Tantalus

by Amanda Hemingway

A psychological thriller about a girl from a dysfunctional family who blames her father for her brother’s suicide and sets out to engineer his downfall with the help of a beautiful youth from a Greek island.The father, after a lifetime repressing his homosexual inclinations, falls into their honey-trap, but his seducer has plans of his own for both father and daughter, and she finds herself irresistibly enmeshed in the consequences of her own schemes.

240 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1984

About the author

She has also written under the pseudonyms of Jan Siegel, and Jemma Harvey.

Reviews

[Alex Ankarr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh, not really good. At all. Horrid folk, each and every one, and by and large deserve each other. General vibe of 'ooh I'm very bleak and edgy', and all the time I was thinking 'Can these cunts not just all drive off a cliff together?'

I will say that Amanda Hemingway can write a sentence and wield the English language as she was intended to be wielded, which in these days of excruciatingly amateur-hour fanbint shitty-edits (thanks #reedsy!) is not as common as it oughter be.

[Melly · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you enjoy gorgeous tales of incest (as I certainly do) you will love this book.
Apparently, Amanda Hemingway wrote one other book of "lit fic" and then switched to fantasy and humor genre fiction. I think that's unfortunate, but given the oddly humorous tone of some portions, I guess it kind of makes sense.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up in the Lake District and it was my holiday read for a week in August 1987. I chose it based on the Hemingway name and in that respect, I wasn't disappointed - Amanda is a terrific writer. Dark and often bleak, this is a gripping thriller that's well worth the read.