Customer Reviews

The Missing World

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

What a strange piece of luck a snowy night in north London is for Jonathan, the deeply obsessive lover in Margot Livesey's "The Missing World." A car skids and knocks down Hazel, his estranged girlfriend. He finds her almost comatose and rushes her to hospital. Lo and behold, by the time she regains consciousness, days later, she has completely forgotten how utterly she loathed the man-and the good reasons she had for her loathing. "A new beginning." he thinks and whisks her back home again. Hazel continues to suffer debilitating seizures and Jonathan envelops her in suffocating solicitude. She is grateful, but the reader knows she's in for a rough passage.

So begins a keenly heard, beautifully crafted, but ultimately very odd novel. Livesey has been compared to Patricia Highsmith, but to me, the better match would be Jane Smiley. The story unfolds with such frank and cheery ordinariness and stays always within bounds of trendy, but entirely plausible behavior. Yet surreal and menacing strains appear almost at once. In a common suspense novel, guns might be drawn to create drama or characters might be threatened by tough-guy hoodlums. In "The Missing World," Charlotte, an out-of-work actress, finds herself abruptly chucked onto the street by a fickle sister. To Livesey's enduring credit, being homeless in winter London is made every bit as frightening as a set of brass knuckles.

But the central vulnerability continues to be beautiful Hazel. Turn by turn, we follow two characters who become drawn into her needy arc. Freddie the roofer finds himself newly energized by a desire to save her. Charlotte is willing to help, but wants to save herself. There are passages of breathtaking treachery and a net seems to draw tight. Ultimately, we get a climax of mild action and escape. But then the lens draws back and we realize that perhaps we don't yet understand this novel after all.

In a way, this novel might itself be a sort of seizure. It arises mysteriously and releases storms of energy. Thoroughly eccentric, but completely convincing characters are drawn into brief constellation. Meaningless rituals are enacted with total conviction. And at the heart of the obsession are the bees, humming and rubbing in their winter hive. Finally, just as mysteriously, the events exhaust themselves and the novel, quite literally, collapses onto a couch.

Or perhaps the parallel is "Midsummer Night's Dream," which is quoted at several points. "Missing World" has similar viscous jealousies and transporting slumbers. Characters make fools of themselves for love. Ultimately, they awaken and can recall neither the love nor the peril. Only a sense of loss and longing remains. The result is comic, but far from harmless

The brilliant idea behind this novel is the idea of "second chances" to right the wrongs one has committed, and who doesn't want to get a second chance tossed his or her way once in a while? So I began this book somehow pulling for Jonathan who is hoping to make ammends after the disasterous breakup with his girlfriend Hazel - who P.S. - has amnesia after an accident and can't remember that they are finished. Then Margot Livesey so deftly and eerily twists the story, and the character of Jonathan is gradually unpeeled, layer after layer, until we want to leap into the pages to rescue Hazel. The other characters surrounding Hazel and Jonathan are just as fascinating and disturbing, one of my favorites being Charlotte, an out-of-work actress with a magnificent heart that gets trampled upon constantly, whether it's by her unforgiving sister, Nurse Bernie, or her louse of a boyfriend. The Missing World really is a stunning read and quite impossible to put down.

I found THE MISSING WORLD extraordinary for how it renders the complexity of its characters, their deep flaws and deep yearnings, while never backing up and passing judgment on them. By shifting points of view, Margot Livesey allows us to keep seeing the world of this novel from multiple vantage points; the results are at once gripping and psychologically complex. The novel explores memory and repression, the way people can manipulate each other, the blindness of both love and hatred--all while being an unbelievably engrossing read.

Again, Livesey displays her mastery of writing with multiple points of view. The immediate and urgent beginning with Hazel's brain seizure and Jonathan's frantic drive to rescue her at once drew me in. One of the things I like the most about this book, indeed about Livesey's style, is how she portrays psychological detail so accurately that I forget I am reading a book. At first I found myself cheering for Jonathan, but as the plot unfolded, I grew to detest him. He reminds me so much of the slimy Kenneth--a character in her previous novel, Criminals. The drama surrounding Charlotte also was interesting, but I was most involved in Hazel's missing memory and what the characters were doing about it. With every page, the tension continued to build, constantly drawing me closer and yet frustrating me with the torturous psychological suspense. One problem I had was that the shifts in point of view were sometimes too abrupt (my own reading could be at fault, though). Another doubt I had was how similar this book was to her previous novel; I guess the way everyone converges at the ending made me think of the similar scene at Mill of Fortune in Criminals. The final moments of each book are focused on the bad guys: in Criminals, Kenneth is at the phone in the Blind Beggar, trying, perhaps, to get money in another scheme; in The Missing World, Jonathan is pondering his next move in his obsession with Hazel. The similar endings make me wonder if the author stayed too closely to what worked for her before. I'm really not sure if I'm right about this--it's just something that occurs to me when I think about the book. The writing is outstanding; her craft and technique magically wonderful. p.s. If you can find her first novel, Homework, buy it. It's outstanding, too.

This is one of the best dark novels I have read in quite a while. And I love its recurring theme: second chances.

After his ex-girlfriend loses her memory, Jonathan takes advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity: Hazel does not remember the loathsome experiences she had with him, and so he devotes his life to her and tries to wipe away the blunder in their past. Obsessed, Jonathan has turned Hazel into a prisoner in his home -- he is afraid of losing her. While Jonathan rewrites their history, an American roofer and an unsuccessful actress cross Jonathan's path -- each of them haunted by unpleasant memories they would rather forget. There are many disturbing scenes in this novel, especially the one in which Jonathan rapes Hazel while she's having a seizure.

Margot Livesey's voice is absolutely exquisite -- she has written a wonderful novel filled with dark humor. Also, I love the backdrop of London in the story. I highly recommend this one!

This is an extremely readable book! What I like the best about the book is that each character is wholly human and believable. Her grasp of human psychology is excellent. Livesey pulls off the difficult feat of having many characters' points of view intersect effortlessly and smoothly: often what starts out as a likable character changes when we read how the other characters see him. Yet if you were to go back and read the book again from the beginning, you'd be able to pick up the clues about the character's true colors. Her portrayal of Jonathan is particularly sharp. I want to read her other books now.

The Missing World is a wonderful blend of psychological thriller and Iris Murdoch-type novel that I completely enjoyed. Hazel has been hit by a car and is beset by a series of seizures. Her memory of the last three years has vanished and, because of the seizures, in walks Jonathan, an old lover, who by virtue of Hazel's memory loss, Hazel believes to be her current lover. He takes complete advantage of the memory loss and little by little, Livesey reveals what it is exactly that Hazel has forgotten. Let's just leave it at Jonathan is not a very nice person. At the beginning of the novel, Livesey also introduces two other characters who have yet to meet Hazel, but who ultimately play an important role in Hazel's life with Jonathan--Freddie, an American expatriate roofer in search of someone to love and someone to save and Charlotte, an unemployed actress in search of somewhere to live. Livesey ultimately brings all three lives together in a fascinating way. The Missing World is a well told story that will keep you wondering how it will turn out. Enjoy

Beautiful, intelligent writing; delicious, fully-developed, sympathetic characters; great wit and substance, and so engrossing that I slipped off the back of my treadmill while reading it.

This is the story of an egoist, obsessed with a lover who now detests him. Then the lover suffers a stroke, inducing partial amnesia, so that she forgets the years in which their relationship soured; the egoist attempts to take advantage of this, caring for her and resuming the relationship. Not only does Livesey make this plot entirely credible, she references various books on memory at the end. "The Missing World" is both a big book and a small book. Small in that it focus on the post-stroke relationship in detail as it unfolds. Big in that there are many characters, and several sub-plots. I loved both aspects of the novel, and all the characters (well, maybe not the friend). The egoist is definitely evil, but it is easy to understand why women might love him, and he is even contextually compassionate, i.e. on his job as a claims adjuster. "The Missing World" is often fun, insightful in its treatment of egoism, understanding in its treatment of depression. One of Livesey's concerns, as it was in her earlier work, "Criminals", was what we owe to other people, whether they be close relatives or little more than acquaintances. I had mixed feelings about how the American fares at the end, but that may just be my disappointment he does not end up better, as he deserves.

When I picked up this book, I expected something along the lines of See Jane Run by Joy Fielding, a nice little thriller about a woman who has amnesia. Well, The Missing World is nothing like that. It does have a plot of sorts, but rather than a swiftly running stream,you have streamlets that wander, then merge, then split again.
The reason I enjoyed the book so much was the very diverse characters who Livesey develops. We see these people in their moments of weakness & strength. Sometimes we glimpse them like Mr Early--through a window with no sound to give a clue. Sometimes it is very close, as with Freddy when he suffers from the demons of his past. Each character has a role to play in Hazel's recuperation.
The revelations that come fitfully are maddening in their imcompleteness. Does anybody know the whole story? Does anybody want Hazel to recover & be her own person again? No, the story doesn't have a "happy" resolution, but it is an intriguing book which can be re-read for missed clues & the pleasure of good writing. And how many books can you say that about?
I will be looking for more of Margot Livesey's books.