Senseless [Paperback]

Stona Fitch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

Eliot Gast is kidnapped in Brussels by a group of international terrorists. He is held captive in a white room. Black wires that hang from the wall and ceiling broadcast his plight worldwide via the Internet. His crime, they insist, demands justice. At first he cooperates, then plots escape.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Small like a stick of dynamite, Fitch's second novel delves into the horrific experience of a hostage forced to endure torture that ultimately deprives him of his five senses. Eliott Gast, an American trade representative, is kidnapped in Brussels by a group of terrorists who oppose the European economic union. At first, Gast finds his captivity comfortable. He's housed in a clean, three-room apartment, is fed regularly and receives plenty of books to occupy his time. That all comes to an abrupt end on day seven, when the terrorists storm in and mutilate Gast's tongue. As he recuperates, Gast notices a network of black cables that frequently drop from the ceiling and seem to track his every move. The terrorist leader, nicknamed Blackbeard because he always wears a pirate's mask, tells Gast the cables are cameras used to broadcast his ordeal around the world on the Internet. Millions of people are watching. Blackbeard tells Gast that when enough of them donate money to the cause, he'll be released. Over the next several weeks, as described in highly disturbing detail, Gast is made to lose his hearing, his touch, his smell and part of his vision. Fitch's otherwise grim, one-sitting novel, his first in nine years (after Strategies for Success), has many moments of poignant reflection as Gast ponders his past and future. He also wonders about the gruesome use the Internet is being put to an issue that Fitch resolves with brevity and ingenuity.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Economist Elliott Gast is a man of the senses. He appreciates the subtle difference between a Pommard and a Chambolle-Musigny, and he has sampled some of the world's most exquisite cuisines. But the anarchists who take him hostage seek to deprive him of his senses as punishment for his role in creating the "global economy" and paving the way for U.S. domination of Europe. More than simply punishing Elliott, though, they want to make him an example to the world, which they do in a decidedly twenty-first-century fashion. Fitch skillfully builds suspense in this story, which is short enough and compelling enough to finish in one sitting. Trapped and at the mercy of his captors, Elliott fears for his life and is prompted to reflect back on it. In these poignantly written flashbacks, Fitch has a chance to develop his main character more fully than a plot-driven thriller would allow. In fact, the entire novel serves as a sort of extended life-flashing-before-one's-eyes experience. A harrowing thriller that is also an absorbing and thought-provoking character study. Beth Warrell
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Soho Press (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569473064
• ISBN-13: 978-1569473061
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,121,926 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Harrowing, elegant, shocking and smart, January 9, 2002

By 

AB (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Senseless (Hardcover)

I picked up Senseless on a Saturday morning, ran some errands, came home and cracked it open, just to read the first couple pages. For the next few hours I white-knuckled my way through this stunningly original, utterly terrifying and yet beautifully written novel. I was reminded of Damage, by Josephine Hart and Ian Mcewan at his finest. The prose is surgical-steel clean, and just as sharp. Yet it is not the sheer suspense or unfathomable evil that makes this book so powerful, but rather the humanity and vulnerability of the central character who is so realistically drawn that I felt I knew him. Senseless is astonishing.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't know about 'Orwellian,' but certainly great., October 1, 2001

By 

john s lilly (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Senseless (Hardcover)

Not to focus too much on the Book Description (see above), but to call this novel "Orwellian" misses the point, I think. Certainly a publisher can't be blamed for trying to characterize its books in accessible terms. But having read the bound galleys of "Senseless," I can say that it's far removed from Orwell on at least a couple of counts--and all the more astounding for that.

First of all, the universe that protagonist Eliott Gast inhabits is no totalitarian superstate, but rather a recognizable--if extreme--version of our own world. Granted, Gast finds himself in horrifying circumstances that have some of the schematic feel of, say, "1984." But in the novel's apparent focus on global capitalism and the latter-day culture of "reality-based" entertainment and instantaneous information-transfer, Stona Fitch addresses a thoroughly contemporary set of concerns that even Orwell didn't quite anticipate.

And in any case, "Senseless" is not "about" these subjects, exactly--or at least not in the way in which "1984" and "Animal Farm" were most definitely about the nightmares of 20th-Century totalitarianism. In the face of his intractably painful, terrifying, and ultimately numbing predicament, Eliott Gast finds himself slipping further and further into a sort of meditative reflection on his past--and particularly on the joys and deceptions of his sense-saturated life before captivity. Rather than offer a simple cautionary tale on the Orwellian mold, Fitch would have his audience consider the personal foundations of a globalized reality: this seemingly universal society that is in fact based on the interconnectedness of billions of individual appetites, in which the individual is as vulerable to the appetites of others as he is responsible for his own.

To say that "Senseless" is both hard to read and hard to stop reading is the highest compliment I can offer it, and one it richly deserves. As with the most compelling "reality show" yet unimagined, you want to know what will happen next--even as you suspect that the answer will horrify. But if the action is at times wince-making, the writing never is: Great writing never is, and that's what the author offers here. Great writing, in a great, unforgettable, and singular work of art.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Choice for Book Groups�You'll Want to Discuss This One, September 29, 2001

By 

bjgbjk (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Senseless (Hardcover)

Senseless is a riveting, one-sitting novel that takes an unsparing look at the escalating role of sensationalism in todays global culture. Although I read the novel before the World Trade Center tragedy, I am more convinced than ever that this tightly-written study of terrorism is relevant and even instructive. Its tough view of the motivation and execution of a horrifying crime might have seemed exaggerated last year; today it feels ominously possible.
Without giving anything away, Id like to add that the power and hope of the book come into a thrilling focus on the final page. First lines in literature are plentiful, but its a rare book that closes as effectively as Senseless. The final sentences fire your mind and urge you to rethink the entire novel.