A Sight for Sore Eyes

When Rendell is on her game, her books are irresistible. And this one is a dandy. She's channeling Poe, and showing Stephen King a thing or two. Separate story lines, each featuring a young person whose upbringing was deplorable---one a talented and extremely handsome young man who came up without love or attention, and has a sociopathic personality; the other a beautiful young woman who heard her mother's murder at age 7, and later suffered at the hands of an inept therapist and an over-protective, increasingly demented stepmother as creepy as any in fantasy literature. Tension builds in each story, as we wait for the lines to intersect (as we know they must). When they do, forget about putting the book down.
January 2020

Mmm. This was a great read. I think I might be spending some time with Ms. Rendell.

As the summer wanes and I find myself pulling together the reading I'll do with my students, I admit that I'm getting a bit resentful of having to go back to work, for one reason: no more lying on the couch for hours reading, and no more staying up 'til 1 AM finishing a book I just couldn't stop reading. That's exactly what happened with [b:A Sight for Sore Eyes|83410|A Sight for Sore Eyes|Ruth Rendell|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1341035200s/83410.jpg|1224932]. It was very, very good.

I've gotten spoiled. To this point there has been plenty of "Scottish Noir" available for casual reading, and the more I read of it the more enamored I find show more myself of the sub-genre. But my favorite new (to me) series, the Logan MacRae novels, are complete (except the one due out in September, but I really don't know if I can bring myself to pay full price, as the initial draw to the series was they were each about $4 and hell, now it's tradition). Looking for something new to read, I came across a picture I had taken of some books I found in the book store (I do this), and was reminded of Rendell's [b:The Vault|9785183|The Vault (Inspector Wexford, #23)|Ruth Rendell|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328411256s/9785183.jpg|14675036]. I almost got it, but the blurb said it was a follow-up to ASFSE. I hate reading things out of order, so I bought it and started. It didn't take long, and I even had a busy week to contend with.

This book is dark. It is a crime novel, but one in which we see the crime happen. But that's not what makes this book dark. Rather, the darkness comes from watching the three disparate (at first) characters live their lives in a broken society, one where privilege and poverty exist to keep the other in check. Both serve as a kind of prison, and in fact this book really is about prisons, both metaphorical and literal.

Teddy is a monster, Harriet is self-absorbed, and Francine a sheltered naif. However, Rendell is good to not let us lump them in any particular category and dismiss them. Nor does she let us become too sympathetic with any but Francine, who's naiveté serves as a buffer from only some of the grime that comes from living. But Francine isn't perfect, either, and is frustratingly slow to become a true actor in the story. In a way, all three of them are acted on in the beginning of their stories (the novel very cleverly tells three stories for the first half, only gradually interweaving them in a surprising and satisfying way) and none of them have power.

Power, too, is an ever present theme here. Francine is born to it through her upper-middleclass privilege, though others make every effort to strip this power from her. Harriet has power that comes from youth, sex, and not much else. She is the oldest of the three characters, and because her power is so precarious and fleeting, we don't get to see her exercise it except in her memory. Teddy has no real power, except that power that serves as a warning to those well off. Teddy's power is that of violence, of indifference to others, but all of it rooted in fear and need. As it turns out, these different grasps on power, and their different natures, wreak havoc on all concerned.

Again, I'm OK reading books for no other reason than to enjoy a good tale. It's a plus when there is something more beneath the surface, and is there ever here. Highly recommended. Now, to pick up [b:The Vault|9785183|The Vault (Inspector Wexford, #23)|Ruth Rendell|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328411256s/9785183.jpg|14675036]. show less

Ghoulish and unputownable. I mean I say it all the time, but this one’s really killer. Possessiveness, furniture construction, and a cellar filling with cement and bodies!

Good writing. The background to the psychopath Teddy Grex is very plausible and this is what raises this book above the ordinary. Other characters are also very well developed. Character developement does not get in the way of the story line, however this becomes a little too implausible after the excellent build up that has gone before it. A study in obsessive personalities that builds in intensity and suspense, but not quite maintained towards the end. A good read.

A brilliant novel! While it certainly has elements of a mystery story, I would classify it as a psychological horror story, loaded with unsettling scenes but also with occasional, laugh-out-loud gallows humor. I was most impressed by Rendell's depictions of the characters' inner lives, which are all very rich and well-drawn. And it's all wrapped up in a highly engrossing, serendipitous narrative. Highly recommended!

This is one of my favorite Ruth Rendell books. A psychological profiling mystery - the kind that lets you know how the bad guy came to be the way that he is. And I think this book's Teddy is one of the better mystery novel psychopaths I've read about in recent years. If you like Ruth Rendell, you'll probably like Minette Walters, and vice versa. Or Silence of the Lambs. Books like this satisfy my inner urge to become an FBI profiler.

(34) This was pretty good. Rendell's writing is a series of declarative fairly simple sentences stated matter of factly that add up to gruesome psychological tension and a sense of 'oh dear, surely that is not going to happen.' - and then of course it does. Very restrained. Very British, I guess. This one begins as three separate stories - a young girl who survives the murder of her mother by hiding in her closet, a beautiful young woman posing for a painting in front of a glamorous London cottage with her rock star boyfriend, and a boy raised by negligent parents that shows every sign of becoming a sociopath. How they all eventually intertwine is bizarre, almost funny in a taught nervous kinda laughter way, and ultimately gives you the show more creeps in a signature Rendell way. Right? Well, that was. . . weird.

I can't rate this as highly as 'Dark-Adapted Eye' or 'A Judgement in Stone,' as those novels seemed to have much more gravity. The story-telling was fantastic in Dark-Adapted Eye and the atmosphere in 'Judgement' was amazing. This, again, almost seemed a parody of itself and was not quite as dark. It was a bit more fairy-talish. But I sped right through it and read it voraciously at night. A perfect engaging summer read that is not too heavy but yet is still well-written. Not genre thriller crap.

I am ashamed to say I am on a bit of a crime kick here. I always find something embarrassing and wrong about reading murder mysteries/crime thrillers/true crime, etc. I get away from it and then I come back and indulge. I'm still rationalizing my enjoyment right now. Ruth Rendell is a favorite and I am glad I have so many more of her novels to discover. show less