The Gasteropod
Maggie Ross の長編デビュー作。貝殻を収集する男の偏執と、家族や欲望のねじれた関係を、閉じた屋敷の中でじわじわと追い詰める心理小説として描く。
作品情報
収集の美学が、やがて生の感覚を凍らせていく。
1968年に James Tait Black Memorial Prize を受賞した Maggie Ross の第一長編。後年 Valancourt から再刊された版では、単一の午後に起こる奇妙な邂逅と、写真や標本を収集する男の執着が、貝殻の螺旋のように少しずつほどけていく。
レビュー要約
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不気味で抑制の効いた語りが、収集癖と停滞した人間関係を冷ややかに浮かび上がらせる作品として受け止められている。美しさへの執着が次第に不穏さへ変わる構図が印象に残る。
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読者の反応は、閉鎖的で不穏な空気を緻密に保つ点を評価する声と、物語の進行を静かで硬質に感じる声に分かれる。怪異性と抑制のバランスが、この作品の持ち味として語られている。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Valancourt Books
- 発売日
- 2025-04-01
- ページ数
- 192ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 12.7 x 1.22 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781960241474
- ISBN-10
- 1960241478
- 価格
- 2827 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/Mystery & Thrillers/Thrillers/Psychological & Suspense
A gasteropod is a mollusc or snail, like the specimens whose shimmering shells the narrator of this unusual novel keeps carefully organized in a special room in his gloomy mansion. He also collects photographs, thousands of them carefully preserved in albums in chronological order, recording with a perverse obsession each ephemeral moment of his wife's existence, every embrace with her lover, every wrinkle and mark of decay as she enters middle age. The novel takes place over the course of a single afternoon, as the narrator gazes on the pictures in a portrait gallery while he waits for the arrival of a woman with whom he has made a mysterious assignation. Through a series of flashbacks, his strange story gradually unfolds, like the convolutions of a seashell, leading to the final revelation of his macabre plan to make her the prize specimen of his collection ... Maggie Ross's first novel, The Gasteropod (1968), was critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for the best British novel of the year. This "chilling, delicate novel" ( Pittsburgh Press ) that "cannot fail to terrify its readers" ( The Austin American ) is a mesmerizing reading experience that will linger in readers' minds long after they have finished the book. 'The novel cannot fail to terrify its readers.' - The Austin American 'A literary marvel . . . a sharp, clever and devastating novel.' - El Paso Times 'A chilling, delicate novel . . . a fascinating experience in psychology.' - Pittsburgh Press 'A first novel of many shades and subtleties. If it makes you feel a bit claustrophobic, you can be sure it was meant to.' - Chicago Tribune 'A first novel of impressive originality and accomplishment.' - New Statesman 'Macabre, well-observed and elegantly constructed.' - Birmingham Evening Mail 'This is a dense and intelligent first novel, full of oddness and technical experiment and glittering with small, clever detail.' - The Guardian 'A clever, witty and marvellously well-written book.' - Listener 'The most skilful first novel by a woman since Iris Murdoch's Under the Net .' - Spectator
関連する文学賞
- ジェームズ・テイト・ブラック記念賞 第50回（1968年） ・Winner