Ingenious Pain [Hardcover]

Andrew Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1997

A chronicle of life of an eighteenth-century man born without the ability to feel pain, this amazing book “offers a panoply of literary pleasures” (Washington Post Book World). Winner of Britain’s James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the 1999 IMPAC Award. “Astoundingly good” (New York Times Book Review).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"What does the world need most--a good, ordinary man, or one who is outstanding, albeit with a heart of ice?" This is the question at the heart of Andrew Miller's first novel, Ingenious Pain, a book set during the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment. The outstanding man in question is James Dyer, an English freak of nature who, since birth, has been impervious to physical pain. Not only does he feel no pain, but he recovers from all injuries in record time. By turns a shill for a quack pain- reliever at county fairs, an object of study by a wealthy collector of human oddities, and, eventually, a surgeon, James Dyer--and through him the reader--gains exposure to a panoply of 18th-century philosophical thought, medical practice, historic events, and larger-than-life rogues and heroes, both fictional and real.

As a surgeon, James Dyer excels, and his inability to feel--whether physical pain himself or empathy for others--seems only to enhance his skill with a knife. James slices and dices and cures without a scintilla of compassion while his reputation grows, until at last he arrives in Russia and the mystery of his unusual quality is resolved. Miller navigates his complicated story and exotic locales with unswerving confidence, bolstered, no doubt, by thorough research. James Dyer is not a character who invites love, but his adventures make for intelligent, deeply pleasurable reading.

From Library Journal

Conceived during a rape on a frozen river bank in the English west country in 1739 and raised in a small farming village, James Dyer proves to be a freak of nature, a man-boy who cannot feel pain. In spite of his affliction, or "gift," depending on how you look at it, James proves a bright fellow and, following a stint in the Royal Navy, becomes a highly successful surgeon whose skill with a knife is offset only by his coldness of emotion. Not knowing pain himself, he cannot understand it in others. Then, he encounters a witchlike woman in the forests of Eastern Europe who literally reaches inside of him and gives him knowledge of pain and suffering?and with it, joy and beauty and the understanding of what it is to be human. With its stylistic flourishes and realistic evocation of life in the 18th century, Miller's first novel bodes well for his future; readers will be entertained despite the abrupt ending. Recommended for public and larger academic libraries.?David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersberg, Fla.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151002584
• ISBN-13: 978-0151002580
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,003,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BRILLIANT AND ORIGINAL, March 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ingenious Pain (Harvest Book) (Paperback)

James Dyer was born without the ability to feel either pain or emotion. As such, he lacks empathy, the epitome of all human qualities. What happens when James undergoes a radical transformation forms the central questions this novel poses--Is it pain that defines our humanity and lies at its heart? Does a surfeit of pain destroy humanity as effectively as does its absence? How do we achieve the necessary balance between empathy and self-destruction? Ingenious Pain encompasses a brilliantly original premise, almost faultlessly executed. Andrew Miller has created complex and believable characters of tremendous emotional depth in a setting true to its times. His extraordinary use of language paints a word picture that reaches both the depths of despair and the heights of hope, ending on a note of both tragedy and joy. The juxtaposition of the unfeeling Dyer against images of astounding richness creates metaphors of striking beauty and pain. The book's only fault lies in its lengthy backstory. Miller spends far too much time detailing Dyer's childhood, time that could have been better and more interestingly spent detailing Dyer, the man. (The sections with Gummer and Mr. Canning, in particular, seemed to serve no useful purpose and did nothing to enrich the book.) Although slightly less than perfect, Ingenious Pain is still astounding in its brilliance; a novel whose theme and symbolism will haunt you with questions for years to come.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars _Ingenious Pain_ is a complex pleasure, April 24, 2000

By 

Doug Vaughn - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ingenious Pain (Hardcover)

I don't remember ever reading a first novel that captured my attention so completely while simultaneously challenging all of my standard expectations for fiction. Almost everything about this book was a pleasant surprise. Set in the Eighteenth Century, this somewhat picaresque tale follows the life of James Dyer, a man born without the ability to feel pain, from conception until his death. The book actually begins with Dyer's autopsy, a scene that is puzzling (since there is no exposition) and brutally ugly. I was tempted to put the book down, since for the first thirty or so pages scenes and characters appear with no context and I had very little idea of what anything meant. That would have been a mistake. As soon as the author leaps back to the day of Dyer's conception and the story begins to move forward I was hooked. Because James cannot feel pain he never develops empathy with others and grows to be a remarkably capable surgeon but a very cold man. The story of his awakening as a real human being, which occupies the last quarter of the novel, is very moving without the least traces of sentimentality.

The cast of characters that Andrew Miller has invented as supporting players are all interesting and complex. The stages of Dyer's life, from a childhood on a farm (where he was thought to be an idiot since he didn't speak), through a stint as a medicine show freak, then as a 'specimen' of human oddities by a wealthy collector of such, to a life at sea, the building of a successful practice as a surgeon, affairs, duels, flight, a dangerous journey to St. Petersburg and then the collapse of his sanity and his health resulting in a stint in London's notorious Bedlam hospital, are all told in a style that while borrowing from some conventions of eighteenth century writing never try to ape it. I loved the sound of Miller's words and the shape of the sentences. This is a book I could have enjoyed reading aloud.

This is a complex book on many levels, but not an inaccessable one. The story - once into it - is clear and the characters are cleanly drawn. There are enough ups and downs of fortune to keep even the most jaded fiction fan interested while at the same time the complexity of character, language and theme provide much for those who love to puzzle out the hidden meanings in literature.

This was a fascinating book and I was sorry to see it end. I really recommend it to anyone who wants something that can challenge the mind while satisfying all reader's love of a good story.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual, interesting, intelligent, deeply human, September 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ingenious Pain (Hardcover)

Miller writes about that element which perhaps makes us all too human...pain: not just the physical sort, but also mental and emotional. This man... this "freak" character who knows no pain at all seems so bold ...and inhuman. But the moment he loses this characteristic is moving and remains in my mind...