A. E. Ellis (1920–1980)
Teoksen The Rack tekijä
Tietoja tekijästä
Erotteluhuomautus:
(eng) A E Ellis was the pseudonym of Derek Lindsay. He wrote one book - The Rack.
Image credit: curtisbrown.co.uk
Tekijän teokset
Associated Works
Merkitty avainsanalla
Yleistieto
- Virallinen nimi
- Lindsay, Derek
- Syntymäaika
- 1920
- Kuolinaika
- 1980
- Sukupuoli
- male
- Erotteluhuomautus
- A E Ellis was the pseudonym of Derek Lindsay. He wrote one book - The Rack.
Jäseniä
Kirja-arvosteluja
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Tilastot
- Teokset
- 1
- Also by
- 3
- Jäseniä
- 124
- Suosituimmuussija
- #161,165
- Arvio (tähdet)
- 3.8
- Kirja-arvosteluja
- 2
- ISBN:t
- 6
On the face of it it's like The Magic Mountain redux, drawing on many of the same absurdities of sanatorium life: communal indignity, bad doctors, worse food, the pan-Euro cultural mélange. But the focus here is much more intensely on the individual experience, on the dreamer, not the dream. We're drawn into Paul's private hell so effectually that by the end it's not entirely clear where he ends and reality begins.
Ellis achieves this interiority through pain. This is one of the great stories of pain, and the reason it's so painful is that he doesn't try to describe what it feels like to have your sternum punctured, your ribs creosoted, your pneumothorax pumped full of air every fortnight. Instead he describes the progress of the needle through the bruised flesh, the sounds of surgery, the bitter smell and colour of the bronchial sludge.
There are moments of comedy, usually dark: the deranged Belgian who is Paul's only true friend, the professional squabbles of the various doctors and staff, the Kafkaesque inevitability of Paul's vague plans being thwarted, his desires frustrated. The only annoyance is Ellis' habit of reverting to the local lingo for commonplace phrases that have perfectly normal English equivalents. It's not a dining room, for some reason, but always a salle à manger; never a maid but always a femme de chambre. There's also untranslated French dialogue strewn liberally about, which if your French isn't up to snuff will need to be run through Google Translate to avoid losing the thread.
This is a really unusual novel that goes to some pretty unfrequented places. But maybe don't do what I did and pair it with Tess of the d'Urbervilles.… (lisätietoja)