Saturday, June 23, 2007

"Nerve Damage"

In Peter Abrahams's Nerve Damage, the sculptor Roy Valois learns that his wife, Delia, who died fifteen years earlier while Valois thought she was working for a private think tank, may in fact have been working at something entirely different.

Abrahams applied the "page 69 test" to Nerve Damage and reported the following:
Page 69! Not fair. In Nerve Damage, page 69 leads off Chapter 9, and is therefore shorter than a normal page. But in its little way it is representative of the book. The mystery of the Hobbes Institute grows, with the possibility of its non-existence being raised for the first time. We also see Roy's artist eye at work. And the walking birds image, while not necessarily representative of the book, is representative of its author. As is the very name of the Institute: a red flag. My favorite page in the book is actually 304, the last one - but no sneak peeks.
Visit Peter Abrahams's website and browse inside Nerve Damage.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue