In prison for murder, disgraced psychologist Paul Avery sets out to examine how he ended up committing his crime. His memoir--self-absorbed and self-tormenting, wry and comical--focuses on his distrastrous romantic adventures with three women and how they led to his cold-bloodedly killing a man. At fifteen Paul suffers intense humilation from his first love, the married Jennifer, in romance that lasts for less than a week. At sixteen, he is the one to hand out humiliation to his cousin Diana, whom he eventually reduces to a sex slave. Finally there is Michelle, his favorite patient whom he simultaneously psychoanalyzes and seduces. Compellingly constructed and artfully written, "Games of the Blind" is a story of intense passion and cruelty, of desire and cruelty, of self-knowledge and blindness.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The passionate yet jocular life-testimony of Paul Avery, a psychologist in prison for murder, fills the provocative but ultimately disappointing pages of Sullivan's third novel (after The Correspondence ), a tale of madness and sexual obsession that owes (perhaps too much) to Nabokov. The greatest heat here rises from the narrator's description of his earliest fixation, an older woman with whom he fell in love when he was 14 ("I looked at her from across the foyer, and I was flooded--every chamber, every hollow, every infinitesimal space of my being--by longing"). From this epiphany, the story speeds along as Avery draws scenes and characters with the inflamed incisiveness particular to the mad ("My heart was a fluttering wren in my rib cage; my breathing was labored; my blood roared in my ears.") Avery is too clearly descended from Lolita's Humbert Humbert, however, and Sullivan's prose, though nimble and often startling and hilarious, falls short of Nabokov's mastery. Moreover, the plot grows slack as it draws to its murderous conclusion. The climactic homicide seems inevitable rather than compelling, and Avery's frequent comments on his condition leave little room for conjecture by the reader. Still, Sullivan is a talented writer, and in her protagonist she has captured the pitiful hilarity of obsession: "I wrestled with serpents and tried to get fleas to stay put in a hat."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Sullivan has written a compelling psychological examination of the nature of sexual obsession and unrequited love. Protagonist Paul Avery, a respected psychologist who is in prison for murder, dissects his emotional life and the events leading to his crime. As a boy of 14, Paul had an unhappy love affair with an older woman. After his parents were killed in an accident, Paul went to live with relatives and became involved in a brutal liaison with his cousin, who becomes Paul's sexual slave. As an adult, Paul fell in love with one of his patients and seduced her. Paul's involvement with these three women had a profound effect upon his personality, which ultimately led to his downfall. Theoretical interludes enlighten the psychological suspense, and the denouement is unexpected. A fascinating read; recommended for public libraries.
Stephanie Furtsch, Purchase Free P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Stephanie Furtsch, Purchase Free P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is vivid and frightening tale -- a brilliant novel!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Games of the Blind (Hardcover)
If you're like me, and you're a man, you may read this book and wonder, "How could a woman writer understand a man so well -- understand the raw, ugly, visceral feeling of being a man -- understand the wretched, petty things men do and feel?" This is a book about psychological depths, and Evelin Sullivan understands -- and writes about -- these depths astonishingly, even frighteningly, well."Games of the Blind" is a brilliant novel narrated by a truly vicious man -- a twisted monster of a man, to be sure, but it is Sullivan's weird triumph that she renders the narrator so true-to-life, so heartbreakingly human that we find ourselves sympathizing with him even as he commits the vilest of acts. It's been a while since I've read "Games of the Blind," but roughly the plot is this: When the story begins, the narrator is a sensitive, intellectual young man who falls in love with an older woman while he is on vacation with his parents. This is a formative experience, the force of which shapes the rest of his life. For some reason (do his parents die?) he is sent to live with an aunt and uncle and their fat, self-loathing daughter. He preys upon his cousin mercilessly -- sexually and emotionally -- and this is rendered even more repellent because she adores him so. We follow the narrator into adulthood, when he becomes a psychologist and becomes entranced by a female patient who stirs memories of that haunting affair he had as a teenager. This relationship leads to the book's satisfyingly shocking climax. The theory and practice of psychology are central to the book -- the narrator even includes several "theoretical interludes" in which he attempts to analyze himself and the events that overtook him. In a sense, the book becomes a profound meditation on the alienation of gifted teenagers; on the life-shattering powers of love, lust, and infatuation; on the diverse forces that blindside us, shape us, destroy us; and how "free will" can even become an empty concept if you understand the torrents of rage, sorrow, and longing that surge underneath the facade of the "self" that most of us present to others. So in addition to a story that you won't be able to put down, the book is deeply philosophical as well. I think the best thing I can say about this novel is that, of all the books I have read for pleasure and for "work" (I used to review fiction and poetry for two publications), it shook me up more than any book ever has. I was genuinely depressed for a week after reading it -- I felt I had glimpsed absolute evil in the character of the narrator, and this glimpse sent me reeling. To my way of thinking, in this age of literary fads, slick packaging and stylish posturing, such aesthetic truth is almost old-fashioned, an outdated virtue superseded by cheap, quick, well-paid productions of hacks (most "literary" writers are hacks, in my book). But Evelin Sullivan succeeds in rendering life so truthfully it leaves you shaken by the encounter. Only the highest art could produce such an effect. Let me end this review by saying that it's a bone-chilling indictment of American literature (readers? editors? reviewers? a vast conspiracy? I'm not sure who to blame) that you haven't heard more about Evelin Sullivan. She is a true genius, who writes exquisite prose and crafts gripping plots, but who has been inexplicably ignored by literary taste-makers, and is hence undiscovered by intelligent readers who would certainly share my belief that she is a writer of world-class talent, if they'd only heard of her! A real shame. But please don't take my words as the meaningless warbling of a fan -- put them to the test. Pick up "Games of the Blind," read the first thirty or forty pages, and see if you have not fallen into the book's dark clutches. I'll wager you a beer at the Showdown Saloon here in Austin that you will not be able to put it down. (If you enjoy "Games of the Blind" -- and if you're a "good" [meaning literate, astute, attuned to the nuances of language, both its surfaces and depths as careful choices of the author] reader I don't see how you can't enjoy it -- you should also read Sullivan's book "The Correspondence," which is quite different from "Games of the Blind" but every bit as brilliant. A thick and boisterously comic novel, by and large, but very poignant and inflected with similarly dark themes as "Games of the Blind.")
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Pleasant Accident,
This review is from: Games of the Blind (Hardcover)
I stumbled upon this book two years ago in the public library. Waiting for my brother to check out, I just pulled it off the shelf, and it grabbed me from the first random lines I read. When I read the summary on the jacket, I checked it out and finished it in three days. Evelin Sullivan uses incredible imagery and weaves words and word combinations, metephors etc. in such a way that you have to read some sections twice, but you don't mind, because once you comprehend the story she is relaying to you, you are taken aback and in awe of her talent. I am not a professional writer, so my review is no where near as eloquent and impressive as this book, but do not let my lack of skill keep you from enjoying Ms. Sullivan's WEALTH of skill.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An overlooked gem,
By alexander laurence (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Games of the Blind (Hardcover)
This yarn centers itself around the character and the voice of Paul Avery, a professional psychologist and convicted murderer. From the jail cell Avery tells the long story of his life beginning with unusal parents, a trip to Italy, and his failed first love at fourteen with an older married woman. He moves to Chicago and lives with his Uncle's family, where he learns sadism with his younger, chubby female cousin. The claustrophobic narrative is recalled in pleasant loops of important and detailed fragments. As a psychologist, the obsessive Avery tends to over-analyze his motives and his actions. All which tend to sound like a self-indulgent person who has never heard of stopping for perspective and compassion. Avery then leads us on a baroque joruney on the drak origins and the meaning of the murder. We never know whether we are being conned or not. We are are being manipulated to a certain extent. Sullivan adds a few theoretical interludes in this three part tragedy, which adds to the anti-academic tone of the whole book. Things get interesting as Avery meets Michelle, then has an affair with her, and devises to kill her husband. Michelle is Avery's patient. It's strange how he has a great understanding of her, but little self-awareness of himself. But this is a temporary understanding, because Avery has been a trapped man in a maze for quite a while. His killing of the wrong person, a professor, is yet another sign of his self-delusion. Avery lives in an imaginary world, but never comes to terms with society around him. A major theme of this book is the impossibility of mastery over anture: whether through technology or science. Evelin Sullivan is an important writer that needs a second look. Sullivan picks up the ball where Nabokov left it, and she projects an interesting and literate novel herself.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
