Customer Reviews

Secrets of the Camera Obscura

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

 

 

A brilliant piece of fiction that succeeds in carrying the reader along a tightrope between genius and insanity, between desire and obsession, and between the challenges of intellectual pursuit and primal self-interest. This slim little volumes's legacy is to haunt your thoughts long after the last page has been read. You must read this book!

The camera obscura is housed in a small, box-like, concrete building atop a hill overlooking the ocean surf. The only clues that it isn't a storage shed or a utility space are the worlds - GIANT CAMERA -- painted in black on one side. Which is precisely what the device is -- a giant camera. A series of mirrors reflects the panorama of the Pacific onto a screen in the center of the dark chamber, creating an image that is almost magical in its beauty. It is a sight that has sparked deadly rivalry. It has driven men mad. It has claimed lives. In fact, it's still doing it... right now.

Near the end of my first reading of Knowles' esceptional novella, I asked myself: what authority does the author have to recast the major figures of history as deviants and scoundrels? Does the end result justify his means? In my humble opinion, the answer is a resounding "yes!". Underneath an insipid and meandering exterior, Knowles' novella is a gem of precise plotting, polished tone, and bizarre vignettes (one character is described as having invented the submarine "to escape the world of women on land"). It takes real talent to write something so consistently humorous and puzzling, even upon re-reading (in fact, I suggest reading the book twice - it's a mere 138 pages long, a night's reading).

Even the author's mundane, conversational language and the little, irritating, anachronistic faux-pas he commits so frequently (like art "yet to be hung" on the walls of Leonardo's Vatican, or sugar cubes in Vermeer's Delft) and his main character tries to pass off as historical truth serve to gradually estblish the narrator as a less than sympathetic character.

In the end, the book boils down to the question whether the camera does indeed bear an ancient curse, or if the "patterns of history" are siply products of an agitated imagination. I lean toard the latter, that the narrator is playing out his fantasies in his research journals, but there is no real, unequivocable evidence either way. Then again, who is the blind woman in the photograph? Is Darin as innocent as he claims? What did happen on that foggy night? It's easy to jump to the obvious conclusion, but far more tantalizing to ponder the possibilities.

For what it's worth reading, "The Secrets of the Camera Obscura" is worth reading twice. I hope I have helped you make the decision whether it's worth reading at all.

Knowles has written a beautiful, moving work rich in languageand imagery. Through the eyes and experiences of the main character,who owns, operates and researches the camera obscura, we get a glimpse of one man's thoughts and obsessions, his loves and encompassing fears. Going between his bed, the library and the camera itself, only meeting those who enter the camera obscura, we fully enter his head and his small, focused life in a way that other writers fail to do in hundreds of pages. I would recommend tracking down this title even it takes a good deal to find it . Highly recommended!!

A cult classic! Traces the history of the camera obscura through an obsessive narrator's perspective. Full of juicy historical detail concerning Vermeer and Leonardo da Vinci. Decapitation figures prominently. Lots of suspense and humor

This is a curious little book - a whodunit in which you know whodunit within five pages - not because the author told you but because the device/conceit of the mystery is so blatant (predictable). Nonetheless, the book is a delightful romp in the history of the camera obscura, in the rereading of history, in the vision of an unstable mind breaking. While the plot is a very concise with only three characters - the owner of the camera, an Italian model, an art student - the story engages the Chinese inventors of the camera obscura, deVinci and Vemeer. It is this play with the history of the camera obscura that makes this an interesting, though flawed, first novel. It will be worth watching for additional novels, Knowles' talent is worth watching develop.

I came to read this book quite by accident, I was resting back in one of the chairs at the public library, and the book happened to be within reach (plus I had probably wanted to take it along some other time and left it back because I already had gathered a heavy load). To my regret, I have to disagree with the other reviewers, but maybe it's my own fault, because I expected a more subtle plot (or something more entwined), judging the book by it's cover. Really, I found the book rather tiring, and the suggestions about repetition make one guess the end from the beginning, still it's a short book, so I should not argue too much about that. But then again, I am also quite unhappy about the historical portraits or whatever that's meant to be: For thats another thing I wondered about? These little dioramas simply won't bear to stand by themselves as portraits, because they are in no way convincing, on the other hand, as someones projection, they are not interesting enough to really make one want to read the complete book(the first one is quite amusing, but then the effect wears off). Just consider the author has put up a queer cast of famous people, included a series of murders, and all this doesn't take up more space than I can easily stuff in my handbag, and provides issues to think about for about the duration of a busride to university and back. I stilll think, the author has some nice things about his style, and to be just, i thought the remark about the French and Leonardo was properly observed. In case David Knowles wants my help for his next book, I shall provide it in exchange for free food and lodging.