Harlequin rex

by Owen Marshall

With the advent of the new millennium comes a new disease - Harlequin Rex - and a variety of reactions to it. The men and women in this intriguing novel find themselves caught up in a terrifying novelty, and all must cope as best they can. Their response is influenced as much by the past as by present events, however, those formative things that lie far back in us all: guilt, loyalty, compromise and love - especially love.

Genres: Fiction

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Owen Marshall has written, or edited, over twenty-five books. He has held fellowships at the Universities of Canterbury and Otago, and in Menton, France. In 2000, he received the Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit (ONZM), and in the same year his novel Harlequin Rex won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for Fiction. Marshall is an adjunct professor at the University of Canterbury, which awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 2002. He was awarded the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in 2012 for services to literature, and in 2013 received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book did not turn out to be at all about what the blurb implied it was about. I expect it's about how people make choices because of, and in spite of, what is going on in the world around them, and still fail to learn from those mistakes. Sometimes. Maybe.
There's a guy, he makes some poor choices, ends up a caregiver at a treatment center. All the patients there are afflicted with a degenerative brain disease for which the cause and cure are unknown. People still make poor choices and in the end, it doesn't seem like the guy has learned much at all. The book is well written, but it just didn't grab me. Kind of depressing, really.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am slowly reading through my shelf of books bought years ago and not read. This is one of them. Perhaps reading after going through lockdown level 4 and 3, then down to 2 and 1, then back up to 2, has taken the sting out of this story. Seeing over 1 million die (probably a lot more) from Covid which seems to be sinister and terrifying as it mutates to keep going, it made Harlequin Rex somehow not as threatening as it might have been. The idea that the brain may reach a tipping point of sophistication and somehow revert to the limbic functions of thousands and thousands of years ago, is intriguing. Could this happen? And why would New Zealand and Italy have the highest death counts? Once again the virus is said to come from Africa. This was first published last century. In 21 years we have come a long way in some areas, in others, not so much. The main character is David, not a particularly likeable person. Someone who has drifted, thrown away wonderful opportunities and uses 'childish boy' terms for women's body parts. If he had somehow learnt something about his life while working in the hospital I would have perhaps been more engaged but it seemed that running from the consequences of his actions was his standby mode. The other characters were slowly filled in as the story developed but apart from the brilliantly realised word pictures of the land, captured perfectly, and the nuances of kiwi language, utterly perfect, the characters seemed to be distant to me. An interesting read but not as vibrant as I thought it would be.

[Patricanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harlequin is a degenerative brain disease of uncertain origin, unknown means of transmission, and no cure. Sufferers (identified by typical behaviours) are sent to treatment centres in isolated locations where they are oddly compliant and accepting of their fate. It is the time of the millennium, so apparently conspiracy theories have not been invented. In fact, this book is not about a pandemic that threatens life on earth, it relates the actions of David, one of the care givers at a NZ isolation centre. Life at the centre is rather repetitive and humdrum, but the story is enlivened a little by David’s backstory, scattered throughout the book. And really, nobody would read this book for the story at all, but rather for the writing. The descriptions of the landscape and seascape are so evocative you can see them, feel them, smell them. Worth reading for that alone.

[zespri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1999, a pretty topical book to be reading in the midst of a global pandemic.

Harlequin is a regressive brain disease that presumably came from Africa, but with no known cause. Special Harlequin centres are being built to isolate sufferers from the rest of the population as there is no pattern of transmission. A world specialist is trying to determine the source and a cure, and patients are looked after by a series of carers.

It is all very close to the bone, Owen Marshall could be writing about the Covid outbreak, so an absorbing read.

[Megan Clemance · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyed this novel, set where I have recently traveled which brought it more to life.
an interesting take on humanity.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The central character's (David) story is told in the present and past. Harlequin is a modern-day disease which attacks the mind, senses and body. Everything in the illness is exaggerated and in the end uncontrollable. It is mostly a fatal and quick disease.
David has been in trouble and while the story is centered at the treatment facility the secondary story tells us how he got there.
NZ author