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Bedlam Burning (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I first met Gregory Collins at a book-burning party given by my Director of Studies in his college rooms in Cambridge in 1974..." (more)
Key Phrases: football kit, horrible room, literary evening, Gregory Collins, Kincaid Clinic, Ruth Harris (more...)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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  Hardcover, February 17, 2002 $26.95 $4.50 $0.01
  Paperback, December 29, 2003 -- $3.74 $0.38

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The English comic tradition has always shown a fine weakness for a little lunacy, and Nicholson's 13th novel (after Bleeding London, a Whitbread Prize finalist) is the latest variation on that theme. Michael Smith is a handsome Cambridge graduate working a dead-end job at a rare book dealer's in the mid-'70s. Fellow grad Gregory Collins has written a novel and wants to use Michael's picture for the author photograph. The hoax gets more complex when Gregory persuades Michael to continue the imposture by giving a reading of the novel at a Brighton bookstore. In the sparse audience, which includes Michael's disapproving girlfriend, Nicola, is a gorgeous psychiatrist, Alicia Crowe, who persuades Michael-as-Gregory to be writer-in-residence at a local lunatic asylum. Michael accepts for two reasons: he's bored at the bookstore and wants to bed Alicia. The real Gregory approves, partly because he's slept with Nicola. Michael finds the Kincaid Clinic to be as strange as one would expect, and his attempts to turn a colorfully psychopathological crew into creative writing students eventually bears prolix fruit. He also discovers the dubious joys of making love to Alicia, who is a coprophemic a dirty talker. Michael finds Dr. Kincaid's extreme regulations unsettling: Kincaid bans pictures, photographs and drawings from the asylum, because, as he explains, the patients "have all seen too many images." The fragile situation begins to fall apart when a selection of the inmates' writing is actually published. The ensuing attention blows Michael's cover, but will his former Cambridge professor, John Bentley, unmask him? Nicholson's book, like a Fawlty Towers episode, delightfully stretches sanity to its farcical breaking point. Film rights optioned by New Line Cinema. (Feb.)Forecast: If Nicholson ever manages to break out in the U.S. a few prominent reviews would help he might well attract a loyal cult following.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


From Library Journal

Donald Westlake meets Ken Kesey in this 13th novel by British author Nicholson (Bleeding London), about an author impersonation at a lunatic asylum. First novelist Gregory Collins seeks out Michael Smith, whom he met at a Cambridge University party in 1974, to pose for his author photo in the hopes that Smith's good looks will help sell his book. Smith, who is stuck in a dead-end job and a stagnant relationship, agrees and then watches as events unfold bewilderingly. Trouble starts when Smith is invited to serve as a writer-in-residence at the Kincaid Clinic, an institute for mental patients. Dr. Kincaid's therapeutic method is based on the belief that the patients are suffering from visual overload and that once they are relieved of this burden they will be free to unleash their thoughts in writing, which will cure them of their psychoses. As a result, the clinic has no television, no pictures in the newspapers, no books in the library, and no labels on the food cans. Once Smith enters the clinic, he finds himself drawn into a surreal world where it is difficult to tell the sane from the insane. A compulsively good read from start to finish, this work is highly recommended for all libraries. Film rights have been optioned by New Line Cinema. Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ontario
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 298 pages
  • Publisher: Overlook TP (December 30, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1585674532
  • ISBN-13: 978-1585674534
  • Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,240,986 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Geoff Nicholson
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I first met Gregory Collins at a book-burning party given by my Director of Studies in his college rooms in Cambridge in 1974. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
football kit, horrible room, literary evening, slush pile
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Gregory Collins, Kincaid Clinic, Ruth Harris, Kincaidian Therapy, Charles Manning, The Wax Man, Bob Burns, Communication Room, Alicia Crowe, Michael Smith, Mike Smith, Jackson Pollock, Julian Somerville, Andy Warhol, Che Guevara T-shirt, David Bergstrom, Max Brod, Truman Capote, White Horse
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Bedlam Burning
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Bedlam Burning 3.7 out of 5 stars (3)
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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
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3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Witty and Clever, August 8, 2002
By Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Bedlam Burning (Hardcover)
Geoff Nicholson's Bedlam Burning is a cleverly-told story about, Michael Smith, an attractive 23 year-old British man, who allows a less-better looking acquaintance of his from University (they met at a book burning party), Gregory Collins, use his photo on the book jacket of Gregory's first novel. Michael, masquerading as Gregory at a book reading, is offered a position in a psychiatric clinic as a writer-in-residence, part of the therapy for those being treated there. Bedlam Burning is also a witty examination of what it is to read, what it is to write, who, and how much, we can believe. Michael almost immediately begins getting submissions from everyone at the clinic. As he ruminates on these submissions, you may wonder, who is really writing these? Can you believe it at all? Gregory keeps coming back into Michael's life, complicating things, but allowing Nicholson to give us more ruminations on the nature of writing, authorship and reading. The novel is engaging, humorous and witty. The characters are just that--characters. The story moves along fairly quickly and it works. An enjoyable read.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, funny, clever, August 25, 2003
By ra2sky "ra2sky" (the left coast) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bedlam Burning (Hardcover)
This is a very, very funny book. The other reviews were pretty accurate, the one thing I will add is there is quite a bit of British humor...non-Brits might not get all the jokes! But don't let this put you off, the book is very amusing and has a couple of clever plot twists too.
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3.0 out of 5 stars Not A Book That I'd Want To Burn, March 16, 2002
By bharring (Living Under A Rock) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Bedlam Burning (Hardcover)
Michael Smith is a man who is convinced that he is your pretty decent, average sort of guy with absolutely no outstanding talents either positive or negative. However, that is not enough to stop him from having an extraordinary adventure. In 1974, when he attends a "book-burning" party of an eccentric old college professor, Smith meets Gregory Collins, the epitome of a loser and a self-proclaimed writer-wannabe. However, when Collins actually succeeds in acquiring a publication deal for a bizarre novel, he calls on his old acquaintance, Smith, to help him out by posing for him on the author-jacket to improve sales by making the author seem attractive. Amusedly, Smith agrees. When events take a surprising turn and Gregory Collins is asked to do a reading for his book, he is left no option but to call on Smith again. And again, Smith comes to his aid. It is at this reading that Smith meets, Alicia, an attractive young female psychiatrist. She wants to hire him to work at the Kincaid Clinic (a lunatic asylum) as a writer-in-residence to inspire the patients to pour out their thoughts and feelings through the catharsis of penning them. Desperate to remove himself from his own trite job and London life, and eager to be in the vicinity of the attractive Alicia, Smith agrees, carrying his duplicity even further.

Under these circumstances, Michael Smith cannot possibly be expecting a typical sort of reception. However, when he finds himself wading through thousands of pages of anagrams, trivia, sex-and-violence stories, football matches, and spiritual enlightenment guides, even he finds himself overwhelmed. When his boss responds to his gesture of furnishing the patients' library by tearing the covers off of all the books, he begins to feel a certain amount of concern over his current situation. The inmates come in varying degrees of catatonia, hyperactivity, psychosis, and antisocial, yet how can he resist Alicia's fulfilling--even if strange--sexual encounters? And how can he escape from his scheme, when the entire clinic is counting on him to publish an anthology of their creative writing efforts?

The first one hundred pages of this book were absolutely hysterical. The plot was funny, engaging, and never dragged on with non-essential details. It was very fast-paced and did not take long to read. However, I found the parts detailing Alicia's sex with Michael, which described her coprophemia (arousal by spouting verbal and graphic obscenities) to be a bit over-the-top. At times, the plot seemed to get a little far-fetched and unbelievable beyond the point of satire. Some people might find the book irreverent in its treatment of the mentally ill (the concept of the so-called Kincaidian therapy being quite laughable itself). However, this novel was unlike anything I had read in quite a while. The characters were very well-developed, Michael Smith was very likeable, as the self-assured yet blundering narrator, and whenever Gregory Collins appeared on the scene you were rolling your eyes. A certain amount of wry amusement is warranted as you find that you ought to have guessed what was coming next in this corkscrew plot. In the end, Geoff Nicholson does manage to very cleverly reign in all of the chaos he produces and give us a conclusive--if not somewhat tidy--finale.

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