Ingenious Pain : A Novel [Import] [Paperback]

Andrew Miller (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 337 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Canada; Export Ed edition (1997)
• ISBN-10: 0340707348
• ISBN-13: 978-0340707340
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)

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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...