David Cronenberg

This movie isn't for everyone. Cronenberg cranks up the nihilism to eleven, but he creates a film that is as hard to look away from as it is to watch. The cast is almost uniformly superb: Elias Koteas disturbs and compels as the charismatic Vaughn; James Spader is captivating as the neophyte entering Vaughan's surreal world of car crash fetishism; Holly Hunter is commanding and assured; and Rosanna Arquette imbues her character with an unapologetic sensuality. The only clunker in the cast is show more Deborah Kara Unger, who is significantly less life-like than a department store mannequin.

Fun fact: J. G. Ballard greatly admired the film, and actually thought it better than his book. show less

What a messed up book. I mostly mean that in a good way, but it makes this a tough one to review.

On the one hand, you've got an author, and therefore characters who are obsessed with various things: technology, insects, North Korean films, body abnormalities, sex, 3D printing... the list goes on. There's not, what I would call a "relatively normal" character in this book. Again, not a bad thing, but whenever someone new was introduced, I found myself asking, "what's their obsession going to show more be?"

And I'm no prude--not by a long shot--but even to me, these characters seemed obsessed with sex.

On the other hand, you've got an author who's taking ridiculously disparate ideas and storylines and mashing them together in a way no one has ever done before, and creating something new and horribly beautiful. There's no denying this story is compelling as all hell, simply because it's so strange, you have no idea what's going to come out next.

And quite honestly, I was ready to give this a 4, maybe a 4.5 rating, but then I finished the novel. That is, I came to the end. And though it truly was the end, there were no additional pages to go, it feels like Cronenberg somehow lost power to his Mac, couldn't write any more, and decided to call it a day. Virtually every single plot point is left wide open, with only the central initial mystery somewhat resolved.

The reader is left with some answers as to what happened, but very, very little as to why?

And I hate that. show less

Cronenberg was the 1st horror director to get me interested in the genre. I saw "Scanners" in a movie theater in Baltimore in the 1980s & I was hooked. He's still one of my favorite directors but I keep waiting for him to become even more transcendentally brilliant & he.. doesn't.. quite.. make it. I love the early stuff I've been able to check out: "Shivers", "Rabid", "The Brood", "Scanners", "Videodrome" - & then started to lose interest in him from around "The Dead Zone" onward. I mean, show more Stephen King? I know you need to make money n'at but did you have to jump on the King bandwagon? I mean in the 1980s American society cd practically be divided into: 1. people who don't read, 2. people who only read Stephen King bks, & 3. people who read other stuff. Anyway, Cronenberg still continues to be a great director - I DID like "Dead Ringers" & "Exiztenz" (or whatever it was called), etc.. This bk covers the period up to "Crash". show less

Wow! This debut novel by iconic filmmaker David Cronenberg's devours the senses. Truth be told, I was going to put this book on the shelf, but glad I didn't. The author's empowering knowledge of present day photographic equipment and 3-d printers makes one hell of a story. The story is of two journalists,Naomi and Nathan, whose interest in a French philosopher’s death becomes a journey into global conspiracy. Naomi is drawn to Celestine and Aristide Arosteguy, Marxist philosophers and show more sexual libertines. Celestine is found dead and Aristide has disappeared. Police suspect him of killing her and consuming parts of her body. A graduate student named Herve Blomqvis helps Naomi try to find Aristide and she finds very disturbing details about their sex life including trysts with Herve. At the same time Nathan is in Budapest photographing the work of an unlicensed surgeon named Zoltan Molnar, once sought by Interpol for organ trafficking. After sleeping with one of Molnar’s patients, Nathan contracts a rare STD called Roiphe’s. Nathan then travels to Toronto, to meet the man who discovered the STD, a. Dr. Barry Roiphe. Nathan learns, he now studies his own adult daughter, whose behavior hides a secret. A secret that is more than overwhelming. The narrative's of Naomi and Nathan are cleverly tied together and this story is provocative to say the least. Very good read. show less