- Hardcover: 693 pages
- Publisher: Wheeler Publishing; Lrg edition (May 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1587242117
- ISBN-13: 978-1587242113
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.1 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 921 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,929,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
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"When I first saw my temporary secretary it never occurred to me to flirt with him." The bemused confidence and upended assumption of this first sentence from The High Flyer, by Susan Howatch, reveal a great deal about the character who speaks it and the shape of this novel as a whole. The narrator, Carter Graham, is a successful London lawyer, a "high flyer" whose thoroughly secular plan for a perfect life (clothes, car, kids, etc.) is proceeding quite punctually, thanks to her strong sense of entitlement and her talent for social manipulation. The events that follow, however, undermine Carter's confident assumptions regarding the inner lives of the people around her. Carter meets and marries another high flyer, a charming business titan named Kim. Slowly, Carter learns of Kim's involvement in the occult, his Nazi past, and the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of his former wife. As the mysteries of Kim's past are revealed to Carter, Kim's personality undergoes a deep and demonic transformation. Carter, terrified, seeks shelter at a Christian healing center, where a cast of clerics and lay people help Carter reconstruct a life for herself, and a theological and psychological framework that makes some sense of the blindness and betrayal that destroyed her life with Kim. "[C]reation's not about efficiency," explains one character, "it's about love. It's about shedding blood, sweat and tears to make the thing you care about come right. It's about enduring the shadow side of creation and using it so that in the end everything can be brought into the light." The novel's greatest strength is its suspenseful plotting, which calls to mind (thanks in part to the narrator's frequent allusions to) the films of Alfred Hitchcock. --Michael Joseph Gross
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Devoted readers of Howatch's Starbridge series (Glamorous Powers; Glittering Images; Absolute Truths) will be delighted to encounter recurring characters Nicholas Darrow and Lewis Hall in her new psychological-spiritual thriller. Darrow and Hall call upon their ecclesiastical, paranormal and New Age therapeutic expertise in healing damaged souls when success-driven London lawyer Carter Graham is suddenly confronted with phenomena that test the coping abilities of her liberated, modern mind. The quintessential "high flyer," Carter has broken through the glass ceiling and become a partner in the prestigious law firm of Curtis, Towers. Recently married to Kim Betz, a handsome banker almost 15 years her senior, Carter lives in the "right" apartment complex, drives a Porsche and is thinking of having a baby. However, Kim's hidden past (involvement with Nazis, the occult, group sex and an unsavory psychic healer named Mrs. Mayfield) threatens Carter's carefully orchestrated life plan. The mysterious death of Kim's ex-wife and the vision of her ghost send Carter to the edge of sanity and force her to confront demons from her past that she has successfully avoided until now. Two-thirds into the book, the pace of the narrative slows down so the spiritual experts can expound their modern dogma, but it soon hurtles the reader toward a tepid conclusion. In spite of these lulls, the work is entertaining and intellectually stimulating, providing copious amounts of information supporting links between ESP, psychology and modern religious thought. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
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First Sentence
He glanced up, decided I was just another dumb blonde hired to massage a keyboard and made the big mistake of adopting a patronising manner. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
He glanced up, decided I was just another dumb blonde hired to massage a keyboard and made the big mistake of adopting a patronising manner. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
faith and mystery - perfect blend,
By Saralee Terry Woods "bookmanbookwoman.com" (nashville, tn United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The High Flyer (Paperback)
Nashville City Paper BookClub Column - May 27, 2004I also really liked The High Flyer by Susan Howatch (Ballantine Books). Londoner Carter Graham's life comes crashing down around her and Howatch continues her tradition of resolving her characters' problems with a dose of religion. Nashville City Paper BookClub Column - May 27, 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars
A mesmerizing story!,
By
This review is from: The High Flyer (Hardcover)
I think that Susan Howatch is one of the most gifted of thecontemporary novelists. In this, her current work, we're given a main character by the In her mid-thirties, she meets the man who appears to fulfill This is a love story wrapped up in mystery and lies. The author has combined a walk into mysticism and the occult into a fascinating tale. The mixture of characters makes this
3.0 out of 5 stars
Look out below!,
By
This review is from: The High Flyer (Hardcover)
Susan Howatch has written one of my all-time favorite books, but this isn't it. While her exploration of the psychological and spiritual issues central to human behavior is skillful and thought provoking as usual, "The High Flyer" left me with a feeling of distaste. Maybe it was the lily-gilding of her central malevolent figure. I couldn't help thinking the insights into the nature of evil would have seemed more relevant had he not been portrayed in almost cartoonish proportions. Pick a sin, any sin, and he's committed it. Most ethical battles are fought in a gray area without the benefit of such a clearly delineated enemy.Or maybe it was the grating repetition of cloying phrases like nutterguff, fruity-loops, tiger-thumper, fluffette, etc. Most likely, it was the reduction of the strong female character to a quivering mass of uncertainty, an empty vessel needing to be filled with the beliefs of others - primarily men of varying degrees of sexual attractiveness - in order to find peace. Forcing her heroine to examine and reorder her priorities is one thing, but Howatch seems to condemn her basic strength and independence as well, and - for me - that just didn't fly.
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