- Paperback: 544 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Canada; 1st Printing edition (May 24 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140293027
- ISBN-13: 978-0140293029
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11 x 3.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 358 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #662,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Writing under her Vine pseudonym, Ruth Rendell offers another of her intriguing, multifaceted psychological suspense novels (The Chimney Sweeper's Boy and The Brimstone Wedding, etc.). The narrator here is Clodagh Brown, who, as a child growing up in Suffolk, loved climbing trees, then steeples and eventually pylons whose steel arms carried electricity across nearby fields. Resembling giant grasshoppers from a distance, close-up they embodied high-voltage, lethal danger; indeed, a teenage Clodagh survives a tragic accident involving a pylon and her first love, Daniel, before she leaves home at 19 for college in London. She finds classes boring, whereas walks through Victorian neighborhoods, with five-story row houses, decorative cornices and quaint chimneys, enchant her. Clodagh almost forgets the claustrophobic terrors she's suffered since childhood until she collapses in a pedestrian underpass and is rescued by an archetypal savior named Silver. On the top floor of his mostly absent parents' home, Silver provides a haven for a disparate group: exotic Wim, mentor to would-be roof climbers; Liv, who, after an accident, can't face descending to street level; and amoral Jonny, who interests Silver because he is "a real life burglar." Silver has a small trust fund, so he's free to cultivate "the habit of happiness." He and Clodagh fall in love, and both become intrepid midnight roof climbers. As youthful idealists, they determine to help a couple harassed by tabloids accusing them of kidnapping a child. Their ill-fated attempt leads to a terrifying climax. Although readers know that Clodagh, a beguiling heroine, has survived to become a successful electrical engineer, and is newly married, the story of her youthful adventures is enthralling, and the conundrums she faces in her life because of her love of heights make for an ingenious story told by a master of suspense.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
It isn't enough to say that when Ruth Rendell writes as Barbara Vine, she moves from detective stories to psychological suspense. Yes, the Vines are both psychological and suspenseful, but they are always something more as well. The characters are twisted in a hard-to-define but distinctly unsettling way; the plots circle around themselves, moving steadily closer to an inevitable but unpredictable cataclysm; and, above all, the building tension is internalized by both the characters and the reader. This time the story is told in flashback, as 31-year-old Clodagh Brown recalls the events of her twentieth year, when she and a group of friends, including the charismatic Silver, spent their time walking the roofs of London. Heights were always Clodagh's passion, and as we learn of her childhood fascination with climbing electrical pylons (and the tragedy that resulted), we know that her rooftop forays must lead to a similiar disaster. Like the other Vine novels, this one is more than simply multilayered; multiple meanings emerge as the layers move freely from forefront to background, crashing and receding like waves, building to a subtle yet powerful crescendo. Clodagh and her fellow roof-dwellers are, on one level, yet another group of freedom-craving young people, finding on the roof a sense of lawlessness that satisfies their unconventional spirits. And yet, as Clodagh comes to realize, life on the roof is not free of its own society, its own jealousies, and even its own evil. This is a coming-of-age novel but an intriguingly conflicted one; there is a touch of Lord of the Flies pointing us one way, but there's also a dash of Jane Austen demanding equal time. How's that for psychological suspense? Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars (45 customer reviews)
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
a book worth reading, Nov 8 2000
By Suspense Fan - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Grasshopper (Hardcover)
Though Grasshopper was worth the reading, I think that fans of Vine/Rendell know there are better novels by her out there. If you're not familiar with this author and haven't read King Solomon's Carpet, if you enjoyed this book, I'd highly recommend that one. It seems to succeed where this one falls a little flat. Grasshopper didn't make my favorite Barbara Vine book list...but it came close. Still, the characters in Grasshopper were thought-provoking and this alone made it all worthwhile. Nobody can create characters and set a mood like Barbara Vine.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, but not her best, Mar 7 2001
By C. S. Junker "soul_survivor" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Grasshopper (Hardcover)
"Grasshopper" may not be one of Barbara Vine's best novels (and I have read all of them), but I just got over the flu, and spent the last two days riveted to this book. I kept intending to go back to bed and sleep, but couldn't put this down. So much for it being boring.Still, I could say the same about virtually any of Rendell/Vine's work. "Grasshopper" features rich characterizations and a fine narrative that carries the story rattling forward. Where it falls short of her earlier achievements is in the plot, which is contrived in places. Elements from previous works ("A Fatal Inversion," "King Solomon's Carpet", and "The Tree of Hands") are recycled here, less effectively than in the earlier works. Rendell always drops subtle hints about what is to come and makes extensive use of foreshadowing, but here the payoff is less than what her readers have come to expect. Usually she succeeds in delivering at least one jaw-dropping surprise per book, and puts in a vicious twist of the knife at the end. Unfortunately, she does not do that in "Grasshopper."
In spite of these shortcomings, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The central character in particular is believable and appealing, and as always the narrative is peppered with Rendell's keen observations of human behavior. I would recommend this book for those familiar with her work; however for those who are not, "A Fatal Inversion" or "A Dark-Adapted Eye" are better places to start. (For a very fast read, try "The Tree of Hands", or "Going Wrong.")
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Luminous Barbara Vine, Oct 9 2000
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Grasshopper (Hardcover)
Absolutely gorgeous. I still like A Fatal Inversion and perhaps No Night is Too Long better, but this one is magnificent. As usual in a BV novel, the psychology is subtle and complex. Vine does not clobber you over the head with it, but advances it through motifs and imagery. Yes, there are implausible happenings and a really wild coincidence or two, but the narrative sustains itself so well from one page to the next that one can easily accept the ending.
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