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| Ruth Rendell (as Barbara Vine),
No Night Is Too Long |
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Tim Cornish is a young English man whose life has
been altered by a tragedy in which he played an important part two
years before. As he begins to receive strange letters telling
accounts of castaways on deserted islands, Tim feels
that he needs to write his story...
Educated in a school for boys, Tim has never had a satisfying
relationship with a woman... or a man. One day he meets Ivo
Steadman, a paleontologist, who rents rooms in his creative writing
teacher's house. Between Tim and Ivo, who is older than Tim, a passionate love affair
begins, until Tim progressively distances himself
from Ivo. The relationship begins to falter, with Tim cheating on
every possible occasion and Ivo becoming increasingly patronizing.
Before embarking on an Alaskan cruise with
Ivo, who gives conferences on the ship, Tim stays 10 days alone in a
hotel in Juneau. He meets a woman from Seattle, Isabel, whom he
falls in love with... Tim is adamant that he will see Isabel again
in Seattle after the cruise. But how can he tell Ivo, how can he
leave him without drama? Tim's dilemma will lead to dramatic events
unfolding over the following two years...
Although No Night is Too Long is not a
traditional whodunit (none of Barbara Vine's books correspond to
this definition anyway), there is a lot of suspense. The novel draws
the reader in from the beginning, due mainly to Rendell's enormous
talent as a writer. The atmosphere, Tim's house on the Suffolk
coast, the Alaskan landscape, all add to the effect that the
narrator wants to convey: his being haunted by the memory of his
former lover Ivo...
No Night Is Too Long is not the best
story ever imagined by Rendell/Vine, but it is probably one of the
best written. How she can so convincingly write as a first-person
male narrator confused about his sexuality is a wonder. Her
characters are complex, neither good nor evil, sometimes likeable
and sometimes detestable. The only thing I found fault
with is Rendell's sense of time: the story is meant to be set during the
late eighties but which 24-year-old man still holds a woman's arm in
the eighties? Granted, I think Vine wanted to give him an
old-fashioned, almost Victorian side. What I found more unlikely is
that some students take it for granted that a man is bound to marry
a woman because they
lived together for a couple of months, as is the case with Tim and
the girlfriend he has before meeting Ivo... Also, I has a problem with
Vine comparing Tim to a young Robert Redford... When I was reading
the part narrated by Tim (there two other narrators toward the end)
I was quite content with picturing Tim looking like Jude Law, maybe because the shallowness of his character reminded me of Oscar
Wilde's lover, interpreted by Law, in the movie Wilde, as
well as Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr
Ripley, even if both movies are posterior to the writing of No Night Is Too
Long), but after he was compared to a young Robert Redford,
whose looks in his twenties I wasn't able to summon, I had to
picture a later Redford, which didn't quite match with my idea of
Tim's character... But it certainly is my fault for not watching
enough young Redford's movies...
Well, I am being picky... No Night Is Too
Long is another wonderful achievement by Rendell/Vine, whose
more recent novels as Rendell have been disappointing (Adam
and Eve and Pinch Me, The
Babes in the Wood)... Anyway, I think I am increasingly
preferring Vine to Rendell... They could make a great movie out of
this novel, with of course, Jude Law as Tim Cornish (instead of a
younger Robert Redford!) and Rupert Everett as Ivo Steadman...
Rating: 
© Discussing Books, 03/07/2004 |
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| 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
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Critiques