Thirst [Import] [Hardcover]

Stephen Amidon (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press; First Edition edition (1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747511446
• ISBN-13: 978-0747511441
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

More About the Author

Stephen Amidon was born in Chicago. He is the author of Subdivision, a book of short stories, and six novels, including The New City and Human Capital, which Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post chose as one of the five best novels of 2004. His books have been published in sixteen countries, and he is a regular contributor of essays and criticism to newspapers and magazines in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. He lived and worked in London for twelve years before returning to the United States in 1999. The Sublime Engine: A Biography of the Human Heart, which he co-authored with his brother Tom, was released in 2011 and selected by the Wall Street Journal as one of the five best health and medicine titles of the year. Amidon's next book, Something Like The Gods, will be released on June 5th, 2012. For more information, visit stephenamidon.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Flawed but not without merit, December 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Thirst (Hardcover)

The so called plot here revolves around shady business deals in the desert perpetrated by an ex-alcoholic who dies suddenly leaving his estranged out-of-work actor son to fly in from England and unravel the mystery from only a curious list of names found in a briefcase. The novel then proceeds to fail its own hackneyed plot device, botching its attempt at conventional detective intrigue. The sense about half way through that the author has no clue where he's going is confirmed by the ludicrous events of the clumsily appended finale. Fortunately for Amidon, the book redeems itself with a precisely evoked desert atmosphere, a sensitive portrayal of human relationships fractured by alcohol abuse and some memorably surreal set pieces, including one involving a drunken widow and a killer cactus! Worth a look for its style if you can bear the absence of direction.