|
|
| Ruth Rendell (as Barbara Vine), A
fatal Inversion |
|
I
may have already said this several times about a Ruth Rendell book,
but this one is probably the best I have read so far...
I was
reluctant at first to read A Fatal Inversion, because I realized in
the early pages that I had seen the TV adaptation some years ago.
However, I decided to go on, and very soon, everything came back to
me, particularly the ending. I didn't let that deter me, because
Rendell's novels (at the exception of the Inspector Wexford novels)
are not whodunits, therefore I had just to let myself be won over by
the oppressing and unsettling atmosphere that Rendell manages to
confer to her writings. Well, guess what: not only did I find this
particular atmosphere but I was blown-away by the ending. This is
how talented Ruth Rendell is: she managed to mislead me so that I
made wrong assumptions and was surprised at the end, even though I
once knew the story! She actually made me recall a "wrong" ending...
A Fatal Inversion is the story of three men in their thirties:
Adam, a man who, at nineteen, inherited his great uncle's mansion, Rufus, a gynecologist of good reputation
and with a taste for alcohol, and Shiva, an Indian who suffers an
inferiority complex toward Englishmen... As the bones of a young
woman and a baby are found in a pet cemetery in Wyvis Hall, which
was once Adam's inherited property, the three men are lead to recall a series
of dramatic events that involved the three of them ten years before,
as they were spending the summer in the mansion. They viewed the
place as a kind of garden of Eden from which they were
banished forever, with the promise never to speak to each other
again anymore, and to try to forget, more or less successfully, what
happened there...
Ten years before, during the seventies, Adam, who inherited Wyvis
hall, decided to visit it briefly before putting it for sale later,
after coming back from Greece, where he intended to spend his vacation. But
the summer of 76 was so nice, and the company so enjoyable (his friend
Rufus and Rufus's girlfriend Mary Gage were with him), that he
decided to live
there, and start a kind of community. Mary soon left, but other
people joined Adam and Rufus: Shiva, an Indian who wanted above all to
be accepted by Rufus and Adam as one of them and Vivien, a woman in search of spiritual
enlightenment. But Ecalpemos (as Adam renamed Wyvis hall),
might not be what she is looking for: alcohol and drugs stand for
spirituality, and the presence of Zosie, a troubled and mysterious young woman
brought to Wyvis hall by Rufus,
spreads uneasy feelings among them. Soon the drama in which
everybody has a part to play, however small, unfolds itself until
the climatic conclusion...
As I said previously, A Fatal Inversion has all the elements to
make the perfect mystery, it reveals problems that might arise
within small communities (as The House of Stairs does too),
in which one of the characters is ill with a
particular kind of mental trouble (which I won't name since I don't
want to spoil the story) and provides a masterful, rather
unexpected, ending: it is Ruth Rendell (or rather, Barbara Vine) at
her very best...
Rating:
© Discussing Books, 09/27/2004 |
|
|
|
| Further Readings |
As Barbara Vine:
Vine, Barbara (1986) A Dark Adapted Eye
Vine, Barbara (1987)
A Fatal Inversion
Vine, Barbara (1988)
The House of Stairs
Vine, Barbara (1990)
Gallowglass
Vine, Barbara (1991)
King Solomon's Carpet
Vine, Barbara (1993) Anna's Book
Vine, Barbara (1994)
No Night is Too Long
Vine, Barbara (1996)
The Brimstone Wedding
Vine, Barbara (1998) The Chimney Sweeper's
Boy
Vine, Barbara (2000)
Grasshopper
Vine, Barbara (2002)
The Blood Doctor
Vine, Barbara (2005) The Minotaur
As Ruth Rendell:
Rendell, Ruth (1965) To Fear a Painted Devil
Rendell, Ruth (1965) Vanity Dies Hard
Rendell, Ruth (1971)
One
Across, Two Down
Rendell, Ruth (1974)
The
Face of Trespass
Rendell, Ruth (1976)
A
Demon in my View
Rendell, Ruth (1977) A Judgement in Stone
Rendell, Ruth (1979)
Make
Death Love Me
Rendell, Ruth (1980) The Lake of Darkness
Rendell, Ruth (1982)
Master
of the Moor
Rendell, Ruth (1984)
The
Killing Doll
Rendell, Ruth (1984)
The
Tree of Hands
Rendell, Ruth (1986)
Live Flesh
Rendell, Ruth (1987)
Talking to Strange Men
Rendell, Ruth (1989)
The
Bridesmaid
Rendell, Ruth (1990)
Going Wrong
Rendell, Ruth (1993) The Crocodile Bird
Rendell, Ruth (1996) Blood Lines
Rendell, Ruth (1996)
The
Keys to the Street
Rendell, Ruth (1999)
A
Sight for Sore Eyes
Rendell, Ruth (2002) Adam and Eve and Pinch Me
Rendell,
Ruth (2004) The Rottweiler
Rendell,
Ruth (2005) Thirteen Steps Down
Rendell,
Ruth (2006) The Water's Lovely
Wexford mysteries:
Rendell, Ruth (1964)
From
Doon with Death
Rendell, Ruth (1967)
A New
Lease of Death
Rendell, Ruth (1967)
Wolf
to the Slaughter
Rendell, Ruth (1969)
The
Best Man to Die
Rendell, Ruth (1970)
A
Guilty Thing Surprised
Rendell, Ruth (1971)
No
More Dying Then
Rendell, Ruth (1972)
Murder
Being Once Done
Rendell, Ruth (1973)
Some
Lie and Some Die
Rendell, Ruth (1975)
Shake
Hands Forever
Rendell, Ruth (1978) A Sleeping Life
Rendell, Ruth (1981) Death Notes
Rendell, Ruth (1983)
Speaker of Mandarin
Rendell, Ruth (1985)
An
Unkindness of Ravens
Rendell, Ruth (1988)
The
Veiled One
Rendell, Ruth (1992)
Kissing the Gunner's Daughter
Rendell, Ruth (1995)
Simisola
Rendell, Ruth (1997)
Road Rage
Rendell, Ruth (1999) Harm Done
Rendell,
Ruth (2003) The Babes in the Wood
Rendell,
Ruth (2005)
End in Tears
Rendell,
Ruth (2007) Not in the Flesh
|
|
|
Critiques