Skip to main content

The Islanders by Christopher Priest : A Mindbending and narrative defying read


No book has surprised me as much as The Islanders in the past six months. The review is late in coming only because I couldn't figure out how to put what I felt into words.(In case you don't know who Christopher Priest, he is the guy who wrote The Prestige out of which the gobsmackingly brilliant Nolan movie was crafted)
I expected The Islanders to be a great but slow read but instead it turned out be a great page turner. Priest builds a great narrative out of seemingly disparate strands and all his criticisms of the Clarke Award nominees seem well founded. 
The Islanders is more a series of stories about different places but they connect in subtle ways and it makes for a surprinsingly cohesive whole. There is a masters hand at work here because in less dexterous hands the novel might have disintegrated into a meaningless nothing. Priest throws a line here and there that just shifts your perception, and makes you view what you have read earlier in a totally different light. There is a chapter on Thrymes(I don't want to spoil anything by giving too many details) and that single piece of writing is alone worth your money. That single chapter is what I recall six months after reading it. (Actually almost everything is brilliantly conceived but the Thrymes will chill you to the bone)
The Islanders is presented as a guidebook to the Dream Archipelago, a network of islands that has not yet been fully mapped and explored. In the beginning you even wonder if its a novel. Slowly but surely Priest draws you in and builds up intrigue. There is murder, there are doppelgangers and then there are  unreliable narrators and mime artists. There are discussions about artistry and about art. The writing is always top notch with scarcely a word out of place.
The Islanders was stuck in my head like a tune that does not go away. I would experience epiphanies all of a sudden that connected two seemingly different stories. The second read was the headiest sensation I experienced in a while. A truly great and heady piece of work.
A tweet from Gollancz informs me that Priest's next novel The Adjacent is out in August 2013 and I couldn't be happier about the same.

You can buy The Islanders here.
Labels:

Comments

Jess said…
Cool stuff. Posted the review on our facebook site. (Christopher Priest wrote a short film related to magic called The Stooge. We’re in pre-production for it now. Also working on the project is Tom Joyner (Jaws), Kent Butterworth (The Simpsons), Rogelio Fojo and many more talented crew and cast members. https://www.facebook.com/thestoogemovie
July 31, 2012 at 12:57 PM
Kartik Kaipa said…
Hey great that you are doing a short film based on a priest novel. He writes fantastic novels that are different upon every reading. Hopefully your short will be the same.
July 31, 2012 at 1:22 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An ode to Hall 1

This goes out to Hall 1, the hostel where all the 4th year students of IIT Kanpur live. Indeed this hostel serves as a meeting ground between familiar foes some of who go on to become friends. A lot of factors make Hall 1 what it is. It acquires a mythic quality right from the first year when juniors are often threatened with “Aaj raat hall 1 main chal”. The seniors who live in Hall 1 seem to have a totally different existence as compared to the rest of the campus. On a visit to the hostel in the first year all one hears is the constant swearing, and sees everyone in shorts or in suits. Legends surround Hall 1 and in our first year the stories we hear are of Hall 1 and none other. Indeed Hall 1 residents perpetuate this myth as well acting as if they are the scariest beings on the campus. Indeed the fear is such that if a fresher goes to Hall 1 they are not expected to come back. There is something about Hall 1 that separates it from the rest of the Halls. For starters, Hall 1 has
8 comments
Read more

Places to eat in Kanpur

Our real exploration of Kanpur began in our 5th year when we had our stipend to spend so hopefully this article will prove helpful to all the foodies out there. Surprisingly(and I really mean this) there are a number of terrific places to eat in Kanpur. Hopefully this article will prove helpful to many who are looking forward to spend their stipends. By far the best way to reach places to eat in Kanpur is to catch the bus that the institute provides. The bus runs everyday(except Sunday) at 8:00 pm and 9:00 pm. The bus returns at around 10:15 pm. Murgi(Our food and snacks Coordinator, every wing should have one) always takes the phone number of the conductor so that he can stay updated about where the bus is and so that the return is convenient. The bus service is really a life saver and unless you have a bike should be the first option. It is also better to roam during weekdays than weekends simply because there is lesser ruckus everywhere. Going to a restaurant on a weekend is an ab
19 comments
Read more

The best of Paul Graham

Paul Graham is a startup incubator. He also happens to write essays which are really really good. In general I wish I had them read them a lot earlier. I have been reading his essays for a while now. Here are some extracts which I liked and so it begins. Addictive things have to be treated as if they were sentient adversaries—as if there were a little man in your head always cooking up the most plausible arguments for doing whatever you're trying to stop doing. If you leave a path to it, he'll find it. And my main computer is now freed for work. If you try this trick, you'll probably be struck by how different it feels when your computer is disconnected from the Internet. It was alarming to me how foreign it felt to sit in front of a computer that could only be used for work, because that showed how much time I must have been wasting. From Disconnecting Distraction How do you avoid copying the wrong things? Copy only what you genuinely like. That would have sav
Post a Comment
Read more