A Shock

A Shock
ISBN-10
0811230856
ISBN-13
9780811230858
Pages
256
Language
English
Published
2021-07-05
Author
Keith Ridgway

Description

Finally, after worrisomely saying he'd given up writing, Ridgway gives us A Shock, his thrilling and unsparing, slippery and shockingly good new novel. Formed as a rondel of interlocking stories with a clutch of more or less loosely connected repeating characters, it's at once deracinated yet potent with place, druggy yet frighteningly shot through with reality. His people appear, disappear, and reappear. They're on the fringes of London, clinging on--to sanity or solvency or a story--by their fingernails, consumed by emotions and anxieties in fuzzily understood situations. It's a deft, high-wire act, full of imprecise yet sharp dialog and witchy sleights of hand in a manner reminiscent of Muriel Spark, and delivering a knock-out punch of an ending. Perhaps Ridgway's most breathtaking quality is his scintillating stealthiness: you can never quite put your finger on how he casts his spell--he delivers the shock of a master jewel thief (already far off and scot free) stealing your watch: when at some point you look down at your wrist, all you see is that in more than one way you don't know what time it is...

Other editions

  • A Shock
    • 2021-07-05
    • 244 pages
    • Ebook
    • New Directions Publishing

Similar books

  • Shock
    By Robin Cook

    A New York Times bestselling spine-tingling novel of medicine run amok by master of medical suspense Robin Cook.

  • Shock to the System
    By Richard Stevenson

    Young Paul Haig dies after hiring PI Donald Strachey.

  • Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now
    By Douglas Rushkoff

    Back in the 1970s, futurism was all the rage. But looking forward is becoming a thing of the past. According to Douglas Rushkoff, presentism is the new ethos of a society that's always on, in real time, updating live.

  • Electro Shock!: Groundbreakers of Synth Music
    By Greg Rule

    Offers interviews with the artists and groups behind electronica music, including Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Bjork, Kraftwerk, and others, along with background and technical details on the equipment they use.

  • Future Shock
    By Alvin Toffler

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The classic work that predicted the anxieties of a world upended by rapidly emerging technologies—and now provides a road map to solving many of our most pressing crises. “Explosive . . . brilliantly ...

  • The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
    By Naomi Klein

    Thomas L. Friedman, “Big Mac I,” New York Times, December 8, 1996. 31.Steve Quinn, “Halliburton's 3Q Earnings Hit $611M,” Associated Press, October 22, 2006. 32. Steven R. Hurst, “October Deadliest Month Ever in Iraq,” Associated Press, ...

  • Croc Gets a Shock
    By Mairi Mackinnon

    Croc is late for everything, even her own birthday party.

  • In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope
    By Rana Awdish

    A riveting first-hand account of a physician who's suddenly a dying patient, In Shock "searches for a glimmer of hope in life’s darkest moments, and finds it.” —The Washington Post Dr. Rana Awdish never imagined that an emergency trip ...

  • Common Shock: Witnessing Violence Every Day : how We are Harmed, how We Can Heal
    By Kathy Weingarten

    A ground-breaking work from a renowned trauma expert reveals a problem that profoundly affects us all - and shows what we can do about it. Every single day, whether...

  • Policy Shock: Recalibrating Risk and Regulation after Oil Spills, Nuclear Accidents and Financial Crises
    By Jonathan B. Wiener, Edward J. Balleisen, Lori S. Bennear

    In this book, compelling case studies show how past crises have reshaped regulation, and how policy-makers can learn from crises in the future.