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Live Flesh

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"Live Flesh" is not the usual crime mystery/thriller. It is, however, a thrilling psychological study of a rapist, Victor Jenner, who suffers from chorea, a disease of the nervous system marked by involuntary, jerky movements of the arms, legs, and/or face. Sometimes this illness is called "live flesh." Victor also has a severe phobia of tortoises, along with a multitude of other neuroses. Throughout the novel, he feels a need for psychiatric treatment, but never follows through. Typically, he blames the system for not providing him with therapy. He does understand that he has serious problems, though, and more often than not knows the difference between right and wrong. The inimitable Ruth Rendell thoroughly explores Jenner's motives, secrets, and complex emotions. She paints a chilling portrait of a man doomed by violence he cannot control. This is obviously much more a book driven by characters, and their development, than by action. The heart of "Live Flesh" lies in the complexity of Victor Jenner's personality and how he interacts with others, two characters in particular. These people are all steeped in a web of consequences stemming from one single event, a gunshot, which alters their lives forever.

Victor Jenner was convicted of shooting a young police officer in the lower back and permanently crippling him. He had been holding a young woman hostage in her bedroom, after breaking and entering her home, while escaping from the scene of an attempted rape. David Fleetwood, the officer, had been trying to gain the woman's release. Victor was not tried for the attempted rape, or the numerous other acts of sexual violence he had successfully committed. The police probably had no idea he was responsible for the crimes. After ten years Jenner is released early, for good behavior. He has serious problems adjusting to life after incarceration. But then, he always had problems adjusting. His irrational thought processes cause him to blame everyone but himself for the events leading up to the shooting. Underneath, however, he feels tremendous guilt for giving in to his irresistible urges which cause so much harm to others. The author allows the reader to enter Jenner's mind, his very thoughts, throughout the novel. He constantly constructs false scenarios which absolve him of guilt. Primary among his rationalizations is that if David Fleetwood had not taunted him by saying that the gun was a fake, a replica, then he wouldn't have had to fire it in order to prove that it was real. Other rationalizations include: if the girl hadn't screamed, then he wouldn't have had to hold her hostage; and if his uncle hadn't owned a gun, which he had easy access to, he never would have had it in his possession. Victor is also firmly convinced that he is incapable of restraining himself because of the chorea, which acts up when he is stressed. He believes that his behavior is as blameless and uncontrollable as the involuntary twitching which torments him.

The plot takes an unusual twist when Victor looks to meet the man he maimed, now wheelchair bound. His delusions allow him to think that, for the first time in his life, he has found true friendship. I must say that I really empathized with Victor, right up until the conclusion - which is a stunning one. His crimes are heinous, but so is the life he has to live with himself. I don't absolve him. I just feel terribly sorry for him - which is all Ms. Rendell's doing. Her characters are rich and so believable. And her narrative is spellbinding. This is a brilliant analysis and portrayal of a deranged man.
JANA

Ruth Rendell books are the scariest there are - not because of blood, gore and mutilation, but because they expose the infinitely greater menace of mental trauma. The number of Hannibal Lecter's in the general population is small - the greater threat comes from the more 'unremarkable' people, like Victor Jenner, this book's main character.

Victor has just been released from prison for shooting and crippling a young policeman. Coping with the changed world without and terrifying rages and phobias within, Victor is resentful, totally amoral, and feels he is entitled to whatever he can get - or take. Unbeknowst to the police, he is also guilty of a number of violent rapes, for which he has never been charged. The 'normal' side he can present to his social workers and employers is countered by the crashing and tortured screaming that others hear coming from his room, and he hears within his head.

Envious of the public admiration for his victim David, whose stoic acceptance of his paralysis has won him high regard and accolades, Victor can't stop himself making contact. To his surprise, David and his girlfriend Clare welcome him, assuming his motives are benign - that he, also, is trying to make sense of how the incident has affected his life. Victor manages to act normally long enough for them to become 'friends', but the tension of his scheming, David's skepticism and Clare's naive belief in Victor make you feel something awful is just around the corner. Away from his friends, all sorts of things in Victor's mind are starting to surface, and go out of control...

Ruth Rendell never writes a bad book, and this is one of her more original plots, no normal whodunnit. From the first pages Victor's incipient violence is so well portrayed, yet what happens is still a complete surprise. Rehabilitation of violent offenders, and their integration back into society, is a very low priority of governments today. The thought that there are people like Victor on the streets around us is all the more worrying for probably being true. A discomforting and somewhat disturbing story.

The tramuatized and psychotic, yet lovable Victor gets out of jail after 10 years and stuggles to control his maddness in the London society. Ruth Rendell's style lets you enter Victor's world, where all his past and present experiences (which are mostly objectionable) are real. Read LIVE FLESH if you really want to escape. This is one of the best Ruth Rendell's.

This is an absorbing story that could only have been crafted by Ruth Rendell, the doyenne of the quirky murder mystery and chiller killer thrillers. Here, she takes a look into the socio-pathic mind of the amoral Victor Jenner, released back into the world after serving ten years in prison for shooting and paralyzing a young police sergeant.

He tracks down the now wheelchair bound officer, meeting both him and his beautiful, devoted girlfriend. You see, in Victor's skewed world view, it was the officer's fault that he got shot, costing Victor ten of the best years of his life. Victor just wants to set the record straight. Who would have thought that they could all be friends? Therein lies the tale.

This is absolutely one of Rendell's best. A rapist who accidentally shoots a policeman emerges from jail 10 years later to make amends. How he makes amends, and what happens because of his "remorse" is bone-chilling and remarkably suspenseful. Clue here - the motive behind the shooting has something to do with the name of a restaurant. Rendell loves to pull the rug right under you just as you thought you had sure footing.
Highly recommended. Also read Judgement in Stone, possibly her best and most brilliant!

This is an absorbing story that could only have been crafted by Ruth Rendell, the doyenne of the quirky murder mystery and chiller killer thrillers. Here, she takes a look into the socio-pathic mind of the amoral Victor Jenner, released back into the world after serving ten years in prison for shooting and paralyzing a young police sergeant.

He tracks down the now wheelchair bound officer, meeting both him and his beautiful, devoted girlfriend. You see, in Victor's skewed world view, it was the officer's fault that he got shot, costing Victor ten of the best years of his life. Victor just wants to set the record straight. Who would have thought that they could all be friends? Therein lies the tale.

If you've never read Rendell, this is as good a place to start as any. No writer I know of can surpass Ruth Rendell in consistently pulling the rug out from under the reader. And this one -- as usual -- has a surprise on the very last page, just when you think everything has been settled.

Rendell is always touted as the best living mystery writer. She's one of the best writers, period. An amazing display of getting into the delusionary mind of a criminal and making him simultaneously sympathetic.

If only Hitchcock were alive to film this.

I also just finished this book on tape and confess that I have a completely different view of 'poor' Victor, David and Clare. I have no sympathy at all for Victor Jenner and thought that he got exactly what he deserved. At first I thought all the characters were naive and misunderstood and then I thought they were just incredibly stupid. I don't want to give away the plot but none of the characters in this book was 'normal' and predictable. Ruth Rendell did an incredible job of writing a wacky study of human interactions that was at times a black comedy. This book kept me totally off balance and wondering what these crazy people were going to do next.

I'm usually willing to give Rendell the benefit of the doubt because I've enjoyed nearly all of her books. This one, however, is a chore to read and there just isn't the payoff at the end work the work of reading it. It is an interesting concept that fails to take off.