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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:Beyond Black: A Novelby Hilary Mantel
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)"Beyond Black is an odd-couple story, of a medium who is fat and generous and her assistant who is thin and stingy. Equally, it opposes the dead to the living, spirit world to our world, the professional to the punter, and the commodified to the real; while, as a side issue, the emasculated antics of contemporary men are compared with the grosser folkways of their fathers and grandfathers, to the keen detriment of both. But these oppositions are never secure. They infect one another, they share boundary conditions, they steal one another's best tunes." M. John Harrison, the Times Literary Supplement (read the entire Times Literary Supplement review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Colette and Alison are unlikely cohorts: one a shy, drab beanpole of an assistant, the other a charismatic, corpulent psychic whose connection to the spiritual world torments her. When they meet at a fair, Alison invites Colette at once to join her on the road as her personal assistant and companion. Troubles spiral out of control when the pair moves to a suburban wasteland in what was once the English countryside. It is not long before the place beyond black threatens to uproot their lives forever. This is Hilary Mantel at her finest — insightful, darkly comic, unorthodox, and thrilling to read. Review:"Instead of celebrating the mystical side of 'sensitives,' the people who travel England's contemporary psychic 'fayre' circuit, Mantel (A Change of Climate, etc.) concentrates on the potential banality of spiritualism in her latest novel, a no-nonsense exploration of the world of public and private clairvoyance. Colette is a down-on-her-luck event planner fresh from a divorce when she attends a two-day Psychic Extravaganza, her 'introduction to the metaphorical side of life.' There, Alison, a true clairvoyant, 'reads' Colette, sees her need for a new life — as well as her potential — and hires her as a Girl Friday. As Colette's responsibilities grow, and the line between the professional and the personal blurs, Colette takes over Alison's marketing, builds her Web site, plans for a book and buys a house with her. Colette also serves as a sort of buffer between Alison and the multitude of spirits who beleaguer her. (Alison's spirit guide, Morris, 'a little bouncing circus clown,' proves especially troublesome.) Mantel's portraits of the two leading characters as well as those of the supporting cast — both on and off this mortal coil — are sharply drawn. This witty, matter-of-fact look at the psychic milieu reveals a supernatural world that can be as mundane as the world of carpet salesmen and shopkeepers." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"[A] darkly funny novel....A contemporary ghost story told with humor and heart, this novel is sure to conjure up new readers for Mantel." Booklist Review:"The mark of a great novelist may be the ability to take you where you truly don't want to go. If so, Mantel is the real goods....Superbly odd, but still superb." Kirkus Reviews Review:"Funny and harrowing...a great comic novel. Hilary Mantel's humor, like Flannery O'Connor's, is so far beyond black it becomes a kind of light." Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times Book Review Review:"Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black is an acquired taste, and I have acquired it. The novel is original and deeply dark...the author tries hard to push herself past the stark grimness of the world she describes and take the reader somewhere new and compelling." Meg Wolitzer, The Washington Post Book World Review:"[M]arvelous....Beyond Black is like Alison herself: It makes past and present, the living and the dead mingle with each other, drink watery tea, fall into arguments. And it makes this magic look easy." Dallas Morning News Review:"Her finest [novel]....Mantel's writing is so exact and brilliant that, in itself, it seems an act of survival, even redemption." The New Yorker Review:"Strange, funny and affecting....Mantel is...the possessor of a peerless prose style." John Banville, The New York Review of Books About the AuthorHilary Mantel is the winner of the Hawthornden Prize. She reviews books for the New York Times and the New York Review of Books and lives in England. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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