White Mice [Paperback]

Nicholas Blincoe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2002

Jamie is nineteen and should be in college, and his sister Louise is twenty and already washed-up as a fashion model. But when Jamie travels with Louise to her fashion shows in Milan and Paris, he suddenly becomes the brother of Europe's most talked-about model. But then Jamie learns what people are talking about—rumors of affairs and criminal actions, and Jamie begins to wonder about everything going on around him.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fifth novel from British Blincoe (Manchester Slingback) looks at the debauched, frenzied couture industry through the eyes of 20-year-old Jamie, a neophyte fashionista who ought to be in college and whose sister, Louise, is a model on the brink of self-destruction. As Blincoe charts the siblings' journey from the runways of Paris to a skiing holiday in the Swiss Alps and fashion week in Milan, revealing the fragile egos and colorful personalities in between, he builds up a feverish and entertaining momentum. But Blincoe too often squanders the good will he conjures with his narrator's indulgent musings about beauty, inner peace and the value of fashion over sculpture or painting. Jamie does find his calling in couture, but it's hard to take a character-however callow-seriously when he makes solemn pronouncements like "I actually care about these things: there is a difference between having a talent at your fingertips and having it in your heart" and notes that his "penis shakes itself, shakes with laughter" after sex. The laundry lists of designers and their techniques can be numbing; they prove Blincoe's knowledge of the industry, but contribute little to the actual narrative. With countless pop culture references (Leonardo DiCaprio, Madonna, The Virgin Suicides and Nokias), he comes off as a latter-day Bret Easton Ellis, weaving elements of noirish violence and incest into Jamie's dark coming-of-age story.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

'One of England's most gifted writers...entertaining and challenging his readers with an intelligence that is both embracing and unforced' Alex Garland 2 'Ultra-hip and mega-cool, manic, funny, hugely imaginative... Blincoe is a terrific talent' The Times 3 'A fast-paced, funny, page-turner of a book...assured and spirited' The Guardian (The Dope Priest) 4 'Combines intelligence, pace and simple prose to produce an intriguing yarn of drug-smuggling in Jerusalem' James Hopkin, The Times' Books of the Year (The Dope Priest)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 247 pages
• Publisher: Hodder Headline (February 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340750464
• ISBN-13: 978-0340750469
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,052,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant stuff!, March 8, 2003

By 

E. M. Bacon (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: White Mice (Paperback)

If you haven't read it, run like mad to the nearest bookstore. The man writes like a god. I'm thinking of a Blincoe Collection, like some sort of shrine... After reading White Mice, I want to read all his other books.

eugen