The History of Luminous Motion (Paperback)

by Scott Bradfield (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Phillip is eight years old. He experiences material reality as a hindrance, so he tries to stay in an inner realm composed only of abstract concepts like gravity, motion, sound and light. He lives with Mom, who stays alone in her bedroom. Once he killed a man with gleaming tools from a hardware store. He has a friend with whom he does burglary and drugs and seances. Then Dad comes to stay, and Phillip descends to a subterranean otherworld where he makes contact with "dead black things, obloid and featureless, like faintly disembodied laundry hampers." A sad, beautiful book.

From Publishers Weekly
"In his first novel, Bradfield composes a verbal fantasia on the theme of a young felon's confused feelings and reckless misdeeds." A psychotic seven-year-old and his mother drift around California, murdering and thieving. This "offers the fruits of a rich novelistic imagination," wrote PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Picador USA (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312140894
• ISBN-13: 978-0312140892
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,120,128 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bright madness of childhood, November 24, 2000

By	Philip Challinor (London England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The History of Luminous Motion (Paperback)

The History of Luminous Motion is compact and clear as a diamond, as beautiful and strange as its title. Phillip is an eight-year-old psychotic genius, attempting through science, philosophy, action, abstraction and the glittering poetry of his narrative to make sense of the world he inhabits. No easy solutions here; there's no way of knowing what is "real" and what isn't, and the glib jargon of the policemen, psychologists and Juvenile Correction Officers at the end serves merely to emphasise the mystery of Phillip's condition. Reading this book, I was reminded of several others, notably Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle and Arthur Machen's story "The White People" - both of which weave beauty, insanity and youth into their heroines' dark, potent and obsessive autobiographies. But The History of Luminous Motion, while it may be more closely related to these works than to much else, is unique in its evocation of a mind at once more-than-adult in its intellectual capacity and infant in its emotional solipsism; the philosophical conversations Phillip holds with his friends Rodney and Beatrice are among the funniest and most deeply disturbing parts of the book. Perhaps most remarkable of all is the seamlessness of both the character and the story - you never forget for a moment that Phillip is only eight years old, any more than you forget the power, the sensitivity or the sickness of his mind. The ending is sudden, elliptical and heart-rending. Buy it and be haunted.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IMAGE RICH, STUNNINGLY BEATIFUL PSYCHOSIS, May 9, 1998

By A Customer

To say that this book changed my life would be a gross understatement; If anyone hungers for the exquisitely unique voice of the California school of contemporary fiction, this is unequivocally it. Bradfield drags you through the abject solitude of his protagonist, Philip, with amazing vision and depth, and in the end leaves you winded with sighs of recognition for the dynamic state of childhood we all remember. The lucidity of Nicholson Baker, coupled with the poetry and darkness of Poe. Phenomenal.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Weird and literary., September 11, 1997

By	vanishingpoint - See all my reviews

It's been a while since I read this book, but there are a couple of things that really stand out:

1. The book opens up with exquisite beauty. Bradfield is a world-class writer possessing a full array of literary talent. I'm talking Denis Johnson-esque here.

2. There are moments of dialogue between the main character and one of his friends (I think it was a girl) that's just totally whacked out. Their conversation is very high-leveled -- philosophical and highly intellectual. Totally out of sync with the real world as we know it, yet totally in sync within Brafield's world.

I recommend this book wholeheartedly. It's weirdly moving, an occasion always worthy celebration in my book.