A Sight for Sore Eyes

Rating:
Summary: Another fine example of classic English mystery from Rendell
Review: After completing the latest mystery by Ruth Rendell, you will actually feel like you have been in Orcadia Place, London. Her talent for drawing you in to the lives of her characters is unmatched in comtemporary fiction. Teddy Brex is a perfect example of the brooding, obsessive antagonist pushed over the edge by the unfortunate circumstances of his life. Rendell's focus on how money, and the lack of it, affects human life is something not covered very effectively by many American mystery writers.

Obsession is often the theme of a Rendell mystery and readers won't be disappointed here. When Teddy Brex sees Francine Hill across the room at an art gallery exhibit, he is immediately and completed transfixed, and nothing on earth is going to keep him away from her. The fact that she is sheltered and overprotected by her stepmother adds to the tension.

As the story hurtles toward its chilling and inevitable conclusion, readers will be drawn into the world of the sociopath. Edgar Allan Poe would gleefully approve.

Rating:
Summary: Who cares about the characters? The author-perhaps too much
Review: Please Note: This "review" contains spoilers. First, a disclaimer. I didn't really read this book - I listened to its Recorded Books version, narrated by perhaps the best reader I've heard. Her assumption of the persona of each character purely by change in tone and inflection was astonishing; although Rendell's great talent is primarily responsible for drawing such complete and disturbing portraits of those who populated her novel, my view of it was shaded by the voice of another besides that of the author.

Perhaps only P.D. James rivals Rendell in the ability to use words to create atmosphere that draws the reader into so real a world one closes the book (or stops the tape, as it were), dazed as if emerging from a dark tunnel and needing some time to adjust one's eyes to the light. Upon finishing A Sight for Sore Eyes I did indeed feel dazed - and somewhat surprised to realize that I missed Teddy Brex! Like him - no, love him - no one could, not even Francine, in the end. But somehow Rendell managed to make him so real that when my life went on without him, it felt emptier with his absence. That's the true horror for me of this book - that I missed him when he was gone; in a way that neither Keith, nor Harriet, nor Julia were missed by anyone - not friends, not family, and certainly not the reader. To feel sorrow at the death of a fictional psychopath is the highest compliment to Rendell's artistry that could be paid.

Unfortunately for the power of the novel, I'm afraid Rendell got a bit too caught up in Teddy's spell, along with Francine's (a character I enjoyed rooting for in her battles with Julia yet whose story paled next to Teddy's in emotional impact). Neither Teddy nor the reader ever experiences the full horror of his deserved though awful fate - the author permits him to fall quickly comatose, thereby avoiding the terror of slow but certain death along-side the corpses he alone is responsible for creating. While irony would be wasted on Teddy, its lack wastes the opportunity the author had to provide the reader with a climactic emotional peak of appalled clarity.

As for Francine - does she realize with horrified disbelief that Teddy has killed Julia, setting her free from tyranny yet ever imprisoned by guilt? No! She never connects the dots, nor wonders why Teddy never tries to contact her again. If Julia's death hadn't been suspicious perhaps this sloppy plotting could have been overlooked, but to throw in a red herring suspect, then drop this altogether without it ever even occurring to Francine to wonder about what happened when Teddy picked her up - one wonders how both the author and her editor could have blown this so badly. And therein lies the only explanation I can muster - Rendell couldn't punish her characters any more than she had already. She became too fond of them - she let them off easy. As a reader who bcame attached to them as well, I sympathize, but by doing so, she blunted the impact of what could have been phenomenally powerful to become merely haunting. However, Rendell's "not quite best" work is still leagues past almost anyone else. This novel still haunts me, perhaps all the more so because it's forever associated for me with the smell of mulch, since I listened to it during the summer while I was outside planting flowers. Each time I walk in my yard, the scent brings back the story. I guess it always will.

Rating:
Summary: One of her best
Review: When Francine Hill listened to her mother's murder when just a small child, the shock caused her to become mute. She recovered after extensive therapy from Julia who eventually married Francine's father making her Francine's full time carer, an occupation which turned into an obsessively protective cocoon. Teddy Grez was the product of a completely non-nuturing childhood with his parents and uncle totally ignoring him, with the reult that this handsome young man became excessively slf absorbed and unable to relate to others. When the beautiful Francine met the handsome Teddy, the attraction was instantaneous and, on Teddy's part, all encompassing, with tragic and frightening results. This has been my favourite Ruth Rendell to date with all of her psycopathic characters and their bizarre compulsions terrifying to say the least!