This astonishing novel - unlike anything Gilmour has ever written before - begins with every parent's worst nightmare: the disappearance of a child. A father makes a casual error of judgement one evening and leaves his six-year-old son alone for fifteen minutes. When he returns the child is gone and three lives are changed forever. Has the boy been kidnapped? Spirited out of the country? Is he dead? The story that unfolds is told by the novel's narrator, a television host named Roman, who searches for his son through the city and through the underworld of dreams and tries to bring him back. Pursued by an unshakeable conviction that his son is speaking directly to him, Roman begins to enter a haunting relationship with the missing child and his own conscience. In the meantime, his behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and he is rejected by his grieving and angry wife, eventually fired from his job, and shadowed by a persistent policeman who thinks Roman is hiding the child. Written in the clear, elegant prose Gilmour is known for, "A Perfect Night to Go to China" is a completely absorbing and original work of fiction. It sets up a harrowing premise and doesn't let up until the last surprising page.
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Gilmour's prose style is spare and darkly funny, jewelled with clever metaphors and precise details. It's enjoyably reminiscent of Raymond Chandler..."A Perfect Night to Go to China" is a compelling example of smart writing about trauma, and an uncomfortably pleasurable read. (Quill & Quire)
Gilmour's prose has flashes of bright metaphor, and his dialogue is alert and alive. (The New York Times)
...compulsively readable.... It takes a sharp focus to give us this much in such a brief book. A lesser writer would have given us a leaden brick.... The amazing thing is that it is both a sleek, fast read and a compulsively devastating personal tragedy. When the story is this affecting, the result is a luminous reading experience, the kind we all crave - the kind we sometimes find, if we're lucky, in our favourite authors. I don't think it's going too far to mention such names as Camus, Graham Greene, Elmore Leonard and even Calvino...they all have style, intelligence and strength. Gilmour is one of the best writers we have. His new novel is exactly the kind of thing I'd love to see more of in Canadian writing. It's elegantly written without wasting time on irrelevant detail. It is firmly plotted. It is paced for speed. Something actually happens. I'm saving this book to share with my son. You might want to remember this one come Father's Day. (Toronto Star)
..."A Perfect Night" is unlike anything Gilmour has written before, and all the better for it. (Maclean's)
David Gilmour has created a short, powerful book that is profoundly emotive. (Calgary Herald)
...one of the most refreshing, moving, and supple works of fiction written since the 21st century began... (Books in Canada)
Gilmour's prose has flashes of bright metaphor, and his dialogue is alert and alive. (The New York Times)
...compulsively readable.... It takes a sharp focus to give us this much in such a brief book. A lesser writer would have given us a leaden brick.... The amazing thing is that it is both a sleek, fast read and a compulsively devastating personal tragedy. When the story is this affecting, the result is a luminous reading experience, the kind we all crave - the kind we sometimes find, if we're lucky, in our favourite authors. I don't think it's going too far to mention such names as Camus, Graham Greene, Elmore Leonard and even Calvino...they all have style, intelligence and strength. Gilmour is one of the best writers we have. His new novel is exactly the kind of thing I'd love to see more of in Canadian writing. It's elegantly written without wasting time on irrelevant detail. It is firmly plotted. It is paced for speed. Something actually happens. I'm saving this book to share with my son. You might want to remember this one come Father's Day. (Toronto Star)
..."A Perfect Night" is unlike anything Gilmour has written before, and all the better for it. (Maclean's)
David Gilmour has created a short, powerful book that is profoundly emotive. (Calgary Herald)
...one of the most refreshing, moving, and supple works of fiction written since the 21st century began... (Books in Canada)
From the Inside Flap
Praise for David Gilmour's novels:
"Back on Tuesday is an up-to-the-minute psychological novel. It projects a special type of modern madness that I equate with the end of the human line." – William Burroughs
"How Boys See Girls is everywhere about the pathos of sexualized seeing, and it has the fascinating effect of a lurid confession, which is to say that it seems true as well as self-punishing, insanely intense, funny and very serious." – New York Times
"With Sparrow Nights, David Gilmour joins the list of inspired modern monologists that begins with Dostoevsky and includes Sartre, Camus, Beckett,Thomas Bernhard and Celine... Gilmour is a brilliant stylist capable of a range of extraordinary effects." – Boston Review
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By fiona
Format:Hardcover
A Perfect Night to go to China was an interesting book that compelled me - because, as soon as I got into the first couple of pages, I thought, "Whoa." And curiosity sunk in.
Roman, the protagonist, makes the biggest mistake of his life one night. He leaves his little boy alone for fifteen minutes to stroll into a bar.
When he gets back, his son Simon is gone.
At this point, the reader can sense Roman's mental and physical descent. He becomes obsessed with finding his son, believing that his son is communicating with him. Whenever he sleeps, he slips into a world, seemingly of the dead. He sees his mother there and, even, Simon. At these times he visits Simon, holds him close, tells him he misses him.
Meanwhile, his wife doesn't want to see him, he gets fired from his job. His behaviour is strange and at times he does not seem all there.
I'll have to admit it was heart-breaking to read this book. You really get a sense of what it's like, losing a child. How it becomes the centre of your world. Everything seems trivial to that one big gap in your life. And what shocks Roman is that, at times, he momentarily forgets about Simon. For example, when he sees a menacing dog. He is surprised, shocked, maybe even a little disappointed in himself, that he could, even for a moment, forget about his son.
A Perfect Night to go to China was a clear and easy read. It isn't even 200 pages, and I found that I breezed through it. Gilmour's writing is accessible. I love the way he uses similes - you can always picture his images and he doesn't use obscure words like some authors do. His dialogue is also very striking.
The title still strikes me as a bit of a mystery - I can see why he named his title that, but I am just wondering, Why China?
All in all, A Perfect Night to go to China is recommended. I'd recommend it especially to parents who have suffered the loss of a child, although that isn't a requirement. I am only 17 years old and I found this book intriguing. It is different, and that's what makes it original.
This is some fine work.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is an interesting "stream of consciousness" novel, told from the point of view of a father who's son has disappeared. The language is eloquent and there are some interesting observations made by a man who seems to have fallen out of sync with the rest of the world. The book ponders the question of now that he's lost his son, does the rest of the world matter anymore? All the things he once thought were important are meaningless now. However, in terms of actual story, plotting, interesting developments, resolution to the conflict, this novel is terrible and sadly lacking. The characters and settings aren't really developed. There's very little back-story or history to anyone. It's just random, depressing thoughts spinning around in the protagonist's head as he spirals down into depression and, I think, eventual insanity. This is not a thriller, suspense, or mystery story---which is what I expected I'd be reading when I picked up this book. If you want to read a novel about a father losing his grip on reality after the disappearance of a child, this book is for you. Otherwise, I'd skip it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Teddy
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
The book opens with Roman tucking his 6-year-old son in for the night. He then decides to leave the house, with his son in it, to go to a bar down the street for a quick drink. He's gone about 15 minutes. When he returns, his son is missing.
Throughout the book we follow Roman on a remorseful journey. A journey of regret, sorrow, relationship problems, searching, and all those things that normally go with loss.
I really wanted to like this book and I did, I just didn't love it. David Gilmour really has a way with words, and this really shines through. His mature prose was sometimes poetic, sparkled with some dark humour.
The major problem I had with this book was that every time Roman would dream, they would be in sequence. It's like he planned it that way and he could do this at will. We don't dream that way. I sometimes wish we did, because I have had dreams that I wish would continue the next time that I fell asleep. LOL!
I think with Gilmour's talent, he could have done much more with this book. That said, this is the first David Gilmour book I have read, but I will definitely try another.
Throughout the book we follow Roman on a remorseful journey. A journey of regret, sorrow, relationship problems, searching, and all those things that normally go with loss.
I really wanted to like this book and I did, I just didn't love it. David Gilmour really has a way with words, and this really shines through. His mature prose was sometimes poetic, sparkled with some dark humour.
The major problem I had with this book was that every time Roman would dream, they would be in sequence. It's like he planned it that way and he could do this at will. We don't dream that way. I sometimes wish we did, because I have had dreams that I wish would continue the next time that I fell asleep. LOL!
I think with Gilmour's talent, he could have done much more with this book. That said, this is the first David Gilmour book I have read, but I will definitely try another.
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