Under the Skin: A Novel
by Michel Faber
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michel FaberEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-07-16
ISBN: 0156011603
Number of pages: 319
Publisher: Harvest Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780156011600
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Under the Skin: A Novel
Book Review: An engaging mystery combined with empty dilemmas: it starts well but goes downhill. Not recommended
Summary: 3 Stars
Every day, Isserley drives the roads of the Scottish Highlands looking for beefy male hitchhikers to pick up--but not for the reasons that anyone would expect. Isolated from home, out of place among the hitchhikers, Isserley is the only link between two cultures. Under the Skin is a nightmare to summarize and even harder to review because the truth of Isserley's identity and role is a huge spoiler which is crucial to book's plot and message. Nonetheless it's safe to say: the first half of the book is an engaging, enjoyable, if imperfect mystery, but the second half is bogged down by impersonal identity issues and empty ethical quandaries. The book is a mixed bag: promising, well-intentioned, but ultimately flawed. I don't recommend it.
Under the Skin is an odd beast: it's a fresh, unusual book, entirely well-intentioned, but littered with problems. It's also a beast to discuss without spoiling the story for potential readers--so this review may tend towards vague. The book falls approximately into two halves: before, and after, the revelation of Isserley's identity. Before is suspenseful: a slow journey through unexplained events and subtle hints builds up the mystery of Isserley's life and her true identity. This journey is so slow, in fact, that it sometimes drags; the outsider's perspective of Isserley's unsettling identity makes her a stranger to the reader, and so she's unfortunately unsympathetic. Nonetheless it's a hell of a ride: a mystery which grows stranger and stranger, drawing the reader in with a tangle of clues, startling him with the simple, yet utterly alien reveal. This half of the book is atmospheric and engrossing, fresh and unusual, and well worth reading.
After revealing the truth of Isserley's identity, the book explores the nature of her in-between identity and the ethics of her role. (Vague, yes?) This section is well-intended but constantly faulted. Isserley's disconnected dual identity isn't sufficient alien (nor convincing), but nor (as mentioned above) is she sufficiently sympathetic, so her issues of identity are promising but ultimately unsatisfying. Her ethical dilemma is thoughtful, but it's ultimately too clear-cut and preachy to hit home. And the book entire has a weak plot--that no problem when there's suspense to propel the book, but the second half feels undirected, making Isserley's concerns seem more like navel-gazing that personal revelation. Finally, the book hash a cop-out ending which leaves a sour taste and makes Isserley's journey meaningless. This second half has potential and the best of intentions, but it's a disappointment. I'm not sure how Faber could have improved his book--shrinking the distance between Isserley and reader? taking a different angle on the impact of her identity? making her identity more believably alien? Regardless, I can't recommend a book which is only half good. As enjoyable as it's unfulfilling, as engaging as it's empty, Under the Skin is a mixed bag. Pick it up if you're curious, because there's some good to pull from it--but on the whole, I don't recommend it.
Summary of Under the Skin: A Novel
Hailed as "original and unsettling, an Animal Farm for the new century" (The Wall Street Journal), this first novel lingers long after the last page has been turned.
Described as a "fascinating psychological thriller" (The Baltimore Sun), this entrancing novel introduces Isserley, a female driver who picks up hitchhikers with big muscles. She, herself, is tiny-like a kid peering up over the steering wheel. Scarred and awkward, yet strangely erotic and threatening, she listens to her hitchhikers as they open up to her, revealing clues about who might miss them if they should disappear. At once humane and horrifying, Under the Skin takes us on a heart-thumping ride through dangerous territory-our own moral instincts and the boundaries of compassion. A grotesque and comical allegory, a surreal representation of contemporary society run amok, Under the Skin has been internationally received as the arrival of an exciting talent, rich and assured.
Described as a "fascinating psychological thriller" (The Baltimore Sun), this entrancing novel introduces Isserley, a female driver who picks up hitchhikers with big muscles. She, herself, is tiny-like a kid peering up over the steering wheel. Scarred and awkward, yet strangely erotic and threatening, she listens to her hitchhikers as they open up to her, revealing clues about who might miss them if they should disappear. At once humane and horrifying, Under the Skin takes us on a heart-thumping ride through dangerous territory-our own moral instincts and the boundaries of compassion. A grotesque and comical allegory, a surreal representation of contemporary society run amok, Under the Skin has been internationally received as the arrival of an exciting talent, rich and assured.
In the opening pages of Under the Skin, a lone female is scouting the Scottish Highlands in search of well-proportioned men: "Isserley always drove straight past a hitch-hiker when she first saw him, to give herself time to size him up. She was looking for big muscles: a hunk on legs. Puny, scrawny specimens were no use to her." At this point, the reader might be forgiven for anticipating some run-of-the-mill psychosexual drama. But commonplace expectation is no help when it comes to Michel Faber's strange and unsettling first novel; small details, then major clues, suggest that something deeply bizarre is afoot. What are the reasons for Isserley's extensive surgical scarring, her thick glasses, her excruciating backache? Who are the solitary few who work on the farm where her cottage is located? And why are they all nervous about the arrival of someone called Amlis Vess?
The ensuing narrative is of such cumulative, compelling strangeness that it almost defies description. The one thing that can be said with certainty is that Under the Skin is unlike anything else you have ever read. Faber's control of his medium is nearly flawless. Applying the rules of psychological realism to a fictional world that is both terrifying and unearthly, he nonetheless compels the reader's absolute identification with Isserley. Not even the author's fine short-story collection, Some Rain Must Fall, prepared us for such mastery. Under the Skin is ultimately a reviewer's nightmare and a reader's dream: a book so distinctive, so elegantly written, and so original that one can only urge everybody in earshot to experience it, and soon. --Burhan Tufail
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