Customer Reviews

Instances of the Number 3: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From the first page of INSTANCES OF THE NUMBER THREE I was struck by how unexpected the characters were. Here we have a man's funeral attended by his widow (Bridget), his family, his close friends...and his mistress (Frances), whom nobody knew existed until the day before. Yet rather than the melodramatic scene one would expect to ensue, all parties involved actually behave cordially, even to the point of absurdity. Further, there is a marked lack of emotional reaction of any kind from the widow, including grief. Is this Surrealism, I wondered, or just very British mannerisms?

What became apparent as I delved further into this mysterious novel was that the author uses the memories and flashbacks of her characters to gradually build a complete picture of the scenario. We are privy to behind-the-scenes thoughts of all three participants in the love triangle, even Peter's (the deceased husband); yet the narrative voice takes on the quality of an objective observer who is piecing together the events and forces that shaped these people's lives. Well before I looked at the author's biography I had the feeling of listening in on a series of therapy sessions and, surprise! ...the author is in fact a psychologist.

Frances, Peter and other side characters start by showing self-centeredness and shortsighted thinking. This novel could be said to be about how they each embarked on a journey after Peter's death to examine themselves and grow spiritually. On a larger scale, I think the author uses their personal stories to underscore the connection that religion, environment, and maturity have to our lives and what kind of people we become.

I believe the strong point of IOTNT is in Bridget herself. As unusual in a contemporary novel as it is to feature a woman in late middle age, it is even more commendable that she is able to separate her personal hurts from what she knows to be the moral, compassionate way to live. Bridget is able to open her arms to an inconvenient, homeless teenager and take him in simply because her late husband knew him and would have wished it. We see her welcome Frances, if not warmly at first, then at least civilly. Later, she includes Frances in some areas of her life and even maintains a tenuous friendship with her despite repeatedly discovering the many small ways her husband cheated her for the sake of this other woman. She can recognize Frances as a worthy person because Peter loved her, too, and thus is eventually able to overcome her own bitterness about the affair. Her human wisdom is uncommon for any age.

Readers may find the writing style a bit dry if they are not used to contemporary British fiction. On the other hand, there are insights into human nature and even a touch of supernatural elements to bring this work a bit above the ordinary novel fare. I rate IOTNT 4 stars for fresh, thoughtful character studies and a new angle on how ordinary people handle the bigger mysteries of life and death.

-Andrea, aka Merribelle

A suprising novel about the survivors of the death of a man who was afraid to be alone. All of the intimates of his life end up interacting when they are filling the holes that his death has left in their lives.

Bridget Hansome, the wife of a husband with a wandering eye, deals with his mistress with admirable compassion and understanding. She is somewhat confused when a young man shows up, requesting assistance in her husband's name. The novel turns on the interactions between the three people as they unravel the tangle of the errant husband's life. The ability of all of the people to forgive and understand Peter Hansome's inability to be alone is written about in such a way that it is entirely believable. No one in this novel has clear cut motives for their actions - - life is realistically muddled and tangentially approached.

I liked the touch of magical realism present in the spirit of the husband. The denouement was an excellent twist with several levels of interpretation - - including a direct jab at how people manage to fool themselves and prefer blindness (a lovely harmonic referral to one of the points of the novel; that you may need to chose to be blind to the faults of someone in order to love them). An excellent read.

Salley Vickers explores the territory between men and women with tongue-in-cheek humor. The novel has a European sensibility that Americans find amusing since we tend to get so agitated about sex, particularly the extramarital type which is in abundance in Iot#3. Here, it is a bit more routine, to be expected now & then; and while there is the requisite level of tense emotion, no one divorces over such a thing. The irony of the novel is that it is also a spiritual search to reconcile the innate biological urge of man with the higher calling. Peter, the husband who dies as the novel gets started, is a newly converted Catholic. He arrives as a ghost to have some of those heart-to-heart meaningful conversations with widowed wife Bridget that a man just can't get while alive. So as we learn about Frances, his mistress, and Zahin and Zelda, the Iranian love interest, we get an exploration of a life lived fully from the perspective of one who has already lived it and now experiences purgatory. That said, the novel doesn't dwell on the philosophic parts; it gives the novel a substance beyond the superficial level of an assignation. Vickers does a good job building a sense of character in the supporting characters. Mickey the next door busybody who gets involved in a sandwich shop and the painters and sculptors who Frances knows are well drawn. The relationship between Bridget and Frances is the centerpiece as the widow and the mistress become acquainted, only to have the relationship mirrored as Bridget starts a relationship with the married Stanley. I enjoyed the novel's flow, it's bite-size chapters, and its British flavor. This is one that makes you think as it entertains. Enjoy.

Sally Vickers second book, like her first , never ceases to surprise. I started out fearing it might be some dreadfully earnest 'womens' book' but instead found something quite different awaiting me. Vickers is astute as can be and terribly funny. Her sentences rarely go where you would expect--they tend to conclude with a little surprise. The main character is one of my favorite creatures in recent literature.
Just read it.

I picked this book up having read some favorable reviews and read it nearly straight through. I haven't been swept away like that in a long time. I'm sure that the main pull for me was the author's incredibly compelling and authoritative (no pun intended!) tone. A bit of Fay Weldon, some Iris Murdoch but also
unique and although I had a bit of trouble at first with the use of a ghost and guessed another plot device it didn't matter and I put the book down with a sigh, sorry that it was over. Maybe it was the combination of the quotidian and the otherworldly that did it for me. "Quirky" doesn't begin to do this book justice.

This book is a halting and uneven examination of a love triangle after the fact of Peter Hansome's death at age 62 in a car accident, leaving behind the wife Bridget and his mistress, art gallery manager Frances. Bridget, the central character and stand-in for the psychologist author, is uncommonly tolerant and understanding of Frances, even having her as the first guest in her newly acquired getaway manor in rural England. Especially Bridget seems to grasp that love is not straightforward. Deep-seated needs can complicate matters, which can be hurtful, even though unintended, as she particularly discovers on her weekends into the countryside.

The author introduces several other complicating factors into this story. A young Iranian man Zahin appears on Bridget's doorstep as someone Peter was assisting. After being taken in and becoming a housekeeper extraordinaire, it is discovered that he has a mysterious sister Zelda, also with possible connections to Peter. Bridget is suddenly smitten by a married chimney sweep, though of a literary mind, at her country estate. Frances, an unusual beauty, has to contend with several suitors, but is shocked to discover that she is only a couple of months away from having a baby. And the ghosts of both Hamlet and Peter are introduced to play an edifying role for Bridget, though probably puzzling to the reader.

While the characters in this novel are sympathetically and well drawn, the flow of the story is distracting. Between juggling the elements mentioned, the frequent scene shifting, and the various flashbacks meant to inform, the telling of the story becomes disjointed. However, it is a story that demonstrates that realities can quickly change, but also that perceiving and understanding what is real and essential can be quite difficult. The acceptance of those changes and difficulties with a great deal of equanimity was a pleasure to see, instead of the angry assertiveness so often seen in our me-first world.

PS. The Other Side of You by Vickers comes far more highly recommended.

The triangles of human relations seldom seem as lovely as the Three Graces depicted on the dust jacket, and yet the beauty which shines forth from Salley Vicker's pellucid prose makes the reader reconsider the possibilities for redemption in apparently convoluted circumstances.

Perhaps the most provocative triangle is set up by the author herself: her text, the reader, and other texts (Shakespeare [mostly, but not exclusively, Hamlet] and Donne). The plot resolves and the triangles collapse, after a fashion, but the narrative lives on in the sense that readers may well find themselves scurrying to unpack further meaning for themselves in, say, the sermons of John Donne. And in this, of course, the triangle magically collapses into a dialog between the reader and Hamlet's mother or Cordelia.

This book engages in the most catholic sense because it sends readers into their own orbits of imagination and existential inquiry. And it is also simply fun to read: fun to apprehend and unfold the layers of mystery.