Customer Reviews

Seven Types of Ambiguity

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I think the last time I was so impressed with a novel was when I read David Mitchell's "Ghostwritten". This was published at the very end of 2004 and for me it's the best of last year and probably this year as well. Billed as "an epic novel about obsessive love in an age of obsessive materialsim", the basic thrust of the story is about a man who never having gotten over a woman who left him ten years before, kidnaps her son.
The brilliance of the novel is in it's construction. The book is segmented in seven parts, each narrated by a different player in the unfolding drama with sections and scenes overlapping in a 'Rashomon' like narrative. The only criticism I have with the book echos other reviewers, that many of the characters voices are similar. They all seem cut from the same Mensa cloth,being incredibly insightful,bright,and in tune with the human condition regardless of age, sex, or social standing.However as criticisms go, it's a small one, and one that doesn't detract from the awesome magnitude or scope of what I think is a phenomenal piece of literature.

This daring and intriguing novel was my favorite of 2004. Australian author Elliot Perlman has chosen to tell his story from seven different points of view-not a new idea, but one that seems completely fresh and surprising in Perlman's hands. The characters he chooses as his narrators and the voices he gives them are what propels "Seven Types" ahead to an end that comes all too soon for the besotted reader. The publisher's tag line deeming this "an epic novel about obsessive love in an age of obsessive materialism" does not do it any sort of justice. This novel is about much more than that and should not be missed.

Every now and then, a novel comes along that is so masterful, so breathtaking in scope, that everything you read afterwards pales in comparison. This is such a book.

The author employs seven narrators, all of whom ultimately impact each others' lives. Each character is fleshed out so that the reader knows him or her through and through...right down to interior thoughts. One can only imagine the research Mr. Perlman had to go through to "get it right" -- from investment banking to gambling...from prostitution to literary matters...from psychiatry to research analyst. If there is a false note in any of these narratives, I wasn't able to detect it.

The novel, seemingly, is about the trial of Simon, an unemployed teacher who, in a fit of obsessive love, kidnaps the son of Anna, the woman he has worshiped for many years. In reality, each character in this novel is going through his or her own trial. Each will end up in a different place than when the narration began. Each will go through the harshest judge of all -- himself or herself; some will make it, some will not.

There is, indeed, ambiguity in literature, as there is in relationships and life in general. This novel can be read as a pure page-turner or it can be read for deeper meaning. I closed the book understanding a little more about myself. It is a rare book that allows the reader to do that.

I read this book months ago, and I still think about its message every day. It is very difficult to catogorize as evidenced by the other book reviews. It is a love story, social commentary, extremely political novel that requires concentration when reading.
Only one person has given this book a bad review, and he has a good point. The different chapters that are different points of view are in the same writing style. However, I don't know if the author of that review really realizes how difficult writing in different styles is (ever try Faulkner? That is fun reading isn't it?) I feel that the author did this deliberately in order to depict his message in unconfusing ways. Yes, the characters do not talk as people do in real life. (That is why I read books, personally; I don't like the way people talk in real life). It is gothic in style and magnificent in its scope. I think it is one of the best books I have ever read.

The book is written from the perspective of seven different parties who were all somehow involved in an incident that impacted each of their lives fairly drastically. The unexpected pleasure of this book is that we get to know the characters and their thoughts and actions not only through their own perspective and section in the book, but through each of the other characters and their thoughts. Here is a beautiful female in love with a man she hopes loves her, but when we read from his perspective, she is barely mentioned and we find he is obsessed with one of the other female characters. It's a writing trick that lets us see the whole character and understand the whole story, as powerfully different as seeing something in 3d instead of two 2d, or stereo instead of mono.

The book is full of the important and relevant things in life such as the power of young love, relationships with parents, communicating, learning and philsophizing with other students in college, how another student can almost overpower another with intelligence, leadership and sex appeal. We see intelligent people who love someone so much that they are willing to do things that are wrong to help him or her. And we see the pain husbands and wives can cause each other when they aren't able to take time to love and understand.

Enjoy each section of the book and understand each personality. There is gold hidden throughout. We're never given information too fast. We discover the information gradually and sometimes not until we understand a character who is revealed three sections further into the book.

It all comes together in the seventh section in an extremely subtle and well thought out seventh character. What a great book and great ending.

Turow, Grisham, Patterson, you've got new competitor. A fellow barrister. Read his book and get nervous.

Perlman's epic is superbly written and once more we are re-introduced to Joe Gergahty from his earlier (and occasionally as good) debut novel, "Three Dollars." For fellow Finance professionals any reader will quickly develop an affinity for Joe and Mitch and their time at the Corporate Retreat will bring back fond memories. The time invested in reading is paid back tenfold as I often found myself doubling back on sentences merely to saviour their construction or the clarity in which he'd captured the moment. I have often found books like this off-putting becuase soon as you become absorbed in a character they move on to another but Perlman's writing style pulls you in quickly and ensures the rythmn and pace of the story never let up. This is a beautifully written book which ranks as one of my own personal best ever reads ... I recommend it to everyone I know.

Like another reviewer, I too had owned Seven Types of Ambiguity for over a year, not knowing anything about it beside some faint positive rumblings that my cultural antannae (they are removable) picked up. What I found when I finally decided to open the covers was an amazement.

The story whisks the reader along like a fast ride at a carnival. There is a hint of a crime drama about it, especially during the extremely convincing trial scenes. But the author was able to dissect the lives of his characters with a surgical scalpel right down to the bone. And in doing so, the society in which they lived was also laid open with Austen-esque brilliance. The end result was a chilling, depressing, scathing, riveting view of their world. By the way, their world, Melbourne could easily have been any number of other exurban locations. There was very little reference to place.

For me, the separate passages were distinct and each character had their own voice. The novel itself had a somber tone and I felt as though it were being spoken softly from behind a curtain. Also, I do not agree with the "Roshomon" analogies, for there, each retelling of the story was dramatically different from the previous version, to the extent of disagreeing on essential facts, colors, numbers. Here, I found that the characters were in agreement about what had happened. Instead, it was stated through the lens of their personal choices and priorities. The impact of the key events and the psychological reverberations were different for each character.

Also, I found the character of Joe to be one of the most starkly drawn and powerful characters I have experienced in a long time. There were a few scenes from the collapse of his and Anna's marriage that I found myself flinching as I was reading. I could not stop reading, and yet, I felt as though I had put my ear against a wall and was listening to my neighbors fighting. Joe was elaborately nasty with very few redeeming qualities and extremely well drawn.

This was easily one of the best novels I have read in the past 12 months or longer. The first section of the novel alone is worthy of inclusion among the "great works" of fiction. I highly recommend it. Don't be bothered by the number of pages. You will want it to be longer.

Perlman masters the art of drawing the reader in, not simply toward a single narrator, but to seven. Each unique, lively, and independent, their common threads extend beyond the story and into unlit corners of our own unexplored morality and unrecognized obsessions.

More remarkable than his ability to reveal something innately both universal and personal in Simon, the primary protagonist, without needing to appeal to our sympathy, is the revelation that he is perhaps more hero than anti-hero, having been worthy of our greatest emotions all along.

The first story I've encountered in a long time where the thrill is in the shocking revelation of good, this is without contention the best work written in 2003, the best work published in the US in 2005, and the best book you'll read for a long time whenever you do.

Mr. Perlman is to be commended on a splendid work of fiction. One of the canned reviews suggested the book has too many plot lines, but the multiplicity of perspectives makes for a wonderful read. This is not a book to be half-read, for if the reader doesn't finish (and there are twenty page or so in the middle that will cause the reader to wonder "where are we going?) they will miss a touching end. Highly recommended.

What a journey I went on with this book! I enjoyed the writing style and complexity of the story, so much. This may be in my top "all time" reads. The care that Elliot Perlman takes with each of his characters, no matter what the gender (very refreshing) was unbelievable!!! I loved this book, highly recommend it to readers who want something fantastic, unique and surprisingly tender. Could have used a bit more editing but because all-in-all it was so great, I let that part slide.