Customer Reviews

Grasshopper

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Though Grasshopper was worth the reading, I think that fans of Vine/Rendell know there are better novels by her out there. If you're not familiar with this author and haven't read King Solomon's Carpet, if you enjoyed this book, I'd highly recommend that one. It seems to succeed where this one falls a little flat. Grasshopper didn't make my favorite Barbara Vine book list...but it came close. Still, the characters in Grasshopper were thought-provoking and this alone made it all worthwhile. Nobody can create characters and set a mood like Barbara Vine.

"Grasshopper" may not be one of Barbara Vine's best novels (and I have read all of them), but I just got over the flu, and spent the last two days riveted to this book. I kept intending to go back to bed and sleep, but couldn't put this down. So much for it being boring.

Still, I could say the same about virtually any of Rendell/Vine's work. "Grasshopper" features rich characterizations and a fine narrative that carries the story rattling forward. Where it falls short of her earlier achievements is in the plot, which is contrived in places. Elements from previous works ("A Fatal Inversion," "King Solomon's Carpet", and "The Tree of Hands") are recycled here, less effectively than in the earlier works. Rendell always drops subtle hints about what is to come and makes extensive use of foreshadowing, but here the payoff is less than what her readers have come to expect. Usually she succeeds in delivering at least one jaw-dropping surprise per book, and puts in a vicious twist of the knife at the end. Unfortunately, she does not do that in "Grasshopper."

In spite of these shortcomings, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The central character in particular is believable and appealing, and as always the narrative is peppered with Rendell's keen observations of human behavior. I would recommend this book for those familiar with her work; however for those who are not, "A Fatal Inversion" or "A Dark-Adapted Eye" are better places to start. (For a very fast read, try "The Tree of Hands", or "Going Wrong.")

Absolutely gorgeous. I still like A Fatal Inversion and perhaps No Night is Too Long better, but this one is magnificent. As usual in a BV novel, the psychology is subtle and complex. Vine does not clobber you over the head with it, but advances it through motifs and imagery. Yes, there are implausible happenings and a really wild coincidence or two, but the narrative sustains itself so well from one page to the next that one can easily accept the ending.

I couldn't put this book down. I think that the reviewers who didn't like it were reacting to its not being a typical "mystery" but more of a psychological suspense novel. I don't think an author who has written over fifty novels can be expected to reproduce the same exact formula in each book. It would get very old. Here, the characters are brilliantly drawn, and very interesting, but they are not mainstream characters. They are young adult misfits, and as such rang very true to me. The part about roof climbing was not so farfetched either -- I don't know if people do it, but if they bungee jump, then it certainly is possible. I also remember reading a story years ago about two young people caught making love (by a traffic helicopter) on top of a bridge tower in NYC.

I find it refreshing that Rendell/Vine writes about outsiders -- I get tired of reading about lawyers and academics. And these are middle-class outsiders, not so very far from many readers and our children. I found Clodagh believable if not entirely engaging, and Silver, her boyfriend, right on. An idealistic young man with an inherited income who does not distinguish between good and evil, but finds everyone interesting, and learns through experience observing the other young people in his flop of an apartment. He cannot imagine evil until he meets it...

That said, it does not really have one main story line, but multiple threads, without a central conclusion. That didn't bother me. If you enjoy a read you can really get your teeth into, this is for you. If you prefer a standard mystery formula, then maybe not.

This book begins as we expect a Rendell/Vine book to begin: with a character whose phobia or neurosis (in this case, claustrophobia), drives succeeding events. Probably the best of this type is Rendell's "Judgement in Stone." But the narrator isn't the ONLY loonie: there's a whole collection of them in one building (as in "King Solomon's Carpet" which was a MUCH better book). As another reviewer noted, the constant hopping back and forth in time and the frequent foreshadowing become annoying after awhile. Reliance on HUGE coincidences, and a ho-hum ending (which the narrator even admits everyone probably saw coming) also makes the plot less than Vine's best.

After having read Barbara Vine's latest novel, "Grasshopper," I thought I'd peruse the reviews. The pros are full of praise (if not outright ecstatic words) about this book; it disappointed just about all of the civilians (readers). Why, I asked myself. A few thoughts thereon: this book has some things in common with the previous ones by Barbara Vine, to be sure, but it has no Great Revelation in the last pages (in fact, the author herself says that who "my husband" is will not surprise the reader), and there are some unanswered situations as well. Not typical. Not totally tidy. But not bothersome, either, at least, to this reader. The book is full of the usual Vine touches: lots of details about places, lots of little lists here and there, much to do with food and drink, and (especially for one character) wardrobe. The writing is graceful, not fussy, literate (mostly . . . wait a bit), and time frames are easy to understand. The many biographies are well set throughout the book, and the details are interestingly expressed. The almost-villainous characters have some redeeming features. There is social comment (on adoption, on treating obsessive behavior, on the problems with institutional these-are-our-rules attitudes, on the hungry-for-fodder press). I think of this as a coming-of-age novel, with some overtones of suspense, some of unearthing the mysteries of the past to explain the present, but none of the wilder aspects of (for example) my Vine favorite: NO NIGHT IS TOO LONG (the English translation of a line from the von Hoffmanstal libretto for DER ROSENKAVALIER), which also has a less-than-usual setting in the U.S., for part of the book. I think that Vine is trying something new with GRASSHOPPER, and I found it convincing, if not as outright page-turning, as many of her earlier works have been. I think of this latest effort as being rather like Patricia Highsmith's less-than-suspenseful novels (which are rather in the Graham Green mode), as opposed to, for instance, her marvelous RIPLEY series - and I'm a fan of both. It's good that Vine is not simply writing the same (albeit, satisfying) work over and over, and I must admit that reading this prompts me to say that I'll look forward to the next one. I am distressed, though, that the author does not observe the difference between "awhile" (the adverb) and "a while" (the noun phrase); further, I'm sorry to see that she has fallen into the less-than-laudable habit of using "like" as a conjunction. In these cases, I always ask if one would re-name the Shakespeare play: "Like You Like It"? One more: on page 279, 3rd paragraph, she writes, "But neither of them . . . were" and, of course, the verb should be "was." Where are the editors?

Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell) gets a lot of flak for writing thoughtful, reflective books. They aren't typical mysteries or suspense thrillers -- I suspect that was the author's point in setting up a new byline. I've read nearly everything she's published under this pseudonym and all of it's good. The books move at a slowly deliberate pace with a lot of time for character development and a momentum that builds slowly as she lets each character reveal a little more and a little more. This one is particularly unique and original in the way it builds the central character and her relations with the others. There's a risk of becoming self-consciously artsy but Vine never crosses that line -- she just keeps on delivering good writing book after book. As a journalist and author myself, I admire what she does ... I have often wished I could do it myself.

Tightly woven plot, complex characterizations and an amazingly talented reader (audio version). What more could you want? Vine's books receive consistent rave reviews from both sides of the Atlantic and its easy to see why. I am mystified by the number of unfavorable reviews of this book and felt compelled to add mine to offset the 1 and 2-starred reviews. U.S. fans should be looking forward to reading The Minotaur which is scheduled to be released in March 2006. I was lucky enough to obtain a copy from Great Britain and loved every minute of it as well.

...but the one I read was magnificent. Much like "The House of Stairs" and "A Fatal Inversion", "Grasshopper" deals with the trials and tribulations of a mismatched assortment of roommates whose good intentions lead to disaster. The prose is tight, the characters are fascinating and occasionally infuriating, the criminality is sometimes troublingly ambiguous, and the story is first-rate. My only disappointment? That I finished it so quickly! Stop reading this review this instant and order the book.

Because of the accident on the pylon, Clodagh has been banished to the city, to a dingy basement flat below the large house of one of her parents' friends. Soon, prisoner of her near-claustrophobia, she bursts free when she discovers the residents of the top floor of nearby 15 Russia Road. Caring Silver, violent Jonny, weak and waspish Liv, and mysterious Wim. However, coming into contact with this fascinating bunch of misfits and their curious come-and-go lifestyle as they roam free up on the roofs will put Clodagh right in the path of tragedy once more...

This book is both everything you would expect from Vine, and also a lot more besides. Some, I suppose, may be disappointed with the fact that it does veer off in a slightly unexpected direction and become a book entirely different from what you might at first have suspected, but others should simply appreciate the author's ability to take her story in unexpected, original directions. Grasshopper is a brilliantly eerie, haunting piece of work right from its stunning opening sentence - "They have sent me here because of the accident on the pylon." - it is nostalgic and shadowy, and ominous to the last word. Foreboding cats a dark cloud over the whole plot and all the characters, and the writing is superb, as ever. The whole thing shivers and sways as the plot moves gradually along and suspense is eked out mercilessly.

The characters are fascinating - brilliantly drawn and entirely real. Vine (and Rendell) has always been at her best when she is creating a story about a group of people variously damaged in some way. There is no writer more adept at placing herself squarely in the collective mind of society's deviants; those who exist on its periphery. Here, in particular, she shows a piercing ability to write about the young with accuracy and, very occasionally, tenderness.

The book, although shiveringly realistic, is made to sparkle by the fact that it, at times, is rather surreal. The group of misfits, exploring London from its roofs, and their adventures, add a distinct magical quality to the book that is entirely missing in most fiction. It creates in the readers a deep longing to even briefly experience the bizarre world of these characters, to live as freely as they do in their eccentric way, while all the while they want to distance themselves because it's clear something dreadful is going to happen.

Something rare in a Vine novel is its warmth. It's not a warmth that is obviously apparent, but it is there, if you trouble to look for it. It sits cosily beneath the story and only really makes itself clear when you finish it. It is only a tiny bit of warmth, though, but it is vaguely comforting, especially after the disastrous end. I've read people complain that this book is too predictable, too easily guessable because Vine hints at the outcome too often. Not true! The final satisfying surprise, I assure you, is as elusive as ever in a Vine novel. Admittedly, some of the twists along the way are guessable, but Vine makes it clear that that is exactly the point, through her narrator, at least once. Personally, therein is another beauty of the book: the fact that you can see things about to occur, but there is nothing you can stop them and there is also no way you could possibly stop reading.

Grasshopper, a book about freedom and responsibility and growing up and belonging (in the end, we realise, along with Clodagh, that the place we all of us should really belong is the place where we are welcomed, where we are accepted most warmly,) is another fine novel from Barbara Vine.