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90 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
DON'T STOP ME 'COS I'M CLOSE TO THE EDGE, January 1, 2010
The drop is closer than you think.
A young man - Adam Kindred - through a misfortunate occurrence is forced to change his life and persona. He becomes another person entirely and enters a world previously unknown to him: living, for a time, as a down and out in London. He truly disappears, goes underground and his previous existence vanishes.
The necessity comes from the fact that Adam is persistently hunted by a lone gunman, and comes close to being killed. The tragedy is that the new Adam eventually loses his own sense of morality and carries out a terrible crime, seemingly with little remorse or reflection.
Reminiscent of George Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London" we are taken into an underworld of poverty, crime and hopelessness, with no place for the ordinary morality we take for granted. The realisation that this world is so close to our ordinary lives is a sobering one - as well as the concept that a mere misfortune could send any of us plunging into its dark despair. Particularly chilling is the concept that an individual can be killed and the body disposed of so easily in a great city like London. All underneath our very noses.
William Boyd seems to invent, for this underclass, a type of street language - using words like "flat" and "Green Peas" - helping to immerse the reader into this bizarre world.
William Boyd has explored the concept of altered identities in other books but it is fully fleshed out in this tale.
The story moves along at a great pace - with each chapter bringing fresh developments in the plot. It contains so much:
- Psychopathic murders - hit men, contracts involving the security forces
- Financial intrigue, double dealing, insider trading, fraud
- Boardroom coupes
- An insight into drug testing and vast financial rewards certain individuals achieve
- Love and relationships
I thoroughly enjoyed this book - but was left with a profound sense of unease - speculating as to whether there really is an alternative society living in parallel to our own, and how close we all are to joining it.
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41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary writing, January 29, 2010
This review is from: Ordinary Thunderstorms: A Novel (Hardcover)
William Boyd is a literary craftsman whose skills keep the reader enthralled and informed from the first page to the last. He is the antidote to all the overpraised writers fawned over erroneously in the current publishing climate of `name' and `brand' because they lucked into (often undeserved) popularity. Boyd is the real thing: a writer.
`Ordinary Thunderstorms' (the title reflects the way in which simple climatic phenomena can grow in complexity to major events) is brilliantly observed and meticulously written. No reader in the U.S. should stay away simply because it deals significantly with London and the Thames. It explains much that curious and intelligent readers want to know about any major world city, a stunning insider view that strips modern London to its truths.
Boyd takes us into the times, places and events with unerring skill, drawing out the characters with exquisite detail of appearance, speech, environment, motivation and behavior. This is a thriller of extraordinary dimensions, and one can only hope it will be filmed, to provide (yet again) counterpoint to the mindless drivel that passes increasingly for movie entertainment these days.
I will not reveal the plot. The suspense is excruciating, and who would deny a reader that pleasure? Suffice it to say that Boyd traces the life and transformation into other worlds and identities of a young British college professor, newly returned to the U.K. from the U.S., dragged unsuspecting into a murder for which he is considered guilty. As it evolves, the story encompasses a pharmaceutical-corporation deception of global intricacy, a murder-for-hire thug, a young black prostitute and her son, a revivalist mission, and the London police. Every character is memorable, every chapter turns the screw tighter, until the reader is caught up in the plot intricacies at ever-heightened levels of tension and anxiety. In this, Boyd shows his skills as a writer: it all fits, like the structure of a complex pharmaceutical molecule, and the necessary suspensions of disbelief are few and forgivable. This is entertainment at rarified levels of execution.
Boyd does one other thing, and it is important. He never overwrites. He uses only the right amount of unaffected words and appropriate levels of detail to tell his story. In this (read some of my other reviews for amplification) he provides a model for other writers who apparently can't stop themselves from telling us too much, in too lengthy and repetitive forms, and who seem to be in love with the sound of their own voices. Boyd "tells it like it is" as directly as he can. He richly deserves all the praise that is heaped on him in the UK.
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33 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some of it a bit far-fetched, but all of it entertaining to say the least, February 1, 2010
This review is from: Ordinary Thunderstorms: A Novel (Hardcover)
Climatologist Adam Kindred has just finished an interview at Imperial College. It went very well, and he knows it. As he walks alongside the Thames, almost heady with the success within his grasp, a taste for Italian food suddenly comes over him. Surely that can't be too hard to find. "He crosses the road, having no idea how his life is about to change in the next few hours --- massively, irrevocably --- no idea at all."
The restaurant is excellent, and as he savors his scaloppine al vitello, he nods to a man seated nearby, also eating alone. They exchange polite greetings and a short, innocuous conversation ensues. But after the other man leaves, Adam realizes that he left behind a file. Fortunately, it has a name --- Dr. Philip Wang --- and an address on it. Did this fellow Wang do it on purpose? Could he maybe be trying to set up some lurid tryst? Adam pushes these thoughts aside and walks the file over to the address. And that's when everything goes horribly wrong.
Just when Adam thought he was about to celebrate a new, lucrative position, instead he finds himself running from the law. Panicked, he holes up for the night, thinking some sane resolution will occur to him shortly. By morning, there is a "wanted" notice in the newspaper, with an impressive reward for his capture. He actually considers turning himself in; he even goes to the police station. In the end, he loses his nerve and decides to lay low and wait for the cops to find the right man. In the meantime, however, he discovers that it's not just the police looking for him. He's caught between the proverbial rock and hard place, for if the police find him, he'll surely go to jail for a long time. But if the freelancer gets to him first, Adam will likely never make it to jail --- or anywhere else, for that matter.
In desperation, Adam tears open the file. If only he could understand what it is that he holds in his hands, maybe he'd be able to make sense of the situation. The only information that he finds useful is that Dr. Wang worked for a big pharmaceutical company, Calenture-Deutz. In fact, he seemed to be the head researcher in a very exciting battery of tests that may clear the way for a new wonder drug. The potential for enormous wealth is clear, and Adam knows how little value his life would have if he were to come between Calenture-Deutz and the promise of such unimaginably huge profits.
With a little over 118 pounds Sterling in his pocket, Adam becomes highly resourceful. He spends his money wisely, and finds a quiet place to tuck in and hide while the cops sort it all out. But the investigation doesn't go quite as he hoped, and the days stretch into weeks, and then into months. Adam follows where fate takes him, which leads him into grave danger.
Eventually, it becomes apparent to Adam that he must somehow intervene in Calenture-Deutz's plans, for they seem to be the key to the predicament he finds himself in. If he has any hope of regaining his old life, he must strike back and soon. Time is of the essence.
There's a lot going on in ORDINARY THUNDERSTORMS, some of it a bit far-fetched, but all of it entertaining to say the least. It's a clever new twist on an old scenario. You can't help but find yourself wondering, "What would I do if this were to happen to me?"
--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers
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