2.5*

As in the previous book, this 4th book in the Leithen series had a mystic aspect. Sadly for me, instead of the adventures of my favorite Buchan books, the plot was focused on the psychological effects of the mystic experience on each of a group of people. In another mood, I might have enjoyed this more... However I still plan to read the final book in this series; fingers crossed that it will be more similar to the earlier books! ( )

Alfred Hitchcock’s version of The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) is a classic of 1930s filmmaking. It gave the 1915 story by John Buchan concision, action, sex appeal, and humor that Buchan’s novel could not match. Sadly, no filmmaker has seen fit to breathe life into Buchan’s The Gap in the Curtain (1932). Gap poses this question, what would you do if you could read a newspaper article about yourself written one year in the future? A mad scientist gives several men at a country house party the chance to read about themselves in next year’s Times. The man who sees only a blank page is the only one whose fate you could envy. Buchan, who was a staunch Calvinist, tells us that neither predestination nor precognition relieves us of the responsibility of making the decisions that shape our lives.
The Gap in the Curtain is not the best British science fiction novel (if it can be called science fiction) of 1932. That honor must go to Aldus Huxley’s Brave New World. It is not the best suspense novel either—I would give the nod to Dorothy Sayers for Have His Carcass. The best one can say about Buchan’s characters and prose is that they are both workmanlike and stodgy. Note: The introduction by Stuart Kelly in the 2012 Polygon edition is excellent. 3 stars. ( )

Not one of Buchan's better offerings. The basic scenario was very interesting: Sir Edward Leithen is feeling jaded as a consequence of a long and frantic Parliamentary term running alongside a particularly onerous pell at the Bar. To relax he joins a houseparty in the country where he meets some intriguing fellow guests and the leading Scandinavian scientist (and recent Nobel Laureate) Professor Moe. Intrigued by Moe's sheer presenceand charisma Leithen reluctantly agrees to aprticipate in an experiment in which Moe hopes to demonstrate how, under certain circumstances, some people might be able accurately to foresee parts of the future. The experiment requires Leithen and various other house guests to study each day's copy of The Times in great detail and to focus particularly on one aspect of it (in Leithen's case the Law Reports). Professor Moe is convinced that if the participants focus sufficiently strongly then, with the aid of a special drug that he has devised, they will be able to catch a glimpse of the corresponding entry in the newspaper a year in the future.

Alarmingly, two of Leithen's fellow guinea pigs imagine reading their own obituaries in that future edition of the paper. They and Leithen are then left to wonder whether they might be able to change that apparent destiny.

Buchan's prose is as clear and stylish as ever but I felt that this novel never quite took off. The nod towards science fiction takes Buchan into an area with which he is not comfortable, and the story fails to develop his customary level of cohesion. ( )

Seven guests at a country house party are selected for a scientific experiment. Five succeed and are granted a brief glimpse of their future. A sixth tells of what they did with that foreknowledge. Buchan at his most metaphysical. ( )

Now I have to come clean and declare a prejudice here. For me John Buchan can do no wrong ! Whether it is writing his adventure,gung-ho type fiction,his historical novels or indeed his more serious non-fiction of various types,he is so good.
Likewise with his under-rated supernatural stories of which this is the best I think. Very understated,it tells of a group of guests at a rather select party who are invited to 'look into the future' in an experiment which involves each person studying a different section of 'The Times' newspaper and attempting to see that section in the future--the leader page,the city page,the court page and the deaths.In this latter their own death is seen printed out in front of them.
Highly recommended. ( )