remember new ones.

Because of this she eventually runs into trouble with a misogynist who tries to take advantage of her, and a cousin with a bad friend who takes her name for drug deals. Wonder how all this will end up...

Despite Raymond Benson taking his time to write some other books besides the James Bond ones, it shows to others he is capable of making great novels like this one than just staying to James Bond.

PS, I actually met him substituting at my high school!!!

Benson weaves three storylines ulimately into one story. A lonely women who is unable to recognize people's faces, a struggling actor and an author caught up in a drug ring. Benson keeps you reading to the last sentence. This book maintains your interest throughout and in the end you are wanting more.

This was a really suspensful novel! I enjoyed it a lot!

Problem:
Quoting Arlington reader: "Are you the freakin author? I find all of these reviews SUSPECT.".

NO! Raymond Benson lives in Chicago. And besides, you didn't review the book!