Customer Reviews

Going Wrong

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

 

 

Rendell is one of my favorite authors, and I am overjoyed that Amazon's Kindle store keeps adding more and more of this writer's classic mysteries. GOING WRONG is a powerful suspense novel that narrates a story of a man's obsession with his former girlfriend.

Guy, who made his fortune through all kinds of criminal activities, is obsessed with his childhood girlfriend Leonora. GOING WRONG traces in the most minute and stunningly realistic detail imaginable the progression of a stalker's descent into insanity and the unhealthy dynamic of his relationship with his - I cannot possibly say 'victim' in this case - fully participating enabler. Guy and Leonora haven't been romantically involved for years, yet they continue a decidedly unhealthy relationship that distorts reality for both of them and that can only lead to tragedy.

Rendell knows how to make you see the world through the eyes of a disturbed individual. GOING WRONG continues the great tradition she started in her award-winning A Demon in My View of depicting how unstable the human psyche can be. This is a novel of psychological suspense, not a police procedural. It is very different from Rendell's Inspector Wexford series which in no way detracts from the value of this outstanding novel.

British author, Ruth Rendell, is, undoubtedly, the doyenne of psychological suspense, painting subtle portraits of offbeat, quirky characters that are just a tad off the beaten path. Delving into their psyches, she draws the reader into the slightly skewed world that they inhabit. Their world then becomes that of the reader, as the author weaves a tapestry of a world that is just a bit awry, deftly letting the reader know that something is wrong, so very wrong.

The author does no less in this well-written novel, as she leads the reader into the mind and world of Guy Curran, a handsome, young man from the slums who has led a hard scrabble life, elevating himself from the bowels of poverty by dint of his own hard work and acquiring great wealth in the process. Unfortunately for him, that hard work included some less than reputable dealings in the drug trade, which provided the capital for his now legitimate businesses.

For years, Guy has been obsessively in love with Leonora Chisholm, an upper class miss who, after years of being his reluctant childhood sweetheart, has rejected him and all the trappings of wealth and comfort he has to offer her. She prefers to live in genteel poverty with her friends, while acquiring a new boyfriend whom her family and friends like. Guy is convinced some of his past, shady dealings have come to the attention of someone in Leonora's family or inner circle. He believes that that individual has persuaded Leonora to turn away from him.

Now, who would go and do such a thing? Read this well-written book and join Guy in the process of eliminating the likely suspect in this twisted tale of obsessive love.

Rendell deserves all of the superlatives heaped upon her- I won't go into them here, just read any other review.

I enjoyed Going Wrong book even more than the other Rendell/Vine titles in my library. However, as much as I love delving into the worlds she created, I have to say they always leave me emotionally unsatisfied. One of the best rewards for spending time with good (or great) literature is, in my opinion, that moment of identification, where the author nails and names something that has always existed under the radar of the average person's consciousness, some feeling or experience that is common to the human condition.
For all of Rendell's clinically accurate descriptions of the asocial or otherwise unwell mind, there are no such revelatory moments in any of her works.

Furthermore, empathy seems to lie outside of the emotional spectrum available to most of Rendell's characters and, more importantly, to the narrator/author herself.

There is wit, there is accuracy and there is irony in the way Rendell presents her characters, but there is no warmth or compassion. I think Rendell considers showing the weaknesses and faults in one character (lets say Leonora) tantamount to showing compassion to another (here, Guy). I'd venture to say that the author does not like any of the characters she has created (with the possible exception of C.I. Wexford).

I think in future I'll indulge in Rendell/Vine books only when in the grips of severe misanthropy.

I do disagree with the reviewer who suggests that Ruth Rendell doesn't like her characters. The principle ones in this novel are certainly deeply flawed, but over the length of the story, I found myself hoping the lead character would come to himself, and I experienced ups and downs during the reading. I'm certain that anyone reading this will discover and experience the same feelings.

Guy is an intricate composite of a man any of us could have known. Yet he is loaded with more obsessions than is good for anyone. He puts far too much stock in appearances and yet though he goes to plays because they are In at the moment, he does seem to enjoy good entertainment despite his obsessive need to impress "Leo" as he nicknamed Leonora. Though he comes across now and then as a bit under-confident, his basic ego knows no bounds and when it comes right down to it, neither does Leonora's. Each of them does more role playing than living a life. I won't unveil the real culprit here, you must be the judge. This is an enthralling read. Rendell reigns supreme in the genre.

Rendell at her best. You become absorbed in the protagonist's obsession, because it is so well plotted. It helps if you yourself have ever been infatuated to the point of losing control of your common sense. This man is like a leech, he has fastened on to the object of his passion and cannot - or refuses to - let go - no matter what the reaction of the world around him. He is so obsessed that nothing anyone says affects him.
You will want to find more books by Ruth Rendell on Amazon (which has quite a collection), because she takes you out of time and space and the mundane repetitive events of daily life. And don't we all like to escape from them now and then?

This is not a typical Ruth Rendell novel; at least- it is, because it's well-written on the surface, and she gets inside the mind of psychosis really seamlessly and authentically.
I can't honestly write a bad review about the writing; her writing is just as good as it always is... but this book is something I wish I had not read, and wish I hadn't slogged through until I finished.
It is very slow in development, and the entire thing is an exploration of obsession. I thought about 2/3 of the way through that there might be a wonderful twist, but there wasn't.

(sorry if that's a spoiler for anyone...)

She has the ability of inviting the reader to see "both sides" of the story. In this book, she doesn't really point the reader in a direction of empathizing completely with any of the characters (except maybe one of them, a secondary character, the girlfriend Celeste. She's painted as completely likeable...and we don't get to spend a whole lot of time resting in the company of a likeable character, alas.)

This book stressed me out and depressed me. It's so RELENTLESS and nothing really happens except an inner journey.

since it's no longer free, I would highly advise reading a sample of it before you buy- I would have been very upset if I had paid for this book.

This novel was slow to get moving, and it was hard to care for the central character, who was self-absorbed and clearly disturbed. The narrative became quite interesting at the end, but that came a little too late to rescue the story.

I am half way through this book and will have to shoot myself in the foot to finish it. Tedious?? YES...Boring??? YES... The charactles are all unlikeable, shallow, silly. I cannot even imagine that a girl engaged to another man will be meeting her former lover for lunch one a week and talk to him on the phone every day. I thought I was buying one of the authors good mystery stories instead of some half baked study into psycho behavior. Can I get my money back???