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The Dissident
VERY good first issue hardcover in pristine, unfaded, unclipped dustjacket from a remarkable collection of Gollancz fiction. Apparently unread and unopened for several decades. CE
223 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
1 person want to read
About the author
Peter Van Greenaway
21 books6 followersPeter Van Greenaway was a British novelist, the author of numerous thrillers with elements of horror and satire.
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July 29, 2023
Increasing tired of the propaganda value the West gains from traitors like Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn, the Soviets plan to create a fake literary dissident, have him defect to the West, then redefect to the USSR in an attempt to explode the credibility of the dissident phenomenon. The novel plots their choice of operative; a poltical prisoner with a genuine literary talent who is able to fake with ease the heavy-handed anti-Soviet propaganda found in much dissident writing, a man who is also a committed socialist. When the defection finally occurs he finds himself appalled by the injustices and hypocrisies of the West...
The Dissident was the novel which finally ended Van Greenaway's career. The paperback option on his previous novel, Cassandra Bell, was cancelled and even though Gollancz published several more of his books in hardcover, none were optioned as mass-market paperbacks. As this market was where authors of the day earned their living, it effectively killed his career. He spent a few more years surviving on library residuals before dying in his late 50s. In a way one has to wonder at the audacity of writing a pro-Soviet novel at the height of the cold war. But then again, this is the author of The Medusa Touch, Take the War to Washington and Graffiti, the latter a delerium of a novel which posits a Britain destroyed in a nuclear attack.
The Dissident is written in Van Greenaway's trademark side of the mouth voice, which can make him difficult to read at first, but the purpose on display brooks no other style. The title could be a reference to the author himself - a genuine dissident in the West, exposing the fakery of market-led liberal democracy and destroying his career in the process.
Heroic.
The Dissident was the novel which finally ended Van Greenaway's career. The paperback option on his previous novel, Cassandra Bell, was cancelled and even though Gollancz published several more of his books in hardcover, none were optioned as mass-market paperbacks. As this market was where authors of the day earned their living, it effectively killed his career. He spent a few more years surviving on library residuals before dying in his late 50s. In a way one has to wonder at the audacity of writing a pro-Soviet novel at the height of the cold war. But then again, this is the author of The Medusa Touch, Take the War to Washington and Graffiti, the latter a delerium of a novel which posits a Britain destroyed in a nuclear attack.
The Dissident is written in Van Greenaway's trademark side of the mouth voice, which can make him difficult to read at first, but the purpose on display brooks no other style. The title could be a reference to the author himself - a genuine dissident in the West, exposing the fakery of market-led liberal democracy and destroying his career in the process.
Heroic.
Displaying 1 of 1 review