The glamour [Paperback]

Christopher Priest (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1984

Cameraman Richard Grey's memory has blanked out the few weeks before he was injured in a car bomb explosion. When he is visited by a girl who seems to have been his lover, his attempts to recall the forgotten period produce an odyssey through France and conflicting accounts of what happened. When Susan Kewley speaks to him of that time, he finds himself glimpsing a terrible twilight world - the world of "the glamour".

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A tightly narrated slice of psychological horror." The Independent "[a] cool, understated chiller. Priest's control over his story will keep you turning the pages as events slowly twist their way to an unseen climax." -- Brian J. Robb DREAMWATCH --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Christopher Priest's novels have built him an inimitable dual reputation as a contemporary novelist and a leading figure in modern SF and fantasy. His novel THE PRESTIGE is unique in winning both a major literary prize (the James Tait Black Award) and a major genre prize (The World Fantasy Award); THE SEPARATION won both the Arthur C. Clarke and the British Science Fiction Awards. He was selected for the original Best of Young British Novelists in1983. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 446 pages
• Publisher: J. Curley (1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155504056X
• ISBN-13: 978-1555040567
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,927,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chris Priest understands fear, despair and powerlessness, September 4, 2000

By 

C. Brockwell (Milton Keynes) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Glamour (Hardcover)

Have you ever felt the joy of locking your door behind you and shutting the world out? Feeling the relief of aloneness and privacy? What if there might be someone there, watching you. But you can't see them. What if you could never be sure? How would you feel?

The author seemed able to take the familiar feelings of being ignored, disenfranchised, excluded, feeling as if you somehow live in a parallel world unable to take part in the world proper, and elevate these to an art form. the characters have the necessary despair and desolation in their spirits to convince you and have the appearance of living reasonably normal lives. However, they don't. The work is perhaps something of an allegory in that the characters experience some of the same problems with which we are all familiar, although to a pathological degree.

The book starts slowly but quickly becomes very compelling and, while being typical of Chris Priest's work insofar as it's low key in it's method, it's frightening in its implications and builds to a terrifying conclusion. I was able easily to suspend my disbelief and was for a while afterwards visited by disquieting thoughts similiar to those provoked when I first read 1984.

Tremendously enjoyable and a very good work.

10 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars in the glamour of our wishes......, April 9, 2004

By 

A. G. Plumb "Greg Plumb" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Glamour (Abacus Books) (Paperback)

.... we hope that our real selves will not become visible (p212 Abacus edition).

I don't believe, even in a small measure, the fantasy that Christopher Priest weaves in this novel - the fantasy that some people can become truly invisible, unseeable. But does he weave a fantasy at all? Even after this second reading I am unsure where reality sits.

My friends never understand that I am untroubled when I observe that often I go unnoticed. I have even shown the effect to my wife when we encountered a friend coming the other way. It doesn't disturb me - as a young person I thought people were deliberately looking the other way, but now I know better. Sometimes it is possible that people simply don't see - and perhaps the person not seen does have some input into that.

This book is a wonderful read, reflecting as it does on visibility (wanted and unwanted) and invisibility (not being seen or noticed, wanted or unwanted).

Other recommended titles:
Christopher Priest: 'The Affirmation', 'The Separation'