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quirkycynic 's review for:
The Pursued
by C.S. Forester
A totally blind read from an author I’ve never heard of, picked up from the library based on an interesting blurb alone. If I didn’t look up C.S. Forester and learn that he was primarily a writer of naval adventure and historical novels, I probably would have assumed he was one of those acclaimed old-fashioned inverted detective/psychological thriller authors like Francis Iles and Julian Symons based on the confidence of this book alone.
The Pursued is quite an unnerving little thriller that uses its genre to enwrap what is actually mostly a slice-of-life story about the stresses of pre-WWII middle class British life. The murder narrative is here and is pretty grisly for its era but is sandwiched between quite a lot of kitchen sink realism and romantic melodrama.
Ultimately I was a little disappointed that the narrative didn't live up to its potential and was also kind of bored by the repetitiveness and many tonal shifts, but was really interested in the book's very nihilistic tone that illustrates a certain hopelessness amongst this sect of British society -- and which makes it I think a much better example of true British noir than anything by James Hadley Chase and the like. I'll also give this book a huge amount of credit though for its female protagonist and the very sympathetic focus on the role and anxieties of her femininity, as well as for making the most sociopathic character in the entire story a kindly old lady.
The Pursued is quite an unnerving little thriller that uses its genre to enwrap what is actually mostly a slice-of-life story about the stresses of pre-WWII middle class British life. The murder narrative is here and is pretty grisly for its era but is sandwiched between quite a lot of kitchen sink realism and romantic melodrama.
Ultimately I was a little disappointed that the narrative didn't live up to its potential and was also kind of bored by the repetitiveness and many tonal shifts, but was really interested in the book's very nihilistic tone that illustrates a certain hopelessness amongst this sect of British society -- and which makes it I think a much better example of true British noir than anything by James Hadley Chase and the like. I'll also give this book a huge amount of credit though for its female protagonist and the very sympathetic focus on the role and anxieties of her femininity, as well as for making the most sociopathic character in the entire story a kindly old lady.