Review: Headhunter
Avis de journaliste - Kirkus ReviewsJoseph Conrad's Kurtz as a nightmare headshrinker? The analogy pays off if you stay with this Canadian thriller, but first you have to make it through an obstacle course of intolerably digressive subplots. Schizophrenic spiritualist Lilah Kemp, reading Heart of Darkness at the Metropolitan Toronto Library, sees Kurtz depart from page 92 and walk out; soon he's ensconced as the monstrous head of the Parkin Psychiatric Institute. As Lilah waits in anguish for a Marlow to emerge and do battle with him, Dr. Austin Purvis, a Parkin psychiatrist, wonders what's become of a mysterious patient who changed his name from Adam Smith to Smith Jones to X before disappearing. Meanwhile, Purvis' colleague Dr. Eleanor Farjeon struggles to make sense of a blight that's left eight young patients terror-stricken and mute; another patient, Warren Ellis, becomes the center of a plot to manipulate a research grant from the Beaumorris Corporation; photographer John Dai Bowen's Club of Men continues to recruit boys willing to submit to the members' gaze and Bowen's lens; and mystery man James Gatz moves into a neighborhood that is now home to a Boston psychiatrist named, yes, Dr. Charles Marlow. Death squads of exterminators battle starlings spreading the sinister plague of sturnusemia, and Amy Wylie, a poet obsessively opposed to the exterminations, is committed to Parkin. Kurtz turns out to have a hand in every one of these intrigues, but you may weary of a cast as large (but not as compelling) as any in a George Eliot novel before you find out how. Findley (The Telling of Lies, 1988, etc.) presents a punishingly ambitious portrait of the psychiatrist as contemporary antichrist, but neither Kurtz nor Marlow finally comes to life in his resurrection. You'll finish this recklessly overscaled novel, if you finish at all, with a profound sense of relief.
Review: Headhunter
Avis d'utilisateur - Jennifer (aka EM) - GoodreadsThis book hurt my head and my heart and turned my stomach - I guess that`s an appropriate response to a tale of the evil that lurks in the heart of men (and women, but here mostly men). Headhunter is ... Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Headhunter
Avis d'utilisateur - Megan Baxter - GoodreadsHeadhunter is not a book to read if you want the word "settled" to enter your vocabulary any time in the near future. It is perhaps as unsettling a book as I am willing to read, and yet, I've read it ... Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Headhunter
Avis d'utilisateur - Jeffrey - GoodreadsI loved this novel. I enjoyed the literary allusions... or rather intrusions... that cropped up through. I enjoyed the near portents of the future. I just found it an amazing read with compelling characters. Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Headhunter
Avis d'utilisateur - Claire - GoodreadsI did find the first half of the book focused on the weathly Club of Men characters and associates very dry reading that I had to push through. Very dark. Never visits why such club members would ... Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Headhunter
Avis d'utilisateur - Hanna - GoodreadsA rough read at times but definitely worth it. Findley showed just how fine a line there is between sanity and insanity. Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Headhunter
Avis d'utilisateur - Murnie Phillips - GoodreadsMy favourite of all his writings. Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Headhunter
Avis d'utilisateur - Kat - GoodreadsWildly disturbing, haunting and surreal. There's more darkness than light in this book, and it's not for the faint of heart. Be prepared to enter the world of the absurd. Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Headhunter
Avis d'utilisateur - Dana - GoodreadsDisturbingly beautiful. Even if you cannot condone the dark matter within the pages, Findley's ability to weave an intricate an compelling tale is undeniable. One of my favorite authors. I was delighted to make his acquaintance after he read from this novel at the University of Calgary. Consulter l'avis complet
Review: Headhunter
Avis d'utilisateur - Shadallark - GoodreadsThis was a rather disturbing, somewhat incongruous, at times hard to follow journey through the lives of many people. The book was okay, the material covered was reasonably portrayed but rather ... Consulter l'avis complet
