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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Two men who've lost everything to violence and neglect struggle to redeem their lives in Gillis's uneven second novel (after Walter Falls). Niles Kelly and Bailey Finne, both bright students in the fictional university town of Renton, have a great deal in common. Both are cursed with overbearing fathers—a bullying tycoon and an alcoholic laborer, respectively—and mothers who are absent or who died young. They've lost their girlfriends as well, Bailey to indifference and Niles to a mysterious terrorist bombing that also killed his father. They share a tendency to hurt themselves, too. Niles sleepwalks, but with a dangerous twist: while somnambulant, he stabs himself with a corkscrew and scrapes at his flesh with a metal file. Bailey, on the other hand, self-destructs while awake: an art historian and piano prodigy, he scoffs at finishing his dissertation and sabotages an important audition. Bailey and Niles join forces, figuratively and literally: Bailey drills a hole between their apartments and ties them together at the wrists to control Niles's nighttime movements. Despite their tragedies, Bailey and Niles are not particularly sympathetic characters; saddled with self-pity, they endlessly discuss their problems while doing little to address them. Once they take action, decamping to Algeria in search of the terrorist who killed Niles's father and girlfriend, the novel comes to life, and readers who persevere will enjoy the improbable but beguilingly mystical conclusion.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
MEMORY. REGRET. REVENGE. FORGIVENESS. Steven Gillis’ second novel, THE WEIGHT OF NOTHING, explores these issues through the eyes of Bailey Finne, a gifted pianist who has nonetheless forsaken his talent to become a perpetual graduate student in Art History. Niles Kelly, his somnambulistic friend with Albert Camus for a muse, is the heir to a fortune he has rejected and carries the burden of the unresolved deaths of both his father and lover at the hands of a mysterious bomber. Together Bailey and Niles journey to Algiers to confront that which has haunted each of them for years. Following a tragic end to his time in North Africa, Bailey returns to his hometown in an effort to reconcile his familial losses, lack of ambition, and love for his girlfriend, Elizabeth.
Two men who've lost everything to violence and neglect struggle to redeem their lives in Gillis's uneven second novel (after Walter Falls). Niles Kelly and Bailey Finne, both bright students in the fictional university town of Renton, have a great deal in common. Both are cursed with overbearing fathers—a bullying tycoon and an alcoholic laborer, respectively—and mothers who are absent or who died young. They've lost their girlfriends as well, Bailey to indifference and Niles to a mysterious terrorist bombing that also killed his father. They share a tendency to hurt themselves, too. Niles sleepwalks, but with a dangerous twist: while somnambulant, he stabs himself with a corkscrew and scrapes at his flesh with a metal file. Bailey, on the other hand, self-destructs while awake: an art historian and piano prodigy, he scoffs at finishing his dissertation and sabotages an important audition. Bailey and Niles join forces, figuratively and literally: Bailey drills a hole between their apartments and ties them together at the wrists to control Niles's nighttime movements. Despite their tragedies, Bailey and Niles are not particularly sympathetic characters; saddled with self-pity, they endlessly discuss their problems while doing little to address them. Once they take action, decamping to Algeria in search of the terrorist who killed Niles's father and girlfriend, the novel comes to life, and readers who persevere will enjoy the improbable but beguilingly mystical conclusion.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
MEMORY. REGRET. REVENGE. FORGIVENESS. Steven Gillis’ second novel, THE WEIGHT OF NOTHING, explores these issues through the eyes of Bailey Finne, a gifted pianist who has nonetheless forsaken his talent to become a perpetual graduate student in Art History. Niles Kelly, his somnambulistic friend with Albert Camus for a muse, is the heir to a fortune he has rejected and carries the burden of the unresolved deaths of both his father and lover at the hands of a mysterious bomber. Together Bailey and Niles journey to Algiers to confront that which has haunted each of them for years. Following a tragic end to his time in North Africa, Bailey returns to his hometown in an effort to reconcile his familial losses, lack of ambition, and love for his girlfriend, Elizabeth.
Gillis skillfully weaves this compelling tale of mystery, love, music and art into a dramatic story that unfolds as a spiritual odyssey in search of truth and redemption in the midst of unspeakable violence.
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