A Shock
ロンドン周縁の断片的な人物たちを通して、閉塞と不安を描く連作長編。
作品情報
複数の人物が現れたり消えたりしながら、ロンドンの周辺部で生きる不安定な日常を切り取る。幽霊のように連なる物語の中で、閉じ込められた感覚と突発的な衝撃が反復される。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- New Directions
- 発売日
- 2021-07-06
- ページ数
- 247ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 13.46 x 2.03 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780811230858
- ISBN-10
- 0811230856
- 価格
- 3701 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/Gay & Lesbian/Literature & Fiction/Fiction/Gay
A ShockA Shock
Keith Ridgway is a Dubliner living in London. His previous novels include A Shock (winner of the 2022 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction), Hawthorn & Child , and Animals . He has also been awarded the Prix Fémina Étranger and Premier Roman Étranger, the O Henry Award, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His books have been acclaimed "ingeniously slippery" (Lucy Scholes, New York Times Book Review ), "bleak, hilarious, chilling and hopeful" (Louie Conway, Vanity Fair ), and "like Finnegans Wake , only readable" (John Self, London Times ).
レビュー
-
Dark, disturbing and delightful
What a mysterious, magical book. It weaves a kind of spell, drawing you deeper and deeper into this weird world. Funny, dark, frank, poetic, and hot. I loved it.
-
Interconnected Stories
It’s not surprising that I loved A SHOCK by Keith Ridgway. This novel of interconnected stories may be one of my favorite books of the year. Set in a neighborhood of London, this book is weird, queer, and so good. Each story is unique but has overlapping characters from the other stories. It like a game of telephone, or an ouroboros, a snake eating it’s own tail, or a song cycle. The language is striking. The way the author switches tense and voice and point of view, even addressing the reader at times, is perfect. At times I couldn’t remember all of the characters so I’d have to go back. I read this in a day and a half so it would stay fresh in my mind to catch all of the connections. Books of interconnected stories, as I’ve said before, are MY JAM. Cloud Atlas, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Kissing in Manhattan, The Women of Brewster Place are some of my favorite books I’ve read with this structure.
-
A tricky one
I really wanted to like it more, as it is a character piece with a whole cast of interesting people, but it was too hard to follow and keep everyone straight.
-
Ridgway's surreality charms, confuses, and enlightens once again.
Each work I have read since Hawthorn & Child, his quirky quartet of police procedurals, has left me delighted and often slightly uncomfortable. His characters aren't easy, and he doesn't necessarily tie things up with a silk bow (maybe with a meat bow).
-
A thrilling read
Impossible to describe this novel- there is nothing much like it around. It's a fantastic feat of imagination that absorbed me long after I had finished it.