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Fascination
It’s a road picture …
It’s a novel about self-realization and vengeance …
It’s a novel about the pointless journey of a grieving young widow — Sally Pavlou — and a love-struck private investigator — Clive Bridle — looking for the dead man who done Sally wrong …
It’s a novel about postponing the inevitable and rushing to conclusions …
It’s a novel about looking for love and avoiding detection …
It’s a book about doing the thing you do best and finding all the satisfaction you need in it …
There’s a ‘63 Dodge Dart convertible; there’s a magical dog named Biscuit; there’s a cult of bald priestesses and a band of brutally honest guilt-mongers; there’s a massive collection of garden gnomes; there’s cutthroat Texas hold ‘em; but most of all, there’s …
Fascination!
It’s a novel about self-realization and vengeance …
It’s a novel about the pointless journey of a grieving young widow — Sally Pavlou — and a love-struck private investigator — Clive Bridle — looking for the dead man who done Sally wrong …
It’s a novel about postponing the inevitable and rushing to conclusions …
It’s a novel about looking for love and avoiding detection …
It’s a book about doing the thing you do best and finding all the satisfaction you need in it …
There’s a ‘63 Dodge Dart convertible; there’s a magical dog named Biscuit; there’s a cult of bald priestesses and a band of brutally honest guilt-mongers; there’s a massive collection of garden gnomes; there’s cutthroat Texas hold ‘em; but most of all, there’s …
Fascination!
251 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 14, 2016
3 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Brennan
12 books51 followersKevin Brennan is the author of seven novels, including Parts Unknown (William Morrow/HarperCollins), Yesterday Road, and, coming in May '22, The Prospect. His short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Berkeley Fiction Review, Mid-American Review, Twin Pies, The Daily Drunk, Sledgehammer, Fictive Dream, Atlas and Alice, LEON Literary Review, MoonPark Review, Atticus Review, and others. He's also the editor of The Disappointed Housewife, a literary magazine for writers of offbeat and idiosyncratic fiction, poetry, and essays. Kevin lives with his wife in California's Sierra foothills.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 20, 2017
Well, this was a nice surprise. I don’t read much fiction but a friend strongly recommended Kevin Brennan and told me to read his Yesterday Road, Town Father or Fascination. At $2.99 for the ebook, Fascination was cheap and so am I, so I chose that. And I really liked it.
Fascination is the story of Sally Pavlou, an attractive woman in her thirties whose husband Mason suddenly commits suicide after 15 years of marriage. But there’s no body, and Sally suspects Mason has actually legged it. She hires Clive, a private investigator. Together Clive and Sally climb into the latter’s vintage Dodge Dart and go in search of Mason. Of course, Clive falls for Sally and spins out the trip. Now and then they stop by a town where Sally can play her favourite arcade game, Fascination. And in the course of the trip, Sally and Clive find out quite a lot about themselves.
Whether Mason really is alive or not is not really the point (we find that out pretty early, anyway). This book is a road movie, and a metaphor for a search for oneself. It is also a love story.
It works on all three levels. It’s certainly a great road movie, with a constantly changing cast of characters – a shaman, a Zen master, a radical feminist cult and more. This works because Brennan can really do character; some of these folks are better-drawn than others, but the best of them absolutely leap off the page. He’s also a witty writer (Clive passes time on the road by thinking up country-music song titles, such as ‘He Asked Me To Swallow, I Told Him To Split.’ I also liked ‘There’s a Rainbow in the Bruise He Left Behind’). The landscapes of the western US are vivid too, from the New Mexico desert to the rolling pasture hills of California. And last but not least there’s Fascination itself, an old-fashioned arcade game that really does exist, though it’s now quite rare. It’s a handy and colourful plot device.
Does Sally find Mason? Does Clive get the girl? Does Sally find herself? In a way it didn’t matter; I just really enjoyed the ride. I will be reading more by this guy.
Fascination is the story of Sally Pavlou, an attractive woman in her thirties whose husband Mason suddenly commits suicide after 15 years of marriage. But there’s no body, and Sally suspects Mason has actually legged it. She hires Clive, a private investigator. Together Clive and Sally climb into the latter’s vintage Dodge Dart and go in search of Mason. Of course, Clive falls for Sally and spins out the trip. Now and then they stop by a town where Sally can play her favourite arcade game, Fascination. And in the course of the trip, Sally and Clive find out quite a lot about themselves.
Whether Mason really is alive or not is not really the point (we find that out pretty early, anyway). This book is a road movie, and a metaphor for a search for oneself. It is also a love story.
It works on all three levels. It’s certainly a great road movie, with a constantly changing cast of characters – a shaman, a Zen master, a radical feminist cult and more. This works because Brennan can really do character; some of these folks are better-drawn than others, but the best of them absolutely leap off the page. He’s also a witty writer (Clive passes time on the road by thinking up country-music song titles, such as ‘He Asked Me To Swallow, I Told Him To Split.’ I also liked ‘There’s a Rainbow in the Bruise He Left Behind’). The landscapes of the western US are vivid too, from the New Mexico desert to the rolling pasture hills of California. And last but not least there’s Fascination itself, an old-fashioned arcade game that really does exist, though it’s now quite rare. It’s a handy and colourful plot device.
Does Sally find Mason? Does Clive get the girl? Does Sally find herself? In a way it didn’t matter; I just really enjoyed the ride. I will be reading more by this guy.
November 17, 2016
I have read a number of books by this author, and the one thing that strikes me about all of them is how good the writing and interesting the story. Fascination is no exception and in some ways is the best book yet written by Kevin Brennan. (Of course, a statement like that is in the context of the best of the best)
The story starts simply enough with Sally Speck whose maiden name was Sally Pavlou having to endure the pain of the suicide of her husband, Mason Speck. Sally could not believe Mason was capable of such and act and so she failed to accept the fact that he was dead. Sally is a masseuse and does that for a living. She also is an expert at the arcade game of the 1930’s named Fascination. Sally uses the game to supplement her income but importantly to help her self-esteem in times of trouble.
All her friends and clergy tell Sally to forget about Mason and have a memorial service and move on. Sally finds an airplane ticket jacket in Mason’s car and believes Mason has not died but left town. Her friend Tina Hightower finally in exasperation recommends a private detective she uses for her law firm named Clive Bridle.
The rest of the story is about the quest of Sally to find Mason and the desire of Clive to keep the hunt going as long as possible so that he can be near Sally. It seems Clive is smitten. Brennan describes the first time Clive laid his eyes on Sally as a “parakeet fluttered ” in Clive’s chest. He goes on to say that Clive didn’t just find her attractive. No, Clive Bridle thought. “She is a genuine muse.”
The writing of this book is so darned good that it could be a lesson text on the proper way to tell a story. The descriptions are succinct yet full of the right details every reader needs to form mental pictures of what is going on. The sights smell and sounds of the scenes of this book are rich in detail yet open enough for the reader to become personally involved in the story by allowing the creation of personal images to go along with what the author has created.
I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who loves fiction that is spellbinding and difficult to put down and who will be sorry to see the book end.
The story starts simply enough with Sally Speck whose maiden name was Sally Pavlou having to endure the pain of the suicide of her husband, Mason Speck. Sally could not believe Mason was capable of such and act and so she failed to accept the fact that he was dead. Sally is a masseuse and does that for a living. She also is an expert at the arcade game of the 1930’s named Fascination. Sally uses the game to supplement her income but importantly to help her self-esteem in times of trouble.
All her friends and clergy tell Sally to forget about Mason and have a memorial service and move on. Sally finds an airplane ticket jacket in Mason’s car and believes Mason has not died but left town. Her friend Tina Hightower finally in exasperation recommends a private detective she uses for her law firm named Clive Bridle.
The rest of the story is about the quest of Sally to find Mason and the desire of Clive to keep the hunt going as long as possible so that he can be near Sally. It seems Clive is smitten. Brennan describes the first time Clive laid his eyes on Sally as a “parakeet fluttered ” in Clive’s chest. He goes on to say that Clive didn’t just find her attractive. No, Clive Bridle thought. “She is a genuine muse.”
The writing of this book is so darned good that it could be a lesson text on the proper way to tell a story. The descriptions are succinct yet full of the right details every reader needs to form mental pictures of what is going on. The sights smell and sounds of the scenes of this book are rich in detail yet open enough for the reader to become personally involved in the story by allowing the creation of personal images to go along with what the author has created.
I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who loves fiction that is spellbinding and difficult to put down and who will be sorry to see the book end.
March 26, 2017
I came across this in a roundabout manner, and am glad I did.
It's a well written story, with a tight plot, and main characters easy to identify with.
There's abundant humor and a nice dose of suspense.
It's a well written story, with a tight plot, and main characters easy to identify with.
There's abundant humor and a nice dose of suspense.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews