What do you think?
Rate this book
The Deadly Space Between
A solitary boy in a family of independent, unconventional women, Toby Hawk lives in a small, closed world that consists of school and surfing the Internet. His mother, Isobel, a painter on the brink of commercial success, is only fifteen years his senior and the two share an unusually intimate bond. But everything changes when Isobel takes up with Roehm, a fascinating and enigmatic scientist. As he begins his slow dance of courtship and seduction, alienating mother from son, their world becomes unstable and duplicitous. Toby turns to the Web for clues about his mother’s hauntingly irresistible, predatory lover -- and the answers he finds transform his life.
An eerie psychological ghost story with echoes of Faust, Freud, and Frankenstein, The Deadly Space Between is a disturbing tale of Oedipal passions -- a rich and dark exploration of sexual ambiguity and longing.
An eerie psychological ghost story with echoes of Faust, Freud, and Frankenstein, The Deadly Space Between is a disturbing tale of Oedipal passions -- a rich and dark exploration of sexual ambiguity and longing.
256 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2002
7 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Duncker
25 books88 followersPatricia Duncker attended school in England and, after a period spent working in Germany, she read English at Newnham College, Cambridge.
She studied for a D.Phil. in English and German Romanticism at St Hugh's College, Oxford.
From 1993-2002, she taught Literature at the University of Aberystwyth, and from 2002-2006, has been Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, teaching the MA in Prose Fiction.
In January 2007, she moved to the University of Manchester where she is Professor of Modern Literature.
She studied for a D.Phil. in English and German Romanticism at St Hugh's College, Oxford.
From 1993-2002, she taught Literature at the University of Aberystwyth, and from 2002-2006, has been Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, teaching the MA in Prose Fiction.
In January 2007, she moved to the University of Manchester where she is Professor of Modern Literature.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
June 12, 2015
Duncker is a great writer. You can tell she's very well educated in classic literature, art and languages. This is the second book of hers that I read, "Hallucinating Foucault" being one of the most interesting books I read last year. I do like her somewhat unconventional storylines.
With that being said, what an uncomfortable story this was to read. It should have been clear from the mention of Oedipal passions on the blurb, but the story was a lot more disturbing than I'd expected.
I was having a discussion yesterday about how so many books written in the first person narrative often have the protagonist as a booklover, and often a loner too. A lady I discussed this with said that it's possibly a ruse to get the reader to identify with the main character. As much of a bookworm as Toby was, there was nothing about him I liked at all. He is a strange 18 year old boy studying for his A-Levels and obsessed with his 33 year old mother, who doesn't really do much to dissuade him. Needless to say I'm still quite disturbed.
With that being said, what an uncomfortable story this was to read. It should have been clear from the mention of Oedipal passions on the blurb, but the story was a lot more disturbing than I'd expected.
I was having a discussion yesterday about how so many books written in the first person narrative often have the protagonist as a booklover, and often a loner too. A lady I discussed this with said that it's possibly a ruse to get the reader to identify with the main character. As much of a bookworm as Toby was, there was nothing about him I liked at all. He is a strange 18 year old boy studying for his A-Levels and obsessed with his 33 year old mother, who doesn't really do much to dissuade him. Needless to say I'm still quite disturbed.
July 30, 2009
This One Disturbed Most of My University
This was on our reading lists at uni. For a few weeks, anyone who lived with a Literature student, went for coffee with a Lit student, sat near a Lit student on the bus - knew about this book. Not so much because it made us think deeply, so much as in the way you have to discuss the most disturbing things you see on Jackass or Rotten.com.
The whole novel has a sweaty, sickly, clammy, subterranean feel to it. I can't remember any scenes in daylight, though I'm sure there must have been some. Partly narrated by an impish 17 year old boy, who reads Freud in the original German for fun (Duncker, just because you almost certainly did the same does not mean this will help the audience bond with this upstart). He seems to dislike his mother's new boyfriend, so far so normal.
SPOILER ALERT:
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
Mum's boyfriend seems to be abusive/have other history with her, mother and son go on the run to escape him, then Where-The-Merry-Fuck did that incestuous sex scene come from?!
Sledgehammer subtlety, and with no apparent lead up. I'm sure with Duncker's considerable intellect and reading she could make a valid excuse for why it's there - but to be honest I suspect her motives (though backed up by Freudian theory) are in actual fact not much more sophisticated than Jackass: Made you look, made you stare.
And the final 'revelations' towards the end aren't revelations. No messy ends are tied up - just left deliberately open-ended in a way which completely guts the thriller/suspense premise of this novel.
This was on our reading lists at uni. For a few weeks, anyone who lived with a Literature student, went for coffee with a Lit student, sat near a Lit student on the bus - knew about this book. Not so much because it made us think deeply, so much as in the way you have to discuss the most disturbing things you see on Jackass or Rotten.com.
The whole novel has a sweaty, sickly, clammy, subterranean feel to it. I can't remember any scenes in daylight, though I'm sure there must have been some. Partly narrated by an impish 17 year old boy, who reads Freud in the original German for fun (Duncker, just because you almost certainly did the same does not mean this will help the audience bond with this upstart). He seems to dislike his mother's new boyfriend, so far so normal.
SPOILER ALERT:
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
Mum's boyfriend seems to be abusive/have other history with her, mother and son go on the run to escape him, then Where-The-Merry-Fuck did that incestuous sex scene come from?!
Sledgehammer subtlety, and with no apparent lead up. I'm sure with Duncker's considerable intellect and reading she could make a valid excuse for why it's there - but to be honest I suspect her motives (though backed up by Freudian theory) are in actual fact not much more sophisticated than Jackass: Made you look, made you stare.
And the final 'revelations' towards the end aren't revelations. No messy ends are tied up - just left deliberately open-ended in a way which completely guts the thriller/suspense premise of this novel.
February 2, 2011
Here’s a funny thing: I liked this book, but I don’t have a freakin’ clue what it’s about. Well, I sort of know that it’s about a well-regarded artist Isobel (Iso) and her 18 year old son, Toby. When Iso takes a lover, the enigmatic Roehm, Toby’s life is thrown into a tailspin. But The Deadly Space Between is not a straight forward tale by any stretch.
First of all, only 15 years separate Iso and her son and their relationship is complicated and sexually charged. The story is narrated by Toby and it’s difficult to know how reliable his observations are: Are his memories exaggerated? Is Roehm as other-worldly as he seems?
Roehm is a mysterious character, that’s for sure. Seen through Toby’s eyes he is huge, white and powerful; much like the monolithic winterscapes his mother is currently painting. Roehm’s arrival unbalances Toby’s relationship with his mother - which is clearly too insular - and even though the only information we get about Roehm is skewed through Toby’s eyes, his mysterious presence is what propels the novel through to its strangely unsettling conclusion.
First of all, only 15 years separate Iso and her son and their relationship is complicated and sexually charged. The story is narrated by Toby and it’s difficult to know how reliable his observations are: Are his memories exaggerated? Is Roehm as other-worldly as he seems?
Roehm is a mysterious character, that’s for sure. Seen through Toby’s eyes he is huge, white and powerful; much like the monolithic winterscapes his mother is currently painting. Roehm’s arrival unbalances Toby’s relationship with his mother - which is clearly too insular - and even though the only information we get about Roehm is skewed through Toby’s eyes, his mysterious presence is what propels the novel through to its strangely unsettling conclusion.
February 12, 2008
NO spoilers
Undoubtedly the weirdest, strangest book I've ever read, but the truth is that it is also one of the better-written works I've read. Extremely disturbing due to its incestuous content, the story is really kind of creepy. Very much in the psychological vein, the story is very dark in tone. I would recommend it to people who are looking for something rather unique in their reading.
The story is told by one Toby Hawke, a boy of 18 who lives with his mom and has never seen his father. The only other family Toby knows is his great-aunt Luce and her lover Liberty. Toby's mom, Isolde (Iso), is only 15 years older than Toby, and Toby and she have been close all of his life -- maybe too close, because Toby is in love with her. Thus begins the whole "Oedipal page-turner," as advertised on my copy of the novel. But a new figure enters their lives -- a mysterious stranger known only as Roehm, who begins to exert a bizarre influence on both son and mother, turning their once quiet & somewhat predictable existence into a living hell for the two of them.
If you can shed your disgust long enough to finish the story (which I had to do -- I almost put the book away at a key point or two), you may enjoy this one. There are some things that bugged me about the book, but the story is quite good, and you'll have to decide for yourself what is really going on here. The ending may leave people a little upset, because of its abruptness, but it is in keeping with the rest of the story.
Undoubtedly the weirdest, strangest book I've ever read, but the truth is that it is also one of the better-written works I've read. Extremely disturbing due to its incestuous content, the story is really kind of creepy. Very much in the psychological vein, the story is very dark in tone. I would recommend it to people who are looking for something rather unique in their reading.
The story is told by one Toby Hawke, a boy of 18 who lives with his mom and has never seen his father. The only other family Toby knows is his great-aunt Luce and her lover Liberty. Toby's mom, Isolde (Iso), is only 15 years older than Toby, and Toby and she have been close all of his life -- maybe too close, because Toby is in love with her. Thus begins the whole "Oedipal page-turner," as advertised on my copy of the novel. But a new figure enters their lives -- a mysterious stranger known only as Roehm, who begins to exert a bizarre influence on both son and mother, turning their once quiet & somewhat predictable existence into a living hell for the two of them.
If you can shed your disgust long enough to finish the story (which I had to do -- I almost put the book away at a key point or two), you may enjoy this one. There are some things that bugged me about the book, but the story is quite good, and you'll have to decide for yourself what is really going on here. The ending may leave people a little upset, because of its abruptness, but it is in keeping with the rest of the story.
January 3, 2018
Definitly not her best book.
January 25, 2020
The title derives from a mysterious Melville quote which prefaced the novel, alongside two other quotes pointedly highlighting the latency of the Oedipus myth within all stories, apparently.
The protagonist, young Toby Hawk, raised without a father in a family of powerful females, has grown close to his artist mother to an unnatural degree.
She has recently taken a new lover, a hulking european scientist old enough to be father to both of them, leading to various tensions and - dangerously, yet somewhat ridiculously - sexual jealousies.
In many ways this is a train wreck of a novel, one of the oldest themes given a modern, middle-class update, loosely wrapped in a tenuous ghost story.
The taboo was graphically explored in one scene, which failed horrendously to convince me about characters I was already having a problem with. By the end the whole story had lost itself in the snow.
There was also some pretty poor writing throughout, such as this clumsy simile, where a half-eaten lasagne "looked yellow, ghastly and surreal, like an abandoned traveller's site following an eviction".
A misguided folly.
The protagonist, young Toby Hawk, raised without a father in a family of powerful females, has grown close to his artist mother to an unnatural degree.
She has recently taken a new lover, a hulking european scientist old enough to be father to both of them, leading to various tensions and - dangerously, yet somewhat ridiculously - sexual jealousies.
In many ways this is a train wreck of a novel, one of the oldest themes given a modern, middle-class update, loosely wrapped in a tenuous ghost story.
The taboo was graphically explored in one scene, which failed horrendously to convince me about characters I was already having a problem with. By the end the whole story had lost itself in the snow.
There was also some pretty poor writing throughout, such as this clumsy simile, where a half-eaten lasagne "looked yellow, ghastly and surreal, like an abandoned traveller's site following an eviction".
A misguided folly.
June 10, 2009
This is a very disturbing book that I may not finish. I definitely take back the recommendation to my niece, Shannon. It deals with incest between a mother and son who are only 15 yr. apart in age. Not my cup of tea (or brandy).
OK, so I decided to skim to the last page after having read 1/2 of it or more. The subject matter was not something I wanted to finish reading about--the "3 stars" are because of her writing style which was above average. I would read another book by this author.
OK, so I decided to skim to the last page after having read 1/2 of it or more. The subject matter was not something I wanted to finish reading about--the "3 stars" are because of her writing style which was above average. I would read another book by this author.
February 29, 2012
Duncker proves she's not afraid to explore man's darkest desires in this disturbing page-turner of a novel. Does she go to far? Maybe, but you've got to respect her for not holding back or baby-sitting the reader. For this book to work, you have to be willing to suspend belief - and for the most part I was. I completely believe in Roehm, whoever or whatever he is. It is a bit over-written in places - she pushes the sexual language and imagery too much - but other than that I couldn't fault it.
October 3, 2020
I have very mixed feelings about this book. The writing style is beautiful, I loved the atmosphere, I appreciated lgbt subjects being included in a casual, normalising way and the fact that the MC was so well-read pleased me for some reason. The mystery of Rohem was the main thing that kept me reading, however - if it weren't for that, I wouldn't have finished the book. These factors aside, this book was d i s t u r b i n g and SO uncomfortable to read! I guess that was probably the author's aim, considering the mentions of Oedipus and Freud. I usually love books that are somewhat creepy or disturbing, but this...was something else. Also, the ending fell short after such a big lead up and it became a bit too confusing/was hard to take seriously, which was disappointing. I honestly wouldn't recommend this book to anyone and I'll be donating it to a used store soon (which is where I originally obtained it)!
February 8, 2023
To quote a far, far better writer than the one responsible for this mess, “I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards, every one of them.”
Truly terrible. Wretched. Embarrassingly bad. I’ll probably rescind that star within the hour because I’m so annoyed by it. That this writer taught creative writing makes me so sad for the dozens and dozens of students whose work was inevitably broken into shrieking chunks of silliness if this book is anything to go by. I could go on and on about how bad it is but I don’t want to get any crosser than I already am. I just want to forget this nonsense forever
Truly terrible. Wretched. Embarrassingly bad. I’ll probably rescind that star within the hour because I’m so annoyed by it. That this writer taught creative writing makes me so sad for the dozens and dozens of students whose work was inevitably broken into shrieking chunks of silliness if this book is anything to go by. I could go on and on about how bad it is but I don’t want to get any crosser than I already am. I just want to forget this nonsense forever
September 19, 2021
If you can get past the uncomfortable incest element, the story had the makings of a decent one, but spoiled by the (what seemed to me anyway) rushed ending.
Part thriller, part ghost story, part supernatural even, it was difficult to pigeonhole.
The rushed ending seemed to leave a few questions unanswered. Some may like that style, but I like my loose ends tied up, TVM.
Part thriller, part ghost story, part supernatural even, it was difficult to pigeonhole.
The rushed ending seemed to leave a few questions unanswered. Some may like that style, but I like my loose ends tied up, TVM.
November 13, 2024
check noch nicht wie wir von nem ödipus-komplex-roman zu der ganzen gletschergeschichte gekommen sind, aber der zunehmend abgefahrenere schreibstil hat mir gefallen - das ende hingegen gar nicht, wirkte sehr zusammengewürfelt. teils war ich auch sehr am kämpfen damit weiterzulesen, kommt schon echt aus dem nichts manches
September 21, 2021
It looks like this book freaked out a lot of people but I really enjoyed it. It felt like multiple genres, never went where you expected it to and was truly unique. It will definitely stay with me and that can't be said for a lot of books
October 26, 2025
A good new fashion gothic in the Wilke Collins style. Much more sexual content. We are not sure what is going on, certainly we are sure somethings should NOT be going on. The characters relationships are fraught and fascinating. The language is velvet
April 24, 2020
A disturbing psychological thriller about a British teenager’s quest to discover the truth behind his mother's enigmatic new lover.
November 23, 2021
Really? Did I miss something?
November 30, 2023
This book had a lot of potential but it fell short. Definitely kept the reader trying to figure out the mystery with Roehm but it was disappointing at the end.
July 25, 2020
I can't believe it's not Oedipus time traveling ghost story, something, something.
July 14, 2021
Strange, well written. Difficult subject matter.
May 18, 2017
The Deadly Space Between by Patricia Duncker is so well written that when I felt uneasy about some of the content, an 18 year old's oedipal crush on his mother, I kept reading. The style, the characters and the story promised a lot, and there was the mystery of Roehm to solve. Somehow, though, in the second half of the book, it loses its way and becomes a bit silly. To me, even though the writing style remains fluid, the story becomes absurd. And the ending is downright frustrating. I read another review and it seems it's supposed to represent sexual repression and the release of desire. Yeah, okay, but I still found it a silly ending. As for the sex scenes, they left me feeling a bit queasy [but that could be a good thing, in that it challenges the reader to go to strange places]. The book and writing style dragged me in, but ultimately, I didn't like the story or the characters.
March 9, 2015
A fifteen year old allows her own possession ('No one could say it was rape'), kicking back against the loveless cruelty of her repressive childhood. And this is the opportunity for a malign influence to seize advantage, then bide his time...
Isobel and Toby can be mistaken for brother and sister, because she, his mother, is so young. They've grown up together so close, that his desire for her could hardly be said to cross a line, for she hasn't been inclined to draw one. That is, until his jealousy becomes an obsession which interferes with her own, and she rebuffs him. Her colourful aunt has forebodings for her safety. There is a flight to icy regions. The pursuer proceeds with impunity, is inescapable...
The story of Oedipus, concerns not a man who desired to make his mother his lover, but one who unknowingly had no control over his fate. Freud found concealed in the subconscious, the roots of sexual compulsions too strange and unacceptable for the conscious mind to acknowledge, yet too disturbingly impervious to rationalisation to suppress. Perhaps such references leave too many threads to untangle, with too few connections clearly seen, for the narrative to always run smooth. But overall, this is tightly written, and beautifully descriptive.
A bad dream has come to life for the confused and contradictory protagonists. For this reader, the allure of forbidden erotic charge works to very entertaining effect in this superior horror story!
Isobel and Toby can be mistaken for brother and sister, because she, his mother, is so young. They've grown up together so close, that his desire for her could hardly be said to cross a line, for she hasn't been inclined to draw one. That is, until his jealousy becomes an obsession which interferes with her own, and she rebuffs him. Her colourful aunt has forebodings for her safety. There is a flight to icy regions. The pursuer proceeds with impunity, is inescapable...
The story of Oedipus, concerns not a man who desired to make his mother his lover, but one who unknowingly had no control over his fate. Freud found concealed in the subconscious, the roots of sexual compulsions too strange and unacceptable for the conscious mind to acknowledge, yet too disturbingly impervious to rationalisation to suppress. Perhaps such references leave too many threads to untangle, with too few connections clearly seen, for the narrative to always run smooth. But overall, this is tightly written, and beautifully descriptive.
A bad dream has come to life for the confused and contradictory protagonists. For this reader, the allure of forbidden erotic charge works to very entertaining effect in this superior horror story!
April 17, 2012
Picked at random from the library and initially, i was overjoyed with my choice.
Great start and characterisation - Toby Hawk is 18 years old and lives with his mother, who is only 15 years older than him. His extended family, that he keeps with, include his aunt luce and her lesbian lover, liberty.
Not a usual upbringing you might say.
Told from Toby's persepective - jealously kicks in, when his mother starts an affair with the enematic Roehm. He only appears at night and takes Toby out for an evening with huge homosexual undertones.
Then Tobys sexual history is revealed in a potentially too graphic sexual incident with his mother. Its not as bad as it reads.
The book then shifts into a kind of ghost story with Roehm, of course not being real and being a ghost for sexual awakening. However, the book does lose its way when the pair of them escape to Europe having thought they have killed him and then finding under the glacial ice, the trapped body of another Roehm who scaled an alpine mountain 200 years ago.... bit of a shame this ending.
Fantastically well written and blackly comedic, its just a pity that it ran out of steam and perhaps was too imaginative.
Would read other works of hers and need to look out for seven tales of sex and death.
Great start and characterisation - Toby Hawk is 18 years old and lives with his mother, who is only 15 years older than him. His extended family, that he keeps with, include his aunt luce and her lesbian lover, liberty.
Not a usual upbringing you might say.
Told from Toby's persepective - jealously kicks in, when his mother starts an affair with the enematic Roehm. He only appears at night and takes Toby out for an evening with huge homosexual undertones.
Then Tobys sexual history is revealed in a potentially too graphic sexual incident with his mother. Its not as bad as it reads.
The book then shifts into a kind of ghost story with Roehm, of course not being real and being a ghost for sexual awakening. However, the book does lose its way when the pair of them escape to Europe having thought they have killed him and then finding under the glacial ice, the trapped body of another Roehm who scaled an alpine mountain 200 years ago.... bit of a shame this ending.
Fantastically well written and blackly comedic, its just a pity that it ran out of steam and perhaps was too imaginative.
Would read other works of hers and need to look out for seven tales of sex and death.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 11, 2022
A good read, but the supernatural aspects of the story weren't fleshed-out as well as they could have been.
February 15, 2017
What an odd book. It's obviously a literary book from the writing style and the heavy references to greek plays and mythology, Freud and the sections in French and German that usually aren't translated (one of those books with the irritating presumption that if you've half a brain, you're going to speak French and German fluently, these being the only languages in the world appart from English).
Having said all that, it is a compelling read. The characters are very full bodied, even if you don't end up liking them much. I didn't reckon much to the mother, despite her tough life, the relationship she had with her son was not exactely healthy.
I guess it's a story about relationships, family, jealousy and control. It's also a bit of a mystery with a random ghost story twisted in.
My bookcrossing journal from 2006.
Having said all that, it is a compelling read. The characters are very full bodied, even if you don't end up liking them much. I didn't reckon much to the mother, despite her tough life, the relationship she had with her son was not exactely healthy.
I guess it's a story about relationships, family, jealousy and control. It's also a bit of a mystery with a random ghost story twisted in.
My bookcrossing journal from 2006.
August 29, 2016
Well, yeah, it's weird and strange. Like me. But not like me at all.
Maybe I wasn't just able to really really REALLY get into it.
My reaction is more like "It was okay", when, the author being Duncker, I want it to be more like "Boy, was it OKAY!"
It didn't make me wanna throw it at the wall and scream "What the fck you want from me?!", but it didn't make me wanna cuddle under a blanket with it either.
I'm disappointed that it left me cold and, well yeah, weird.
It's like you had a nice date last night, it was okay, but you won't call them back and if they call you, you don't really know if you'll answer.
So, in a sense, the feeling is mutual?
Maybe I wasn't just able to really really REALLY get into it.
My reaction is more like "It was okay", when, the author being Duncker, I want it to be more like "Boy, was it OKAY!"
It didn't make me wanna throw it at the wall and scream "What the fck you want from me?!", but it didn't make me wanna cuddle under a blanket with it either.
I'm disappointed that it left me cold and, well yeah, weird.
It's like you had a nice date last night, it was okay, but you won't call them back and if they call you, you don't really know if you'll answer.
So, in a sense, the feeling is mutual?
June 9, 2012
So I finished this book and all I have to say is, all those people saying "this books is disturbing" clearly didn't finished the book. There's a sort of explanation of why Toby, Iso and Rohen's "relationship".
Being said that, I didn't like the book. It was too slow and I was strugling to finish it without falling asleep in the process.
Disturbing? Not really. Aside from one scene in particular, envolving a boy -not baby anymore- sucking his mommy's boob, and he being aroused by that.
Boring? Oh yes indeed.
Weird? Yup.
Being said that, I didn't like the book. It was too slow and I was strugling to finish it without falling asleep in the process.
Disturbing? Not really. Aside from one scene in particular, envolving a boy -not baby anymore- sucking his mommy's boob, and he being aroused by that.
Boring? Oh yes indeed.
Weird? Yup.
June 17, 2014
An 18-year old boy - bit of a loner - with a young dynamic artist mother come under the spell of the mother's new lover, Roehm. The boy is jealous, but is he jealous of his mother or of the man? And why does Roehm seem to have no history?
Loved the book - the intricate psychology of it all and the ambiguous and erotically charged relationships between the protagonists - until about three pages from the end. Then the whole thing became unstuck and moved into fairyland. Very very disappointing and farfetched ending, therefore only 4 stars. Otherwise it would have merited five.
Loved the book - the intricate psychology of it all and the ambiguous and erotically charged relationships between the protagonists - until about three pages from the end. Then the whole thing became unstuck and moved into fairyland. Very very disappointing and farfetched ending, therefore only 4 stars. Otherwise it would have merited five.
July 23, 2008
I did NOT like this book. It didn't make sense, but not in any sort of intriguing way, in a this doesn't make sense and I don't care way. It seems normal but without warning it sort of maybe wants to try and cross into something paranormal, but the author isn't quite sure if she wants to or not. The relationship between the main character and his mother was disgusting. This book was awful and I'm really not even sure why I finished it.
March 4, 2016
I actually really liked this book. It was compelling and unique. I did find the incest scenes unpleasant, however, they were a far smaller part of the story than I had been led to believe from reading other reviews. I do think it would have been possible for the author to omit these scenes and instead portray the son as having an inappropriate (unconsummated) obsession with his mother, without detracting from the story at all.
August 13, 2009
I really liked Hallucinating Foucault by the same author. Maybe I'm not hip or sophisticated enough, but this one really didn't do it for me. Wolves, beasts, ice, incest, homoeroticism, rape, murder, ghosts.... Some good writing and the thread of an interesting plot, but it all gets too soupy and icky for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews