Hearing Voices: A Novel [Paperback]

A. N. Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 1997

In this delightful novel, both mystery and comedy of manners, A. N. Wilson continues the strange tale of Julian Ramsay, chronicler of that distinguished literary family, the Lampitts. The story opens in the mid-1960s on a note of gruesome drama, as the fabulously wealthy Virgil D. Everett, Jr., is pushed to his death from a Manhattan skyscraper. Does Everett's murder have anything to do with his ownership of the manuscripts known as the Lampitt Papers? Over thirty years later, actor and Lampitt biographer Julian Ramsay finds himself in New York with his "One Man Show" about James Lampitt's life and experiences. Ramsay's recollections take us on a fascinating journey back to the late 1960s, encompassing America, England, and Italy at a time of groundbreaking scientific research and intense theological debate. It is a journey that may reveal the secret to Everett's death and, ultimately, the true content of the Lampitt Papers. This witty and insightful drama will enchant readers already familiar with the Lampitt family, and it is a richly rewarding novel in its own right.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Required reading for those who've read the three previous volumes of The Lampitt Papers books, this novel may hold less interest for others new to the series. Yet Wilson's always trenchant comments on the art of writing, the social comedy of the British class system, the effects of memory and the workings of the Church are stimulating in themselves, even when the plot slows to accommodate flashbacks to the earlier stories. Julian Ramsey, radio performer, stage actor and aspiring biographer of Edwardian belletrist James Petworth Lampitt, is now 65, a "lonely skinny old man" in New York in the year 2000. Julian narrates some chapters; others are third-person flashbacks to events that occurred during the 1960s. The narrative accrues to a lifetime of "hearing voices," the ongoing inner dialogue in which Julian recalls friends, incidents, desires, unrequited love, matters of conscience, desolations and epiphanies-memories that are much "truer" than any biography can ever be, Wilson suggests. Here, Julian finally has an insight about how the deaths of "Jimbo" Lampitt and of the wealthy American collector of his work, Virgil Everett, are related, though this will come as no surprise to the reader. Meanwhile, events leading up to the Pope's encyclical banning birth control have a bearing on the plot; and some devastatingly funny scenes of the drug culture and of politically correct dinner parties paint a typically British picture of the States. Wilson is always worth reading for his literate prose and his wit, but the tone here is so somber that readers are more than prepared for the emotional downer of the funeral that ends the novel.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

As we move into the fourth volume of Wilson's Lampitt Papers, the series is beginning to acquire not only the breadth and heft but also the texture and resonance of Anthony Powell's 12-volume Dance to the Music of Time. Both series attempt to bring modern British history down to a manageable human scale, focusing not on great events but on small particulars in the lives of an interrelated group of middle-and upper-class English people. Jumping between the 1960s and the year 2000, we pick up the story with Julian Ramsay, now an aging thespian, performing a one-man show based on the life and work of James Petworth ("Jimbo" ) Lampitt, the most well known of the family that has obsessed first Julian's uncle Roy and then Julian himself throughout their lives. A meeting with an old friend, Mary Margaret Nolan, sends the actor's mind back to the 1960s, when the murder of the collector of the Lampitt papers rekindled gossip over the problematic death of Jimbo himself. As always, Wilson is less concerned with pinning down who killed whom, or who slept with whom, than he is with reflecting on "the mercurial quality of human characters and their interactions." For readers of similar sensibility, this supremely ironic yet finally compassionate look at British society remains one of the sustaining pleasures of contemporary fiction. Bill Ott --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company, Inc. (June 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393316335
• ISBN-13: 978-0393316339
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,826,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lampitt series going downhill, February 12, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hearing Voices (Hardcover)

What started out as a magnificentseries of novels beginning withINCLINE OUR HEARTS and A BOTTLEIN THE SMOKE(2 of my favorite books of all time)has become a bore.While Wilson can stillwrite with great panache and wit;his characters have become dreary and turgid.I actually hadto force myself to finish this novel,something I thought I wouldnever have to do with a novel ofA.N.Wilson who still is one of my favorite authors.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Tough beginning, March 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Hearing Voices: A Novel (Paperback)

This is my first A.N. Wilson book, so maybe I started with the wrong one, but just trying to get going with this one was extremely rugged. However, I managed to stay the course, and the last part kept me. Still a tough read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not great AN Wilson but any AN Wilson is better than most., August 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hearing Voices: A Novel (Paperback)

I have to agree with the New Jersey reviewer but I'd still give it 5 stars. The earlier Lampitts are better. I find it interesting that Anthony Powell also nodded when he tried to bring his "Music of Time" characters into the 60's. The gurus and hippies could not be satirized as easily, or had to be satirized in a different way. Esther Freud's "Hideous Kinky" does a better job on them.