The Red Hat in question in John Bayley's novel is the headgear worn by a young woman in a Vermeer masterpiece; it is also the McGuffin that gets the plot rolling. At the center of Bayley's tale is Nancy Deverell, a rather androgynous young woman who travels from London to the Netherlands with two friends to view the Vermeer exhibition. Nancy's companions are Charles, a gay man, and Chloe, Nancy's best friend and Charles's fiancée. Once at the exhibition, Nancy realizes she could be the twin of the woman in Vermeer's Girl in a Red Hat. Before you can say chapeau, Nancy finds herself involved with a mysterious stranger who might be a secret agent or possibly a bellboy and up to her neck in kidnapping, terrorism, and murder--or maybe not. Bayley, a leading British critic, plays an energetic literary shell game with his characters which may have fans of postmodern fiction clamoring for more.
From Library Journal
Androgynous narrator Nancy, reputedly gay friend Charles, and his fianc?e Cloe visit the Hague for a Vermeer exhibition. Cloe disappears, Nancy has a midnight rendezvous with a mysterious stranger who claims to be a Mossad agent, then Cloe reappears as if nothing had happened. Later, back in London, the narrative voice changes. Cloe's friend Roland, sent to France in search of Nancy, subsequently deconstructs most of what she said occurred in Holland. An introspective, whimsical, erotic, moody, and ultimately eyebrow-lifting debut; for most literary fiction collections. [Literary critic Bayley is former chair of the Booker Prize Committee and married to novelist Iris Murdoch.AEd.]ARex Klert, Mitchell Community Coll., LRC, Statesville, N.
-ARex Klert, Mitchell Community Coll., LRC, Statesville, NC
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews
