The Edge of Pleasure (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Gilver Memmer, New York, Cornwall Gardens (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Stockley presents a stylish portrait of a formerly famous artist as a not-so-young man. Once a "gorgeous, lone, enigmatic male," with a fabulous early career, painter Gilver Memmer, now 42, has slipped into alcoholism, set aside his paintbrush for a decade and retreated into self-imposed exile from his former London social circles. Two women penetrate the realm of his near-seclusion. Alice longs to be part of his future, hoping to help him become the man he once was. But Juliette, who just happens to be Alice's best friend, is a woman from Gilver's past intent on exacting revenge for a transgression of his 15 years earlier. None of the characters is likable, but the glittering narrative exerts a strong pull. Gilver's habit of rough, narcissistic sex complicates a later "did he or didn't he" rape scenario in which Stockley wisely steers clear of the reformed-bad-boy cliché. Stockley's novel (after A Factory of Cunning) revels in London's glamorous art world, but also teeters uncomfortably close to the edge of something much darker. (Mar.)
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From The Washington Post

In this tart romance, British novelist Philippa Stockley stirs up a devilish brew of art and sex. Our stunningly handsome, narcissistic hero, Gilver Memmer, is a famous painter, fallen on hard times. London's golden boy by 28, Gilver has squandered his wealth and talent on lavish parties and frenzied sex; now, at 39, he hasn't painted much for 10 years and is almost broke.

His college roommate Harry, a gay decorator, finds him a dilapidated flat, and pretty Alice, a sub-editor at a newspaper whom he meets in the neighborhood, kindly helps him clean it. But Gilver is so monstrously self-absorbed that he forgets about Alice and spends the next two years in a drunken stupor. Alice and Harry, the novel's only likable characters, love Gilver for his good looks (now ravaged by alcohol) and magnetic personality, although they are smart enough to know they are being manipulated and used.

Enter Juliette, Alice's best friend, who coincidentally had known Gilver 15 years before and is set to destroy him. Juliette can be magnificently mischievous, ruthless and bullying, but even when we discover that as a young girl she was Gilver's victim, it's hard to feel sympathy for her. In fact, she and Gilver are both loathsome characters, but Stockley is nastier with Juliette, who, unlike our egocentric hero, is intentionally evil. Thankfully, Stockley raises questions of moral responsibility and doesn't let either of them off the hook.

A bruise on his model's rump from one of his rough sexual escapades inspires Gilver to paint his own disturbing version of Rembrandt's "Susanna." While Rembrandt shows Susanna happily bathing before the Elders try to rape her, Gilver paints her escaping from them, bruised and bloodied. His "Susanna" brings together the themes of art, sex and violence that run throughout The Edge of Pleasure. Gilver's art is so intertwined with sex that, Stockley writes, he revels "in his work with a sensual thrill that, wryly, he occasionally found indecent." There is definitely a whiff of indecency and raunchiness here.

What redeems and makes this depiction of London's shallow and sordid social world so entertaining is Stockley's biting wit and satirical eye. Her quip about London as "a play where all the dialogue had to be smart-edged, a little mean" describes her own prose. Harry hopes that Juliette "had nodded off or even died," and Alice thinks of her as "a manipulating cow." Stockley, a painter herself, mocks the art world's "inverted principle that no one believed you could be any good unless the price said so."

The allusion to Pride and Prejudice -- one of many playful references here -- seems odd, for Gilver is no Mr. Darcy. However, he is as handsome, egotistical and arrogant as Darcy; his redemption involves rejection, wounded pride and a glimpse of self-knowledge. This transformation (he quits drinking and paints work for a New York show in four months) is miraculously quick. Gilver realizes that previously "he had painted for the things it brought" and only now "because he must."

Scheming Juliette, an editor for the gossip magazine Rogue, publishes a vicious exposé, but I won't give away the ending, which ties together these loose ends in a romance fashion that does not completely work. Regardless, in this wickedly delightful but nasty concoction of sex, art and intrigue, Stockley takes us to the dark edges of pleasure.

Reviewed by Lelia Ruckenstein
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 325 pages
• Publisher: Harvest Books; 1 edition (March 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156032104
• ISBN-13: 978-0156032100
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,521,253 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (4.5) "... a gorgeous, lone, enigmatic male.", March 12, 2006

By	Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In the first careless years of artistic triumph, Gilver Memmer makes his fortune, much-feted by a thirsty London art world that idolizes youth, beauty and artistic temperament. His hubris unchecked, the handsome Gilver acts accordingly, cutting a swath through the ladies, talent and wealth powerful aphrodisiacs: "This early connection between artistic skill and the granting of sexual favors was not lost on him." His reputation is secure, although he is "too compliant in facile skill and ubiquitous popularity to do more than walk his talent on a slack rein". Preparing to stun America in a New York showing, an assistant's fluke precipitates a disaster, but in London this fiasco only adds to the artist's cache. Gilver is deeply concerned, but throws himself into a flurry of social activities. Suddenly a decade has passed and Memmer hasn't painted, gliding along on his social skills. Eventually, the accumulated wealth is gone, Gilver facing a far different future, his luxurious accoutrements and sartorial indulgences of little use without the means to support his lifestyle.

At one last party for his friends, a fire erupts, destroying everything but the clothes on his back and a few pieces of furniture. Gilver goes to ground, moving to a shabby loft where he daily drinks himself into a stupor, sliding into alcoholism and a blur of one-night stands, "the momentary oblivion of an indifferent embrace". Shocked by the changes that accompany his fall, Gilver is deeply disturbed by the gray hairs, the loose flesh, myriad physical betrayals, trapped in a cycle of dissipation. As with any true genius, Gilver's gifts come with a price tag, his chaotic personal life feeding a natural self-destruction, obliterating his redemption, his work. Into this depressing scene comes Alice, whom Gilver meets while making a pathetic attempt to render his flat livable. She sparks the artist's long-dormant creativity, although between inebriation and a paralyzing fear of failure, Gilver cannot reach out to Alice in a meaningful way (although he had he at hello). The past collides with the future as another woman enters his world, the edgy, vitriolic Juliette, who has long nurtured a particular interest in the artist.

Stockley prods the vulnerable underbelly of Gilver's creativity without reservation, at the same time exposing a core of untapped emotion that is obscured by years of drunkenness and emotional cowardice, his genius nearly destroyed by an untamed ego born of the praise of the London glitterati and the immaturity of self-gratification. For Gilver, Alice is a fortuitous accident, a promise barely recognizable to the downward-spiraling artist. The egocentric Gilver is redeemed, not by his own actions but the intervention of a new friend, an old friend and an enigmatic enemy who bears the seeds of his destruction. Exhibiting the brilliant prose and clever plotting of A Factory of Cunning, Shockley has written a stylish novel that skims the razor's edge of the dark side of humanity, the subtleties of life vs. art, the yin and yang of creativity and ego, genius fused with angst and the healing touch of compassion. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving story of change and talent, February 3, 2004

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Edge of Pleasure (Paperback)

Gilver's childhood talent is to understand the connections between artistic skill and the granting of sexual favors: his early understanding leads to a rich life, but at age 28 he's forgotten the talents which formed the wellspring of his success. When ruin strikes, he's ill-prepared to recover in this moving story of change and talent.