The Blue Afternoon

by William Boyd

This rare and vintage book is a perfect addition to any bibliophile's collection

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literature, Novels, Mystery, Contemporary, Literary Fiction

324 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Note: William^^Boyd

Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.

At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.

Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.

Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.

Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel is in 3 parts, the first and third are set in 1936 and the other, the longest section, in 1902-03. On the basis of the latter I’ve shelved it as historical fiction.

I read this on the strength of having been impressed with another of the author’s novels, but unfortunately this one didn’t work out for me. It opens with an LA architect called Kay Fischer, who is approached by an older man, Salvador Carriscant, who claims to be her biological father. Carriscant provides various snippets of information before changing the subject when she asks follow-up questions. Had I encountered him in real life I would have found him intensely irritating! Eventually he shows Fischer a picture from a magazine, featuring a woman photographed watching a tennis match in Lisbon. He essentially says, in summary, “I need to find this woman. I thought she was dead but now I know she isn’t. We must travel together to Lisbon to find her.” Somewhat improbably, Fischer agrees.

The journey to Lisbon provides the mechanism for Carriscant, a former surgeon, to tell his backstory. It takes place in Manilla at the beginning of the 20th century, against the background of the brutal suppression of the Filipino independence movement by the US Army. There are 3 concurrent stories within this section; an obsessive love affair, the gruesome murder of 3 people by what seems to be a serial killer, and an odd thread involving an attempt by one of Carriscant’s colleagues to undertake the first ever powered flight.

Sometimes I read fiction and get emotionally invested in the imaginary characters who leap out from the page. This wasn’t one of those occasions. Many of the events of the novel also seemed barely credible. I thought about giving up on it a couple of times but kept going. The style is readable enough, I’ll say that. As it happened I quite liked Part 3 of the book, so that rescued it to some extent. The relatively favourable feeling I got at the end left me considering a 3-star rating, but overall I didn’t enjoy it that much.

The author leaves questions unanswered at the end. I quite like novels where the reader is left to draw their own conclusions, but I appreciate not everyone feels the same way.

[Fiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm so disappointed in this book. The whole premise, that an architect on the verge of a successful career would drop everything to travel to Europe with a stranger who says he's her father, is just ridiculous. Because it's Boyd, I overlooked the convenience of it as a mechanism for telling Cariscant's story but I just couldn't get into it at all. I left not caring what happened. I'm glad this isn't the first of Boyd's books that I've read because, if it had been, it would be the last. There are far too many descriptions of places, objects and people which add nothing to the storyline to the point that I began to think he was being paid for quantity not quality.

I realise my views don't mirror the majority of reviewers and I'm sorry if I've offended any Boyd fans. It just goes to show that we should never judge a book by its reviews. The only way to judge it is to read it yourself. In the end, it's all down to personal taste and this just wasn't for me.

[Alan Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully told story within a story, The Blue Afternoon seems a novel that is at its core, about the endearing and enduring power of real, personal love; and just how far this love will impel a person to push the limits of their actions. It takes the reader on a quest to far off places and back and forth through two time periods; and along the way provides historical and cultural perspectives that at the same time muddle and affirm the seemingly unchanging human conditions that always endure and survive no matter what: love, death, emotion, pride.

Writing with exquisitely descriptive prose as always, Mr. Boyd so effectively immerses the reader in the surroundings and characters that it is difficult to not carry around the feelings of the book when you are not absorbed in reading its pages. Though the characters themselves, not to mention the many back stories and events within, are complex and at times unsettling, it’s the heartfelt journey encompassing most of the story that seemed the most compelling and remains with me, like an echo.

[Marwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Blue Afternoon tells two stories that contain a plethora of genres.
The story begins with an ambitious architect called K.L. Fischer, her stories begins from a story that ended. Her old partner betrayed her, her life as a divorcée, and her life as an adult that almost reached parenthood but didn't. In her new life, she encounters a man by the name of Salvador Carriscant; a man who claims to be her father. The reason why this sudden visit happened, sudden cause it happened after 36 years, is that he tells her that he wants her help.
We later discover that his request involves finding someone, a lady.
Kay is later persuaded by her father to help him, and then he tells her who this woman is, and all about his past.
The story changes POVs and we are told about the mixed raced surgeon who lived in Manila in 1902.
(PHILIPPINES WAS COLONISED BY SPAIN?! THERE WAS AN AMERICAN-PHILIPPINE WAR?! I need to read more modern history)
A successful modern surgeon in the midst of old surgeons.
A failed marriage.
A mystery.
And the start of a romance.
The Manila portion of the story ends on a cliffhanger!
(FFS WILLIAM WHAT THE HELL YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I FUCKING DIED AT THAT PART HOW DARE YOU I WAS ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT FOR ONE HUNDRED PAGES AND THEN YOU KILL MY SOUL LIKE THAT OH MY LORD I LOVE YOU BUT I ALSO HATE YOU)
The book later on changes back to Kay's POV and it's the book's last portion.
Carriscant is reunited with the lady in question, and Kay starts her relationship with her finally known father.
The mystery still ends as a mystery, and it's up to the reader to guess who the perpetrator is.

My favorite line comes from a minor character, Salvador's mum:
"If she was merry then she was delightful company; if she was depressed then she was melancholia personified. She made no apologies for these swings, in fact she regarded her refusal to pretend as a positive virtue"
-my way in life.

My only issue with this novel was that we didn't have a conclusion about Kay's problems even though she was the introductory character.

Definitely made an excellent choice by picking this up solely because I adored the author's writing style.


Some notes I had that I couldn't articulate:
- I wish I knew more about architecture to appreciate how she views buildings so adoringly
- The further I read, the more my heart longs to open Any Human Heart again. I can't even recall the novel properly, but it's like I have fallen in love. This is my second book by William Boydd, and I was scared to not love it as much. BUT DAMN HIS STYLE IS GOOD!
- Americans called Filipinos the N word!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Wow can William Boydd write a steamy romantic scene in just a page!
- He finds it disrespectful when someone calls him the N word, but he uses it to address those who are lower than him in status? Disgusting.
- This book changed genre real quick!
- I KNEW IT WAS GOING TO GO TO SHIT BUT I HAD HOPE FUCK SHIT OHMYGOD THE END NO NO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Theories: [SPOILERS]
I've been thinking about this a lot and here's what I have so far; the murder(s).
Cruz: he wanted to prove how the old ways were better and wanted to show a "break through" in medicine, that he was willing to do anything for that. We know how obsessed he was about this from how he cold heartedly left a man to have heart damage enough just so he can fix it. Hence, I think Cruz was the main reason why the killings started, but because he couldn't kill and take the organs and experiment on them fast enough, he hired someone.
Pantaleon: he was the hired assassin. Why would he do it you ask? The money. We are shown through out the novel of how panta's obsession about his aeromobile caused him to do anything; from using the black market to black mailing his best friend to his own death. Which makes me think that panta was responsible for the murders, he then gave custody of the bodies to Cruz, Cruz got what he needed, then the body was dispose of by him. The lady who died is who I assume was his girlfriend that caught him and that's why she was in an American area to tell the authorities but he managed to kill her.
Sieverance: he might also be the killer I DONT KNOW WHY HE WOULD BE THOUGH BUT HE MIGHT BE STILL I DONT THINK SO?
Carriscant: he killed sieverance. Why did he not aboard the ship with Delphine? It made no sense to me. And I think he also went back home to kill his own wife but decided otherwise. We already know he can stage a death scene, why not a suicide scene? And we more than know that he is very good at lying. And like Kay said, he shaped the story and told what he wanted to tell her. Delphine did know about his plans to kill their previous partners, and that's whom he meant when he told Kay he's going to see a killer when he visited Bobby in his barn.

Again I'll keep thinking about the murders and this mystery often and I would love to have discussions about this!

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

GOOD story!

I have now read four books by William Boyd. I like how he writes. This is a mystery, and I am not a mystery reader, but I picked it up simply because I was pretty darn sure I would not be disappointed. I wasn’t.

I am beginning to see a pattern in his writing. In this book, as in his others, you are delivered an interesting story. The themes covered here are the occupation of the Philippines by America, the birth of aviation, the improvement of the surgical science at the beginning of the 1900s. And love. Physical attraction, love between couples, love between parents and offspring, and relationships without love. Rather than providing a list of correct historical details you get a feel for the era. It is not the details but rather a sense of what conditions were like. In this book you are confronted with the filth of earlier surgical practices; you are confronted with the atrocities committed during America's occupation; the exhilaration of flying for the first time. What you get is more an emotional understanding than a mental learning of historical facts. I want to feel myself in another person's skin. I am less interested in the historical details. I will soon forget the historical details if I don't feel an emotional empathy for those who lived through those times.

This is a mystery story too. There are murders. I personally think the ending is clear, at least we know how Kay Fischer interprets the events. What is not conclusively known is not that important, and this is an important message of the book.

I enjoyed how love was portrayed.

My emotional reaction to the book was quite simply that I liked it. So three stars. I recommend the book to others. Some parts were a bit unbelievable: The chilling down of Delphine's body when she supposedly dies. I have another problem. Both Dr. Salvadore Carriscant and Delphine Sieverance seemed so sure of never being able to love their respective wife and husband ever again. They felt so sure of what they were doing. Is that believable? Probably these reasons explain why I cannot say I really liked it, but I never felt bored. I never wanted to stop listening. I never was confused. There is a time jump; you start in 1936, flip back to 1902 and at the end again switch to 1936. This makes complete sense and is not disruptive. The main part of the story is the middle section set in the Philippines at the beginning of the century during the American occupation. Humor? Njah, not much.

The narration of the audiobook by Lorelei King was excellent. She has a strong voice and is easy to understand. Good speed too.

[Amanda Brookfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a loyal reader of William Boyd since A Good Man in Africa, his wonderful debut novel, published more years ago than I care to remember. On the frequent occasions I am asked to list authors whom I admire, William Boyd's name will invariably feature in my answer. I will often add that what I admire most about him is his chameleon ability to occupy any territory - emotional and physical - with complete authenticity. Whereas most writers find a style and stick with it (glad to have found what works!) Boyd has always struck me as fearlessly willing to launch himself into different writing guises, so that on opening each new novel one has no idea even whether the narrative voice is male or female, let alone what sort of capers he/she might be getting up to, or in what part of the world.

'Blue Afternoon' had somehow slipped through my net. Seeing that it was published in the early nineties, when I had two toddlers to look after, as well novels of my own to write, probably explains why. So, stumbling on a copy in a bookshop in Winchester a couple of months ago, was like finding a present one had failed to unwrap at Christmas! Such an unexpected treat!

And a treat it certainly was, particularly as I had forgotten quite how sparkling and funny early Boyd could be. The main character, Dr Salvador Carriscant, a genius of a pioneering surgeon based in Manila at the turn of the century, is a sheer joy. For all his professional skills, he has a chaotic private life that spirals out of control when he falls hopelessly in love with a married woman. But there was real darkness and suspense in the plot too, all of it rooted in vividly depicted accounts of the terrible butchery a surgeon could get away with a hundred years ago.

As ever, plot spoilers are not my bag, but for me this was a page-turner, with the added blaze of a powerful love story. So much so, that I found myself thinking later Boyd has got a bit dry and polished - lost a little something perhaps from the energy and inspiration of his creative youth.

[Penny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for a book club - if it had not been chosen I probably would not have read it. I have not read Boyd before.

The story is disjointed and awkward in places. We start off in the US with a woman going through relationship problems and we have several pages of rather dull architecture description then her 'father' turns up and she doesnt know who he is.

The father's story then unfolds in flashback. It is set in the Phillipines and this part of the book picks up and begins to gather pace and interest. There is a thwarted love affair, lots of medical gory stuff and 4 murders. By the end of the book we still have a thwarted love affair, a crashed plane and 4 murders - dont ask me who did them, what the relevance of the murders were or the motives for most of the actions in the book. None of this is explained - I thought it might just be me but in my book group no one got how the ending worked or who was responsible for what.

Unsatifactory.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Blue Afternoon is yet another incredibly good William Boyd novel. Well structured and well realised, it has been written with both strength and beauty, and presents a real understanding of the human condition. The cultural details which Boyd weaves in are fascinating, and the story unfolds in an effective way.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich and fascinating story set partly in the Philippines, then a US colony, around 1900, and partly in the US and Europe in the early 1930's. Lots of stuff happens, touching widely different topics, making for a mesmerizing read.

[Stela · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the second (I checked and correct myself - the third) book of Boyd I've read and probably the last. I don't quite get why my friend Carmen is so fascinated with him - apart a decent style the rest seemed to me artficial, implausible and hesitant - the narrative at some moment seems to crawl ahead against its wishes.

[Terry94705 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two and a half stars. I like William Boyd, but this book was disappointing. I felt like he wrote a novel that he was not happy with --Salvator's story -- and then to punch it up, he nested it in the story of Salvator's daughter, Kay. It didn't work. I could not believe for a moment that Kay dropped everything to accompany (and pay for) this stranger (who says he's her father) in his quest to find his love of 30 years ago. Didn't believe it.

But Boyd is a smart and suspenseful writer, so I knew there would be payoff for sticking with the book. There were some reading pleasure, and some interesting descriptions of surgery in Manila near the turn of the century, but Salvator's overwrought lust for Delphine got tiresome.

I can understand that Boyd didn't want to pitch Salvator's story into the trash bin, but he could have found a better device to salvage it.

[Rhys Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Monthly Book Group · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super, excellent, clever! Boyd is a great writer, with a deceptively easy style, and flowing but muscular prose. He has an almost unparalleled skill for narrative, for sucking the reader in to any story he chose to tell. He has a striking lucidity of detail that animates his scenes. This novel, mainly set in the Philippines, has several different stories woven together within it. The most important is a passionate love story – of obsession, stalking, and a covert and fervent affair. While he is perhaps not a “historical novelist” as such, he takes a particular interest in bringing obscure episodes in history – such as the war between the Philippines and the USA in this case – into vivid life. The only problem is not being able to put this book down as you will get so involved in it.

Without exception, the Group were extremely positive about the book. “Absolutely marvellous”. “Great pace – I couldn’t put it down”. “Have read nothing approaching this, other than possibly Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ ”. “Beautifully constructed, so that his anti-war messages are put over without interrupting the narrative flow and without preaching”. “Engaging variety of humour”. “Totally compelling”...



This is an extract from a review at http://monthlybookgroup.wordpress.com/. Our reviews are also to be found at http://monthlybookgroup.blogspot.com/

[Karyn M · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 / To quote Kay Fisher “I’m not sure why I am doing this, or what I hope to achieve…” but I kept listening to the end, like this book, it is mystifying.

Much of it is unrealistic, Kay’s career and wealth felt too rare to be believable for 1936. Her blind faith in paying to travel with a stranger who claims to be her father to find his previous lover. The overly long backstory with some gruesome medical details did not help build any real connection with the characters either. It had the chance to shine like a blue afternoon, but it missed the mark for me.

2 ⭐️ Audiobook read by Kate Handford

[Chris Gager · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new author for me. Well known in the aulde sodde I think. An inter-library loan from the Portland Library(Reiche Branch). Starting tonight.

Not much to say so far. It's all a bit mysterious - jumping around in time and place. The G'reads reviews and ratings are all over the place. I agree that the the writing seems a bit awkward in places. Reminds me a bit of Paul Theroux.

- Interesting beginning. I assumed the protagonist was a man - not!

- We're back in Arturo Bandini's 1930's Los Angeles ... Bunker Hill, Olive St., shooting galleries, the funicular railroad up/down the hill. Then off to Santa Fe ...

- The narrator/protagonist is only 32, but sounds ten years older.

As I said before, this story MOVES AROUND, and then some. Right now we're in the well-described Philippines just after the U.S. has defeated anti-colonial resistance after the Spanish-American War and taken over the P.I. Seems like a very atmospheric murder mystery at this point. Engrossing ... One reviewer in G'reads asks the legitimate question of how and why Kay would just up and follow Salvatore when she has a career going in L.A., but I think that is adequately explained and Salvatore IS now explaining the past, as he promised.

- WHY??? is that Myerson guy such a TURD! Will that be explained later? A rejected lover?

- "Tree of Smoke" begins in the P. I. in the mid-sixties - sixty years after this stuff.

Past halfway now and still in the Philippines as Salvatore gets what he wants. We'll see how that goes. Interesting turn-of-the-century stuff is going on - in Manila of all places! Pioneer aviation(maybe - if it gets off the ground - literally), pioneer surgery for appendix removal, possible medical atrocities and malpractice and scheming going on. That's definitely happening, in fact. A murder spree that threatens to entrap Salvatore(who's just a BIT loony himself), lots of Manila and Philippine geography and atmosphere nicely described. However ... I can't see how the author, based on what I've read so far, can be considered any big deal, literature-wise. There are hints of Conrad and Theroux, but depth is lacking. A respectable tale-spinner and no more - so far.

- uses the descriptive word "matt" twice in close proximity - tsk, tsk ...

I finished last night with a bit of skimming after losing patience with this up-and-down book. The biggest down took place in the end game, which went absolutely bat-bleep crazy. Then the VERY end kicked in - back to 1936 - and it sort-of redeemed itself, So I give the thing a 2.75 rating, rounding up to a weak 3* rating. I'm at a loss to understand why anyone would think that this is serious literature. Off-and-on entertaining I suppose, with TONS of juicy description of the Philippines in the early 1900's, but in the end a disappointment.

- Almost everyone in the book seemed to be loony-toony crazy.

- The whole escape plan was ridiculously off-the-wall.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could rate this book more highly. Most of it (part two, set in the Philippines, then governed by the United States) is intriguingly detailed, convincingly researched, well-written and pleasantly icy. The main problem, however, is created by part one (to which part two is the backstory.)

In part one, a young architect named Kay working in L.A. is trying to make a name for herself when a stranger appears and tells her that he is her father. The year is 1930 or thereabouts. She has always thought her "real" father died when she was an infant (1904). 75 pages of cat and mouse then transpire while Kay fails to really press this stranger for details about his claim. The author's intention clearly is to maintain suspense, but who wouldn't demand details at the first face-to-face encounter? Not Kay. She's swayed by some mystique, however, and agrees to go with Salvador Carriscant (the putative father) on a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico to pin down some facts. During the long drive there, she insists Carriscant finally start talking. He does...sort of...which is the odd lead-in to part two in the South Pacific. There, a love story and a murder mystery get mixed up with ghoulish details about early twentieth-century surgical practices in the Third World. It's a fascinating read, something like Conrad. But at the end, very implausible strategies are used to force an ending to the main conflict that suddenly go wrong, leading to a drawn-out "told/not shown" conclusion.

Writing early in his career, William Boyd simply took the need for "a plot" too seriously, overlooking the subtler ways in which beautiful writing about compelling characters can unify a long story into a good novel.

[Michael Savill · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a tricksy story, for sure. I soon got angry at the improbability of the main characters decisions and was tempted to stop reading - but I'm glad I didn't.
The book seems like an experiment to push the boundaries of what can be 'gotten away with', both in storytelling and life.
I didn't enjoy it quite as much as some of William Boyd's other work, but it certainly made me think and has left a lasting impression.

[Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book because I like William Boyd and the back cover said "Los Angeles 1936" and since it's a period and the place that I like I bought the book. I'm glad I did even though 90% of the book ends up happening in 1903 in the Philippines. I would call this non-stress fiction, it's a very good story, with its complexities and colorful characters. Like an ice cream war, particularly enjoy unexpected context stories like in this case this forgotten war between the US and what would be a colony of the Philippines. It reads like a romantic thriller, Even though it's not a thriller at all.

[Kiwiflora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I like William Boyd's novels so much, I chose this book without bothering to read the blurb as to what it was about. Blind confidence? Of course not! I just knew it would be yet another fabulous story, with interesting characters, set in interesting times, and interesting places, doing interesting things and with a number of interesting twists! This novel was published in 1993 so it is one of Mr Boyd's earlier novels (he has now written 10) and at the time won two book awards.

Opening in the Los Angeles of the 1930s, talented young architect Kay Fischer is getting over a broken marriage and a broken business partnership. Into her life appears the mysterious Salvadore Carriscant who inexplicably claims to be her father. Slowly he weaves his spell over her, which takes the reader back to the Philippines, to the city of Manila in 1902. Recovering from three wars in very quick succession - the Philippine war, the Spanish-American war and the Philippine-American war- Manila is not a happy place and still has a very heavy American military presence. Salvadore is of mixed race as many of the Filipinos are - his pedigree is Spanish, Scottish and Filipino. He has recently returned to Manila after training as a doctor/surgeon in Edinburgh. He finds himself working in one of the badly equipped, and shockingly unhygienic hospitals, with doctors who have no idea or interest in the modern hygiene and surgery practices that Salvadore has brought back from Scotland. This inevitably leads to conflict with the hospital hierarchy. When American soldiers start turning up murdered and mutilated, the pressures mount. Throw in a doomed love affair, a fellow doctor trying to be one of the first men to fly an airplane, and we have all those interesting places, times, characters and events. And let's not forget the twists and turns.

Boyd writes in such a way that the reader feels as if they are actually there. In this book, we feel the humidity and oppressive air of Manila, we are walking through the poverty ridden streets and hovels, we are in the disgusting operating theatres smelling the blood and the decay, we are in the airplane as it makes its first flight, feeling the wind, the excitement and the adrenalin rush. It would make a fantastic movie. This is a marvellous story, perfect for a long plane flight, lazy day or holiday reading.

[Johnny · Rating 1 out of 5]

The back blurb made me expect a story about a woman being reunited with a father she never knew, in 1936 L.A., and them getting to know each other while the father's past was slowly being revealed.

Well, it kinda went a bit different.

The first part of the story has long and enigmatic architectural descriptions of buildings and places, which is natural since the main character is an architect, but I had no idea what I was reading. When Carriscant comes along and claims to be her father, I was astounded to find not a trace of her wanting to solve the mystery. She just goes along with him in his request to travel to Europe to try and locate a woman for whom he had once wanted to leave her mother. And she's paying for both of them!

The next and biggest part of the book deals with Carriscant's past and tells about him meeting the woman in the Phillippines around the turn of the century.

Then final the last couple of pages brings us back to the "present" as they finally find the woman in question.

While written in 1993, this book reads as if it was actually written in 1936. It reads as an old book. It reads a lot like "Ship of Theseus" by Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams does, and I think it would make a good background for two researchers to exchanges written messages in the margins trying to uncover the book's conspiracy.

But even though a book turns out to be different contentwise than you expected, it can still be good, but I found nothing compelling in this book and I was glad to turn the final page. All its symbolism and meaning must go over my head.

[Mark Speed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favourite Boyd novel, and not his best. However, it's much better than some of the work of the last decade. I think this was Boyd stretching his wings, and the result are what Boyd does best, which is to explore an era or history and insert some characters into the action who have a complex history which is further muddled by the forces at work around them. Some lovely, memorable and insane scenes here. I'm not going to tell you what they are, but you will know them when you get there. One more of those scenes and I'd have given this an extra star.

[Danial Tanvir · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book was very badly written and it is sad that william boyd can write such a terrilble book.

it made no sense what so ever and there was actually no story at all.
its about a person who is followed by a man who says he is her father , it is based in 1936 in los angeles.

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story told in two time periods - an intense love story in 1904 and a later journey of revelation and discovery in LA and Lisbon. Cleverly structured and well written in Boyd style. Enjoyed this book a lot.

[Mavis Thresher · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't finish it, not up to what I expect from William Boyd.

[Jonathan Pool · Rating 2 out of 5]

William Boyd serves up a number of unanswered questions (a good thing) in this novel, not least the meaning and significance of the Prologue?

I regard myself as a Boyd aficionado but The Blue Afternoon was a difficult book to love or admire.

I’m not a great fan of multiple, small (2-5 page) chapter chunks, (fifty seven in two hundred and thirty four pages)which make up the book. Boyd also experiments with form by splitting the book into three separate, though linked, sections. I wasn’t entirely convinced that this linkage worked very satisfactorily.

What I appreciated most was a sinister undercurrent that was manifest in a number of characters. Our lead, Salvador Carriscant is ostensibly a romantic figure offering an enlightened and life saving skills at a time when medicine (especially anatomy) was primitive to say the least. The story is set primarily at the turn of the twentieth century, in 1902, in Manila, Philippines.

Scratch the surface of doctor Carriscant and a wholly less selfless and admirable person emerges.
Carriscant’s operating theatre (anaesthetist) partner, Pantaleon Quiroga, is also a man of conflicting habits.

Pantaleon’s other enthusiasm is for flying machines (very much in its infancy in 1905), and he builds an “aero mobile”. Quite what this under - story is doing in a romantic, ex patriot, murder story remains a mystery to me.

Boyd, in my experience, is adept at bringing together multiple characters and perspectives. Not so much in this one. Kay Fischer who starts the book and who provides some welcome female strength, fades into a lightweight supporting role for the last two thirds of the book. Delphine Sieverance, the epitome of colonial glamour, charm and frustration, has little or no introduction before wrestling away the narrative direction.
I was non plussed.

I was interested to note that The Blue Afternoon has fewer reviews on Goodreads than the majority of the ubiquitous Boyd’s novels.
I suspect it may be because other readers, just like me, would be disinclined to recommend this novel to new readers (of Boyd).

[Moore Flannery · Rating 1 out of 5]

I often imagine that other people take refuge in stories that absorb or encompass them when life is difficult. They use reading as an escape, like a luxury, a softener.

I don’t really follow the logic of what it is that I do - it is not that. In normal times, I read compulsively as an escape every day, grabbing at it all the time, reading things that I enjoy, or make me think, or dream. However, when my real life is particularly challenging - I always hit a kind of stop, a refusal, a limiter that disallows the lovely book, the embrace of a story.

Instead I pick up something patently bonkers, and make myself read it. Something annoying, prolix, pointless. Like this book. I can see my unconscious leads me to do punishment reading. It doesn’t help, usually it kind of compounds my irritation.

It always feels like the equivalent of ‘giri choco’ - in Japan- and something to do with obligation, and conforming. I make my reading life as irksome as my real life.

Sigh. This book by the way, is nicely written but entirely pointless, self serving, nonsense.

[Jane Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars really. As always William Boyd's prose and descriptions are beautifully written, but I wasn't very keen on the characters alas. The beginning part of the book was written from the daughter Kay's point of view and then three or four chapters in, it swaps to the father's story and I found that less interesting, although that seemed to be the whole point of the book. However still a good read and still have quite a few of his to read which is good.

[Jacki (Julia Flyte) · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Boyd is such an engaging storyteller and I thoroughly enjoyed this backlist read which is about a Scottish surgeon working in early 20th century Manila who gets caught up in a murder investigation, a complicated love affair and an attempt to set the record for the first 100 metre flight.

The main plot is sandwiched between a storyline about an architect in 1930s Los Angeles who may or may not be the surgeon’s daughter. This sub-plot is less successful but it does come together neatly at the end.

[Ren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story inside a story inside a story, each one seemingly more obscure than the last… but the core of this narrative is suspenseful, atmospheric romantic intrigue.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was fine… I just didn’t really care about anyone or anything in it